As the Seahawks prepare for their regular-season opener Sunday against Miami, they do so with a roster that includes the most rookies since a year when Seattle basically had no choice but to go with a lot of first-year players — their inaugural season of 1976.
The Seahawks currently have 15 rookies on their roster, which according to a Seattle Times review of every opening-day roster in team history, is three more than they have had other than in the first year, when they had 17.
As an expansion team in 1976, the Seahawks received extra picks in rounds 2-5 of the NFL draft, and had 25 overall, making it inevitable the roster would be laden with rookies (15 of those draft picks ultimately played for the Seahawks).