Emmanwori has now vanquished Jarran Reed and Witherspoon. Can he make it all the way to the end?

In an even more one-sided vote, Ernest Jones is ahead of DeMarcus Lawrence, 78% to 22%. Clearly I underestimated the positivity surrounding Jones, not just because he’s good, but also because he so thoroughly defeated Lawrence. Another player with a lot going for him.

But before we get to round 3, we have to clear up a few loose ends:

• The Sleepers Bracket: Now EVERYONE can vote, not just Regular Joes

• The Second-Chance Bracket: The best players who didn’t win

By the end of this vote, we will have four players left who get one more chance to get back into the game. Then there will be a vote amongst all four and finally a vote to see if “the best of the rest” is better than the “worst of the best”.

Tournament of Sleepers: Final Vote

One player from the Sleeper’s bracket will advance to the final second chance vote:

Round 1’s Second Chance Bracket Final

Only one player who lost in round one will advance to the final second chance vote:

Round 2’s Second Chance Bracket

The top two will advance to the final second-chance vote:

Offense

Defense

Now we should have four players who get one more chance to get into the Elite Eight of the Tournament of THE Champions.

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But as soon as that second half started, it was like waking up the beast for the entire rest of the season, revealing all the reasons why Seattle won the Super Bowl:

• Elite special teams and rules IQ

• Stout defense that can rebound from a lapse

• A running game that eats every available yard

• Talented quarterback who is sneaky-good at escaping pressure

• Number one receiver who can’t be guarded

The manner in which the Seahawks beat the Steelers in their own stadium was a feather in the cap of every coordinator on the team. A 24-3 second half — led by special teams — set the tone for Seattle’s entire season:

It doesn’t matter if you have a good drive, a good quarter, or a good half against the Seahawks. They always come back.

We didn’t know that six quarters into the season, or even six games into the season. We know it now.

So far, Seaside Joe has returned to three games from 2025 (NFC Championship, Week 16 TNF vs Rams, and Week 1 vs 49ers) and now we’ll just go in order.

By looking back, we can learn so much about what’s ahead.

Seahawks are best-coached team in NFL

The Seahawks may not win the Super Bowl if not for two stunning pickups in the end zone. 1) Zach Charbonnet’s two-point conversion against the Rams in Week 16, and 2) This play:

Sure, it’s a fortuitous opportunity made possible because of a boneheaded play by rookie Kaleb Johnson—the announcers talk as if it hasn’t always been a rule that you can’t just let kickoffs go into the end zone untouched and not risk allowing a touchdown—but George Holani’s hustle to get to the ball in time under rare circumstances completely changed the tone of the game.

The last time Aaron Rodgers touched the ball, the score was tied. Now he’s down by 10.

How does it change a quarterback’s mentality to switch that quickly from “we’re going tit-for-tat” to now needing a perfect game AND luck just to probably tie the score and go to overtime?

Seattle both coaches its players to play the right way and scouts for heady players who already know that: Consider DeMarcus Lawrence’s hustle play against the Minnesota Vikings to run down Aaron Jones and force a fumble. That’s a credit to Lawrence and pro scouting.

When we think of a running back, or almost any position, we think of what skills he has for that position. How fast is he? How elusive is he? How good is he at catching the ball? But Holani is more likely to have a long NFL career based on special teams than anything he does as a running back. This wasn’t just a lucky play … It’s a microcosm explanation for why the Seahawks won the Super Bowl.

Because they go the extra yard.

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Sam Darnold doesn’t get credit for elusiveness

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As well as the best of the rest. Who is the most important player who we talk the least about?

The tournament started on Monday and every matchup was a first-round knockout. I’ve seen enough. No outcomes could be changed, even if I gave it another two days.

We can immediately move to Round 2.

This round will likely feature a few more knockouts, but also several of the best matchups we’ll have for the entire tournament, not just the first two rounds.

• A battle of the left side of the offensive line

• A face-off between two huge stars in the secondary

• All-Pro worthy players at linebacker

There will be blowouts—Just like in the NCAA tournament, Duke has to play Norfolk State long before they have to face North Carolina—but we could also have our first tie of the Tournament of THE Champions.

That’s entirely up to you.

If you’re not a subscriber, do that now, so you can vote and not miss round three. If you’re a free subscriber, consider signing up for the $5/month or $55/year plan and you’ll be able to comment, read EVERY Seaside Joe article year-round, and vote in our Tournament of SLEEPERS.

Offense: Round 2

(1) Sam Darnold vs (10) Jadarian Price

I realized too late that I left Emanuel Wilson out of the Tournament of Sleepers, arguably the best player on the roster who got zero mention. There’s a non-zero chance that Wilson will start in Week 1. But it’ll be a huge disappointment if it’s not Price getting at least half of the opportunities.

(2) Jaxon Smith-Njigba vs (8) Jalen Sundell

Here’s how good Jalen Sundell was last season: At this time last year, Sundell was alternating with Olu Oluwatimi and even Christian Haynes was in the center competition. Now we talk about him as if he’s been Seattle’s center for the last 25 years.

That being said, we know how this vote will go.

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(3) Charles Cross vs (6) Grey Zabel

Historically, tackles have been rated as more valuable than guards. Both were top-20 picks in the draft. Is the drop-off at guard worse than the drop-off at tackle? There are many variables at play and I’m excited to see how this plays out.

(4) Abe Lucas vs (5) A.J. Barner

Two more players who often line up side-by-side. Fascinating matchup, I’ll say no more.

The Last 4

These four players lost in round 1. It’s impossible to know who did the best or the worst because they didn’t all face the same level of opponent. So who would you vote for as a survivor from the players who didn’t survive?

Anything you want to pitch about these offensive matchups? Put it in the comments:

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Defense: Round 2

Can’t wait to see who the final-four will be from the defense.

(1) Leonard Williams vs (9) Josh Jobe

Jobe may be the most slept on player because even the guys like Drake Thomas and Ty Okada get more credit for being undrafted and emerging from the practice squad, but Jobe doesn’t even though he did the same thing. Probably because Jobe started his career in Philadelphia. Seattle’s secondary is just so good that Jobe is the last player we think of sometimes.

(2) Byron Murphy vs (7) Julian Love

In 11 games last season, Love allowed 11 catches on 25 targets in his area, with two interceptions. He wasn’t even a highly sought after free agent in 2023. Murphy probably unlocks both the run defense and pass rush by being such a menace in the middle of the defensive line. Either of them could be an All-Pro.

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(3) DeMarcus Lawrence vs (6) Ernest Jones

We have such different ideas in mind of what their assignments are, but at the end of the day they’re both stopping the run at a high level and disrupting the quarterback. Jones had six interceptions, including playoffs, a historic mark for a linebacker. Lawrence was indispensable. Ignore the seeds, I have no idea what will happen.

(4) Devon Witherspoon vs (5) Nick Emmanwori

No comment. Let’s just find out.

Which round 1 loser should survive the loser’s bracket?

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Tournament of Sleepers Run-Off

These were the top-two vote-getters from each of the four “sleepers” brackets on Monday. Let’s see how they did head-to-head instead of in groups of five. The Tournament of Sleepers voting is limited to Regular Joes or Super Joes subscribers:

Although the polls are open for three days, the results could be posted sooner if the voting is a blowout again. Subscribe to not miss the results or the round three voting!

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Share your comments about the tournament—or anything else—below:

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Seaside Joe 2662

The Seahawks didn’t win the Super Bowl without Sam Darnold, but compared to how hard the Denver Broncos collapsed without Bo Nix in the AFC Championship … they probably could have.

Is Darnold the most important player on the Seahawks? Or is it Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba? Or Leonard Williams, the defensive player with the best case for the Hall of Fame so far? Or maybe it’s not the best player—maybe it’s the starter who has the biggest fall-off between him and his understudy.

