Capped USA Eagle Back Rower Paddy Ryan Joins Seawolves for 2026

Image credit: Paddy Ryan/Instagram.

The Seattle Seawolves continued announcing their offseason signings on Monday, officially bringing Irish-born US-eligible back rower Paddy Ryan into the fold for the 2026 season. The 6-0, 225-pound Ryan played 438 minutes across eight matches for the 2025 San Diego Legion, but with the Legion’s merger with RFCLA (where RFCLA was the senior partner), Ryan became a free agent for the offseason. Ryan has also received 19 caps for the USA Eagles, mostly in test matches and Pacific Nations Cups.

Despite his usage mainly as an impact player for the Legion, Ryan showed an incredible defensive ability, making 108 tackles (19.7 per 80 minutes) with an 88.5 percent tackling success rate. For comparison, the Seawolves’ Charles Elton, one of the best flankers in MLR, made 17.7 tackles per 80 with a 90.7 percent tackling success rate in 2025. It is still unclear whether Elton will return to Seattle for the 2026 season, and if he does, Ryan may very well find most of his work off the bench as he did in 2025.

Ryan is the fourth official free agent signing to the Seawolves roster for 2026, after Mark Bennett, Davy Coetzer, and Marno Redelinghuys.