Darnold, Smith-Njigba among six Seahawks selected for the Pro Bowl
Published 10:30 am Tuesday, December 23, 2025
Win, and watch the awards and attention flow in.
The 12-3 Seahawks, holding the top NFC playoff seed with two weeks left in the preseason, had six players announced Tuesday as part of the NFL’s selections for the Pro Bowl.
Seattle’s Pro Bowl players are quarterback Sam Darnold, wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, cornerback Devon Witherspoon, defensive lineman Leonard Williams, defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, plus kick and punt returner Rashid Shaheed.
The six in the Pro Bowl are the second-most in the Seahawks’ 50-year history. Six squads produced seven Pro Bowl selections each: 1984, 2014, ‘15, ‘16, ‘17 and ‘20. The only previous Seahawks teams to have six or more Pro Bowlers in the initial selections before alternates get added were the 1984, 2015 and ‘20 teams (seven Pro Bowlers each) and the 2007 plus ‘13 teams (six).
The Baltimore Ravens led the NFL with nine initial selections to this season’s Pro Bowl. The Detroit Lions had seven. The Seahawks, Denver Broncos, San Francisco 49ers and Philadelphia Eagles had a half dozen each.
Witherspoon is the fourth Seahawk to make the Pro Bowl in each of his first seasons in the NFL. Seattle’s first-round draft choice in 2023 joins linebacker Fredd Young, linebacker Lofa Tatupu and quarterback Russell Wilson in going 3 for 3 on Pro Bowls to start a career.
Smith-Njigba is the NFL’s leader with 1,637 yards with a Seattle-record 104 catches plus 10 touchdowns. He made the Pro Bowl for the second consecutive time.
This is the second straight Pro Bowl selection for Darnold. The 28-year-old quarterback, in his first season with Seattle after the team traded Geno Smith and signed him this March, has 26 wins the last two seasons. That’s the most in NFL history for a QB in consecutive seasons with two different teams. Darnold won 14 games last season for Minnesota.
Seattle has four alternates to the Pro Bowl: safety Coby Bryant, linebacker Ernest Jones, fullback Robbie Ouzts and special-teams standout Brady Russell.
With all who made it, the notable Seahawks not selected for the Pro Bowl are their kicker and stud defensive tackle.
Jason Myers is 37 for 42 on field goals. That’s the most made field goals in the league. He’s made 23 of his last 24. His only miss: a desperate 60-yard try as time expired last month at the Los Angeles Rams. That’s Seattle’s only loss in the last 10 games. Myers needs seven field goals in the final two games of the regular season, including the Seahawks’ test Sunday at Carolina (8-7), to tie the NFL record of 44 field goals in a season by David Akers of San Francisco in 2011. Myers went 6 for 6 on field goals in one game two weeks ago, Seattle’s escape past Indianapolis 18-16.
Byron Murphy co-leads the Seahawks with seven sacks. That’s third-most in the league for true interior defensive linemen. Murphy led fan voting as defensive tackle. The first-round pick in 2024 has gone from playing less than 50% of Seattle’s defensive snaps as a rookie to an indispensable run-stopper and pass rusher coach Mike Macdonald can rarely afford to take off the field.
Pro Bowl selections are the result of combining votes of NFL fans, coaches and players. Each counts one-third toward the final balloting.
The league doesn’t play an actual Pro Bowl all-star game anymore. There is now a non-contact flag-football game and other skills events, instead. To end this season, for the first time, the Pro Bowl Games (as the league calls it) will be part of Super Bowl festivities at the site during the week of the championship game. The 2026 Pro Bowl Games will be at the Moscone Center in San Francisco Feb. 3, before the Super Bowl Feb. 8, down the freeway in Santa Clara, California.
Inside the league and its locker rooms, the Pro Bowl is about the bonus money players earn based on clauses in their contracts.
