There have been three defensive tackles taken with the first overall pick in pro football history: Junious “Buck” Buchanan by the Kansas City Chiefs in 1963, Russell Maryland by the Dallas Cowboys in 1991, and Dan “Big Daddy” Wilkinson by the Cincinnati Bengals in 1994. Results have been mixed. Buchanan was a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest defensive players in AFL history, Maryland made a Pro Bowl and has three Super Bowl rings, and Wilkinson played decently for four NFL teams without any specific accolades.
Based on what we’ve seen from draftable prospects over the last two seasons, it would be difficult to argue that Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter isn’t the best prospect in the upcoming 2023 draft. The splash plays are all over the place, the flaws are few and far between, and given the necessity for interior pressure in today’s quick-game league, it’s possible that Carter could find himself as the fourth such player to go first overall.
As the Chicago Bears, owners of the first overall pick at this point, don’t need a quarterback, the likelihood of such a scenario increases. Or, perhaps another team trades up with the Bears for that first pick, and comes away with Carter as their future star.
For the purposes of this mock draft, that team is the Seattle Seahawks. We have Seattle trading the fifth, 20th, and 53rd overall picks to Chicago, and taking Carter as the first new piece in a much-needed overhaul of Pete Carroll’s front seven. That would leave the Seahawks with six picks in the draft, including the 38th and 84th as things stand now. And as we have seen over the years, from Percy Harvin to Jimmy Graham to Jamal Adams, Carroll and general manager John Schneider are not shy at all about trading first-round picks for assets they deem to be highly valuable. Previous results in these instances have not been great, but anybody watching a lick of Jalen Carter tape would be hard-pressed to call the Seahawks foolish for pushing their chips in on a player like this.
As for the Bears, they’re in a position where they need as many picks as possible to re-stock a relatively talent-barren roster, so this could be a win-win.
With that in place, here’s one version of how the first round of the 2023 NFL draft might go.