TOP STORIES
Schedule Week
Six Prime-Time Games, One Giant Mystery, and 72 Hours Until We Know Everything
The 2026 NFL schedule drops Thursday at 5 p.m. PT. The defending champions already know the date, the venue, and the vibe: Wednesday, September 9, Lumen Field, NBC, banner-raising energy. What they don’t know is who’s walking through the tunnel on the other side.
Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox predicts Seattle will be featured in six prime-time games this season, tied with the Bills and Cowboys for second-most in the league. That’s up from four during the championship run. Knox framed it as a story about turnover as much as talent: rookies like Jadarian Price, Bud Clark, and Julian Neal replacing starters who left, and whether the transition becomes the defining subplot of the season.
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Predicted prime-time games for Seattle in 2026, per Bleacher Report — up from four during the Super Bowl run.
The Week 1 opponent is still officially unknown, but the clues keep pointing to Chicago. ESPN’s Mike Wilbon said on Get Up that the Bears’ schedule “starts in Seattle on a Wednesday.” The Chiefs were eliminated as candidates because of Mahomes’ ACL uncertainty. The Rams and 49ers are in Melbourne. That leaves the Bears as the consensus favorite, with Dallas, New England, and the Giants as long shots.
International games get announced tomorrow on Good Morning Football. The 49ers host a game in Mexico City and the Commanders host one in London, both against opponents yet to be named. Seattle could end up in either location as the away team. When the full schedule lands Thursday, it becomes the loudest story in the building.
SOURCES →
Roster Build
Macdonald Isn’t Handing Price the Starting Job. That’s the Point.
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Mike Macdonald told reporters the rookie won’t just slot in with the ones. “We’re not just going to stick him right there with the 1s,” Macdonald said via ESPN. “He’s going to have ample opportunity to earn a bunch of carries and a bunch of touches.” The Seahawks plan to use Emanuel Wilson and George Holani alongside Price while Zach Charbonnet recovers from his ACL surgery. Before Charbonnet’s injury, he and Walker functioned as co-starters, not a traditional RB1/RB2 setup.
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Yards per carry for Jadarian Price over his final two seasons at Notre Dame, on 252 carries.
Price’s explosiveness is real. He averaged 6.1 yards per carry over his final two seasons at Notre Dame and returned three kickoffs for touchdowns. But he had only 113 carries in his final college season. The draft capital says Seattle believes in him. The depth chart says they’re not going to break him finding out.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
The Seahawks announced a multi-year partnership with PayPal for fan-to-fan payments and digital ticket processing. PayPal becomes the first NFL club partner at the team level. The 12s will now Venmo each other for parking using a rival app’s competitor. Progress. Seahawks.com
Kraken owner Samantha Holloway hired JPMorgan Chase and Moelis & Co. as advisers for her NBA expansion bid. She’s the first publicly known bidder to hire a banker. Somewhere beneath Climate Pledge Arena, a storage closet labeled “NBA Locker Room” is one step closer to telling the truth. FOX 13 Seattle
Field Gulls projects Jadarian Price to rush for 1,050 yards as a rookie, matching Walker’s first-year total while adding 200 receiving yards. Ambitious for a guy who’s never been RB1 anywhere. Then again, he’s never had Sam Darnold handing him the ball. Field Gulls
NFL.com ranked Rams at Seahawks as one of the top 10 games of 2026, calling the Week 16 comeback last year its No. 1 Game of the Year. Three epic meetings, two seasons in a row. The rivalry doesn’t need a schedule release to generate heat. NFL.com
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Turf Show Times is now producing historical comparison pieces explaining why drafting Ty Simpson at 13 is actually the Rodgers-Favre blueprint. Stafford still hasn’t signed that extension that was reportedly “close” three weeks ago. The Seahawks had a third-round grade on Simpson. Seattle spent its first-round pick on a position of need. LA spent its first-round pick on a quarterback who’s competing with Stetson Bennett for the backup job. One team won the Super Bowl. The other is writing fan fiction about the Packers.
NINERS
The 49ers open 2026 with a 17-hour flight to Melbourne to play the Rams, then host a game in Mexico City, then play their regular home schedule in Santa Clara. Three countries, one season, zero Super Bowl appearances since 2019. DeZhaun Stribling, their second-round pick from last month, was already at rookie minicamp getting fitted for his jersey and running routes while the rest of the organization was busy mapping out which continent they’d be on in September. The 49ers are collecting frequent flyer miles and draft picks at roughly equal rates.
CARDINALS
The schedule drops Thursday, which means Arizona finds out exactly when they’re scheduled to lose to good teams. Vegas has the Cardinals at 4.5 wins heading into 2026. Marvin Harrison Jr. is going to put up a 1,200-yard season and people will spend all year explaining why it doesn’t mean anything. The NFC West is the defending champion, a Rams team in active Stafford-extension negotiations, and the 49ers who are playing games in three countries. Arizona is going to be statistically outclassed every week and statistically relevant in fantasy. The schedule will confirm which opponents get to find out firsthand.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
Nate Burleson holds a unique NFL record from his time with the Seahawks and Vikings as a punt returner. He is the only player in league history to accomplish what specific return feat?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Burleson is the only player in NFL history to have three punt returns of 90 or more yards. He also still holds the Seahawks’ franchise record for career punt return yards (1,288), set across four seasons in Seattle from 2006 to 2009.
THE GOLDEN EGG
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The draft class has barely unpacked, and Beau Stephens is already the most quietly important addition on the roster. The Iowa guard didn’t allow a quarterback hit in all of 2025. Not a sack. Not a hit. 581 pass-blocking snaps over three years without giving up a single sack. He’s already getting reps at both left and right guard at the VMAC, and Anthony Bradford’s stranglehold on the right guard spot just went from comfortable to contested.
The right guard vacancy was the last unresolved hole on the championship roster. Stephens told reporters at rookie minicamp that Seattle’s offense looks similar to what he ran in college. That’s not a coincidence. That’s why Schneider picked him. The egg goes to the guy who showed up, put his head down, and started doing the one thing this team needed done: protecting Sam Darnold’s blind side without anyone noticing.
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Sacks Allowed (2025)
581
Pass Block Snaps (Career)
2
Guard Spots Competing For
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Three days until the schedule. Four months until the banner. Somewhere in Renton, a rookie running back is learning the playbook he'll carry into September. The offseason is quiet until it isn't. Go Hawks. — The Rooster