Seahawks are on a generational franchise run

Plus: Fernando Mendoza could be reason Klint Kubiak stays or goes

It’s been 44 days since the Seahawks beat the Rams on a Thursday to secure their spot as the team to beat in the NFC. If Sam Darnold doesn’t hit Eric Saubert for the two-point conversion, or anything else goes wrong in the last 15 minutes, Seattle’s entire season could change and then it’s not them going to the Super Bowl next Sunday.

Those 44 days have been such a whirlwind of confidence that I never took a moment to step outside of this run and tell myself and yourselves:

I’m so happy that the Seahawks are in the Super Bowl AND they’re actually really good!

(Fittingly the captains are a celebration of the Russell Wilson trade (a pick used on Devon Witherspoon+a guy named Russell) and beating every other team in the 2023 draft.)

Since beating the Rams 44 days ago, the Seahawks aren’t just undefeated (they were also 4-0 the month before beating L.A.), they’ve played with extreme confidence and that has snowballed into Seattle being better every week.

And you never want to have to face talented + confident in the Super Bowl.

In their last 4 games:

• Combined score: 112-46 (average: 37-15)

• 4-0 against 4 playoff teams (49ers, 49ers, Rams, Panthers)

• Has trailed for less than 2 minutes out of 240 combined minutes

• Has had a lead for almost 204 out of 240 minutes

• If we then include Week 16, 4-0 against just the Rams and 49ers, the only other two teams in the NFC that won 12 games

Not every team that makes the Super Bowl is a great team with a lot of confidence and case in point the attitude I’ve seen about the Patriots is similar to the attitude we saw from the 49ers in the divisional round: “Oh wow. We’re here?!?!”

New England does enter the Super Bowl on a 6-game winning streak and also having won 16 of their last 17 games, which is absolutely insane. But prior to the playoffs, the last team that the Patriots beat with a winning record was the Bills in Week … 5! It was October 5th and that was New England’s only win over a team that finished with a record over .500.

Then their playoff run has been somewhat miraculous, the details of which are probably boring to everyone now.

Patriots fans could also tell you that Tom Brady’s 2001 run to his first Super Bowl, in which New England upset the heavily-favored Rams, was also miraculous. The Seahawks are not guaranteed to win — they’re not even guaranteed to play well — but IF they continue to play like they have since their first win over the Rams in Week 16, they’re going to unleash a repeat of Super Bowl XLVIII.

That wouldn’t be a good game for anyone who doesn’t root for or bet on the Seahawks. But a happy moment for us, if we can slow down once in a while to appreciate that this could be the best Seahawks team of all-time if they win one more game.

What is the Seahawks defense all about?

People often ask me for good explanations of Mike Macdonald’s defense and I came across this video this week that I think will help those fans a lot. It’s not specifically about the Seahawks or Macdonald, which is what makes it the perfect tool.

This way you’re just getting the bones of what Macdonald wants to do and none of the meat.

Gary Patterson is the new defensive coordinator at USC. You might remember him as the head coach at TCU for 22 years. This Trojans fan brings in an expert to help explain Patterson’s 4-2-5 defense, which is in many ways the same defense you will see Seattle run in the Super Bowl. Check it out if that’s your thing:

This should help breakdown what makes Nick Emmanwori so valuable to the Seahawks defense.

Now to answer more Super Joes Q&A questions. If you want to be in on the Super Bowl week Q&A and get your questions/takes in, join Super Joes right now:

MTSeahawkFan: This team seems healthier this year. Do you have any insight on why this might be?

Sidenote, it’s interesting that at midseason there were questions about Seattle’s health to the exact opposite “Why are the Seahawks so injured?”.

For what it’s worth, the Seahawks promoted Ivan Lewis from head of strength and conditioning to “director of player performance and development” in 2025 and Danny Van Dijk is the head strength coach.

And I can’t confirm that the Seahawks moved a power station further away from the VMAC last year…but I also can’t confirm that they didn’t.

When the Seahawks opted to retain Lewis and most of his staff in 2024, there were some grumblings from fans who felt the strength and conditioning staff were to blame for injuries. But Seattle got good grades for the training staff on the NFLPA report card that year, except as it pertained to having enough trainers to give them individual attention.

