SANTA CLARA, California — The Seahawks knew this would happen, long before the confetti fell.
And after it rained lime and blue on Super Bowl Sunday, cigar smoke twisted through the stuffy air in the caverns of Levi’s Stadium. Hardly any man walked around with red-rimmed eyes in Seattle’s locker room. Hardly any tears of joy flowed. Coors Light and Don Julio flowed, instead, after the Seahawks utterly discombobulated the Patriots 29-13 on the league’s grandest stage. Throngs of players set up their phones on an equipment cart and went straight to Instagram Live, forming a mini mosh-pit as bass-boosted speakers thumped Kodak Black’s “Skrilla” and Lil Baby’s “Freestyle.”
Off against one wall, All-Pro cornerback Devon Witherspoon — who had a sack and allowed just two catches against New England — boasted to a teammate that Seattle’s NFC title-game win over the Rams was actually their Super Bowl. On the north end of the locker room, outside linebacker Derick Hall posed with the Lombardi Trophy after two sacks and a forced fumble of his own. Across the way, left tackle Charles Cross stood more pensive, Seattle’s blindside protector for four straight years.
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” Cross told The Post. “I’m glad – I feel like God already has the story written, and I just have to live it.”
The three of them, though, had the start of their Seattle stories written by the trade that rocked the NFL four years ago. In March 2022, general manager John Schneider sent franchise quarterback Russell Wilson to Denver for a crop of players and a haul of future draft choices, one of the biggest blockbusters in recent NFL history. Witherspoon, Hall and Cross — “foundational pieces,” as Schneider put it Sunday night — all came from picks in the Wilson deal, and all played integral roles in Seattle’s dismantling of the Patriots.
And thus, much of the pieces to the Seahawks’ second Super Bowl title since 2013 were laid in place by the Denver Broncos.
“I don’t know about you,” Seahawks defensive passing-game coordinator Karl Scott told The Denver Post Sunday, “but I think John Schneider needs to go buy a lottery ticket tonight.”
“Because,” Scott continued, “everything he touches hits. Turns to gold.”
None of those former draft choices, really, give much thought to their origins in Seattle. Witherspoon said he’s here; that’s all that matters. Hall simply said the pieces Schneider brought “speaks volumes.”
Elsewhere Sunday, though, one of the key active pieces to that Wilson deal back in 2022 sat at his locker, mulling the past for a moment . Drew Lock, 29, has lived several lives in the span of six NFL seasons, a Broncos second-round pick in 2019 who was tabbed as a future franchise quarterback only to fall and be shipped off to Seattle after three years. Earlier this week, when asked about the effects of the Wilson trade on the Seahawks’ roster, Lock told The Post that the bird’s-eye view of the trade is “pretty gnarly.”
Lock’s now a Super Bowl champion, a key piece to the locker room after signing back in Seattle this past offseason to push starting QB Sam Darnold. And after the Patriots’ win, smile wrinkles formed in the corners of Lock’s eyes.
“It just goes back to, everything happens for a reason … I’ll let life happen, let God lead me in the right direction,” Lock said when asked about the Wilson deal Sunday. “Trust what’s going on. It’s already been written. And it’s just my job to go live it out.”
Seattle Seahawks linebacker Derick Hall (58) celebrates after sacking New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye during the first half of the Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, California. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
A king’s ransom for Russ
Seattle’s only losing season in the last 14 years came in 2021, when a 33-year-old Wilson was named to his fifth straight Pro Bowl. Schneider and Seattle decided it was time to shop Wilson, after his 10th year with the franchise.
Wilson, though, had a no-trade clause baked into a four-year, $140 million extension he’d signed in 2019, necessitating that he and agent Mark Rodgers needed to sign off on however Seattle tested the market. And Wilson, as Rodgers recalled this past week to The Post, wanted to go to Denver — a historic franchise that was temporarily operating with no head coach (the team fired Vic Fangio in January 2022) and no owner (the team was put up for sale in February 2022).
“Understand — we were talking, and negotiating, in what I would call a vacuum,” Rodgers said.
Broncos general manager George Paton, entering his second year in Denver, was maneuvering to get a quarterback. The Broncos wanted Wilson enough for Paton to promise Rodgers — before he was traded — that Denver would sign him to a long-term extension once he arrived. And Schneider, who’d already won a Super Bowl with Seattle in 2013, wrestled away a treasure trove of assets from Denver: former first-round pick Noah Fant, former second-round pick Lock, defensive lineman Shelby Harris, and five future draft choices.
On March 16, 2022, then-Broncos tight end Eric Saubert was working out with Fant at a gym in Orange County when a television above them flashed. The news of the Wilson deal broke to their complete shock. The two enjoyed one brief, fleeting second of shared euphoria.
“Oh! We got Russ!”
Then Fant’s agent called with the news.
In the years since, the move has set Denver and Seattle on two diverging trajectories that nearly looped them back to a meeting in Super Bowl LX after the Broncos came four points away from beating New England in 2025’s AFC title game. Paton, of course, swung and missed on Wilson and on hiring Nathaniel Hackett in 2022, then swung a course-correcting trade for Sean Payton as head coach, and since has delivered nothing but hits. Schneider, meanwhile, added three key contributors with those Denver picks: Cross was drafted at No. 9 in 2022, and Witherspoon at No. 5 and Hall at No. 38 in 2023.
“The beginning of all of this was his understanding Wilson, the trade market, and getting that value from the Denver Broncos,” Rodgers said. “Interestingly – so, that’s the beginning of that rebuild … and John’s done a phenomenal job. I mean, John’s as good a personnel guy as there is in the league.”
Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) drops back to pass as offensive tackle Charles Cross (67) defends against a rush by New England Patriots defensive end Milton Williams (97) during the first half of the Super Bowl on Sunday in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
‘We just really hunted’
For four quarters in Santa Clara on Sunday, the Seahawks’ defense put on a masterclass in football torment. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye played like he heard footsteps awaiting at every corner of the pocket, getting sacked six times with four turnovers. After blitzing Witherspoon just 21 times in 2025, according to Next Gen Stats, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald sent him repeatedly on timely defensive-back pressures, and the 25-year-old recorded three quarterback hits.
“We just really hunted,” Hall said. “I feel like we showed we’re the number-one defense in the world.”
The Patriots were fully prepared for this. They were simply helpless to stop it.
“I didn’t even know that he blitzed that fewest amount of times,” Patriots receiver Trent Sherfield said. “Because we were so — just so ingrained in our minds that like, ‘Hey, we need to be prepared for the DB blitz.’”
In many ways, Seattle’s formula was exactly akin to Denver’s throughout 2025. A quarterback who avoided mistakes, turned a few negative plays into positive ones and delivered a few shots. A running game that buoyed the offense for long stretches. A defense that combined exotic pressure with sticky coverage.
The Seahawks simply had a cleaner run and were buoyed by branches from a trade that has reshaped the NFL.
“Looking back at it, it was kinda like the hamster wheel started turning,” said Scott, who was originally hired in 2022, a week before the Wilson deal. “And you have a vision for what it can be. But no one truly knows what it’s going to be.
“And to see it come to the light, it’s kinda cool to see.”
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