Welcome to the twenty-ninth part of a thirty-two-part series: Reading the NFL Offseason Tea Leaves. Fantasy football tasseography is deeply rooted in predicting future fantasy fortunes. Some of the team tea cups we'll be looking into may be larger than others. The smallest of cups may have the most alluring blends of offensive weaponry, or be set to bloom after a long steep. This series will aid in your approach to Redraft and Dynasty leagues by bringing you up to date on:

• Free Agency
  • Re-signings, additions, who signed elsewhere, and what it means for fantasy.
• NFL Draft
  • What can we decipher about the direction a team is headed in based on their draft selections?
• Coaching Changes
  • Who's in, who's out, and how do the coaching philosophies translate to fantasy production?
• Fantasy Fortunes
  • What does this all mean for your fantasy football drafts?

Like tasseography, the arrangement of these four sections will vary as we digest each team's offseasons and see how the offensive pieces settle. Each article will interpret what this NFL team has told us about their future plans based on what they've done since their 2025 season ended.

Sync your Fantasy Football leagues with our League Hub FREE for a week 👆

Reading the Seattle Seahawks' 2026 Offseason

Free Agency: JSN Gets Paid

The Super Bowl Champion Seahawks re-signed their No. 1 WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba to a 4-year $168.6M contract this offseason, making him the highest-paid WR in the NFL. Get your bag, JSN, you earned it. Aside from that, the Hawks didn't make any major waves in free agency.

They resigned WRs Rashid Shaheed and fan favorite Jake Bobo. Former Green Bay Packer RB Emanuel Wilson was added to beef up the RB depth. The other big piece of news from free agency was RB Kenneth Walker, the reigning Super Bowl MVP, signing with the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Backfield After Walker

During the draft, the Seahawks spent their first-round pick on Notre Dame RB Jadarian Price to fill the void left by Walker. Price backed up the best RB in the nation at Notre Dame, but in my opinion, could've been a lead back on the majority of teams in the country last year. Price tore his Achilles tendon as a Freshman and was unable to break out in college.

When his teammate came off the field, the offense at Notre Dame was just as effective with Price in the game. Look for Price to dominate the RB workload early as Zach Charbonnet works his way back from a late-season grade three ACL tear, which is a complete tear of the ligament.

RBs George Holani and Wilson will be in the backfield should Price falter to start the year. Holani is a plus pass blocker who is also a threat as a receiver out of the backfield. He is my favorite dark horse to come out on top of this backfield in Week 1. Wilson was signed to a 1-year $1.6M deal. There was a little bit of hype around him before Seattle spent a first-round pick on Jadarian Price.

At some point, Charbonnet is going to be back in the lineup. Per the Optimus Fantasy Play-by-Play Analyzer, Charbonnet was 3rd in the league in red zone rushing TDs with 11, sporting a 53 percent success rate. Charbonnet might be the late-season magic your team needs by the time fantasy playoffs roll around. If you have an IR slot in your league, he's worth acquiring and holding onto should you find yourself in a position to contend for the title.  

Sam Darnold and the QB Room

Sam Darnold will start at QB for the Seahawks. He has the ceiling to be a backend QB1, but is more likely to finish the season in the QB2 range. Should Darnold suffer an injury, it'll likely be Drew Lock replacing him. Lock is good enough to keep the offense afloat until Darnold returns. 

The WR Room Behind JSN

The other blurb-worthy WRs behind Smith-Njigba are Shaheed, Cooper Kupp, and Tory Horton. Shaheed has spent extra time with Darnold this offseason and has displayed his game-breaking speed throughout the first week of training camp.

Veteran WR Kupp will be the security blanket for Darnold if Smith-Njigba is bracketed as the first look on the play. And while Tory Horton's season ended early last year, he made noise in training camp and started the year hot, scoring five TDs in his first eight games. 

Find us on your favorite platforms with the link above 👆

The TE Room

AJ Barner and Elijah Arroyo will be the two TEs deployed in this offense. Per our Play-by-Play Analyzer, AJ Barner was targeted in the red zone 13 times, converting 5 of those targets into TDs. Barner finished 2025 with 52 catches for 519 yards, finishing just outside of my 60-catch threshold to finish in the TE1 range.

Elijah Arroyo will be entering his second year, and while he is a better route runner and pass catcher than Barner, he lacks the blocking ability that allows Barner to be the TE1 in the offense. 

Coaching Changes

Klint Kubiak left his Offensive Coordinator role in Seattle for the Head Coaching role of the Las Vegas Raiders. Replacing him is Brian Fleury. Fleury was previously the Tight Ends coach and Run Game Coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers. With Kubiak's offensive system gone, we should expect negative regression for the Seahawks offense, as Kubiak is one of the better play callers in the NFL.

We can continue to expect a run-heavy scheme as long as Mike Macdonald is their head coach. Macdonald said in a presser that it will be the same offensive style that won them the Super Bowl.

Fantasy Fortunes 

Without Klint Kubiak calling plays, we likely see a slight regression in offensive production for the Seahawks. This offense will likely support an upside QB2, RB2, WR1, a couple of WR3-4s, and a TE2.

The major pieces we want to buy into on this offense are Smith-Njigba, Price, Darnold and Charbonnet as a late-round stash in redraft and a buy-low in dynasty. Smith-Njigba looks to repeat his finish as a top 5 WR.

Darnold threw for over 4,000 yards and 25 TDs for the second time in his career, and the only thing standing in his way from another season of that caliber would be an unexpected injury.

Price was the Seahawks' first-round draft pick. While many analysts didn't have Price as a first-rounder, you can't ignore the draft capital the Hawks spent on him. Price will compete with Holani and Wilson for touches to start the year, and will likely see 60% of the snaps for the majority of the 2026 season.

With zero changes in the TE room, look for Barner to see an every-down role and Arroyo to take a step forward in year 2. Barner had two undisclosed surgeries this offseason - let's pay attention to how he recovers.