A former All-Pro who hasn’t played a full season in four years.
A high school substitute teacher and real-estate agent in Cleveland who’s never played in an NFL game.
A new, lead running back who hasn’t played a snap in any game — real, fake, pro or college — since November.
And a veteran running back who isn’t on the team right now, but will be after 32 teams release and reclassify over 1,100 NFL players by Sunday afternoon.
Those are among the new players the Super Bowl-champion Seahawks will be adding to begin this season in The News Tribune’s projection of the initial, 53-man roster for the 2026 season.
The cuts from 90 players are due by the league’s deadline of Sunday 3 p.m.
Trevon Diggs is the most veteran, accomplished Seahawk who was scheduled to play Friday night in the team’s final preseason game, at the Kansas City Chiefs. Diggs, who turns 28 next month, signed with Seattle last week. The All-Pro cornerback with the Dallas Cowboys in 2021 hasn’t played a full season since ‘22. He hadn’t been in full pads on a field with a team since mid-January, when he played his second of two games with Green Bay. The Packers waived him in mid-January. He’d had four Seahawks entering Friday.
Coach Mike Macdonald wants to see Diggs in game action to judge how ready he is to perhaps win the third-cornerback job to play the opener Sept. 9 against New England with Devon Witherspoon and Josh Jobe.
“He’s going to get a look (against Chiefs backup quarterback Garrett Nussmeier playing for watching Patrick Mahomes), which is exciting,” Macdonald said Thursday of Diggs. “He’s done a good job. He’s had a great attention to detail and doing all the things we’re asking him to do. It’s not an easy ask coming from training without a club to coming in and trying to play high-level football.
“Given the opportunity, he has definitely made the most of it. And we’ll see where it goes.”
Rookie first-round draft choice Jadarian Price is the new lead running back. He’s replacing Kenneth Walker, the Super Bowl MVP who signed with the Chiefs (three years, $43 million) this past offseason.
Price and the other 21 Seahawks starters on offense and defense were not playing Friday night. They haven’t played all preseason, in the name of preservation. That means Price will not have played a snap in a game of any kind in almost 10 full months. That’s from his final one for Notre Dame Nov. 29, at Stanford, to Sept. 9 in the NFL season kick-off game against the Patriots at Lumen Field.
Montorie Foster Jr. is the substitute teacher at his alma mater of St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio, just west of his hometown of Cleveland. He’s made plays all training camp and in the first two preseason games. The TNT projects Foster making the team as a reserve wide receiver and special-teams player, particularly after Jake Bobo went on injured reserve last week to end his season.
Here is the TNT’s projected 53-man roster, and the spots still open entering the final preseason game:
*=starter, underline = rookie:
Quarterbacks (3): *Sam Darnold, Drew Lock, Jalen Milroe
Darnold is sharper with his passes, in complete command and far more comfortable with his teammates and the environment than this time last year, when he was in his first months as the team’s new quarterback.
Lock, the former Denver starter, is in the final season of his two-year contract.
There’s a thought the team may try to pass Milroe through league waivers and onto the practice squad, pending how well he performs Friday night when he starts and plays the entire game against the Chiefs. That’s a risk the Seahawks weren’t willing to take last year when they had a rookie third-round pick Milroe on the active roster all season. New offensive coordinator Brian Fleury hasn’t shown he’s thinking of Milroe as a running-threat QB for a specialty package of plays, as predecessor Klint Kubiak did in three games early last season.
Running backs (4): *Jadarian Price, George Holani, Brady Russell, TBD veteran claimed from another team off waivers
Physically-unable-to-return list: Zach Charbonnet
Injured reserve (designated to return): Emanuel Wilson
Waive: Jacardia Wright, Velus Jones Jr., Justin Jones, Brock Lampe
Bubble-wrap treatment for Price, and to lesser extent Holani, this preseason at the team’s and sport’s most injured position.
If ever there was a year to sign off waivers a veteran with proven performance running the ball in this league, this is it.
Seattle kept three running backs and two fullbacks on the initial 53-man roster last season. One of those two fullbacks, Robbie Ouzts, is out for all of this season with a neck issue.
Predicting Velus Jones Jr. will get through waivers onto the 17-man practice squad. That’s where he was for Seattle last season.
The coaches like the physical style Wilson, a free agent signed from Green Bay, runs with. He’s missed weeks with a hamstring issue. If he starts on IR as I predict here, he must miss at least the first four games. If they think he can be back sooner he makes the initial 53.
Wide receiver (6): *Jaxon Smith-Njigba, *Cooper Kupp, *Rashid Shaheed, Tory Horton, Montorie Foster Jr., Cody White
Waive: Julian Hicks, Rashad Rochelle, Irvin Charles, Ricky White III
Horton is again a mystery. He’s been out weeks with an unspecified issue. Asked about the speedy threat who had surgery in February to fix the cracked shin that ended his 2025 rookie season last November, Macdonald said Friday: “He’s doing good. You know me, injury stuff coming into week one, we’re going to keep it close to the vest.” The fact the head coach said it was not a long-term injury suggests he’s being coy and Horton will be ready for the first games.
They drafted Henderson in the fifth round for his special-teams excellence, particularly as a gunner outside down the sidelines on punt coverage. The team’s hope is he clears waivers onto the practice squad. Cody White has always performed in limited roles. He had a bad punt muff in the game last week at Tennessee.
They’ll seek to get both Whites plus Rochelle through waivers onto the practice squad.
