Bump: A position Seahawks need to address in 2025 NFL Draft

Jan 3, 2025, 3:13 PM | Updated: Jan 5, 2025, 4:51 pm

Elic Ayomanor of the Stanford Cardinal catches a pass during a 2024 game. (Lance King/Getty Images)

(Lance King/Getty Images)

Seattle Sports

With the regular season coming to a close this weekend, the Seattle Seahawks’ attention is set to shift towards the offseason in the coming days.

How Week 18 can affect the Seattle Seahawks’ 2025 draft picks

The Seahawks will have plenty of big decisions to make as they prepare for the second year of the Mike Macdonald era. Some of those will come in the form of the upcoming NFL Draft, which takes place April 24-26.

Seattle’s clearest need is once again on the offensive line, but there will be other holes to fill. Seahawks Radio Network analyst and former NFL wide receiver Michael Bumpus sees one in particular that he feels the team should make sure to address in the upcoming draft. He explained why Tuesday during his Four Down Territory segment on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy.

“They gotta go get a big-time receiver,” Bumpus said. “Something tells me there’s a chance that DK (Metcalf) is not here (after his contract ends following the 2025 season). And if DK isn’t here, it’s because someone else is going to pay him exactly what he wants and deserves. … The NFL lets you know what you’re worth, and right now, to other teams, DK is worth 30 million. And because (Jaxon Smith-Njigba) has had the season that he’s had, who knows if they’re going to sign (Metcalf) or not.”

Metcalf is heading into the final year of a three-year, $72 million contract extension he signed with the team in 2022. The $30 million figure Bumpus mentioned for Metcalf’s next deal is in line with what some of the league’s other top receivers are being paid. Dallas’ Ceedee Lamb and Minnesota’s Justin Jefferson each signed extensions worth an average of over $30 million per year earlier this season.

Seattle’s wide receiver room could also be losing another key member as soon as this offseason, too. Veteran Tyler Lockett, who will turn 33 next season, appears to be a likely candidate to be released after this season due to his declining production and hefty salary cap hit ($30.9 million) next season.

“If DK isn’t going to be here, we’ll see what they do. But even if he is here, you might still want to attack it, because we all know Tyler Lockett is on like hole 17,” Bumpus said.

‘A big-time receiver’

Bumpus pointed out that the Seahawks won’t be in a position to get a top-end wide receiver in the upcoming draft class like Arizona’s Tetaiora McMillan or Ohio State’s Emeka Egbuka (a former Steilacoom High School standout). But he feels the team can find impact later on in the draft.

“You’re not going to be able to get those guys, but there’s a young man who I feel like will play some good football here, Elic Ayomanor from Stanford,” Bumpus said. “I’ve watched him the last three years. Him and Michael Wilson, the kid from the (Arizona) Cardinals, were on this team at the same time, and they’re dynamic. This is a big-time receiver. He’s 6-2, runs like a 4.42 (40-yard dash) or something like that. He’s a big body, and the reason why you get a receiver like this is because you already have the shifty small one, you got JSN.”

ELIC AYOMANOR ARE YOU SERIOUS 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

📺 ESPN#GoStanford | @elicayomanor pic.twitter.com/VjrkZS44vW

— Stanford Football (@StanfordFball) September 20, 2024

Ayomanor is the ninth-ranked wide receiver on ESPN NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr.’s Big Board. In two seasons at Stanford, he amassed 125 receptions for 1,844 yards 12 TDs, securing at least 60 catches and six TD receptions in each season. He posted a career-best 1,013 receiving yards in 2023 and had 831 this past season.

“It’s a position where you can get value late in the draft,” Bumpus said. “We see receivers come on, get into the right system and do their thing.”

Listen to the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.