The NFL is built for parity, and no better example exists than the fact a Super Bowl-winning team is slated to select last in every round once the following NFL Draft rolls around. And, in the salary-cap era, good teams end up losing good players once they reach a point where they can't afford to pay everybody.
Those aspects might not hit the champions of Super Bowl 60, the Seattle Seahawks, anytime soon. And it's a painful reality their chief NFC West rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, can't ignore.
The Hawks dominated the Niners, defensively, the last two times these two rivals met, Week 18 and then in the divisional round, keeping head coach Kyle Shanahan's offense out of the end zone on both occasions. Seattle also boasted an elite defense all around, too, ranking tops in the league with just 292 points surrendered.
The New England Patriots just found out how good the Seahawks defense is, something even Shanahan admitted prior to the big game.
Unfortunately for San Francisco, it might stay that way for a long, long time.
Seahawks' elite defense won't get weaker anytime soon (much to 49ers' chagrin)
Super Bowl MVP running back Kenneth Walker might be on the outs in free agency, and the Hawks may lose some pieces on that side of the ball.
But a relatively unknown defensive cast under head coach Mike Macdonald isn't poised to change anytime soon, as Jose Luis Sanchez of Sports Illustrated recently admitted:
Seahawks offense will probably decline next year, but their defense won’t. They only have 9 UFA this offseason and none of them are integral defensive players. Big yikes for the NFC West.
— Jose Sanchez (@JS3Sanchezz) February 9, 2026
Diving deeper, for a Hawks defense that surrendered a conference-best 4.6 yards per play, CBS Sports' Zachary Pereles summed up key names that should soon garner attention:
"If you didn't know them then, you should now. The Seahawks defense isn't stacked with superstars or household names to the average fan, but maybe this game will change that.
Devon Witherspoon -- PFF's top-rated cornerback and a second-team All Pro -- had a sack and three quarterback hits. He runs like a cornerback and tackles like a linebacker. He is everything you could want in a football player.
Ernest Jones IV had a team-high 11 tackles. He was also a second-team All-Pro, and now he has two Super Bowl rings, too.
Derick Hall and Byron Murphy II both had two sacks. [Uchenna] Nwosu had an interception returned for a touchdown.
Leonard Williams has had a career rebirth in Seattle, making Pro Bowls each of the last two seasons. After signing with Seattle, DeMarcus Lawrence showed love for his former team, the Dallas Cowboys, but added he knew he couldn't win a Super Bowl there. It turns out he found the place he could.
Nick Emmanwori is awesome. He runs like a cornerback, he hits like a linebacker (have we heard that phrase before?), and as a rookie, he added tremendous versatility to Macdonald's unit."
That's the definition of stacked, and it's at all three levels. And that crop will remain intact into 2026 and beyond.
Bad news for San Francisco. It's bad news for the rest of the NFC West, too.
Meanwhile, the 49ers will have to respond. It'll come by the way of getting healthier, for starters, while a fresh infusion of talent via the draft and a key free-agent pickup or two can narrow the gap.
But, judging by the outside, Seattle's defense isn't going to weaken at any point in the foreseeable future.