Why don’t we just put it to a vote?

Better yet—Let’s put it to a tournament!

Tournament of THE Champions: Seahawks Edition serves as our Seaside Joe community opportunity to pound the table for the players on the roster who you think are the most important—the most vital—to Seattle’s success NEXT season.

This IS serious, but above all else … It’s not that serious. Vote, come back, vote again, and let’s just see how this tournament shakes out, shall we?

How It Works

There is a separate 12-player bracket for offense and defense, then they will be combined in round three. The top four seeds in each bracket will get a bye. For all the best players left off of the top-24, there will be a “Tournament of Sleepers” to determine the best of the rest, voting exclusive to Regular Joes ($5/month) and Super Joes ($10/month) subscribers.

A few notes before we get started:

• I struggled with the seeding, I’m not saying it’s perfect, but ultimately it should not matter because cream always rises to the top

• You undoubtedly think I left someone off that I should not have left off; that’s what the “tournament of sleepers” is for!

• “Vital to success” is up for interpretation. Don’t get hung up on the phrasing or if there’s not a right answer—it’s an opinion, so by definition there IS no right answer!

I’m totally open for reasons why the seeding should be different, just put it in the comments:

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Everyone subscribed to Seaside Joe, free or paid, is able to vote! So make sure you are subscribed and you can vote + won’t miss round two!

Here’s the first round of the Tournament of THE Champions:

Offense Seeding:

1-QB Sam Darnold (bye)

2-WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba (bye)

3-LT Charles Cross (bye)

4-RT Abe Lucas (bye)

5-TE A.J. Barner

6-LG Grey Zabel

7-WR Rashid Shaheed

8-C Jalen Sundell

9-WR Cooper Kupp

10-RB Jadarian Price

11-TE Elijah Arroyo

12-G Anthony Bradford

I went with four bye weeks because it gave me the most even numbers after deciding that I couldn’t cut either list down to just eight or ten players. This is especially true of defense, but the offense still has really important players who did not make this bracket, I know.

5 vs 12: A.J. Barner or Anthony Bradford

To play devil’s advocate, the depth at tight end is far more apparent than the depth at guard.

Share this tournament with other Seahawks fans that you know to get their opinions on the most vital players for next season:

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6 vs 11: Grey Zabel or Elijah Arroyo

Although Arroyo only averaged about one catch per game as a rookie and has dealt with injuries, John Schneider practically valued him the same in the draft as Nick Emmanwori. Arroyo is perhaps just one injury away from being Sam Darnold’s number two or three target.

7 vs 10: Rashid Shaheed or Jadarian Price?

I would include Shaheed’s entire body of work in this vote, not just his contributions on offense. If all goes to plan, Price will get a lot more touches than Shaheed next season, but which of these two players has a more important presence? Seattle doesn’t have another speed threat opening up the field quite like Shaheed, and they don’t have another healthy running back as talented as Price.

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8 vs 9: Jalen Sundell or Cooper Kupp?

Kupp’s production doesn’t paint a fair picture of his value. Offensive linemen don’t get credit for any production, but Sundell was called a “great” center by Mike Macdonald, emphasizing how good of a fit he is for Seattle’s offense.

Winners move to round two and will be matched up based on lowest seed vs highest seed.

Defense Seeding:

1-DE Leonard Williams (bye)

2-DT Byron Murphy II (bye)

3-OLB DeMarcus Lawrence (bye)

4-CB Devon Witherspoon (bye)

5-DB Nick Emmanwori

6-LB Ernest Jones

7-S Julian Love

8-OLB Uchenna Nwosu

9-CB Josh Jobe

10-LB Drake Thomas

11-OLB Derick Hall

12-DT Jarran Reed

Leaving any player off is extraordinarily difficult and on defense that was especially true. Ty Okada, Bud Clark, and Julian Neal are probably going to play a lot. Rylie Mills, as well. Vote in the Tournament of Sleepers after this if you think they should get a second chance.

5 vs 12: Nick Emmanwori or Jarran Reed?

Emmanwori could have legitimately been ranked as high as 2. Maybe 1. He seemed to get better as the season went on, especially in coverage. Difficult decisions were made.

6 vs 11: Ernest Jones or Derick Hall?

Jones was another one where I wouldn’t have felt bad if he got a bye week. Hall’s case as potentially Seattle’s breakout pass rusher in 2026—which could make him one of the most important players on the defense—is not to be ignored.

Which defensive player deserved a bye week?

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7 vs 10: Julian Love or Drake Thomas?

Love missed half of last season and the Seahawks were able to survive. He returned in time to get his first career playoff interception. Thomas was considerably better than Tyrice Knight last season; how much has Knight improved since then?

8 vs 9: Uchenna Nwosu or Josh Jobe?

Getting Jobe to return for only $8 million per season was perhaps John Schneider’s most underrated move of the offseason. Nwosu could go from cut candidate to extension candidate if he doesn’t have any injury setbacks.

The 4 winners from Offense and Defense will face off against the top-4 seeds from each bracket next time. If there are any ties, we will go to a run-off.

Get others involved: Share Seaside Joe with Seahawks fans!

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Tournament of Sleepers!

There was no easy place to make a cut-off without just opening up the entire tournament to everybody on the 90-man roster. I’ll break it down by four groups of five categories. The four winners will have a chance to break into the main bracket.

Tournament of Sleepers voting is a perk for paid subscribers:

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2025 rookies in year 2

Really fun group there! And I know there were still good players left off of it, like Mason Richman, Amari Kight, Nick Kallerup, Connor O’Toole, and recent Seaside Joe subscriber Jalan Gaines.

Special Teamers

Nehemiah Pritchett (third-most snaps), D’Anthony Bell (fourth-most), Chazz Surratt (fifth), Eric Saubert (seventh), Patrick O’Connell (ninth), and Irvin Charles didn’t make any of my polls. Should they have?

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Key backups

I didn’t know where to slot Charbonnet, but there’s no expectation that he will return earlier than October and even then he could be limited. If all goes to plan, he will still be the backup or “part II” to Price. Morris is more special teams than backup, but does still serve as probably the “next man up” behind Leonard Williams.

And then there were 5 …

This is how good Seattle’s defense is … Four of these players could end up being starters, and then there’s Pili, maybe the only defensive tackle of his kind on this roster. Obviously I struggled knowing where to slot players like Okada and Clark, partly because it’s not clear who will end up starting. Both are likely to play a lot of snaps, as could Neal.

If someone on this list deserved to make it on the Defense bracket, tell me who and who you would take off of the top-12 to add him in:

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The Seahawks roster is so deep that even these players didn’t get a mention: Emmanuel Henderson, Bryce Cabeldue, Cody White, Josh Jones, Bobby Hart, Olu Oluwatimi, Christian Haynes, Federico Maranges, Harrison Bryant, Kenny McIntosh, Velus Jones, Deven Eastern, Aidan Hubbard, Rodney Thomas, Andre Fuller, Michael Dansby, and still others more.

It may feel unfair. Would any of these players win the bracket? No. But all we can do from here is … vote.

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Seaside Joe 2661

Lawrence and Kupp were perfect fits for the “one last ride” archetype we’ve seen come through Seattle in past seasons, whether that be Jerry Rice, Edgerrin James, or Kevin Williams, but that hasn’t been the case. Both had relatively healthy seasons, were key contributors, and have committed to trying to win another Super Bowl with the Seahawks in 2026.

Nwosu’s issue was not age, but an injury history that caused him to miss 65-percent of games in the previous two seasons, and he too will return after a healthy season and a pick-six in the Super Bowl.

