The 2026 NFL Draft may still be a ways off, but with Week 1 of the 2025 college football season behind us, experts are already rolling out early mock drafts involving the Seattle Seahawks.
Seattle’s exact needs remain unclear, but CBS Sports’ Ryan Wilson released his mock draft on September 1, projecting the Seahawks to focus on strengthening their defense.
Last season, the Seahawks recorded 45 sacks, 18 fewer than the league-leading Denver Broncos, who finished with 63. So how can Seattle close that gap and rise to the top in sacks? One solution Wilson has for the Seahawks is drafting Miami Hurricanes’ Rueben Bain Jr. 15th overall.
Bowling ball who can line up anywhere from 3T to 9T — think Ed Oliver meets Jared Verse,” Wilson wrote. “One of the best edge rushers when it comes to inside counters. Plays with a low center of gravity, which makes up for lack of elite bend. Bain is good vs. both run and pass and is only going into his true junior season in ’25.”
The Hurricanes’ edge rusher is looking for a bounce-back season after recording 7.5 sacks in 13 games as a freshman; he only recorded 3.5 sacks in nine games as a sophomore.
Could Seahawks Replace DeMarcus Lawrence?
Over the offseason, the Seahawks decided to sign former Dallas Cowboys star DeMarcus Lawrence. On March 12, NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport, Tom Pelissero, and Mike Garafolo reported that the veteran pass rusher signed a three-year deal worth up to $42 million with Seattle.
Nonetheless, The Athletic’s Dave Helman recently questioned whether this signing will pan out for the Seahawks.
“He was a very underrated player for a large swath of his career,“ Helman said on “The Athletic Football Show.” “I’m not convinced that that’s still the case. I mean, it’s 2025 at this point. DeMarcus Lawrence is 33 years old. He didn’t sign the biggest deal in the world.
From what I can gather, the Seahawks structured it in a smart way. It’s like a three-year, $30 million deal, but $18 million of it is guaranteed. They can get out of this after a year if it seems like the game has passed to DeMarcus Lawrence by. But that’s the big question for me.”
Rueben Bain Jr. Ready to Shine in 2025
Bain Jr.’s sack total dipped last season because of a nagging hamstring injury he suffered early in Miami’s Week 1 win over rival Florida in 2024. In an August 14 article for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Adam Lichtenstein reported that Bain Jr. is ready to move past the injury and start fresh.
“It feels amazing,” Bain Jr. said. “I’m going out, playing a caliber (of) football I like to play, to my standard. Really just having fun with football again.”
Moreover, anyone watching Bain Jr. for the Hurricanes will notice a slimmer player, as he revealed that getting in better shape was a priority over the offseason.
“I try not to eat after 8:30 or eight o’clock and just get into bed and relax and chill after that time,” Bain Jr. added. “But every day, after practice … I’m going to eat steak and eggs with some potatoes and fruit. That’s the same thing I eat every day. And I feel like he’s been working out pretty good. They told me I dropped 13 pounds of fat — just straight fat. So that was really impressive to me.”
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