While the Seattle Seahawks spend the week preparing for a game at San Francisco on Saturday night as important as any the franchise has played this decade, some of the greats of the team’s past head into the final weekend of the NFL season facing only uncertainty.
In Las Vegas, former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and receiver Tyler Lockett will close out the season against the Kansas City Chiefs, each unsure if there will be a next season after a 2025 that didn’t come anywhere close to going as planned.
Bobby Wagner will finish out his second season with the Commanders against the Eagles in Philadelphia, equally unclear if he will be back for a third season in Washington in 2026, playing somewhere else or maybe moving on from football.
And even Russell Wilson — suiting up for his final game of the season with the New York Giants in Dallas — doesn’t have any guarantee of an NFL playing future despite often saying he hopes to play well into his 40s.
The feats of the four in Seattle will live forever.
But their fates illustrate how quickly moments can pass and serve as a reminder to the Seahawks to take advantage of their opportunity at sports immortality while they have it.
Here’s a quick look at the season for each and what may be next:
Russell Wilson
Wilson signed a one-year, $10.5 million deal with the New York Giants in March after it became clear the Pittsburgh Steelers — for whom he finished the 2024 season — were moving in a different direction at quarterback (specifically, to Aaron Rodgers).
Wilson was named as the Giants starter before training camp, but it was perceived that he could get a quick hook after they drafted Jaxson Dart 25th overall in April.
So it was that Wilson was benched after starting the first three games, all losses.
He has played only in reserve duty since and not since Nov. 9 when he finished a 24-20 loss to the Bears as the Giants blew a 20-10 fourth-quarter lead. Coach Brian Daboll was fired the next day, and interim coach Mike Kafka has gone with Dart, when healthy, as the starter and Jameis Winston as the backup.
Wilson has been a healthy scratch the last four games and could be again Sunday.
Wilson has completed 69 of 119 passes for 831 yards, three TDs and three interceptions with a passer rating of 77.4 this year.
With Dart the team’s hoped-for QB of the future and Winston also under contract for 2026, whoever becomes the new head coach of a Giants team that is 3-13 may decide he doesn’t need Wilson, leaving him in limbo as he will turn 38 in 2026.
Wilson said in November he hopes to play somewhere next season, telling reporters: “I know what I’m capable of. I know how great I am. I know what I’ve done.”
Bobby Wagner
Wagner, who along with Wilson is one of only two players from the 2013 Super Bowl title team still active, signed a one-year, $9 million deal to return to the Commanders last spring in the wake of their surprising run to the NFC title game a year ago in the first season for head coach Dan Quinn, the defensive coordinator for the 2013 Seahawks.
Wagner, who turned 35 in June, has not only started every game but played 99.35% of the snaps for Washington this season, and is fourth in the NFL in tackles with 157.
But the Commanders, widely projected as a Super Bowl favorite heading into the year, rank as one of the more disappointing teams in the league at 4-12, losing 10 of 11 since a 3-2 start — the only win against the Giants.
Wagner has one big goal to accomplish this season. He has 1,995 combined tackles for his career, third-most since full, accurate tackle stats began being charted in 1987, according to Pro Football Reference.
He trails only Ray Lewis (2,059) and London Fletcher (2,039).
In a story published Dec. 19 in The Washington Post, Wagner indicated he’d like to continue to play.
“I don’t know what the future brings as far as where I’m going to be at or if things are going to happen, whatever the case may be,” he said. “But I do know that it’s a lifestyle, and my lifestyle never changed. How the story ends is not really up to me.”
Whatever happens, Wagner will have plenty of options. He joined the ownership group of the Storm last summer, and earlier this month he finished his coursework for an MBA in business at Howard University and told reporters he will walk in graduation in May.
Pete Carroll
Carroll, who turned 74 in September, set a record earlier this season when he became the oldest coach in NFL history.
Carroll hoped he would become the oldest coach in NFL history to lead a team into the playoffs.
The Raiders had a disastrous season, falling to 2-14 — and in sole possession of the worst record in the NFL — with a 34-10 home loss to the Giants on Sunday, the team’s 10th consecutive defeat.
Carroll signed a three-year contract with the Raiders in January with a team option for a fourth.
As the losses have mounted speculation has grown whether Carroll will be back in 2026. Pro Football Talk recently suggested the team and Carroll could negotiate an agreement for a buyout as a way to gently part ways.
Carroll, who was 137-89-1 with the Seahawks, is 17th on the NFL all-time coaching wins list with 172 and can tie Jeff Fisher for 16th with a victory over the Chiefs.
He’ll likely have to try to get it without Geno Smith, another former Seahawk having a tough year. Smith suffered an ankle injury Sunday that appears will end his season.
The Raiders went 2-13 in Smith’s 15 starts this season as he threw 19 touchdown passes and 17 interceptions, the latter total leading the league. He has a passer rating of 84.7, far off the 95.9 of his five years in Seattle.
Tyler Lockett
After being released by the Seahawks in March, Lockett signed with the Tennessee Titans but played only seven games before asking for and getting his release.
He signed a one-year deal to rejoin Carroll with the Raiders, getting a prorated share of the veteran minimum, or $697,222 for the rest of the year.
Lockett has 31 receptions for 286 yards, one TD and a 9.2 yards-per-catch average, all career lows. His TD came last week on a pass from Smith, the lone offensive highlight for the Raiders in the loss to the Giants.
Lockett, who turned 33 in September, is 80th all time in receiving yards with 8,880, 85 behind Roy Green, the next person ahead of him on the list.
His TD last Sunday was the 62nd of his career, 87th all time.
After Jaxon Smith-Njigba broke a team record he shared with Lockett for most catches in a season of 100 — Smith-Njigba has 113 — Lockett posted on the social media platform X: “Yessir!! Congrats Jax!!’’
Said Smith-Njigba of Lockett’s post: “It was great. I love getting a text or call from T-Lock and it means the world to me. I look up to him and the traditions that he has left here are still here. I try to still carry that and push it forward and he has been a great help to me, like a big brother, just helping me along this way, along this journey, and I’m super grateful for him.”