With 1:13 remaining in the first half of the NFC Championship Game, Rams coach Sean McVay called a pass, which fell incomplete, stopping the clock. The next play was another incomplete pass. That forced the Rams to punt with 1:03 left, giving the Seahawks plenty of time and timeouts to march down the field for a touchdown before halftime.
McVay still regrets that.
McVay called his clock management at that point in the game a “major mistake” in his appearance on PFT Live this week. When he looks back on the 2025 season, he doesn’t worry about things he couldn’t control, but it does still irk him that he could have called better plays in that situation than he called.
“I try not to dwell on stuff that really doesn’t move me forward,” McVay said. “Now, what I do dwell on is that NFC Championship Game. One thing you don’t do in a two-minute situation, don’t put the defense back out on the field. We run it on a first-and-10, and then you know what? Should have run it again. They got three timeouts, we end up throwing it, it goes incomplete, then we go incomplete on third down, give them three downs, they go score a touchdown. Changes the momentum of that going into the half. So, what I do evaluate are some of those after-action reviews on situationally.”
McVay said there were other decisions he made that drew criticism, like a failed fourth down in the fourth quarter, that he stands by. But he could have handled clock management better.
“What I would do differently is handle the end of the first half differently,” McVay said. “Handle some things differently game management-wise.”
Seahawks Clips
The NFL has picked the 2026 Hard Knocks team. It also has picked the 2027 Hard Knocks team.
For the first time ever, the NFL has announced the subjects of the long-running HBO docuseries for the next two installments. Via Adam Schefter of ESPN, it will be the Seahawks in 2026 and the Patriots in 2027.
Neither team has ever served as the subject of the show. And both, obviously, made it to Super Bowl LX.
Once upon a time, the NFL exempted from Hard Knocks consideration any team that had made it to the playoffs within the past two seasons. That factor is obviously now long gone.
The NFL also started in-season Hard Knocks several years ago. In recent seasons, it has focused on an entire division. Presumably, the 2026 installment won’t focus on the NFC West — and the 2027 version won’t center on the AFC East.
The league had a one-year run of offseason Hard Knocks. It was so revealing (in a bad way) for the Giants that the experiment ended after one year.
The Seahawks will host the season opener on Wednesday, Sept. 9. Only the opponent is unknown.
With the Rams and 49ers playing in Melbourne on Thursday, Sept. 10, the Seahawks’ possible opponents are the Cardinals, Chiefs, Chargers, Bears, Cowboys, Giants and Patriots.
You can now scratch off the Chiefs.
Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said Monday that his team will not start the season in Seattle.
“I don’t think that’s on the table anymore,” Hunt said, via Nate Taylor of ESPN. “I think from a league standpoint, there would be some concern whether [Patrick Mahomes] would be ready to go.”
Mahomes tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in a Dec. 14 game, and Dr. Dan Cooper repaired the tear the following day. Mahomes recently posted a video to social media showing himself on the field throwing the ball.
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald has said he’s excited about his team’s running backs even after the departure of Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker. And the running backs the Seahawks will feature this year include Zach Charbonnet.
Charbonnet tore his ACL in the divisional round of the playoffs and had surgery in February. Players sometimes need a full year to recover from ACL surgery, but Macdonald said that won’t be the case for Charbonnet, who will play this year.
“Zach’s a great player, he’s not going to miss the whole year,” Macdonald said.
Charbonnet will surely miss at least the start of the season, and it’s unclear who the Seahawks’ starting running back will be in Year One. But Macdonald sounds about as confident as a coach could be that his team can withstand the loss of the Super Bowl MVP.
The Seahawks saw Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker leave for Kansas City early in free agency and they haven’t made a big splash to replace him in their backfield, but it isn’t an area of great concern for head coach Mike Macdonald.
Macdonald’s current backfield options include Zach Charbonnet, George Holani, Kenny McIntosh and the newly signed Emanuel Wilson. Charbonnet tore his ACL during the postseason and McIntosh missed the entire year with the same injury, but Macdonald said the team is comfortable with where they are in their rehab work and with the overall makeup of the running back room.
“I think what you saw from George Holani in the offseason, or really at the end of the season, Super Bowl, NFC championship, the guy played great football, as he did before, he got hurt, you know, at the beginning of the season,” Macdonald said, via Steve Wyche of NFL Media. “So, we’re always looking to make our team, you know, take the next step, but the guys we’re having the building were excited for, and I’m pretty sure it’s Zach Charbonnet scored, like, 14 touchdowns last year, so it was pretty good.”
General Manager John Schneider was equally unfazed by the options on hand when discussing the backfield plans recently and the Seahawks still have time to add to the group as they gear up for a title defense this fall.
