RENTON, Wash. -- Six months after the Seattle Seahawks hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the second time in franchise history, Richard Sherman was struck by the team's post-Super Bowl vibe. As he chopped it up with Mike Macdonald at the start of an Aug. 10 training camp practice, the retired cornerback wanted to know how the third-year head coach got his players to lock back in.
"How did you get these guys so -- this is such a hungry-ass team," asked Sherman, who starred for the Super Bowl XLVIII-champion Seahawks and still lives in the Seattle area. "We were still hungry after the first one, but you still felt like this dude got paid, this dude's starting to feel himself, this dude's pissed off he's not getting enough money.
"You don't feel none of that here. You don't feel nothing here but f---ing grind, work."
Macdonald answered in typical self-effacing fashion, complete with a contemplative pause.
"Umm, I don't know," he said. "It's just what we do, you know?"
"But that's easier said than done," Sherman said.
Captured by HBO's "Hard Knocks," the 40-second exchange illustrated one of the challenges that Super Bowl winners face, and why the Seahawks are equipped to handle it as they try to become only the ninth repeat champion in NFL history and only the third this century. That quest begins Wednesday (8:20 p.m., NBC), when they open their 2026 season against the New England Patriots at Lumen Field.
But other roadblocks await. The Seahawks lost four key players in free agency from the team that beat New England in Super Bowl LX, including the game's MVP in running back Kenneth Walker III and cornerback Riq Woolen, whose departure looks more significant now than it did in March. With Klint Kubiak getting poached as well, quarterback Sam Darnold and the offense will be relying on a first-time coordinator in Brian Fleury. Meanwhile, the division-rival Los Angeles Rams loaded up this offseason on their way to becoming betting favorites to win the NFC West and Super Bowl LXI.
Those are more than just champagne problems that the champs will have to navigate. But the feeling inside team headquarters is that, as Macdonald has put it, not "an ounce of complacency" has been evident.
"We're more focused than ever," veteran defensive tackle Jarran Reed said. "A lot of people always try to bring up the Super Bowl and all that, but literally nobody talks about it. We don't bring it up. We just worry about the day that we're in, the present that we're in, and we just attack the day.
"I think we're more hungry this year, too, which is surprising. We know what we have to do."
'This league is about making hard decisions'
When the dust settled on the Seahawks' 29-13 win over the Patriots at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, general manager John Schneider commemorated the title by adding to his collection of arm tattoos. The new ink on the crease of his right elbow includes the letters LX underneath the Golden Gate Bridge.
In the same spot on his left elbow are the letters XLVIII underneath the New York City skyline, which is near where the Seahawks claimed their first Lombardi trophy at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, 12 years earlier.
Schneider is the only GM in NFL history to win two Super Bowls with different head coaches and none of the same players. His 2014 Seahawks came within a yard of repeating as champions after an offseason in which their roster took significantly more hits than the current one just did.
Schneider has been here before. But he still needed to hear something that his close friend and Tampa Bay Buccaneers counterpart Jason Licht told him over a late-night dinner at this year's NFL combine in Indianapolis. Schneider said Licht reminded him that you can't make emotional decisions while trying to keep a Super Bowl-winning team intact.
A few days later, Seattle said goodbye to Walker as he agreed to a three-year, $43.05 million deal with the Kansas City Chiefs at the start of the free agency negotiating window. Three other key players would follow: outside linebacker Boye Mafe (three years, $60 million with the Cincinnati Bengals), safety Coby Bryant (three years, $40 million with the Chicago Bears) and Woolen (one year, $12 million with the Philadelphia Eagles).
Taking Licht's reminder to heart wasn't easy. But it was necessary, especially with megadeals coming down the pike for wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba ($42.15 million per season in new money), cornerback Devon Witherspoon ($33 million) and defensive tackle Leonard Williams ($30 million), who all signed extensions this offseason.
"Obviously we're going to miss those guys, but you've got to keep moving forward," Schneider said on Seattle Sports 710 AM before the Seahawks' first preseason game. "To get all those [other] guys back was a big deal for us. This league is about making hard decisions after every season, and this is no different whether you win a world championship or don't."
The Seahawks re-signed a pair of starters in wide receiver Rashid Shaheed and cornerback Josh Jobe, as well as every notable backup save for special teamer Dareke Young. With no salary cap casualties -- Seattle has a league-low $2.33 million in dead money charges for 2026, per OverTheCap -- Schneider and vice president of player administration Joey Laine brought back all but six of their 52 players who played at least 100 combined snaps (including special teams) during the regular season and playoffs. By comparison, the 2014 Seahawks lost 13 of the 48 players who met that playing-time threshold the year before.
