The Seahawks were crowned Super Bowl champions after winning 14 regular-season games in 2025, but one analyst thinks 2026 will be tough sledding.
The Seattle Seahawks are coming off a superb season in 2025 that saw Mike Macdonald lead his team to a 14-3 regular-season record, then claim the Super Bowl.
With Sam Darnold and Jaxon Smith-Njigba the catalysts on offense, and the entire defensive unit under Macdonald's guidance being the best in football, Seattle was a beast to curtail.
But now, as we turn to 2026, many are doubting the Seahawks' ability to not only challenge for the Super Bowl again but even make the playoffs.
Why? The roster turnover that saw Kenneth Walker become a Chief, and offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak move to the Las Vegas Raiders as head coach.
Two key pieces out, with Brian Fleury in, and rookie Jadarian Price as cover for Walker.
While some are still bullish on Seattle, others aren't, and one is NFL analyst Bucky Brooks, who predicted a 7-10 record for the Seahawks.
Yes, you read that right.
And on Seattle Sports, Brooks was asked to give his reasons for a proposed horror season for the defending champs.
“It is really hard after you win a title to sustain yourself the next year,” Brooks said. “Normally that next year you come back because there’s a few different things. There’s some natural complacency that seeps in, the team is never the same and the energy that you face from everybody is drastically different. With a team that’s still on the young side, the maturity that is required to handle that, that’s going to be a lot early.
"Then with the changes you have, Klint Kubiak, he disappears, you lose the Super Bowl MVP in Kenneth Walker, you have some change to me, that I just wonder can you capture lightning in a bottle all over again in a division that is increasingly tougher with the Rams and 49ers loading up."
All of what Brooks mentioned is fair.
The Seahawks have climbed the mountain, so the drive might not be there (although this offseason seems to point to the other side of that argument).
The changes are real, and with Fleury never being a play-caller before, naturally there will be a learning curve. What the run game looks like without Walker is also another thread to pull.
But the biggest is the division.
The Los Angeles Rams went all-in, and the San Francisco 49ers added Mike Evans to bolster the offense. Let's not forget, both teams made the playoffs last season with 12 wins.
So, they aren't going anywhere, and you can make the case both got better, while Seattle, at the very least, isn't as good as last season.
But a 7-10 record? That is a steep fall from grace for a defending Super Bowl champion.
