Boye Mafe free agency
So... who is ready for the Seahawks to draft another edge rusher?
Boye Mafe played exactly 50-percent of the Seahawks defensive snaps in 2025. Not 50.1, not 49.9, but exactly 50%. That also feels like a fair estimate of how much of his potential that he’s reached in four years since Seattle made Mafe a second round pick, so it’s time to move on.
The upside
Mafe has a role on another team’s defense in 2026 and he might have a breakout similar to Uchenna Nwosu’s on the Seahawks with whoever that is and perhaps Seattle gets a comp pick in 2027. Because Mafe is an edge rusher with good size and athleticism, it’s probable that his free agent contract will cross the threshold for a comp pick.
This All-22 Film Study is from last year because there just wasn’t much positive to add from 2025:
The downside
Saying that Mafe played 50% of the snaps is completely true and also a little misleading. After Week 7, Mafe played in 41% of the snaps for the rest of the regular season and then only 37% in the playoffs.
Mafe had two seasons with Pete Carroll and then two seasons to prove himself under Mike Macdonald and for whatever reason it’s just not clicking in Seattle. Add onto that, Derick Hall had a great Super Bowl and is signed through 2026, there’s no reason to bring back Mafe and pay him MORE than what he’s been making on a rookie contract.
Prediction: He’s gone
When predicting what the Seahawks will do with their first couple of draft picks, don’t focus so much on the team’s biggest weakness LAST YEAR but instead take a look at the biggest weaknesses TWO SEASONS FROM NOW.
Nwosu’s situation, Demarcus Lawrence’s age, Mafe and Hall’s underwhelming returns and free agency…The edge rusher position is the most glaring weakness of the team’s future.
Re-signing Mafe simply because he’s already here is not the solution for it.
There are plenty of free agent contract comps for Mafe because there are so many edge rushers with freakish athleticism who didn’t work out for the teams that drafted them (Samson Ebukam, Arden Key, Dante Fowler, Yetur Gross-Matos, etc.) so yeah, I’m thinking Mafe comes in around $6-$9 million per year for 1-2 years.
Good for somebody. Not the Seahawks.
It's interesting how things can change. After the first two years of Mafe, and at the time, the first year of Hall, I felt Mafe had the higher ceiling and was a lock to be our next star Edge.
It just hasn't clicked under MM unfortunately, while Hall seems to be growing into a better fit.
I was pretty resistant to signing Lawrence initially (clearly, very wrong) as I thought his upside was low and he would take snaps away from the young guys, but I'm seeing now that it seems you need really high field IQ to play in Mike's defense as an edge, which could be why Nwosu and Lawrence are the starters.
I’ve been waiting for Mafe to flip the switch from potential to production. The fact that I’m still waiting after 4 years says a lot. He has ALL the tools to be an AMAZING edge, but just can’t seem to put it all together.
So I guess it’s time to move on. Bummer it turned out this way.