It’s difficult for even the best college football players to make a practice squad, let alone an active NFL roster, but the truth is that the uphill battle never ends. Being Cody White must be like playing Street Fighter with a glitch and somehow you’re just doing this for five straight years:
That’s why fans respect the hell out of practice squad players, even if most of them will never see the light of Sunday. Just because a player got the best news of his life yesterday or today, it doesn’t mean he won’t get “the bad news” tomorrow or next week.
The Seattle Seahawks have done a better job than most teams of developing their practice (or “ready”, as Mike Macdonald calls it) squad into valuable contributors on the 53-man roster. This is a belief commonly held by Seahawks fans, and largely based on two examples from 2025:
Josh Jobe and Ty Okada.
Okada was a member of Seattle’s practice squad for most of 2023 and 2024, until making the roster out of camp in 2025 and playing in 66% of the defensive snaps. Jobe spent his first two seasons with the Eagles and Philadelphia thought they’d be able to get him through waivers in 2024, getting him back onto the practice squad. The waiver wire bet was successful—no team claimed him—but Jobe chose to sign with the Seahawks practice squad over the team that cut him.
Probably good advice from his agent, I assume. Jobe was soon on Seattle’s roster, then starting, and just signed a three-year, $24 million contract.
In fact, 2024’s practice squad looks especially good in hindsight with these names:
CB Josh Jobe
S Ty Okada
RB George Holani
LB Patrick O’Connell
WR Cody White
Four of those five players are on Seattle’s current 53-man roster, which is more than the number of 2026 rookie draft picks. Holani could enter this season with a significant workload in Week 1 against the Patriots, and if he excels with those opportunities, continue to make a mark in the league for more years to come.
However, the 2024 practice squad may just be a special year. We don’t quite know yet. An early look back at 2025’s initial 17-man practice squad shows that only five remain with the Seahawks, just two on the 53-man roster, many are not on rosters today, and quite a few haven’t even practiced with a team since last season.
After 2026’s initial Seahawks practice squad was announced on Monday, I had to answer the question about 2025’s first edition of the practice squad:
“Where are they now?”
Seahawks 53-man roster
DT Pili, Brandon
Pili wasn’t on the practice squad for long, eventually appearing in 13 games for the Seahawks last season, plus two in the playoffs. He’s only around 10 snaps per game, but when you consider how much is expected of Seattle’s defensive tackles in a Macdonald defense, that’s not a minor accomplishment. The Seahawks wanted Pili back and didn’t risk putting him on the practice squad to start the year this time.
Macdonald recently said that Pili has taken himself to “another level” this year, so maybe he will get more snaps too:
“Pili’s done a great job,” Macdonald said Thursday. “It’s been a journey with him since he’s gotten here. But he’s really applied himself, and I think he’s taken his game to another level.
“It’s one of those things where we take a lot of pride in our players playing their best football when they’re with us, and I think he’s definitely an example of that. He’s showing that when you stick to the process, you trust it, and you have an honest way of going about your work, you can really excel, and that’s what he’s doing right now.”
As much fun as it is to get to know Uso Seumalo, I can’t help but wonder if it would have been better to get to know Pili, a Seahawk that I think most fans couldn’t pick out of a lineup. Especially if Macdonald is that sure of his progress in 2026.
LB O’Connell, Patrick
O’Connell spent the first half of the year on PS, then became one of Jay Harbaugh’s most consistent players on special teams in the second half. There was only one game in which he was asked to play a significant role on defense (Titans game, 9 tackles and a sack) but it’s something that Macdonald believes he can do adequately if called on.
O’Connell has been a playmaker in practice and given an opportunity has proven to be a playmaker in rare instances when he’s asked to go into a game.
On the Seahawks Practice Squad
WR White III, Ricky
The go-to comparison for anyone in this role would be seventh-rounder David Moore, if we’re being optimistic. Moore spent basically his entire rookie season on the practice squad, then made Seattle’s roster in year two and had 445 yards with five touchdowns. White couldn’t be as close to contributing because he didn’t make the roster, but the Seahawks are able to keep him on the practice squad and he may even be a Week 1 elevation against the Patriots given Seattle’s current injury situation at both receiver and returner.