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Devon Witherspoon Showed Up When Nobody Asked Him To. Macdonald Was ‘Blown Away.’
Mike Macdonald told the veterans they could skip phase one of the offseason program. Two weeks of strength and conditioning, individual meetings, the football equivalent of light stretching. The guys who carried a Super Bowl run earned the right to stay home through early May. Macdonald was explicit about it.
Devon Witherspoon showed up anyway. So did Jarran Reed, Derick Hall, Charles Cross, and AJ Barner. Macdonald’s response: “I was blown away by some of the guys that showed up today and that we weren’t asking to be here at this point in time.”
The context that makes this interesting rather than merely heartwarming: Witherspoon is waiting on an extension that could make him the highest-paid cornerback in the league. Trent McDuffie reset the market at $31 million per year. Richard Sherman has projected Witherspoon in the $32-35 million range. The 25-year-old could have done the quiet holdout thing, shown up when it was mandatory, leveraged the leverage. Instead he was on the field in Renton before the coaches had finished their coffee.
$31M/yr
Trent McDuffie’s record-setting CB contract. Witherspoon is expected to surpass it.
“It’s a new team, we’ve got to bond again,” Witherspoon told Seahawks.com. “We’re not defending it, we’ve got to go chase it again.” That’s a guy who understands that culture isn’t something you build once and maintain on autopilot. It’s something you rebuild every April.
Adam Schefter’s prediction still holds: a deal gets done sometime before or during training camp. Witherspoon just made Schneider’s job easier and harder at the same time. Easier because you don’t have to worry about a holdout. Harder because how do you not pay a guy like that every dollar he asks for?
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Culture isn’t something you build once and maintain on autopilot. It’s something you rebuild every April.
SOURCES →
Draft Intel
Schneider Might Flip Olu Oluwatimi for a Draft Pick Before Thursday
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75
Players currently under contract. Seattle has room for only ~15 more via draft picks and UDFAs.
The logic tracks. Oluwatimi is on the last year of his rookie deal and has lost the starting center battle three years running. Jalen Sundell is entrenched. Federico Maranges is on the practice squad as emergency depth. Oluwatimi has 13 career starts and enough tape to interest a center-needy team. Henderson specifically mentioned the Vikings, who just lost Ryan Kelly to retirement.
Henderson also offered a reality check on the trade-down dreams at 32: “I would caution people against assuming they’re going to be able to find a trade partner at 32.” Schneider wants to move back. The rest of the league knows he wants to move back. The question is whether anyone cares enough to pay the toll.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Field Gulls published the full 75-player roster heading into draft week. Four picks incoming, limited UDFA class. The 90-man limit feels generous when you’re already at 75. Field Gulls
Field Gulls launched the 2026 Armchair GM Challenge. Pick 20 players you think the Seahawks will draft. Winner gets bragging rights, which is the only currency that matters in April. Field Gulls
Field Gulls broke down the RAS scores Macdonald prefers. Jadarian Price’s 8.58 clears the team’s RB average of 7.37. Cashius Howell’s 8.11 beats the edge average of 7.30. Both check the boxes. Now check the clock. Field Gulls
The Seahawks.com draft guide is live. One-stop shop for every position preview, mock tracker, and Schneider press conference. Bookmark it. You’ll need it Thursday. Seahawks.com
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Puka Nacua showed up to the Rams’ offseason program Monday following a stint in a holistic care facility, per NFL.com. He’s still facing a civil lawsuit alleging he bit a woman on New Year’s Eve. His attorney described it as “horseplay.” Sean McVay said he expects Nacua to fully participate this offseason. The extension that could rival JSN’s $42.15M/yr? Still unsigned. LA’s star receiver is entering the final year of his rookie deal with more legal issues than guaranteed dollars. Somewhere in Renton, John Schneider is quietly grateful his franchise receiver’s biggest offseason headline was a press conference.
NINERS
The 49ers gave Trent Williams a two-year, $50 million extension on Monday, making him the first non-QB to surpass $400 million in career earnings, per ESPN. He turns 38 in July. Lynch says he has “great confidence” Williams will play both years. The 49ers finished 2025 with the worst pass rush in the NFL and still can’t trade Brandon Aiyuk. So they’re paying $50 million to keep a 37-year-old left tackle while praying Nick Bosa’s ACL cooperates. The plan is working perfectly, if the plan is to age gracefully into irrelevance.
CARDINALS
Per NFL insider Tony Pauline, Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfort “wants” Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey at No. 3. If Bailey’s gone, Arizona will “work hard” to trade down. If they can’t trade down, they reportedly won’t take Ohio State’s Arvell Reese because they’ve been burned by hybrid defenders before. Isaiah Simmons. Zaven Collins. The franchise has learned exactly one lesson from the Steve Keim era, and it’s “stop drafting guys who don’t have a position.” Progress.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
Cortez Kennedy was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2012, but his most legendary individual season came two decades earlier. In 1992, Kennedy won the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year award while playing for a Seahawks team that went just 2-14, one of the worst records in franchise history. That season, he recorded a career-high in sacks from the interior defensive tackle position. How many sacks did Kennedy record in his 1992 DPOY season?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Kennedy recorded 14 sacks in 1992, the most by any interior lineman in the NFL that season. Winning Defensive Player of the Year on a 2-14 team remains one of the most remarkable individual achievements in league history. His number 96 was retired by the Seahawks in 2012.
THIS DAY IN SEAHAWKS HISTORY
1990
April 22, 1990
Seahawks Draft Cortez Kennedy Third Overall
On this date 36 years ago, the Seattle Seahawks selected University of Miami defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy with the third overall pick in the 1990 NFL Draft. Kennedy would go on to play all 11 of his NFL seasons in Seattle, earning eight Pro Bowl selections, winning the 1992 NFL Defensive Player of the Year award, and being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2012. His number 96 was retired by the Seahawks, and he remains one of the greatest defensive tackles in NFL history.
Got a question for The Rooster?
Draft takes, contract math, absurd hypotheticals about whether Schneider has ever considered trading for an entire offensive line. Send it to the mailbag and I’ll answer it with the respect it deserves. Which is variable.
One day to Pittsburgh. The phones are ringing, the roster is at 75, and Devon Witherspoon is already at work. This is what defending a title looks like when you refuse to call it defending. Go Hawks. — The Rooster