Three Candidates To Make Big Improvements In The 2026 Season For The Seahawks

There’s plenty of focus on the players the Seahawks lost, and then the players they gained, this offseason, but what about internal upgrades?

Seattle Seahawks safety Nick Emmanwori (3) reacts after a play. | Kevin Ng-Imagn Images

The 2025 Seattle Seahawks were mostly a young team, which means the 2026 Seattle Seahawks should be able to depend on several of their players improving from the prior season due to experience. When breaking down expectations for the 2026 team, I feel like a lot of people are forgetting that piece of it.

Can Jadarian Price replace Ken Walker? Is Dante Fowler better, worse, or the same as Boye Mafe? Ty Okada and Bud Clark versus Coby Bryant? All good questions to ask, to be sure, but there’s this other layer. So, here are three players who have a high chance of being better in 2026 than they were in 2025, which would offset some offseason losses.

3) Sam Darnold

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) celebrates with the Vince Lombardi trophy on the podium. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

On the one hand, Darnold was quite good last year. At the same time, he did lead the league in turnovers despite having far fewer dropbacks than most other quarterbacks, so there’s certainly room for improvement. A second year with this crew of teammates, even in a slightly different offense, should be good for him.

I’m a big believer in the idea that turnovers don’t matter as much as they used to, and that judging a quarterback by turnovers is foolhardy, but if Darnold is able to trim down the turnovers even a little while maintaining his high level of play in other areas, it would be a little better. And Darnold plays the most important position on the field, so a little better counts for a lot.

2) Grey Zabel

Seattle Seahawks guard Grey Zabel (76) at the line of scrimmage against the Pittsburgh Steelers. | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Offensive linemen aren’t supposed to peak as rookies, so there’s every reason to believe that Zabel should be striding forward aggressively in his second season. He just turned 24 back in March, and don’t forget that Zabel was pretty unremarkable until late in the season last year. If he can play at that late-season level all year, you have a very good, bordering on great, guard.

Zabel also has the benefit of getting to play in an offensive line with maximum continuity, as it doesn’t look like any of the starters from 2025 are going to be swapped out except for maybe (and I have my doubts on this one) Anthony Bradford. It’s all set up for him to start becoming one of the best left guards in football.

1) Nick Emmanwori

Seattle Seahawks safety Nick Emmanwori (3) warms up prior to a game against the San Francisco 49ers. | Kevin Ng-Imagn Images

Nick turned 22 the day before Super Bowl LX. That player we saw zooming around, making plays from several different positions and alignments all season, was 21. How many NFL players are in their peak form at 21? And age is only part of the consideration here.

Emmanwori was a three-year player at South Carolina in college, and he was noticeably raw. The talent was there, but there were also a lot of mistakes on the tape. Most people, myself included, believed it would take some time before he would be ready to contribute. Emmanwori instead became a defensive lynchpin a couple months into the season.

My point is, there is still plenty of room for Emmanwori to grow. It’d be shocking if he didn’t continue to grow. And the point that we’re at right now is so good, I don’t think it’s unfair to wonder if we’re going to end up with an all-pro caliber player in the next year or two. On a defense that has a few aging parts, Nick’s growth is the most exciting development to watch.

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