Iowa Football: How Beau Stephens Fits With the Seattle Seahawks

A program record seven Iowa football players were selected in the 2026 NFL Draft, but nobody seems to fit their new squad like offensive guard Beau Stephens.

Stephens was selected by the Seattle Seahawks with the 148th overall pick, making him the fourth Hawkeye off the board in the draft. While the Seahawks had a top-10 offense and top-15 running game in 2025, Stephens can only make them better with his skill set. 

Starting with the scheme, Stephens should have a seamless transition to learning Seattle’s offense, as it runs a zone-blocking scheme just like Iowa's. New Seahawks offensive coordinator Brian Fleury spent six years with the San Francisco 49ers in multiple offensive positions, bringing the Shanahan system to Seattle.

That same system is nearly identical to what the Hawkeyes have used over the last two seasons under offensive coordinator Tim Lester, and a staple of the Shanahan scheme is zone blocking. 

Zone blocking is a run-blocking scheme that teaches the offensive line to block a specific area rather than a single defensive lineman. This allows offenses to easily climb to the second level and execute double teams to create cut-back lanes for the running back. 

The zone blocking scheme calls for athletic and quick linemen to beat the defenders to their spots, and the Seahawks have one glaring issue on their offensive line for Stephens to fill and improve the execution of the scheme.

Seattle has the youngest offensive line in the NFL, with all five starting linemen in 2025 being 26 years old or younger at the start of the season. While they seem to have locked down four positions on the offensive line for the future, the right guard spot was a massive hole for the Seahawks in 2025.

Anthony Bradford, a fourth-round pick out of LSU in 2023, was ranked 70th out of 81 guards in the NFL last year with a 50.6 overall grade, according to PFF. At 6-foot-4, 335 pounds, Bradford struggled to reach defenders and climb to the second level in the zone blocking scheme. 

While Stephens is slightly taller than Bradford at 6-foot-5, he is 20 pounds lighter, allowing him to move laterally at a higher level. Stephens was also graded by PFF as the best pass-blocking guard in 2025, something Bradford has immensely struggled with in the NFL.

Stephens was also graded as the third-best guard in the country in 2025, making it a surprise for general manager John Schneider and head coach Mike Macdonald that he was still available. The Seahawks then moved up to pick No. 148 by trading a 2027 fourth-round pick to the Cleveland Browns and selected Stephens.

With the current struggles at right guard for Seattle and the familiarity with the scheme, Stephens has the perfect opportunity to slide into a starting role and become a steal in the fifth round for the Super Bowl champions.

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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at [email protected]