"It was more than I anticipated looking back," Schneider said. "That's a credit to the coaches and Joey Laine and our personnel staff in terms of guys wanting to be here and just keeping as many guys as we possibly can."
Having seen the Seahawks' locker room gradually lose its edge in the later years of the Legion of Boom era, Schneider approached April's draft with an eye for competitors.
Seattle's eight-man class was headlined by top pick Jadarian Price, whom the Seahawks hope can replicate some of Walker's explosiveness. He'll lead their backfield while Zach Charbonnet spends at least the first four games on the physically unable to perform list following ACL surgery.
Second-round safety Bud Clark was supposed to push Ty Okada for Bryant's old starting job, but he's out for the season with a broken ankle. Third-round cornerback Julian Neal missed much of camp with a quad injury that has kept him from factoring in the battle to replace Woolen as CB3, which had looked like perhaps the only potential weak point of a defense that allowed the fewest points in the NFL last season.
Safety, however, has become another early-season concern, with Okada sidelined with a hamstring injury and Emmanwori taking longer than expected to return from July right ankle surgery.
Between their injury issues and free agent departures, the Seahawks could have their work cut out for them as they try to recapture their defensive dominance of 2025. But with much of the unit entering Year 3 in Macdonald's scheme, familiarity will be an asset.
"There's a lot of continuity in the players that we have, so it allows a kind of unspoken, at times, understanding of what we're doing and why we're trying to do something," defensive coordinator Aden Durde said.
While the Seahawks lost established talent on defense, the rival Rams added it in a big way. Bringing future Hall of Fame defensive tackle Aaron Donald out of retirement capped an offseason in which Los Angeles also acquired All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett as well as cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson.
The two teams played three nail-biters last season, with the Seahawks winning the rubber match at home in the NFC Championship Game. But now, DraftKings gives the Rams the best odds to win the NFC West at -105 (ahead of Seattle at +215) and Super Bowl LX at +500 (Seattle is fourth at +1200).
"I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a little extra motivation from hearing that type of stuff," Williams said. "There's extra chips on our shoulders. We just came off of a Super Bowl-winning season. People are still giving other people favorites over us. But at the same time, it's always about us, it's about our process. I think that is still adding fuel to the fire for guys. At the same time, we're going to stick to our process regardless of what other people outside may think."
'Run it forward'
At 38, Macdonald became the third-youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl when his top-ranked scoring defense suffocated New England to the tune of six sacks and three takeaways, including a pick-six.
Macdonald's defensive expertise and the experience that unit has gathered entering Year 3 in his scheme are two factors that will work in the Seahawks' favor as they try to repeat. But before Macdonald could start to think about their bid to "run it forward" -- the wording he has been using to describe their post-Super Bowl mindset -- there was precious little time to celebrate.
After a postgame party that went deep into the night, he hopped in the back of a car early the next morning, accompanying Walker on an hourlong ride from San Jose to San Francisco for the MVP news conference.
Shortly after, Macdonald was on a plane to Southern California to appear that night on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" He flew back home for a final team meeting Tuesday, followed by the championship celebration at Lumen Field and a parade through downtown Seattle on Wednesday.
Come Thursday -- just four days after winning the Super Bowl -- he was back in his office, beginning his search for a new offensive coordinator.
By the time Macdonald landed on Fleury that Sunday, the start of the team's offseason workout program was nine weeks away. To account for the fact that they had played well into February, he encouraged veterans and younger players who had seen extensive action in 2025 to take part remotely for the first two weeks before joining in-person for the start of Phase 2.
Yet when Phase 1 began on April 20, several starters who weren't expected to be there showed up. Witherspoon was one of them despite a contract situation that would drag well into the summer. So were Reed, tight end AJ Barner, Jobe and outside linebacker Derick Hall, among others.
With the exception of outside linebacker DeMarcus Lawrence, whose wife gave birth to their sixth child a day after the Super Bowl, virtually every player on Seattle's 91-man roster was pictured at least once in photo galleries published on the Seahawks' website over the first month of voluntary workouts and organized team activities.
"First and foremost, I think we missed each other a lot," Reed said. "It shows that the guys are ready to get back to work. ... When the Super Bowl was over, we all went to the locker room like, 'Man, this is it?' We worked so hard, and we're used to working hard and we could play a couple more weeks. The guys were ready to get back to work, hungry. They were excited to see what the new season was going to bring, the new faces that we could bring in, how we were going to attack."
