The Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks have climbed the NFL mountaintop.
Now, they face an even tougher challenge: Staying there.
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Over the past two decades, the Kansas City Chiefs are the only franchise to win back-to-back Super Bowl titles, achieving the feat in 2022 and 2023. Moreover, just four defending Super Bowl champions since 2005 made it back to the Super Bowl the following season.
For Super Bowl winners, one of the biggest challenges is retaining talent. The Seahawks are no stranger to that, losing four key players in free agency last month – Super Bowl MVP running back Kenneth Walker III, safety Coby Bryant, edge rusher Boye Mafe and cornerback Riq Woolen.
But aside from those four departures, the Seahawks brought back virtually every other key contributor from a Super Bowl-winning team that finished 17-3 with a plus-246 point differential across the regular season and postseason – the highest such mark by a Super Bowl champion since 1999.
In fact, the Seahawks retained 88% of their total snaps from their 2025 championship team. For comparison, the Seahawks retained just 77% of their total snaps the offseason after their 2013 Super Bowl title.
During an appearance Monday on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk, ESPN NFL analyst Peter Schrager emphasized just how strong the Seahawks’ roster remains.
“This Seahawks team is loaded, and I don’t see them having some major drop-off after winning a Super Bowl last year,” Schrager said.
The Seahawks also still have the eighth-most 2026 salary cap space in the NFL at $32.9 million, according to Over The Cap. That gives general manager John Schneider the ammunition to continue adding to the roster later this offseason or at the 2026 trade deadline.
“John Schneider has a little wiggle room, and it’s ironic after all these years of the albatross of that Russell Wilson contract that they got shipped to Denver,” Schrager said. “Now it’s like, they won the Super Bowl, and they’ve got money to spend, and they’ve got some picks in this draft? Like, yeah, I think Seattle’s in a good place.”
With their salary cap room, the Seahawks also remain well positioned to continue securing cornerstone players to long-term deals.
Last month, they signed reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba to a record-setting contract extension for a wide receiver. In January, they inked left tackle Charles Cross to a long-term deal. They did the same with right tackle Abraham Lucas last September. And at some point this offseason, they’re widely expected to make three-time Pro Bowler Devon Witherspoon one of the highest-paid cornerbacks in the league.
For the Seahawks to maximize their championship window, Schrager emphasized the importance of continuing to correctly identify and retain their young core in the coming years.
“You’ve gotta retain the young talent,” Schrager said. “You’ve gotta find a way. And you start that with JSN and obviously Witherspoon. Like, these are guys that are cornerstone pieces (and) are homegrown. And that’s the key.
“You lose a Boye Mafe and a Kenneth Walker, other homegrown pieces, but you say, OK, we’re losing them, but in doing that, we’re going to be able to spend for X. We’re losing Riq Woolen, but we’re gonna be able to spend on Y.
“It’s key to identify those players and then take care of them and make sure they are Seattle Seahawks for life, or at least for one extra contract where you get those core pieces.”
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