The biggest thing to watch when Seahawks training camp opens at the VMAC isn’t a position battle or a rookie trying to force his way into the lineup. It’s Brian Fleury.
Seattle is coming off a Super Bowl championship and brings back an overwhelming chunk of that roster, which is why there aren’t many obvious questions hanging over this team. Ken Walker is gone, but a first-round pick is in line to replace him.
Coby Bryant’s spot was already filled organically last season. Woolen and Mafe were the other notable losses, and beyond that, the Seahawks are in a pretty comfortable place.
That’s what makes Fleury such a big deal. He’s the one major unknown, and because he’s the new offensive coordinator and a first-time playcaller, his success or failure could swing the entire season.
John Schneider and Mike Macdonald have earned the benefit of the doubt after last season, but that doesn’t make this hire immune to scrutiny. The Seahawks are asking a lot from an offense with Super Bowl expectations, and they’re doing it with a coordinator who has never called plays before.
Fleury’s background is encouraging. He spent years working under Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco, which should give Seattle an offense that looks close to the Kubiak system that worked so well for the team in 2025.
That kind of familiarity should help with continuity. The bigger question is whether Fleury can actually sequence his calls the right way once the games start.
That matters because Schneider and Macdonald have already shown they can miss. Their hire of Ryan Grubb two offseasons ago was a disaster and played a major role in derailing the 2024 season. Fleury is not automatically going to be that kind of mistake, but the hire alone doesn’t guarantee anything either.
Training camp should at least start to reveal the shape of the offense. How will Fleury use the tight ends?
Where does Robbie Ouzts fit? Will he lean on outside zone the way Kubiak did?
What kind of role will Shaheed have?
Those are the questions worth tracking now, even if the real answers won’t come until the regular season. And even then, some growing pains might be part of the process.
If Fleury can’t get those pieces right and then stack the play calls on top of them, it’s hard to see the Seahawks ending up where they want. The 2025 Philadelphia Eagles are the cautionary example here, after moving from Kellen Moore to Kevin Patullo and sliding from Super Bowl champions to first-round exits.
But if Fleury does hit, Seattle could finally have something it hasn’t had in a while: a multi-year offensive coordinator. The last time that happened was Shane Waldron from 2021-2023. In a league where coordinators are constantly getting shuffled around, that kind of stability would mean plenty.
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What happens next matters because Charbonnet is no longer just trying to get healthy, he is trying to reestablish his place in a league that moves fast on running backs. Seattle still has to see whether he can return and look like the player it had before the injury, and that answer will help shape whether his future belongs here or somewhere else. [Read more 🡒]