TNT’s Seahawks projected 53-man roster: Two veterans, a draft pick cut from 90
A different offensive system will mean a different Seahawks roster this season.
They have a fullback. Rookie fifth-round draft choice Robbie Ouzts is full time in a roster spot devoted to the fullback position for the first time since Mike Holmgren coached Seattle in the early 2000s.
New offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak is also going to use two and sometimes three tight ends for plays, run and pass.
Coach Mike Macdonald hired Kubiak with the mandate to run the ball, to balance the offense and improve what was the NFL’s 29th-ranked rushing offense last season. The Seahawks made the bold moves of trading their record-setting, drop-back passer Geno Smith to Pete Carroll’s Raiders in March then signing Sam Darnold in free agency to be their new quarterback because Darnold is best in play-action and roll-out passing off the running game.
All that means these 2025 Seahawks won’t be using as many wide receivers as often.
That means they might keep only five of them when they cut from 90 players to set the initial 53-man roster of the regular season. The league’s deadline to do that is 1 p.m. Tuesday.
“I think it’s fair to say it’s part of the conversation,” Macdonald said Saturday following the final preseason game in Green Bay, when The News Tribune asked him about keeping five instead of the usual six or seven wide receivers.
“We haven’t made any decisions yet, set in stone. I think because of the personnel groups we are and the players that we have it’s something we have to consider in the next few days.”
If they can’t trade Marquez Valdes-Scantling with his $3 million guaranteed salary, the Seahawks might release the 30-year-old wide receiver. The team has $35 million in salary-cap space, more than it usually does this time of year. So it can absorb that cost if Macdonald and general manager John Schneider want to.
Indications are they do.
Rookie Tory Horton passed Valdes-Scantling into the first-team offense during training camp. Cody White, Dareke Young and Jake Bobo out-performed the former deep threat for Aaron Rodgers with the Packers.
But then Horton injured his ankle, in the second preseason game Aug. 15. The impressive fifth-round draft choice hasn’t practiced since.
Horton’s status, the rise of dependable White, rededicated Young’s strong training camp plus Bobo’s concussion last weekend in the final preseason game make wide receiver the spot to watch for a surprise, trade or break from the norm by Tuesday afternoon.
Here is the TNT’s annual 53-man roster projection. Starters in bold. Rookies denoted with (R).
Quarterbacks (3)
Sam Darnold, Drew Lock, Jalen Milroe (R).
Darnold is the undisputed starter to replace traded Geno Smith. He does best what new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak does most: play-action and roll-out passing. Lock returned this offseason after a year as a New York Giants backup. Milroe is going to have a handful of plays in each game plan for run-pass options on third downs and special situations. The Seahawks couldn’t risk exposing the third-round draft choice to waivers to put him on the practice squad. They want defenses to prepare for his dual threat alternate to Darnold each week.
Running backs (5)
Kenneth Walker, Zach Charbonnet, George Holani, Robbie Ouzts (R), Brady Russell.
Waive: Damien Martinez (R), Jacardia Wright (R), Anthony Tyus (R), Wesley Steiner (R)
Holani, 2024 undrafted rookie from Boise State, has been ahead of rookie seventh-round pick Damien Martinez throughout training camp and the preseason. It’s because Holani blocks better and is better reading blocks and more decisive running in Kubiak’s outside-zone running game. The Seahawks will assess they can get Martinez through waivers onto the 17-man practice squad to be set this week more easily than they can the productive Holani, who has good preseason-game film.
Ouzts, the fifth-round pick, beat out Russell early in camp as the team’s new, 274-pound fullback.
Russell stays as a fourth tight end, part time, and special-teams mainstay. Macdonald loves his grit.
Wide receivers (5)
Cooper Kupp, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Tory Horton, Jake Bobo, Dareke Young
Release: Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Steven Sims
Waive: Cody White, John Rhys Plumlee, Tyrone Broden (R), Ricky White III (R)
The Seahawks almost never keep fewer than six wide receivers. But ...
Macdonald said Monday Horton is “projected” to practice fully next week coming off his sprained ankle Aug. 15. So he doesn’t need IR. Bobo is in the NFL concussion protocol from slamming into teammate Tyler Hall fielding a punt return Saturday in Green Bay. The Seahawks think he might be ready for the opener.
White deserves to be on the roster. The Seahawks will again operate as if White will clear waivers as he did at the end of last preseason and go to Seattle’s practice squad for call-ups to games.
For all the fears of losing players they want to keep on the practice squad to waiver claims, there were only 24 in the entire, 32-team league from roster cut-down day last summer.
It was telling Valdes-Scantling was playing deep into the second quarter of the final preseason game. Seattle signed Sims from Baltimore to be the veteran punt returner, but he was hurt all but the very end of the preseason. Coaches moved on to Bobo, Horton, Young, White and more at returner.
Acquired in the summer of 2023 off waivers from Pittsburgh, White just produces each chance he gets. That included in a big second half receiving and returning in Green Bay.
Macdonald praised White for that Saturday after the final preseason game.
“Give him the opportunity, and he makes plays,” Macdonald said. “I’m happy for him. We’ve talked about it for two years now. The guy worked extremely hard. He earned that (big game in Green Bay). That was really cool.”
