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OTAs
OTAs Start Tomorrow. The Defending Champs Are Already Warmed Up.
The Seahawks open organized team activities on Monday at the VMAC, and the voluntary portion of the offseason has been anything but. Every significant player on the 91-man roster has been photographed working out in Renton this spring. Last year’s near-perfect attendance became the foundation of a Super Bowl run. This year it’s the baseline, not the surprise.
Macdonald staggered the return, telling veterans to take phase one remotely after playing into February. Witherspoon, Hall, Jarran Reed, and Charles Cross ignored the invitation to stay home and showed up April 20 anyway. Phase two brought Darnold, JSN, and Kupp. By this past week, the only notable absence from the VMAC photo galleries was DeMarcus Lawrence, whose wife gave birth to their sixth child after the Super Bowl.
The on-field work shifts now. OTAs mean 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills for the first time. Jadarian Price gets real reps in Fleury’s offense. Beau Stephens lines up across from Anthony Bradford for a guard competition that starts in earnest. Tyrone Broden, the 6-5 receiver-turned-cornerback, gets to test whether 4.37 speed and impossible height translate to actual coverage. Six sessions spread across two weeks, then mandatory minicamp June 9-11, then everyone scatters until training camp and the HBO cameras arrive.
11 of 13
Defensive players with 700+ snaps in 2025 who return for 2026.
Eleven of the 13 defenders who logged at least 700 snaps last season are back. Every player who started in the Super Bowl is under contract. The defending champions just have to show up and do it again. Starting tomorrow.
SOURCES →
Contracts
Witherspoon’s Extension Is Stalled. The Smart Money Says Don’t Panic Yet.
Keep Reading ↓
$31M/yr
Trent McDuffie’s extension — the CB market floor Witherspoon aims to reset.
The complicating factor is familiar. Witherspoon and Patriots corner Christian Gonzalez share an agent through WIN Sports Group. Whoever signs first sets the floor for the other. Neither side wants to blink. Henderson notes the Seahawks typically finalize extensions before training camp, so there’s still runway.
The good news is that Witherspoon has been at the VMAC for every phase of the voluntary program, showing no signs of frustration. His fifth-year option locks him in through 2027 at $21.16 million. The Seahawks have roughly $33 million in cap space. The math works. The timing just hasn’t.
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The deal reads like a negotiation that hasn’t started moving yet. Two sides who know each other’s cards, neither wanting to blink first.
Stacy Rost at Seattle Sports offered the best context: Witherspoon and agent Reggie Johnson played hardball during his rookie deal too. He was the last member of the 2023 class to sign. The precedent says patience pays off. It just doesn’t feel great while you’re waiting.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Field Gulls published its pre-OTA 53-man roster projection and gave UDFA edge rusher Aidan Hubbard the lone undrafted roster spot. Jared Ivey and Connor O’Toole are now officially sweating. Field Gulls
FOX Sports ran a piece asking what happens if Seattle trades Witherspoon. The answer, which the article apparently needed 1,200 words to reach, is: don’t. FOX Sports
Nolan Teasley’s second interview with the Vikings is scheduled after Memorial Day. If he lands the gig, Seattle gets third-round comp picks in 2027 and 2028. A nice consolation prize for losing the guy who helped build two Super Bowl winners. Yardbarker
The Seahawks launched Hawk Walk, a year-round community program partnering with Talk a Mile to bring youth, city leaders, and public safety officials together across King County. Football teams that win Super Bowls and then immediately build community infrastructure? That’s a culture flex. Seahawks.com
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Sean McVay has publicly admitted he’s “worried” about giving Puka Nacua an extension, per Turf Show Times. Nacua’s alleged biting case has been sent to a City Attorney hearing, his attorney has acknowledged the bite happened, and the accuser’s lawyer says the proceedings “dispel the false narrative” Nacua’s camp pushed before he checked into a rehab facility. Rambling Fan projects that a Nacua deal at $43 million AAV would push the Rams’ cash spending to 20% above the salary cap. Kobie Turner, Byron Young, and Steve Avila are all waiting for extensions that can’t come until Nacua gets his. The Rams are the betting favorite to win the Super Bowl and they can’t afford to pay the players responsible for getting them there.
NINERS
Niner Noise is already writing the eulogy on Nick Bosa’s 49ers tenure. He’s coming off his second torn ACL, turns 29 during the season, and has a $54.87 million cap hit in 2027 with less than $800,000 guaranteed. The 49ers waited until Round 3 to draft another edge rusher, rookie Romello Height, who had the shortest arms at the combine. Meanwhile, they remain “interested” in free agent Joey Bosa, per the SF Standard’s David Lombardi, but they “should not go out and waste money” on him either. The 49ers’ defensive planning feels like ordering a backup generator after the power’s already out.
CARDINALS
ESPN’s Mike Clay projects Arizona for 3.6 wins — 31st in the NFL. The sportsbooks are kinder at 4.5, which still ties Miami for dead last. NFL.com’s Ali Bhanpuri has the Cardinals losing their first nine games, and neither of his projections has Arizona winning a road game all season. The schedule pairs six NFC West games with the AFC West and NFC East. Not finishing last in the division would constitute progress.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
Dave Wyman was drafted by the Seahawks in the second round of the 1987 NFL Draft and became a starting linebacker for six seasons before leaving for Denver. How many tackles did Wyman record during his time in Seattle, and what unusual transaction was nullified during his rookie year?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Wyman recorded 364 tackles across 61 games in Seattle. The unusual transaction: the Seahawks traded him to the 49ers midway through 1987, but the deal was voided when Wyman failed a physical due to a bad shoulder. He went right back to Seattle and started there for five more years.
THE GOLDEN EGG
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Last year, every player showed up for at least one voluntary OTA session. Nearly everyone attended all of them. Players and coaches credited that attendance as the foundation of a championship season. This year, Mike Macdonald told the veterans to stay home for phase one. They came anyway.
Witherspoon showed up without a deal. Reed showed up at 35. Hall showed up on the last year of his rookie contract. Darnold, JSN, and Kupp were all spotted in workouts during phase two. By the time the first on-field drills of OTAs begin tomorrow, the Seahawks will have logged five consecutive weeks of voluntary work that looked nothing like voluntary.
Championships are built in January. The culture that makes them possible is built in April and May, when nobody’s watching and nobody has to be there. The VMAC attendance record isn’t a stat that shows up in a box score. It’s the stat that makes every other stat possible.
91
Players on Offseason Roster
5
Weeks of Voluntary Workouts
1
Notable Absence (Lawrence)
Got a question for The Rooster?
OTAs start tomorrow. Witherspoon’s deal is stalled. Hard Knocks cameras are coming. What’s keeping you up at night? Drop your question in the mailbag and I’ll answer it with the appropriate level of caffeinated anxiety.
OTAs tomorrow. The field is voluntary. The standard is not. Go Hawks. — The Rooster