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Dante Fowler Signs With the Seahawks. The Edge Room Exhales.
It happened. After a pre-draft visit, a comp pick calculation, a seven-round draft that produced zero edge rushers, and three weeks of everyone staring at each other, Dante Fowler Jr. is signing with the Seattle Seahawks on a one-year deal worth up to $5 million, per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.
The connection was always obvious. Fowler played under Seahawks DC Aden Durde in both Atlanta and Dallas across three seasons. Durde knows exactly what he’s getting. ESPN’s Brady Henderson put it plainly: of all the free agency losses, Boye Mafe was the one Seattle hadn’t replaced. Now they have. Sort of.
Fowler is entering his 12th NFL season. He posted 10.5 sacks with Washington in 2024, then managed only three with Dallas last year while playing a third of their defensive snaps. He turns 32 in August. This is not a Mafe replacement in any athletic sense. But Brian Nemhauser noted that Fowler posted a higher pass rush win rate than any current Seahawks edge and outperformed veteran alternatives like Von Miller and Cam Jordan.
58.5
Career sacks for Fowler across 11 NFL seasons, including a career-high 11.5 with the Rams in 2019.
The price is right. At $5 million on a one-year deal, Fowler doesn’t touch the Witherspoon extension math, doesn’t complicate the Darnold timeline, and doesn’t affect compensatory pick projections. Seattle still has roughly $28 million in cap space. If Schneider wants to add another body, he can.
This was never going to be the splashy signing. It’s the sensible one. The edge room now reads Lawrence, Nwosu, Hall, Fowler, Mills (at DE), and a pair of UDFA dart throws. That’s enough to defend a title, provided everyone stays vertical.
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There was nothing stopping this deal except, apparently, the deal itself. Until today, when the deal stopped being stubborn and showed up for work.
SOURCES →
League
The Schedule Drops May 15. The Week 1 Opponent Is Still Technically a Secret.
Keep Reading ↓
We already know the big piece: the Seahawks host the Wednesday night opener on September 9 at Lumen Field on NBC. The Rams and 49ers are booked for Melbourne on September 10, and the Chiefs are out thanks to the Mahomes ACL uncertainty. ESPN’s Mike Wilbon has all but named Chicago as the opponent, saying on Get Up that the Bears’ schedule “starts in Seattle on a Wednesday.” Nobody has officially confirmed it, but Wilbon wasn’t guessing.
One wrinkle: the NFL’s VP of broadcast planning, Mike North, told a Buffalo radio show the release could slide to the third week of May. That would push it past the 15th. For now, May 15 is the target. Plan your evening accordingly.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Bloomberg shot down the Zuckerberg and Tim Cook buyer rumors within hours of the Front Office Sports report. A Meta spokesperson said Zuckerberg “is not making any investment or bid.” Cook’s camp called it “completely false.” The bidding war was fun while it lasted, which was about four hours. Seattle Times / Bloomberg
Schneider called the draft “Bert’s last draft with us,” referring to Seahawks vice chair Bert Kolde, Paul Allen’s longtime friend who made one of the draft-night calls to a new pick. The sale is coming. That sentence made it feel real. Seattle Times
12th Man Rising notes that Fowler signing doesn’t mean Schneider is done at edge. Seattle has the cap space for multiple one-year deals. Joey Bosa and Cameron Jordan are still out there. The buffet is still open. 12th Man Rising
The NFL referee CBA expires May 31. Crew assignments went out to regular officials this week, and replacement training clinics are already running. The league is simultaneously planning for a deal and preparing for a lockout. Fourteen years after the Fail Mary, the contingency plans have better PowerPoints. Yahoo Sports / ESPN
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Les Snead is now on a media circuit framing the Ty Simpson pick at 13 as visionary long-term thinking. Simpson, meanwhile, is competing with Stetson Bennett for the backup job behind a 38-year-old MVP who hasn’t spoken publicly since the draft. His wife reached out on social media. Not Stafford. His wife. McVay admitted his draft-night sourpuss face was partly about worrying the pick could “throw a wrench” into Stafford’s extension talks. The Rams’ current energy is a franchise that just drafted a guy who might start in 2028 while trying not to annoy the guy who might retire in 2027.
NINERS
San Francisco’s rookie minicamp is still a week away, and their offseason discourse is already in midseason form. Shanahan and Lynch aren’t ruling out Kittle for the Week 1 opener in Melbourne despite a torn Achilles, which NBC Sports’ Maiocco called “a little aggressive of a timeline.” Their first draft pick was WR De’Zhaun Stribling at 33, a player multiple rival GMs said they liked later. And here’s a fun nugget from ESPN: the Seahawks had “concern” that the 49ers might grab Jadarian Price at 33, thanks to intel from Brian Fleury, who spent seven years in Shanahan’s building. Seattle’s new OC knew exactly what San Francisco was thinking. Imagine losing your run-game coordinator and then having him use your playbook against you.
CARDINALS
Arizona has the NFL’s hardest projected schedule in 2026, per Walter Football. They went 3-14 last year. They used the No. 3 pick on a running back. They now have four starting-caliber halfbacks and Yardbarker is already speculating about which one gets traded before June 1. Their preseason opener is the Hall of Fame Game in Canton against Carolina on August 6, which at least gives them an extra week of preparation. They’ll need it. Pro Football Talk named them the longest shot to make the playoffs. FanDuel has their win total at 4.5. Larry Fitzgerald is getting enshrined that weekend, and he deserves better company.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
Rufus Porter signed with the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 1988 out of Southern University and became one of the franchise’s most productive pass rushers, earning two Pro Bowl selections. How many sacks did Porter record during his seven seasons in Seattle?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
37.5 sacks. Porter was an undrafted free agent who made the Pro Bowl in each of his first two NFL seasons, including a career-best 10.5 sacks in 1989, and remains one of the best UDFA finds in franchise history.
Got a take on the Fowler signing?
Think he’s the missing piece or just the cheapest available piece? Drop your question or hot take in the mailbag and The Rooster might answer it in a future issue. No question is too unhinged. Most are encouraged.
Fowler is in the building. The schedule drops in ten days. Somewhere in Renton, Aden Durde just smiled for the first time since February. Go Hawks. — The Rooster