Seahawks Clips
The Seahawks will open the season on Wednesday, Sept. 9, rather than on the first Thursday of the season as is usual, Joe Flint of the Wall Street Journal reports.
It has been known for more than a month that the Super Bowl LX champions might start on Wednesday, with the NFL also playing a Week 1 game in Australia. The Rams and 49ers will play in Melbourne to open the season. The Seahawks’ opponent is not yet known, with the NFL to release the schedule in May.
But it was uncertain which game would take place on which day.
The Seahawks’ game, which NBC will televise at 8:20 p.m. ET, will mark only the second time in 75 years that the NFL has opened its season with a Wednesday game. The Cowboys and Giants played on a Wednesday in 2012 to avoid a conflict with Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
The Wednesday night game will create a conflict in Seattle, with the Mariners and Sounders also scheduled to play that night. The Major League Baseball team and the Major League Soccer are expected to reschedule their games.
The Seahawks will play the Cardinals, Cowboys, Giants, Bears, Chiefs, Chargers or Patriots in the season opener.
The NFL is unable to play a game on Friday in Week 1 this season. Under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, the NFL is banned from televising games on Friday night or Saturday from the second weekend in September through the second weekend in December. The way Labor Day fell in 2024 and 2025, the league was able to play games on the Friday of opening weekend.
The Seahawks are re-signing inside linebacker and core special teams player Chazz Surratt to a one-year deal, Aaron Wilson of KPRC reports.
Surratt, 29, spent last season with the Seahawks after they signed him Aug. 28 following his release by the 49ers. He played 60 percent of the Seahawks’ special teams snaps before going on injured reserve with an ankle injury.
He was activated back to the active roster before Super Bowl LX but was inactive for the game.
Surratt has appeared in 52 career games for the Vikings, Jets, and Seahawks since 2021, when he entered the league as a third-round pick of Minnesota. He has played 153 defensive snaps and 848 on special teams in his career.
On Monday morning, before the Chiefs traded for former Jets quarterback Justin Fields, someone was throwing spaghetti on the question of whether Kansas City was eyeing Russell Wilson as Patrick Mahomes insurance.
With the Chiefs off the board, what’s next for Wilson?
His days as a starting quarterback have ended. The only teams with a current vacancy at the top of the depth chart are the Cardinals and the Steelers. A Pittsburgh reunion is highly unlikely, even if Aaron Rodgers doesn’t return.
The Raiders possibly, maybe would be interested in a short-term bridge, if they aren’t comfortable with putting Fernando Mendoza on the field right away. Wilson may not be inclined to once again be the three-game starter before getting the tap.
Then again, Wilson may not have many choices. Which raises the question of whether he’s willing to take whatever he can get, making him one of the very rare former franchise quarterbacks who’ll accept being No. 2 or No. 3 on a depth chart.
Joe Flacco, who was twice the highest-paid quarterback in the NFL, is and has been willing to do that. Most of the guys who were once at or among the top of the market won’t accept anything other than a gift-wrapped starting job.
It can’t be easy for a guy who has spent so much time as “the guy” to accept becoming “just another guy.” But it happens to any pro football player who stays beyond the shelf life of his high-end skills.
In preparation for his current shot at free agency, Wilson parted ways with his longtime agent, Mark Rodgers, and hired David Mulugheta of Athletes First. During Wilson’s best years, it helped him to have an agent who had one and only one NFL client; the negotiations on Wilson’s contracts were never compromised by the agent’s broader business interests as to other players he represented.
Now, Wilson needs the help of someone who may have the league-wide goodwill to get Wilson a roster spot in exchange for keeping the agent happy as to the looming negotiations with a higher-profile client.
The mere fact that Wilson made the change represents an acknowledgement, conscious or not, that things have changed for him. He still has a high degree of confidence in his skills. Which isn’t surprising. For all NFL players, confidence that borders on delusion is a must.
At some point, however, the basis for the confidence evaporates. By the end of last season, Wilson had slipped behind Jameis Winston on the Giants’ depth chart.
Wilson’s third foray into free agency continues. Two years ago, he took the minimum from the Steelers because the Broncos owed him $39 million. This time around, the minimum salary of $1.3 million may be Wilson’s only option.
And the overriding question will be whether, after earning more than $315 million in his career, he’s willing to commit seven or more months for the smallest payday since signing his slotted four-year, $2.996 million deal as a third-round pick, 14 years ago.
Running back Ssigned his exclusive rights free agent tender on Monday, the Seahawks announced.
Holani and safety Ty Okada were the team’s two exclusive rights free agents that the Seahawks tendered earlier this month. An exclusive rights free agent is a player on an expiring contract who has fewer than three accrued seasons.
Holani signed as an undrafted free agent out of Boise State in 2024.
He appeared in 11 games during the 2025 season, rushing for 73 yards and a touchdown on 22 regular-season carries before landing on injured reserve. He also scored a touchdown on special teams, recovering a kickoff in the end zone in a Week 2 win in Pittsburgh.
