PHOENIX — Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald and general manager John Schneider arrived at the NFL’s annual meeting this weekend carrying the title of defending Super Bowl champions.
But in sessions with the media Monday, each said that’s not a name they will call themselves during the 2026 season.
Macdonald emphasized that the goal for the 2026 Seahawks isn’t to feel burdened by duplicating the success of the 2025 team but instead feeling free to make their own name and carve out their own path.
“We’re a new team, and we have to rebecome the team that we’re destined to be,” Macdonald said. “There’s a lot of new pieces, and I think that’s where the focus is. OK, how can we get those ground elements back to where we want them? What’s a better way in terms of our process?”
Macdonald added that: “We’re trying to be really careful with our language. We’re not really saying like ‘we’re running anything back.’ We’re not defending anything. That’s not really our attitude.”
Related More Seahawks
Seahawks general manager John Schneider smiles at wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba during a press conference on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Renton.
Seahawks’ two-point conversions still on Rams’ mind at league meeting
Seahawks GM John Schneider says WA ‘millionaires tax’ will ‘affect us’
Seahawks say DeMarcus Lawrence will return for 2026 season
Where Seahawks sit in NFL power rankings after free agency period
More
Macdonald said he has already talked to some team leaders about the approach to this season and that “we’ll figure out ways for the guys to really make it their journey again, so we can all be on the same page moving forward.”
The Seahawks have prioritized retaining as many of the players from the 2025 team as possible, and at the moment, all but five players who played significant roles a year ago are set to return.
Schneider agreed that even if many of the names will be the same “every year is so different. We’re trying to bring as many guys back as we possibly can, but you know it’s going to be a different team no matter what.”
Macdonald noted that this season is already destined to have a different feel because of scheduling logistics.
Because the Seahawks played a month later this year than in 2024, Macdonald said the team is altering the format of its offseason schedule.
When the offseason program begins April 20, Macdonald said veteran players will be allowed to do the first two weeks remotely to get a little extra break, with younger players and those coming off injuries expected to be on site.
“It was a shorter offseason, so I just felt like the guys needed a standard amount of time away from the building, so we’re kind of tiering it, what we had planned out for them to come back during the offseason,” Macdonald said. “Guys that didn’t really play through that whole playoff push, young guys we’re trying to develop or guys that are injured that we’re trying to get extra hands on, we’ll ask them to come back a little bit earlier, then the other guys will be remote for the first two weeks.
“Then starting with phase two we’re hoping to get everyone back in the building and rolling, then we go from there.”
Here are four other things we learned Monday:
Yes, Macdonald finally watched Super Bowl
Macdonald confessed at the NFL scouting combine last month in Indianapolis that he had yet to watch a replay of the Super Bowl, saying one reason was to let the emotions of it die down first.
Monday, Macdonald said he’d finally watched a coach’s tape of it last week and eventually plans to watch a TV copy with his wife, Stephanie.
Macdonald said it felt like watching a “normal” game.
“It didn’t feel like I was watching the Super Bowl,” he said. “Just felt like I was in season. Just upset because we didn’t take a guy to the flat or something. … same feeling you get as watching any other tape. You get pissed off about certain things. But there was a lot of good stuff on there.”
Macdonald said that despite getting some congratulations from those around the league here at the meetings and elsewhere, he doesn’t really feel any different.
“It’s really cool, but I don’t really think about it until somebody brings it up to me,” he said. “I feel like I’m the same person. I think that puts everything in perspective — it’s just, why are we actually doing what we do? It’s really just to defend our way of life, that we can be Seahawks and put great emphasis on people and enjoy how we go about our business and the people we’re with every day.
“If we would have lost the game, I would have hopefully felt the same and felt the same about our team, have the same amount of pride in what we were able to accomplish last year.”
Injury, contract updates
Macdonald offered a couple injury updates on receiver Tory Horton, who had surgery to fix a shin issue, and running back Zach Charbonnet, who had surgery in February to repair an ACL injury suffered in the playoff win over the 49ers on Jan. 18.
Most Read Sports Stories
Macdonald didn’t offer a timeline for when Charbonnet will return but again indicated optimism that he will be back at some point in the 2026 season saying, “He’s not going to miss the whole year.”
As for Horton, Macdonald said he couldn’t go into the specifics of his injury and surgery but said the expectation is he will be ready for the 2026 season.
“We’ll have a plan for him over the course of this spring,” Macdonald said of Horton, a fifth-round pick last year out of Colorado State who had five receiving touchdowns in eight games before being sidelined for the rest of the season. “Probably not going to be 100 percent starting from day one. Not really sure on the timetable, but we expect him back for training camp I think is a fair statement to make.”
Schneider said that there is no plan to alter the contract of veteran rush end Uchenna Nwosu.
Nwosu is entering the final season of his contract in 2026 and carries a $20.018 million cap hit, which has led to some speculation about his future. But Schneider noted that Nwosu got through the 2025 season healthy after battling injuries the previous two seasons and that “he’s a leader.”
Dougherty role still being sorted out
Macdonald confirmed the Seahawks are adding former UW offensive coordinator Jimmie Dougherty to their staff but said his duties are still being sorted out.
Dougherty became available when he parted ways with UW last month in the wake of the promotion of JP Losman to quarterbacks coach (head coach Jedd Fisch calls plays). An NFL Network report stated Dougherty is being added as offensive assistant.
“We were able to add Jimmie this past week,” Macdonald said. “We’ll work out the specifics of his role, but really just adding a talented coach that’s a great guy and really had his hand in everything.”
Macdonald said Dougherty could handle some off-field jobs such as scouting reports and coaching projects. “He’s going to kind of fill in the space as we go,” he said.
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.