Seattle enters 2026 as the defending champion. In Sam Darnold's first season as the starter and Mike Macdonald's second as head coach, the Seahawks went 14-3, won the NFC West, took the NFC's No. 1 seed, and won Super Bowl LX over New England. They beat the Rams twice along the way, in a Week 16 overtime game and again in the NFC Championship. The defense finished first in scoring.
The relevant fact for the year ahead is the gap between that record and the roster that actually returns. Oddsmakers have installed the Los Angeles Rams, not Seattle, as the division and conference favorites. The reason is free-agency attrition: a champion built partly on cost-controlled depth had several of those contributors priced out at once.
Roster changes
The departures were real but concentrated in rotational roles rather than the spine of the team.
Out: running back Kenneth Walker III (to Kansas City), safety Coby Bryant (Chicago), edge rusher Boye Mafe (Cincinnati, three years, $60M), cornerback Riq Woolen (Philadelphia, one year), and special-teamer Dareke Young (Las Vegas, following the departing offensive coordinator).
In and re-signed: edge rusher Dante Fowler Jr. on a one-year deal worth at most about $5M — replacing Mafe at a fraction of the cost, with the obvious caveat that Fowler turns 32 before the season; receiver/returner Rashid Shaheed re-signed (three years, $51M); cornerback Josh Jobe re-signed (three years, $24M) and now slides into a full-time role opposite Devon Witherspoon; linebacker Drake Thomas extended; and ex-Packers running back Emanuel Wilson added.
The draft addressed the holes directly. Seattle entered with four picks, moved around the board, and came away with eight players: running back Jadarian Price (Notre Dame) at No. 32, safety Bud Clark (TCU) at No. 64, cornerback Julian Neal (Arkansas) at No. 99, guard Beau Stephens (Iowa) in the fifth round, and receiver/returner Emmanuel Henderson Jr. (Kansas) at No. 199, plus additional secondary and defensive-line depth. The themes were clear: replace Walker, add length in the secondary, and reinforce the interior offensive line.
The net effect is that the defense lost three contributors but kept its core and its scheme, while the backfield went from a strength to an open question. The plan at running back is a rookie first-rounder plus a journeyman, which is a meaningful step down in proven production.
Coaching changes
The most consequential change is at offensive coordinator. Klint Kubiak left to become the Raiders' head coach after the offense finished top-three in scoring. Seattle, hiring late in the cycle, promoted continuity over reinvention: Brian Fleury, a Kyle Shanahan disciple who spent seven seasons in San Francisco, takes over with the stated goal of maintaining Kubiak's system rather than installing a new one. That makes Darnold's seventh offensive coordinator in six seasons — but with minimal scheme turnover, which is the entire point of the hire. It is also Macdonald's third coordinator in three years (Ryan Grubb to Kubiak to Fleury).
Other staff moves brought in coaches from Macdonald's Baltimore tenure: inside linebackers coach Zach Orr, senior offensive assistant and running backs coach Thomas Hammock, and pass-game strategist Daniel Stern. Tyson Prince was promoted to quarterbacks coach after Andrew Janocko followed Kubiak to Las Vegas.
The stabilizing factor is that Macdonald runs the defense himself, and the defense is the team's identity. Coordinator churn matters less on a defense-led roster than it would on one built around its offense.
Injuries
The headline is Zach Charbonnet, who suffered a knee injury in the playoffs and has been rehabbing through the offseason. His availability for Week 1 is the open question, and it compounds the loss of Walker — the two issues together are why running back is the roster's softest spot.
Beyond that, the more accurate framing than an injury list is age and attrition on the edge. DeMarcus Lawrence (33), Leonard Williams (31), and Fowler (31) give Seattle veteran production but carry durability risk across a 17-game season plus another deep playoff run. None is hurt; all are at the point where a front office plans for decline.