With a formula of near-unprecedented cap continuity for a reigning Super Bowl champion, the Seattle Seahawks currently carry just $516,156 in dead money in 2026, the least amount in the NFL.

*dead money=guaranteed or signing bonus money left on the books that is owed to players who were previously cut, traded, or retired

For a team to win the Super Bowl and then not have to cut some of the players who helped them do it, is rare, if not unheard of.

• The 2025 Eagles had $85 million in dead money

• The 2024 Chiefs had $17 million in dead money

• The 2023 Chiefs had $12 million in dead money

• The 2022 Rams had $27 million in dead money

For the Seahawks to be able to return from last season using $288.5 million in liabilities for players actually on the team—and only $500,000 on ones who aren’t—is as efficient as any Super Bowl team could dream of being.

Could the Seahawks actually go the entire year without adding dead money to the cap?

It’s starting to look that way. Here are some potential candidates.

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For 23-percent of fans to vote to ban the player for an entire season, and 13-percent to impose a lifetime ban, shows that if nothing else the topic is divisive. Let’s hope we never have to find out.

However, after writing about some of the concerns people have with players gambling—even when it’s betting on their own team to win—the results did change when I ran the same poll at the end of the article. By then, only 15-percent voted for “no suspension”, while a one-year suspension went up from 23-percent to 34-percent.

A player betting on his own team may no have any apparent negative consequences, other than on an individual basis if he were to lose. But what it implies and what it could lead to detrimental ramifications for the league.

Next Poll: Did the Rams make the right moves?

Every week, I send a separate newsletter to the “Super Joes” subscribers ($10 per month) asking for questions to do a Q&A. However, I changed the format this week and asked for poll questions we could use on the next newsletter.

Here’s the first one:

Danno wants to know if fans think the Seahawks have a longer/better Super Bowl window than the Rams. I think Seahawks fans will always overly-lean towards Seattle though, so I’m going to adjust the question and fit it into something that I think might get a more measured reaction.

The Rams have been the star team of the offseason, trading for Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie. They also drafted QB Ty Simpson with the 13th overall pick, a move they hope pays off in 1-3 years. Perhaps the only notable loss is the recent arrest of starting left tackle A.J. Jackson on felony battery charges.

Forget about comparing them to the Seahawks for now. Do you think the Rams had the offseason they needed to have after losing to Seattle in the NFC Championship? Or did they overreact, overpay, and sacrifice the future for the present?

If you want to expand on your answer, or answer Danno’s question directly regarding L.A. and Seattle’s Super Bowl windows, join the comments:

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IF YOU WANT TO BECOME A SUPER JOE AND ASK YOUR OWN QUESTIONS NEXT TIME, UPGRADE OR SIGN UP BY CLICKING HERE:

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For what it’s worth, I think the Rams did get better—their corners were bad and Jared Verse is overrated—but we can’t sleep on how the Seahawks should also get better and without needing to make any splashy moves. On Friday, I wrote 5 reasons why I think Seattle’s defense will be even better next season.

Seahawks 2025 in review

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve re-visited the Seahawks’ wins over the Rams in the NFC Championship and Week 16’s overtime thriller. There’s a lot of useful perspective to be gained from re-watching these games months later. So what can we learn from Seattle’s games against the other team in the NFC West that almost earned the number one seed?

Seahawks-49ers Week 1

I watched the condensed version of the Seahawks’ 17-13 loss to the 49ers in Week 1, and here are some of my takeaways nine months later.

The Loss Feels like a Fluke

Jaxon Smith-Njigba fumbled three times last season, and two of those happened against the 49ers in Week 1. The first fumble was lost on the first play of the fourth quarter, when the Seahawks were ahead 10-7. Had he not fumbled, Seattle would have had third-and-6 at the SF43, probably setting up for no worse than a Jason Myers’ field goal attempt. No worse than a Michael Dickson punt to pin the Niners back.

That timing just feels like a fluke, especially given that JSN was the only viable threat on Seattle’s offense that day and then he went on to win Offensive Player of the Year. JSN accounted for almost all of Sam Darnold’s passing yards: 124 of 150.

Two drives later, Seattle is facing third-and-7, but Cooper Kupp picks up six yards instead of seven. The same Kupp who was typically so clutch at gaining the necessary number of yards later in the season.

The Seahawks would have had first down at the SF18, and a touchdown would have given Seattle a 17-10 lead instead of 13-10. Worst case, Seattle runs down more clock with only 3:19 remaining at the time.

What we tend to remember is Nick Bosa bulldozing Abe Lucas into Darnold for a forced fumble to end the game. What I forgot is that the Seahawks had so many opportunities to put the game away (Josh Jobe intercepted Brock Purdy at midfield with 7 minutes left) before then and Seattle was the better team.

Luckily we can now watch this game in peace.

Nothing about the loss feels like a lost opportunity because the Seahawks won the division, the number one seed, and the Super Bowl. There’s no need to mess with the timeline now because everything worked out as it should have.

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Sam Darnold wasn’t fully formed yet

Stats don’t tell the whole picture. In his first start with the Seahawks, first start with Klint Kubiak, first start with these teammates, Darnold was prematurely criticized by fans (Seahawks and non-Seahawks variety) after going 16-of-23 for 150 yards and the fumble.

Darnold didn’t have a good game, but playing the 49ers in Week 1 was a difficult first test:

But the signs were there that Darnold was a good signing by Seattle. With 2 minutes left in the first quarter, Greg Olsen praises Darnold’s touch passes and ability to “throw his receivers open” on a 21-yard completion to Smith-Njigba.

In fact, Darnold was better than Brock Purdy.

It took Purdy 35 pass attempts to get 277 yards (he got 121 yards after the catch, compared to only 47 for Darnold) and he threw two interceptions. Darnold was better than Purdy—he is better than Purdy—he just didn’t win.

Against the 49ers in Week 18-wild card, Darnold went a combined 32-of-43 for 322 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT.

Not going to get him into the Hall of Fame, but in three games against San Francisco, Darnold threw zero picks. Purdy threw four against Seattle.

Do you think Brock Purdy is a long-term answer for the 49ers?

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Ernest Jones is underrated

I don’t care if he made second-team All-Pro. Jones is underrated. He got his first of six interceptions (including playoffs) and he dropped another.

In pass coverage and in run defense, Jones was the engine that made Seattle’s defense go. I feel like his All-Pro nod was more of a “interceptions total” vote—which is fine—but I think that fails to appreciate how good Jones is as a run defender.

I watched every game that Jones played for the Los Angeles Rams and he never looked like a special linebacker to me. Maybe a lite version of Jordyn Brooks.

Brooks was better in Seattle than Jones was in L.A.. (Ironically, Brooks was the first-team All-Pro linebacker for Miami last season.)

However, since Jones has hooked up with Mike Macdonald, he’s been carrying the torch for Bobby Wagner. At 26 years old and making under $10 million per season, Ernest Jones IV is among the best bargains and hidden gems in the NFL.

His ascension is reminiscent of Demario Davis, a linebacker who didn’t start getting accolades until he was 30, and then he made five All-Pro teams in a row.

Jones is no longer a good linebacker. With Macdonald putting him in position to make plays, and the players around him potentially getting better next season, Ernest Jones could be called the best linebacker next season.

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So long, Woolen

Tariq Woolen (or “Woooooooh-len” as Olsen pronounces it) was at his worst here and he’s a player who Kyle Shanahan has known how to expose since his rookie season in 2022.

Woolen allowed 80 yards on four catches, including a touchdown, which was the game-winner by Jake Tonges. It’s not just a size disadvantage…Woolen proved that Tonges knew better how to fight for a ball in the end zone than he did:

Here he is getting absolutely dominated by Ricky Pearsall with a double-move:

Woolen is the type of player who can cover ground and make a play in a hurry because of speed and length, but who is also so undisciplined that smarter players will beat him consistently enough for it not to matter. He also had two illegal contact penalties in this game. We don’t know if Julian Neal is good, but I don’t think he has the “big shoes to fill” like so many others seem to believe.

