Seattle Seahawks LB Tyrice Knight Poised to 'Challenge Right Away' For Playing Time

Following an impressive week at the Senior Bowl, Jim Nagy doesn't think Tyrice Knight will need extensive time to develop before competing to play for the Seahawks.

Seahawks rookie linebacker Tyrice Knight prepares to take on a two-man sled during a drill at the team's second OTA practice. / Corbin Smith/All Seahawks

Hitting the road for his first scouting trip of the fall last August, Senior Bowl director and former Seattle Seahawks scout Jim Nagy made the long four-plus hour trek from Mobile, Alabama northeast to Jacksonville for an early peek at UTEP quarterback Mason Hardison as a potential invitee for the all-star showcase.

Prior to kickoff between UTEP and Jacksonville State in a Week 0 battle to kick off the college football season, Nagy went down to the field to speak with Miners coach Dana Dimel, hoping to get a few words in on Hardison before watching him play. As the two men talked ball, Dimel decided to put another one of his players on Nagy's radar, letting him in on a little-known gem on his defense in fourth-year starting linebacker Tyrice Knight.

While pitching Knight as a potential NFL prospect to watch to Nagy, Dimel offered up a comparison to the best linebacker he coached during his time at Kansas State many years earlier.

"He's like, 'Man, take a look at my linebacker. This Knight kid, he's the best one I've coached since Mark Simoneau.' That guy had a really good NFL career," Nagy said in an interview on the Locked On Seahawks podcast. "So I said 'Really, Simoneau?' He's like 'Yeah, Jim, he's got the same stuff makeup wise that Mark had. He can really run.' And so I'm like cool, I'll check him out."

While Simoneau never made a Pro Bowl or an All-Pro team, he tallied 435 combined tackles, 18 tackles for loss, and seven forced fumbles in nine NFL seasons, starting 67 games along the way while contributing for playoff teams with the Falcons, Saints, and Eagles. Such a comparison immediately caught Nagy's attention and suddenly, he had a different agenda from a scouting perspective in a game between two lesser-known FBS programs.

Zeroing in on No. 10 in the middle of the Miners defense attentively, Nagy watched as Knight racked up 13 tackles and a tackle for loss in a close 17-14 defeat. From that point on, the Senior Bowl scouting department kept close tabs on the Lakeland, Florida native for the rest of the 2023 season as he put up gaudy numbers with 140 combined tackles, 15.5 tackles for loss, and 4.5 sacks, continuing to boost his stock as a rising draft prospect.

For his part, Nagy posted a lengthy thread of Knight's play on X one month after seeing him play in person against Jacksonville State, which the long-time NFL scout doesn't do simply to appease draft enthusiasts on social media.

"If I post stuff in the fall, especially like a video thread about a player, read between the lines," Nagy remarked. "We liked the player, we're not just posting that for the fans. That's recruiting and we wanted Tyrice Knight to see that."

Though Knight had to wait until late in the process to receive an invite, which Nagy said happened primarily because of juniors being allowed to participate in the Senior Bowl for the first time, a spot opened up when Missouri's Tyron Hopper and Texas' Jaylen Ford dropped out of the showcase. Finally invited a few weeks before players descended on Mobile, he accepted the opportunity and performed well against top competition, earning himself an invite to the NFL combine.

At one point, Knight was little more than an NFL draft curiosity. But after shining in Mobile and putting up stellar testing numbers in Indianapolis, the Seahawks brought him in for a top-30 visit and he left a positive impression on new coach Mike Macdonald and his staff, leading to the organization investing a fourth-round pick on him to join a new-look linebacker corps.

Now a little more than a month into his NFL career and his first OTA practices, Knight has been working exclusively with the second-team defense alongside fellow rookie Easton Gibbs, starting his journey in Seattle at the weakside linebacker spot. As most rookies experience out of the gate, he's trying to swim in the middle of a hurricane learning a new defense while playing alongside veterans for the first time, which undoubtedly leads to growing pains.

So far, Macdonald has been pleased with what he's seen from Knight, and though he has much to learn as he acclimates to the speed of the NFL, the young 'backer has flashed enough to generate optimism at the outset of his career.

"He's coming along. The mentality is there," Macdonald said after Thursday's fifth OTA practice. "The game is fast for him right now, but it's a process. It's his fifth practice with the big boys, and like all the rookies, they have a lot to learn. But he's you made some plays and seeing some things right now, so there is a foundation there that we're excited about. He's a rookie right now, so he's got to pick it up just like the rest of them."

Coming from a UTEP program that has found minimal success at the FBS level over the years and only has had two other players drafted since 2008, Knight's learning curve may be extensive enough that it will take time before he's ready to push for playing time on defense in Seattle. Some draft pundits even speculated he would need a redshirt season of sorts before he would be able to compete to play on Sundays, handing him a late-round or undrafted grade.

Feb 1, 2024; Mobile, AL, USA; American linebacker Tyrice Knight of UTEP (40) grabs an interception in drills during practice for the American team at Hancock Whitney Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vasha Hunt-USA TODAY Sports / Vasha Hunt-USA TODAY Sports

But after watching Knight excel at the Senior Bowl, Nagy doesn't share that viewpoint. In fact, given Macdonald's track record developing linebackers with the Ravens coupled with the player's athleticism and instincts as well as the obvious question marks at the position for the Seahawks, he sees a prime opportunity for the rookie to throw his helmet into the ring and potentially play much earlier on defense than most people expect.

"They've done a great job in Baltimore over the years with linebackers," Nagy commented. "And I think the Seahawks are excited about a guy that has really good eyes and he can run and get to the football and he did some nice things in coverage down here during Senior Bowl week, which you didn't always see on tape. You don't see these guys in a lot of man coverage - very few college linebackers - so I think they got a good one. I think they got a guy that's gonna challenge right away for playing time."

With the calendar flipping to June and OTAs past the halfway point, as evidenced by Macdonald's comments on Thursday, if the season started tomorrow, Knight wouldn't be ready to play beyond special teams. Still getting his feet wet in a complex scheme with much to work on, in the present, a long road remains ahead of him to see the field on defense. Even Nagy would agree with that.

But at the same time, few rookies would be in a better position this time of year at the start of their respective NFL careers. And with veteran Jerome Baker expected to be out until at least the start of training camp and Tyrel Dodson also limited to this point, he shouldn't have to worry about a lack of reps throughout the rest of OTAs and mandatory minicamp, presenting an opportunity for him to fast track his growth heading towards the season.

Already possessing many of the physical tools and football traits Macdonald covets at linebacker, Knight's biggest hurdle remains the mental part of the game adapting to a difficult defense. If he's able to overcome that obstacle and the game starts to slow down for him early in training camp and the preseason, cracking the lineup at some point in his rookie season with the Seahawks shouldn't be ruled out, which would be a great long-term development for the organization.