Repeating as Super Bowl champions is one of the hardest things to do in the NFL. It’s happened only twice since the turn of the century. This year, the Seattle Seahawks will have their shot at history. As defensive tackle Byron Murphy II explained at the start of offseason workouts, the team is embracing the challenge.
Head coach Mike Macdonald has stressed a “run it forward” message to the team’s title defense. Essentially, Macdonald wants the team to forget about last year and completely turn the page to 2026.
On Tuesday, Murphy put that message in his own words to reporters.
“We accomplished a lot last season, but that’s behind us now,” said Murphy. “So we’ve got to start back from the bottom, work our way back up to the top to get back to another Super Bowl. We’ve got to start from scratch. We should ask ourselves, ‘What are the things we can improve on?”’
Byron Murphy, Seahawks Aiming to Repeat as Super Bowl Champions
The Seahawks are trying to do something that isn’t often done, especially lately — win consecutive Super Bowls.
There’s a lot of factors as to why it’s so hard to do. But complacency is often the top thing that prevents repeat champions.
Murphy and his teammates are acknowledging that elephant in the room this spring.
“It’s very challenging,” said Murphy. “When you win the Super Bowl, you feel like you’re on top of the world. It is a bit challenging, but we’ve just got to keep reminding ourselves, ‘What did we do to get there, to get to that point, and how can we do it again, if not better?'”
Individually, an even better Murphy is a scary proposition for opponents. The defensive tackle broke out with seven sacks, seven tackles for loss and 13 quarterback hits last season. He also had 62 combined tackles.
Murphy was one of three Seahawks with seven sacks, which was tied for first on the team’s No. 1 scoring defense.
Mike Macdonald’s Message to Seahawks on 2026 NFL Season
Murphy opening up to the media on Seattle’s repeat bid came after Macdonald already addressed it to reporters Tuesday.
Macdonald is using a somewhat untypical approach to the team’s title defense. Rather than “running it back,” the Seahawks are trying to “run it forward.”
“I think this is going to be a conversation that we’re going to talk about consistently. I don’t think it’s a one-and-done type of conversation,” said Macdonald. “Really, it’s just how we talk about, how we operate all the time.
“It’s something that we’re having conversations with our team and our units every day about who we want to be and how we want to do things, and this situation is no different. It’s really nothing more or less than that.”
The Seahawks very nearly repeated as Super Bowl champs when they won their last championship in 2013. Surely, Seattle sports fans remember the heartbreaking ending at the goal line in Super Bowl XLIX that we don’t have to rehash it here.
Since 2000, the Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots are the only franchises who have repeated as NFL champions. The Chiefs did it most recently in 2022 and 2023.
Seahawks’ Byron Murphy II Reacts to Defending Super Bowl Title