How the Seahawks Learned Their Lesson and Re-Built a Super Bowl Contender

The steps Seattle took to reach the NFC Championship. Plus, how the Rams, Patriots and Broncos put together their final four rosters.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba (11) has been one of Seattle’s biggest recent draft hits. | Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images

There was never really a bottoming out for the Legion of Boom Seahawks—it was more of a filtering out of the stars as Pete Carroll & Co. continually found ways to keep their heads above water. A streak of five straight postseason appearances, with playoff wins in all five years and two trips to the Super Bowl mixed in, was snapped with a 9–7 season in 2017. And that was followed by another three straight trips to the tournament.

Rock bottom? That came in 2021, a 7–10 season which preceded the Russell Wilson trade.

Through all that, it would have been easy for Seahawks GM John Schneider and his staff to keep riding what had been tried and true as the team’s top football exec settled into his second decade in charge. But he and his staff knew the talent the Seahawks had once accumulated in building that powerhouse wasn’t the same. And it was time to address it.

Through those “lean” years, Schneider would huddle with top lieutenants Trent Kirchner, Nolan Teasley and Matt Berry to scout each other, and themselves, the same way they would a 3-technique out of the SEC. What they found was clear.

As the stars of the previous decade grew into champions, and were paid as such, the personnel department had slipped from its guiding principles. Because so much was being spent at the quarterback, running back, receiver, edge rusher, linebacker, corner and safety spots, they fell into the trap of reaching in the draft to fill needs elsewhere. And it was costing them—over and over again.

Schneider had a story from his own past to inform those around him. In 2008, working under legendary GM Ted Thompson in Green Bay, the then-young evaluator—working with Mike McCarthy’s staf—had heard the coaches’ pleas for the personnel guys to draft a running back, a crying need on the roster. Thompson took that into account but wasn’t swayed.

With five backs off the board before the Packers picked at the bottom of the first round that April, Thompson traded out and plucked Kansas State receiver Jordy Nelson at the top of the second round. In the third round, he got Texas A&M tight end Jermichael Finley. In the fourth round, he took Central Florida lineman Josh Sitton. Along the way, he took quarterbacks Brian Brohm and Matt Flynn to back up new starter Aaron Rodgers. What he didn’t get was a tailback.

It remained a need. It was a point of consternation during camp. It was addressed with a trade for Ryan Grant in September. Grant rushed for 1,203 yards that fall and another 1,253 the next year. Sitton and Nelson eventually made All-Pro teams and Finley became a long-term starter.

Just a few years later, those self-scouting sessions, and that particular lesson, have Seattle entering the NFC title game with a young roster that may eventually rival those LOB teams.

Every year in this space we dive into the roster construction of the four conference finalists, checking out what levers were pulled to get the teams to this weekend. There are plenty of similarities within the group, as you’ll see, but a few things stuck out to me about the Seahawks’ makeup that made me want to further investigate how they got here.

The data …

Pat Surtain II (2) anchors the back of Sean Payton’s defense in Denver. | Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

How the Broncos were constructed

Homegrown 53: 28 (22 draftees, six college free agents)

Outside free agents: 18

Trades/waiver claims: 3

Practice-squad acquisitions: 2

Quarterback acquired: Drafted Bo Nix with the No. 12 selection in 2024.

Last five first-round picks: DB Jahdae Barron (No. 20, 2025); Nix; CB Patrick Surtain II (No. 9, ’21)WR Jerry Jeudy (No. 15, ’20), TE Noah Fant (No. 20, ’19)

Top five cap figures: OT Mike McGlinchey, $23.78 million; OG Ben Powers, $17.43 million; DL Zach Allen, $14.35 million; WR Courtland Sutton, $13.91 million; OT Garett Bolles, $13.01 million

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Davante Adams (17) has teamed up with Puka Nacua in L.A. to give QB Matthew Stafford one of the best receiving duos in the league. | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

How the Rams were constructed

Homegrown 53: 34 (28 draftees, six college free agents)

Outside free agents: 13

Trades/waiver claims: 4

Practice-squad acquisitions: 2

Quarterback acquired: Traded a 2021 third-round pick, a ’22 first-round pick, and a ’23 first-round pick for Matthew Stafford.

