Arkansas cornerback Julian Neal was selected by the Seahawks in the 3rd round of the 2026 NFL Draft.
byAri Horton&John Boyle
The Seahawks added a second defensive back Friday in the 2026 NFL Draft, selecting Arkansas cornerback Julian Neal with pick No. 99 in the third round.
The Seahawks initially had the 96th pick, but traded back three spots with Pittsburgh, adding a sixth-round pick, No. 216 overall. That leaves the Seahawks with two picks on Saturday, No. 188 in the sixth round and No. 216.
Neal joins second-round pick Bud Clark, a safety out of TCU, as newcomers in Seattle's secondary, and he'll come to Seattle with plenty of confidence to fit into an already talented secondary.
"I'm the most physical corner in this draft class," the 6-foot-2, 203-pound Neal said. "I use my arms to my advantage, I use my length, I use my availability. I've never gotten hurt; I've never missed a game in college from being hurt. I come down and I hit something. I'm going to go up and get the ball, I'm getting interceptions, I'm pressing dude at the line, I'm locking dudes up at the line. It's box time."
Neal, who is from San Francisco, spent four years at Fresno State, beginning his career as a safety before moving to cornerback, before transferring to Arkansas, wanting to test himself against SEC competition. In his one year with the Razorbacks, Neal started 12 games, recording two interceptions, ten pass breakups, 55 tackles and two tackles for loss.
In addition to his coverage skills, Neal also takes pride in his ability to play physical against the run.
"I take that very seriously in the game of football," he said. "You have to take down the man in front of you. That's a very big part of my game. If you want to master something in football, master it. I feel like I wanted to master my tackling, because that's something that a lot of corners now are missing in this game. I want to bring it back. I want to bring back being physical. I want to bring back being active in the run game. That's my mantra. That's what I want."
And when it came to where he ended up going in the draft, Neal was not at all surprised the Seahawks selected him, because assistant head coach Leslie Frazier predicted as much when Neal met with Seattle at the NFL Scouting Combine.
"It wasn't a surprise at all," Neal said. "After that meeting at the combine, Les, the assistant head coach told me, 'You're most likely going to get picked by the Seahawks, Julian Neal.' He told me that to my face. I believed him, and they believed in me."
NFL.com Lance Zierlein's analysis of Julian Neal:
