Eight months ago, the Seattle Seahawks were not supposed to be here. Not in this position — the one where a football team spends its summer being asked how it plans to repeat, rather than how it plans to rebuild. And yet here they are, walking into the 2026 season as the reigning Super Bowl LX champions, having beaten the New England Patriots at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara last February to bring the Lombardi Trophy back to the Pacific Northwest for the first time in over a decade.
That alone changes everything about how this season should be read. A championship doesn’t just add a banner to the rafters at Lumen Field — it adds a target, a different kind of locker-room psychology, and a whole new set of questions that a franchise coming off a losing season never has to answer. Can Sam Darnold do it again without the element of surprise? Can a defense that terrorized the NFC all year hold its shape after losing key pieces to free agency? And can a new offensive coordinator, hired away from a division rival’s coaching tree, keep an MVP-caliber passing game rolling without breaking what already worked?
This is a look at where the Seahawks stand as the 2026 season kicks off — the roster, the coaching staff, the schedule, and the questions that will decide whether Seattle becomes the first repeat NFC champion in years or simply the latest team to learn how hard it is to stay on top.
A Champion’s Hangover: Where Seattle Stands Entering 2026
Every Super Bowl winner faces the same test the following spring: keep the band together or watch the market pick it apart. General manager John Schneider spent barely three days celebrating before free agency reality set in. Seattle lost running back Kenneth Walker III, cornerback Coby Bryant, and edge rusher Boye Mafe within the first hours of the negotiating window, and cornerback Riq Woolen soon followed him out the door, signing with the Philadelphia Eagles.
It could have been a bloodbath. Instead, Schneider leaned into a strategy that’s become something of a Seahawks signature over the past two offseasons: keep your own guys before you go shopping for someone else’s. Wide receiver Rashid Shaheed, one of the emotional engines of the championship run, returned on a three-year, $51 million deal with $34.7 million guaranteed. Jake Bobo, the undrafted-free-agent success story turned restricted free agent, had his Jacksonville Jaguars offer sheet matched, locking him in through the 2027 season. Cornerback Josh Jobe, linebacker Drake Thomas, safety AJ Finley, and special-teamer Brady Russell all stayed put as well.
Oddsmakers still like what’s left. FanDuel Sportsbook set Seattle’s regular-season win total at 10.5 games heading into the year, keeping the Seahawks squarely inside the group of top NFC contenders — not the runaway favorite, but not a team anyone expects to fade quietly, either.
The Quarterback Question That Isn’t Really a Question
For the first time since 2022, Sam Darnold enters a season with the same team, the same city, and the same offense he had the year before. That continuity matters more than it might sound. Darnold’s career has been a tour of NFL cities — five franchises across eight seasons before he ever won a playoff game as a starter — and last year in Seattle was the first time in a long time that he didn’t have to learn a new system from scratch in March.
He’s using that stability. Speaking with reporters at Virginia Mason Athletic Center, Darnold has talked about the value of simply living in the same house, working with the same teammates, and building on an established foundation rather than starting over. Head coach Mike Macdonald has made it clear he doesn’t view last year’s championship as a ceiling — he’s pushing Darnold to keep developing rather than treating the Super Bowl ring as a finished product.
There’s a real reason for that push. Darnold’s turnaround story is remarkable — he led Seattle to a title after being written off following underwhelming stints with the Jets and Panthers — but his interception numbers still tell a cautionary tale. He threw 14 picks last season, his highest total since his rookie year, and he’s thrown 26 interceptions across his last two seasons combined, a total that ranks among the highest in the league over that span. What separated last year’s version of Darnold from his earlier stops was his performance when it mattered most: he didn’t turn the ball over once across three playoff games, a run that included road wins and set up the Super Bowl trip. Consistency, not flashes, is what the Seahawks are chasing from him now.
Behind Darnold, the room looks unusually stable for an NFL quarterback depth chart. Drew Lock returns as a trusted backup with real starting experience, and Jalen Milroe, a third-round pick from 2025, is entering his second year in the system after essentially learning the position from scratch as a rookie. Unlike a year ago, when Seattle was breaking in three new quarterbacks and an entirely new offensive scheme at the same time, 2026 training camp has been about refinement, not reinvention.