A day before Seahawks G.M. John Schneider addressed the potential impact of Washington’s looming “millionaire tax” on the defending Super Bowl champions, Simms and I stumbled into a conversation about state income taxes during PFT Live.
The spark came from the trade that has sent defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa from the Cowboys (and Texas) to the 49ers (and California). In his last stop, there was no state income tax. At his new team, he’ll lose 13.3 percent, off the top.
It’s not as clean and simple as every penny of compensation being taxed, or not, by the state where the team plays. For road trips, the game check is taxed by the state in which the game happens. It gets more complicated as to per-game roster bonuses. As we hear it, some states try to tax the visiting player based also on a percentage of the full-year roster bonuses and/or the prorated portion of the signing bonus for the season in which the game is played.
And, yes, the lack of state income tax becomes a selling point in free agency, which explains Schneider’s concerns about Washington’s tax rate for millionaires increasing from 0.0 percent to 9.9. But, as Odighizuwa will learn the hard way, that doesn’t matter if the free-agent contract also doesn’t include a no-trade clause.
Regardless, the variations in state income tax create an imbalance as it relates to the most important aspect of anyone’s pay — how much they take home.
Simms mentioned on Thursday’s PFT Live that he heard something interesting from someone in the league who saw the tax discussion from the day before. (And, yes, plenty of people in the league watch PFT Live — probably because it features no phony debates, no false praise, no reckless hype, no minced words, and no performative antics.) There’s an argument to be made that the salary cap should take state income taxes into account.
It would be complicated, given that taxes depend on where games are played. Still, every team has eight or nine home games per year. That’s roughly half of the compensation, taxed based on where the team is located.
The real question is whether teams should get more to spend, given that more of what is paid will end up being taken off the top by the state government. Some teams may not want to do it, since having a higher cap means having a higher floor means spending more money that otherwise would be siphoned away as pure profit.
And the numbers would be significant. At a 2026 salary cap of $301.2 million, providing the Rams, Chargers, and 49ers with a 13.3-percent bump would push the cap to $341.2 million for those teams.
The deeper question is whether state income taxes make a competitive difference. As noted the other day, most of the teams in the no-tax states haven’t been to a Super Bowl this century. (The Seahawks and Buccaneers are the exception; the Titans, Cowboys, Dolphins, Jaguars, and Texans are not.)
Part of the problem is that most players don’t fret about state income taxes, even if they should. Players focus mainly on annual average, the true locker-room measuring stick that determines the pecking order among the most and least valuable players.
Although it would indeed be difficult to come up with the right way to determine cap credits, since the total tax burden depends on where games are played, that would be doable. The bigger challenge would be to get all teams in states with income tax to agree to a higher cap in order to account for it.
News flash: Not every team is as obsessed with winning as they pretend to be. For many owners, it’s about profit. Having more money to spend means having less to buy giant yachts or that much-needed tenth home. Especially since the owners of the teams in the high-tax states are also paying those increased rates, too.
Just kidding. The ultra-rich have seemingly cracked the code on eating nearly every ounce of what they kill. Which is another reason why the owners of the teams in the high-tax states won’t want to have more to spend — even if they have to say they do.
The Seahawks have agreed to terms on a one-year deal with cornerback Noah Igbinoghene, Michael-Shawn Dugar of TheAthletic.com reports.
Noah, 26, spent the past two seasons in Washington.
In 2025, he totaled 35 tackles, one sack and five pass breakups in 15 games with two starts. He played 373 defensive snaps and 72 on special teams.
He played all 17 games in 2024, with 10 starts, and saw action on 76 percent of the defensive snaps.
The Dolphins made Igbinoghene a first-round pick in 2020, and he played two years in Miami and one in Dallas before landing in Washington.
In his career, Igbinoghene has recorded 119 tackles, one interception, 17 pass breakups and two fumble recoveries.
Washington is one of a handful of states with NFL teams that carry the benefit of no state income tax. That could be changing.
A 9.9-percent “millionaire tax” has emerged from the legislature, and Governor Bob Ferguson plans to sign it into law. As written, it becomes effective in 2028.
That could impact the local NFL team, when it comes to attracting players to the state.
“There were a bunch of agents texting me the other day like, ‘Hey, can’t use that anymore, buddy,’” G.M. John Schneider said Thursday on Seattle Sports 710-AM, via Brady Henderson of ESPN. “I think it is for all the pro teams here in town. It’s always been a huge attraction, especially competing with the California teams. It’s been a big deal for us. So it’s going to sting, from a recruiting standpoint and what that looks like. . . . It’s going to sting, no question about it.”
The other NFL states that currently have no state income tax are Nevada, Texas, Tennessee, and Florida. California imposes a 13.3-percent tax on the state’s highest earners.
