The Seattle Seahawks cannot truly say they are better than they were this past season when the team won the Super Bowl. Seattle has lost several key free agents. An NFC West rival, the San Francisco 49ers, though, have made some bad moves, according to one league executive.
According to an article in The Athletic (subscription required) by Mike Sando, the exec specifically questioned the 49ers' signing of wide receiver Mike Evans and linebacker Dre Greenlaw. Both players are capable of being brilliant, but both have recently missed a lot of games due to injury.
The unnamed executive said, "Everyone starts talking about the substation and, ‘Why are we always hurt?’ It’s because you sign hurt players. Mike Evans is going to miss 4-6 games this year, Dre Greenlaw is going to miss eight, and you are going to wonder why your players are always hurt."
Many NFL execs have come to the same negative conclusion about one Seattle Seahawks' rival's offseason moves
Yet another executive questioned a positive review of the signing of Evans by saying, "This guy runs 19 mph. He is a back-shoulder, possession X, which has not been Brock Purdy’s game, and he’s not going to run in the middle of the field like Jauan Jennings did on those bang 8s (skinny posts) and daggers and the deep-ins, catching it on the go and being a run-after-catch guy."
While the above is all fun for a Seahawks fan, as the 49ers and Los Angeles Rams are easily Seattle's biggest rivals (the Arizona Cardinals also exist in the NFC West but have few fans and aren't very good), the truth is that LA and San Fran are those rivals because they tend to make smart moves.
Greenlaw and Evans are risks, but if both are able to play the majority of games, they do improve the 49ers. Moreover, Evans' leadership qualities will be excellent for the team directly to Seattle's south. While the wide receiver missed nine games in 2025, he had produced 1,000-yard receiving seasons in each of his previous 11 seasons.
Will Mike Evans be a 1,000-yard wideout for San Francisco in 2026? Probably not, but he also doesn't need to be. He needs to be a good possession receiver and play off of running back Christian McCaffrey and tight end George Kittle well. He can do that.
Greenlaw is by far the greater injury concern for the 49ers. He hasn't played a full season since he was a rookie in 2019. In three of the past five seasons, he has played eight games or fewer. He does know how to pair well with fellow inside linebacker Fred Warner, though, as Greenlaw played for San Fran from 2019 through 2024.
The 49ers know what they could get with Greenlaw, and the linebacker can be elite in pass coverage and fantastic against the run. The player also understands what head coach Kyle Shanahan expects from the culture of his team.
None of this is to root for the San Francisco 49ers, of course. The Seattle Seahawks will hopefully still be the better team, but what executives think can mostly be dismissed in this case. The 49ers have been successful for too long to care what other teams' decision-makers believe about them.
Add us as a preferred source on Google