Jalen Milroe’s best preseason performance can’t hide Seahawks’ late-kicking concerns in 9-9 tie at Chiefs

The Seattle Seahawks closed their 2026 NFL preseason with a 9-9 tie against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, a result that left more questions than answers heading into the regular-season opener. For Seattle, quarterback Jalen Milroe provided the most encouraging note of the night, delivering what was described as his best preseason game to date. Still, the Seahawks could not finish with a win, and the mood around the final minutes tilted toward the same recurring concern: how reliable their kicking game will be when it matters.

Milroe’s outing came in his second full start in as many Seahawks preseason finales, an opportunity to show steady progress and build trust with the offense. He completed 16 of 26 passes for 223 yards and threw a touchdown, numbers that suggested improved rhythm and decision-making through the passing game. The box-score production, however, did not tell the entire story of how the night moved, and the article pointed to a chain of offensive mistakes that prevented Seattle from creating a more decisive margin.

According to the game account, Seattle’s passing efficiency was affected by a combination of dropped passes and penalties. Those issues mattered, not only for the team’s ability to sustain drives but also for why Milroe’s statistical output still did not translate into a late-game advantage. In a preseason environment, those same execution problems can still be instructive, because they reveal whether the quarterback can overcome broken timing and stalled sequences, or whether the offense is still too fragile under pressure.

While Milroe’s performance was framed as the bright spot, the article also characterized kicker Jason Myers as a source of worry late in the game. Seattle’s inability to convert more points became part of the broader evaluation of how safe the Seahawks can feel with the kicking position. In preseason ties, every point matters, and the implication from the reporting is that the Seahawks’ end-of-game options did not provide the kind of confidence teams typically want heading into roster decisions.

The context of the matchup added another layer to the final impression. The Chiefs are consistently built to pressure opponents, and playing at Arrowhead is usually a stern test even in the preseason. For the Seahawks, the tie does not diminish the value of Milroe’s statistical day, but it also underscores that a quarterback can look good and still leave the team exposed if other phases are not consistent.

Going forward, the biggest question for Seattle is what to prioritize between quarterback development and the kicking game’s reliability. Milroe’s improvement appears to be moving in the right direction, at least by the preseason evaluation described, but the Seahawks will need cleaner execution on offense and greater certainty in the point-after and field-goal areas. If the team can reduce the impact of drops and penalties, Milroe’s kind of production would carry more weight in the regular season. If the kicking concerns persist, it could become the most urgent issue on the roster-planning checklist in the final days before the Seahawks’ regular-season kickoff.