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Schedule Intel
The NFL’s Secret Plan B for Opening Night Wasn’t the Bears. It Was the Giants.
Everyone assumed Chicago was the fallback. The Bears were the sexy pick, the team that nearly made the NFC Championship, the big-market darling the NFL couldn’t stop promoting. If the league passed on the Patriots for the Seahawks’ opener, surely the Bears were next in line.
They were not. Per Field Gulls, citing Windy City Gridiron’s reporting, the NFL’s actual Plan B was the New York Giants. The league wanted Mike Macdonald against his former boss John Harbaugh, the coach who built him and then watched him leave for Seattle. That storyline, the NFL believed, would have been the second-best option behind the Super Bowl rematch.
Think about what that means. The league looked at the Seahawks’ home slate and decided the most compelling non-rematch narrative wasn’t the Bears’ star power or the Chiefs’ revenge tour. It was the coaching tree. Macdonald vs. Harbaugh. The student hosting the teacher on banner night. The NFL sees the Seahawks as a story worth building around, not just a title to acknowledge.
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Franchise-record primetime games on the Seahawks’ 2026 schedule, including five at Lumen Field.
Instead, the Patriots won the slot and get to stand on the Lumen Field turf September 9 watching the banner go up. The Giants come to Seattle in Week 14 on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Harbaugh will have to wait for his moment in the Pacific Northwest cold.
SOURCES →
Roster
Price Is in LA Posing for Portraits. His Contract Is Still Unsigned.
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This is not a crisis. Picks 21 through 32 are all still unsigned, per standard first-round rookie contract timelines. Bud Clark signed his four-year, $7.88 million deal last week, leaving Price as the last piece of paperwork. The money is slotted. The terms are predictable. It’s a calendar problem, not a negotiation problem.
Meanwhile, NFL owners convene in Orlando on Tuesday for the Spring League Meeting. The Seahawks sale is on the agenda. ESPN reported that interest has been “soft” and the process has dragged. Three bidding groups are public. The initial $11 billion valuation has reportedly deflated toward $9 billion. Nobody’s panicking inside the VMAC, but the franchise is being sold in slow motion while the football operation runs on autopilot.
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The franchise is being sold in slow motion while the football operation runs on autopilot.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
The NFL’s Spring League Meeting in Orlando was trimmed from two days to one, with owners now convening only on Tuesday. The Accelerator Program got squeezed in the process, and some participants are questioning whether the trip is worth it. The owners can’t even commit to their own diversity program’s schedule. Promising start. CBS Sports
The NFLPA Rookie Premiere wraps today in LA, where Jadarian Price was one of 52 rookies posing in their new team gear. His Notre Dame teammate Jeremiyah Love was there too, wearing Cardinals red. They’ll face each other twice this fall. One went third overall. One never started a game in college. Seahawks.com
OTAs are nine days away. The voluntary offseason program continues at the VMAC through next week before organized team activities kick off May 26. Mandatory minicamp follows June 9-11. The real football starts soon. NFL Operations
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Puka Nacua avoided criminal charges for the biting incident but was referred to a pre-filing diversion program by the LA City Attorney’s Office. The civil lawsuit is still very much alive, with the accuser’s attorney telling USA Today his client is pushing forward on all counts. Meanwhile, that Stafford extension that was reportedly making “significant progress” a month ago still hasn’t materialized. The reigning MVP is carrying a $48.3 million cap hit, his first-round successor Ty Simpson has never spoken to McVay before draft night, and the Nacua extension that was supposed to be the “big-time priority” is stuck behind a wall of off-field chaos. The Rams have seven primetime games this year, which is a lot of national television for a franchise that can’t close a single contract negotiation.
NINERS
San Francisco opens in Melbourne against the Rams, then flies to Mexico City for a Monday Night Football game against the Vikings in Week 11. That’s 17 hours to Australia, a return trip, two months of regular football, then Mexico. Their big offseason addition at receiver is Christian Kirk, and their return specialist competition includes names like Jacob Cowing and Junior Bergen, which sounds less like an NFL depth chart and more like a college orientation ice-breaker. Kyle Shanahan’s team scored six points against Seattle in the divisional round in January. The 49ers’ official schedule preview described the Seahawks returning to Levi’s Stadium as “one of the NFL’s most anticipated matchups.” They would know. They’ve been on the wrong side of it for two years running.
CARDINALS
Albert Breer tempered expectations on Jeremiyah Love’s Offensive Rookie of the Year case, noting that Arizona will try not to overuse him with James Conner and Tyler Allgeier still in the backfield. Breer actually picked Love’s Notre Dame teammate, Jadarian Price, as his OROY favorite instead. The Cardinals spent the third overall pick and $53 million in guaranteed money on a running back while their starting quarterback won’t show up for voluntary workouts and their third-round QB, Carson Beck, is learning LaFleur’s offense after elbow surgery. Arizona has zero primetime games in 2026. Not one. The league took one look at that roster and decided the entire country could wait.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
The Seahawks drafted cornerback Kelly Jennings with the 31st overall pick in 2006 out of Miami. He started 44 games over five seasons in Seattle. How many interceptions did Jennings record during his time as a Seahawk?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Two. Jennings had just two interceptions across 78 games and 44 starts in Seattle before being traded to Cincinnati for Clinton McDonald in 2011. The Seahawks got more value out of the return on the trade than they ever got from the pick itself.
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Owners meet Tuesday. OTAs start in nine days. The trophy case is still full. The to-do list is not. Go Hawks. — The Rooster