The Seahawks made some training staff additions in 2025, perhaps as a response to that report card, so maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe those NFLPA grades have some use.

scottula: Not SB related, but I want to reiterate how much I want this team to stay together for another season -- and it looks like they might, the opportunity is there -- they could completely slay everyone

The main advantage to having a general manager and coaching staff that are better than what the majority of teams have is that you can have consistent success without bringing back all the same players.

The Seahawks were too focused on keeping players after the 2013-2014 Super Bowl run and it hurt them; The Rams were too focused on handing out raises to players like Aaron Donald and Cooper Kupp after they won the Super Bowl and it hurt them; The Eagles were too focused on keeping the band together after last season and they’re already talking about trading players like A.J. Brown.

I know what you’re saying. You’re saying that you want the Seahawks to be the most dominant team in the league next year, as we all do, and being able to have continuity is a logical avenue towards achieving that goal. It makes sense!

However, I hope that the Seahawks are solely focused on having the best team next season — without borrowing any money from their future — and not prioritizing having this exact roster back next season because this exact roster is probably less likely to be dominant than one with upgrades.

2026 unrestricted free agents

If anyone missed my post on how the Seahawks could look different in 2026, here it is, including retaing a couple of free agents who I think are important.

And I believe that’s exactly what they’ll do because if there’s anything clear about John Schneider’s resume since Pete Carroll was fired it’s that he’s not going to hang onto a player longer than he should (i.e. Geno, DK, Lockett).

Now all that being said: Yes, 100%, the Seahawks will look mostly the same and that’s without even having to do much because the majority of Seattle’s starters are under contract for at least two years.

The mistake that the Rams made in 2022 was that they handed out raises to Donald and Kupp, two stars around 30 years old, despite being under contract for multiple more seasons. L.A. should have put their foot in the ground and told them that if they weren’t happy, they could retire. The Rams went 5-12 in 2022 and never won another playoff game with Donald. They won one more playoff game with Kupp but now he’s going to the Super Bowl with Seattle.

For players of a certain age and price tag, 2026 will be the year to move on regardless of what happens in the Super Bowl.

IdahoFred: For us to lose how would the NE offense have to outplay our defense and how would their defense have to outplay our offense?

I’d be surprised if Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, going to his seventh career Super Bowl, doesn’t have a good plan for New England’s first drive. Maybe the second drive too. You’ve got two weeks to plan for Seattle’s defense in your seventh career Super Bowl as an offensive coordinator, I would certainly hope you have something tricky planned.

But that can also backfire because how are the Patriots going to successfully play their brand of football, with an offensive line that struggles to protect Drake Maye, against the number one defense, for 60 minutes?

Maye has 10 rushing attempts in two of three playoff games, which matches his season-high for rushing attempts. And he’s done it twice!

So in addition to setting a record for postseason sacks (5 in all three starts), Maye and McDaniels obviously feel as though he has to be a dual threat to give the Patriots any hope of scoring points. The Seaside Joe community has shared the hope to see Emmanwori work as a “spy” on Maye, which essentially just means having a line of scrimmage player whose sole job is keeping containment on the quarterback so that pass rushers can be more aggressive. For example:

zezinhom400: The variable that I worry about is Maye’s ability to scramble out of bad pocket situations (their OL is their Achilles heel) and pick up 5-7 yds on 1st or 2nd down. In theory if we’re only rushing 4, and if Emmanwori shadows him, we should be able to contain but keeping them out of 3rd and short is the whole key to this game IMHO

This video has an interesting technique called “the odd mirror defensive concept” that essentially baits the quarterback into running directly into the Spy:

Could we maybe see Macdonald employ something like this against Maye, knowing ahead of time that he’s going to be jumpy and skiddish?

We want to see the Seahawks stop the run (the Patriots have been running the ball great lately, but Byron Murphy, DeMarcus Lawrence, and Leonard Williams are the low-key MVPs of the Seahawks) and we actually want to see Drake Maye drop back 40-50 times in the Super Bowl. Going to be hard to see a Seahawks loss if Maye had to drop back 45 times.

