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Roster
Seattle Paid for Its Empty Safety Room With an Offensive Lineman
To get a fourth healthy safety into uniform Wednesday night, the Seahawks had to take somebody off the 53. They took Bryce Cabeldue, the guard they drafted out of Kansas in the sixth round in 2025, waived him a few hours before the banner went up, and signed AJ Finley off the practice squad in his place.
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The pick Seattle spent on Bryce Cabeldue in the 2025 draft, sixth round, out of Kansas.
By Thursday afternoon Cabeldue belonged to the Raiders, who claimed him on waivers and cut guard Atonio Mafi to fit him in. The head coach in Las Vegas is Klint Kubiak, who ran Seattle’s offense last season and has now signed two players out of this building since cutdown day. He knows exactly what he is shopping for. He helped pick some of it out.
Track the chain backward and it is entirely a medical document. Ty Okada’s hamstring kept him off the practice field all week. Nick Emmanwori is still working back from July ankle surgery. Both were inactive, Seattle needed bodies in the back end, and a 6-foot-4, 308-pound interior lineman was the cost of covering for them.
The math is defensible and still faintly alarming. Mason Richman is already on injured reserve. Beau Stephens is the only listed reserve at either guard spot. All five starters played every offensive snap against New England, which is wonderful right up until one of them doesn’t.
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He knows exactly what he is shopping for. He helped pick some of it out.
Nobody puts an injury report on the waiver wire, but that is exactly what happened here. Two hamstrings and an ankle went into a transaction sheet and came out the other side as a drafted guard in silver and black.
SOURCES →
Analysis
The First-Round Running Back Played Less Than Half the Game
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48%
Jadarian Price’s share of the offensive snaps in his NFL debut.
Price did plenty with his share. Ten carries, 52 yards, two catches, running with actual decisiveness on a night when the offense mostly moved sideways. Holani took eight carries for 29 yards and did the unglamorous stuff, and he was the only back Seattle trusted on third down.
The short-yardage split is the genuinely interesting part. Holani and Wilson each got more snaps inside the tight spots than Price did. The rookie is the lead back. He is not yet the back they hand it to when the yard matters, which is a distinction Zach Charbonnet used to own and will presumably want back around Week 5.
Eleven days of practice before Arizona should sort some of this out. Or it won’t, and we spend the fall watching three running backs share one job while everyone yells about it on the radio.
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AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Seattle’s Next Gen numbers from Wednesday: Drake Maye went 3 of 8 for 44 yards with three interceptions on throws of 10-plus air yards, and all three picks came on balls of 20-plus. The deep shot against this secondary is not a shot. It is a donation. Seahawks.com
Tory Horton’s hamstring kept him inactive for the opener, which left Seattle dressing four wide receivers for a Super Bowl banner night. One of them caught 122 yards of it. The other three are still waiting for their invitation. Yahoo Sports
Cooper Kupp caught a 24-yard pass one-handed from a quarterback who had not taken a practice snap all week. Thirty-three years old and still the most professional person on the field by a comfortable margin. Seahawks.com
Drew Lock finished 16 of 22 for 187 yards and a touchdown in relief, and has not started a game since 2024, when he went 1-4 for the Giants. Different roster, different defense, different everything. Arizona should probably not use that tape. Yahoo Sports
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Aaron Donald was removed from the Commissioner’s Exempt List on Friday, which clears the way for his first game back against the Giants on Monday night in Week 2. So the paperwork cleared six days after the Rams got beaten by 20 points on another continent without him. Los Angeles talked a 35-year-old out of retirement and then spent opening week watching him wait on a league filing. Nothing about this operation is going smoothly.
NINERS
Kyle Shanahan signed a multiyear extension with San Francisco this offseason and nobody outside the building knew until Tom Pelissero mentioned it Friday, after the Melbourne game. They locked in the long-term future of the franchise and forgot to tell anyone, which is either admirable discipline or a fairly honest read on how excited the room was. Congratulations on the commitment. We’ll see you in November with a trophy in our building and none in yours.
CARDINALS
Arizona’s own website counted it up before today’s opener at the Chargers: seven players who finished last season on injured reserve are healthy enough to play in Week 1. That is the roster-building plan. Get the 3-14 team back to full strength and see what happens. They visit us a week from today, and honestly, we hope everyone’s ankles hold up until then. We would hate for them to have an excuse.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
In February 2000, the Seahawks traded receiver Joey Galloway to the Dallas Cowboys. What did Seattle get back in the deal?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Dallas’s first-round picks in the 2000 and 2001 drafts. The 2000 pick, 19th overall, became Shaun Alexander, which means a receiver holdout eventually turned into an MVP season in the Seattle backfield.
THIS DAY IN SEAHAWKS HISTORY
2020
September 13, 2020
Wilson Opens a Season With Four Touchdowns in Atlanta
Seattle opened the 2020 season at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and beat the Falcons 38-25, with Russell Wilson throwing four touchdown passes before Atlanta could get its bearings. It was the start of the stretch where a large portion of the fan base spent about two months insisting the offense should simply keep doing that forever.
Got a Question? Yell It Into the Void.
The mailbag runs on your worst takes and your most specific grievances. Send them in, include a name and a neighborhood, and I will answer the ones that make me laugh or make me angry. Both work.
First Sunday of the season with nothing to be nervous about. Enjoy the novelty. — The Rooster