With the Hall of Fame game done, and the second round of preseason games underway, let’s look at the storylines that could dominate the coming weeks
Winning the Super Bowl back in February puts the Seattle Seahawks in line to become the 10th team, and the ninth franchise, to repeat as champions (the Pittsburgh Steelers went back-to-back twice in the 1970s). While a lot of Super Bowl winners experience massive drains of coaching and playing talent after clinching the title, these Seahawks are left in pretty good shape.
Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III signed with the Kansas City Chiefs, and pass-rusher Boye Mafe is now with the Cincinnati Bengals, but the champs return 21 of their 22 starters from the Super Bowl team (Mafe wasn’t technically a starter).
Offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak was tabbed by the Las Vegas Raiders to become their new head coach. The Seahawks replaced Kubiak with former San Francisco 49ers run game coordinator & tight ends coach Brian Fleury, who has said that he’ll keep most of Kubiak’s passing concepts, with some different wrinkles in the run game. First-round pick Jadarian Price seems to have everything it takes to replace Walker. Price wasn’t the lead running back at Notre Dame only because third overall pick Jeramiyah Love was the star of the show, but Love recently told me that Price can do everything he can do … and in some cases, better.
The Seahawks have the right head coach to run it back in Mike Macdonald, because as he told me over the summer, it’s all about running it forward instead. That proactive mindset could make all the difference when navigating the NFC West – the NFL’s toughest division – on the way back to the biggest game.
Seattle’s most formidable opponent last season wasn’t the New England Patriots team they beat in the Super Bowl; it was the Los Angeles Rams team they played three times, going 2-1 with a total score differential of 88-85 in Seattle’s favor. That included the Seahawks’ 31-27 NFC Championship game win, and everyone in the Seahawks’ building knew that it had been their toughest test.
What did that loss do to the Rams? It encouraged them to pony up for shorter-term success. Cornerback was the team’s biggest problem last season, so they traded for Trent McDuffie, and then signed Jaylen Watson, McDuffie’s Chiefs teammate, to solidify things. Then, they traded outstanding pass-rusher Jared Verse, a first-round pick, and additional draft compensation to the Cleveland Browns for Myles Garrett, one of the most productive pass rushers in history.
The 30-year-old Garrett is coming off a 2025 campaign in which he tied the NFL’s single-season sack record, and he did so with very little help. Now, Garrett joins a defensive line that was already great before he showed up, and may soon include the legendary Aaron Donald, who is considering ending his two-year retirement by the promise of playing with a fellow all-time demolition expert.
Snead and McVay have never had a problem going all-in like this before – they’ve done so in trades for Stafford and defensive back Jalen Ramsey in the past – and those moves helped the Rams win the Super Bowl at the end of the 2021 season. As long as the 38-year-old Stafford can stay healthy, and the Rams don’t need to rely on their shaky quarterback depth chart, pushing the chips in could pay off once again.
Every year, it seems that preseason prognosticators want to stick their chests out and declare that this is the Los Angeles Chargers’ year. The Chargers are a flashy franchise with quarterback Justin Herbert and talent all along the roster, but it’s been a struggle to align Herbert with the kind of coaching and schematic wizardry that could bring everything out of his rare athletic gifts.
From Joe Lombardi to Kellen Moore to Greg Roman, the Chargers’ offensive coordinators seemed to be more interested in making sure Herbert was as mistake-proof as possible at the expense of explosive plays – which are the primary currency in the NFL today.
I spoke with Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh right after he got the job, and he spoke of the “awesome responsibility” of coaching someone as talented as Herbert. As a former NFL quarterback himself, Harbaugh knows of what he speaks.
Which is where new Chargers OC and former Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel comes in. Through his four seasons in Miami, McDaniel proved to be all about those explosive plays, and his schematic marriage with Herbert could pay rare dividends. It’s a boon for McDaniel as well, who was restricted in what he could do with the Dolphins, because Tua Tagovailoa was his primary quarterback, and Herbert is physically in a different universe.
So maybe this is the year that all those filled with hope for the Chargers actually have something to crow about.
As the Buffalo Bills’ head coach from 2017-2025, Sean McDermott compiled a 98-50 regular-season record that was among the best in the NFL – only the Kansas City Chiefs had more regular-season wins in that timeframe, with 106. But the Chiefs also won a bunch of Super Bowls, something McDermott’s Bills never achieved. So, the Bills fired McDermott in large part because of his 8-8 postseason record, and replaced him with offensive coordinator Joe Brady.