The Seattle Seahawks just completed a historically dominant season by winning Super Bowl LX. Going into the playoffs, they were the favorites to win it all, and it seemed as if this was destined to be their year.

And they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

However, five months prior, hardly anyone believed that they would make the playoffs.

The Seahawks had the 20th best odds out of 32 teams to win the Super Bowl going into the 2025 season. That was lower than their division rivals, the Arizona Cardinals, who just finished a tumultuous 3-14 season.

Seattle traded away starting quarterback Geno Smith and star wide receiver D.K Metcalf in the 2025 offseason — two key players in their offense the past few seasons — for draft picks. 

It seemed the Seahawks were determined to get out of the middling purgatory that had defined their last several seasons, and that they had decided to enter full rebuild mode.

They completed the fastest “rebuild” — if you can call it that — in NFL history. 

At the heart of their rebuild is second-year head coach Mike Macdonald. 

In former head coach Pete Carroll’s last two seasons, the team had lost their previous identity of a dominant, hard-hitting defense, finishing among the league’s worst.

Macdonald, previously the coordinator of a league-leading Baltimore Ravens defense, was hired to fix Seattle’s defensive woes, taking over defensive play-calling duties for the team.

In Macdonald’s first season with the team in 2024, he inherited a Seahawks defense that finished 29th in expected points added (EPA) per play the previous season.

In his first year with the team, the defense finished 11th in EPA per play. In his second season, they finished second, carrying their team to a Super Bowl victory.

What is more impressive is how the Seahawks dominated on defense. They don’t have many high-salary players — they only have one of the 95 highest-paid defensive players in the NFL. 

Their defense is just a collection of young players who do everything well, rushing the passer, stopping the run, and covering receivers.

Though Macdonald and the Seahawks’ defense were well respected going into the season, nobody could have predicted the stellar season the team would have on offense.

Signing quarterback Sam Darnold in free agency was seen to be a lateral move, if not a downgrade, from Smith. Coupled with the loss of Metcalf, it appeared that Seattle’s offense was in for a rough season.

Wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who put up 1,130 receiving yards in his sophomore season, was respected as a good receiver going into 2025, but was seen as a pure slot receiver, overshadowed by Metcalf’s big-play ability. 

After Metcalf’s departure, Smith-Njigba became Seattle’s go-to receiver, and put up one of the greatest wide receiver seasons the NFL has ever seen, winning offensive player of the year and finishing the season with 1,992 receiving yards in the regular and postseason, the third-most of all time.

Smith-Njigba’s numbers are even more impressive when considering that Seattle doesn’t pass the ball often. The Seahawks ranked 29th in the league for passing attempts this season, but finished ninth in passing yards. 

The success rate of Seattle’s passing attack is not just a product of Darnold, but also of first-year offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, who is set to join the Las Vegas Raiders as their new head coach in 2026.

Kubiak’s Seahawks’ offense was built off of the run, but they were not a good rushing offense in 2025. 

However, through their unwavering commitment to running the football (despite being inefficient at it), Seattle are able to create incredibly favorable defensive looks towards the pass, often resulting in one-on-one matchups for Smith-Njigba, who has an unbelievable deep-ball connection with Darnold.

Though the Seahawks won’t have Kubiak calling plays next season, they will still retain the other two most important pieces to their success, coach Macdonald and General Manager John Schneider.

Schneider has been Seattle’s GM since 2010, brought in just a week after Carroll’s hiring. 

He had a great first few drafts, and helped to form the legendary “Legion of Boom” Seahawks team.

15 years since his hiring, it appears Schneider has done it again.

Schneider and the Seahawks have hit on an incredible amount of draft picks in their least four drafts, with many coming from trading Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos.

After cutting costs with the trades of Metcalf and Smith, Seattle has the sixth most salary cap space heading into the offseason, along with a slew of talented young players on rookie contracts.

The Seahawks have the roster, general manager, and head coach to be Super Bowl contenders for the foreseeable future in the NFL. As long as they can prove that their offensive success is more than just a product of Kubiak’s playcalling, their reign at the top is far from over.