Who is, isn’t playing for Seahawks exhibition vs Dallas; Lawrence’s final year
If you want to see most of the Seahawks regulars who won the Super Bowl six months ago playing again, you may have to wait until the opener next month.
Or buy a ticket to Nashville for next week.
The Seahawks are back inside Lumen Field Saturday evening to play a game for the first time since they won the NFC championship there over the Los Angeles Rams in late January. Twenty of the 22 starters for Seattle in that home title game 6 1/2 months ago are back for this season.
But almost all the guys who won that game and got Seattle into Super Bowl 60 will be watching, not playing, Saturday during the first preseason game for the new season, against the Dallas Cowboys (5 p.m., KING-5 television).
“A lot of our established starters won’t be playing. They’ll be going through the warmup and everything,” coach Mike Macdonald said following his Seahawks’ light, walk-through practice Friday.
Quarterback Sam Darnold will not play, Macdonald said.
Others almost assuredly not playing: 2025 NFL offensive player of the year Jaxon Smith-Njigba, 2021 offensive player of the year and Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp, three-time Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon, Pro Bowl veteran defensive lineman Leonard Williams and outside linebacker DeMarcus Lawrence, middle linebacker Ernest Jones and emerging tight end AJ Barner.
Lawrence, 34, in his 13th NFL training camp, told Yahoo! Sports’ Jori Epstein Thursday this will be his final season. Lawrence’s wife Sasha and their six children are living in the Dallas area while the Cowboy for the first 11 years of his pro career plays a second season in Seattle.
He considered retiring this past offseason.
“It was a tough process,” Lawrence told Epstein, a former Cowboys beat writer. “But through the grace of God, I’m able to play another year and soak it all up one more good time before I hang it up.”
If Macdonald does as he did in his first two summers as Seattle’s coach, in August of 2024 and ‘25, the starters’ only time playing against another team in the preseason will be in the Seahawks’ joint practice.
#Seahawks QB Sam Darnold on borrow a Green Bay kid’s bike to ride to joint practice vs Packers: “Incredible.
“Didn’t get a chance to raise the seat though.”
Said it was really cool to talk to the bike owner who was carrying his helmet walking beside him. “Incredible tradition.” pic.twitter.com/6shOX5HjKZ
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) August 21, 2025
The Seahawks and Titans play their second preseason game Sunday, Aug. 23 in Nashville.
Veteran backup Drew Lock will start at quarterback Saturday. Jalen Milroe, Seattle’s third-round draft choice last year, will enter the game — but not necessarily finish it. New offensive coordinator Brian Fleury plans on rotating Lock and Milroe in and out of the former San Francisco 49ers tight end coach’s first game as an offensive play-caller at any level.
That’s a departure from how Macdonald’s first two Seahawks teams did the quarterbacks in the preseason. Lock started, and the third-stringer entered then finished the game. Or Milroe played the entire game, as he did last August at Green Bay in the preseason finale of his rookie year.
“The quarterbacks, we’re going to rotate in some form or fashion. We have an idea of how we want it to work, but don’t want to be put in a corner there,” Macdonald said. “It’ll be great. Both guys will get great experience with playing with different units and it’ll be good.”
“Normally a quarterback goes until he doesn’t go and then the next guy goes and closes the game out. This game, I think we’re going to rotate them to some extent.”
Jalen Milroe’s aim this month
Milroe is looking forward to showing off his progress from last year as a complete passer. That’s what Fleury and his coaches are focusing on with him.
They know Milroe can run, as he did for three plays in three games early last season in a special package from then-OC Klint Kubiak.
Accuracy throwing the ball on time, with anticipation, that’s what coaches are seeking from Milroe in the preseason games this month.
Milroe began this training camp inaccurate throwing. Then in the first week of August he had some of his best practices since the Seahawks drafted him in the spring of 2025. This week, he’s been off at times again in his accuracy throwing to his receivers.
He says he needs to let it rip Saturday against Dallas.
“Being decisive, I think that’s so important,” Milroe said. “You see it with the quarterback’s feet, and they’re playing on time and they’re letting the ball go.
“It’s all about being decisive.”
Wafer-thin at running back
That’s how Monty Python’s “Meaning of Life” would describe the Seahawks’ situation at the position Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker left to sign with Kansas City this spring.
Top rookie Jadarian Price will not play Saturday. The first-round draft choice and presumed lead back to replace Walker has missed the last five full practices because of “upper-leg soreness,” as Macdonald has termed it.
Price was in the starting offense walking through plays in the light practice Friday. He did the same thing in an “ACT” (alignment, communication, technique) practice Wednesday.
“He is on the mend,” the head coach said of Price.
Zach Charbonnet remains on the physically-unable-to-perform list. He had reconstructive knee surgery in February. He may not be ready to play until after the season begins Sept. 9 against New England.
Emmanuel Wilson was getting time with the starting offense through last weekend. Then he pulled up running out of bounds and grabbed his hamstring late in a scrimmage that ended practice Tuesday.
“It’s a short-term thing,” Macdonald said.
That leaves George Holani as the only back with any experience playing for the Seahawks to play the preseason game Saturday.
“George should see some action to some degree,” Macdonald said.
Expect a lot of carries and time for undrafted rookies Justin Jones and T.J. Harden, plus for 2025 practice-squad player Velus Jones Jr.
Justin Jones, mostly a special-teams player at Auburn, signed six days ago.
To get an idea of how thin Harden got a pitch from Darnold on the first-team offense in the red zone on the final play of practice Thursday. Harden, from SMU, signed nine days ago.
The penalty the coach wants to see Saturday
Last preseason, Macdonald’s favorite plays were the penalties his Seahawks starters and veterans got for coming off the sideline and celebrating big plays by the younger reserves.
He calls that the “cost of doing business” the way he wants his Seahawks to play, with supreme emotion and togetherness.
“I’m excited to see our guys play tomorrow. They have been working incredibly hard,” Macdonald said. “You talk about layering training camp. We start with the ramp process, you go into the stadium practice, get ones on ones, all these different types of periods. Now we’re layering it again with another team in our stadium, so there’s more conditions that you add to the whole training process.
“I’m eager for our team to be us in those situations. Our players have earned the right, in my opinion, throughout this process, to go let it rip and trust your training and go have fun. Go play football that they know how and our brand of ball.
“Hopefully it comes to life — and hopefully we have some cost-of-doing-business celebration penalties.”
