{"id":843804,"date":"2026-03-30T22:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T22:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/843804\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T22:40:17","slug":"why-the-seahawks-are-not-defending-their-super-bowl-title-and-other-notes-from-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/843804\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Seahawks are not \u2018defending\u2019 their Super Bowl title, and other notes from Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX \u2014 The Seattle Seahawks are the reigning Super Bowl champions. Head coach Mike Macdonald, always meticulous with his messaging<\/a>, doesn\u2019t want his team operating in 2026 as if they need to defend what they did in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to be careful with our language,\u201d Macdonald said Monday morning at the NFL\u2019s annual league meetings at the Arizona Biltmore hotel. \u201cWe\u2019re not really saying we\u2019re running anything back. We\u2019re not defending anything. That\u2019s just not really our attitude. Our goal is to retain as many great players as we can. We love our roster, we love our guys and (we\u2019re) trying to keep that unit together and have that continuity. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve been trying to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s part of the long-term plan as well and how we budget; I\u2019m not really in those conversations on budgeting for multiple years in and out, but I know that\u2019s how we\u2019ve done business, and I feel we\u2019ve executed pretty well for the most part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macdonald was asked about \u201crunning it back\u201d in the context of returning most of the players who helped the Seahawks win a championship. The entire starting offensive line is coming back, along with all the tight ends, receivers and quarterbacks. Ken Walker III is the only starter they lost on offense.<\/p>\n

The Seahawks had 17 players who were on the field for at least 300 snaps on defense, including the playoffs. They lost three of those players: safety Coby Bryant (team-high 1,106 snaps), cornerback Riq Woolen (917 snaps) and outside linebacker Boye Mafe (592 snaps).<\/p>\n

Macdonald said the players he has talked to have been \u201cawesome\u201d about how they plan to frame their mission for the upcoming season. \u201cThey know what we need to do,\u201d Macdonald said. Once they officially begin their offseason program, Macdonald said they\u2019ll work together to \u201cfigure out ways for guys to make it their journey again so we can all be on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n

General manager John Schneider spoke with reporters Monday afternoon. He\u2019s in alignment with Macdonald on the approach to the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year it\u2019s so different,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to bring as many guys back as we possibly can, but you know it\u2019s going to be a different team, no matter what, every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryant signed a three-year, $40 million free-agent deal with the Chicago Bears. Mafe signed with the Cincinnati Bengals for $60 million over three years. Walker\u2019s three-year deal with the Kansas City Chiefs is worth $43 million. When asked if the Seahawks were \u201cclose\u201d to retaining any of them, Schneider said, \u201cThat\u2019s not how it works with free agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go to the (scouting) combine, you get these general areas of where people are going to be and then you have this negotiating period,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cYou have to have cutoffs based on what your planning looks like. All those guys just crushed it. They just did a great job with their play and their agents did a great job (negotiating those deals).\u201d<\/p>\n

The Seahawks have $31.1 million in effective space, which takes into account signing the 2026 draft class, according to Over the Cap. They retained many of their players on one- or two-year contracts with a couple of exceptions: receiver Rashid Shaheed (three years, $51 million) and cornerback Josh Jobe (three years, $24 million). Their external free-agent acquisitions \u2014 cornerback Noah Igbinoghene, safety Rodney Thomas II and running back Emmanuel Wilson \u2014 signed one-year deals.<\/p>\n

Woolen signed a one-year, $12 million contract with the Philadelphia Eagles. A media member from Philadelphia asked Macdonald about \u201cletting Riq Woolen go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t let him go,\u201d Macdonald said.<\/p>\n

Asked what type of player the Eagles are getting in Woolen, Macdonald said: \u201cGetting a great player. We love Riq. He\u2019s a great player. Just can\u2019t afford him.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the NFL Scouting Combine, Macdonald said he was under the impression that all of his older veterans would be returning in 2026. He was asked about this in the context of a report that DeMarcus Lawrence, who turns 34 next month, is mulling retirement. Macdonald said Monday he still anticipates all of his veterans to return, Lawrence included.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo my knowledge, he\u2019s coming back,\u201d Macdonald said. \u201cHe always has the right to change his mind, but as of right now, he\u2019s coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are a few other notes from the Schneider and Macdonald news conferences:<\/p>\n

