Champions. So what?
Nobody gave this defence much chance a year ago. Seattle was too soft, they said. Too easy to push around. Nobody was blinking when teams landed in the Pacific Northwest any more.
Fourteen wins, three losses and a Super Bowl LX later, that argument is dead and buried. The Seahawks finished the season with the best points differential in the league. Their three defeats? A combined nine-point margin. That was the edge they lived on.
The problem is, everything resets Wednesday night at home against the Patriots. The target on their back is still there, and an NFC West that has lost none of its bite is waiting underneath it.
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What has changed
Kenneth Walker III is gone. The Super Bowl MVP has moved on to the Chiefs. On paper, 888.8 yards per season over four years in Seattle does not scream irreplaceable. But he delivered when the franchise needed it most, in the playoffs, and that matters.
Jadarian Price is next up. The 32nd pick in the last draft spent his whole college career at Notre Dame as a backup. Zach Charbonnet is still recovering from a torn ACL suffered in the playoffs and starts on the PUP list. Another departure barely made a ripple: offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak has left for the Raiders to become head coach. Brian Fleury takes over, bringing a playbook shaped by Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco.
On defence, Seattle went and got Dante Fowler Jr. Last season the team logged 47 sacks without a single player getting past seven. Fowler, 32, had 10.5 sacks in 2024 with Washington. Former Cowboys team-mate Demarcus Lawrence helped sell him on the move.
The Price gamble
With Walker gone and Charbonnet in the treatment room, the runway is wide open for Price. Pace, versatility, a leading role from day one. He is the one to watch.
Elsewhere, the spine is intact. Sam Darnold runs the show, Jaxon Smith-Njigba is the top target, the defence is elite and Mike Macdonald is still on the sideline. Twelve wins feels like a sensible floor. The first real answer comes Wednesday night.
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