The connectedness of the Seahawks' locker room has been one hallmark of the environment that Macdonald and Schneider have built in their two and a half years together. There's a proven cultural foundation in place, but Macdonald knew they couldn't completely pick up where they left off. After all, 19 of the team's current 78 players (including those on PUP, IR, etc.) weren't with Seattle in 2025, and it's in Macdonald's nature to constantly evolve.
Which is why his messaging to the team hasn't mentioned "defending" their title or wanting to "run it back."
"It's ours to go get," safety Julian Love said, explaining Macdonald's "run it forward" phrasing. "It's a growth mindset thing. It's not ours to defend. It's ours to go challenge whoever lines up across from us. That's the idea that we have, to progress. We can't be the same team that we were last year. We have to try and level up in certain ways, whether it's on the field or off the field. That's the whole mindset of it."
'How can I push myself'
After a nomadic stretch of four different teams in four seasons, Darnold enters Year 2 of a three-year, $105.5 million contract with Seattle. It's the first time since 2022 with the Carolina Panthers that he isn't adjusting to a new setting and the first time since 2020 with the New York Jets that he returns to a team as its unquestioned starter.
While he has a new coordinator -- Darnold was consulted during the search and supported Macdonald's pick, according to a source familiar with Seattle's hiring process -- he hasn't had to learn a new offense. Save for some elements that Fleury is bringing with him from the seven seasons he spent with the San Francisco 49ers, including a greater emphasis on pre-snap shifts and motions, the Seahawks have installed largely the same West Coast system that Kubiak brought to Seattle last year. The quarterback ran variations of it with the 49ers in 2023 and during his breakout season with the Minnesota Vikings in 2024.
Darnold is finally settled. But he's not settling.
"I think for myself, that was a big challenge this offseason was, 'OK, it's the first time in a few years that I've stayed in one place. How can I push myself a little bit more and challenge myself?'" Darnold said earlier this week. "Fleury coming in here with a couple different wrinkles, really being able to study those things and go back to the basics, studying formations, concepts, motions -- all those things to continue to sharpen my sword. So I think that's the biggest thing as a player and as a human in general, you try to seek comfort sometimes, and I think it's being able to find ways to continue to challenge yourself which allows you to continue to grow."
When Kubiak became the Raiders' head coach one day after Super Bowl LX, he took quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko with him as offensive coordinator. Fleury, who spent the past four seasons as the 49ers' tight ends coach and added the title of run-game coordinator in 2025, didn't bring any assistants with him from San Francisco. Passing game coordinator Jake Peetz and Tyson Prince now coach Seattle's QBs.
The new voices in Darnold's ear will be tasked with evening his play.
No quarterback has a better record since 2024 than Darnold, whose 28 regular-season wins and 31 combined victories in that span both lead the Buffalo Bills' Josh Allen by three. But Darnold made his second straight Pro Bowl in 2025 based largely on what he did over the first 10 weeks, when he led the NFL in Total QBR at 77.8. Over the final eight weeks of the regular season, his 35.2 QBR ranked 27th. Darnold led the Seahawks to a 7-1 record in that stretch despite more turnovers (10) than touchdown passes (eight). He finished the season with a league-high 20 turnovers, though he didn't give the ball away in any of the Seahawks' three playoff games -- despite playing with an oblique strain he suffered days before the divisional round -- or when the NFC West title was on the line against the 49ers in Week 18.
Darnold was brilliant in Seattle's 31-27 win over the Rams in the NFC Championship Game, throwing for 346 yards and three touchdowns against a defense that previously had his number. But he made more than one mention this offseason about being unsatisfied with his performance in the Super Bowl (19-of-38 for 202 yards and a TD), which left a bittersweet feeling.
"I can always get better," Darnold said. "I think there were a lot of things for me, like moving on in my progressions and working from one [side of the] field to the other. I felt like I was throwing behind some targets, especially if I was going left to right. There were a couple throws in the Super Bowl that I'd like to have back, and then not only during the Super Bowl, but before that as well, where I just missed some guys going through my progressions."
The fifth and final episode of "Hard Knocks" closes with Darnold, cutting to black as he walks off the field. He had one hand on his hip, trying to catch his breath after running wind sprints at the end of practice.
The ending was fitting, showing the player most important to the Seahawks' hopes of repeating as champions with his head down, grinding.
It's what they do.
"This is my second time doing this," said linebacker Ernest Jones IV, who won Super Bowl XVI with the Rams, "so I'm definitely aware that complacency can set in and that when dogs [stop getting] hungry, they kind of lay down. But we don't have any of those people here. We're going to grind."