Future Hall of Fame linebacker Bobby Wagner spent the past two seasons with the Commanders. He’s currently a free agent. The team’s head coach said the franchise hasn’t ruled out bringing Wagner back for a third year.
“We would never shut the door on him,” Commanders coach Dan Quinn said Saturday, via John Keim of ESPN.
That said, the Commanders seem to be content with the players they have on the roster.
“We do feel like there’s some players that are about to take off at [his] position,” Quinn said.
Whatever Wagner does next, he’s a sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famer. He has earned first-team All-Pro honors six times, and All-Pro second-team honors five times.
In 2014, Wagner finished fifth in the NFL MVP voting.
After 10 straight years with the Seahawks, Wagner joined the Rams in 2022. He returned to Seattle in 2023 before signing with Washington for 2024.
The Super Bowl champions have made an addition to their coaching staff.
Jimmie Dougherty will join the Seahawks as an offensive assistant, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.
Last year Dougherty was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the University of Washington. It was announced in February that he would not be returning to the Huskies.
The 47-year-old Dougherty played college football at Missouri and has been a coach ever since his playing career ended, always at the college level. In addition to two stints at Washington, he has coached at Illinois Wesleyan, San Diego, San Jose State, Michigan, UCLA and Arizona.
Two years ago, the NFL seized on a quirk in the calendar that allowed the league to televise a Friday night game, Friday Night Lights be damned. With Friday a Week 1 option only when it’s the first Friday in September, the league can’t do it in 2026, when Week 1 coincides with the second full weekend of the month.
Enter Wednesday-Thursday.
The NFL has announced that, this year, the Seahawks will host the opening game on Wednesday, September 9, with the 49ers and the Rams playing on Thursday, September 10 in Australia.
That’s likely the new formula, for the years when Thursday-Friday doesn’t work because of the league’s broadcast antitrust exemption.
Wednesday-Thursday will be the likely plan in 2027 and 2028, with the Super Bowl champion hosting the Wednesday game and an international contest happening on Thursday. In 2029, Friday will be in play. Ditto for 2030, 2031, 2032, and 2033.
Of course, none of that matters if/when the league expands to 18 games and two byes. At that point, Week 1 likely would be moved to Labor Day weekend, which the NFL abandoned after 2001.
Here’s the other catch. If the current approach continues, with no NFL football on Labor Day weekend, the league’s effort to find more ways to cram cheese into the pizza would entail not a Thursday-Friday two-pack of games but a Wednesday-Thursday-Friday trifecta.
Seahawks General Manager John Schneider said on Wednesday that he felt the team was “blessed” when wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba fell to them with the 20th overall pick in 2023 and the feeling hasn’t changed over the three years.
Smith-Njigba broke out with 100 catches in his second season and won the offensive player of the year award in 2025 after posting 119 catches for 1,793 yards and 10 touchdowns. The icing on the cake came in the postseason when Smith-Njigba played a starring role for the Super Bowl champs and the Seahawks made it clear that they see a lot more of the same to come this month.
A four-year, $168.6 million contract extension came together this month and head coach Mike Macdonald said at a press conference that it solidifies the wideout as a player they will be building the franchise around for years to come.
“One of the great things that paints a great picture about what Jax means to us being a foundational piece of our football team and our organization is we’ve got a full house here,” Macdonald said, via the team’s website. “This is pretty awesome. We’ve got dang near the whole Seattle Seahawks organization supporting Jax on this day. I just want to emphasize how excited we are. He’s going to be here and he’s a foundational piece, he’s a cornerstone of our team. Just being able to see his growth over the two years that we’ve been here. I mean, the sky’s the limit. This is the beginning. This is another iteration of our football team, and Jax is obviously going to be a huge part of it and where we want to go and where we want to take our team, and I know it’s early in his career, but he’s already a leader on our team and will be for a long time. So we’re really excited.”
The Seahawks also selected cornerback Devon Witherspoon in the first round in 2023 and getting a deal done with him would give the Seahawks another pillar as they try to maintain the level they reached during the 2025 season.
Najee Harris visited the Seahawks on Wednesday and the running back has another visit lined up with a prospective employer for the 2026 season.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Harris has a visit planned with the Raiders as well.
The Raiders have 2025 first-round pick Ashton Jeanty at the top of the backfield depth chart. Dylan Laube and Chris Collier are the only other backs currently on the roster in Las Vegas.
Harris is recovering from a torn Achilles he suffered while playing for the Chargers last September. The 2021 first-round pick spent his first four seasons with the Steelers and ran for 4,312 yards during his time in Pittsburgh.
