Ready to Defend Title, Seahawks ‘Cognizant’ of Lessons Learned From Previous Super Bowl Runs
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Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider celebrates with the Vince Lombardi trophy on the podium after defeating the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images [/caption]
Every season in the NFL is unique by nature thanks to free agency and the draft ensuring substantial roster turnover across the league, and while the Seattle Seahawks only lost five players in free agency off of their Super Bowl LX winning squad, they won’t be an exception to the rule with several newcomers coming on board as they begin their title defense.
With that said, though the vibes will undoubtedly be a bit different in 2026 regardless of the continuity on the roster, that doesn’t mean that the effects of playing into February and hoisting the Lombardi Trophy won’t have an impact on the upcoming season either. Fortunately for general manager John Schneider, this isn’t his first rodeo coming off of a Super Bowl run, and he’s eager to take advantage of the multitude of lessons learned from the last time the Seahawks made the big game in back to back seasons in 2014 and 2015.
Speaking with reporters at the NFL Annual Meeting in Phoenix, leaning on his first-hand experience from those prior Super Bowl runs, Schneider indicated that there’s a lot of factors Seattle must be “cognizant” of after playing deep into February that go well beyond building the roster and coaching staff.
"There's a lot of things within football operations that we need to improve on and be cognizant of," Schneider explained. "What happened the last time? Where are we taking this franchise? What are we going to look like in the training room, strength and conditioning, the fields? There's a lot of other stuff that goes into it - it's not just the roster and the coaches - there's a lot of other stuff that supports all of those people. So we've got to be cognizant of a lot of things there, lessons learned there, and lessons learned from a team building standpoint for sure."
Physically, advancing all the way to the Super Bowl comes with a price, even for a team such as the Seahawks that earned a coveted No. 1 seed and the corresponding bye week to open the postseason. While players on most of the other teams in the league begin recharging for the next season in early January, three additional weeks of practice and games take a toll on the players who already have battled through the rigors of a regular season, significantly cutting down on the offseason time to recover from a 20-game campaign before returning to the field in the spring.
Keeping that in mind, coach Mike Macdonald confirmed on Monday that Seattle had plans in place to adjust the upcoming offseason program as a means to provide more rest time for veterans. He didn’t provide specific details on how that will manifest once players report next month, but with input from the strength/conditioning staff as well as the medical staff, that could mean a bit more spacing between OTA and minicamp sessions or simply expecting less on-field participation from the aforementioned vets with incoming rookies and younger players getting the brunt of the reps instead.
As for the roster construction portion of his job responsibilities, Schneider has some adjustments of his own to implement based on what he learned more than a decade ago, particularly when it comes to the draft evaluation process.
In the past, after appearing in back-to-back Super Bowls, Schneider has noted on several occasions that the Seahawks faced a unique problem with incoming draft picks coming on board who revered the likes of Bobby Wagner, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, and other big name stars from the Super Bowl XLVIII-winning team. That admiration could be so strong at times that those players didn’t bring both feet through the door ready to dive headfirst into the competition against their idols, which ultimately altered how he approached evaluating the mindset and competitive nature of prospects.
With most of their championship team under contract and only four draft picks at the moment to further fortify the roster, it will be more important than ever for Schneider and the scouting department to make sure they get those evaluations right seeking hungry players who won’t be star struck by the presence of All-Pro cornerback Devon Witherspoon among others and want to compete with their new teammates for playing time.
“We'll be way more cognizant of it," Schneider said on Monday. "How do they feel about [Devon Witherspoon], how do they feel about Leonard [Williams], [Byron] Murphy? There's got to be a level of confidence, self-efficacy that we have to dig deeper into… Not just being fans of these guys, but like, 'I want to take their jobs.' The competition just rises to the top.”
In free agency, at least in some ways, Schneider has attacked this offseason differently than he did after their two previous Super Bowl trips. While the price tag proved to be too expensive to bring back running back Ken Walker III, safety Coby Bryant, cornerback Riq Woolen, or outside linebacker Boye Mafe, he still managed to re-sign speedy receiver/kick return specialist Rashid Shaheed and cornerback Josh Jobe on multi-year deals, inking those contracts before picking up superstar receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s fifth-year option and ultimately extending him on a record-setting $168.6 million deal.
With minimal dead money on the books and ample cap space to work with, the Seahawks also prioritized retaining key role players that they may have let slip through the cracks in 2014 and 2015.
On the restricted free agent front, Seattle handed linebacker Drake Thomas a two-year, $8 million deal, rewarding him for his efforts as a budding starter alongside Ernest Jones. After signing tight end Brady Russell, long snapper Chris Stoll, and defensive tackle Brandon Pili to new contracts, Schneider also matched Jacksonville’s two-year, $5 million offer sheet for beloved receiver Jake Bobo, locking down another core special teams player and locker room glue guy in a move that he deemed an easy one to make.
"Jake knew we wanted him back the whole time," Schneider said. "We were just going through a lot that weekend with Jax's negotiation, we were in draft meetings, and it was like, let's get to Monday or Tuesday and it was like, 'We're matching that.'"
Even with external free agent signings trying to plug various gaps, Schneider and the Seahawks maintained the same principles seeking younger players with upside who offered special teams value on one-year contracts. Among the players added to the roster from other teams, cornerback Noah Igbinoghene, safety Rodney Thomas III, and safety D’Anthony Bell all have extensive special teams experience in the league and bring desired positional versatility to the equation to fit Macdonald’s scheme.
Igbinoghene, a former first round pick out of Auburn, has previous NFL experience as both a boundary cornerback and a nickel back. In the past two seasons in Washington, he also spent a fair amount of time in the box functioning like a third safety, recording his first sack and three pressures on just four blitz attempts. As for Thomas, he started for two seasons as a free safety with the Colts, including intercepting four passes as a rookie in 2022, before settling into a reserve role as a special teams stalwart behind Nick Cross the past two years.
In the case of Bell, the Seahawks already know what he can provide as an insurance policy behind rising star Nick Emmanwori as well as a special teams lynchpin, as he recorded a sack and a blocked punt in 11 games last year with the team before the Panthers claimed him off waivers in Week 18. For his efforts, the team intends to give him a Super Bowl ring, a sign of the immense respect the coaching staff has for him and the contributions he made in a variety of ways last year to help lead to that title.
Still with $30 million in cap space to work with, Schneider likely isn’t done making free agent additions, though he likely will only be scanning the bargain bin aisle rather than actually going to checkout until the draft takes place in late April. Once Seattle has conducted its draft and a clearer picture presents itself in regard to remaining needs for the upcoming season, then the last-minute shopping likely will commence, especially when the compensatory pick deadline passes in early May.
Until then, Schneider, Macdonald, and everyone else involved in draft preparation on the personnel side of the equation will continue to dig in on prospects, seeking the right competitors to thrust into the mix once the helmets come back out for OTAs. Time will tell if the adjustments made from past Super Bowl trips pay dividends or not, but the Seahawks hope those lessons will prove quite fruitful as they attempt to stay atop the NFL hierarchy pursuing back-to-back Lombardi Trophies.
