Seattle Seahawks 2026 Season Preview

Macdonald's Quiet Ascent

A Super Bowl banner and a jump from 58% to 72% on the improving-trajectory scale make this an easy story to undersell. Mike Macdonald just finished year two by beating the 49ers, Rams and Patriots in succession, and he did it with an offense that scored efficiently, needing only 12.4 yards per point against a league median of 14.3. That defense is the harder trend to trust going forward, since it let opponents cover 16.6 yards per point, well above the 14.4 median, essentially bending without snapping all year. What Sam Darnold and Jaxon Smith-Njigba did masks how thin the margin was underneath the record, with the team's actual win rate running nearly ten points hotter than its yardage margin would predict. None of that changes what Macdonald has built in two years, a team that starts 2026 with a full trophy case and a defense anchored by Ernest Jones IV's playmaking at linebacker.

Darnold and JSN Made It Easy

Seattle's offense didn't need style points last season, it needed 12.4 yards for every point scored, well below the league median. That efficiency ran through Sam Darnold, who threw for 4,048 yards, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who led the league in receiving yards with 1,793. Both return in 2026, and Darnold projects as the starter again after a 25-touchdown season that outproduced his sack total behind an offensive line that allowed just 27. The rushing attack was middling at 123 yards per game, so the passing game carrying the offense was not an accident. Expect Darnold-to-Smith-Njigba to remain the engine, but a finishing rate this sharp is hard to repeat at the same level.

Sam Darnold's turnaround is why Seattle is the defending champion, not a footnote to it. He threw for 4,048 yards, fifth in the league, and kept the offense humming at 28.4 points per game even with a passing attack that ranked just 8th in yards per game. That gap between raw yardage and scoring is the story: Darnold and this staff found efficiency, not empty volume, and there's no reason to expect a regression with him back at $27.5 million and the clear starter. Jalen Milroe and Drew Lock offer almost nothing statistically behind him, but that barely matters when the top of the depth chart is this settled. Seattle isn't searching for answers at quarterback. It already has one.

Kenneth Walker III and his 1,027 yards are gone, and Zach Charbonnet, who opens the year unavailable, is the man behind that 730-yard, 12-touchdown season. That production gap is real, and Seattle answered it by using pick 32 overall on Jadarian Price, a first-round bet on a rookie with no professional numbers yet to judge. Emanuel Wilson arrives from Green Bay with 496 rushing yards already on his resume, giving Macdonald a proven option to lean on while Charbonnet is out. George Holani stays as depth after a limited 73-yard showing, and Brady Russell returns at fullback to anchor the same power run scheme. The bigger swing is stylistic: a passing-first offense that ranked 3rd in points but only 10th in rushing yards per game now hands the ground game to a much younger backfield.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba just put together the best receiving season in the league, 1,793 yards on 119 catches, and Seattle brings back everyone who mattered around him. Cooper Kupp and Rashid Shaheed give this offense three legitimate targets, while Tory Horton's 5 touchdowns on just 13 catches hint at a bigger role if he stays on the field more than eight games. The departures barely register: Dareke Young's marginal snaps and a handful of no-stat names won't move the needle. Rookie Emmanuel Henderson Jr., taken in the sixth round, and free-agent addition Julian Hicks add depth without threatening the top of the depth chart. With that much proven volume returning behind a passing attack that ranked only 8th in yards per game, the ceiling here is less about who catches the ball and more about whether Seattle throws it enough.

AJ Barner is the anchor here, coming off 52 catches, 519 yards and 6 touchdowns as the top target in this room. Elijah Arroyo played 13 games and flashed enough as a complement to suggest a bigger 2026 workload behind Barner. The Seahawks added depth in free agency with Harrison Bryant, whose 2 catches with the Texans undersell what he can offer as a blocker and safety-valve option, plus Nick Vannett back for a second stint in Seattle. Eric Saubert, the highest-paid player in the room at $2.0M, and Nick Kallerup round out a group that does not need to carry the passing game. With Seattle ranking 3rd in points per game a year ago, this position mostly has to keep blocking well and let Barner do the rest.

Charles Cross anchors a line that allowed just 27 sacks last season, fifth-fewest in the league, and the group that built that number is largely intact. Grey Zabel, Jalen Sundell, Abraham Lucas and Anthony Bradford are all back alongside Cross, giving Mike Macdonald continuity up front rather than a teardown. The losses are modest: Doug Kramer and Shane Lemieux are gone, but neither departure threatens the identity of a unit that helped produce 5.88 yards per play, sixth in the league. Seattle added Bobby Hart from the Chargers and drafted Beau Stephens out of Iowa in the fifth round, depth pieces rather than answers to a hole. The ground game still lagged at 123 yards per game, 10th in the league, and closing that gap without disturbing what already works is the real task for 2026.

