Leonard Williams, Seahawks Ready to Take ‘Darkside’ Defense to New Heights in 2026

Mere hours away from school being out for the summer, at least in NFL terms, the Seattle Seahawks could have gone through the motions riding out their final minicamp practice before six weeks off.

But that wasn’t the case at all for the Seahawks, with the stakes clearly raised even without pads on and contact prohibited on June 11. During a spirited two-hour session at the VMAC, while Sam Darnold and Jaxon Smith-Njigba performed their usual theatrics linking up for multiple touchdowns, the defense got the last laughs, stifling all three offensive units in an utterly dominant closing red zone situational drill to the delight of cornerback Devon Witherspoon.

“Whole lotta ass kicking!” Witherspoon shouted emphatically as he jogged to the final team breakdown for the spring.

Long before that defensive beatdown to close out the practice, cornerback Noah Igbinoghene and safety D’Anthony Bell returned interceptions for touchdowns during team scrimmage periods and rookies Julian Neal and Michael Dansby added picks of their own during 7-on-7 red zone drills, giving coach Mike Macdonald’s unit a decisive “win” to wrap up the offseason program.