Antoine Winfield Jr., Safety, Minnesota
The Seahawks have a starting safety tandem of Quandre Diggs and Bradley McDougald locked up for the 2020 season, with 2019 draft pick Marquise Blair waiting in the wings.
Factor in Lano Hill and Ugo Amadi – a nickel who can play safety in a pinch – and it doesn’t look like the Seahawks need to be worrying about the safety position early in the NFL draft.
However – positional needs have not always been the most pressing concern for Schneider and company, and Winfield has drawn rave reviews from scouts and analysts for his range, nose for the football and overall athleticism.
“If we’re ever to see a reboot of the Legion of Boom, Pete Carroll and John Schneider are going to have to get another shot-calling safety with range, field smarts and a nose for the ball,” Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar wrote back in March. “Enter Winfield, the son of the former Bills and Vikings cornerback. The younger Winfield missed all but eight games in 2017 and 2018 due to injury, but he recovered brilliantly to pick off seven passes last season. I recently watched tape with Winfield, and he explained how he’s able to add to his already estimable athleticism by understanding what’s going to happen on the field even before it happens.”
Using a first round pick on perhaps Seattle’s deepest position would certainly be a surprise, but it’s not hard to see the appeal of Winfield as a short-term and a long-term piece of this Seahawks defense.
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