The Seattle Seahawks are gearing up for free agency as the first part of their title defense. Seattle has plenty of difficult decisions to make, but they’ve already made two to begin this phase of the offseason. On Monday afternoon, the Seahawks tendered two players – safety Ty Okada and running back George Holani – as exclusive rights free agents.
Okada and Holani were Seattle’s only two exclusive rights free agents. With the tender applied to them, neither player can negotiate with other teams. According to NFL Operations, an exclusive rights free agent is “any player with fewer than three accrued seasons and an expired contract.”
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Keeping these two players in the fold for 2026 is a wise decision on behalf of the Seahawks. Okada was an incredible depth player who provided several key starts in place of Julian Love and Nick Emmanwori when they were injured at various points of the season. In fact, Okada started 11 games for Seattle in 2025 and played in all 20 total. As for George Holani, he became a more integral part of the Seahawks’ offense following Zach Charbonnet’s ACL injury in the Divisional Round victory over the San Francisco 49ers.
Seattle’s defensive back room was one of the strength of the team, and Okada made himself an invaluable cog in Mike Macdonald’s unit. As for Holani, keeping him around for 2026 could be more crucial than ever. Charbonnet’s injury will likely keep him sidelined for the first part of the season, and Kenneth Walker’s future with the Seahawks is anything but certain at this point. Seattle will need to create some kind of continuity at the position without Charbonnet or perhaps even Walker.
The puzzle of roster construction is always a challenge, even for the league’s best general manager. But you’ve got to start somewhere, and the Seahawks just placed the first two pieces.
This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks free agency: Seahawks place exclusive rights tag on 2 players