The Seahawks' offseason program, which began in April, started off with better attendance than head coach Mike Macdonald was expecting. Thanks to the team's long postseason run, which ended with a dominant win in Super Bowl LX, players had less time off after the 2025 season than is typical, and as a result, Macdonald told veterans and those who played a lot down the stretch of last season that they were welcome to skip the early part of the voluntary workout program.

Instead, a lot of the team's veterans and top players, ranging from Jarran Reed to Devon Witherspoon to Derick Hall to AJ Barner to Charles Cross, among others, were in the building on Day 1.

"We tiered our offseason program from having a later finish this season, but I was blown away by some of the guys that showed up today that we weren't asking to be here at this point in time," Macdonald said in April. "The energy is really great. There's still a sense of urgency and spirit to the guys, which is exciting.

"We said, 'Hey, look, if you finished playing the whole season, phase one, we would love for you to be here, obviously but to get more time out of the building so you can come back as fresh as possible. So guys like 'Spoon, J-Reed were here. Derick Hall. Guys that just wanted to be around the guys again. I thought that was really cool."

That sense of urgency and spirit continued throughout the offseason workout program and all the way through the final day of mandatory minicamp, which was followed the same night by a big celebration in which the team received its Super Bowl rings.

And now, as the Seahawks and the rest of the NFL head into some downtime ahead of training camp, let's take a look back at some of the things we learned about the 2026 Seahawks throughout OTAs and minicamp.

1. Macdonald's "Run it forward" messaging is being well received by his team.

Early in the offseason program, Macdonald made it clear that he doesn't want his team to think of itself as defending champion, or as a team looking to "run it back" even if 20 of 22 starters from the Super Bowl are back. Instead, the language Macdonald and company are using is that the Seahawks are trying to “run it forward.”

And what quickly became apparent as players met with the media during OTAs and minicamp is that the message is taking hold. Like their head coach, players made the point that, as exciting as the previous season was, it wasn't going to help them win game in 2026. Whatever success the team has this upcoming season will be because of the work this collection of players and coaches put in from April through the end of the season, not because of the incredible success last year's team had.

"I think it's the epitome of a championship team mindset that, you know you did it great, but you got to keep going," right tackle Abraham Lucas said. "You know, there's no time to really dilly dally on it. I mean, you have events like (the ring ceremony) that'll take place where you celebrate it, but after tonight, it's not going to matter for next year."

That mentality even carried over to the ring ceremony, with several players playfully shouting out, "nooo!" when Metro Boomin, who was DJing the party, asked the crowd, "Y'all ready to run it back?"

2. The "kinda" new offense is off to a good start.

The Seahawks made a change at offensive coordinator for the second straight year, though this time it was because Klint Kubiak left to become the head coach of the Raiders, not because Macdonald was looking to make a change.

Taking over for Kubiak is former 49ers run game coordinator and tight ends coach Brian Fleury, and while there will be a new voice leading the offense, it won't be a total overhaul. Both Kubiak and Fleury have roots in the Mike/Kyle Shanahan West Coast offense that leans on a wide zone running scheme. That means that, while Fleury will put his own touches on the offense, Sam Darnold and the rest of the offense will not have to learn an entirely new offense either.

"To use the term new, I would say, kinda," Macdonald said. "It's this year's version of last year's offense. It's the Seahawks offense, and Brian has brought some great ideas and some things we can move and shift. Right now, it's more of an installation, more of putting guys in positions where we ask them to do certain techniques and protections, plays that they need to be shown before we go and start executing a plan and start carving out ultimately what we're going to look like. So right now, it's more of an installation phase."

Darnold, who will be playing for his seventh offensive coordinator in the last seven seasons, likes what he has seen from Fleury so far.

"There is some good stuff," Darnold said when asked about any differences he has seen in the offense. "There is some good stuff that we got that he has seen throughout San Francisco the last two or three years that, like I said, since I left there that they continued to build on in their system that he brought over here. So it's been really good stuff. Then some of the stuff we were doing last year in incorporating that into some of the stuff that they don't necessarily do, or at least when I was in San Francisco, they hadn't done. So it's really good to just kind of bounce ideas off each other. Not only with me and Fleury, but with other players in the locker room as well, and then obviously with all the other coaches that have really good ideas that have been other places. So it's really cool to just continue to collaborate on certain ideas and concepts."

