How the Seahawks Have Changed Since Day 1 of Training Camp

Despite lots of moves, the Seahawks roster remains relatively the same.

Here are the player changes that the Seattle Seahawks have made since we ranked all 91 players on the roster on July 23:

• Signed CB Brandon Johnson, Released TE Harrison Bryant

• Signed TE Nick Vannett, Released CB Tyrone Broden

• Released RB Kenny McIntosh

• Signed WR Kyre Duplessis

• Signed LB Joseph Vaughn, Waived/Injured LB Ja’Markis Weston

• Signed LB Garrett Nelson, Released WR Duplessis

• Signed RB T.J. Harden and CB Jordan Washington, Released Nelson, Waived/Injured Johnson

• Signed LB Power Echols, Released Vaughn

• Signed RB Justin Jones, Released Echols

It’s a reminder that the Seahawks will make a roster move roughly once per business day, but also that “the churn” typically involves newer players, not ones that Seattle is heavily invested in. Just four players from the original 91 have been let go and the only real surprise is McIntosh, but even he remains a free agent.

His Seahawks career isn’t necessarily over yet and he most recently worked out for Klint Kubiak’s Raiders. Weston, Bryant, and Broden are also still free agents.

Seattle’s most recent edition is was Echols*, a former undrafted free agent linebacker who played at North Carolina, although the most interesting fact about him is that his mother named him after actor Powers Booth and dropped the ‘s’. She said to the “s”…Well, bye.

*literally after I wrote this and before I could even hit publish, the Seahawks released Echols and signed Jones, their 10th player swap in about 15 days

From Weston to Vaughn to Nelson to Echols, I guess Mike Macdonald is looking for something in a linebacker that he hasn’t found yet.

The Seahawks have one more week until their preseason opener against the Dallas Cowboys. Will he find it by then?

Let’s take a look at some more of the questions you posed to me about the Seahawks this week. Become a member of Super Joes to not miss getting in your own questions and opinions in the next Q&A.

Largentium: A Patriots fan (not exactly the most unbiased) said the Seahawks RBs "are arguably the worst RB room in the league", which is quite a contrast from your upbeat opinion in today's newsletter. Are they really arguably the worst? I don't agree, they definitely aren't top 10, and they probably aren't bottom 10 either.

Someone once said that “arguably” is a bad word to use because anything could be arguable. Here is every RB room in the NFL per OurLads. Is a room with a rookie and a player with 25 career carries and a C-list free agent “arguably” the worst? Sure.

It’s still irrelevant until we actually see how good Jadarian Price is as a starter and going against NFL players.

Last season, James Cook led the league in rushing, De’Von Achane led the league in yards per carry, Javonte Williams and Kyren Williams both had over 1,200 yards and 10 touchdowns, Rico Dowdle and Chase Brown both had over 1,000 yards. Arguably all big surprises.

Warren Sharp ranked the Seahawks RB room 31st, noting the complication of ranking them without knowing the timeline for Zach Charbonnet’s return:

Seattle's running backs suffered the largest decline in the NFL, plummeting to 31st from 10th. The big loss here is Kenneth Walker, who signed with the Chiefs in free agency. Complicating the succession plan is Zach Charbonnet’s torn ACL that could keep him from starting the season on time. That leaves rookie first-round pick Jadarian Price as the possible top back for Week 1 after running the ball just 280 times in his college career.

Other teams in the bottom-five are Washington, Jacksonville, Carolina, and Minnesota. The team in 23rd place, so the “last bottom-10 team”, is the Dallas Cowboys with Javonte Williams and Jaydon Blue.

Nobody can compare Price to Williams when one of those guys has never played in the NFL before. You can’t argue against Price or for Price.

Getting into this argument is going to require patience. If Charbonnet was entirely healthy, I wonder how much he would impact the rankings, as he gives Seattle the experience that they lack, but is not necessarily someone who I see the Seahawks extending after the season as of today.

Based on what I see in Sharp’s ranking, I’d say every team ranked outside of the top-15 is kind of tied for 16th.

Nelly: Hello again Mr. Joe! I just realized I never finished messaging you lol I bring it up, because Murphy ii is extension eligible next year, I'm worried about if we could afford him. Jordan Davis just signed for 26m a year as NT and Jalen Carter making 38m as his interior neighbor. I know Murphy plays both, but can you throw out an educated guess of how much a year he would to keep?

Well, just generally speaking about all things Seahawks, I think fans have to stop “worrying” about the long-distance future so much. There’s enough on your plate just worrying about winning the next game. Try not to be stressed about a scenario that is actually GOOD. If Byron Murphy II becomes the highest-paid defensive tackle in the NFL, hell, what a great draft pick he has turned out to be.

I’m sorry for fans that the public knowledge of their salaries and a salary cap has turned a positive into something they’re worried about.

Murphy will be extended, regardless of the cost

What I can say is that of course Murphy is going to be expensive when he does sign an extension. And he will sign an extension with the Seahawks. It’ll happen. Seattle doesn’t lose players that they want to keep, especially their own draft picks.

In fact, Devon Witherspoon might be the first time in the John Schneider era that there’s even some question about an extension for a player who the team wants to keep, but even that situation was relatively predictable. And Witherspoon will still probably be extended.

Back in 2022, Seahawks fans were not optimistic that the team would extend DK Metcalf, but I refused to even write about any rumors because I was so confident that Seattle was going to keep him. At the time, Metcalf was more valuable to the Seahawks on an expensive contract than he was in the form of draft picks and cap space.

Three years later, I was just as confident that Seattle would trade Metcalf, long before he had requested a trade (my first trade predictions were at least a year prior to his request) because now the picks and cap space did exceed the value of an extension.

Seahawks already made arrangements

As an extension-eligible player, Murphy will be 24 going on 25, entering the prime years of his career, and preparing to take the torch from Leonard Williams as Seattle’s leader on the defensive line. Schneider isn’t going to wake up in a cold sweat in January and realize for the first time that the Seahawks need to pay Murphy soon.

These contractual puzzle pieces are arranged YEARS ahead of time. It’s already been planned. Unless Murphy absolutely refuses to play ball, the contract will be done and it will be sizable.

Roughly $30-$35 million per season, depending on how his 2026 season goes.

For now, Jalen Carter’s contract is an outlier at $38 million, and not necessarily one that agents expect to be topped by next year. It could happen, especially if someone like Murphy challenges for Defensive Player of the Year, but still an outlier.

Even then, Murphy’s contract contains a rookie season in 2027 and a fifth-year option in 2028, meaning that his first really expensive year would likely not drop until 2029. The Seahawks have just a handful of players even signed for 2029 (JSN, Cross, Hall) so the money has to go somewhere and Murphy is one of the most reasonable places for it to land.

I actually think the biggest red flags with the rising cost of players is far more existential than it is financial. At what point is an income so ludicrous that it changes a person’s soul and have we already crossed the tipping point?

But as far as whether the Seahawks can afford or should afford someone like Byron Murphy as a 25-year-old, the answer is always yes and it’s certainly NOTHING to worry about. You’ve got bills to pay!

Danny Walter: Why were the Seahawks not featured on this past weekend’s Back Together Weekend program? Did I miss them? Is it because they’re on Hard Knocks?

I’ve never heard of this before. What is it?

Dave Stamey: Begaw?

I guarantee it.

Seaside Joe 2714