A New Voice Calling Plays: Brian Fleury’s Offense
The most significant change to the 2026 Seahawks isn’t a player at all — it’s the man calling plays. Offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, architect of last year’s championship offense, left Seattle to become head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, taking a couple of assistants with him. In his place, Macdonald and Schneider hired Brian Fleury, a 13-year NFL coaching veteran who spent the previous seven seasons on Kyle Shanahan’s staff in San Francisco, most recently as the 49ers’ run-game coordinator and tight ends coach.
Fleury wasn’t the flashiest name on the market, but according to people inside the building, he stood out during interviews for how much of Kubiak’s system he could preserve while still stamping his own identity on it. Cooper Kupp — more on him shortly — has described the new offense as recognizable in its bones but different enough in its verbiage and wrinkles that even a ten-year veteran has had to stay sharp in meetings.
Given Fleury’s background, expect the run game and the tight end position to take on a bigger role than they did under Kubiak, without the passing attack losing its identity. Jaxon Smith-Njigba remains the focal point of that passing game, but Fleury’s system is built to distribute stress across the formation — motion, misdirection, and getting backs and tight ends more involved as receivers — rather than living and dying on one or two go-to targets. Early training camp reports have been positive: veteran defensive backs like safety Julian Love have praised the offense’s precision and its willingness to attack, even against Seattle’s own championship-level defense in practice.
The Kupp Effect and a Receiver Room Built for War
If there’s one offseason move that captured the imagination of Seahawks fans, it was the arrival of Cooper Kupp. A former Offensive Player of the Year and Super Bowl MVP with the Los Angeles Rams, Kupp joined Seattle as a free agent looking for one more run at a title — and he found a receiver room that already had plenty of firepower.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who won NFL Offensive Player of the Year honors last season, remains the unquestioned centerpiece of the passing attack. But Kupp’s presence changes the math for opposing defenses and, by his own account, has already begun rubbing off on the room. He’s spent much of camp mentoring second-year receiver Tory Horton and has been candid that his production this season will depend largely on how well he and Fleury connect on play design — Smith-Njigba is still going to command the lion’s share of targets, and Kupp knows it.
Rashid Shaheed adds a deep-speed element that stretches defenses vertically, Jake Bobo brings reliable hands and physicality after clawing his way onto the roster as an undrafted free agent in 2023, and rookie tight end Elijah Arroyo — a holdover contributor from last year’s excellent 2025 draft class — gives Fleury another chess piece in the short and intermediate passing game. It’s arguably the deepest skill-position group Seattle has fielded in years, and it comes with an interesting subplot: some analysts believe Bobo’s continued development could eventually force a difficult veteran decision regarding Kupp’s long-term role, though that’s a conversation for next offseason, not this one.
The Dark Side Defense: Can It Repeat?
Seattle’s defense earned a nickname last season — “the Dark Side” — for the way it suffocated opposing offenses on the way to the title. Retaining that identity while absorbing significant roster turnover is the single biggest question mark heading into 2026.
The losses were real. Boye Mafe’s departure leaves a hole off the edge, Coby Bryant’s exit removes a starting-caliber piece from the secondary, and Riq Woolen — once one of the most talented young cornerbacks in football — is now playing for the Eagles. Devon Witherspoon remains Seattle’s top cover corner, and the front office responded to the secondary losses by re-signing Josh Jobe and bringing in veteran depth to compete for Bryant’s old spot, including safety Ty Okada, who signed his exclusive rights tender, and a low-cost outside addition brought in specifically to push for that starting job.
Up front, Leonard Williams and Jarran Reed remain the interior anchors, even as both defensive tackles are now on the wrong side of 30 — a reality that pushed the Seahawks to re-sign younger depth pieces like Sione Pili rather than pay restricted free agent tender money for outside upgrades. Veteran linebacker DeMarcus Lawrence was added to help offset some of the pass-rush production lost with Mafe’s exit, and Drake Thomas returns after being re-signed to anchor the linebacker corps alongside Patrick O’Connell.
The best news on defense might be at safety, where Nick Emmanwori — the runner-up for Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2025 — is entering his second season as one of the most exciting young defensive backs in football, playing alongside the steady, well-respected Julian Love. If Emmanwori takes the leap many expect, and if the front office’s bet on continuity over splashy free-agent spending pays off, the Dark Side defense has a real chance to remain one of the NFL’s best units even with a different supporting cast around its stars.
Free Agency’s Toll: Who Seattle Lost, and Why It Might Not Matter As Much As Feared
It’s worth sitting with the free-agency losses for a moment, because they were significant on paper: a starting running back, a starting cornerback, a productive edge rusher, and one of the more talented young corners in the league, all gone within days of each other. Any team losing that much production off a championship roster would draw skepticism.
