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Roster
The Comp Pick Deadline Passes This Week. Dante Fowler Should Follow.
The Seahawks didn’t draft an edge rusher. Not in the first round, not on Day 2, not on Day 3. They spent eight picks on a running back, a safety, a cornerback, a guard, a receiver, and three more defensive backs. Zero edge rushers. That was a choice.
It was also a choice with a plan behind it. Corbin Smith of Emerald Spectrum reported that veteran edge rusher Dante Fowler Jr. is “expected” to sign with Seattle once the compensatory pick deadline passes, typically in the first week of May. The timing is deliberate: signing after the deadline protects Seattle’s projected four compensatory picks for losing Mafe, Bryant, Walker, and Woolen in free agency.
Fowler visited the VMAC on April 16. He played all 17 games for Dallas last season with 3.0 sacks and 30 pressures in a rotational role. Pro Football Focus graded him 77.6 overall, the best mark of his career. He’s 31, a former No. 3 overall pick, and one year removed from 10.5 sacks in Washington. He’s not Boye Mafe. Nobody left is. But he fits Macdonald’s system, he has a relationship with defensive coordinator Aden Durde from their overlapping time in Atlanta and Dallas, and he won’t cost a fortune.
77.6
Dante Fowler’s PFF grade in 2025, the highest of his 11-year career.
The edge room right now is Nwosu, Lawrence, Hall, Ivey, O’Toole, and two UDFA signings in Aidan Hubbard and Devean Deal. That’s a group that needs a veteran who can win on third down without being asked to carry the whole front. Fowler checks that box. The door is open. He just hasn’t walked through it yet.
SOURCES →
Analysis
Russell Wilson Might Become Geno Smith’s Backup. Yes, Really.
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The best part? Geno asked for this. Per ESPN’s Rich Cimini, Smith “advocated for Wilson when team officials solicited his input on potential backups.” The man who replaced Wilson in Seattle, who turned a lost season into a Pro Bowl comeback, who then got replaced himself by Sam Darnold, now wants his old mentor sitting behind him on a different team. This is a soap opera with shoulder pads.
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Geno advocated for Wilson. The man who replaced him wants his old mentor back. Football is a soap opera with shoulder pads.
Wilson, 37, started three games for the Giants last year before being benched for Jaxson Dart. He completed 58% of his passes for 831 yards, three touchdowns, and three interceptions. His days as a starter are done. But as Field Gulls’ Mookie Alexander noted, six years ago Wilson threw four touchdowns against these same Jets in a 40-3 rout at an empty Lumen Field while Darnold, then a Jet, barely completed half his passes. Now Darnold has a ring. Wilson is interviewing for the backup job on the team with the longest active playoff drought. Football is beautiful.
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AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
SI on Seahawks profiled the full UDFA class and confirmed Aidan Hubbard had a draftable grade. A five-year Northwestern edge rusher with 20.5 career sacks fell to the Seahawks for free. Schneider collects bargains the way other people collect regrets. SI on Seahawks
Ty Okada signed his exclusive-rights free agent tender on Monday, locking in the breakout safety for $1.145 million. He started 11 games during the championship run. That’s a Super Bowl starter for less than a decent used car in Bellevue. Seahawks.com
Replacement official training sessions are scheduled to begin on or near May 1, per an NFL memo from Perry Fewell. The CBA expires May 31. The league offered 6.45% annual raises over six years. The union wants 10% plus $2.5 million in marketing fees. Fourteen years after the Fail Mary, we’re doing this again. ESPN
The NFL’s post-draft power rankings have Seattle at No. 1 heading into 2026. Defending champs, deepest roster, consensus pick. Feels weird to be the team everyone else is chasing. I could get used to it. NFL.com
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
The Nacua extension just got more complicated. SI on Seahawks reported the Rams aren’t expected to accelerate their timeline despite JSN’s record deal, because Nacua’s extension kicks in a year earlier than JSN’s and Los Angeles is about to lose Stafford and Adams off the books. Translation: the Rams are stalling because the math is terrifying. Meanwhile, Mel Kiper called their draft class “confusing,” they drafted a quarterback at 13 who won’t play this year, and their seventh-year senior tackle transfer attended four colleges before landing in L.A. Everything is fine.
NINERS
San Francisco traded a third-round pick for Osa Odighizuwa to fix a pass rush that finished dead last in the NFL with 20 sacks. Then they traded Dee Winters to Dallas for a fifth-rounder, because apparently having too many linebackers was the real problem. Mel Kiper admitted he was “confused” by their draft haul, and the vast majority of their picks were considered reaches. They drafted a receiver at 33 despite needing edge help more than oxygen. The 49ers are a team that keeps reorganizing their sock drawer while the house is on fire.
CARDINALS
Arizona entered the draft needing an edge rusher and a right tackle. They left without drafting either one. SI on Seahawks’ Good-Bad-Ugly breakdown noted the Cardinals’ edge depth opposite Josh Sweat combined for 4.5 sacks last season, and they spent $53 million in rookie money on a running back instead of addressing it. They also drafted Carson Beck in the third round. CBS gave him a D grade. The right tackle spot? Still Paris Johnson Jr. and prayer. This franchise collects holes the way other teams collect wins.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
Lofa Tatupu was the heartbeat of the Seahawks’ defense during the mid-2000s, earning Pro Bowl honors in each of his first three NFL seasons (2005, 2006, and 2007) after being drafted in the second round out of USC. Tatupu led the Seahawks in tackles in all three of those seasons, anchoring the defense during Seattle’s run to Super Bowl XL as a rookie. In his legendary 2007 season, he intercepted three passes from a single quarterback in a December game against the Philadelphia Eagles, returning them for 100 yards. Who was the Eagles quarterback Tatupu picked off three times that day?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
A.J. Feeley. Tatupu intercepted Feeley three times on December 2, 2007, returning them for 100 yards. As one writer noted at the time, Feeley threw for more yards to Tatupu than to any of his own receivers that day.
THIS DAY IN SEAHAWKS HISTORY
2010
April 29, 2010
Big Walt Says Goodbye
On this date in 2010, Walter Jones announced his retirement on Twitter, ending a 13-year career that defined a franchise. The Seahawks immediately retired his No. 71 jersey, only the second number retired in team history after Steve Largent’s No. 80. Governor Christine Gregoire declared April 30 to be ‘Walter Jones Day’ in Washington state. Jones started all 180 games he played, gave up just 23 sacks on more than 5,500 pass attempts, and was called for holding nine times in his entire career. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014 on his first ballot.
Got a Question for The Rooster?
Burning question about the Seahawks? A take so hot it singed your eyebrows? Drop it in the mailbag. The best ones get answered in a future issue, and I promise to be only slightly condescending.
The comp pick deadline passes this week. The door at the VMAC is unlocked. Fowler knows where it is. Go Hawks. — The Rooster