Brock’s Seahawks Draft Profile: Pros, cons of UW DE Bralen Trice

Mar 26, 2024, 6:20 PM | Updated: Mar 27, 2024, 1:10 pm

Seattle Sports

For Day 2 of Brock Huard’s Seattle Seahawks draft profiles, the former UW Huskies quarterback went with a name from his alma mater: defensive end Bralen Trice.

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The 23-year-old Trice played a big role in the Dawgs’ run to the national championship game against Michigan, including the College Football Playoff semifinal Sugar Bowl win over Texas. As a senior in 2023, Trice registered seven sacks, 11.5 tackles for loss and 30 total tackles. Despite that, he’s seen as a mid-round pick and comes in at No. 19 on Huard’s list of his 20 favorite players for the Seahawks in next month’s NFL Draft.

Alright, what’s the story then? Here’s what Huard had to say about Trice.

Potential Seattle Seahawks target Bralen Trice’s draft stock

“You may have thought, as much as I’ve talked about him over the last couple of years, he’d be a top-10 guy for me. He’s a little bit lower because when I talk about those traits and checking those boxes, unfortunately for him, that’s the one area that he does not. While 32-inch arms may not seem like that big of a deal in the NFL, they are. When you’re an edge rusher and you’ve got to hold an edge, you’ve got to sustain an edge against the grown men in the NFL, and those tackles and tight ends are a little bit different than the guys at Oregon State and Cal and Stanford and other places that you dominated. You’ve got to have some of those traits on the edge.

“Now he’s 6 foot 3 1/2, at the combine he was 245 pounds. That was telling to me – 245. I went back and looked, my board had him at 274 at Washington – 245 to 274 is a big swing. And that tells me that Bralen’s a guy that can move that weight around a little bit. He wanted to go to that (NFL) combine and be as twitchy and as fast as possible, because he and his agent knew that even though 6-3 1/2 is good height, 32-inch arms is not. So, ‘I better run and I better jump well.’ He ran 4.72 (seconds in the 40-yard dash) – that’s a good number, it’s not a great number. You know the the elite guys at the top of this draft are in the 4.5s.

“There was talk early in the year, mid-year, late year, Bralen Trice maybe being a first-rounder. You’re not seeing that now.”

Why Brock likes Trice for Seahawks

“The production is just off the charts. In 2022, he led the country with 70 pressures. He led the country. It was (2023 No. 3 overall NFL Draft pick) Will Anderson behind him. The number of times this dude in 13 games pressured the quarterback, on a Husky defense that struggled a little bit at times, mightily at times, there was one guy that did not. There was one disruptor constantly, and his number was No. 8, and he was on the edge and he was wreaking havoc on anyone and everyone. He did it for 13 games in 2022. That’s why he was all-conference, it’s why he was a second-team All-American, that’s why the guys and gals at Pro Football Focus loved him. He had a tremendous year.

“Well, fast forward to 2023. I will say this, and I will say this confidently: The University of Washington does not get to the national title game and go 14-0 without Bralen Trice. There is no chance. If he was not playing on the defensive side of the ball, as good as their offense was… they do not get to 14-0 without Bralen Trice. He was that disruptive. Once again leading the team in pressures, once again one of the top guys in all of the country in pressure rate, getting and constantly harassing the quarterback. He was a two-time defensive player of of the year for the Huskies. He was a team captain. He was a two-time first-team all-conference. He was a first-team Pro Football Focus All-American. Because when you put the tape on and you watch him, you see a total disruptor. Ask (Texas quarterback) Quinn Ewers and those two Texas tackles that are going to play in the NFL what it was like to block No. 8 (in the Sugar Bowl). It was a nightmare. It was a nightmare. He was a force in that game.

“He was a force for the last 25 of 26 games in which he played and he was available. I love the durability, I love the availability. And frankly, if he were 6 foot 4, if he were an inch taller and his arms were two inches longer and he ran a 4.5, you know what he would be? He would be a first-round pick. It’s crazy the difference that that makes.”

The fit for Seattle

“He doesn’t have the traits and he’s going to be available in maybe the third round for those Seahawks – and for a (pass rush) group that needs guys on the edge that know how to play. (Seahawks pass rushers) Derick Hall and Darrell Taylor, you know what they have? Traits. Long arms, (can) run, body beautiful, look the part. You know what they did not have in college? Production. You know what this guy has? Unbelievable production, no matter who he played, no matter what tape you put on. The guy was a constant, constant harassment and force. You want traits, and you want production. I think you need both to build a football team, and an NFL team at that, and he would be a guy that I would love in the mid-rounds to see fall to the Seattle Seahawks.”

Hear Brock Huard’s full Seattle Seahawks draft profile of UW Huskies defensive end Bralen Trice in the podcast at this link, or in either the video or audio player near the top of this post. Catch a new profile at 9 a.m. on every edition of Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk leading up to the NFL Draft.