But context matters here. Seattle’s front office made a calculated bet that its internal depth — much of it drafted or developed in-house — could absorb the hit better than paying premium market rates to keep everyone. That bet extends to the running back room, where the Seahawks made no major outside addition after losing Kenneth Walker III, instead choosing to address the position through the draft rather than free agency, a decision that reportedly had as much to do with protecting future compensatory draft picks as it did with the immediate 2026 depth chart.
Whether that patience proves wise will be one of the defining storylines of the season. Championship rosters rarely look identical the year after they win it all, and the Seahawks are betting that the parts of the roster they chose to protect — the quarterback, the top receivers, the offensive line, and the defensive identity — matter more than perfect continuity everywhere else.
The Draft Class Built for the Future
Seattle entered the 2026 NFL Draft with only four selections, a product of trades made in prior years, but John Schneider’s front office worked the phones and doubled that total to eight picks by draft weekend. The headline addition came in the first round, when the Seahawks selected Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price with the 32nd overall pick — a direct answer to the Kenneth Walker III departure and a clear signal about how the front office wants to fill that hole.
In the second round, Seattle added TCU safety Bud Clark, further reinforcing a secondary that lost multiple veterans in free agency. The rest of the class was built for depth and long-term development: offensive lineman Beau Stephens, safety Julian Neal, wide receiver Emmanuel Henderson Jr. out of Kansas, cornerbacks Andre Fuller (Toledo) and Michael Dansby (Arizona), and nose tackle Deven Eastern from Minnesota, who arrives with an eye toward eventually taking snaps behind the aging Williams-Reed tandem.
It’s a class that won’t be graded fairly until at least midseason, but it continues a run of strong Seahawks drafting that includes 2025 first-rounder Grey Zabel, who validated his selection with a strong rookie season at left guard and is expected to take another step forward in Year 2, and Nick Emmanwori, already among the best young defensive backs in the conference. If recent history is any indicator — Devon Witherspoon in 2023, Charles Cross in 2022, Jordyn Brooks in 2020 — Seattle’s scouting department has more than earned the benefit of the doubt.
The Offensive Line: Quietly One of the Best Stories in Football
It’s easy to overlook the trenches when there’s a Cooper Kupp signing to talk about, but Seattle’s offensive line has quietly become one of the more encouraging units on the roster. Left tackle Charles Cross has developed into one of the more reliable pass protectors in the NFC, and Grey Zabel’s rookie season at left guard — capped by a touchdown celebration in Super Bowl LX itself — was exactly what the front office hoped for when it used a first-round pick on an interior lineman for the first time in years. Center Jalen Sundell provides steady play in the middle, though right guard remains a spot the coaching staff is watching closely after inconsistent play last season. Protecting Darnold and clearing paths for a suddenly crowded backfield will be central to whatever Fleury’s offense becomes in 2026.
The Schedule: A Six-Primetime Gauntlet
The NFL didn’t do the defending champions any favors when it released the 2026 schedule, and in fairness, it never does. Seattle’s slate features a franchise-record six primetime games, five of them at home, and opens with genuine ceremony: the Seahawks host the New England Patriots — the same team they beat in Super Bowl LX — in the league’s official Kickoff Game on Wednesday, September 9, at Lumen Field, an 8:20 p.m. ET (5:20 p.m. PT) kickoff on NBC.
From there, the road doesn’t get easier. Non-division opponents include the Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bears, Los Angeles Chargers, Denver Broncos, and Philadelphia Eagles — a murderers’ row that mixes conference contenders with teams simply loaded with talent. Seattle’s Week 2 trip to face the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium kicks off the usual NFC West gauntlet against the Rams, 49ers, and Cardinals, each played twice.
Two dates stand out on the calendar. The Seahawks host the Los Angeles Rams at Lumen Field on Christmas Day, a marquee showcase for a rivalry that’s grown sharper every year Mike Macdonald has coached against Sean McVay. And the regular-season finale sends Seattle back to the Rams, this time on the road at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood — the very building that will host Super Bowl 61 in February 2027. If the Seahawks are still playing meaningful football that week, they’ll get a preview of the building they’d need to conquer to defend their title on a division rival’s home turf.