That doesn’t sound like a guy the coach is about to cut.
Tight ends (3)
AJ Barner, Elijah Arroyo (R), Eric Saubert
Waive: Marshall Lang (R), Nick Kallerup (R)
Barner and Saubert, a ninth-year veteran signed this spring, are stout blockers Kubiak wants at this position. Arroyo, the second-round pick and elite pass catcher, needs to improve his blocking. Kubiak is going to go three tight ends this season. Russell could be the third one blocking.
Offensive linemen (10)
Charles Cross, Grey Zabel (R), Jalen Sundell, Anthony Bradford, Abe Lucas, Josh Jones, Olu Oluwatimi, Mike Jerrell, Bryce Cabledue (R), Mason Richman (R)
Injured reserve: Christian Haynes
Waive: Federico Maranges (R), Luke Felix-Fualalo (R), Amari Kight (R)
Sundell beats out 2024 starting center Oluwatimi at center. Oluwatimi didn’t play in any of the preseason games because of a back injury. He is now practicing again, as a backup. It appears North Dakota State teammates will start the opener Sept. 7 against San Francisco side by side; Sundell next to rookie first-round pick Zabel at left guard. Coaches have moved Richman to backup center recently.
Bradford beat Haynes for the right-guard job with his physicality. Haynes got a pectoral injury in the joint practice in Green Bay last week. He’s a backup guard now. Rookie draft picks Cabledue and Richman are left to do that.
That lack of experience is why the Seahawks are looking into signing veteran guard Dalton Risner, though as of this past weekend he’d yet to make a free-agent visit to Seattle.
Defensive linemen (6)
Leonard Williams, DeMarcus Lawrence, Mike Morris, Jarran Reed, Byron Murphy, Quinton Bohanna
Non-football-injury list: Johnathan Hankins, Rylie Mills (R)
Waive: Bubba Thomas (R), J.R. Singleton (R), Anthony Campbell, Brandon Pili.
Bohanna makes it for depth at nose tackle with Hankins’ ongoing back issue. Hankins hasn’t practiced since last season. The team doesn’t know when the 33-year-old veteran will be on the field again.
Mills, fifth-round pick and defensive end from Notre Dame, is eight months into recovery from knee reconstruction. The Seahawks hope he can return by mid-season; NFI-list players must miss at least the first four weeks of the regular season.
They’ll seek to get Pili through waivers onto the practice squad.
Expect Macdonald to stack the practice squad with defensive tackles, internally and from other teams.
Linebackers (8)
Ernest Jones, Uchenna Nwosu, Derick Hall, Tyrice Knight, Boye Mafe, Patrick O’Connell, Drake Thomas, Tyreke Smith
Injured reserve: Josh Ross
Waived-injured: Jalan Gaines (R)
Waived: Alphonso Tuputala (R), Seth Coleman (R), D’Eryk Jackson (R), Jamie Sheriff, Jared Ivey (R), Connor O’Toole (R)
Nwosu worked on the field on the side in Green Bay last week. He might be back from offseason knee surgery in September. That is why he doesn’t go on injured reserve.
Keeping seven linebackers is lighter than last season by two, but Macdonald is going to use rookie safety Nick Emmanwori as an outside linebacker often. The team believes Knight, who missed most of the preseason with an undisclosed medical issue, could be back perhaps by the opener.
As Knight’s been out, Thomas proved he can start with Jones at inside linebacker.
“I thought Drake has had a great camp. There is a poise to him in the defense,” Macdonald said. “He is incredibly smart. He is kind of doing all the things at dime linebacker that we are going to ask our guys to do, so it is really encouraging. He has done a great job.”
Macdonald coached Ross at Michigan and really likes him. Ross had hand surgery this month. Smith, a often-injured draft pick from the previous regime, is a close call. The team hopes Sheriff and Ivey clear league waivers Wednesday so they can be on Seattle’s practice squad.
Cornerbacks (5)
Devon Witherspoon, Riq Woolen, Josh Jobe, Shaquill Griffin, Nehemiah Pritchett
Injured reserve: Tyler Hall
Waived: Shermar Jean-Charles, Keydrain Calligan (R), Isas Waxter (R), Damarion Williams
Jobe returns as the third cornerback when Witherspoon moves to nickel. Griffin in his second Seattle go-round closed the gap on Jobe late in camp after missing the first half of it away dealing with a personal issue.
Safeties (5)
Julian Love, Coby Bryant, Nick Emmanwori (R), D’Anthony Bell, Ty Okada
Waive: Jerrick Reed
Emmanwori will be a lot more than a safety. Bryant had a strong training camp entering the final year of his contract. Okada is heady, always in the right place. He and Bell will augment special teams.
Specialists (3)
Jason Myers, Michael Dickson, Zach Triner
Injured reserve: Chris Stoll
The Seahawks signed Triner when incumbent long snapper Stoll got a back injury this summer. Triner, 34, has done all the snapping for Myers’ field goals and Dickson’s punts in training camp and the preseason games.
This story was originally published August 25, 2025 at 11:31 AM.