Millionaires tax<\/p>\n

On Monday, Governor Bob Ferguson signed Senate Bill 6346 into Washington state law, creating a 9.9 percent tax on income over $1 million in a single year. Known as the \u201cMillionaires Tax,\u201d this law \u2014 which is set to take effect in 2028 and could still face legal challenges \u2014 would impact most of the Seahawks\u2019 roster. The Seahawks have been among a handful of teams to benefit from a lack of state income tax, along with the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Las Vegas Raiders and Tennessee Titans.<\/p>\n

Schneider said not having state income tax \u201chelped us a lot\u201d when acquiring players. While negotiating with a free agent who was weighing Seattle\u2019s offer against one from another club, the Seahawks could point out that the player\u2019s take-home pay would be different in Seattle, even if the contracts were identical in total value.<\/p>\n

When Shaheed\u2019s financial adviser informed him of his trade to Seattle in November, the first thing he mentioned was that Washington state didn\u2019t have an income tax. In 2022, Seattle signed outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu to a two-year, $19 million free-agent contract. Nwosu is from California, played at USC and was drafted by the Los Angeles Chargers. He said at the time that he chose the Seahawks because they presented the best offer and mentioned taxes as one of the factors.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia was eating me up in taxes,\u201d Nwosu said.<\/p>\n

Players, of course, consider multiple factors when choosing a team in free agency, and a new ownership group could affect how much of an impact the tax has on the Seahawks\u2019 ability to acquire talent. But it is nonetheless notable that Schneider views the tax as a \u201cbummer\u201d from a roster construction standpoint.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t sleep on the RBs<\/p>\n

Seattle lost its starting running back of the past four seasons, and his primary backup has a torn ACL. Schneider likened the fretting over the state of their running back situation to worries he heard about the offensive line over the past few offseasons. Schneider\u2019s position on the running back group is the same as his stance on last year\u2019s offensive line at this point: He likes the players they have but will look to add talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s guys in there we like,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cLike any position, would you like to add it? Yeah. But (we like) the uniqueness of the group. George Holani, he\u2019s all-around; Kenny (McIntosh), the special teams aspect of his game, the kick returns, catching the ball out of the backfield; Emmanuel Wilson is a heavy runner, zone runner. They all have a cool, unique skill set.<\/p>\n

\u201cZach (Charbonnet), that guy is an ultimate pro. As soon as he can come back, he\u2019s coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macdonald feels the same way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t play until Wednesday to start the season off<\/a>, and even then, it\u2019s a long season,\u201d Macdonald said of their current running back situation. \u201cI think people are sleeping on the guys we have a little bit. George Holani played great for us down the stretch. Zach\u2019s a great player; he\u2019s not going to miss the whole year. And then Kenny Mac being able to come back, and then the guys we added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited about how that room goes from here. Obviously, just like the rest of the team, any opportunity to take our team to the next level, we\u2019re going to look at. That\u2019s how John rolls.\u201d<\/p>\n

More Bobo<\/p>\n

The Seahawks signed receiver Jake Bobo to a two-year, $5.5 million contract after he signed an offer sheet with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Because the Seahawks used the right-of-first-refusal tender on Bobo, who was a restricted free agent, they had the ability to match Jacksonville\u2019s offer.<\/p>\n

Schneider said it was a no-brainer decision to match.<\/p>\n

\u201cJake knew we wanted him back the whole time,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cWe were just going through a lot with (Jaxon Smith-Njigba\u2019s<\/a>) negotiation, (and) we were in draft meetings. Once it got to Monday or Tuesday, it was like, \u2018We\u2019re matching that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Bobo, who had four catches for 53 yards and a touchdown in 2025, including the playoffs, told the team\u2019s in-house reporter he never wanted to leave Seattle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked like there was a shot I was going to end up in Jacksonville, but in the back of my mind, I was hoping the guys upstairs would make something happen,\u201d Bobo said, \u201cand they did.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 The Seattle Seahawks are the reigning Super Bowl champions. Head coach Mike Macdonald, always meticulous with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":843805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2081],"tags":[7,6,238,237,261,2635],"class_list":{"0":"post-843804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-seahawks","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-seahawks","11":"tag-seattle","12":"tag-seattle-seahawks","13":"tag-seattleseahawks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}