Seattle, WA

Seattle Seahawks’ offseason needs to be backed up in 2 ways

Published

7 months ago

September 10, 2025

Seattle Seahawks’ offseason needs to be backed up in 2 ways

The Seattle Seahawks did not blow up their team this past offseason. It may look to the world outside Seattle like they did, but they did not. They see themselves as a competitive team right now and believe they are better than they were a year ago.

Did Week 1 loss show that Seattle Seahawks miss star power?

This offseason saw a lot of change at the top of the roster. The trades and departures of Geno Smith, DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett were significant and can’t be minimized. Those three players had veteran experience, years of productivity and a major role in everything the offense did last year.

But that offense was not what this coach wanted.

That offense was too pass-dependent, not physical enough and unreliable in the biggest moments. It simply did not complement that rapidly improving defense that Mike Macdonald wants to be the hallmark of his franchise.

I fully supported those changes. And I stand by that 100%. Yes, those are good players, and two of them (Smith with the Raiders and Metcalf with the Steelers) had excellent debuts in their new uniforms. The Seahawks can be a better team without them. But to do so isn’t automatic. It takes a smart plan and success on two fronts.

1. Leadership.

One of the major issues with Geno, DK and Lockett is that they were truly ingrained in the language, style and philosophy of Pete Carroll. He was the only NFL coach the two receivers had ever known, and he saved the quarterback’s career. Carroll was loyal to them (maybe to a fault), and they appreciated the way he ran the franchise – so much so that Geno would often communicate with Pete when things felt off last season.

To truly build his own team with its own culture, Mike Macdonald needed to remove the three veterans most indoctrinated into someone else’s way of doing business. To do so was a win. But it leaves a vacuum that must be filled.

Sam Darnold, Cooper Kupp, DeMarcus Lawrence and others need to help fill that gap coming from the outside. Returning players like Ernest Jones, Jarran Reed and Julian Love need to rise to the occasion. And Macdonald needs to present a clear vision for what that culture needs to be.

2. Resources.

The strongest argument for making the offseason changes at wide receiver – and to some extent quarterback – is to rearrange the distribution of resources on the roster. A salary cap system forces each franchise to choose where to spend its money, and the best teams do that by spending according to the needs of their chosen identity.

Macdonald has said repeatedly that he wants his offense to play complementary ball. I take that to mean they need to run it a whole lot better than last season when they finished 28th in the league with just 95.7 rushing yards per game. That required a new coordinator with a new scheme, but also an investment into the offensive line.

The first one got done, with Klint Kubiak bringing his Shanahan-style offense and a legion of offensive line coaches to Seattle. But the investment in the offensive line was limited to the drafting of Grey Zabel in the first round and some other small moves late in the draft or on the fringes of free agency. They replaced only one position on the line with a player who was not on the roster last season.

In fact, after saving money at wide receiver and quarterback, the Seahawks still rank 31st in the league in spending along the offensive line. At $23 million, they are spending less than 25% of what the top team spends on its line ($95.3 million). The teams in the middle are spending nearly double what the Seahawks have allotted.

Spending, of course, is not necessarily equivalent to succeeding. But part of my support for spending less on skill positions was based on reallocating that cap space to the line of scrimmage. That has not happened, at least not yet.

Unfortunately, we also have yet to see the success on the field. The team ran 26 times for 84 yards in the opening game. None of those numbers are going to be enough for a team that wants to balance its offense and complement its defense.

In fact, the 3.2 yards per carry was actually below last season’s 4.2. The 49ers may very well have an excellent run defense, and accounting for Fred Warner is a nightmare for any offense. But the Seahawks need to be able to run it more effectively to succeed this season and to justify the moves they made this spring. The lack of a running game was, for me, the biggest cause for concern after the first game.

We are only one game into what will be a key season for Mike Macdonald, John Schneider and the Seahawks. They made some significant changes that could lead to even more significant improvements. But we are a long way from determining how it all plays out.

