‘70-man’ Seahawks need practice-squad safeties to step up for NFL opener

Mike Macdonald loves to be coy about injuries. For him, it’s like a sport within a sport.

The coach REALLY loves the NFL permitting him even more gamesmanship this week leading up to the league’s kickoff game.

The NFL isn’t requiring the Seahawks, or the New England Patriots, to officially list the status of injured players for the league’s first game of the season Wednesday at Lumen Field until Tuesday. Usually, teams must list the game status for injured players (questionable, doubtful, out) two days before kickoff.

So Monday — just like Sunday, and Saturday — Seattle’s coach wasn’t saying much about injuries.

“Some fun rules at the beginning of the season,” Macdonald said Monday following his team’s Labor Day practice. “This is great. It’s a fun week.

“I get to not answer anything.”

The coach laughed.

Yet this much is clear: Macdonald’s Seahawks have an issue at safety for the opener.

What the coach and the team were required to report Monday was that Nick Emmanwori again did not practice fully. He hasn’t had full participation in a practice since a month before he had arthroscopic ankle surgery in July.

Fellow starting safety Ty Okada missed practice for the second consecutive day. He has a relatively new hamstring issue, after being full go throughout the preseason.

Same situation for #Seahawks with Nick Emmanwori and Ty Okada, pointing toward not playing in the NFL opener Wednesday.

Seattle’s good news: Anthony Bradford back full go at right guard. @thenewstribunepic.twitter.com/vK5b47eEzY

— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) September 7, 2026

Given Emmanwori’s been in the same, limited status for almost a full month since he passed a team physical, and that Okada’s hamstring isn’t the type of injury from which guys come back quickly, it sure looks like Seattle needs a new, healthy safety to start next to Julian Love in the back of the defense against New England.

Love, Emmanwori and Okada are the only safeties on Seattle’s active, 53-man roster. The two most likely candidates to start next to Love against the Patriots aren’t on the roster. They are D’Anthony Bell and Rodney Thomas II.

Before even the first game, Macdonald’s and general manager John Schneider’s credo of the Seahawks being a 70-man team, including the 17-player practice squad and not just the 53-man, active roster, is ringing true again.

D’Anthony Bell turned down the Cardinals

Both Bell and Thomas are veterans stashed on the practice squad. Both were with Seattle throughout its training camp and preseason, then released among final roster cuts on Aug. 30.

Each has started in the NFL, Bell nine games over four seasons for Cleveland and Thomas 26 games over four years for Indianapolis.

Each were answering questions at their locker following practice Monday about their readiness to start the opener for the defending Super Bowl champions on Wednesday.

Bell played backup, deep safety and special teams in 14 games last Seahawks season. This summer Macdonald had the 29-year-old Bell playing four positions during training camp.

Bell was in Emmanwori’s big-nickel role as a hybrid linebacker in substitution packages. He was a deep, free safety in more zone coverage. He was a man and zone cover guy shading to the shorter side of the field. He was a “field safety” covering more of the longer, open side of the field in coverage.

“Playing like four or five positions I played in training camp and through the preseason, I would say I’m pretty familiar, for sure,” Bell said of Macdonald’s defensive schemes.

He was almost deadpan about it.

“It just helped me get a whole concept of the whole defense being in different spots, knowing what other people’s jobs are when I’m in a different spot,” Bell said.

After the Seahawks cut him Aug. 30, Bell went home to his 2-month-old baby and sought jobs on other teams’ 53-man roster. He talked to the San Francisco 49ers, the New York Giants and the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals invited him to a workout the day the Seahawks called him last weekend.

Seattle obviously told Bell he could sign back with them, onto the practice squad, with a prime opportunity to play week one and beyond with the injuries the team has at safety. So he dropped the free-agent visit with the Cardinals and signed back with the Seahawks.

The News Tribune asked Macdonald Monday, in anticipation Bell may play, what the safety’s biggest trait is for his defense.

“Physicality, for sure,” Macdonald said. “‘D-Bell’ is also another one of those guys that’s done a great job since he’s been here. I know his journey is a little different and a little different than Rodney’s.

“It’s a 70-man roster. And he’s a part of the 70. So we’re excited about that.”

Bell did have a more circuitous route here to the cusp of starting the Seahawks’ opener than Thomas. The Seahawks released Bell late last December, in hopes of signing him to the practice squad. The Carolina Panthers claimed him and signed him to the active roster for the final couple weeks of last season. He played in their playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams in January.

Bell watched on television back in his Seattle-area home his Seahawks friends win Super Bowl 60 in February. The Seahawks players like him so much they voted Bell receive a Super Bowl ring, anyway.

At the time Bell was claimed and signed by Carolina, Thomas was finishing his fourth season with Indianapolis. The graduate of Yale (Class of 2022, with a bachelor’s degree in political science) played primarily on the Colts’ special teams in 2025. He lost his regular starting-safety job with Indianapolis during the 2024 season.

Seattle signed him in free agency this spring.

Thomas remained a second-team safety, including behind Bell, in Seahawks training camp. Then he broke his hand in the first preseason game, Aug. 15 against Dallas. Surgeons inserted a small screw into the base of his right hand to repair that.

He said he’s fine now.

“It wasn’t even, like, real surgery. It was a light one,” Thomas said. “I was only under (anesthesia) for, like, a little bit.”

Unlike Bell, when the Seahawks released Thomas Aug. 30 he didn’t seek another team.

“I knew I was going back here,” he said.

Now, because Emmanwori’s not back yet and Okada’s new injury, Thomas’ faith may pay off in a starting role in the league’s showcase opener.

Time for the 70-man Seahawks to show off their depth again.

“Rodney had a great offseason. We’re really excited to be able to acquire him in the offseason,” Macdonald said. “He has a lot of range, ball skills, physicality. I thought he played really well in the games when he was out there. He’s practiced great.

“Everybody that’s practiced with us and been here throughout camp (we) would be excited to see him, excited with where they’re at. We feel like they could contribute to playing great football for us.”

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