Field Gulls
The Seattle Seahawks sure seem to like their big defensive backs. Nick Emmanwori, Kam Chancellor, Julian Neal, Brandon Browner, Riq Woolen, just to name a handful. With the 20th pick of the seventh round, the Seahawks landed another good-sized defensive back in Toledo’s Andre Fuller. The average draft projection for Fuller was somewhere in the sixth round. John Schneider deciding to draft him in the seventh round could be seen as a steal in the 2026 draft. With so much depth at the cornerback position already, how will Fuller make a name for himself on the Seahawks? Is he a head coach Mike Macdonald type of player? Let’s find out!
At 6’1” and 200 lbs, Andre Fuller is above average in size for a cornerback. The average NFL cornerback is 5’11” and 192 lbs according to MockDraftable. On the Seahawks current roster, he is the third biggest cornerback on the team, with Tyrone Broden, formerly a wide receiver but now converting to cornerback this season, being listed as 6’5” and 195 lbs. Fellow rookie Julian Neal is listed as 6’3” and 203 lbs. All three players are vying for the cornerback three spot left empty by the departure of Woolen, who is now with the Philadelphia Eagles. Woolen himself is an above average cornerback at 6’4” and 204 lbs. He is also very athletic, which helps him in covering those bigger receivers that have speed in their game.
While Fuller is about average in terms of speed per combine testing, running a 4.49 second 40 yard dash, he is quite athletic. He has a 9.05 Relative Athletic Score in the most most up to date calculation. The cornerback room average Relative Athletic Score for the Seahawks is 7.96, with Shemar Jean-Charles having the lowest at 5.09 while Neal has the highest at 9.28. His combine numbers are similar to Joe Haden, per Pro Football Network. Though for an overall size and athleticism comp, they have both Jaylon Johnson and Jalen Collins as players that he is similar to.
Toughness and hard work are traits that Macdonald looks for in his players. Fuller certainly has those. Per Emory Hunt, Fuller “doesn’t back down from a challenge at the line of scrimmage” and has “an accurate punch and is able to stay in phase down the field” which shows those exact qualities. During his collegiate career he had 116 tackles, six and a half tackles for a loss, 37 passes defended, two sacks, and four interceptions (with one resulting in a touchdown). He is a versatile player, having played wide receiver and cornerback in high school, and both safety and cornerback in college.
The Seahawks have shown to value that type of versatility in their players during this current iteration of the team, and watching Fuller play you can see why. Having that experience in both offensive and defensive positions keys him into what the receivers are trying to do on routes, as he “has a natural feel as a man-cover defender...
