Leading up to kickoff of the 2026 NFL season, TeamFB7 is going in-depth on each team from its strengths and weaknesses to breakout players, intriguing rookies and overall predictions. With the Seattle Seahawks opening the season Wednesday night at home vs. the New England Patriots in a Super Bowl rematch, we turn the focus to reigning champions, who are No. 2 in our preseason power rankings.
The last time the Seattle Seahawks entered a season as the reigning Super Bowl champions, 12 years ago, it seemed like just the start of a long window of title contention.
Reality proved otherwise.
Seattle made it back to the Super Bowl the next year, losing on the fateful decision to pass it at the goal line rather than feed Marshawn Lynch, resulting Malcolm Butler’s iconic interception for the victorious New England Patriots. From there, that incarnation of the Seahawks never made it past the divisional round again while coach Pete Carroll won just three more playoff games over his final nine seasons.
The point being, Super Bowl windows are usually more fleeting than they seem and stacking championships is rare in the NFL.
In the 60-year history of the Super Bowl, there have been nine back-to-back champions. No team has won three straight Super Bowls, though the 1990s Cowboys and 2000s Patriots won three rings in four years and other “dynasties” have compiled three or more titles within a short span of seasons.
In the last 20 years, the 2022-23 Chiefs are the only team to pull off a Super Bowl title repeat.
Can the Seahawks join exclusive company in 2026?
Well, there’s no reason to expect a significant drop-off from one of the NFL’s most well-run franchises.
Third-year head coach Mike Macdonald might well be the best coach in the league now, the bulk of Seattle’s league-leading defense is back for 2026 and the offense should be able to patch its holes decently enough.
Let’s take a closer look at the reigning champs and their outlook for the season that kicks off Wednesday night in Seattle.
Seattle Seahawks Reset
2025 Finish: 14-3, NFC West champions, Super Bowl champions
Head Coach: Mike Macdonald, third season (24-10, 3-0 postseason)
Hot Seat Meter (0-10): 0
Offensive Coordinator: Brian Fleury, first season (49ers’ run-game coordinator and TEs coach last season, replaces Klink Kubiak who is now Raiders HC)
Defensive Coordinator: Aden Durde, third season (Macdonald calls the defensive plays)
Best Offseason Move: Locking up keystone stars WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba and CB Devon Witherspoon on long-term extensions
The Seahawks had to make tough decisions about how to allocate resources, which core members of the Super Bowl team to lock up long-term and which to let walk in free agency as a necessary reality of business.
It’s annual tradition that the rest of the league lines up ready to pick apart and overpay for free agents off the Super Bowl-winning team, and that was certainly the case with Seattle.
Rotational EDGE Boye Mafe (three years, $60 million to the Bengals), Super Bowl MVP RB Kenneth Walker III (three years, $43.05 million to the Chiefs), S Coby Bryant (three years, $40 million to the Bears) and CB Riq Woolen (one year, $12 million to the Eagles) all signed at the peak of their market value (if not over it).
The Seahawks opened the vault to keep some of the most important pieces, though, giving free agent WR/KR Rashid Shaheed a three-year, $51-million deal and free agent CB Josh Jobe a three-year, $24-million contract while working out early extensions for Smith-Njigba, with the WR1 and reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year inking a record-setting four-year, $168.6 million extension and Witherspoon a four-year $132-million deal that at the time made him the league’s highest-paid CB (since surpassed by the Patriots’ Christian Gonzalez).
Seattle had internal depth or ready replacements for Mafe, Bryant and Woolen and drafted Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price at the end of the first round to replace Walker.
Worst Offseason Move: Staying status quo on the offensive line
The Seahawks’ offensive line was clearly good enough to win a Super Bowl and the unit returns intact for 2026.
PFF ranked Seattle 15th in its preseason offensive line rankings, while calling right guard Anthony Bradford an obvious weak spot after grading out on the lower end of the position for several seasons.
The only real addition Seattle made to the unit was drafting guard Beau Stephens out of Iowa in the fifth round, but he is slotted third-string on the team’s depth chart to open the season.
Perhaps Seattle could have done more to find a challenger for Bradford or improved the depth, which is also thin at tackle.
As it is, left tackle Charles Cross (in fifth year as a Seahawks starter), second-year left guard Grey Zabel, center Jalen Sundell (second season as a starter), Bradford and right tackle Abraham Lucas (fifth season as the team’s starter — when healthy) are keeping the band together.
(All contract values referenced from Spotrac.com.)
Seattle Seahawks Roster Breakdown
Biggest Strength: The entire defense
Seattle gave up the fewest points in the NFL last season (17.2 per game) and sixth-fewest yards (285.6 per game) and then dominated the high-scoring Patriots in the Super Bowl with 6 sacks and 3 turnovers forced, morphing into the “Dark Side Defense” and taking their place alongside the former “Legion of Boom” in Seahawks lore.
It’s a complete unit at all three levels with the exceptional interior defensive line led by Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II, DeMarcus Lawrence and Uchenna Nwosu off the edge, Ernest Jones IV and Drake Thomas in the middle at linebacker and an elite secondary with Witherspoon and Jobe at cornerback, versatile second-year standout Nick Emmanwori already one of the best nickels in the league and Julian Love and Ty Okada back as experienced safeties.
