Repeating in the NFL is the hardest thing in sports.
The salary cap levels the field. Coordinators get poached. Stars hit free agency. The margin between champion and pretender shrinks every offseason, and the teams that won it all become everyone else's most motivated opponent. Since 2004, only the Patriots have won back-to-back Super Bowls. The list of defending champions who did not make it back is long and humbling.
The Seattle Seahawks are about to find out which kind of team they are.
They come into 2026 as Super Bowl LX champions, having beaten the New England Patriots 29-13 to claim the franchise's second Lombardi Trophy. The city celebrated. Mike Macdonald got his championship. And then the offseason arrived, and the hardest part of being a champion began.
What They Lost
There is no soft way to say this: Kenneth Walker III is gone.
The Super Bowl LX MVP, who rushed for 1,027 yards in the regular season and carried Seattle's offense when it mattered most in February, signed with the Kansas City Chiefs in free agency on a three-year deal worth up to $45 million with $28.7 million guaranteed. Walker was 25 years old, coming off the biggest game of his career, and the Seahawks declined to franchise tag him. He went to Kansas City, of all places, which means the player who helped Seattle win a championship could be the player standing in their way when the playoffs come around again.
That is a brutal offseason subplot, and it will define this story all season.
The losses did not stop with Walker. Cornerback Riq Woolen, safety Coby Bryant, edge rusher Boye Mafe, and receiver/special teamer Dareke Young all departed. Offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak also left to become the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Seattle kept plenty of the championship core, but the attrition is real.
What They Kept, And It Is a Lot
General manager John Schneider made a deliberate call this offseason: keep as much of the core together as possible. The Seahawks re-signed contributors across the roster, avoided a total cap purge, and enter training camp with more of their championship group intact than most Super Bowl winners can claim.
Sam Darnold returns under center. Whatever you thought of Darnold before last season, the numbers and the results speak for themselves. He managed the offense, made another Pro Bowl, and delivered when the Seahawks needed him in January and February. He is not asked to be the biggest star on the team. He is asked to be a winning quarterback, and he has proven he can do that. The ceiling is proven, but the turnover volatility still has to be managed.
The biggest star on the team is Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who won the 2025 NFL Offensive Player of the Year award and is now one of the premier wide receivers in the league. JSN gives Darnold a weapon that defenses cannot stop when he is in rhythm, and his presence alone opens up everything else in Seattle's passing game.
On defense, the pillars are back. Leonard Williams, DeMarcus Lawrence, Byron Murphy II, and cornerback Devon Witherspoon anchor a unit that was one of the best in the NFL during the championship run. Murphy is especially worth watching after a seven-sack 2025 season and strong pressure production from the interior. Macdonald, who built his reputation as a defensive mind before taking the head coaching job, will not let the defense slip quietly.
The Rookie Answer at Running Back
Seattle used the No. 32 overall pick on Jadarian Price out of Notre Dame to replace Walker. Price is a legitimate prospect: a decisive runner with good vision, special-teams value, and enough receiving ability to contribute in the pass game. But he is a rookie stepping into one of the most scrutinized roles in the league, replacing a Super Bowl MVP on a team with championship expectations.
That is a significant ask. Zach Charbonnet is also working back from a knee injury, which makes Price's early development even more important. How quickly Price adjusts, and how well the Seahawks manage the transition at running back, will be one of the most important storylines of their season.
The Coaching Continuity Question
Macdonald is still the tone-setter, and the defensive foundation remains in place. But Kubiak's departure matters. Seattle's offense finished third in scoring last season, and losing the coordinator of that group is not nothing.
The good news is that new offensive coordinator Brian Fleury was hired with continuity in mind. Fleury has made it clear that the goal is to maintain as much of the 2025 offense as possible while keeping the same fast, aggressive identity. That is exactly what a defending champion wants: enough continuity to avoid reinventing the wheel, and enough new perspective to keep defenses from catching up.
The Case For a Repeat
The foundation is intact. The head coach is back. The quarterback and offensive centerpiece are in place. The defense is still elite. And Schneider has assembled enough depth that losing individual pieces does not gut the roster the way it might elsewhere.
Macdonald is also one of the best coaches in the game right now. His ability to put players in the right positions and make adjustments throughout a season is exactly the kind of thing that separates repeat contenders from one-year wonders.
There is also the mental edge that comes with having been there. This team has won a Super Bowl together. They know what it takes, they know what the process looks like in January, and they know what good enough is not. That experience is worth something.
The Case Against
Walker's departure is not just a roster loss. It is a chemistry and identity loss. Seattle's offense ran through him in critical moments, and no matter how promising Price turns out to be, a rookie is not a Super Bowl MVP in February.
The secondary and pass rush both took hits. The NFC West is not going to lie down: the Rams, 49ers, and Cardinals all have their own motivations and rosters built to take Seattle down. And the rest of the NFC has had an entire offseason to study the Seahawks' championship blueprint.
History is also working against them. Repeating is nearly impossible in the modern NFL, and even great teams fall short when the target is on their back.
Crystal Ball Prediction
Win total: 11-6. Seattle is talented enough to win the NFC West again and make a deep playoff run. But the road back to the Super Bowl goes through a conference that is not going to hand it to them, and the Walker-sized hole in the backfield is real. Expect a competitive, entertaining Seahawks season that goes deep into January, and a story that does not get resolved until the very end.
The hardware is in Seattle. Getting back to the stage that earned it is another matter entirely.
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