Contracts
The defining deal of the offseason was Jaxon Smith-Njigba's extension: four years, $168.6M, about $42.15M per year in new money and roughly $120M guaranteed, making him the highest-paid receiver in league history. It followed a 2025 season in which he won Offensive Player of the Year and first-team All-Pro honors and led the NFL with 1,793 receiving yards, 119 catches, and 10 touchdowns — the eighth-most receiving yards in a single season in league history. Left tackle Charles Cross was extended in January (four years, $104.4M).
Darnold, notably, was not extended. Schneider confirmed he is playing on the three-year deal he signed in 2025, which is the value contract that makes the rest of the structure work. Witherspoon is next in line: his fifth-year option is exercised, and a top-of-market cornerback deal is the obvious upcoming expense.
The structural tension is visible in the receiver room. Seattle is a run-leaning offense carrying heavy investment at wideout — Smith-Njigba's record deal, Cooper Kupp at $13.5M, and Shaheed's $51M contract. Combined with the 2022 draft class reaching free agency in a single wave, that is precisely why contributors are leaving. The team holds roughly $50M in cap space, most of it already committed.
2025 versus 2013
The parallels to the franchise's first championship team are direct:
- Defense-led titles. Both fielded the league's No. 1 scoring defense and won on that identity.
- A blowout of an AFC team built around a celebrated quarterback. In 2013, Seattle held Peyton Manning's record-setting Broncos offense to eight points in a 43-8 win. In Super Bowl LX, it sacked Drake Maye six times and held New England scoreless through three quarters.
- A quarterback on a value contract. Russell Wilson was a second-year passer on his rookie deal; Darnold is a reclamation on a three-year deal. In both cases, an elite defense plus a cost-controlled quarterback is the cap structure that funds the rest of the roster.
- A draft-built core. The Legion of Boom came out of the 2010–2012 drafts; the current core runs through the 2022 class plus Smith-Njigba and Witherspoon from 2023.
The differences are where the practical caution sits:
- Age and timing. The 2013 team was young and entering its window. It held its core together and returned to the Super Bowl the next year. The 2026 team is older at key positions and is already shedding contributors immediately — a function of the modern cap and a draft class hitting free agency all at once.
- The defenses are not equivalent. The 2013 unit is on the short list of the best ever: in one season it led the NFL in points allowed (14.4 per game), total defense, passing defense, and takeaways (39, the most in the league). The 2025 defense was elite and arguably peaked in the playoffs, but leading the league in every category at once is a higher bar than it cleared.
- Offensive construction. The 2013 offense was a Marshawn Lynch-powered run game with an efficient Wilson and the No. 8 scoring unit. The 2025 offense was more pass-driven, with Smith-Njigba leading the league in receiving, even though it leaned on the run during the title run. Same defensive blueprint, different offense.
What's realistic for 2026
The case for sustained contention is concrete rather than sentimental. The expensive young core is signed: Smith-Njigba and Cross long-term, Witherspoon next, Darnold cost-controlled. The defensive scheme and the coach who runs it are in place. The players who left were rotational, not foundational. And Schneider has a track record of replacing departures with veteran value — Lawrence, now Fowler — and of hitting in the draft. A team can lose a Super Bowl MVP running back and three defensive role players and still field a playoff-caliber roster, which is roughly where Seattle stands.
The constraints are equally concrete. Running back is genuinely thin until Charbonnet's health and a rookie's readiness are settled. The edge rotation is productive but old. The repeat is historically rare, the Rams are loaded, and the cap will force more hard choices as Witherspoon's deal and Smith-Njigba's escalating cap hits arrive. The 2013 comparison cuts both ways here: that team also looked built to run it back, returned to the Super Bowl — and lost it on the final snap. Keeping a core together is necessary for sustained contention; it has never been sufficient.
The grounded read is that Seattle enters 2026 as a legitimate contender with a stable defensive identity and a locked-in offensive centerpiece, but with a thinner margin than a 14-3 record implies and a roster that is defending rather than ascending. The window is open because the right players are signed and the system works — not because a repeat is owed.