More on the Seattle Seahawks

• Where was the play-action in Seahawks’ opener?
• IR stint for Seahawks rookie Nick Emmanwori ‘under consideration’
• Bump: Seattle Seahawks’ run game too ‘predictable’ in opening loss
• What Brock Huard saw on Seattle Seahawks’ last-minute fumble
• ‘Not the start that we wanted’ for Seattle Seahawks’ offense

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Seattle, WA

Seattle weather: Wet start to Tuesday with breezy winds

Published

2 hours ago

March 24, 2026

Press Room

Seattle weather: Wet start to Tuesday with breezy winds

SEATTLE – A wet start to the day Tuesday with widespread showers and snow in the higher elevations. Snow levels will start low around 3000′ with a mix of rain and snow in the Cascade passes. Snow levels will start to rise to around 6000′ later in the day and evening.

A wet start to the day Tuesday with widespread showers and snow in the higher elevations.

Wind Advisory

There is a Wind Advisory for the coast and the north interior on Tuesday for gusts between 40-50 mph. Winds will remain strong along the coast, continuing the advisory through Wednesday afternoon.

There is a Wind Advisory for the coast and the north interior Tuesday for gusts between 40-50 mph.

Winds will be gusty for all of western Washington Tuesday with the Puget Sound seeing gusts up to 40 mph as well.

Winds will be gusty for all of Western Washington Tuesday with the Puget Sound seeing gusts up to 40 mph as well.

Highs Tuesday will be a few degrees below seasonal average, only reaching the low to mid 50s.

Highs Tuesday will be a few degrees below seasonal average, only reaching the low to mid 50s.

What’s next:

Showers will linger Wednesday with highs only in the upper 40s, then we will dry out for Thursday with milder temperatures. The Mariners home opener Thursday is looking dry with mostly sunny skies in the afternoon. This could mean the roof is OPEN! Showers will be gone by Friday into the weekend for a more spring-like forecast.

Showers will linger Wednesday with highs only in the upper 40s. (FOX 13 Seattle)

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The Source: Information in this story came from the FOX 13 Seattle Weather Team and the National Weather Service.

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Seattle, WA

Why the potential return of the Sonics to Seattle has never felt closer

Published

15 hours ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

Why the potential return of the Sonics to Seattle has never felt closer

A fan hold up a sign in the stands urging the former Seattle Sonics basketball team to return to Seattle before a preseason NBA basketball game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Portland Trail Blazers, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

SEATTLE — October 25, 2006. April 18, 2008. May 15, 2013.

March 25, 2026?

Those dates on the calendar — three in the past, one still yet to come — represent four seminal moments in the history of NBA franchise stability as it relates to Seattle.

The first three are dates fans of the green and gold would rather forget.

The first was the day Clay Bennett’s purchase of the SuperSonics was approved by NBA owners. The second, the day his relocation request to move the franchise from Seattle to Oklahoma City was given the OK, prior to the lawsuit and subsequent settlement that finally allowed the organization to bolt.

And the last was the day Chris Hansen’s efforts to purchase and relocate the Sacramento Kings were thwarted and voted down by the league.

Three moments that went to define the opinion of the NBA in the minds of many sports fans in the Pacific Northwest.

But that last date — Wednesday — might end up being a date that gets circled and remembered in a different light. The NBA Board of Governors will wrap up two days of meetings in New York on Wednesday with the expectation that the league’s owners will give the green light to start conversations with interested ownership groups who want to bring expansion franchises to Seattle and Las Vegas.

After years of posturing, and fits and starts, the return of the NBA to Seattle has never felt closer. But there are significant questions that remain. Here’s a look at a few of them with Wednesday’s meeting on the horizon.

Is this real or just another tease?

It sure seems real.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver set the stage for what seems likely to happen next when he unexpectedly announced at the NBA Cup that expansion was going to be addressed sometime in 2026.

What comes from the meetings Tuesday and Wednesday is expected to be a vote of approval from the league’s owners allowing Silver to start holding substantive talks with potential ownership groups in Seattle and Las Vegas that could lead to a vote for expansion approval later this year. For the initial vote and for the final approval, 23 of the league’s 30 owners must vote in favor for approval.

Industry sources have told the Seattle Times that the buzz during All-Star weekend in Los Angeles last month was momentum quickly growing behind the thought that expansion was going to take place. With word emerging earlier this week of the pending vote, it would seem highly unlikely for that kind of information to leak without an expectation that a vote of approval is coming and would allow Silver to start the real conversations.