Seattle’s preseason slate offers an early look at the new-look roster: a home opener against the Dallas Cowboys, followed by road trips to face the Tennessee Titans and Kansas City Chiefs, all three games airing regionally on KING-5, FOX, or NFL Network. The regular season carries a Week 11 bye, giving Macdonald’s staff a chance to reset before the stretch run.
Home Turf: Lumen Field and the Virginia Mason Athletic Center
Two addresses matter most to anyone following the Seahawks this season. Home games are played at Lumen Field, located at 800 Occidental Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98134, a stadium that seats nearly 69,000 and has developed a reputation as one of the loudest venues in professional sports — a genuine competitive advantage that Seattle’s coaching staff leans on heavily in big moments.
Away from game day, the team lives and works at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center (VMAC), located at 12 Seahawks Way, Renton, WA 98056, on the shores of Lake Washington roughly fifteen miles southeast of downtown Seattle. The privately funded, 200,000-square-foot facility has served as team headquarters since 2008 and hosts training camp practices that are open to the public — a tradition that continues in 2026, with cameras from HBO’s Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Seattle Seahawks following the defending champions through the summer.
NFC West: Old Rivals, New Stakes
No division race matters more to the Seahawks than the one happening in their own backyard. The Rams remain the measuring stick — Cooper Kupp’s old team, and the club Seattle eliminated on the way to the Super Bowl in a January NFC Championship Game at Lumen Field that still gets replayed on Seattle sports radio. The 49ers, San Francisco’s front office having just lost their run-game coordinator to Seattle in the form of Brian Fleury, will have an unusually intimate understanding of what Fleury’s offense is trying to do — and vice versa. Arizona rounds out the group, a Cardinals team that opens the year as a schedule quirk in Seattle’s Week 2 slate but always seems to play the Seahawks tough regardless of the standings.
Winning the division outright is rarely simple in the NFC West, where all four teams have shown the capacity to beat each other on a given Sunday. But for a Seahawks team built to defend a title, controlling the West is the most direct path back to the playoffs — and potentially back to SoFi Stadium in February.
Prediction: What a Realistic Path to Repeating Looks Like
Betting markets pegging Seattle at 10.5 wins isn’t a vote of no confidence — it’s a recognition that this roster, despite real turnover, still has championship-level talent at the two positions that matter most: quarterback and the defensive front seven. The path to a second straight NFC title likely runs through health at running back, where rookie Jadarian Price will be counted on early, continued growth from Darnold in decision-making, and a defense that proves the “Dark Side” identity was built on scheme and culture rather than any single departed player.
If Brian Fleury’s offense clicks the way Cooper Kupp and Jaxon Smith-Njigba have suggested it can in camp, and if the defense’s young talent — Emmanwori chief among them — takes the leaps expected of it, Seattle has the pieces to be playing meaningful football in late December, right around the time the Rams come to Lumen Field for a Christmas Day rematch that could carry real playoff weight.
Where to Follow the Season
For readers who want to track the Seahawks day-to-day, a handful of sources cover the team especially well. Seahawks.com remains the official source for roster moves, transcripts, and schedule updates straight from the organization. ESPN offers national context and its NFL Nation beat coverage, while Field Gulls provides some of the deepest fan-driven analysis anywhere in football. For contract and salary-cap details, Spotrac is the go-to resource, and NFL.com hosts the full, official 2026 schedule with ticket and broadcast information.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the Seattle Seahawks’ starting quarterback in 2026? Sam Darnold enters his second season as Seattle’s starter after leading the team to a Super Bowl LX victory. Drew Lock backs him up, with second-year quarterback Jalen Milroe developing behind them.
Who is the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator for 2026? Brian Fleury, previously the San Francisco 49ers’ run-game coordinator and tight ends coach, took over after Klint Kubiak left to become head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
When does the Seattle Seahawks’ 2026 regular season start? The Seahawks open the regular season at home against the New England Patriots on Wednesday, September 9, in the NFL’s official Kickoff Game at Lumen Field.
Where do the Seahawks play their home games? Lumen Field, located at 800 Occidental Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98134.
Where is the Seahawks’ team headquarters and practice facility? The Virginia Mason Athletic Center, at 12 Seahawks Way, Renton, WA 98056.
Did the Seahawks sign Cooper Kupp? Yes. The former Rams and Super Bowl MVP receiver joined Seattle in free agency ahead of the 2026 season, adding veteran depth to a receiver room led by Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
What is Seattle’s projected win total for 2026? FanDuel Sportsbook set the Seahawks’ regular-season over/under win total at 10.5 games heading into the season.
