TOP STORIES
Tampering Day
The Phones Are Ringing. The Tampering Window Is Open. And Half The Roster Is Up For Grabs.
It’s 9 a.m. Pacific. The legal tampering window is officially open. And John Schneider is sitting in his office at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center with roughly $58 million in cap space, a Super Bowl ring, and a roster that is about to get lighter whether he likes it or not.
Let’s start with the biggest name. Kenneth Walker III, the Super Bowl LX MVP, is the prize of the entire free agent running back class. ESPN’s Brady Henderson has Walker’s chances of returning to Seattle at under 50 percent. CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones named the Broncos, Chiefs, and Jaguars as the three teams to watch. ESPN’s Dan Graziano projected Walker to the Commanders on a three-year, $44 million deal. FOX Sports projects him staying put. Nobody agrees on anything, which is the most honest assessment of the situation you’ll find.
The Seahawks are targeting around $10 million per year. The market is going to offer $12 to $15 million. That’s the gap. That’s the whole story. Seattle built a Super Bowl winner by not overpaying at running back, and they’re not about to change the formula because the running back happens to be the guy who won the MVP. Cold? Maybe. Smart? Ask them in January.
Then there’s Rashid Shaheed, who ESPN’s Adam Schefter says is “not close” to a new deal with Seattle. Schneider’s response on Seattle Sports 710 was basically a shrug: he said Shaheed’s representatives have “been testing free agency for over a week now.” The Raiders, led by former Seattle OC Klint Kubiak, are expected to make a run. The Bills are also connected. Shaheed told NFL Network he’d love to come back, but love doesn’t close a $14 million per year gap.
And Boye Mafe. ESPN’s Dan Graziano projects him to the Patriots at three years, $48 million. ESPN’s Aaron Schatz predicted the Eagles. The Lions, Bengals, and Commanders are all linked. Mafe had just 2.0 sacks in 2025 but posted an 18.7% pass-rush win rate that ranked 8th among edge rushers. Somebody is going to pay for that upside. It’s probably not going to be Seattle.
The one piece of genuinely good news: ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported that the Seahawks will attempt to re-sign safety Coby Bryant. Bryant wants to stay. Seattle wants to keep him. He had four interceptions, 39 solo tackles, and seven pass breakups this past season. Spotrac estimates his market value at roughly $14.2 million per year, which is real money but significantly less than the bidding war Walker and Shaheed will command. If Schneider can lock Bryant down quickly, it keeps the secondary’s foundation intact while the offensive roster churns around it.
Forty-eight hours until the new league year. The phones are ringing. The calculator is out. Schneider is doing what Schneider does.
SOURCES →
Edge Watch
The Edge Rusher Crisis Hasn’t Gone Anywhere. If Anything, It Got Worse.
Keep Reading ↓
Do the math. If Lawrence retires and Nwosu gets released, Seattle’s edge rusher room on March 12 could be Derick Hall and Rylie Mills. That’s it. Hall had a strong Super Bowl but has never been a full-time starter for a full season. Mills missed most of his rookie year recovering from a torn ACL suffered at Notre Dame and had just 5 Super Bowl snaps, even if they were productive ones.
The Greenard trade talk is still alive. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports the Eagles have formally inquired on the Vikings pass rusher, and Corbin K. Smith reported that a second-rounder plus a Day 3 pick is the expected cost. For a team with only four total draft picks, spending the second-rounder is a real sacrifice. But the alternative is rolling into 2026 with a pass rush built on hope and a fifth-round pick’s five good snaps.
Khalil Mack chose the Chargers over a ring chase in Seattle. Trey Hendrickson wants $35 million per year and lives in Florida. The affordable veteran options are thinning by the hour. Schneider needs to move on this before the new league year, because by Wednesday afternoon, the cupboard might be bare.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
The Tyler Allgeier-to-Seattle pipeline is real. FOX Sports projects the former Falcon as Walker’s replacement, citing his fit in new OC Brian Fleury’s zone scheme and his 8 rushing touchdowns in 2025. His projected cost? About $5.6 million per year. That’s Walker money divided by three, which is exactly how Schneider’s brain works. FOX Sports
For the first time ever, teams can directly contact up to five free agents during the tampering window, not just their agents. Which means somewhere right now, an NFL general manager is texting Kenneth Walker directly, and Walker is either responding or pretending he’s in the shower. Welcome to the future of professional sports. CBS Sports
The Rams locked up Trent McDuffie to a four-year, $124 million extension ($31M/yr, $100M guaranteed), resetting the entire cornerback market. Fun context for Seahawks fans: Devon Witherspoon is about to need a new deal too. Sleep well. Yahoo Sports
The salary cap is $301.2 million per club this year, up from $279.2 million in 2025. That’s $22 million more money sloshing around the league, which means every free agent’s asking price just went up by roughly the cost of a nice house in Bellevue. So, you know, a studio apartment. KSL Sports
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
The Rams extended Trent McDuffie to a four-year, $124 million deal averaging $31 million per year with $100 million guaranteed, making him the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history approximately five minutes after trading a first-round pick to get him. The cornerback market has been officially reset, and Devon Witherspoon’s future agents just popped champagne. Meanwhile, the Rams’ formal rule change proposal to outlaw the Zachwards Pass will be voted on at the league meetings later this month. Imagine spending actual organizational capital trying to ban a play that happened once. In a game you lost. On the way to losing the NFC Championship. To the same team. The Rams are the person who writes a formal complaint to the HOA after their neighbor’s dog barked at them during a barbecue. The barbecue they weren’t invited to. Because they lost.
