Field Gulls
Sunday, January 25, 2026:
“And we welcome you to Lumen Field here in Seattle, Washington for the 2026 NFC Championship game here on FOX, between the Seattle Seahawks and the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Hello everyone, I’m Kevin Burkhardt, this is Tom Brady, and we got a good one here tonight.
The Eagles, led by MVP Jalen Hurts, are looking to get back to the Super Bowl and defend their crown, but they’ll have to do it on the road, something they’ve never done as a franchise. On the other side we have Seattle, the feel good story of the year. Few thought that Seattle would be in the playoffs when the season started, let alone hosting the NFC championship game, but here we are. Tom, how’d they do it?”
We had a feeling, didn’t we? It was only a preseason game, but when the Seahawks ran all over the Kansas City Chiefs back in August, the we saw that the potential was there. In week one, the vision became a reality as Kyle Shanahan’s former pupil, Klint Kubiak, gave him a taste of his own medicine. A dominating 34-10 victory in which the Seahawks ran for over 200 yards, set the tone that they were going to be a threat in the NFC West.
The journey to one of the most magical seasons in franchise history really all started with the defense. Mike Macdonald’s second year jump was true to form, as the Seattle Seahawks boasted the number one scoring defense in the league, while finishing third in both turnovers and sacks. The ascension to superstar corner by Riq Woolen made his massive contract extension worth it, as Seattle’s top ranked secondary allowed up and coming stars in Byron Murphy (6 sacks) and Derick Hall (16 sacks) to take this defense to a whole new level.
While pressure and picks caused havoc on opposing offenses, Seattle’s ground and pound approach led way to a top nine offense, built around their dynamic duos at running back, tight end and wide receiver.
In a contract year, Kenneth Walker finally stayed healthy, he bought into the wide zone scheme, and ran for over 1,600 yards. While he racked up the yards, Zach Charbonnet was a touchdown machine, totaling 15 scores. With so much “12” personnel, the two tight end sets with A.J. Barner and Elijah Arroyo caused fits for defenses all year, as they each caught over 30 passes and scored four touchdowns each.
The homecoming for Cooper Kupp proved to be much more than just about jersey sales and nostalgia, as Kupp actually had a better season in Seattle than his previous with the Rams. Cooper became one of the best #2 wideouts in the league and a much better compliment to Jaxon Smith-Njigba than DK Metcalf was. Kupp would finish the year with 71 receptions and 750 yards with 8 touchdowns. It was his game winning overtime touchdown over the Rams in LA that really broke their back,...