What do you remember about Week 1?

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Seaside Joe 2659

They would say it was the Houston Texans. They might even rank the Denver Broncos higher too.

Agree or disagree with the regular season rankings, the Seahawks were still the “most successful” defense because they did enough to shut down the MVP and the MVP runner-up in both the NFC Championship and the Super Bowl, back-to-back, to be the last team standing.

That’s what Seattle did when they weren’t universally recognized as having the best defense in the NFL. Will any team be able to stop the Seahawks if they are undeniably the best defense next season? There are at least five reasons that they didn’t even hit their defensive ceiling yet:

#1 - DeMarcus Lawrence is back

There were two players on Seattle’s defense above all who didn’t get the recognition from non-Seahawks fans for just how elite they were last season:

• LB Ernest Jones

• DE DeMarcus Lawrence

They got recognition. Lawrence made the Pro Bowl, and Jones was named as a second-team All-Pro. But how many people were willing to push the narrative that Lawrence was a top-five end—better than Danielle Hunter or Maxx Crosby—despite only getting six sacks?

Those sack totals were largely a byproduct of fewer opportunities, as Mike Macdonald asks defensive linemen to drop into coverage more often than any other defensive coordinator.

Sacks matter—so does context

I’m not going to be one of these people who say that “sacks don’t matter” or that sacks are “as good as pressures”, because I think both of those statements are crap. It’s usually what people say when overrated pass rushers like Jadeveon Clowney don’t get sacks. Lawrence is not overrated.

Lawrence had six sacks on 374 pass rush opportunities—but what is an “opportunity”? If Lawrence drops into coverage on a pass attempt, that’s not an opportunity. By comparison, Aidan Hutchinson led the NFL with 571 pass rush opportunities. He had almost 200 more opportunities and he had 14.5 sacks.

If you put Lawrence on the Lions instead of Hutchinson and said, “Your main goal is to sack the quarterback” who is to say he couldn’t get at least 12?

Lawrence’s intelligence as a 12-year veteran who knows that the position is not all about sacks was on display during Seattle’s “game-winning” stop against the Rams in the NFC Championship:

Recognizing that Rams running back Kyren Williams had passed Julian Love and would be wide open for a touchdown, Lawrence drops into coverage to shut off Matthew Stafford’s best option.

By NOT chasing the sack, Lawrence forced the stop.

Most players in his position would thirst for the opportunity to blitz Stafford. Lawrence’s instinct to help the team over himself was apparent all season, especially on those key short yardage situations.

All-22 Films released a video on Lawrence this week, highlighting his impact on those plays in 2025:

Among the key takeaways from All-22’s video:

• Lawrence’s versatility—the ability to switch from end to 4i defensive tackle—and go head-up against a guard or a tackle, allows Macdonald to play him at multiple positions and in a variety of ways (2:40)

• Having run-defense specialists like Lawrence and Leonard Williams as the first line of defense takes certain offensive coordinators (like McVay and Shanahan) out of their comfort zone on third/fourth-and-short situations. (6:20)

• His contact balance—his ability to stay up and follow a play even when he’s being engaged and contorted “out of position” but be able to finish the job—is elite (1:50)

Lawrence isn’t just a glorified designated pass rusher like many others. He’s the player who unlocked his teammates—including designated pass rushers—in Macdonald’s defense.

Who do you think will lead the Seahawks in sacks next season?

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He’s also a bargain

Now take everything I just said about Lawrence, an elite defensive end who can either play really wide or move well inside, and calculate that his 2026 salary cap hit is $11.7 million. That’s barely more than 25-percent of what T.J. Watt makes. It’s less than one-third of what Maxx Crosby makes. It’s half what Nick Bosa makes.

He makes more than $5 million less than Boye Mafe, a player who was far more interchangeable (as we’ve found out) than Lawrence.

Had Lawrence opted to retire, the Seahawks may have needed to be the team that traded for Crosby or Myles Garrett, or signed Trey Hendrickson. That’s when Seattle starts to look desperate because you’re not going to replace Lawrence with Dante Fowler.

So not only does Lawrence’s return help the defense in very direct, obvious ways, it also sent a ripple effect through the organization that allowed John Schneider and Macdonald to draft Jadarian Price in the first round, avoid costly trades and overpaid free agents, and use both day two picks on the secondary.

Lawrence doesn’t only keep the bar high for the defense. His return takes it even higher.

#2 - Nick Emmanwori will be even more versatile

Another way that Lawrence makes the defense better is what he’s been working on with second-year Swiss Army knife Nick Emmanwori.

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Asked why Jones hasn’t been practicing in OTAs, Macdonald didn’t give specifics, only answering that “Josh hasn’t practiced yet” and that it’s “his responsibility” to be ready to practice.

Hart may not be insurance for Jones, but a straight-up replacement.

The Seahawks re-signed Jones to a one-year, $4 million contract in March, guaranteeing him $3 million. That’s the same amount of money that Seattle paid Marquez Valdes-Scantling to not play for them in 2025.

It is not clear if the Seahawks would get any money back, should they determine that Jones willfully missed practice or failed to condition properly.

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For as little as I’ve thought about Jones in my life, he started the last three games of the season in place of Charles Cross. Two of those games (Rams, 49ers) were easily their most important games of the regular season. But for the head coach of a team to so openly criticize a player for not being ready to practice—in the same press conference where Macdonald gives words of encouragement to injured Seahawks—it implies that Seattle is not afraid to move on from Jones.

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Who else is missing practice?

RB Zach Charbonnet (knee)

Charbonnet being on the field this week is not necessarily big news.

It’s a lot better than not being available at all, but we’ve all seen those videos of a player playing pickup basketball or running around a gym three months after ACL surgery. There’s just a huge difference between moving around a field and playing in a game.

The timeline for an ACL tear is still 8-12 months, suggesting that Charbonnet most likely starts the season on PUP, and could be available by October. The team has been optimistic since surgery, but Macdonald won’t go further than saying anything could happen:

"He's doing a great job," Macdonald said. "I know he has high expectations for himself, and we're looking forward to seeing where it ends up."

The silver lining to Charbonnet’s injury?

The Seahawks could benefit more from having Charbonnet healthy in the second half of the season, rather than risking him in the first half of the season.

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WR Tory Horton

Horton is one that fans hoped would be healthy all offseason, but he had surgery related to his groin and/or shin injury in February and was not expected to be available during spring camps.

The concerning angle of Horton’s injury is not just the nature of this one (although a shin fracture could be problematic) but the frequency of injuries throughout his football career. Macdonald expects Horton back early in training camp:

"It's still all positive with Tory," Macdonald said. "He's not going to do anything today or tomorrow, but we should be looking at early on in camp if not the beginning of camp. If we stay on schedule and everything goes well, we'll be praying that he can be out there. You've got to be smart on how he comes back and all of that, but he should be active, it could be anywhere from Day 1 or maybe it's a couple of days, we'll see."

Frankly, I would not count on Horton. And Seattle really isn’t.

They’ve got receivers, they’ve got arguably the best return man in football, and Horton is just the sixth bullet in the chamber.

If the season gets down to firing that last shot and Horton is available, great. But his injury history suggests that Horton’s availability will always be in question.

TE Elijah Arroyo

There are no specifics available as to why Arroyo isn’t practicing, but similar to Horton, this is a young player who Seahawks fans want to hear is finally getting a full offseason in because of his injury history.