Assuming that approval comes, the next few months will be filled with conversations and negotiations, and ultimately a final decision on whether to formally expand or not. The vote for that could come as soon as the NBA Summer League owners’ meeting that’s held in Las Vegas in July. If there are delays or hiccups in the talks, the vote on formal expansion could be pushed to the annual BOG meeting held in September. Either way, as long as the vote is sometime this year and the league gives the thumbs up, the expansion franchise should be able to start in time for the 2028-29 season.

Is this going to become a bidding war?

That is one of the significant unknowns about how many parties are going to get involved in the bidding. To date, the only group locally to express their interest in pursuing expansion once the league gives the green light is the Kraken ownership group. They have decided advantages over any other group as a stakeholder in Climate Pledge Arena and the owner of the primary tenant that uses the facility. But questions remain about who all would be involved in any sort of investment group that would put forth a bid. To date, there have been behind-the-scenes conversations, but reserved public-facing campaigning by the Kraken group in jockeying for the lead position.

That has created a little bit of that uncertainty about whether another group could swoop in and get involved. The NBA likely wouldn’t mind that. The more groups, the more demand. The more demand, the more likely the expansion fee could be pushed upward.

Does the Seahawks sale factor into all of this?

Just like with the question about the bidding war, the fact the Super Bowl champions are for sale and in the same market adds a wrinkle to the situation around the NBA. The primary figures in each situation are likely committed to staying in their lanes — the folks who will be providing most of the money in the pursuit of each franchise likely should not change. But the money that comes in on the fringes could be a little in flux. Ultimately, it’s a small piece of the much larger pie.

The higher likelihood is whoever is committed at this point to being financially involved in either potential transaction isn’t changing.

What about the Sonics history?

Should this continue in the direction it seems to be heading, yes, the history of the SuperSonics would return to the expansion franchise. That was part of the settlement agreed to when the team moved to Oklahoma City in 2008 — when a team returned to the market, the 41 years of history that accompanied the Sonics time in Seattle would be reinstated and no longer claimed by the Thunder franchise.

Many of the stars of the past — Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp to name a pair — have stated they did not want their past accomplishments in Seattle recognized by the Thunder franchise.

What’s the Vegas angle to all this?

Nine months ago, the momentum behind Las Vegas wasn’t dead, but it certainly had quieted significantly. There was uncertainty about possible ownership groups, including whether LeBron James’ longstanding want to be involved with a Vegas expansion team was still there. There were major questions about the arena situation and if T-Mobile Arena — home of the NHL’s Golden Knights — would be the home of an NBA team as well or if a new building would be in the offering.

Clearly a couple of those questions have been answered. There appear to be at least two ownership groups positioned to be involved in the bidding, although the most prominent name linked to team ownership there seems to be out. The Athletic first reported and James later confirmed that he and his partners with Fenway Sports Group would not be involved in the bidding process for a Las Vegas franchise.

The other two groups, per reporting from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, are a group that includes Magic Johnson and another that includes Golden Knights owner Bill Foley.

The arena … well that remains perhaps the biggest unknown in Sin City. The NBA has indicated upgrades to T-Mobile Arena might be good enough to satisfy needs. But the building is already home to the Golden Knights, UFC and concerts, and there are valid concerns about congestion and potentially a viable path toward a new building. Whether a building could be ready in two years should the reported 2028-29 timeline be applied to both teams is unknown.

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Seattle, WA

Seattle Weather: First Spring storm arrives on Tuesday

Published

1 day ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

Seattle Weather: First Spring storm arrives on Tuesday

Seattle – The weekend brought a much-needed break from the rainy atmospheric river. We enjoyed a mainly sunny and dry sky. Monday will see a few more clouds around the area ahead of our next rainmaker, which is forecast to arrive on Tuesday.

Increasing clouds on Monday, but still dry.

After enjoying a dry an mainly sunny weekend, more clouds will move inland throughout the day Monday.

Grab an extra layer on Monday morning as morning lows will be chilly, near freezing in some spots. Partly cloudy and slightly cooler in the afternoon with highs near 50.

Forecast highs Monday around our region.

Afternoon highs remain cool to start the week.

After the latest atmospheric river sent snow levels up near 8000 and 9000 feet, much of the beneficial snow we picked up was melted. This next round of will lower snow levels back down, where a light dusting of snow is forecast to fall.