Mike MacDonald's past experience could convince Seattle Seahawks to take huge NFL Draft gamble

The Seattle Seahawks have done an impressive job in each of the last two drafts of finding players who have immediately turned into contributors.

That will need to continue for the Seahawks to begin to bridge the gap to the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC West and put head coach Mike MacDonald in the best position to succeed in his first season.

Using draft picks on players with high floors that will enable them to hit the ground running in the pros would appear to be the fastest route to Seattle gaining on their division rivals.

However, Seattle's latest top-30 visit suggests they are considering going in the other direction and selecting one of the draft's biggest boom-or-bust prospects.

The Seahawks, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, are hosting Penn State edge rusher Chop Robinson for a top-30 visit on Tuesday.

Robinson has one of the most enticing physical skill sets in the entire draft, earning an A to Z Sports' athletic composite score of 96.9% after crushing his workout at the NFL Combine. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.48 seconds at 254 pounds. His 10-yard split of 1.54 seconds put him in the 97th percentile for edge defenders while his broad jump of 10ft 8in put him in the 95th percentile and ranked second among defensive ends in Indianapolis.

That athleticism was continually evident during his college career, with Robinson winning as a pass rusher through his excellent get-off, ability to translate speed to power and flexibility to bend around the edge. Able to win both inside and out, Robinson is a player with an extraordinarily high ceiling but, as his lack of college production illustrated, the floor is potentially very low.

Robinson had just 9.5 sacks in two seasons with Penn State after transferring from Maryland, with a lack of a pass-rush nuance and an absence of counters after his initial rush stalls contributing to that disappointing number.

However, in 2023 he ranked eighth in pass rush win rate (20.9%), per Pro Football Focus, among edge rushers with at least 100 pass rush snaps. He was second in pass rush grade behind only Laitau Latu.

Were he to land in Seattle, Robinson would get the chance to work with a coach in MacDonald with prior experience of coaching an athletically gifted former Penn State pass rusher who came into the league with questionable production.

MacDonald coached Odafe Oweh during his two-season spell as the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator. Last season, Oweh tallied a career-high 54 pressures and, among edge defenders with at least 200 pass rush snaps, ranked 14th by pass rush win rate.

Having had a hand in a year of progress for Oweh, the Seahawks can afford to have confidence in MacDonald's ability to coax consistency out of Robinson. For a Seattle pass rush that was middle of the pack last year with a pressure rate of 36.1%, per Sports Info Solutions, him succeeding in doing so would be massive.

Robinson is viewed as one of the riskiest prospects in the draft yet, with MacDonald at the helm, the Seahawks might not view him as such a gamble.