Seahawks weaknesses that the draft won't address

3 areas of the Super Bowl champs that will need internal improvements

In reading through the last couple late entries to Sunday’s question and answer column, this one provoked thought:

Gary Souja: For the 2026 Seahawks, assuming no help from the 2026 draft, what is the one weakest spot you see on offense; and on defense? Where does the fix come on either or both in your opinion?

First we must address the limitations that come with any draft class and present teams needs, which is that most rookies aren’t that instrumental in success.

When we talk about Seattle’s “awesome” 2025 draft, we’re mostly talking about Grey Zabel, Nick Emmanwori, half of a season (and 13 catches) by Tory Horton, Robbie Ouzts kinda-sorta having a role on offense, and a Super Bowl sack by Rylie Mills. Apparently Elijah Arroyo had 15 catches and I don’t remember any of them.

This isn’t meant to be a damning remark about the 2025 rookie class because it’s the opposite: That IS an awesome amount of rookie value. It’s inordinate.

And that came with picks 18, 35, 50, and 92 in the first 100.

Now not only do the Seahawks have picks 32, 64, and 96 until they get to pick 188, John Schneider is sending up a major green light through the media that Seattle wants to trade down. If the Seahawks trade down far enough, they could end up with their first pick in 2026 being later than their third pick in 2025.

That wouldn’t surprise us at all, would it?

If you cut of Seattle’s picks before 50 last year, there’s no Zabel or Emmanwori and then it’s not much of a rookie class. It’s solely moves for 2026 and beyond.

Therefore, Seahawks fans should resist the temptation to expect rookies to fix the weaknesses similar to plugging Zabel and Emmanwori into left guard and nickel respectively. If a rookie helps patch up one weakness, just ONE, that would be enough to call it a success.

Can they find that player at 32? Or 35? Or 50? Or 188?

Sure, anything is possible. The odds still favor Seattle having weaknesses next season and that the draft won’t be able to quell them entirely.

A New Offensive Coordinator

In a way, Brian Fleury is already my favorite Seahawks offensive coordinator of all-time (because I want him to be), but is still an unknown.

Fleury could end up being a better offensive coordinator than Klint Kubiak. In fact, Kubiak’s star has never been higher than it is right now.

Kubiak had never held the same coordinator job two years in a row and the Saints were more than happy to throw him out with Dennis Allen in 2024. Prior to Seattle’s run in the second half of the season, Kubiak was not atop most lists for head coaching vacancies.

Although Kubiak had won the Raiders job before the Super Bowl, I’d argue that the Super Bowl is still the peak of his career reputation and it isn’t particularly close. So can Fleury, a first-time playcaller, be better than Kubiak was last season?

I think the bar for that is lower than it seems if we’re basing it solely off of how Kubiak left Seattle, which was as good as any coach could dream of, but the Seahawks can only bet on Fleury. And as any degenerate could tell you, winning the jackpot doesn’t make someone a better gambler.

The Eagles had to replace Kellen Moore after winning the Super Bowl and his replacement only lasted one season. The Rams had to replace Kevin O’Connell after winning the Super Bowl in 2021 and the replacement only lasted one season.

Calling plays is only a fraction of what makes someone a good offensive coordinator.

How Fleury delegates responsibilities to the assistant coaches, how much the players like his coaching style, and how good he is at understanding the strengths and weaknesses of Sam Darnold will be just as important as Xs and Os, not to mention the most important relationship of all:

Does Fluery work well with Mike Macdonald and will he know how to marry Seattle’s entrenched defensive philosophies with his offensive philosophies?

So because he’s not returning from last season, there’s always the chance that the hiring will go down more on the Ryan Grubb side than the Kubiak side.

The good news—or at least the part of changing offensive coordinators that should not cause panic—is that these days the job is fleeting for every team in the NFL:

• 21 teams hired their current offensive coordinator in 2026 (some of these OCs are not play callers though)

• 6 more were hired in 2025

• The longest-tenured OCs who calls plays and aren’t the head coach are Josh McDaniels and Nick Caley, both of whom were hired in 2025

The difference between the Seahawks and other teams is that some of them have a long-tenured head coach who is the OC (Rams, 49ers) but every franchise goes through constant turnover at some coordinator roles and what they don’t have is a defensive coordinator as good as Mike Macdonald.

But the draft can’t help Fleury gain experience or prove himself. We don’t even know if Seattle will draft a single offensive player after having already taken nine of them in 2025’s class. Maybe Fleury won’t be a weakness at all.

He will, however, come with a learning curve.

Receiver Depth: I have concerns

Starting running back(s) could be found at any time of year, but the Seahawks have made their bed at receiver with questionable reliability.

The Seahawks can’t draft a receiver this year without the move implying that Cooper Kupp got a $9 million retirement gift from John Schneider. Where does he fit?