Tight end (4): *AJ Barner, Elijah Arroyo, Eric Saubert, Nick Vannett
Waive: Nick Kallerup
Barner is poised for a break-out season. Fleury, the 49ers’ tight-ends coach the previous four seasons, has been showing in camp that he’s going to have Darnold throwing deep down the field to tight ends. Barner is healthy after two surgeries this past winter to fix the shoulder and ankle issues he played through last season.
Vannett, 33 and back for his second stint with Seattle, plus Saubert give this team veteran, savvy blockers who can catch the ball and play special teams.
Kallerup is a prime practice-squad candidate.
Offensive line (9): *Charles Cross, *Grey Zabel, *Jalen Sundell, *Anthony Bradford, *Abe Lucas, Josh Jones, Beau Stephens, Olu Oluwatimi, Bryce Cabledue
Trade: Christian Haynes
Release: Bobby Hart
Waive: Amari Kight, Federico Maranges, Logan Brown, Derrick Graham
Trade a seldom-used recent draft choice? General manager John Schneider did it on cutdown day last when he sent Mike Jarrell to Atlanta. Haynes has had three chances to win the right-guard job Bradford is entrenched in entering the final year of his contract.
Stephens, the rookie fifth-round pick and All-American guard at Iowa, beats out Haynes. Rarely does Macadonald go on about a rookie third-stringer as he did about Stephens Friday.
“Beau is coming along great. He’s really applying a lot of competition to his room,” the head coach said. “I’m really excited about where he is and his trajectory. He’s got a great career ahead of him, and I really believe that. There’s a lot of great plays of chasing the ball and finishing plays.
“You can tell he’s got the right mentality, so he’s going to be a good player.”
That’s too much to say about a guy they are about to waive.
Defensive line (6): *Leonard Williams, *Byron Murphy, *Jarran Reed, Rylie Mills, Brandon Pili, Mike Morris
Waive: Aidan Hubbard, Bubba Thomas, J.R. Singleton, Uso Seumalo, Deven Eastern
Six D-linemen is one more than they kept last August. That was when Mills was still four months away from returning from reconstructive knee surgery at Notre Dame. He’s going to be a force who adds instant depth to Seattle’s front. Morris, entering his fourth year and yet to fulfill his promise, is a close call to keep.
Pili, acquired off waivers from Minnesota in 2024 and a veteran of Seattle’s practice squad, has been outstanding this preseason and in training camp. He has a relentless motor at nose tackle.
“Pili’s done a great job,” Macdonald said Thursday. “It’s been a journey with him since he’s gotten here. But he’s really applied himself, and I think he’s taken his game to another level.
“It’s one of those things where we take a lot of pride in our players playing their best football when they’re with us, and I think he’s definitely an example of that. He’s showing that when you stick to the process, you trust it, and you have an honest way of going about your work, you can really excel, and that’s what he’s doing right now.”
That doesn’t sound like a guy they are about waive, does it?
Hubbard, Seumalo (especially), Eastern and Hubbard are likely to go to the practice squad through waivers.
Linebacker (8): *Ernest Jones, *DeMarcus Lawrence, *Derick Hall, *Drake Thomas, Uchenna Nwosu, Tyrice Knight, Dante Fowler Jr., Chazz Surratt
Release: Patrick O’Connell
Waive: Connor O’Toole, Aaron Smith, Marvin Jones Jr., Jalan Gaines, Power Echols, Chris Paul Jr., Jamie Sheriff, Jared Ivey
They were afraid to lose O’Toole and Ivey to waivers last season when they kept the rarely used rookie free agents on the 53-man roster all season. Then O’Toole was in on two sacks with a fourth-down tackle for a loss last week at Tennessee. So it may be tough to get him through waivers onto the practice squad. But they need Surratt to be a backup middle linebacker in addition to his special-teams value.
Fowler adds veteran pass-rush presence.
Knight, who lost his starting job to Thomas last preseason, has made big strides in a push to perhaps get his weakside inside-linebacker job back next to signal-caller Ernest Jones.
Cornerback (5): *Devon Witherspoon, *Josh Jobe, *Trevon Diggs, Julian Neal, Nehemiah Pritchett
Release: Noah Igbinoghene
Waive: Michael Dansby, Andre Fuller, Jordan Washington
Diggs arrives and steals Igbinoghene’s job in the 11th hour. Neal, the third-round pick, is back after missing most of camp with a leg injury. Igbinoghene (if he accepts it as a vested veteran not subject to waivers), Dansby (the rookie seventh-round pick who had a good camp) and Fuller are practice-squad candidates.
Safety (5): *Nick Emmanwori, *Julian Love, *Ty Okada, AJ Finley, D’Anthony Bell
Emmanwori is no sure thing to play week one. He’s been running on side fields in cleats for the first time this past week. He passed his physical to come off the physically-unable-to-perform list he was on to begin camp. But he’s yet to practice or even have a jersey on like his teammates since arthroscopic ankle surgery in mid July.
Finley was one of the feel-good stories of training camp in the locker room. He’s excelled 12 months after tearing knee ligaments early in the 2025 camp.
Bell brings an experienced, physical tackler to the unit that lost Coby Bryant to Chicago in free agency this spring, then rookie second-round pick Bud Clark to a season-ending knee injury last weekend.
Specialists (3): Jason Myers, Michael Dickson, Chris Stoll
Same as last year, leading what by most metrics was the NFL’s best special-teams unit last season.
Leave a Comment