‘4 Downs’ with Rich: the Seattle Seahawks’ Biggest Questions ahead of the ‘26 NFL Season

Rich finished previewing all 32 teams the way he started, one four downs segment at a time, and the last one belonged to the defending Super Bowl champions. Which meant the whole thing had a theme he could not avoid. When you win, everybody comes and takes your stuff.

First down was a name check, and the honest answer is that most people do not have one. Klint Kubiak ran this offense and is now the head coach in Las Vegas. The new offensive coordinator arrives from San Francisco, where he was the run game coordinator and tight ends coach, which gave Rich his opening.

Seattle has now taken the 49ers' one seed, taken over their stadium long enough to leave the stench of a Seahawks Lombardi Trophy celebration on it, and then taken their run game coordinator and tight ends coach and handed him a very important job.

What he inherits is mostly the same offensive roster, which Rich framed as the real question rather than a gift. It is one thing to be handed what Kubiak built. "How are you going to wrinkle it? How are you going to change it? How are you going to move it forward?"

Second down was the piece of that offense that is gone. Kenneth Walker III is in Kansas City, where Rich offered Chiefs fans a hopeful note in passing, that Walker becomes the first 1,000 yard rusher Patrick Mahomes has had since Kareem Hunt's rookie season.

The replacement is Jadarian Price, the 32nd overall selection out of Notre Dame, and Rich could not resist the game show construction. Will their price be right?

The context makes it more interesting than a typical rookie handoff. Two first-round Notre Dame running backs went in the NFC West, with Jeremiyah Love landing elsewhere in the division, something the show had already discussed with Marcus Freeman. Zach Charbonnet is coming back from a knee injury after 12 touchdowns last season. Rich expects Price to start next Wednesday night and dropped a small piece of intelligence about how they intend to use him. Putting the first two downs together, the word is the new coordinator plans to feature Price out of the backfield in the passing game. "Just a little breadcrumb."

Third down was the poaching problem on defense, and the list is long. Boye Mafe is gone. Defensive backs Riq Woolen and Coby Bryant left in free agency.

So the question is not who left. It is who John Schneider has already found to replace them, and Rich made the case for why that question is worth asking rather than dreading. "There's only one GM in the history of the NFL who's won multiple Super Bowls with different coach, quarterback, and an entirely different roster."

The candidates Rich floated are Julian Love, drafted by Schneider, and Dante Fowler, added to the defense. But his real point was about the pattern. There is always a Seattle draft pick who sounds like nothing on draft night and turns into something. "There's always some draft choice that on draft night you're like, okay, sounds like a Seahawk."

Fourth down was the head coach, and Rich thinks the answer is arriving in public. Mike Macdonald made an obvious leap from year one to year two, and Hard Knocks has been filling in the rest. "You're seeing he's smart. You're seeing he's calm. You're seeing that he's also someone not to be trifled with."

Year three is the different assignment. A title defense, with everyone's best shot incoming. "Seattle's coming to town and they got the target. That's what happens when you're defending Super Bowl champ." Which means Macdonald, who Rich rates as one of the best play callers in the business, has to dial up something new.

The roster around him is not thin. Schneider paid Devon Witherspoon. He paid Leonard Williams. Ernest Jones is back and DeMarcus Lawrence is back, and their safety is coming off ankle surgery.

Rich then aired the two questions he considered and left off, which turned into the most interesting exchange of the segment. He had thought about Jaxon Smith-Njigba and decided there was nothing left to ask. "I think he's arrived. I don't even question that."

The pushback from the desk was Sam Darnold, and Rich took that one more seriously while still refusing the premise underneath it. Darnold has done it two years running with two different teams, and now gets to be the man in the building. The legitimate question is the new coordinator, not the quarterback.

When somebody reached for the old line about seeing ghosts, Rich shut it down without much patience. A good regular season in Minnesota, a playoff flameout, and then carrying a team all the way in Seattle is not the resume of a man about to unravel.

"That's gone, pal."