• WR1: Jaxon Smith-Njigba

• WR2: Rashid Shaheed

• WR3: Cooper Kupp

• WR4: Tory Horton

• WR5: Jake Bobo

These five are locked in and the only possible exceptions are Kupp (if Seattle opts to release him despite a $9 million guarantee) and Horton (if he can’t return to form after another injury).

If we hypothesize using pick 64 on a receiver, that player is also going to be locked into the 2026 roster. It’s a move that would be both logical and confusing based on the moves that the Seahawks have made this year.

It would be like if you prepaid for four years of tuition at the first college that sent you an acceptance letter but then Harvard (or insert dream school) called and said you got in there and you couldn’t get your money back. Are you willing to eat that tuition money to get a better education or do you just try to make it work at Arizona State?

The 5 receivers* that the Seahawks are going into 2026 with are good, if not great, but … Kupp is 33 and he’s on a trajectory towards career extinction; Horton’s injuries have cost him to miss over half of his games in the last two years; Shaheed in an expanded role is a gamble and he turns 28 before the season.

*plus Cody White, Ricky White

Past comparisons for receivers that Seattle gambled on, either as free agents or trade acquisitions, include Deion Branch, Nate Burleson, and Sidney Rice.

Every Seahawks fan is looking forward to Shaheed’s Week 1 debut after getting an entire offseason with Sam Darnold and the coaching staff, not being thrown into the mix in November with no rehearsal. I wrote about expectations for Shaheed last week.

But Seattle’s depth behind Smith-Njigba is nevertheless fraught with question marks and probably can’t be addressed in the draft this week.

This is why I’m looking towards A.J. Barner as a potential second option for Darnold, who is not a receiver and therefore that position could be called a “weakness” in 2026.

“That guy” pass rusher probably isn’t there yet

Drafting an edge rusher at 32-96 who would have a year 1 impact would be as lucky as drafting Russell Wilson in 2012.

Teams could not run against the Seahawks last year, a fact that I’m betting will get lost in history when fans debate the best defenses of the 21st century. Seattle’s “expected points added” by the run defense alone was almost double the total of the second-best team and more than double the total of the third-place team:

The two other defenses cited in contention as the best defense of 2025, the Broncos and the Texans, were only 10th and 11th.

If pass defense is arm candy, then run defense is the one you marry.

The Seahawks allowed 150 rushing yards once all year, which was against Washington and included 51 yards by Jayden Daniels.

To this point we could argue that run defense is in danger of falling under “Regression” simply because Seattle was so good at it. But it probably won’t be a “Weakness”.

However, getting to the quarterback could fall from “Good” to “Average”, if not “Below-Average” because a) The Seahawks didn’t make any notable additions and b) Rookie pass rushers rarely contribute, but they especially don’t when those players aren’t blue-chip prospects.

• The Seahawks had 47 sacks (tied 7th with two other teams)

• No Seahawk had more than 7 sacks

• DeMarcus Lawrence and Uchenna Nwosu were the only edge rushers with more than 2 sacks

The Broncos had a league-leading 68 sacks, led by Nik Bonitto with 14, who I wrote about last month as the only standout day two edge rusher of the past five drafts. Denver’s number two edge rusher Jonathan Cooper had eight sacks last year—more than any Seattle player—and has averaged nine sacks over the past three seasons.

The Texans had the same number of sacks as the Seahawks (47) but with 15 by Danielle Hunter and 12 by Will Anderson, Houston’s ability to generate as many or more sacks by the defense next season is likelier than Seattle’s odds.

It’s not that having two superstar edge rushers is better than having a defense that spreads the love around like Macdonald’s. But that doesn’t mean the Seahawks don’t want a superstar edge rusher.

Some people would rather eat two Oreo per night and call that their cheat meal, other people would rather be good for six days and eat banana split every Sunday. It’s just a preference.

We’ve heard Seattle tried to trade for Maxx Crosby last year and we assume Schneider is considering using Seattle’s first pick on an edge rusher. It’s not that the desire isn’t there…the absence of a sure thing is what’s apparent.

—Lawrence has the Kupp problem, he’s 34.

—Nwosu isn’t a “pass rusher” as much as he is an edge setter.

—Derick Hall doubled his season sack total (2) in the Super Bowl.

An acceptable season by Hall would be six sacks. The bar wasn’t set high. He had eight sacks a couple of years ago but half of those came off of a technicality.

If the Seahawks end Thursday by drafting Keldric Faulk or Akheem Mesidor or any other edge rusher who is expected to help the pass rusher, that’s a sensible decision by the front office.

But unlike the chance that Seattle could go another four months without adding a running back and then trade for a starter at the last minute, it’s improbable that help at edge rusher is on the way. The Seahawks are going with who they have now and a rookie will probably need one, if not two or three years to become a consistent presence on the defense.

It took Bonitto three years.

So while we should expect the run defense and the pass defense to be two of Seattle’s strengths again (number one defense in yards per pass attempt allowed), there’s room to grow in terms of pass rushers and it’s not apparent that help is on the way in 2026.

Seaside Joe 2606