Seahawks Banking on Noah Igbinoghene, Free Agent Signings to Help ‘Refill’ Post-Super Bowl Holes
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Detroit Lions cornerback Arthur Maulet (27) tackles Washington Commanders kick returner Noah Igbinoghene (6) during the second half at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md. on Sunday, November 9, 2025. [/caption]
Winning the Super Bowl comes with a heavy price, as other NFL teams covet signing players from the defending champions once free agency opens a few short weeks after hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, and the Seattle Seahawks were no exception to the rule this offseason.
In the early stages of free agency, also known as the legal tampering period, Super Bowl LX MVP Ken Walker III bolted for Kansas City to pair up with Patrick Mahomes in the Chiefs’ backfield on a record-setting contract for a running back. Hours later, safety Coby Bryant netted a mega deal from the Bears and outside linebacker Boye Mafe landed a $60 million deal from the Bengals. The following day, former Pro Bowl cornerback Riq Woolen took his talents to Philadelphia on a one-year deal with the Eagles.
But while the roster suffered a fair amount of attrition early in free agency, however, Seattle actually came out quite well maintaining the core of its Super Bowl squad compared to past predecessors. With the calendar soon to flip to April, the Seahawks only lost a total of five free agents, with receiver Dareke Young going to the Raiders being the last departure. In comparison, the Eagles lost 21 players after winning the Super Bowl one year earlier. Two years ago, the Chiefs lost 12 players, while the Rams lost 21 after winning it all in 2022.
On the flip side, Seahawks general manager John Schneider retained receiver Rashid Shaheed, cornerback Josh Jobe, linebacker Drake Thomas with multi-year deals, locking up three talented starters from the title squad. In addition, he re-signed a bevy of key role players who excel on special teams, including matching a restricted free agent tender from the Jaguars to keep receiver Jake Bobo.
"The goal is to try to retain as many great players as we can," Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald told reporters at the NFL's annual league meetings in Phoenix. "We love our roster, and we love our guys, and we're trying to keep that unit together, to have that continuity. So that's what we've been trying to do, and that's part of the long-term plans as well, and how we budget. I'm not really in those conversations on budgeting for multiple years in and out, but I know that's how we've done business, and I feel like we've executed pretty well for the most part.”
Unfortunately, as Macdonald acknowledged, losing talented players comes with the territory after winning the NFL’s ultimate prize. But with Schneider at the controls, he believes the Seahawks have done a fine job of keeping most of the band together and even with former starters such as Walker and Bryant departing, the team has “refilled” most of those losses in free agency.
Standing out as arguably the most intriguing of Seattle’s external signings, Macdonald will finally get a chance to coach cornerback Noah Igbinoghene, a former first round pick who the team has tried to sign the previous two years. Still just 26 years old after six seasons in the league with three different teams, he spent the past two years in Washington playing for coach Dan Quinn, seeing the majority of his defensive snaps in the slot while occasionally lining up in the box and shifting outside to the boundary.
Taking advantage of those opportunities with the Commanders, Igbinoghene produced 10 pass breakups in coverage, including setting a career-high with six of them in 2024, while not allowing a touchdown in 2025. Playing more in the box than he did earlier in his career with the Dolphins and Cowboys, where he rarely saw the field on defense and primarily played special teams, he also made a few splashy plays as a blitzer, generating his first career sack to go with three pressures on only four blitz attempts last season.
After losing Woolen to the Eagles, Macdonald values Igbinoghene’s versatility as a multi-faceted defensive back and envisions his best football still being in front of him, seeing a talented player who can benefit immensely from playing in a quality scheme alongside Devon Witherspoon and Jobe and will be ready to jump in to compete for reps on the outside as well as in the slot against the likes of Nehemiah Pritchett and Shemar Jean-Charles on Day 1.
"He's a guy that we've been interested in for a while," Macdonald said of Igbinoghene. "And finally gave him some grief for maybe being a year late for when he should have been here. But a guy [who can play] inside outside flex and there's great opportunity right now in our secondary to go carve yourself out a great role."
In the case of Bryant, the Seahawks didn’t have to make any notable moves to replace the veteran safety, as Ty Okada re-signed as an exclusive rights free agent coming off a breakout season. Starting 11 games in place of Julian Love and Bryant in 2025, he set career-highs in tackles (58) and pass breakups (four) while adding 1.5 sacks as an opportunistic blitzer, showing he had what it takes to excel in Macdonald’s defense in his own right.
Still, Seattle didn’t want to go into the draft without adding safety reinforcements on the depth chart and Schneider checked off that box by making not one, but two signings late in the first week of free agency.
