Reasons to think Seahawks Super Bowl repeat. Yet multiple factors against them
Leonard Williams said it.
He what everyone gathered inside the stadium — heck, the hundreds of thousands massive outside it, too — wanted to hear.
“Hey! We not done!” Williams bellowed into the public-address microphone at Lumen Field Wednesday during the Seahawks’ Super Bowl trophy celebration.
The 11th-year Pro Bowl defensive lineman was clutching Seattle’s new Vince Lombardi Trophy in his right hand.
“We’re coming back next year!”
Ernest Jones said it, too.
The middle linebacker colorfully backed his quarterback in November after a loss at the Los Angeles Rams in which Sam Darnold threw four interceptions. He made headlines at the trophy event at the stadium by doing it again Wednesday.
“Quite frankly,” Jones said, “if you’ve got anything to say about my quarterback, if you’ve got anything to say about my defense, if you’ve got anything to say about our O-line, and you got anything to say about the city of Seattle, I got two words for ya’:
“F*** YOU!”
More than 50,000 inside the stadium roared. Jones teammates with him on stage loved it. Jody Allen, the team chair, clapped and laughed from near the stage.
What Jones said next to end his talk got drowned out by the roars from his R-rated proclamation.
“We’re here to stay!” Jones said to exit. “And we ain’t goin’ nowhere!”
Every Super Bowl winner every year thinks and says the same thing: We’re coming back.
And these Seahawks have reason to think it, too.
They have a 38-year-old head coach in just his second season of revitalizing the culture and franchise. Their starting offensive line that massively improved to pave a restored running game is signed through 2026, with four of the five starters signed through 2028.
They have a 28-year-old quarterback, Darnold, in his prime. He just went 17-3, the most wins in franchise history for a single season. He threw for 4,000 yards. And his contract isn’t hampering the team from buying more players this offseason. His average pay (salary and bonuses) of $33.5 million per year is in the NFL’s bottom half, just 19th-most in the league.
Plus, Seattle has a lot of space under the league’s projected salary cap for 2026, $72.3 million, sixth-most in the league. The Los Angeles Chargers are the only team that made this season’s playoffs that has more cap space for next season.
“Now, we definitely can re-up for next year,” do-it-all rookie defender Nick Emmanwori said. “We need to build on this and become a dynasty.”
Emmanwori played safety, nickel defensive back, inside linebacker, outside linebacker, even defensive end against the pass and run this season. About the only thing he didn’t do was fly the plane to the Bay Area for the Super Bowl.
He turned 22 the day before the Super Bowl.
“So many young players. A young group,” Emmanwori said. “Quarterback’s coming back. A lot of young players on defense, developing. The coaches.
“So, whatever happens, we’ve definitely got a chance to go back to the Super Bowl again.”
History against Seahawks
Emmanwori said that inside the locker room in Santa Clara, California, Sunday night, about 90 minutes after the Seahawks finished their dominating, 29-13 victory over New England in Super Bowl 60. He was standing amid the bangin’ music, champagne, beer, Don Julio 1942 tequila and cigar smoke of celebration.
Not exactly the time and place for pessimism on getting back to the Super Bowl next season.
History is against these Seahawks repeating with another Super Bowl next season.
A team has won consecutive Super Bowls eight times in the 60 years of the sport’s ultimate game. You have to go back to the 1992 and ‘93 Dallas Cowboys to find the last NFC team to win consecutive Super Bowls.
The “Legion of Boom” Seahawks of the 2013 and ‘14 seasons are the last team to win consecutive NFC championships to get back to the Super Bowl. Before that, the 1996 and ‘97 Green Bay Packers did it.
This season ended the Kansas City Chiefs dynasty of five Super Bowls in six years. Three of those five appearances from 2020-25 were wins and NFL titles.
The NFL regulates for parity, and against teams stacking Super Bowl appearances. The salary cap means defending Super Bowl champions, like any team from year to year, can’t keep everyone. Champions on expiring contracts want to get paid. Champion teams can only pay so many of them.
These Seahawks with general manager John Schneider have decisions to make on the expiring contracts of Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Kenneth Walker, 2025 Pro Bowl and 2023 All-Pro kick returner and wide receiver Rashid Shaheed, 2022 Pro Bowl cornerback Tariq Woolen and starting safety Coby Bryant.
Walker, Shaheed, Woolen and Bryant all said within the last week they want to return.
All likely won’t.
The Seahawks have only four picks in this spring’s draft. They own the 32nd and last picks of rounds one, two and three, plus a sixth-round choice.
And Seattle will be playing a first-place schedule next season. That includes games against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, Justin Herbert and the Chargers, Caleb Williams and the defending NFC North-champion Bears, the defending AFC West-champion Broncos plus a Super Bowl rematch with the Patriots.
Ernest Jones appreciates this
Jones just won the Super Bowl for the second time in his five NFL seasons. His NFL debut season of 2021 he won it all for the Los Angeles Rams.
“I was a rookie. I thought you did this every year,” Jones said this week.
“So it took me four years to get back to this point. So I appreciate it a lot more.”
Jones says his Seahawks defense that was number one in the NFL in points allowed this season can...get better?
“There’s a lot of improvement (to do),” Jones said. “I don’t want to put it out there, because they already want to figure out the sauce, anyway.
“We’ll improve and do great things.
“But I’ll say, man, to be the middle linebacker, part of the defense where they’re debating where we fit at (historically), it’s a dream.
“I’m blessed, man. I’m part of the Dark Side Defense that caused a lot of problems.”
This story was originally published February 13, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Reasons to think Seahawks Super Bowl repeat. Yet multiple factors against them."
