Seahawks Studs & Duds in preseason Week 1 loss to Cowboys

The Seattle Seahawks lost 17-7 to the Dallas Cowboys, and we’ve recapped the game here and talked about the top takeaways here, but the most exciting part of the night is when we get to discuss the individual players who made a case to move up in roster status. We’ll get into six of the biggest standout performances- both good and bad- here, while we’ll save some of the others for deep dives this week.

Here is your preseason Week 1 edition of Studs & Duds, your first of many for the 2026 NFL Season. I went with five varied studs and one big position group of duds, which accurately represented how this game felt to watch.

Montorie Foster Jr. has a formidable frame for a possession wide receiver, so it made sense why the Seahawks signed him last year as soon as you saw a picture. The more ripped receivers of this ilk usually work well on special teams, too. Tonight, though, he caught 5 of 7 targets for 36 yards and a touchdown, leading the team in all four categories. The team’s lone score was cool and a good play, sure; but he won’t be asked to do that in the regular season. He can follow a similar path to the roster than the one Dareke Young took- earning trust as a backup and special teamer above all other candidates with prerequisite size. He ticks those boxes.

You can’t see it on the stat sheet, but Mason Richman played a ton in this game, and brought an impressive level of intensity on nearly every play he did. He might have been the best player on the first and only scoring drive, in which the run game started strong, with him as the key pulling guard on several instances. His athleticism seems better than the No. 234 pick he was selected with would suggest, and his pre-draft testing showed some clear strengths and weaknesses; but for a backup guard, he looked as good as any the Seahawks have had in recent memory.

Tyrice Knight has been looking excellent in drills, and he was one of the best players on the field in the first half. He led the entire game with ten tackles (seven solo) and two passes defended. He has an incredible motor that can make for impact plays, but has struggled with consistency play-to-play, with occasional lapses evening the high points out. To see him fill up and dominate the stat sheet is as encouraging a sign as any in this game. Defending so well against both the run and pass game at once, though? That’s how players force their way onto the field in Mike Macdonald’s defense.

Rylie Mills had to be double-teamed almost immediately, and is starting to look like he’s just a higher level player than his draft stock originally suggested. The Seahawks were lucky to get him with the No. 142 pick. Most teams aren’t having a player who got a sack in the Super Bowl six months ago play in the preseason opener, but Mills is a rare case. He also gets to sit behind Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II, the former of whom was interviewed on the local KIRO 7 broadcast and said Mills “reminded him of himself.” Don’t overreact, but that’s not the type of praise most second-year defensive tackles get.

Gallons of sweat pouring off, 3:45 to go in the fourth quarter, and Jalan Gaines is nodding along, getting coached by Derick Hall mid-water break. Gaines was the standout edge player of the night, who visibly improved over the course of the night as much as anyone. The effort was unquestionable after a close-up of his jersey showed the sweat equity, and his technique kept winning against Dallas’ tackles. He deserves to be talked about as an outside roster candidate until further notice in a position of relative need.

I wasn’t impressed by the plethora of depth cornerbacks the Seahawks have brought in this offseason. I feel bad for Shemar Jean-Charles, giving Camden Brown an inside release and ending up on the wrong side of a 39-yard highlight reel touchdown, even getting beat at multiple points on the rep. It might not be as bad as that one play looked for him, but I didn’t think the others had great days either. Andre Fuller is explosive vertically, in a straight line, and is big, but his hips worry me in the nickel spot. I thought Joe Milton worked the crossing routes against him easier than he should’ve. Michael Dansby allowed Camden Brown’s second highlight-reel touchdown, this time a one-handed acrobatic goal-line fade. It also looked worse than it probably was, but doesn’t bode well for him competing with the others. I didn’t notice Noah Igbinoghene or Nehemiah Pritchett much, so they’d both be ahead of those three right now, and hopefully Julian Neal has an easier time adapting. Luckily, Terrion Arnold could plug this hole relatively quickly once he begins practicing.

This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks Studs & Duds in preseason Week 1 loss to Cowboys