Analysis of Seahawks’ 1st 53-man roster: Thin at DT, LB; Cody White earns it
Younger players who produce over veterans with more of a track record.
That is one theme of how coach Mike Macdonald set his initial 53-man roster for the 2025 NFL seasons on Tuesday.
Tory Horton, Cody White, Dareke Young are on the team of six wide receivers on a unit remade after the trade of DK Metcalf and release of Tyler Lockett in March. Horton is a front-liner with Cooper Kupp and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Macdonald cut Marquez Valdez-Scantling and reached an injury settlement on Steven Sims. They have 15 seasons of experience playing in the NFL, combined.
The Seahawks didn’t want them.
They have just two defensive tackles: veteran Jarran Reed and Byron Murphy, the 2024 first-round draft choice. Inside linebacker is also thin and in need of reinforcements before the opening game Sept. 7 against San Francisco.
Three undrafted rookie free agents made the Seahawks: linebackers Jared Ivey and Connor O’Toole, plus tight end Nick Kellerup.
Ivey and O’Toole made it over Tyreke Smith, the team’s 2022 draft choice from the previous Pete Carroll regime, and 2024 free agent Jamie Sheriff.
Sheriff might be back.
For all the consideration of losing players the Seahawks want to keep on the practice squad to waiver claims, consider: There were only 24 in the entire, 32-team league from roster cut-down day last summer.
That’s why Macdonald and general manager John Schneider consider theirs a 70-man roster, not 53, for the regular season. He intends for most if not all the 17-man practice squad to come from the players Seattle had in training camp and just waived.
“John said this, and I love how we do it here,” Macdonald said. “‘We’re looking at it through the lens of, ‘Hey, this is the 70, this is not the final 53.’ We need everybody in our building ... . This is the crew that we’re building for the long haul.’”
The league waiver period is less than 24 hours, ending early Wednesday. The Seahawks and all other teams will sign back players who are not claimed off waivers to the practice squad after that.
Seahawks 53-man roster
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.
Macdonald confirmed Monday the obvious throughout training camp: 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 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 believe 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 (6)
Cooper Kupp, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Tory Horton, Jake Bobo, Dareke Young, Cody White
Release: Marquez Valdes-Scantling Released/injury settlement: Steven Sims
Waived-injured: John Rhys Plumlee
Waived: Tyrone Broden (R), Ricky White III (R)
As expected, the Seahawks released Valdes-Scantling because the rookie Horton, Young and Bobo were better throughout camp. All those three play special teams. Valdes-Scantling does not. With $35 million in salary-cap space, Seattle can afford eating the $3 million guaranteed they gave Valdes-Scantling when they signed the 30-year-old veteran this spring.
Macdonald said Monday that 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.
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 two catches for 44 yards in his only three targets of the 2024 season last Nov. 3 in Seattle’s overtime home loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
It also included his big second half receiving and returning in Green Bay Saturday in the preseason finale.
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.”
Tight ends (4)
AJ Barner, Elijah Arroyo (R), Eric Saubert, Nick Kallerup (R)
Waive: Marshall Lang (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. Kallerup, an undrafted rookie from Minnesota, making the initial 53 shows how much Kubiak values tight ends. Russell can still play there, too.
Offensive linemen (9)
Charles Cross, Grey Zabel (R), Jalen Sundell, Anthony Bradford, Abe Lucas, Josh Jones, Olu Oluwatimi, Bryce Cabledue (R), Mason Richman (R)
Traded: Mike Jerrell (to Atlanta)
Injured reserve, designated to return: 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.
The Seahawks traded Jerrell, their sixth-round pick in 2024 from Division-II Findlay, to the Falcons on Tuesday morning. They will get a seventh-round pick from Atlanta conditional on a number of snaps and games the tackle plays for the Falcons. Jerrell had no role once Jones arrived as a free agent this spring and excelled in camp as the swing, backup tackle on the left and right.
Defensive linemen (5)
Leonard Williams, DeMarcus Lawrence, Mike Morris, Jarran Reed, Byron Murphy
Reserve/non-football-injury list: Johnathan Hankins, Rylie Mills (R) Released: Quinton Bohanna
Waived: Brandon Pili, Bubba Thomas (R), J.R. Singleton (R), Anthony Campbell
The shallowest spot on this team right now is interior defensive tackle. Bohanna and Pili got waived on top of 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.
That has to be the position of priority for Seattle in waiver claims, possible trade(s) and/or free-agent signings before the opener.
Boahanna is a vested veteran and becomes a free agent. He can sign with any team, at a new price.
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, Drake Thomas, Jared Ivey (R), Connor O’Toole (R)
Waived-injured: Wesley Steiner (R)
Waived: Josh Ross, Jalan Gaines (R), Alphonso Tuputala (R), Seth Coleman (R), D’Eryk Jackson (R), Jamie Sheriff, Tyreke Smith
Ivey and O’Toole, two undrafted free agents, make it over former draft pick Smith and O’Connell. O’Connell was in the starting defense some of training camp.
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.”
This is the other thin roster spot Seattle will seek to add to before the opener.
Cornerbacks (5)
Devon Witherspoon, Riq Woolen, Josh Jobe, Shaquill Griffin, Nehemiah Pritchett
Released: Shermar Jean-Charles
Released/injury settlement: Tyler Hall Waived/injury settlement: Isas Waxter (R)
Waived: Keydrain Calligan (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, Chris Stoll
Released: Zach Triner
The Seahawks signed Triner when incumbent long snapper Stoll got a back injury this summer. This week the team got word Stoll should be able to play in the opener. So they cut Triner, 34. He had 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 26, 2025 at 3:55 PM.