And he isn’t. Arroyo isn’t practicing, and neither was Eric Saubert or A.J. Barner last week. This helps explain why the team added Harrison Bryant right after the draft, and it’s a great opportunity for Nick Kallerup to move up the pecking order.

Arroyo was injured throughout his college career, and he missed two months during his rookie season. We’re not talking about a fifth-round pick here. Seattle invested the 50th overall pick in Arroyo and believed he would be a top-20 pick if not for injuries.

Well, this is why he was not a top-20 pick.

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RB Kenny McIntosh

McIntosh is the future that the Seahawks don’t want for Horton and Arroyo. Here’s a player who is still missing practices, three years after his first one during 2023 preseason. Macdonald said that McIntosh is “coming along” but his odds of making the team as running back depth or a kickoff return man go down with every day off.

Macdonald’s been encouraged by what he’s seen from additions Jadarian Price and Emanuel Wilson so far:

"Both are going to be really good players in their own right," Macdonald said. "They're putting themselves in great positions going into the offseason. They're obviously in different parts of their careers, but I'm excited about both guys. Take it day by day, keep chopping away and doing a good job."

McIntosh is really competing with Jacardia Wright and Velus Jones, more so than those two and George Holani.

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Seaside Joe 2656

Yes. The 2026 Seattle Seahawks have too many good offensive linemen.

That has nothing to do with Hart. Even before the team signed Hart, a veteran with 75 career starts but more of a “discount Josh Jones” than a reliable depth piece, the Seahawks were headed towards difficult decisions along the offensive line.

Let’s appreciate that this is the same team that just two years ago was splitting reps at guard between Phil Haynes and Anthony Bradford, signed an early-40s Jason Peters midseason, started Evan Brown at center, and had both Jake Curhan and Stone Forsythe filling in for Abe Lucas. And that was a relatively good year for Seattle’s offensive line.

Last year, the Seahawks started Laken Tomlinson at left guard, Lucas missed 10 more games, and Connor Williams was struggling so badly at center that he retired nine weeks into the season.

Of all the Super Bowl-winning storylines to track last year, from Sam Darnold’s redemption to Mike Macdonald’s defense, the fact that Seattle got over 1,000 snaps each from Lucas, Bradford, and Grey Zabel, a majority of snaps by Charles Cross, and a breakout season at center from Jalen Sundell, somehow wound up under the rug. But the Seahawks offensive line, as well as coach John Benton, deserve far more credit for a championship season than what they’ve received.

(My John Benton career retrospective from 2025, by the way.)

Not only are all five starters back this year, but Bradford is both a) the only one who is a free agent after the season and b) the only one Seattle could be looking to replace anyway.

And it’s because the Seahawks have a starting offensive line set in stone that it’s actually their newfound depth behind those five that should intrigue fans more than Seattle’s sudden status as an AVERAGE-ranking unit! As a matter of fact yes, that was me writing one year ago this month that the Seahawks offensive line was being criminally underrated by the media.

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Seahawks offensive line investment

Just since 2022, John Schneider has drafted nine offensive linemen who are still on the roster, a group that doesn’t include starter Jalen Sundell. If Seattle could simply keep those 10 players, how easy this would be.

The Seahawks kept nine offensive linemen in 2023 and 2025, but 11 in 2024. However, Seattle seems to keep more when they feel like they need more, and sacrifices a number or two there when they feel like they feel comfortable.

As I said before, barring injury, the Seahawks have a starting five this year, plus at least a starting-four going into 2027.

Seattle could keep 11 offensive linemen. But with a commitment to two fullbacks, perhaps three quarterbacks again, and bigger needs for depth at other positions like outside linebacker, the Seahawks may go with 10, or even go back to nine offensive linemen in 2026.

If that happens, Seattle’s not just cutting one player they’ve recently drafted, but as many as two or three.

How do the Seahawks go from the 15 offensive linemen on the roster as of June 10 to as few as nine offensive linemen at the end of training camp?

June is not too soon to start talking about how the Seahawks could slim down their offensive line by at least 33% in September. Who makes it, who doesn’t, and who gets traded? There are ways to deconstruct an answer to those questions.

The “Fun” Way: Trade Someone

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My question is:

If a Seahawks player was caught betting on the Seahawks to win, what punishment do you think he should face, if any?

I say “great” in the survey because I do think fans sometimes bend their opinions around the importance of the player in question. I’m not judging anyone for it, but there’s a difference between Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Irvin Charles. The Seahawks cut an undrafted free agent receiver earlier this year because they felt he was dishonest with the team (former Seahawks executive and current Vikings GM Nolan Teasley has since signed that same player to Minnesota’s roster).

Would they even bother wasting JSN’s time with a sit-down if they felt he wasn’t disclosing something to the team?

There are different rules for everybody. So if Sam Darnold or JSN or Devon Witherspoon was caught betting on the Seahawks to win games, should that player be punished by the NFL?

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Does the Sorsby case matter to us?

Although college football has too many issues for me to consider myself a fan of that league, the system serves as the only pipeline to the league that I actually care about. It’s not like the NBA, where many players come from overseas and often bypass college basketball to turn pro. Or MLB, which has the minor leagues. With very few exceptions, every player in NFL history spent at least three years in a college program—so even people like me who dislike college football need to follow it for information.

The NFL relies on college football much like healthcare relies on medical schools. Not everybody with a medical license should be trusted with your life, but at least there’s a system in place that allows for checks and balances, like if you need to sue your doctor for malpractice.

Sorsby’s case just seems like the inevitable outcome of a system that has been going down the drain for years, but exacerbated by the decisions made around 2020-2021 to open up the transfer portal and allow players to get paid to play football. I’m not even saying that I’m against either of those things in principle, but it’s more like, “What did you expect to happen?”

I was addicted to gambling when I was in college and I wasn’t getting paid hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to play sports there. I was eating $5 footlongs. A perfect storm of smart phones, legal gambling apps, and paying college athletes has resulted in “Brandon Sorsby” (who isn’t the first and won’t be the last) because that’s what had to happen.

Why people are pissed off

But gambling is not even the “crisis” that has led to people running college football programs, including Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer, telling the world that they are prepared to blacklist Texas Tech athletics if Sorsby ever suits up for them:

No, what those athletic directors and coaches are mad about is the fact that Sorsby’s perma-ban from college sports was overruled by local courts and judges who are alumni of Texas Tech. Essentially, if you can’t kick Brendan Sorsby out of college, then who can you kick out?

The answer is clear: Nobody.

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And if you can’t stop Sorsby from playing college football after he admitted to betting on his own team, then what’s to prevent players from doing this in the future?

Nothing.

Sorsby may have bet on Indiana (his first of three college stops) to win, which seems like it couldn’t hurt. However, what if he was betting on the number of touchdowns he would throw? Or the number of points the team would win by? This could then change strategy—and ultimately cause the team to lose.

Betting on a game you are playing in, especially as the most important player on the field, has negative consequences that are inevitable. Sort of like everything that has happened to college football over the last 50 years.

Will NFL vets go back to college?

I know many of you are fans of Washington or Washington State. Well, what if the Huskies wanted to sign Trey Lance or Anthony Richardson to play for them next season? What if they wanted to go back to college and try again before re-entering the NFL after a couple more seasons?

I honestly think nobody could stop that from happening, and we’ve already seen hints of it.

A basketball player was allowed to go back to college after signing a contract with the Spurs. A player for Washington State, Nathaniel Salmon, was in Chargers rookie minicamp last year.

We may not be far off from college football becoming a minor league for the NFL—including veterans—and having nothing to do with academics at all. Sure, academics have not mattered in a long time, but eligibility used to be based around those “four years”. Those days are long gone; Cam McCormick was granted NINE years of eligibility.

