The reasons vary from consistency to availability, but these five Seattle Seahawks top my list of players who must prove their value to Seattle beyond the 2025 season.
I could be wrong—and often am—but I imagine most 12s don't keep up with the financial side of the Seahawks that much. I mean, I write about the team, and the business aspect takes a backseat to other considerations. For example, I wrote about how the Hawks ignored the offense in free agency the day before they signed Sam Darnold.
I'm still not anywhere close to 100 percent onboard with the Darnold signing, but at least they can ditch it after one season if he turns back into the 2018-2023 edition. The Hawks have many more contract decisions coming up, though—41 decisions, to be exact. Yes, that's how many players are in the final year of their deals in Seattle. I see only five as critical, though.
5 Seahawks who must prove themselves to get new deals beyond next season
I'll start with a few prominent members of the 41 club I didn't include here. You won't see Noah Fant listed here. First, I'm not sure he'll be with the team this season. He has decent trade value, and the Hawks would shave nearly $8 million off their cap. That would bump them from $37 million to $45 million, above the Cardinals and 49ers.
Nor will you see Michael Dickson. Unless his leg falls off, he'll be re-signed no matter how he plays this year. Jake Bobo won't cost that much to re-sign, unless he has a breakout season. And if he does, the Hawks would have to keep him. Sam Howell, at least so far, appears to be either easily replaceable or a low-cost option past 2025.
And that, dear 12s, leads us to the five guys - reminds me, I'm getting hungry - that need to prove that they're long-term solutions for the Seahawks. Or at least longer than 2025. As I wrote at the start, for some players, it's a matter of consistent play. For others, we know they're solid players. It's proving they can stay on the field.
Riq Woolen
Riq the Freak has yet to match his phenomenal rookie season with the Hawks. It was never going to be easy. Picking off six passes while allowing just three touchdowns and a passer rating of 48.7 is a pretty freakin' high bar. That's per Pro Football Reference. His sophomore slump wasn't as disastrous as it's often made out to be.
No, it was nowhere near as great as 2022, but he still allowed a passer rating of 79.8. By the way, Devon Witherspoon allowed a passer rating of 87.9 that year, and gave up five TDs compared to Woolen's four. Yes, Spoon was phenomenal in many ways that Riq can't touch. Just saying that Woolen wasn't a complete disaster.
Woolen's tackling was atrocious, though. Per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), he missed 20 percent of his tackles and was terrible in run support. Although his coverage bounced back a bit last year, his overall play got so bad that Pete Carroll benched him for the start of the critical game versus the Vikings. So, for 2025, Woolen needs to take that next step to get back to the fearless play of his rookie season to stay in Seattle.
Abe Lucas
The Seahawks right tackle is the classic case of the availability issue. Like Woolen, he had a fine rookie campaign. PFF graded his blocking ahead of every Seattle lineman other than Damien Lewis. But guards aren't that important, are they, Mr. Schneider? Anyway, Lucas took two significant steps back in 2023. In large part, that's because he was still recuperating from the injuries that forced him out of 11 games.
He missed 10 games last year. Of his seven starts, three were not great. You could see Lucas was still struggling to compensate for his latest injuries. He was pretty close to dominant in the other four games. The biggest question for Lucas remains his health. If he can show that he's taken another step forward to a clean injury report every week, he'll be worth keeping in Seattle.
Coby Bryant
It may have taken a few seasons to figure out his best position, but that's hardly Bryant's fault. He may have won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation's best defensive back in his senior season with the Cincinnati Bearcats, but he was often overmatched as a cornerback as a rookie in Seattle. Four passes defended, four forced fumbles, and decent run support couldn't make up for zero picks and a passer rating allowed of 116.5. Ouch.
He was even worse in 2023. His run support disappeared, while his pass coverage declined as well. He still didn't manage to haul in an interception. Even worse, he didn't break up a single pass. He missed eight games and only got two starts. He looked like a one-and-done layer and was on his way out the door.
Then last year, Mike Macdonald moved Bryant from corner to safety. The injury to starting safety Rayshawn Jenkins put Bryant in the lineup with the first snap in Week 7. Once he made the move, he proved he should have been there all along. He gave up just one score, made the first three interceptions of his career, and was ferocious in run support. If he can back that up with a repeat performance this year, the Seahawks will have to lock him up for the long term. In Schneider-speak, that's three years.
Boye Mafe
Mafe took a giant leap forward in 2023. He had an underwhelming rookie campaign for the 40th overall selection of the 2022 draft. Three starts, three sacks, and three tackles for a loss sound okay, right? That is, until you realize he got 424 snaps. Bruce Irvin was a thousand years old in NFL years and put up better stats in 24 fewer snaps.
But all was well, as Mafe made sweet strides in his second season in Seattle. There, that's my alliteration for the day, back to business. In 2023, Mafe had nine sacks, nine tackles for a loss, and broke up six passes. His snap count jumped to 808, but that's still a massive improvement.
Last year, his play didn't take the next step forward that many expected. Yes, he had fewer opportunities—exactly 200 fewer snaps—but in his third year, it was reasonable to expect Mafe could be even more disruptive than ever.
If he stays at that same level of performance this year, I don't think any 12s will be writing angry letters to Bob Condotta demanding Mafe be traded. Not unless they're crazy. But to ensure he gets the new deal he no doubt wants - and frankly deserves - he needs to take his game to the next level.
Kenneth Walker III
This is the one name that may surprise 12s. You may remember, back at the dawn of time, when I started this article, a statement about availability. That is the only issue the Seahawks may have with their star running back. And when I say star, Walker is one of the league's best. That's why these insulting trade scenarios are so, well, insulting.
Walker's only real issue heading into this season is his injury status. He missed six games last year, which certainly doesn't help his case for a new contract. Yes, the offensive line isn't exactly great either. But Zach Charbonnet plays behind the same line, and averaged more yards both before and after contact.
The one valid criticism of Walker is that at times he's too indecisive. After averaging 2.7 and 2.6 yards per carry before contact in his first two seasons, that dropped to just a 1.7-yard average last year. The Seahawks are in trouble if they don't improve their interior line.
Walker has to make the best of what they have, simply by hitting whatever crease he finds, like Charbonnet did. Unless he does that - and stays healthy - he could be moving on in 2026.
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