3. Darnold and JSN look like they're in midseason form.

It might seem obvious to say that the Pro Bowl quarterback and first-team All-Pro receiver are playing well, but we're going to point it out anyway, because Darnold and Jaxon Smith-Njigba have looked, well, exactly how you'd hope they might heading into their second season together. It is worth noting that, at this point last year, Darnold and Smith-Njigba were new to each other and learning a new offense as well, and there were times the offense and the passing game didn't look particularly sharp, especially given the defense it was facing. So while, again, one would hope to see good things from Darnold and Smith-Njigba, it is worth noting how far ahead those two, and the offense as a whole, are at this time of year compared to 2025.

After winning Offensive Player of the Year last season, Smith-Njigba is still looking for ways to improve, saying, "It's always attacking, getting bigger, faster, stronger. That second year of growth with Sam and the team and playing off 'Shid (Rashid Shaheed) and Coop (Cooper Kupp), just evolving in that way."

And on a related note, it's clear that, with a full offseason under his belt with the team, Shaheed will be a bigger factor in the offense than he was after joining the team midway through last season in a trade with the Saints.

4. The rookie class is making good progress, and a couple of them have a chance to make an early impact.

Since 2022, each Seahawks season has included big contributions from rookies, including last year's Super Bowl winning team that saw first-round pick Grey Zabel and second-round pick Nick Emmanwori emerge as young stars. This year, rookies again have a chance to shine, especially some of Seattle's top picks. First-round pick Jadarian Price is right in the mix at running back, splitting time with the No. 1 offense with George Holani, though the veteran Holani was usually the first back up in offseason workouts. Second-round pick Bud Clark, a safety out of TCU, would have to have a great camp and preseason to move into the starting lineup thanks to the presence of Julian Love and Ty Okada, but the way Macdonald likes to use a lot of different defensive backs in different nickel and dime packages, there's a real opportunity for Clark to play a role even if he isn't a starter. The same could be said for third-round corner Julian Neal, a corner out of Arkansas. While Witherspoon and Josh Jobe are both returning starters, the Seahawks used three cornerbacks a lot in dime packages (with safety Nick Emmanwori playing as the nickel), and thanks to Riq Woolen's departure in free agency, that No. 3 corner role is wide open. Neal will have to compete with veterans like Noah Igbinoghene and Nehemiah Pritchett and Shemar Jean-Charles to win that role, but he'll be in the mix when camp begins.

"Guys are in great spirit… They kind of got flooded with information in terms of install during OTAs, now we've kind of wound it back—they've been exposed to all the things they need to be exposed to to get into training camp," Macdonald said when asked during minicamp about his rookie class. "Now the focus for them is, 'How do I formulate a holistic plan around what I want to do this summer to put myself in the best position I can possibly be in to have a great training camp.' That's something that I feel like we've really grown as a staff, and me personally, of giving them the tools going into summer, then setting the expectation for what we expect when they come back for training camp so we can hit the ground running."

5. The Seahawks should be at close to full strength when camp opens.

Running back Zach Charbonnet, who tore his ACL in Seattle's divisional round win over the 49ers, will not be on the field when camp opens, and very likely will miss the start of the season—though Macdonald wouldn't rule out any possibility with Charbonnet—but other than Charbonnet, the Seahawks should have almost everyone else available when camp opens.

Receiver Tory Horton, whose promising rookie campaign was cut short by a shin injury, was present at offseason workouts and remains on track to be back for training camp.

"It's still all positive with Tory," Macdonald said. "He's not going to do anything today or tomorrow, but we should be looking at early on in camp if not the beginning of camp. If we stay on schedule and everything goes well, we'll be praying that he can be out there. You've got to be smart on how he comes back and all of that, but he should be active, it could be anywhere from Day 1 or maybe it's a couple of days, we'll see."

Among several other players who didn't participate in some or all of offseason workouts such as AJ Barner, Kenny McIntosh, Elijah Arroyo and Eric Saubert, Macdonald said the outlook for all is positive when it comes to taking part in camp.

As for Charbonnet, who had surgery in February, Macdonald hasn't provided a timeline for a return, he remains encouraged by what they have seen from Charbonnet so far.

"He's doing a great job," Macdonald said. "I know he has high expectations for himself, and we're looking forward to seeing where it ends up."