Maybe turning college football into a minor leagues with no eligibility rules is not a bad thing. Sports need to evolve with the times and certainly there are cases—like Richardson and Lance—where going back to college would be better for everyone. Fans and players and teams alike.

I don’t know enough about college football or the law to really make any smart comments about this topic, but it is interesting to watch the Sorsby case play out and also vital to the future of the NFL.

Would you be okay with a player on your favorite team betting on the sport?

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The NFL has gambling rules—for now

In recent years, players like Jameson Williams and Calvin Ridley were suspended for sports betting. Ridley was suspended a year for gambling on NFL games, whereas Williams didn’t bet on the NFL but was suspended six games for placing college football bets while at team facilities.

These are examples of players who are very important to their teams, so they can continue playing. Others, like Shaka Toney and Quintez Cephus, were not that good and never played again after they were suspended.

It goes back to what I said before, which is that we can’t expect someone like Charles Cross to be handled the same as someone like Jacardia Wright. Ridley bet on his own team, the Falcons, and he’s still in the NFL making millions of dollars. He even got votes for Comeback Player of the Year in 2023—that being that he “came back” from being suspended for breaking perhaps the most sacred rule of organized sports.

Yes, there are far, far, far worse things that a human being can do, and players violate those rules all the time unfortunately, and often with fewer/lesser consequences than gambling, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.

We’re talking about how the perception of “real” sports changes when money is involved. It’s like when Butch takes a dive in Pulp Fiction. Now it’s not a sport, it’s an act.

The NFL is already dealing with “staged” accusations on a regular basis. What Calvin Ridley and Sorsby did—and what other players will certainly do in the future—only advances those arguments that football is more of a play, than something that is played.

So if someone on your favorite team bet on his sport, even his own team, would you have an issue with it?

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I’m going to run the same poll again from the beginning and see if the results changed at all.

Seaside Joe 2654

Did you miss yesterday’s Seaside Joe? Seahawks 2026 practice squad projection

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Seahawks fans should be prepared for machine gun-paced arguments of “No, not him!” and “WON’T be him!” and “Not in a million years!”, as well as the massively popular “He’ll NEVER get through waivers!!!” through 2026 training camp because even the practice squad will have names you are certain will make the roster—as well as players who don’t make the roster or practice squad that you’ll be certain will get picked up by other teams.

The normal thing to do would be to give you my 53-man roster projection first, but rarely is anything normal at Seaside Joe.

It’s not weird for the sake of weird. Not only do fans actually love practice squad players—right up there for “most popular NFL articles of the year” alongside undrafted free agent signings, is who made the initial practice squad?—but we know that Seattle’s treatment of the practice squad as being a legitimate part of the entire roster is not just coachspeak.

The Seahawks practice squad has produced players like Josh Jobe, Ty Okada, George Holani, and Patrick O’Connell in recent years, among others. From there, we might see players like Amari Kight or Jamie Sheriff see there star rise next season because they hung around on the practice squad.

So these are 17 names that I am projecting to make the Seattle Seahawks’ initial 2026 practice squad, why they’re on it, who’s not, and what could be next?

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Last week, Danno wanted to submit a few survey questions, which is what happened with great results. Since this time of year is a bit slower for new information about the team, let’s focus on how fans feel about everyth…

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Encino Man was the first movie for either of those actors, and though Sean Astin was the protagonist, and Fraser was the “leading man”, Shore was the breakout star and had four movies built around him over the next four years. (Hollywood used this same formula with The Hangover’s three leads 17 years later, Helms, Cooper, and Galifianakis.)

All of which were critically panned and though Shore will always be "in Hollywood”, the end of his run as a movie star was 30 years ago.

Shore was off to the best start and since 1996 has the least to show for it. Similarly, the Cardinals are the oldest active pro football franchise in the world, with origins tracing back to 1898, and they have the least to show for it. The Chicago Cardinals won the NFL Championship in 1925 and 1947, but the franchise has only made the playoffs nine times in the Super Bowl era.

Pete Carroll made the playoffs 10 times with the Seahawks.

Fraser was able to balance out his debut as a Slurpee-drinking caveman with the release of School Ties a few months later, which Roger Ebert called “another movie about an outsider in high school”, perhaps the only time someone compared a Pauly Shore movie to a drama about antisemitism.

Whereas Fraser’s career has had ups (Gods and Monsters) and downs (Dudley Do-Right), Shore’s career—at least in movies—is always down. Fraser is, if nothing else, a Hollywood survivor. Always getting up again after Monkeybone, Furry Vengeance, and George of the Jungle, until he won Best Actor for The Whale.

It’s the type of resilience that every hapless NFL franchises wishes they had—the Browns, the Lions, the Jets, and of course the Cardinals—but I’m not sure that any of them dudley-do.

108 seasons after their first official run in the NFL, the Cardinals fancy themselves to become a whale. From the looks of it, they’re still a:

Who are the 2026 Cardinals?

On Saturday, I wrote about the Rams. It wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last. There are appropriate times to write about the 49ers. Regardless of their Oscar chances, or the fact that Seattle has beaten them nine times in a row, Arizona is on the schedule twice again next season, including in Week 2, so fans should forget they exist like we do some actors.

What’s new with the Cardinals?

Brissett it and Forget it

Speaking of Fraser, my wife and I have been to Universal Studios over 30 times, and we always head straight to The Mummy ride. It’s not the greatest, but if you’ve ever been there then you know it’s the closest thing to a “thrill ride” at the park. The Mummy is two seconds of excitement followed by two minutes of drawing it out under the facade of being exhilirating.

Sort of like every stop on Jacoby Brissett’s resume.

Though we don’t like to judge quarterbacks by win-loss record, his 20-45 career mark is a fair indicator of his value to teams and the value of teams willing to start him. Look at his time on the Colts:

• 2017: Brissett goes 4-11 as starter

• 2018: The Colts go 10-6 and Andrew Luck throws 39 touchdowns

• 2019: Brissett goes 7-8 as starter with 18 touchdowns

• 2020: Philip Rivers goes 11-5 as the starter

Teams get better the year after Brissett, starting with Rivers replacing him in Indianapolis; the Dolphins got better after he left; the Browns went from 4-7 with Brissett to 11-5 the next season; the Moons went from 4-13 (Brissett was only a backup) to 12-5 the next season; the Patriots went from 1-4 with Brissett and 4-13 overall to reaching the Super Bowl the next season.

We might have to predict that the Cardinals would shock the world next season, if not for Brissett returning as the starter. We think.

Monday is considered a big day for Brissett’s standoff because that’s when mandatory minicamp starts. He’s skipped all team activities this year looking for a new contract, but they were all voluntary. If Brissett isn’t back this week—and there’s no indication that he will be—we have to take Gardner Minshew and rookie Carson Beck more seriously as becoming Arizona’s starting quarterback for Week 1…and of course Week 2 against Seattle.

Minshew’s career could play Brissett’s career in a movie. They’re the same backup archetype, but Minshew is younger and also probably worse than Brissett at managing a simple passing offense.

Beck’s Call?

I expect Brissett to return, but the Cardinals just might not care. What’s their goal with next season? If ownership is being realistic about their chances of winning the Super Bowl (0%) or the NFC West (1%), then they might want Brissett to hold out. Nobody gives them a better chance of getting the number one pick in next year’s draft than Beck.

Beck was labeled as a “reach”, even as late as the third-round. SB Nation called it an “illogical, wasted pick”. Let Beck prove himself one way or another, but if the Seahawks face him in Week 2, that’s the same vibes as Max Brosmer.

Don’t touch the 29th-ranked Defense

The Cardinals fired Jonathan Gannon, but retained defensive coordinator Nick Rallis and basically kept everything in tact from a bottom-five defense. Nothing says “We want to draft a quarterback next year” more than that.

