A group led by Vinod Khosla won the bidding for control of the Seahawks over a group led by Aditya Mittal and Wyc Grousbeck. The second-place selection has received a chance to partner with the victors.
Front Office Sports reports that members of the Mittal-Grousbeck group have been invited to buy a piece of the team.
It’s not known whether they accepted, and none of the minority partners have been named. At a sale price of $9.612 billion, Khosla was required to come up with $2.88 billion in cash, representing 30 percent of the team. The remaining 70 percent ($6.73 billion) could come from up to 24 limited partners.
The proposed deal has received unanimous approval by the other owners. Which means that the various percentages to be held by the minority owners were approved, too.
The difference comes from control. Khosla will run the show. For everyone else, it’s part-investment, part-vanity project. The limited partners become members of an exclusive club.
But the real prize is membership in the more exclusive club — controlling ownership of an NFL franchise. In that regard, Khosla beat out Mittal and Grousbeck.
It was a bit of a surprise when the Seahawks waived wide receiver and return man Emmanuel Henderson yesterday, as he was a sixth-round pick who looked good in the preseason. But Henderson remains in the Seahawks’ plans.
Henderson cleared waivers today, and the Seahawks are planning to bring him back to the practice squad.
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said during the preseason that he wanted Henderson thinking about being a great NFL wide receiver and an All-Pro kick returner. The Seahawks love his potential, even if they don’t think he’s ready to contribute in Week One.
Henderson is accustomed to having to bide his time before making a big contribution: He spent three years at Alabama but didn’t get on the field much before transferring to Kansas last year. In his one year at Kansas, Henderson was chosen by the Big 12 coaches as a first-team All-Big 12 returner and a third-team All-Big 12 receiver. Now the Seahawks will hope Henderson can once again take some time to develop and turn into a significant contributor.
On Sunday, the NFL placed three players on paid leave, officially known as the Commissioner Exempt List. The question now becomes: When will they return?
Under the Personal Conduct Policy, placement on paid leave “will generally last until the Disciplinary Officer and/or the league makes a disciplinary decision and any appeal from that discipline is fully resolved.” Because the league doesn’t finalize its disciplinary decisions until after the player’s criminal case ends, paid leave continues at least through the conclusion of the prosecution.
It doesn’t always work that way. In 2024, Patriots safety Jabrill Peppers missed seven games on paid leave. He was then reinstated before his case ended. In January 2025, a jury acquitted him of domestic assault charges.
So why did he return from paid leave before the case ended? That was never explained.
The fact that it happened for Peppers means that it could possibly happen for Packers running back Josh Jacobs, Broncos linebacker Jonathon Cooper, and/or Seahawks cornerback Terrion Arnold.
Some in league circles believe the Peppers case is an indication that the NFL will, in some cases, treat paid leave like an advance suspension, with the player (if later found responsible) getting credit for the games missed and returning the salary earned during the paid absence.
What that means for Jacobs, Cooper, and Arnold remains to be seen. Given that Jacobs is facing a misdemeanor battery charge, and in light of the fact that the baseline suspension for domestic violence is six games, it’s possible he’ll be reinstated after six games, even if his case is still pending.
It’s not a bad approach. Indefinite paid leave pending the resolution of the case puts extra pressure on the player to do a plea deal, and it incentivizes the prosecution to drag its feet. Yes, the player is getting paid. But he’s not playing. He wants to play.
Cooper’s situation is similar, although he’s facing a felony charge. Arnold’s case doesn’t involve domestic violence, but it includes eight serious felonies and a potential sentence of life in prison.
Regardless, the presumption that the player on paid leave won’t be back until his criminal case ends isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, as the Peppers case demonstrated. Any of the three players placed on paid leave could be back before their cases end.
The Seahawks made it official that running back Zach Charbonnet will start the season on the physically unable to perform list, and that makes it clear how big a role rookie running back Jadarian Price is going to have in the defending champions’ offense.
Last year the Seahawks used a two-back system with Charbonnet and Kenneth Walker sharing carries. Walker left in free agency and Charbonnet has still not fully recovered from the knee injury he suffered in last season’s playoffs, and the Seahawks did not add any notable running backs other than Price.
Price is the clear-cut No. 1 running back in Seattle, and backing him up will be George Holani, who gained just 73 yards on 22 carries last season, and Emanuel Wilson, a career backup in Green Bay who signed with the Seahawks this offseason.
The good news for the Seahawks is that Price got rave reviews in the offseason, with head coach Mike Macdonald saying he was ready for a big workload and quarterback Sam Darnold calling Price a special player. The Seahawks may need Price to be special if they’re going to repeat as champions.
The Seahawks finally signed cornerback Terrion Arnold, more than two weeks after agreeing to a deal with him. The league, as expected, promptly placed Arnold on paid leave.
The administrative move flows from eight felony charges against Arnold, arising from an alleged kidnapping and armed robbery that happened earlier this year in Florida.
On Sunday, Seahawks G.M. John Schneider was asked about the factors the team considered in signing the 2024 first-round pick.
“There is a ton of different factors that went into it,” Schneider told reporters. “Obviously, the legal stuff has to take care of itself, and we totally respect that. There are tons of different buckets to this situation. Just the advocates that we had, you know. We traded for Leon Washington the first year that we were here, and he’s basically like his father. Leon [Washington] will always be a legend here, and he has a great relationship with the organization.
“The character just didn’t really fit with the allegations and everybody we’ve talked to. But yes, there’s a long-term play. This isn’t a, ‘Let’s see how quickly we can get this done.’ Let’s get him in the building and see how it goes.”
Still, the allegations aren’t pretty. Schneider himself has called them “shocking.” He also has admitted that, if Arnold had been on the Seahawks roster when the allegations came to light, they “probably” would have had to release him.
With the allegations still unresolved, it’s hard to understand why, if the allegations would have compelled the Seahawks to cut Arnold, they were comfortable signing him.
This isn’t a second chance. The aftermath of first chance still lingers; Arnold hasn’t had his day in court.
If Arnold is convicted, he’ll likely never play for the Seahawks. If he agrees to a plea deal and satisfies its terms, then it will be time for a second chance.
Frankly, this seems to be a wager by the Seahawks. They’re willing to pay him not to play so that they’ll have a relationship in place with him if/when the case is resolved and he’s able to play.
For now, Arnold remains entitled to all constitutional protections. He gets his day in court. Still, until the allegations are resolved, they are (as Schneider said) “shocking.” It’s hard to imagine the league letting Arnold play until the criminal case is completely wrapped up with something other than a guilty verdict and a lengthy prison sentence.
