Tournament of THE Champions: Who is the most important Seahawks player?

VOTE NOW: Which players do you think are MOST VITAL to Seattle's success next season?

More than just having a great starting lineup, the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl last season because of college and pro scouting that helped John Schneider find impressive depth, Mike Macdonald’s staff put players in the right roles, and the team wasn’t a house of cards dependent on a single player.

The Seahawks didn’t win the Super Bowl without Sam Darnold, but compared to how hard the Denver Broncos collapsed without Bo Nix in the AFC Championship … they probably could have.

Is Darnold the most important player on the Seahawks? Or is it Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba? Or Leonard Williams, the defensive player with the best case for the Hall of Fame so far? Or maybe it’s not the best player—maybe it’s the starter who has the biggest fall-off between him and his understudy.

Why don’t we just put it to a vote?

Better yet—Let’s put it to a tournament!

Tournament of THE Champions: Seahawks Edition serves as our Seaside Joe community opportunity to pound the table for the players on the roster who you think are the most important—the most vital—to Seattle’s success NEXT season.

This IS serious, but above all else … It’s not that serious. Vote, come back, vote again, and let’s just see how this tournament shakes out, shall we?

How It Works

There is a separate 12-player bracket for offense and defense, then they will be combined in round three. The top four seeds in each bracket will get a bye. For all the best players left off of the top-24, there will be a “Tournament of Sleepers” to determine the best of the rest, voting exclusive to Regular Joes ($5/month) and Super Joes ($10/month) subscribers.

A few notes before we get started:

• I struggled with the seeding, I’m not saying it’s perfect, but ultimately it should not matter because cream always rises to the top

• You undoubtedly think I left someone off that I should not have left off; that’s what the “tournament of sleepers” is for!

• “Vital to success” is up for interpretation. Don’t get hung up on the phrasing or if there’s not a right answer—it’s an opinion, so by definition there IS no right answer!

I’m totally open for reasons why the seeding should be different, just put it in the comments:

Everyone subscribed to Seaside Joe, free or paid, is able to vote! So make sure you are subscribed and you can vote + won’t miss round two!

Here’s the first round of the Tournament of THE Champions:

Offense Seeding:

1-QB Sam Darnold (bye)

2-WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba (bye)

3-LT Charles Cross (bye)

4-RT Abe Lucas (bye)

5-TE A.J. Barner

6-LG Grey Zabel

7-WR Rashid Shaheed

8-C Jalen Sundell

9-WR Cooper Kupp

10-RB Jadarian Price

11-TE Elijah Arroyo

12-G Anthony Bradford

I went with four bye weeks because it gave me the most even numbers after deciding that I couldn’t cut either list down to just eight or ten players. This is especially true of defense, but the offense still has really important players who did not make this bracket, I know.

5 vs 12: A.J. Barner or Anthony Bradford

To play devil’s advocate, the depth at tight end is far more apparent than the depth at guard.

Share this tournament with other Seahawks fans that you know to get their opinions on the most vital players for next season:

6 vs 11: Grey Zabel or Elijah Arroyo

Although Arroyo only averaged about one catch per game as a rookie and has dealt with injuries, John Schneider practically valued him the same in the draft as Nick Emmanwori. Arroyo is perhaps just one injury away from being Sam Darnold’s number two or three target.

7 vs 10: Rashid Shaheed or Jadarian Price?

I would include Shaheed’s entire body of work in this vote, not just his contributions on offense. If all goes to plan, Price will get a lot more touches than Shaheed next season, but which of these two players has a more important presence? Seattle doesn’t have another speed threat opening up the field quite like Shaheed, and they don’t have another healthy running back as talented as Price.

8 vs 9: Jalen Sundell or Cooper Kupp?

Kupp’s production doesn’t paint a fair picture of his value. Offensive linemen don’t get credit for any production, but Sundell was called a “great” center by Mike Macdonald, emphasizing how good of a fit he is for Seattle’s offense.