Williams, Jones and Witherspoon were all second-team All-Pro honorees last season, as was punter Michael Dickson, an underrated weapon at the position.
Expect the Seahawks to challenge the Texans and maybe the rebuilt Rams as the best defenses in football again this year, though the depth will be tested early with Okada (hamstring) out and Emmanwori (ankle) questionable for the opener Wednesday night.
Biggest Weakness: The offensive line
It’s all relative. This team doesn’t have any true weaknesses, but as noted above, the O-line is middle-of-the-league without a lot of reassuring depth.
Most Intriguing Rookie: RB Jadarian Price
With Walker off to Kansas City and Zach Charbonnet still working back from a torn ACL sustained in the divisional round of the playoffs and set to miss at least the first four games if not more, Price steps into the spotlight immediately as a rookie.
Taken with the final pick of the first round of the draft, Price was the second running back off the board behind only his former Notre Dame teammate Jeremiyah Love. Price played second-fiddle to Love with the Fighting Irish, but still found a way to stand out while averaging 6.0 yards for his college career and rushing for 674 yards with 11 TDs (and 2 receiving TDs) last season.
Price, who was not much of a pass-catcher in college, figures to get most of the early-down work for the Seahawks until Charbonnet returns with former undrafted free agent George Holani and former Packers backup Emanuel Wilson rounding out the depth chart.
Breakout Player: WR/KOR Rashid Shaheed
The Seahawks traded 2026 fourth- and fifth-round picks to the Saints for Shaheed last November and then gave him a significant contract extension this offseason, so they’re invested in the speedy playmaker.
But in joining the Seahawks mid-season last year, Shaheed got buried in the passing game with 1 or 0 catches and fewer than 10 yards in six of his nine regular-season games with Seattle. He had a big 51-yard catch in the divisional round vs. the Rams to provide a spark.
His impact mostly came on special teams, though, as he returned both a punt and kickoff for touchdowns in the regular season and then a 95-yard opening kickoff return for touchdown in the divisional round vs. the 49ers.
With the Saints, though, Shaheed was used much more heavily in the passing attack with 44 catches for 499 yards and 2 TDs in nine games there before the trade.
Expect the Seahawks, with a full offseason to build around his skill set, to get Shaheed more involved on offense in 2026.
MVP Pick: WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba
He won NFL Offensive Player of the Year honors while setting career-highs with 119 catches for an NFL-leading 1,793 yards and 10 TDs in his third NFL season.
Whether he matches those numbers in full or not, JSN is one of the most dynamic playmakers in the sport and the biggest offense weapon for the Seahawks and QB Sam Darnold.
2026 Seattle Seahawks Schedule
| Date | Opponent | Time (ET) |
| Week 1, Sept. 9 (Wednesday) | vs. New England Patriots | 8:20 p.m. |
| Week 2, Sept. 20 | at Arizona Cardinals | 4:25 p.m. |
| Week 3, Sept. 27 | at Washington Commanders | 1 p.m. |
| Week 4, Oct. 4 | vs. Los Angeles Chargers | 4:25 p.m. |
| Week 5, Oct. 11 | vs. San Francisco 49ers | 4:25 p.m. |
| Week 6, Oct. 15 (Thursday) | at Denver Broncos | 8:15 p.m. |
| Week 7, Oct. 25 | vs. Kansas City Chiefs | 8:20 p.m. |
| Week 8, Nov. 2 | vs. Chicago Bears | 8:15 p.m. |
| Week 9, Nov. 8 | vs. Arizona Cardinals | 4:25 p.m. |
| Week 10, Nov. 15 | at Las Vegas Raiders | 4:05 p.m. |
| Week 11 | BYE WEEK | |
| Week 12, Nov. 29 | at San Francisco 49ers | 4:25 p.m. |
| Week 13, Dec. 7 (Monday) | vs. Dallas Cowboys | 8:15 p.m. |
| Week 14, Dec. 13 | vs. New York Giants | 4:25 p.m. |
| Week 15, Dec. 19 (Saturday) | at Philadelphia Eagles | 5:00 p.m. |
| Week 16, Dec. 25 (Friday) | vs. Los Angeles Rams | 8:15 p.m. |
| Week 17, Jan. 3 | at Carolina Panthers | 1 p.m. |
| Week 18, TBD (Flex Game) | at Los Angeles Rams | TBD |
Seattle Seahawks Season Prediction And Parting Thoughts
Season Prediction: 13-3
The major variable is how the offense will look under the direction of Fleury, a first-time coordinator who was brought over from San Francisco with Kubiak leaving to become the Raiders’ head coach.
Ultimately, the core principles of the offense shouldn’t change much. Seattle is going to want to lean heavily on the run — or as heavily as it can until Charbonnet returns — to take pressure off Darnold and let him do what he does best in picking his spots for big plays and excelling in play-action.
Defensively, maybe there will be some early hiccups with the secondary a bit banged up, but this will be one of the top units in football again.
Seattle was no fluke last year. These Seahawks are here to stay for a while. Whether they win another Super Bowl or not, they’ll no doubt be squarely in the mix again this year and beyond.