The Cardinals defense allowed 28.7 points per game (29th) and a third down conversion rate of 43.1% (27th). The only true star on the defense is Budda Baker (a 30-year-old safety is not who you want your best player to be) because I have a hard time buying DE Josh Sweat as a legit number one.

Both Sweat and Baker could be traded before the deadline, as Arizona seeks more ammunition for 2027.

Despite these obvious flaws on defense, the Cardinals used their first three picks on offense, including a running back at 3 and Beck at 65. And maybe Jeremiyah Love will prove to be a fantastic choice, I’m just saying that the Cardinals didn’t add a single notable defensive player to a bottom-five defense.

To improve the defense from last year, Rallis will need to go to Extraordinary Measures.

What are your Cardinals win-loss expectations?

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The Cardinals are ‘In the Army Now’

Before anyone reminds me that you can’t overlook anybody in the NFL, not even the Cardinals, yes, Arizona does have WEAPONS. That is perhaps their only advantage, but even then I would argue that weapons are not that unique. Not even the ones that Brissett will have if and when he returns.

Trey McBride and Love could be All-Pro players next season. McBride because he might be the best tight end in the NFL (126 catches last year) and Love because he’s a running back. In either case, the Cardinals shouldn’t worry about those two positions.

They also shouldn’t need to worry about having receivers, as Michael Wilson is already good and Marvin Harrison Jr. could be a lot better next season. The offensive line is okay, but maybe not top-10.

If new head coach Mike LaFleur is a good play caller, the offense could be decent. But is that enough for the Cardinals to win games? Because I challenge you to tell me a team in the NFC that does not have weapons.

Aside from maybe Washington and New York, every single team has at least two, usually three players who I think most fans would say are great players. Maybe because we live in such a fantasy-driven society now. The Seahawks were never going to get any breaks on the schedule in terms of receivers and tight ends, and sometimes the running backs they face.

Who has the best weapons in the NFC?

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As good as McBride is, I don’t see how this is any different than Brock Bowers playing for the team that had the number one pick this year.

Could the Cardinals beat the Seahawks?

Of course. Seattle blew a 20-6 fourth quarter lead to Arizona last season, barely surviving after Jason Myers redeemed himself with a 52-yard field goal. This is the NFL, so upsets are always on the table.

However, I can only tell you where the Cardinals stand and that shouldn’t be too difficult because aside from firing the head coach, they aren’t much different. They didn’t try to be much different. What would compel a team to draft a running back, leave a bad defense alone, and stage a public stand-off with Jacoby Brissett, other than a desire to pick high again next year?

Everybody on the field for the Cardinals will try to win. Owner Michael Bidwill could be hoping he put the right people in place to assure that doesn’t happen. Which is what we’ve come to expect of the Cardinals.

It’s sort of like how Pauly Shore has played “Pauly Shore” 12 times in his career. No matter how badly he wants to pretend to be someone else, eventually we can’t come to see him as anyone other than who he’s always been.

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Seaside Joe 2652

“You can debate Rams starting DL vs Seahawks starting DL. You can’t debate the backups. Seahawks 2nd unit is much better. Depth has been HUGE for the last 2 SB winners.”

It’s clear what DJ is saying. Over the course of a 17-game season and playoffs, depth can sometimes be more important than starting talent, and in his opinion Seattle’s defensive line depth isn’t just better than L.A.’s.

It was good enough for the Seahawks to win the Super Bowl last season.

We needn’t look back any further than Seattle’s win over the Rams in the NFC Championship to find evidence for DJ’s argument, one way or another. Not only do we find that the Seahawks’ reserves are miles ahead of L.A.’s backups, but the starters are still better left-to-right, as well.

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Or Hall could have a breakout, All-Pro season in 2026, and Seattle still wouldn’t have to pay him like a top-40 pass rusher until 2028 at the earliest.

That’s what this contract does for the Seahawks in the next year: Betting on Hall’s upside, and taking little financial risk.

According to Hall’s contract details, which were explained by OvertheCap’s Jason Fitzgerald, the Seahawks gave Hall a $13 million signing bonus and $15.27 million fully guaranteed as part of the agreement.

Hall only has cap hits of $6.247 million in 2026 and $7.47 million in 2027.

2026 salary cap hit

Hall now ranks 49th in outside linebacker salary for 2026, with a cap hit that is more than $10 million below former teammate Boye Mafe.

He’s also ranked below Chauncey Golston, a 28-year-old pass rusher on the Cowboys who had one sack last season and is making $6.9 million.

Although Hall only had two sacks last season, not including the two he had in the Super Bowl, he’s barely 25 and Mike Macdonald emphasized this week that the team isn’t only judging him by pass rushing numbers:

"He's just a great player who we feel has an even brighter future. We feel like this is just the beginning of where his career can go. We've never had a conversation on his pass rush productivity. You feel it."

On Seattle Sports, Macdonald described Hall as “our type of guy”:

At a next-season cap number of $6.2 million, making less than Arden Key, Michael Hoecht, and Baron Browning, the Seahawks see the contract as an easy opportunity to find out what Hall could do with another year in the Macdonald system.

Technically, Seattle could evaluate Hall’s contract after 2026, before his extension even kicks in, because his 2027 salary doesn’t become guaranteed until five days after the season ends. However, something unusual and concerning would have to happen for the team to part ways before 2028 because the cost benefit is still so much in their favor in 2027.

2027 salary cap hit

Hall is still only ranked 43rd in outside linebacker salary in 2027 at $7.5 million.

Although some players will be cut and/or retire before then, perhaps including Hall’s teammates DeMarcus Lawrence and Uchenna Nwosu, others will sign new contracts. Hall will not become a top-30 paid pass rusher for 2027 under any circumstances, and then after that season is when the Seahawks begin to evaluate his value against a $13.75 million cap hit in 2028.

If on the roster five days after the 2027 season ends, $1.5 million of his 2028 salary becomes guaranteed; still not very much.

But if Seattle decides to cut him before then, the Seahawks would save $7.25 million against the 2028 cap hit and leave $6.5 million of dead money.

It’s always fun to remind fans that the Seahawks have under $1 million of dead cap on the 2026 salary cap, the least amount in the NFL this year.

How many reigning Super Bowl champions can say that they didn’t have one overpaid veteran who they didn’t need to cut or trade after the season?

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Even in 2028, three seasons from now, Hall’s salary only ranks 28th at the position. Again, changes will happen between now and then, but $13.75 million is a good deal less than the $46-$47 million cap hits of Nick Bosa, T.J. Watt, and Will Anderson. Those players have proven a lot more than Hall, but…

Couldn’t Hall become better than Jaelan Phillips?

There’s a pass rusher who just signed a four-year, $120 million contract with the Carolina Panthers and has a $35.5 million cap hit in 2028. Almost three times as much as Hall’s cap hit that year.

Hall also has $1 million of per game roster bonuses per year, a rather insignificant amount, and likely additional compensation that Hall will earn given his track record of usually being healthy.

Seahawks win the contract

If the number “$42 million” next to the number “2 sacks” for a pass rusher doesn’t look strange to you, it should.

Contracts like this for players who play Hall’s position do not usually get rewarded at this level without sack totals. It doesn’t matter if sacks are overrated or not, that’s just what’s typical of NFL contracts.

However, in Hall’s case the team is balancing a lot of other factors at play—perhaps none bigger than the three years they’ve already invested in Hall and the hesitancy to start over from scratch with a replacement—and the real number he’s being paid is a little less than $20 million for two more seasons.

That’s a good deal for a player still looking for his breakout season. A great deal for a team that trust its coaches to help him find it.

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Seaside Joe 2650

No, they did not trade for Trent McDuffie and Myles Garrett.

