The Seattle Seahawks swapped undrafted free agent rookie defensive tackles on their practice squad on Tuesday, signing Cole Brevard and releasing Gary Smith III. Seahawks.com senior reporter John Boyle published the team’s official press release at 1:53 p.m. PST. What prompted the switch during Week 10? Let’s dive into it.
Let’s start with the similarities. Brevard and Smith are both UDFA rookies yet to appear in a regular-season game. Their timelines have been similar, too — they were both signed right after the NFL Draft on May 1 and April 28, respectively. They both stuck around through rookie minicamp, mandatory minicamp, OTAs, training camp, and preseason. Both were waived during final roster cuts.
Now, let’s discuss the differences. Brevard
went through the offseason with the Kansas City Chiefs, and Smith with the Las Vegas Raiders. Brevard signed with the Chiefs’ practice squad on Sept. 2 and was released the same day. He hasn’t been on an NFL practice squad during the regular season yet. Smith signed with the Raiders’ practice squad on Sept. 2, got released on Sept. 7, and caught on with the Seahawks practice squad on Sept. 29.
What’s especially interesting is that the Seahawks play the Raiders this week. Did they already exhaust all avenues to tap into what Smith learned from Las Vegas during his brief time there? Maybe. There could also be a completely unrelated reason for the move’s timing.
There is a legitimate difference in how they play. According to Lance Zierlein’s pre-draft evaluation, Smith is a true run-stuffing nose tackle with little pass rush upside. Zierlein and NFL.com didn’t evaluate Brevard, but he has a full Relative Athletic Score (RAS), a trusty dataset of exactly how draft prospects measured during their pre-draft process.
Cole Brevard is a DT prospect in the 2026 draft class. He scored a 5.97 RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 915 out of 2270 DT from 1987 to 2026.https://t.co/FnfPtBHPEO pic.twitter.com/M4FDqw4v0k
— RAS.football (@MathBomb) April 5, 2026
Even when compared with Smith’s incomplete testing data, Brevard has the upper hand. Brevard’s 1 6/8 inches taller, 24 pounds heavier, and has good speed grades, especially in the most positionally relevant shorter 10- and 20-yard splits, where Smith has none. Neither shows agility or explosiveness. Regardless of team and schedule context, here’s a scientific explanation.
Lastly, Smith made the mistake of losing the Seahawks’ rookie Halloween costume contest last week. Ascending cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett explained it:
#Seahawks Nehemiah Pritchett on the rookies wearing costumes every year on Halloween:
— HawkMania (@hawkmania4) November 6, 2026
"Every year, the rookies have to wear costumes on Halloween to the team meetings, or really, the full day. We choose the best costume and the worst costume. The person with the worst costume… pic.twitter.com/ZtZcCynALW
While this certainly doesn’t make or break Smith’s Seahawks career, two things are worth noting here. Albeit in a lighthearted manner, Pritchett mentions the lack of effort Smith showed and couldn’t match his action to his name. To stick around in an ultra-competitive field, you must make a good impression. Smith can certainly look at that as an opportunity for growth, and use it to make a bigger impact in his next chapter.
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This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Why the Seahawks swapped UDFA rookie DTs on practice squad
