The Seahawks are still wearing the crown. Now they've got to go defend it in a building where the home team is trying to prove last season's collapse was a fluke.
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SUN SEP 27 · 1:00 PM ET
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Seahawks
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This one's a study in contrasts before it's even a study in matchups. Sam Darnold and the Seahawks are coming off a Super Bowl LX win over the Patriots, a run in which Seattle never turned the ball over once. Jayden Daniels and the Commanders are coming off a 5-12 disaster that buried the optimism from their 2024 NFC Championship run. By Sunday, September 27, both quarterbacks will have had a full offseason to answer the obvious question: which version of each team actually shows up in 2026.
Washington didn't sit still after that. The Commanders fired their offensive coordinator and handed the keys to David Blough, a first-time playcaller who's leaning on concepts borrowed from Ben Johnson and Kevin O'Connell's systems and building the scheme in close collaboration with Daniels himself. Daniels has called the relationship "a blessing," but he's also been candid that he's still got a long way to go absorbing the new terminology and getting Washington back under center more. That's a lot of moving parts for a Week 4 test against a defending champ.
Seattle, meanwhile, is running it back with continuity as the whole plan. Jaxon Smith-Njigba just signed a four-year, $168.8 million deal after winning AP Offensive Player of the Year, and Cooper Kupp and Rashid Shaheed give Darnold as deep a receiver room as anyone in the league. The Seahawks aren't hiding from expectations either — they know the target on their back only gets bigger the longer that Lombardi Trophy sits in Seattle.
Seattle Seahawks
Washington Commanders
Washington's recent form is the reason for the season-reset urgency. A 0-31 no-show against Minnesota and back-to-back home losses to the Eagles and Cowboys down the stretch exposed a team that couldn't finish, even with a win over the Giants and a season-closing win over Philly mixed in. Add in a receiver room that still hasn't identified a clear No. 2 behind Terry McLaurin, and it's fair to wonder how much of Blough's new offense is ready for prime time this early.
Seattle Seahawks
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Fully healthy — no injuries to report
Washington Commanders
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Fully healthy — no injuries to report
Seattle isn't walking in unscathed, either. Darnold has openly targeted cleaning up his footwork and cutting down turnovers as an offseason goal, and Zach Charbonnet is still working back from the torn ACL that ended his divisional-round game early. Depth pieces like George Holani and Jadarian Price have been getting real run at OTAs, which suggests Seattle isn't assuming its backfield is settled just because the trophy case is full.