They did not hire a new head coach and draft top-five picks like the Cardinals, Giants, Raiders, and Titans.

Whereas bad teams will be praised for making changes that were necessary, Seattle will be forgotten because losses were inevitable. More big names left the chat than entered. Kenneth Walker, Boye Mafe, Riq Woolen, Coby Bryant, and Klint Kubiak.

Well, I’d rather get an “A” in Feburary than in March, April, and May.

Contrary to popular belief though, the Seahawks have added 20 new players to the roster this year.

How important was each of those additions and where do they rank relative to each other? I’ve ranked all 20 players by a combination of their value to the team in 2026 and the long-term outlook for each.

(I won’t be including D’Anthony Bell. He played with the Seahawks last season, but was waived at the end of the year and picked up by the Panthers, even getting into Carolina’s wild card game against the Rams. He has since returned to Seattle.)

I’m going to start with the undrafted rookies in one group and then I’m going to go all the way to the new player ranked first and work my way down to the end of the list by the end.

Join Seaside Joe’s ‘Regular Joes’ or ‘Super Joes’ club to not miss anything—$5 per month or $55 per year—that’s a steal for a daily Seahawks newsletter!

#15-#20: Undrafted free agent rookies (DE Aidan Hubbard, LB Marvin Jones, TE Lance Mason, NT Uso Seumalo, WR Levi Wentz, WR Rashad Rochelle)

The Seahawks signed seven rookies after the draft, and are now down to six after releasing WR Michael Briscoe and LB Devean Deal, but adding Rashad Rochelle. Coincidentally, Briscoe was picked up by the Vikings (by Nolan Teasley) as I was writing this article.

It’s difficult for me or anyone to rank these players so early in their careers and some of them could have longer, better Seattle careers than the veterans and drafted rookies that I’ll talk about next.

Remember, Super Joe Danno created a poll right here at Seaside Joe asking fans how many drafted rookies we think will make the 53-man roster and the lowest answer won by a lot:

It any of these six undrafted rookies is expected to make the roster, it’s probably Hubbard. Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report both named him the most exciting undrafted player on the roster. Doug Farrar called Hubbard a good fit for Mike Macdonald’s propensity to stunt:

If you go back to last June 4, undrafted rookies who are still on the roster a year later include Montorie Foster, Federico Maranges, Amari Kight, Nick Kallerup, Jacardia Wright, Bubba Thomas, Jared Ivey, Jalan Gaines, Connor O’Toole, J.R. Singleton, and Tyrone Broden, who has since moved from receiver to corner.

Some of those guys are practice squad, some of them played a role on a Super Bowl champion. Seattle has been developing their recent practice squad players and undrafted finds (like Ty Okada and Drake Thomas) into important components of the team.

In fact, Macdonald calls it the “ready squad” and emphasizes that Seattle’s real roster is 70 players, not 53:

So don’t take this ranking as a slight against the undrafted rookies. They’ve been targeted by the Seahawks, so that’s already a good sign for them. It’s sort of like how some people will always look forward to Leonardo DiCaprio movies; whether you like his acting or not, a lot of people think he chooses good scripts.

We could look back on the undrafted list in six months and realize Seattle’s biggest steal is on it.

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For the rest, I’m gonna FLIP IT AROUND and go from top-to-bottom.

#1 - RB Jadarian Price

The hype around Price will continue to grow as the Seahawks slowly inch from draft night to Week 1 by ramping up practices, joint practices, preseason games, until they’re playing at full speed. There was a time when Price may have been a bigger star at Notre Dame than Jeremiyah Love.

Should fans be cautious about a running back who never started a game in college, and he isn’t one of these wildly-gifted athlete who get drafted early because of his speed? Price went 32nd because the drop-off to RB3 was ENORMOUS (RB3 went 58 picks later) and Seattle knew they weren’t going to get him at 64.

There won’t be any comparisons to Jahmyr Gibbs, but stranger things have happened. Seeing Price in Seahawks practice and knowing that he’s going to get the majority of the snaps at running back next season—and that his greatest strength (stretching those runs on outside zone) fits Seattle’s greatest need—it’s as reasonable to be optimistic as it is to be cautious:

Without any major veteran additions so far this year, Price is an easy pick for number one. The order gets much more difficult from here.

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#2 - DE Dante Fowler, Jr.

He’s not Myles Garrett—or even DeMarcus Lawrence—but Fowler is as good as it’s going to get in terms of Seattle’s veteran additions so far. And it’s not like he’s been terrible recently, getting 10.5 sacks for Dan Quinn’s Washington defense in 2024 with plays like this:

Fowler is barely more than a year older than Garrett, a pass rusher who the Rams are expecting to play for at least four more seasons. So even if the caliber of talent is much different, Fowler shouldn’t be confused with an aging player falling apart at the seams; in fact, he hasn’t missed a game since 2021.

A designated pass rusher (probably not much against the run), Fowler will be contributing from Week 1 and the depth he provides behind Lawrence and Uchenna Nwosu is even more important.

I’ll give it a 10% chance that Fowler is a massive steal for the Seahawks, but a 95% chance that he’s worth more than the $2.5 million guaranteed that he got from Seattle.

In which order will the other 12 new Seahawks fall? We have five veterans and seven rookies left to cover:

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The question isn’t whether Garrett makes the Rams better. The question is whether the Rams were only one Myles Garrett away from becoming the next Super Bowl champions.

Seahawks fan Mina Kimes is one of many analysts now calling the Rams the best team in the NFL after Monday’s blockbuster trade. While I appreciate that she’s not blindly picking Seattle out of bias, her reaction highlights a potential blind spot: Aside from addressing cornerback, the Rams did little to solve the other weaknesses that prevented them from reaching the Super Bowl last season.

When you look beyond the star power on the Rams’ roster—the gap between Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie on defense, the drop-off from Puka Nacua and Matthew Stafford to the rest of the offense, and the concerns across special teams—the cracks become impossible to ignore.

Especially when compared to the Seahawks, whose roster enters 2026 with fewer weaknesses and far more proven solutions.

The Rams are a sports car screaming, “Look at my shiny red paint job! Listen to my engine! Check out my horsepower!”

The Seahawks are a reliable everyday vehicle, capable of everything from a road trip across North America to dropping the kids off at soccer practice or picking up a hot date. They’re not as flashy, but they’re the vehicle you’d trust to still be running 30 years from now.

If next season is simply a race, the Rams could win. But if it’s a battle, the Seahawks still have as many advantages tomorrow as they had yesterday.

Most analysts looked at Monday’s trade and immediately crowned the Rams the best team in football.

I see it differently.

Garrett fixes one problem, but leaves many questions unanswered. The Seahawks had already addressed most of their weaknesses, meaning that they didn’t need to trade for Garrett.

Here are the five reasons the Seahawks still have the more complete roster.

1. The Rams are starting some legitimately weak players

I was dumbfounded by this tweet from a Rams fan saying that “this is the best roster I’ve ever seen”—not just because it’s an asinine claim to make on June 1, but especially after I took a closer look at the depth chart he tweeted out:

Yes, the Rams have Matthew Stafford, Puka Nacua, Myles Garrett, and Trent McDuffie. They could have the most STARS in the NFL.

But this particular depth chart also highlights these names as starters:

• WR Konata Mumpfield

• C Coleman Shelton

• LB Omar Speights

• LB Nate Landman

• RT Warren McClendon

These are some of the most glaring differences between L.A.’s starters at quarterbacks and outside linebacker and the less talented players on the depth chart, but there are others who are still living off of reputation and draft pedigree too. Let me start with these five.

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Did the Rams become better than the Seahawks on Monday? I don’t think so: 5 reasons the Seahawks still have the more complete …

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