On the flip side, the Patriots have great defensive stats. But unlike the Seahawks, they haven’t played anyone notable aside from Josh Allen and the Bills scored 55 points in two games. It’s really hard to judge New England’s defense given that they faced the easiest schedule in the NFL this year.

Eduardo: It looks like our Kubiak is being sought after Raiders and Cardinals. What are the chances he comes back next year? What can the Seahawks do salary wise or in any other aspect available to sweeten the pot? Arizona seems like a dumpster fire for a promising coach like Klint and I have my opinions about the Raiders ownership, but what are the chances Kubiak signs up for Round 2?

I’ll answer your second question first because it’s an easy thing to distinguish:

In theory there’s no amount of money that the Seahawks can pay Klint Kubiak to dissuade him from taking a head coaching job. What I mean by that is: If Kubiak is going to turn down a job only because he got a raise from his current team, he’s not a very smart coach.

The Seahawks could give Kubiak a raise (and it’s logical that if he returns, they will) but that should have no bearing on his decision to turn down a job, if he gets the opportunity to turn down a job—as most expect he will have at least one offer, if not two.

If he returns to Seattle, he either a) didn’t get a job or b) he turned down those jobs because he doesn’t like the teams. I can’t see how the Seahawks play any part in this process—he already knows what awaits him if he returns to the Seahawks in 2026—for Kubiak. It’s entirely up to Kubiak + the Raiders or Cardinals.

Seattle can only be helpless bystanders, even if at the same time they’re telling Kubiak how much they love him and want him back and that he does have another contract waiting for him if he does come back.

Let’s just say that hypothetically the Raiders offered Kubiak a five-year, $60 million contract. No amount of offensive coordinator money is going to compete with that. It’s simply, “Do you want to coach the Raiders right now or not?”

I wouldn’t.

For me, the reason I’d be skeptical of the Raiders job is that I’m not sold on Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman/national championship-winning quarterback from Indiana. (I hesitate to even get into this now because I’m not attempting to open up a debate today…I know some of you will think I’m the weird one for that opinion and that’s okay. Maybe I am! But my decision would hinge heavily on how much I like Mendoza and what LV plans to do with the number one pick.)

So if the Raiders are telling me in interviews that they’re going to draft Mendoza, I’d have to be really sold on him as a quarterback. If Kubiak is sold, there’s nothing that the Seahawks can do because when will you get a chance again to be paired with a number one overall QB who you really believe in:

That’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance for an offensive-minded head coach!

Conversely, if the Raiders are telling me that and I’m not sold on Mendoza, it’s a nightmare job to be walking into. They’re essentially telling you upfront that if Mendoza is a bust, it’s going to be your fault. In situations like this where the quarterback fails, coaches tend to get fired before quarterbacks. That’s when you get into the “Raiders fire Kubiak, looking for coach to fix Mendoza” headlines in two years.

Which means that this could boil down to how much Klint Kubiak even knows about Fernando Mendoza, which might not be a lot given that he’s been extremely busy coaching a team that could have the last pick in the draft, not the first, and therefore had no reason to study.

Ask Mike Macdonald how important it was to land in the right situation.

Macdonald took a job with a franchise that had a winning record in 11 of the previous 12 seasons and a GM with Super Bowl experience.

The Raiders have had two winning seasons in the last 23 years and though Tom Brady has a lot of Super Bowl experience, we have no idea how valuable his influence is as a minority owner with a lot of power; his first year on the job was a disaster.

It’s hard to compete with any offer to become a head coach when all you have to give is a coordinator position and more money that can’t come close to the financial rewards of a promotion. The only thing the Seahawks can do is be the Seahawks. If Kubiak is offered a job this week, it’s up to him: Do you want one of these jobs? If not, do you want to bet on yourself and hope to get a better job in 2027?

Seattle is helpless. I think that’s okay. No matter who the offensive coordinator is in any given year, the outcome we want (success) is always going to lead to the same result (head coach offers). Get used to it.

Seaside Joe 2525