Seahawks enter 2026 season with plenty of disrespect to dine on

The 2025 Seahawks ended their season with 10 straight wins, capped by a Super Bowl. They led the NFL in point differential and scoring defense and produced the third-most points. They dismissed two 12-win division rivals in a prove-it playoff run, while being outscored in one of 12 total quarters. They recorded the largest overall point differential (regular season plus postseason) of any Super Bowl champion since 2000. They developed six Pro Bowlers … and brought them all back. They also bring back their coach and 22 of 24 Super Bowl starters — including the quarterback, the NFL Offensive Player of the Year, an intact offensive line and key pieces from a dominant defense.

(That’s a hell of a paragraph, same as the season it struggles to summarize.)

If the Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers or (fill in other national darling) entered a season with the same résumé …

They’d be considered undisputed Super Bowl favorites.

Instead, the 2026 Seahawks are back where they began.

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For a franchise that feeds on a diet of disrespect, that’s not a bad thing. Because of their relatively remote positioning in the Pacific Northwest, their relative absence of supposed superstars and their culture that prioritizes effort over ego, it’s (still) easy to sleep on the Seahawks. It’s easy to dismiss last season as a fluke or fairy tale, especially when the rival Los Angeles Rams are a growing Goliath.

In the same offseason, the Rams traded for two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett and All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie, adding athlete infinity stones like the crosstown dynastic Dodgers. At 35, retired 10-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Aaron Donald is considering a return as well.

So it’s not a surprise that the Rams — who have the reigning NFL leaders in touchdown passes (Matt Stafford), passing yards (Stafford), receptions (Puka Nacua) and receiving touchdowns (Davante Adams) — have supplanted the Seahawks as Super Bowl favorites. Seattle’s Super Bowl odds sit third in the NFL via FanDuel (+1200) and fourth on DraftKings (+1100).

That’s not all. According to ESPN, the Seahawks have the NFL’s fourth highest Super Bowl odds — behind the Rams, Bills and Ravens — and a projected record of 10-7.

10-7?

For a reigning Super Bowl champion with almost its entire roster intact?

Hold on. The disrespect only goes deeper.

“I think this is a fringe team on that playoff discussion,” analyst Warren Sharp said on “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd early in training camp. “I think they are a team that very well could be successful, but that still means they’re only winning nine or so games. … Don’t forget, Sam Darnold led the NFL in turnovers last year.”

Added former ESPN personality Bomani Jones on his YouTube show, “The Right Time with Bomani Jones”: “Everybody who’s like, ‘Could Kyler Murray be the next Sam Darnold?’ … When the hell did Sam Darnold get as good as Kyler Murray? I know that people don’t like him, but I would much rather have Kyler Murray be my quarterback than Sam Darnold.”

You read that right.

I admit: There are reasons to doubt the Seahawks, and Darnold’s ball security is a legitimate concern. The reclamation quarterback led the NFL with 20 turnovers in 2025, after finishing tied for fourth (16 turnovers) as the Minnesota Vikings’ starter the previous season. While Darnold protected the football in a turnover-free trifecta of playoff wins, he has to prove he can on a consistent basis.

Plus, he has to prove he can flourish under first-year offensive coordinator Brian Fleury. The Seahawks have been saddled with their fourth offensive coordinator in four seasons, after Klint Kubiak was hired as the Las Vegas Raiders’ head coach. The 47-year-old Fleury arrived from San Francisco as a monumental question mark, a position coach without experience as a coordinator or a play-caller.

When it comes to game-planning, implementing adjustments and exploiting weaknesses, Fleury’s first tests will be passed or failed in real time. For the 12s, that should be a scary proposition.

But according to left guard Grey Zabel, who utilized some complimentary Gen Z slang: “(Fleury) just seems like the man dot com. He’s a good dude, unbelievable coach. I love his run-first mentality. We’re going to enjoy it. He’s doing an unbelievable job so far. I know he demands excellence, and I love that out of a coach. He’s going to hold us to a standard and not waver.”

The Seahawks have a Super Bowl standard.

They also have hurdles to a treacherous mountaintop. Like whether the platoon of Jadarian Price, a rehabbing Zach Charbonnet and George Holani, etc., can replace departed running back Kenneth Walker III. Or whether Trevon Diggs, embattled expected signing Terrion Arnold or anyone else will succeed as the third corner. Or whether an aging defensive interior can continue to dominate.

Speaking of: 32-year-old defensive lineman Leonard Williams, who has stacked 18 sacks in the last two seasons, said: “No one on this team is satisfied. No one on this team is happy with what happened last year. We all understand this is a whole new season, a whole new team, even though we have a lot of the staff and roster back. We have to climb the mountain all over again.”

So, like I said, they’re back where they began. While I acknowledge the aforementioned unknowns, the Seahawks have received a disproportionate amount of disrespect, given their résumé.

As franchise legend Richard Sherman observed to Macdonald during an episode of HBO’s “Hard Knocks”: “This is such a hungry-ass team.”

Good news: If the Seahawks really dine on disrespect, there’s a lot to go around.