NINERS
The 49ers’ offseason needs are wide receiver and defensive end, per Niner Noise, because both Brandon Aiyuk and Jauan Jennings have likely played their final snaps in San Francisco. Aiyuk is expected to be released as a post-June 1 designation. Jennings’ nine touchdowns in 2025 priced him out of the Niners’ comfort zone. And the defense registered a league-low 20 sacks last season. Twenty. The 49ers are currently exploring whether Trey Hendrickson and Mike Evans might want to join a team that finished 8-9. Kyle Shanahan’s pitch: “We have a really expensive left tackle who might retire.” The vibes in Santa Clara are immaculate.
CARDINALS
The Cardinals can officially call Jimmy Garoppolo today. They have the No. 3 pick, no starting quarterback, and a new head coach in Mike LaFleur whose relationship with Garoppolo was described by a source as “that’s his guy.” Garoppolo has started one game in two years. He made $3.1 million last season backing up Matthew Stafford. And now he might be Arizona’s starter. The Rams’ Sean McVay said he’d “absolutely want him back” and joked about LaFleur “trying to steal our guy.” The Cardinals are fighting the Rams over the rights to a 34-year-old backup quarterback like it’s a custody hearing for a goldfish nobody wanted until someone else showed interest.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
In 1992, Seahawks defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy was named the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year despite the team finishing with the worst record in franchise history. What was Seattle’s record that season?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
2-14. Kennedy recorded 14 sacks and 93 tackles on a team that won just two games, making him one of the rarest Defensive Player of the Year winners in NFL history — a dominant individual performance on a historically terrible roster.
THIS DAY IN SEAHAWKS HISTORY
2018
The Legion of Boom Dies: Richard Sherman Released
On this date in 2018, the Seattle Seahawks released five-time Pro Bowl cornerback Richard Sherman, effectively ending the Legion of Boom era. Sherman, coming off a ruptured Achilles tendon, was released with a failed physical designation, clearing $11 million in cap space. He signed with the San Francisco 49ers the very next day. The Seahawks had already traded Michael Bennett to the Eagles two days earlier. It was the end of an era — and eight years later, the Seahawks are right back on top with a new championship defense.
THE GOLDEN EGG
🏆
Let’s be clear about what happened. The Los Angeles Rams blew a 16-point fourth-quarter lead in Week 16. Sam Darnold threw a backward pass. It hit Jared Verse’s helmet. Zach Charbonnet picked it up in the end zone. The officials reviewed it. The conversion counted. Seattle tied the game, won in overtime, and rode that momentum to the NFC West title, the NFC Championship (also over the Rams, at Lumen Field), and a Super Bowl trophy.
And the Rams responded by submitting a formal rule change proposal to make sure that specific play could never happen again. They want to change the rules for when a backward pass is deflected forward and crosses the line of scrimmage during a conversion attempt. They also want a time limit on how long a replay review can take to get started. Two separate proposals. Aimed at one play. That happened once. In a game they lost.
CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones confirmed the Rams’ goal is to “fix what went wrong in a few places.” What went wrong, from the Rams’ perspective, is that the Seahawks won. That’s the part they’d like to fix. Unfortunately for Los Angeles, the NFL does not currently have a mechanism for retroactively awarding NFC Championships to teams that blow leads and then complain about it for three months.
The Seachicken of the Week trophy goes to Sean McVay’s entire organization. May your rule change proposal receive the same amount of respect as your fourth-quarter defense.
16
point lead blown in Q4
2
rule proposals filed about it
0
NFC Championships won
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Questions, complaints, conspiracy theories about the team sale, salary cap math that doesn’t add up, your neighbor’s terrible free agency predictions — send it all. We read everything. We answer what we can. We judge silently.
See you tomorrow. — The Rooster