The great news, Seattle Seahawks fans, is that we are just three weeks away from the start of the 2025 regular season. Roster cuts are less than two weeks away. In other words, everything is taking shape for real football.
But those roster decisions are going to be tough for general manager John Schneider and head coach Mike Macdonald. In many cases, they have probably seen enough in training camp to know they want to keep. In some others, the preseason games might be the decider.
The Seahawks' second preseason game will be against the Kansas City Chiefs. KC will not play quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce, though. Instead, more information on which to make roster moves will need to be based on Seattle facing some backups.
Three Seattle Seahawks who need to play well in preseason Week 2
Safety D'Anthony Bell
Bell has had a good training camp, but he also needs to prove he can be as good when playing other teams. In preseason Week 1 against the Raiders, he struggled. He allowed receptions all four times he was targeted, and wasn't exactly facing Vegas's best.
To make matters more stressful for Bell, Jerrick Reed II, a special teams ace when healthy, played well against the Raiders. He was in on five tackles on just 39 snaps, and made an immediate tackle the one time he was targeted for negative-two yards.
Bell likely has a place on the Seattle Seahawks' 2025 roster, but he also can't take that for granted. Reed wants to earn a spot, too. Perhaps Seattle only keeps four safeties, and we know Nick Emmanwori, Coby Bryant, and Julian Love are locks. The other spot could be between Reed and Bell.
Offensive lineman Christian Haynes
12s can safely say that Haynes, barring injury from Anthony Bradford, will not be the starting right guard. Instead of consistently getting reps at the spot, Haynes has been moved around the rest of the interior of the line and failed. He had issues snapping the ball in practice, and his training camp reps at left guard were more of a let's see, most likely.
In fact, Haynes must be performing so poorly once again in practice that he has no hopes of beating out Bradford, who hasn't been very good, either. Seattle has two full years of proof that Bradford isn't good. It only seemingly took one season of Haynes to learn that.
But there could be a chance that backup guard Sataoa Laumea has overtaken Haynes on the depth chart, too. Whoever plays well against the Kansas City Chiefs might become the backup, and the other might not make the roster.
Edge rusher Tyreke Smith
Smith has struggled to stick on Seattle's roster since he was chosen in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL draft. He has had a decent camp and is seemingly healthy, but in preseason Week 1, he struggled with something that has plagued him in his short career: He misses too many tackles. He had three tackle attempts versus the Las Vegas Raiders and whiffed on one.
The Seahawks could use another edge rusher to step up with veteran Uchenna Nwosu injured again, and with an unknown timetable to return. Seattle's top-three edge rushers are good, with that group including DeMarcus Lawrence, Boye Mafe, and Derick Hall. But things get thin after that.
For Smith to have any chance of making the roster, he has to get quarterback pressure even better than he did against Vegas, show he can set a hard edge against the run, and bring a ballcarrier down when they enter Smith's area. If he keeps missing, he will miss making the team.