Coming over from Indianapolis, where he previously started full time for two seasons coming out of Yale, Rodney Thomas II brings a wealth of experience along with special teams skills and plenty of positional multiplicity. The lengthy 6-2 defender intercepted four passes as a rookie in 2022, but his play took a step back the following season and he eventually lost his starting job to Nick Cross, taking on a situational sub-package role over the past two years.
Since entering the league, Thomas has played the vast majority of his defensive snaps (1,624) as a free safety and demonstrated the ability to be able to jump passing lanes to create turnovers as a single-high or two deep defender, making him an ideal fit to bring on board in an effort to help offset the loss of Bryant’s range and ball skills. At minimum, he’s a quality insurance policy to fill Okada’s old stead as the third traditional safety, and it’s possible he could even push Okada this summer.
But the Seahawks also wanted to ensure they had quality depth behind sophomore sensation Nick Emmanwori, who roams the box like an extra linebacker and possesses a unique skill set at 6-3, 225 pounds. To make that happen, they brought back a familiar face, reuniting with veteran D’Anthony Bell, who played defensive snaps in 11 games for the team last year before the Panthers claimed him off waivers when the team attempted to slip him to the practice squad in December.
When Emmanwori missed three games early last season with a sprained ankle, Bell helped pick up the slack with a pair of tackles on 33 defensive snaps subbing in as a third safety in nickel and dime sets, and he notched a sack in the rookie’s first game back on his lone defensive snap in a loss to the Buccaneers. His greatest contributions, however, came on special teams, including a blocked punt in a Week 3 blowout victory over the Saints, and Macdonald couldn’t be more excited to have him back in the fold.
"Panthers kind of stole him from us there at the end," Macdonald quipped. "That was a bummer, but D'Anthony's been an asset for us. You can probably rattle off some big plays that he's made for us, the punt block. He's a guy that gives us safety flexibility, but also some big nickel flex as a backup to Nick. So that's going to be something we want to make sure that if Nick can't find his helmet for a series or two, we can still go in and operate our defense."
Offensively, Seattle will miss Walker’s elite explosiveness and big play ability, traits they weren’t going to be able to replace with another free agent back in his stead. Making his departure even more significant, while Macdonald indicated Zach Charbonnet won’t miss the entire 2026 season, the fourth-year back likely will be out until at least October as he recovers from a torn ACL suffered during the team’s Super Bowl run in January.
But on Monday, Macdonald didn’t seem concerned by the state of the Seahawks’ running back stable. In fact, he thinks those outside of the building may be “sleeping on the guys we have a little bit,” including newcomer Emanuel Wilson, a physical 230-pound back Schneider signed to a one-year deal to help replace Charbonnet’s tough-nosed running. Pairing the former Packers backup with George Holani, Kenny McIntosh, Cam Akers, Velus Jones, and Jacardia Wright, he loves the wide array of skill sets they have assembled at the position with the understanding they could still add in free agency and/or the draft as well.
"George Holani played great for us down the stretch. What was the number on Charb's (Zach Charbonnet) touchdowns? I mean Zach's a great player. He's not going to miss the whole year,” Macdonald commented. “And then Kenny Mac [McIntosh] will be able to come back and then the guys we added. So, I'm excited about how that room goes from here, and then, obviously, just like the rest of the team, any opportunity to take our team to the next level, we're going to look at it. So that's how John [Schneider] rolls."
In the grand scheme of things, it wouldn’t be realistic for the Seahawks to expect Igbinoghene, Thomas, Bell, or Wilson to jump on board and replace the production of any of the players they were signed to “replace” this spring on their own. All four players received one-year contracts for a reason, providing a chance for them to prove themselves with the defending champions. They will have to earn every opportunity they receive on one of the NFL’s most talented rosters.
But as players such as Jobe and Thomas have demonstrated since Macdonald arrived in town evolving from waiver wire pickups into quality starters who landed second contracts, Seattle has cultivated an environment that consistently brings out the best in players. Igbinoghene has first round pedigree and flashed at times in Washington, suggesting he could take his game to another level with a more talented supporting cast around him. Thomas has size, athleticism, and instincts worthy of a starter, while Bell has already shown he can make a positive impact in Macdonald’s defense and Wilson rushed for over 100 yards in one of his two starts last year in Green Bay.
With most of their Super Bowl roster intact on all three sides of the football, the Seahawks don’t need any of their outside free agent signings to be stars. Instead, Macdonald and Schneider have confidence all four of these outside additions to be positive factors on offense, defense, and/or special teams, plugging those gaps from a depth standpoint and helping play a part in replacing lost production rather than being expected to shoulder the whole load as the team pushes for another Super Bowl title.
