Seahawks sign 5 more players, including 2 outside free agents

Seattle gets a running back and secures Brady Russell for two more years

On Thursday morning, the Seattle Seahawks roster stood at 67 players and on Thursday night that number is up to 71: That’s +5 and -1.

The Seahawks finally added two outside free agents by signing running back Emanuel Wilson and safety Rodney Thomas II. If you’re an avid Seahawks news tracker then there’s little I could write about these players that you wouldn’t have already found out hours ago.

Schneider confirmed the Wilsoon signing on Seattle Sports but added some words about George Holani, implying that Wilson is on a similar level as the Seahawks former third-string back. Schneider added that while he couldn’t give a timeline on Zach Charbonnet, the team is happy with how he’s been doing since surgery on his torn ACL.

It is still well within the realm of possibilities that Seattle will use its first pick on a running back, whether that means at pick 32 or after moving up or moving down. None of these three players, or Kenny McIntosh, should give any Seahawks fan confidence that the offense has a starting running back in Week 1.

Teams are wrong about players all the time, that’s true, but the Packers could have kept Wilson for this amount of money and they chose to part ways.

The bigger picture here is not Wilson, it’s the level of ease that the Seahawks feel about having a need at running back. If Seattle felt that Kenneth Walker or Travis Etienne would be the difference in repeating as Super Bowl champions then they would have spent the money to reinforce the position. They had the cap space for it.

Whether Schneider and Mike Macdonald are proven right or wrong about this “running backs don’t matter” opinion will be unveiled over the course of the season, but we don’t need any insiders to tell us what we already know:

The Seahawks were not convinced that the Super Bowl MVP was anything close to the team’s MVP.

On defense, the Seahawks replied to Coby Bryant’s departure with the signings of two safeties on Thursday:

• D’Anthony Bell returns to the team on a one-year contract

• Rodney Thomas II is the new guy

Thomas, a seventh round pick in 2022, played 68 of a possible 68 games with the Indianapolis Colts over the past four seasons. However his status from a starter over the first two years to a backup over the past two years highlights how much his stock has dropped. That being said, Macdonald has been on a hot streak with developing unheralded safeties into ballhawks so we will find out if Thomas could be the next.

Bell is certain to reclaim his role as one of Seattle’s top special teamers, or at least get a shot to do that in training camp.

And then burying the lede:

I wrote that the Seahawks would probably bring back Brady Russell and that’s what they did on Thursday, re-signing their top special teamer to a two-year contract.

Seattle also re-signed defensive tackle Brandon Pili, one of their other remaining restricted free agents.

That only leaves three unsigned players from the previous roster: Cody White (RFA), Dareke Young, and Chazz Surratt.

At presumably low prices, it would make sense for the Seahawks to bring back at least two of these players, if not all three.

The only guy getting bad news on Thursday was cornerback Tyler Hall. Seattle released Hall after signing him to a futures contract last month. Hall could still return at a later date, as many Seahawks do.

Finally, the Seahawks announced their 2026 coaching staff, including new offensive coordinator Brian Fleury. Almost all of the coaching news was already announced, but Seattle did promote Tyson Prince to quarterbacks coach to replace the departed Andrew Janocko.

However, the Seahawks also added the “Quarterbacks coach” title to Jake Peetz role in addition to being the passing game coordinator. These were also announced in the press release:

Offensive line coach John Benton added the title senior offensive assistant, Josh Bynes was promoted to outside linebackers coach, with Chris Partridge, who held that title last season, moving to defensive run game coordinator. With Orr taking over as inside linebackers coach, Kirk Olivadotti moves to a new role of senior defensive assistant, while on the other side of the ball, Justin Outten goes from run game specialist and assistant offensive line coach to run game coordinator.

When someone gets a title like “QBs coach” it’s a pretty big deal, and for good reason. Quarterbacks coach can be on the pipeline to becoming an offensive coordinator and then a head coach.

That’s why many Seahawks fans got worried when Janocko followed Klint Kubiak to Las Vegas.

But I think it’s important for fans to look at the big picture:

Yesterday’s Andrew Janocko is today’s Tyson Prince; tomorrow’s Tyson Prince is yesterday’s Andrew Janocko.

Names are just details. We don’t know yet if Janocko was a big loss or if Prince is a coach to watch. Simply holding the title is not enough evidence of future success; there have been hundreds of NFL quarterbacks coaches who didn’t prove to be offensive geniuses.

We do know that for right now the team is going to let that job be co-managed by Peetz and Prince. Which at the very least, and most importantly, is alliterative.