Byron Murphy II and Leonard Williams both went for 61 tackles and 7 sacks apiece last year, anchoring a front that held opponents to 92 rushing yards a game, third-best in the league. That interior duo returns intact. The real subtraction is Johnathan Hankins off the edge rotation, and Seattle answered it by grabbing Dante Fowler Jr. from Dallas, a pass rusher who logged 3 sacks and 4 tackles for loss last year and adds juice off the edge alongside Mike Morris. Jarran Reed and Brandon Pili round out a deep rotation up front, so depth is not the concern. With Williams making $16.6M as the highest-paid piece in the room, the bet is that continuity up the middle plus Fowler's arrival keeps this defense finishing near the top of the league in yards per play allowed rather than just sacks.

Ernest Jones IV anchors this group after piling up 124 tackles and five interceptions, tied for second-most in the league, a rare linebacker who covers ground and covers routes. Drake Thomas backed him up with 94 tackles and 3.5 sacks, and DeMarcus Lawrence still gets after the passer at his age with six sacks. What changes for 2026 is depth up front and on the edge, since Boye Mafe's 31 tackles and four tackles for loss are gone along with Wesley Steiner, D'Eryk Jackson and Alphonzo Tuputala. Power Echols, Aaron Smith and Joseph Vaughn arrive to restock those spots as rotational depth. With Jones, Thomas, Lawrence, Uchenna Nwosu, Tyrice Knight and Derick Hall all back, the core of a defense that allowed just 17.2 points per game stays fully intact.

Nick Emmanwori and Ty Okada anchor a back end that allowed 17.2 points a game, best in the league, and neither is going anywhere. But Coby Bryant and Riq Woolen are both gone, taking real cover skills off a group that finished just 10th in passing yards allowed per game. Devon Witherspoon, the room's highest earner at $31.1M, still lines up as the top corner, with Josh Jobe holding the other outside spot. Seattle answered the losses by adding Trevon Diggs and Noah Igbinoghene, plus Panthers castoff D'Anthony Bell, while spending a second-round pick on safety Bud Clark and a third-rounder on corner Julian Neal. Mike Macdonald built this defense on takeaways and gang tackling, not star power at cornerback, so the bet is that scheme and Emmanwori's versatility cover for less proven names outside.

Jason Myers made 41 of 48 field goals and remains one of the steadier legs in the league. Michael Dickson's 42.2 net average is the kind of number that flips field position in a playoff run, and Seattle just took one all the way to a Super Bowl win. Nothing about this group screams for a fix. Chris Stoll continues as the long snapper, an unglamorous but stable piece behind two established veterans. Special teams was never the reason Seattle went 14-3 and 4-2 in the NFC West, but it never cost them a game either, and that quiet reliability is worth something.

Churn at the Skill Spots

Kenneth Walker III's 1,027 yards walk out the door, and Emanuel Wilson, in from Green Bay off a 496-yard season, is the answer at running back. The secondary took the bigger hit on paper: Coby Bryant's four interceptions and Riq Woolen are both gone, replaced by a pile of pieces rather than one name, Trevon Diggs and Noah Igbinoghene chief among them. Dante Fowler Jr. arrives from Dallas to help offset Boye Mafe's departed pass rush. None of this touches the core that actually won it all: Sam Darnold, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Ernest Jones IV all return, and 86% of the production comes back with them. Seattle spent its offseason reloading around the edges of a championship roster, not rebuilding it.

Charbonnet Inherits the Backfield

Kenneth Walker III is gone, and Zach Charbonnet, the obvious answer, opens the year unavailable. He scored 12 times on 730 yards a year ago, so Seattle knows exactly what it is missing while he is out. Emanuel Wilson arrives from Green Bay, and first-round pick Jadarian Price has no professional carries yet, which leaves the early-season workload split between a depth back and a rookie. Seattle's offense finished drives efficiently in 2025, and that trait is unlikely to repeat itself exactly. If the ground game stalls before Charbonnet is back, that efficiency edge disappears and Sam Darnold and Jaxon Smith-Njigba inherit even more of the burden.

Macdonald's Road Warriors

Seattle's overall spread mark sits at a coin-flip 51%, but that number hides a real split. On the road, Seattle covers 54% of the time, and as a road underdog it jumps to 63%. Backing the Seahawks at home is a tougher sell, with a 48% cover rate both straight up as favorites and overall. That gap matters because the underlying process, an offense that scored efficiently behind Sam Darnold and Jaxon Smith-Njigba while the defense forced opponents to earn every yard, points to a team whose actual win rate ran well above what its yardage margin implied. Fade the short home-favorite version of this team and lean into it when Vegas doubts them on the road.