Hard Knocks. Owners. Real life. All that’s new as Seahawks training camp begins

Sam Darnold came jogging out of the team building.. He ran through a cordon of kids.

As he did, the quarterback was smiling. He seemed to be basking in this being his first practice of his second Seahawks training camp — his first preseason practice as a Super Bowl champion.

A cameraperson and sound man jogged right behind Darnold. They captured his every step and sound.

Leonard Williams and DeMarcus Lawrence talked during a defensive-line drill. A camera was right there. A boom microphone hovered over them.

Same thing over ultra-chatty Devon Witherspoon and the defensive starters as they stood on the sidelines yukking it up while watching the second-teamers scrimmage 11 on 11.

Mike Macdonald was wearing a microphone as he coached camp’s first practice Saturday. The 39-year-old coach has never done that before.

NFL Films/HBO Hard Knocks film/sound crews all over Cooper Kupp’s, Jake Bobo’s conversation, all over #Seahawks training camp’s 1st practice.

They installed robotic cameras in the team meeting rooms+ Mike Macdonald’s/John Schneider’s offices. Handheld cameras inside locker room pic.twitter.com/0Ln1oonu62

— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) July 26, 2026

The NFL Films/HBO crew taking over much of Seahawks training camp is the most noticeably new aspect of it 5 1/2 months after Seattle won Super Bowl 60.

Macdonald is noticing it.

“A little bit, yeah. A little bit. I’m mic’d up right now. I’ve got to get used to that,: Macdonald said Saturday following camp’s first practice in front of a thousand or so fans at the team’s Virginia Mason Athletic Center.

“I told the guys they are going to capture what we do, and they do a great job of doing that.

(But) let’s be us. We want them to capture us. We are proud of who we are and how we do things, so there is really no reason to try and change anything or try to be something we are not.

“Probably by (Sunday), the next day, probably won’t notice it, honestly.”

This will be the first Hard Knocks to feature the defending Super Bowl champions since the first one, 25 years ago. The 2001 Baltimore Ravens began the popular series a quarter-century ago. The first episode of Seahawks training camp Hard Knocks is scheduled to air Aug. 4. The last one is Sept. 1, eight days before the team begins the NFL season with a kickoff game against New England at Lumen Field.

Hard Knocks’s cameras and microphones recording all their moves and words is not all that’s new in this training camp, the second Super Bowl-champions camp in Seattle’s 51-year history.

The Seahawks’ new owners

The Seahawks have new owners.

Well, they have an agreement to have new owners. The NFL has scheduled a vote Aug. 26 in Atlanta of all 32 team owners to approve the $9.6 billion sale of the Seahawks from the Estate of Paul G. Allen to San Francisco Bay Area technology entrepreneurs Vinod, Neeru and Neal Khosla and minority investors still to be determined.

Macdonald and general manager John Schneider met with the Khoslas on their visit to team headquarters last month during the Seahawks’ minicamp in mid-June, weeks before the sale agreement. It wasn’t an extensive visit, more a familiarization one.

“We haven’t had much interaction yet. And everything is about the same as it’s been,” the Seahawks’ third-year coach said. “Nothing’s changed on our front, nor will it for the foreseeable future. So that’s how we’re approaching everything.

“We had great visits with all the folks that were here.

“The best way to describe my mentality is that I’m excited to get going. We’re thankful for Jody (Allen) and the things that her and the rest of the ownership group did, especially since I’ve been here. It’s been fantastic and hopefully the rest of the 12s feel the same way, as they should.

“Now we’re entering a new chapter in our organization’s history. That’s a cause for excitement, as well.”

Devon Witherspoon spent an extended amount of time after #Seahawks training day day 1 signing autographs.

His mega new deal—top of the CB market, perhaps $31M per yr—appears imminent.

Coach Mike Macdonald: “I’m just really confident right now in where we are with ‘Spoon.” pic.twitter.com/TFImRYQC2g

— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) July 26, 2026

What else is new this Seahawks training camp

The roster isn’t new.

The Seahawks have 86.9% of their offensive and defensive snaps from their Super Bowl team last season returning for the 2026 season. That’s the third-highest returning-player rate for a Super Bowl champion in the last 16 years.

The 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers returned 98% of their snaps from the previous season. The 2019 Kansas City Chiefs returned 87%.

But Macdonald says he, his Seahawks players and his assistant coaches are new, in a sense.

A real-life sense.

Macdonald, for example, and his wife Stephanie learned this offseason their second child is due in December. And it’s a girl.

“I am different than I was this time last year. I am different than I was at the end of the season. Thirty percent of our roster is probably different. We’ve got changes to our coaching staff,” Macdonald said. “:

“We’ve got guys with new perspectives and a lot of life things that have happened, so we are all kind of new people here in this situation, which, by definition, makes us a new team too. It’s pretty simple when you boil it down like that.”