Winners move to round two and will be matched up based on lowest seed vs highest seed.

Defense Seeding:

1-DE Leonard Williams (bye)

2-DT Byron Murphy II (bye)

3-OLB DeMarcus Lawrence (bye)

4-CB Devon Witherspoon (bye)

5-DB Nick Emmanwori

6-LB Ernest Jones

7-S Julian Love

8-OLB Uchenna Nwosu

9-CB Josh Jobe

10-LB Drake Thomas

11-OLB Derick Hall

12-DT Jarran Reed

Leaving any player off is extraordinarily difficult and on defense that was especially true. Ty Okada, Bud Clark, and Julian Neal are probably going to play a lot. Rylie Mills, as well. Vote in the Tournament of Sleepers after this if you think they should get a second chance.

5 vs 12: Nick Emmanwori or Jarran Reed?

Emmanwori could have legitimately been ranked as high as 2. Maybe 1. He seemed to get better as the season went on, especially in coverage. Difficult decisions were made.

6 vs 11: Ernest Jones or Derick Hall?

Jones was another one where I wouldn’t have felt bad if he got a bye week. Hall’s case as potentially Seattle’s breakout pass rusher in 2026—which could make him one of the most important players on the defense—is not to be ignored.

Which defensive player deserved a bye week?

7 vs 10: Julian Love or Drake Thomas?

Love missed half of last season and the Seahawks were able to survive. He returned in time to get his first career playoff interception. Thomas was considerably better than Tyrice Knight last season; how much has Knight improved since then?

8 vs 9: Uchenna Nwosu or Josh Jobe?

Getting Jobe to return for only $8 million per season was perhaps John Schneider’s most underrated move of the offseason. Nwosu could go from cut candidate to extension candidate if he doesn’t have any injury setbacks.

The 4 winners from Offense and Defense will face off against the top-4 seeds from each bracket next time. If there are any ties, we will go to a run-off.

Get others involved: Share Seaside Joe with Seahawks fans!

Tournament of Sleepers!

There was no easy place to make a cut-off without just opening up the entire tournament to everybody on the 90-man roster. I’ll break it down by four groups of five categories. The four winners will have a chance to break into the main bracket.

Tournament of Sleepers voting is a perk for paid subscribers:

2025 rookies in year 2

Really fun group there! And I know there were still good players left off of it, like Mason Richman, Amari Kight, Nick Kallerup, Connor O’Toole, and recent Seaside Joe subscriber Jalan Gaines.

Special Teamers

Nehemiah Pritchett (third-most snaps), D’Anthony Bell (fourth-most), Chazz Surratt (fifth), Eric Saubert (seventh), Patrick O’Connell (ninth), and Irvin Charles didn’t make any of my polls. Should they have?

Key backups

I didn’t know where to slot Charbonnet, but there’s no expectation that he will return earlier than October and even then he could be limited. If all goes to plan, he will still be the backup or “part II” to Price. Morris is more special teams than backup, but does still serve as probably the “next man up” behind Leonard Williams.

And then there were 5 …

This is how good Seattle’s defense is … Four of these players could end up being starters, and then there’s Pili, maybe the only defensive tackle of his kind on this roster. Obviously I struggled knowing where to slot players like Okada and Clark, partly because it’s not clear who will end up starting. Both are likely to play a lot of snaps, as could Neal.

If someone on this list deserved to make it on the Defense bracket, tell me who and who you would take off of the top-12 to add him in:

The Seahawks roster is so deep that even these players didn’t get a mention: Emmanuel Henderson, Bryce Cabeldue, Cody White, Josh Jones, Bobby Hart, Olu Oluwatimi, Christian Haynes, Federico Maranges, Harrison Bryant, Kenny McIntosh, Velus Jones, Deven Eastern, Aidan Hubbard, Rodney Thomas, Andre Fuller, Michael Dansby, and still others more.

It may feel unfair. Would any of these players win the bracket? No. But all we can do from here is … vote.

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