The Seahawks have a new offensive coordinator this season, but it might be hard to notice any major changes once they hit the field this fall.
Brian Fleury was the 49ers’ tight ends coach before being tabbed to succeed Klint Kubiak in Seattle and both coaches were on Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers staff during the 2023 season. Kubiak’s offense was built off similar principles to the ones Shanahan has run throughout his career and quarterback Sam Darnold said on Wednesday that it has been “more of the same” under Fleury.
“Thankfully it hasn’t been too much of a transition. . . . It’s a lot of the same stuff [with] Fleury obviously coming from San Francisco, but a couple different wrinkles here and there,” Darnold said, via Brady Henderson of ESPN.com. “So it’s been good that way to be able to get some of that same verbiage but just a couple different wrinkles.”
Darnold said that Fleury’s “command over the entire system has been incredible” and the hope in Seattle will be that the minor tweaks will lead to the same kind of results come the regular season.
The last time that edge rusher Derick Hall took the field, he had two sacks that helped the Seahawks secure a Super Bowl win over the Patriots.
Hall is now set to have four more years to help add more Lombardi Trophies to the collection in Seattle. He signed a three-year extension with the reigning champs this week and he said the prospect of future titles were more important to him than anything he might be able to land on the open market as a free agent next year.
“I know we’re going to win a lot of games and a lot of championships here,” Hall said, via Andrew Destin of the Associated Press. “So, I’m willing to sacrifice whatever everybody else thought I’d be willing to make to be here and with this team.”
The Seahawks had to part ways with a number of key players this offseason, including Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker, because of the difficulties involved with keeping the band together in the Super Bowl era. Hall went in the other direction and that’s a happy prospect for the Seahawks’ defensive future.
Talk that Aaron Donald could come out of retirement and return to the Rams had Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp reaching out to Donald directly, and telling him not to do it.
Kupp told Rich Eisen that he reached out to Donald and told him he needs to stay retired.
“I already texted him and told him he’s not allowed. So we’re good,” Kupp joked. “I texted Aaron and said, ‘Don’t even think about it.’ I left it at that, so we’re good. I’m not worried about it. I already nipped it in the bud. No one has to worry.”
Kupp said the Seahawks know they’re going to have their hands full this season with the players already on the Rams, and an already tough defense adding Donald is something Kupp does not want to see.
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I love Aaron. He’s such a good football player, great dude.I loved taking the field with him in L.A. I don’t know what’s going to happen. That would be crazy. He’s a very, very good football player. I don’t care how old he is, how long he’s not played, Aaron Donald is Aaron Donald. But it doesn’t matter because I told him he can’t.”
Kupp and Donald were teammates on the Rams from 2017 to 2023. Kupp has never played against Donald, and wants to keep it that way.
The narrow gap between the Seahawks and Rams may have been closed, and then some, with this week’s acquisition of defensive end Myles Garrett by L.A.
Meeting with reporters on Wednesday, Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold was asked about the move.
“Myles is a great player,” Darnold said. “Shoot, Jared Verse is a great player as well, but I don’t think we see them until Week 16, so we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
He’s right. Arguably the best current rivalry in football won’t be renewed until Christmas, with a prime-time game between the two best teams in the league from 2025.
That gives Darnold and the Seahawks 15 weeks of the regular season to not have to worry about Garrett. After a Saturday, December 19, game at the Eagles, the Seahawks will have six days to get ready for the guy who managed to rack up 23.0 sacks in 2025.
Russell Wilson has made it official.
In a social-media video posted on Wednesday, Wilson announced his retirement from the NFL and confirmed that he will be working for CBS, on The NFL Today.
A third-round pick in 2012, Wilson won the starting job as a rookie, beating out free-agent arrival Matt Flynn.
Wilson made it to the Pro Bowl nine times in 10 seasons with the Seahawks. Traded to the Broncos in 2022, he had two seasons in Denver, one in Pittsburgh, and one with the Giants.
The Jets had interest in adding Wilson as a backup to Geno Smith, who once backed up Wilson in Seattle. Ultimately, Wilson chose TV over continuing to play.
In the years to come, Wilson’s Hall of Fame candidacy will be debated. Former Patriots defensive back Devin McCourty said on Tuesday’s PFT Live that Wilson was in the second tier of NFL quarterbacks during McCourty’s career, which largely overlapped with Wilson’s.
Still, Wilson had a strong run in the NFL. He defied his size, won a Super Bowl, and was the highest-paid player in the NFL, twice.
