G Beau Stephens Seahawks traded into 5th round to draft: ‘One who loves to hit’

The Seahawks have their depth option at interior offensive line to push Anthony Bradford.

How much did they want Beau Stephens?

The Super Bowl champions surprisingly got into the fifth round Saturday morning by tapping into their haul of a dozen picks in the stronger 2027 NFL draft with a trade to select Iowa All-America guard Beau Stephens with the 148th-overall selection of this draft.

The 6-foot-5 1/2, 315-pound Stephens’ mode?

“I’ve always had an edge to me,” the 23-year-old from Blue Spring, Missouri, said Saturday morning on the phone from his home in Iowa City.

“I try to go hit people as hard as possible.

“You are going to get a mauler in the run game, technical in the pass game. One who loves to hit.”

It was surprising not just to general manager John Schneider. He was wondering through Seahawks’ headquarters an hour or so earlier Saturday morning idling seemingly without a pick until two in the sixth round after noon.

It was a surprise to Stephens, too.

“I was actually scrolling on my phone...and I was, like, ‘Wow, I don’t see Seattle or I don’t see anybody that’s been really high on me coming soon. So I was honestly not expecting it,” Stephens said.

“I was scrolling on my phone saying, ‘Why am I getting a call from Washington right now?’”

Seattle traded one of their 12 picks in next year’s draft, a fourth-round choice in 2027, to Cleveland for the Browns’ 148th-overall pick eight spots in Saturday’s round five.

But Stephens didn’t know that when the Seahawks called him Saturday morning, early Saturday afternoon where he was at his home in Iowa City.

“I was unaware of that — until they told me on the phone,” he said.

“I was like, ‘Are you serious right now? That you guys are going to trade up for me right now?’

“They said, ‘Yeah, you were staring at us on the board, so we had to do something.’

“That must mean they believe in me. And that’s all I could ever ask for, just to believe in me and give me an opportunity to show what I can do, and the kind of person that I can be.

“And I’m going to be forever grateful for that.”

Seahawks fifth-round draft choice Beau Stephens of the Iowa Hawkeyes participates in a drill during the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium on March 1, 2026, in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

(Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

Stephens started his 2022 college season at right guard, then the last two seasons at left guard on Iowa’s Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line as major college football’s best.

“I think it’s just preference in blocks, honestly,” he said. “If I’m on the left side I have a preference for backside blocks. If I am on the right, I have a preference for frontside blocks.

“Overall, it’s not too much of a difference.”

He said the Seahawks haven’t told him which side guard spot he will begin playing for them. They have Grey Zabel, their rookie stud first-round pick from last year, entrenched for years as the starting left guard.

Right guard Bradford is entering the final year of his rookie contract. The three-year starter has been a lightning rod for fans who post video cut-ups online of his missed blocks at right guard.

Coach Mike Macdonald has said this offseason he and his staff are pleased with Bradford’s overall play. The coach says anyone can cherry-pick certain and amplify plays a well-paid defender beats an offensive lineman.

Yet the fact’s been the Seahawks haven’t had what coaches see as a worthy option to challenge Bradford for his job. They drafted Christian Haynes in the third round in 2024 from Connecticut to do that. But Haynes has failed multiple times to win the right-guard job, including last summer in training camp. Seattle’s coaches have tried backup center Olu Oluwatimi at right guard in practices. That hasn’t impressed them, either.

Jalen Sundell was challenging Bradford in training camp last year — until Sundell proved better than Oluwatimi and won the starting-center job for good.

Also last year, the Seahawks drafted guard Bryce Cabledue in the sixth round out of Kansas. He played just 5% of the offensive snaps last season as a backup.

Seahawks coaches apparently like Stephens to be the next potential challenger, or successor, to Bradford.

Stephens said his pre-draft visit with the Seahawks was outstanding because of one man: John Benton, the team’s transformational offensive line coach who refocused that unit from a liability into the Super Bowl in his first season with Seattle this past year.

He calls Benton “a person coach” who cares about the player far beyond the field.

This is the second consecutive year Seattle has drafted an offensive lineman from Iowa, a factory for NFL blue-collar blockers under long-time head coach Kirk Ferentz. The Seahawks selected Mason Richman, primarily a tackle, in the seventh round in 2025.

Stephens calls Richman a “big brother” and a “friend for life.” Richman is going to be in Stephens’ wedding July 4, when the newest Seahawks offensive lineman marries his college sweetheart Emily Kuba.

Seattle Seahawks guard Anthony Bradford (75) runs out before the game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lumen Field, on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Seattle.