‘Run it forward’: How Seahawks are turning page to 2026

When the Seattle Seahawks take the field this fall, they will look strikingly similar to the team that hoisted the Lombardi Trophy this past February.

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By snap counts, the Seahawks retained 14 of their top 15 offensive players, 14 of their top 17 defensive players and 15 of their top 16 special teams players from their 2025 Super Bowl-winning team.

To use a popular phrase in sports, some might say the Seahawks are running it back.

Head coach Mike Macdonald is using a different slogan: “Run it forward.”

“We want to run it forward – ‘it’ meaning our process and who we are,” Macdonald said after the team’s first OTA practice on Tuesday. “And I think this is going to be a conversation that we’re going to talk about consistently.

“Really, it’s just how we talk about how we operate all the time,” he added. “It’s something that we’re having conversations with our team and our units every day about who we want to be and how we want to do things, and this situation is no different.”

The Seahawks are looking to become just the third repeat Super Bowl champion this century. Since 2000, the only franchises to win back-to-back titles are the New England Patriots (2004, 2005) and the Kansas City Chiefs (2022, 2023).

One of the biggest challenges for Super Bowl winners is to maintain the same level of hunger and drive the following season.

So far, Macdonald hasn’t seen any complacency.

That’s been particularly evident in the attendance for Seattle’s voluntary offseason workout program. On Tuesday, 84 of the 91 players on the Seahawks’ roster were on hand. Of the seven players not present, three were the team’s specialists and three have taken part in voluntary workouts earlier this spring, according to photos on the team’s website.

“When you look at some of these high-performing teams that have been able to do it over a long period of time, I think the common thread that you find is a standard that you feel responsible to uphold on a daily basis,” Macdonald said.

“And part of that standard here is chasing edges, a spirit of evolution and a spirit of moving forward all the time. So, that’s where our minds are. … I’ve just been really pleased with every day’s work, and haven’t sensed an ounce of complacency.”

So, does the Super Bowl still come up in conversation among Seahawks players and coaches? Or is there an unwritten code to not mention it?

“We don’t avoid it, but it’s not really the top of mind,” Macdonald said. “There’s necessary times to talk about it, like the (upcoming) ring ceremony. We’ll be partying that night and having a great time and celebrating that team and those people. But it’s not really in our focus right now.

“That’s a thing that happened that we can cherish and we should be proud of, because of the amount of work that it took and all the things that go into winning a Super Bowl,” he added. “We should be really proud of that.

“But I think the thing that we find the joy in is what we’ve created, and the way of life about what we’re trying to do here on a daily basis.”

Onward and upward.

Or in this case, run it forward.

“Just keep going, you know?” Seahawks standout defensive tackle Byron Murphy II said. “We accomplished a lot last season, but that’s behind us now, so we’ve just gotta start back from the bottom and work our way back up to the top.”

More on the Seattle Seahawks

• Seahawks coach on DeMarcus Lawrence: ‘He’ll be here’
• What stood out from Seattle Seahawks’ 1st OTA practice
• An early Seattle Seahawks 53-man roster projection for 2026

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