Seahawks post-preseason final thoughts
What are the last impressions of the Seahawks before the first game?
It’s finally that time of year when the Seattle Seahawks have (almost) nothing left to do in the offseason and nothing on the record to prove if the offseason was good or bad. It’s “last impressions” of a Seahawks team going into its first game against the 49ers next Sunday.
Measured optimism about Sam Darnold
Aside from some mixed reviews during OTAs, Darnold has done everything right in his first offseason as a Seahawk. Darnold looked sharp in his one preseason appearance and reportedly was also good against the Packers in joint practices.
So my reasons for not expecting too much from Darnold doesn’t have anything to do with the quarterback having a mediocre camp or anything like that. As I wrote two weeks ago, it’s more likely that Darnold will “seem worse” compared to last season with the Vikings than it is that he will get even better. That’s regression.
My expectation is that Darnold will be roughly the same quarterback he was last year and that the numbers could even out, as stats are wont to do.
A good 2025 season for Sam Darnold is anything that leaves the Seahawks so pleased with him that they would not consider seeking a replacement in 2026, either externally or internally.
(Seattle Sports: Still working on how to spell “development”)
My last impression of Darnold:
The Seahawks are in capable hands, and that’s good enough.
Big Deal Week 1 Availabilities
Even though the Seahawks never saw the return of Johnathan Hankins and put Kenny McIntosh on season-ending IR for the second time in three years, there are more big names showing up for Week 1 than sitting out:
Uchenna Nwosu is practicing!
Cooper Kupp has been good to go all offseason!
Week 1 starter, Kenneth Walker!
Tyrice Knight is apparently good to go!
Musical guest, Abe Lucas!
Apologies if you are a “jinx” person but I’ve never been that guy. It’s football, players will get injured, so I don’t attribute that to a curse. It’s a self-fulfilling curse, if anything.
Seattle enters their opening game against the 49ers with a relatively healthy roster, including some other scares or injury prone players like Charles Cross, Elijah Arroyo, DeMarcus Lawrence, and Tory Horton ready for the opener.
A healthy roster is something to celebrate, not avoid talking about. Just ask the 49ers. It’s especially fortunate given the importance of Week 1 being a divisional game.
My last impression of the injury report:
Camp could have gone a different route than this, so celebrate every day without an injury as a win.
DeMarcus Lawrence is the best pass rusher?
The Micah Parsons trade and contract extension draws another big red circle around which position NFL teams find to be the most valuable:
EDGE RUSHER.
Parsons, $47m
Watt, $40m
Garrett, $40m
Hunter, $35.6m
Crosby, $35.5m
Bosa, $34m
Hendrickson, $29m
Where do the best Seahawks edge rushers fit into this group? Financially speaking, Lawrence is the highest-paid Seattle edge rusher and he’s 32nd overall in the NFL, making less per year than rookie Abdul Carter and vets such as Dorance Armstrong and Dayo Odeyingbo.
We won’t know who the best on the field is until the Seahawks play some real games, but maybe the most we heard out of camp about Boye Mafe and Derick Hall is that Lawrence sees some similarities between himself and Hall. It’s good to hear stuff, but it only matters when we see stuff.
Leonard Williams (11 sacks) is the best pass rusher on the Seahawks that we know of, whereas Hall did a lot of cleanup work to get his 8 sacks last year. Mafe had 6 sacks, half of which came in Seattle’s first 3 games, always against QBs who were a little out of their element. Nwosu has 5.5 sacks in his most recent 20 games, dating back to the middle of 2022.
Of those 5.5, Nwosu had 2 sacks on John Wolford, 2 sacks on Daniel Jones, and 1 sack on Caleb Williams.
When I think “Where would Nwosu and Mafe fit into free agency next year?”, I don’t immediately think of either of them as top-25 pass rushers. When we talk about edge defenders getting paid, we talk about sacks and pressures and there’s no better example of that than Parsons, an underwhelming run defender to put it gently.
Lawrence wasn’t even targeted in free agency because of his ability to rush the passer — fittingly as the anti-Parsons, Lawrence is on the Seahawks to set the edge in run defense — but given the players competing for those snaps, he might actually be Seattle’s best pass rusher from the edge. That’s something that Seahawks fans should hope does not happen, and instead that Hall becomes one of these top-10 pass rushers (or Jared Ivey or Connor O’Toole) because then Seattle can check off a box for “needs” in 2026, 2027.
However, going into Week 1 the only thing that fans can say for sure is that a) the Seahawks have six edge defenders on the roster and b) we have no idea how many of them will be must-keeps at the end of the year. Maybe 4 or 5, maybe 1 or 2. There’s nobody who you would definitely extend right now if you could.
My last impression of the edge rushers:
A very important position still needs at least one guy to step up and prove that he’s very important.
What are your last impressions of the Seahawks and Week 1 expectations?
Get into the comments and let us know!
Seaside Joe 2371
I meant to write that Mafe had 6 sacks and that 3 of them happened in the first 3 games. Article mistakenly wrote 3 sacks as the total. Apologies!
Seahawks 31 49ers 13 in week one.
I wanted an edge in the 1st round this past year. However I’m all in on Zabel! I don’t second guess JS/MM/KK. I’m also an Edge rusher in round 1 next year prediction guy. Let’s hit it and save that $47 million that I’m sure was the reason we were out on Parsons. Good call JS. I’m hoping Lucas looks so healthy he’s a bye week signing. I just can’t imagine the pain I would feel trying to fill a hole at OT next season. We might actually be close to a decent O-line for the first time in years. We probably can get both Cross and Lucas for less than one Micah Parsons. Color me happy!