Could Seahawks go entire year without cutting any veterans?

Seahawks have $180 million more to spend than the team with the most dead money and could afford to bring back every key veteran

Last year, salary cap savvy fans looking ahead to 2026 may have assumed that the Seattle Seahawks had at least a trio of important players staring down the barrel of retirement or becoming a cap casualty. DeMarcus Lawrence, Uchenna Nwosu, and Cooper Kupp needed to survive a cocktail of roadblocks that could end their Seahawks careers, or any of them could have simply chosen to retire.

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.