3 Seahawks Breakout Players: From Back, Middle, and Top of the Roster
A deep sleeper, a middle sleeper, and a jump from great to greatest at the top
Breakout seasons can come from anyone on a team’s roster, from Sam Darnold’s rise to power over the last two years, to Drake Thomas, Ty Okada, and Josh Jobe emerging from the practice squad to the starting lineup of a Super Bowl defense.
A player can break out from the bottom to the middle, the middle to the top, or the bottom to the top. To quote the star of Malibu’s Most Wanted in a different movie:
From the Super Joes Q&A this week, Rusty asked who my “breakout player” pick would be right now, and I said Derick Hall. It’s still a good pick.
The only hard thing about coming up with an answer was only being able to choose one. What if instead, I use my Every Seahawk Ranked list of all 91 players on Seattle’s roster to name three breakout players:
One from the players in my bottom 31
One from the players in the middle 30
One from the players in the top 30
I also chose a backup “secondary” option for each.
Back 30: WR Ricky White III (Ranked 76th)
I’ve mentioned White a few times now, starting with 5 surprising training camp moves that would make sense. Although White only ended up getting called up for two games as a rookie, he could be the offensive version of Okada for the upcoming season; Okada had only played 33 snaps in his first two seasons combined prior to 2025.
And a spot on the roster for special teams is worth just as much as a spot on the roster for any reason. Or ask Jake Bobo and Cooper Kupp about earning snaps on offense for blocking, as White (#86) does here:
The 6’1, 181 lbs White improved his 40 time from 4.61 at the combine to 4.44 at his pro day. Maybe we split the difference there and come away thinking that White is about a 4.5 guy; Kupp was a 4.62 guy coming out of college.
As a high school senior, White scored 16 touchdowns and led his team to the Georgia 7A state championship with 1,319 yards.
In 2023, White broke the UNLV record with 1,483 yards in a single season, including five straight 100-yard games. Playing without great passers in college, White added another 1,041 yards and Special Teams Player of the Year as a senior in 2024.
Perhaps nothing says “Ricky White III” more than four blocked punts in one season.
If Jay Harbaugh demands a spot for White on special teams, which isn’t hard to imagine given the loss of Dareke Young, now he’s just one more opportunity away from getting snaps on offense and developing chemistry with Sam Darnold. Kupp’s career could wind down slowly, or end abruptly, and White is well positioned on this roster to be in the running as his replacement.
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Secondary: ST Irv Charles (Ranked 67th)
On that same line of thinking, Charles is perhaps the favorite to take Young’s roster spot, if there’s only one. The second favorite could be Emmanuel Henderson.
With one of the best underdog stories of all-time as a narrative, the 29 year old Charles could end up winning a spot on the defending Super Bowl champions a decade—10 years!!!-after he started his career at Penn State.
From rules violation to a four-year hiatus to a return at IUP to a stint on the Jets to missing all of 2025, Charles hasn’t quit. If he makes the Seahawks, it won’t take much more than his first impressive tackle as a gunner to become an instant fan favorite among the masses.
But other breakout candidates would have much bigger roles next season.
Middle 30: OLB Connor O’Toole (Ranked 42nd)
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