On one hand, the impact on take-home pay becomes a positive when it comes to recruiting players. On the other hand, it’s not as if the Raiders, Texans, Cowboys, Titans, Jaguars, Buccaneers, and Dolphins are powerhouse teams. Only one of them — the Buccaneers — has made it to a Super Bowl this century.
The 49ers and Rams, meanwhile, have been to six between them since the 2001 season.
The Seahawks have been to three since 2014, without state income tax. If/when the “millionaire tax” becomes effective in 2028, would-be millionaires with options could choose to go elsewhere.
Wide receiver Dareke Young is joining Klint Kubiak in Las Vegas.
Young’s agents announced that he has agreed to terms on a contract with the Raiders. Kubiak became the Raiders’ head coach after serving as the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator in their run to the Super Bowl LX title.
Young was a member of that Seahawks team and he spent the last four seasons in Seattle. Young had two catches for 48 yards in nine regular season appearances last year and he also played in all three of the team’s postseason contests.
Young saw action on special teams in addition to offense in Seattle and he had 12 tackles across his 12 overall appearances.
The Seahawks are signing safety D’Anthony Bell to a one-year deal, according to Jordan Schultz of The Schultz Report.
Bell spent 14 games with the Seahawks last season before finishing the season with the Panthers, who claimed him off waivers Jan. 1. He did not play a game for Carolina, but saw action on 96 defensive snaps and 251 on special teams in 14 games with the Seahawks.
Bell entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Browns in 2022.
He played 50 games in three seasons for the Browns, with seven starts, totaling 61 tackles, two interceptions and a forced fumble.
Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald kept most of his staff after winning Super Bowl LX.
He did lose offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, who left to become head coach of the Raiders, and Macdonald hired Brian Fleury as the team’s new offensive coordinator.
Macdonald announced his staff on Thursday, and it includes four other newcomers in inside linebackers coach Zachary Orr, pass-game strategist Daniel Stern, senior offensive assistant/running backs Thomas Hammock and offensive assistant Johnathan Williams. Orr, Stern and Hammock previously worked with Macdonald in Baltimore, while Williams most recently served as the offensive coordinator at South Carolina State.
Several coaches who were on the staff last season received a title change for 2026.
Tyson Prince was promoted to quarterbacks coach to replace Andrew Janocko, who went with Kubiak to Las Vegas as the Raiders’ offensive coordinator. Offensive passing game coordinator Jake Peetz also added the title of quarterbacks coach. Offensive line coach John Benton added the title senior offensive assistant; Josh Bynes was promoted to outside linebackers coach, with Chris Partridge, who held that title last season, moving to defensive run game coordinator.
With Orr taking over as inside linebackers coach, Kirk Olivadotti moves to a new role of senior defensive assistant. On the other side of the ball, Justin Outten goes from run game specialist and assistant offensive line coach to run game coordinator.
Orr and Macdonald are reuniting after spending significant portions of their respective careers together in Baltimore. Orr played three seasons with the Ravens as a linebacker from 2014-16 before his career was cut short by a neck/spine condition, coinciding with the start of Macdonald’s NFL coaching career.
Here is the full 2026 coaching staff:
- Mike Macdonald (Head Coach)
- Aden Durde (Defensive Coordinator)
- Brian Fleury (Offensive Coordinator)
- Jay Harbaugh (Special Teams Coordinator)
- John Benton (Senior Offensive Assistant/Offensive Line)
- Mack Brown (Tight Ends)
- Josh Bynes (Outside Linebackers)
- Michael Byrne (Assistant Tight Ends)
- Rob Caprice (Defensive Assistant)
- Keller Chryst (Defensive Quality Control)
- Devin Fitzsimmons (Assistant Special Teams)
- Leslie Frazier (Assistant Head Coach)
- Thomas Garcia (Strength & Conditioning Assistant)
- Thomas Hammock (Senior Offensive Assistant/Running Backs)
- Justin Hinds (Defensive Line)
- Jeff Howard (Safeties)
- Frisman Jackson (Wide Receivers)
- Ivan Lewis (Director of Player Performance & Development)
- Quinshon Odom (Assistant Offensive Line)
- Tim Ojeda (Strength & Conditioning Assistant)
- Kirk Olivadotti (Senior Defensive Assistant)
- Zach Orr (Inside Linebackers)
- Justin Outten (Run Game Coordinator)
- Chris Partridge (Defensive Run Game Coordinator)
- Jake Peetz (Offensive Passing Game Coordinator / Quarterbacks)
- Mark Philipp (Associate Head Strength & Conditioning)
- Tyson Prince (Quarterbacks Coach)
- Karl Scott (Defensive Passing Game Coordinator/Defensive Backs)
- Daniel Stern (Pass Game Strategist)
- Neiko Thorpe (Defensive Assistant/Defensive Backs)
- Danny van Dijk (Head Strength & Conditioning)
- Johnathan Williams (Offensive Assistant)
- Jamie Yanchar (Strength & Conditioning Assistant)
