RENTON — Simply put, the newest Seahawk, receiver Rashid Shaheed, is here to add speed.
“I was kind of born to run,” Shaheed, a former high-school track star, said Wednesday as he talked to reporters shortly before his first practice with the team. “It’s a big part of my game.”
But as quickly as he arrived in Seattle — he learned of his trade from New Orleans to the Seahawks on Tuesday afternoon and was at the VMAC Wednesday morning to begin getting acclimated — he hopes to stay awhile.
Shaheed can be a free agent at the end of the season, one reason he was made available by a rebuilding New Orleans team that wasn’t sure it would be able to re-sign him.
Shaheed said Wednesday he’s not planning to test the market next spring.
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Rashid Shaheed #22 of the New Orleans Saints during an NFL football game against the New England Patriots in New Orleans, La., Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ella Hall)
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“No, I’m here to stay,” Shaheed said when asked about potentially hitting free agency in March. “I’m here to stay, man. I’m excited. (We’ll) figure something out after the season.”
Asked if that meant he considers Seattle his new home, Shaheed nodded.
“Long term,” he said. “Yes, sir.”
The Seahawks gave up fourth- and fifth-round picks in the 2026 draft to add Shaheed to a passing offense that already ranks as one of the best in the NFL.
The Seahawks are fourth in passing yards (255.1 per game), first in yards per pass attempt at 9.5 — more than a half-yard better than any other team (New England is second at 8.9) — and have the leading receiver in the NFL in Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who is on pace for more than 2,000 yards.
“It’s a great opportunity to add to our team,” coach Mike Macdonald said. “Didn’t feel like we were missing something. Not like we were trying to plug holes or anything like that. Just an opportunity to get a great player and augment what we were doing.”
What the Seahawks specifically hope Shaheed can do is help stretch the defense and force opponents to have to defend even more of the field.
Shaheed, who was a track star at Mt. Carmel High in San Diego and whose parents ran track in college (father Haneef at Arizona State and mother Cassondra Tyson-Shaheed at San Diego State), has been regarded as one of the fastest players in the league the last four seasons.
As an example, he was measured as reaching a top speed of 21.87 miles per hour on an 87-yard TD against the Giants on Oct. 5, eighth-fastest in the NFL this season, according to Next Gen stats.
“The speed is real,” Macdonald said of the 6-foot, 180-pound Shaheed.
Adding that speed to Smith-Njigba, Tory Horton and Cooper Kupp, the Seahawks hope, will make their receiving corps even more explosive and dispel opponents from loading up as much as they have been against the run.
According to ESPN, the Seahawks have had the second-most running plays against “stacked boxes” — meaning, eight or more defenders near the line of scrimmage — than any other team (86).
That’s undoubtedly factored into the Seahawks averaging just 3.7 yards per carry, second-worst in the NFL.
Macdonald said getting opponents out of stacked boxes is more complicated than adding one player to the mix, noting some teams also simply like to play that style regardless.
But he noted of Shaheed that, “He’s a playmaker.”
What also attracted the Seahawks to Shaheed is his relationship with offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak.
Kubiak served the same role last season with the Saints and Shaheed averaged a career-high 17.5 yards per reception in six games — 20 catches for 349 yards — before suffering a meniscus tear that ended his season.
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Shaheed said his initial view of the offense is that it’s similar to what he ran last year but with a few tweaks.
“I feel like there’s a lot of wide-open opportunities,” Shaheed said of Kubiak’s scheme. “I would get into a lot of play-action and stuff like that, so I could stretch the field vertically. I feel like I could bring that into this offense. Any type of explosiveness, I’m all here for it.”
Macdonald said Shaheed’s familiarity with the system means he should make a quick transition and that the plan is he will make his Seahawks debut Sunday against Arizona at Lumen Field.
Shaheed also will factor into the return games having been named a first-team All-Pro in 2023 as a punt returner.
Macdonald said Horton will continue in his current punt-return role, appearing to indicate Shaheed will be more involved in kickoff returns to start out. Dareke Young has been one of the main kickoff returners this year along with running back George Holani. Young is battling a hip issue that held him out against Washington.
Kupp and Jake Bobo also sat out the Washington game with injuries, meaning they could have a need for Shaheed to play substantially against Arizona.
The trade was made for more than short-term injury fill-in reasons as the Seahawks feel the 27-year-old can be a key part of the team for years.
Shaheed will make roughly $2.1 million for this rest of this season on a contract that voids after the year. But Shaheed’s comments indicate he’s planning to sign a new deal with the Seahawks after the season. He’s represented by longtime NFL agent Drew Rosenhaus, who also represents Seahawks Uchenna Nwosu and Julian Love.
The thought of someday signing a long-term, significant contract with an NFL team wasn’t the first thing on Shaheed’s mind when he entered the league in 2022 as an undrafted free agent out of Weber State University, an FCS school.
“Not being drafted, you could get down, question yourself and not know what’s next,” he said. “But as long as you stay prepared and stay ready for the opportunity, you never know what can happen. That’s exactly what happened in my situation. I was just ready for it. I took every opportunity that came to me, and now I’m here.”
Shaheed won’t need much introduction to Lumen Field as he was there on Sept 21 when the Seahawks beat the Saints 44-13. That loss was part of a 1-8 start to the season for the Saints under rookie coach Kellen Moore. That slow start led to speculation the Saints could unload a few players, such as Shaheed, and look to the future.
“I tried not to focus on the rumors,’’ he said. “There was a lot of stuff circulating, but I had to stay focused on what I had in front of me. But now that it’s here, I feel like I’m ready for it. Everything is going to be a smooth transition for me.”
Still, he called it “a bittersweet feeling” leaving the only NFL team he’s known.
That feeling figures to dissipate quickly now that he’s joining a team that suddenly has legitimate Super Bowl aspirations.
“I know it’s a winning organization, and that’s what matters the most in this league,” he said of what he knew about the Seahawks before Wednesday. “I’m just excited to be a part of it.”
Bob Condotta: bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Bob Condotta is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times who primarily covers the Seahawks but also dabbles in other sports. He has worked at The Times since 2002, reporting on University of Washington Husky football and basketball for his first 10 years at the paper before switching to the Seahawks in 2013.