6 Seahawks questions fans don't want to find out the answers to

How will Mike Macdonald's Seahawks respond to some of these worst-case scenarios?

What were the most concerning things to happen to the Seattle Seahawks en route to winning the Super Bowl last season?

They lost Zach Charbonnet to a knee injury during the playoffs. They couldn’t run the ball well for most of the regular season and never found a reliable number two receiver next to Jaxon Smith-Njigba despite signing Cooper Kupp and trading for Rashid Shaheed. Julian Love missed nine games, Devon Witherspoon missed five games, and Nick Emmanwori was injured on practically his first NFL tackle.

The Seahawks also started 0-1 with a loss at home to a division rival.

Bad things happen to every team, even the eventual Super Bowl winner. What bad things could happen to the Seahawks that we’re avoiding right now and how would Seattle respond? These are six worst-case scenarios and the solutions:

What if Devon Witherspoon holds out?

The possibility of a holdout by Witherspoon surprised fans who don’t read Seaside Joe, but a potential stand-off is something the newsletter has been talking about for months. The reason is obvious: He’s only making $5 million this year.

Although Witherspoon’s fifth-year option guarantees him $21 million in 2027, a security blanket most players don’t have while they’re negotiating, that’s little consolation compared to the $100 million that Trent McDuffie was guaranteed by the Rams this year. Coming off a Super Bowl win and nearly doing enough to win Super Bowl MVP, Witherspoon probably expects the Seahawks to make him the highest-paid corner in the NFL.

ESPN’s Brady Henderson said as much in a report on Friday:

But the other big-ticket item on their offseason to-do list has not progressed nearly as easily (as extending Jaxon Smith-Njigba). Seattle made an initial offer (to Witherspoon) several weeks ago, according to a league source, but the two sides do not yet appear to be close to an agreement.

Brady adds that it wouldn’t be unusual to get the deal done at the start of training camp, which isn’t for another two months.

There’s nothing to worry about yet if you’re hopeful that Seattle extends Witherspoon at literally any cost. However, some fans — and probably some teams — would argue that although Witherspoon is the best cornerback on this defense, they’d hesitate to pay him like one of the best in the NFL.

If Witherspoon was not on the field for the Seahawks for any reason, he has some interesting points to make about his value to Seattle right now.

Did you realize that the Seahawks had a combined 12 interceptions by their secondary last season and that seven of those were by players no longer on the team (4 by Coby Bryant, 2 by Derion Kendrick, 1 by Tariq Woolen)? The returning players in the secondary have one interception apiece.

Witherspoon isn’t just a great player, he’s the best cornerback on the Seahawks by a mile.

On the other hand, Seattle has to weigh the five games he missed due to injury in 2025 and the three games he missed in 2023. They also have to consider that although Witherspoon’s value goes well beyond turnovers, he only has two interceptions in three seasons.

And there were times when certain teams weren’t shy about directly attacking Witherspoon, including the Rams, which isn’t usually the case with elite corners. Even if all these counterpoints get overridden by everything that Witherspoon is good at, they still must be considered before a contract is signed.

Will the two sides be able to meet in the middle?

To be “far apart” in negotiations, even on the first offer, is a bit curious. What does “not close” mean? Did the Seahawks low-ball him or is he testing the waters with a ludicrously high demand? What if John Schneider is offering $30 million per season (top of the market) and he’s demanding $40 million?

What if Devon Witherspoon holds out?

Answer: The Seahawks will call his bluff, and both sides lose

We’ve seen this happen before and both times that it involved a defensive back, it ended badly:

Kam Chancellor held out in 2015 and sat out the first two games, both losses by the Seahawks. But Chancellor didn’t get the same treatment by the front office that Emmitt Smith got from the Cowboys in 1993. Dallas started 0-2 without Smith that season, so they caved to his contract demands and he returned. Kam simply returned, no new contract, and that entire season was funky for Seattle despite having just gone to back-to-back Super Bowls.

How much different would the season go if Kam, who was also injured late in the year, never missed a practice?

In 2018, Earl Thomas said “pay me or trade me” entering the final year of his contract. He returned days before the start of the season without a new contract and then infamously was carted off with a season-ending injury four games later while holding a middle finger to Pete Carroll.

This is not a road that either Witherspoon or the Seahawks want to go down.

However, we can’t just expect that nothing bad could happen simply because Seahawks fans don’t want it to happen. This is a potential stand-off over $100 million. We’ve seen people do far worse things for far less money. The entire plot of Fargo is built around an $80,000 ransom.

The most likely outcome is that the Seahawks sign Witherspoon to an extension right before training camp. Schneider has proven he’s pretty good at negotiating with agents and getting them to see deals as a win-win without Seattle over-paying. But if the Seahawks had to go without Witherspoon — which they might anyway if he gets injured again — Seattle’s already shown that they can do more than just survive.

What if Sam Darnold gets injured?

Backup quarterbacks are like neighbors who you’ve lived next to for years but rarely talk to. I consider my neighbors to be like family even if I don’t know that much about them. Drew Lock feels like a similar acquaintance.

2026 marks Lock’s fourth season with the Seahawks, which is more time than he spent on the Broncos. Here he is throwing a preseason touchdown to Jake Bobo last year:

Fun fact: Lock’s four-touchdown game against the Colts as a member of the Giants in 2024 is more than he has thrown during his entire Seattle career combined.

If Darnold were to go on short-term IR during the season, how detrimental would that be?

Answer: It depends when and for how long

There are times during the season when on first glance it seems like the Seahawks could win a couple games in a row with almost any decent quarterback. In fact, if forced to choose, earlier would be better than later.

The Seahawks 2026 schedule has the potential for a strong start with the Cardinals and Moons* in Weeks 2 and 3, and those are road games sandwiched by home games against the Patriots and Chargers. If Lock started the first four games, I think that might be … fine?

*every once in awhile I have to reiterate that I call the team from Washington the ‘Moons’, and not their stupid government name

And in the middle of the season, the Seahawks face the Cardinals and Raiders right before a Week 11 bye.

It’s dangerous to count wins before the season starts, so by no means should teams be underestimated. But even if we’re not speaking in specifics, there are probably stretches during the season when Seattle stands just as good of a chance of winning with Lock as with Darnold. Fans should also expect that if this were to happen, it could give Jalen Milroe additional opportunities to get his feet wet.

A prolonged absence by the starting quarterback is usually bad for any team, not just the defending Super Bowl champions. If the Seahawks had to go a month without Darnold, that’s probably something they would survive.