What I've learned about the Seahawks this offseason

From welcoming new coaches to saying goodbye to old faces, the Seahawks proved that they're not afraid of change or consistency...or the Rams

The Seattle Seahawks ended last season as Super Bowl champions, but like every other team they had to start the offseason as just one of 32 franchises trying to win the next one. Would the Seahawks attempt to recreate what they just accomplished by repeating every move, or would they zig in a league full of teams that want to copy their zag?

The answer: A bit of both.

I thought I knew a lot about the Seahawks when the offseason started. In the nearly-five months since the season ended, I’ve learned a lot more.

They aren’t nostalgic for the Pete era

This isn’t just about taking pictures off of the wall. John Schneider knows that not every message has to be sent proactively. Sometimes the loudest messages are sent in silence.

Such as letting five players from the 2022 draft class leave in free agency without an offer.

And I’ll say the same thing now that I said back then:

“You can’t lose what you gave away”

You think I drop off a box at the Goodwill and then my wife asks me where that stuff went and I tell her, “Oh, I lost it”? Only if I gave away her good jewelry maybe.

All due respect to the players who signed elsewhere, they just weren’t a match for the Seahawks under Mike Macdonald. I don’t doubt that they might have been a match for Pete Carroll, had he stuck around. A four-year, $60 million contract for Kenneth Walker if Pete had been in charge?

I could see it.

But it’s sort of like if you go to an Airbnb and there’s already some groceries there that someone else left behind. You might eat the food because it’s there and it’s still fresh, but you’re not going to go buy the same groceries that were left behind when you go to the store later. You’re going to get what you like to eat.

Schneider locked up the two pieces of the 2022 draft class that Seattle couldn’t afford to risk replacing, Charles Cross and Abe Lucas, and they’ve already extended Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba as the first player locked down from the 2023 class, followed by Derick Hall.

The Seahawks also affirmed their commitment to some young players who weren’t drafted but were added during Pete’s tenure, including:

• Jake Bobo

• Brady Russell

• Drake Thomas

They were undrafted free agents, or in Drake’s case a waiver claim after he went undrafted, who the Seahawks retained.

But of the higher-profile and more expensive acquisitions through the draft, Seattle has walked away far more often than they’ve made promises: Jordyn Brooks, Darrell Taylor, Damien Lewis, Colby Parkinson, and DeeJay Dallas in 2024, then they traded DK Metcalf in 2025.

As the Seahawks weigh their options and question the level of their commitment to Devon Witherspoon over extension talks, far more players on the roster were acquired after Pete, not with Pete.

If that seems like the obvious thing to do, I’m not so sure that all teams would follow the same plan. It’s not as though the Seahawks were a bad team when Pete was fired, having posted just one losing season in the previous 12 years. A lot of franchises would assume that the coach needed changing, not the roster. In fact, that was the tenor of reactions to Pete’s firing:

“The philosophy failed, not the players.”

Seattle got a Super Bowl win with some of those players, that’s true. It’s also true that the Seahawks believe they can win more Super Bowls without them.

That’s something we did not know in February, but found out as early as March.

Seaside Joe stats:

This newsletter started on March 4, 2019 and has gone out at least once every day since then. What does that look like in numbers?

• 2,673 days

• 382 weeks

• The first newsletter was sent 64,152 hours, or 3,849,120 minutes, ago

• Since moving to Substack on March 1, 2022, there have been 2,224 newsletters in 1,580 days (1.4 per day)

• A child born on the day this newsletter started would now be 7 years old and going into the second grade

• A teenager who graduated from high school in 2019 could be wrapping up medical school and preparing for a residency

• 2,530 of those 2,673 days did not have a Seahawks game

This is the 382nd consecutive Sunday that I’ve sent Seaside Joe and over 95% of those Sundays didn’t have a Seahawks game. I think about that sometimes when I’m writing a Seahawks newsletter on a random Sunday in the offseason, a month before training camp and two months after the draft.

Everyone tells me that it’s okay to take a break. I’ve just never felt inclined to, no matter what has happened offline in the last 7.5 years. Getting married, getting sick, having a full-time job, going on vacations, and so much else.

Under most circumstances that can happen to a person, I will continue to post about your favorite football team 1.4 times per day. I’m not asking for a pat on the back, but if you think it’s worth $5 per month or $55 per year, with a guarantee that I’ll continue to post, consider a paid membership:

Now back to what I’ve learned about the Seahawks in 2026 so far:

They put the fear of God into the Rams

It’s funny because all of last season, people said “The Rams have the best team.” And then even after L.A. lost the division to Seattle, they still said “The Rams have the best team.” And then the Seahawks beat the Rams and won the Super Bowl, and they still said “The Rams have the best team.”

If that’s true, then why was it the Rams who traded two first-round picks and Jared Verse to get Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie? If Seattle’s team has been worse than L.A.’s, shouldn’t it have been the Seahawks making those trades?