Last five first-round picks: DE Jared Verse (No. 19, 2025); QB Jared Goff (No. 1, ’16); RB Todd Gurley (No. 10, ’15); OT Greg Robinson (No. 2, ’14); DT Aaron Donald (No. 10, ’14)

Top five cap figures: Stafford, $47.47 million; OG Kevin Dotson, $17.92 million; WR Davante Adams, $12.01 million; OT Rob Havenstein, $11.38 million; WR Tutu Atwell, $10.01 million

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Drake Maye’s MVP campaign has New England on the cusp of a Super Bowl return. | Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images

How the Patriots were constructed

Homegrown 53: 27 (22 draftees, five college free agents)

Outside free agents: 21

Trades/waiver claims: 5

Practice-squad acquisitions: 0

Quarterback acquired: Drafted Drake Maye with the No. 3 selection in 2024.

Last five first-round picks: OT Will Campbell (No. 4, 2025); Maye, CB Christian Gonzalez (No. 17, ’23); OG Cole Strange (No. 29, ’22); QB Mac Jones (No. 15, ’21)

Top five cap figures: OG Mike Onwenu, $21.01 million; DT Christian Barmore, $14.73 million; DT Milton Williams, $14.01 million; CB Carlton Davis III, $11.70 million; TE Hunter Henry, $11.45 million

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Thanks to guys like Devon Witherspoon (21), Seahawks fans have been getting some Legion of Boom vibes this season. | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

How the Seahawks were constructed

Homegrown 53: 28 (28 draftees, zero college free agents)

Outside free agents: 20

Trades/waiver claims: 5

Practice-squad acquisitions: 0

Quarterback acquired: Signed Sam Darnold to a three-year, $100.5 million free agent deal in 2025.

Last five first-round picks: G Grey Zabel (No. 18, 2025); DT Byron Murphy II (No. 16, ’24); CB Devon Witherspoon (No. 5, ’25); WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba (No. 20, ’25); OT Charles Cross (No. 9, ’22)

Top five cap figures: DL Leonard Williams, $15.04 million; QB Sam Darnold, $13.40 million; OLB Uchenna Nwosu, $12.09 million; WR Cooper Kupp, $9.36 million; Witherspoon, $8.70 million

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So how did Schneider, Kirchner, Teasley and Berry bring their revelation to life?

The first piece of business was shrinking the draft board, which had grown over the years as they made more allowances to fill holes with cheaper talent. Drilling down on the team’s non-negotiables would weed out more players in the evaluation process, and allow for the team to go back to where Carroll and Schneider were in 2010: looking to draft as many great players as possible.

The second piece was working with the coaches, which the scouting staff had always done, to make sure they weren’t bringing in guys who were scheme misfits. The arrival of detail-obsessed coach Mike Macdonald two offseasons ago meant having to have a lot of long discussions on what each position demanded, discussions that happened again this past offseason on offense with the arrival of new coordinator Klint Kubiak.

But even before that, the Seahawks were reaping benefits. In 2023, it was employed in the selection of wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Even with a crying need on the interior of the offensive line, and a ton of money invested at wideout in D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, Seattle stayed true to its evaluations, and took Smith-Njigba with the 20th pick. It was a good read of the board, too, since the next interior lineman to go went at No. 36 (Steve Avila) and No. 38 (Matthew Bergeron).

And even still, in that draft, they took a hard look at their big miss: BYU wide receiver Puka Nacua. The now-Rams star had Seattle’s second highest “compete” grade in the entire draft, behind only Illinois corner Devon Witherspoon, who the Seahawks took with the fifth pick. They had four chances on the draft’s third day to take Nacua, but needs at nose tackle, defensive end and center wound up taking precedence.

So on one hand, you got a guy in Smith-Njigba who would become first-team All-Pro in his third season. And then on the other hand, you missed a guy at the same position who did the same thing.

But the important thing here is that the process keeps evolving, and the Seahawks keep learning.

In the end, it’s a big reason why the Wilson trade alone helped to accelerate the rebuild—with Cross, Witherspoon and defensive linemen Derick Hall and Boye Mafe coming aboard with picks acquired, as part of a haul that included vets Drew Lock, Noah Fant and Shelby Harrison. And having all that young talent on rookie deals is what has facilitated the team being aggressive in acquiring and keeping vets like Williams, Darnold, Nwosu, Kupp, DeMarcus Lawrence and Ernest Jones.

That’s similar, by the way, to how the young, affordable talent on hand a decade ago allowed the Seahawks to take swings on established guys like Percy Harvin, Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril, all of whom played key roles in Seattle winning its first championship.

From here, the bigger question becomes, does this group have what it takes to bring a second Lombardi Trophy home over the next few weeks? But that doing so is even possible is a pretty good testament to conversations the personnel staff chose to have—even when some may not have deemed them necessary.

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