The Seattle Seahawks have a great defense and a mediocre football team right now.
After an ugly 17-14 overtime loss to the Denver Broncos, Seattle sits at 3-3 and are almost certainly going to be only competing for a Wild Card berth. At this rate, missing the playoffs seems distinctly possible if not probable. An offense this bad can sink a season just as much as a great offense can be undone when a defense is rancid.
This is about as clear-cut as a Winners and Losers as you’re going to get, so sit tight.
Seattle Seahawks Winners
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is playing through pain and playing his ass off
Another 12 catches for 134 yards for the NFL’s premier receiver. Without him, Seattle’s offense may be threatening 1992 levels of ineptitude. JSN is not 100 percent and took some huge hits all night, making me wonder if he was going to make it through the game. His toughness is criminally underrated and his strength at the catch point is terrific.
Seattle’s defense didn’t deserve that loss
Okay, the second quarter was bad. Screen passes and short throws and that Devon Witherspoon DPI resulted in two touchdowns allowed back-to-back. Tell me what more the defense could’ve done. Get a turnover? Didn’t have one but they limited Denver to 168 yards of offense and basically nothing after halftime. I thought Tyrice Knight in particular did a great job filling in for Drake Thomas, while Nick Emmanwori continues to look more like himself after his ankle surgery.
There’s very little to complain about outside of (again) the continued lack of consistent pressure from the edge group. The Broncos offense had two good drives out of 11 real attempts to score and it’s unreasonable to expect a defense to play much better than that. If your offense can’t score 15 points minimum to win a game in regulation then that’s on the offense.
George Holani redeems himself for a couple of plays
Hey, he didn’t fumble and got a career-long 13-yard run which set up an angry run touchdown on the next play. After last week’s disaster at least he did something positive and got Seattle’s only TD of the night.
Irv Charles showed more on one kickoff coverage rep
Yes, Denver scored a touchdown anyway, but to see Irv immediately wrap up a returner at the 25 was a breath of fresh air after repeatedly seeing kickoffs go beyond the 30. More Irv! This is what you do!
Seattle Seahawks Losers
Sam Darnold is playing bench-worthy football, there I said it
I defended Darnold from the idea of getting benched last week but left the door open a little bit if it persisted. I’ll preface this by saying that Drew Lock not throwing any picks in his two games is not indicative of a QB who is suddenly not turnover prone anymore. Lock has had plenty of games where he’s looked like a very good starter and then the following week looks like a mess. Playing an awful Arizona Cardinals defense (in which Seattle actually had a good running game to lean on) doesn’t tell me much about how he’d do against way better teams.
But Drew Lock as a backup seemingly has it ingrained in his head not to be reckless with the ball. Sam Darnold is reverting to every bad habit he’s ever had in college and in the NFL, except there is no great payoff like we’ve seen over the past two seasons. Darnold’s NFC Championship Game performance is the single greatest performance by any Seahawks QB in the playoffs and I’ll say that with confidence… but he’s also vying to be a long-term starter and not a mid-level contract guy. You can’t pay him top-level money so that’s out the window, but can you even start him at this rate?
Not everything falls on Sam. This offensive line is not playing well, the running game is mediocre, and Brian Fleury’s pure progression concepts are causing way too many route spacing issues. But Fleury isn’t making Sam not trust his reads, double and triple hitch in the pocket, and toggle from risk averse to greedy at any given moment.
I don’t think Seattle will bench Darnold next week unless they make up an injury and put him on IR to heal (four games + bye week). But he’s on as short a leash as any Seahawks QB has been in a long time. Respect what Darnold did to help Seattle win a Super Bowl, but acknowledge that the context of his play and a looming extension makes his future murky. These turnovers are unacceptable.
Abe Lucas is struggling, and Josh Jones might have to start playing
This isn’t a one-off with Abe, I’m afraid. He’s been struggling badly throughout the season with pass-pro and run blocking, and Thursday night was his worst game of the season. Nik Bonitto spun him like cotton candy for one of the many sacks on Sam Darnold. He is whiffing on screens, blitzes on his side are not being picked up, and he physically looks lesser than his 2025 self.
If we’re going to talk about benching players (namely Sam Darnold), I believe changing in Josh Jones at right tackle next week should be in strong consideration. Abe is better than this and right now he’s not anywhere close to his best.
The offensive line continues to struggle
If the Seahawks aren’t going to max protect under Brian Fleury then this offensive line doesn’t have a chance. They just don’t. I am very disappointed that the OL is this underwhelming against any competent defensive line. Lucas’ struggles have already been documented, but Grey Zabel is having a second-year slump, Jalen Sundell has had his own problems in pass pro and getting bullied, and the right guard rotation continues to be an annoyance. I cannot wait until Anthony Bradford is back, a sentence I’d never thought I would type.
Klint Kubiak seemingly hid the weaknesses of this offensive line for the most part. Brian Fleury’s decreased use of max protect calls (shoutout Hawkblogger for taking Fleury to task on this) reduces help for the line and it is exposing them as not being as good as we thought they were.
Brian Fleury might be a one-and-done coordinator but in a different way
I don’t fault Fleury for the running game not being effective with below-average running backs. I fault him when Emanuel Wilson is getting short-side tosses to the weaker side of the line. Know your damn personnel. Seattle’s passing game is disjointed for reasons that are not Darnold exclusive. How many times are receivers running routes to the same area? Why are the route combinations condensing the field and adding defenders into the mix instead of spreading them out? Why is 3rd and 1 WITH TIME ON YOUR SIDE an under-center straight dropback (which was an interception)? Why is it always taking so long to get the play call in?
First-time OC, first-time playcaller, it’s an unenviable task to succeed Klint Kubiak. Some of the cracks the offense showed last season are now canyon-sized holes this season, so it’s not like some of these issues are new. That they’ve gotten worse under Fleury is not favorable for him. I’m not in “Fire Fleury” mode but I think there’s been enough dysfunction to suggest he needs to turn it around just as much as anybody.
The Rashid Shaheed contract looks like a disaster
Shaheed was a good player for the New Orleans Saints and a valuable part of Seattle’s Super Bowl run last year, albeit primarily through special teams. He does not fit this offense and possibly not this quarterback. The 5-catch showing flatters him, and if nothing else I think his two-point conversion catch was his best play all night. But he also lost a fumble and then had a pretty important dropped kickoff to start overtime that, combined with a Tyrice Knight holding penalty, backed Seattle up at its 11.
I’ve way over-estimated Seattle’s wide receiver group outside of JSN. The 2026 version of Cooper Kupp is still capable but can’t be your WR2. Tory Horton has not justified a high target share and I think he has some culpability on the first interception. Shaheed’s contract involved more offensive productivity that isn’t happening, and he’s now fumbled three kickoffs in five weeks, which I’m not thrilled with even though he had a couple of big returns.
It may not happen this year, but I don’t see how Shaheed sees out his contract here. I say this as a fan of his but it looks like this is a miscalculated mismatch.
Mike Macdonald needs to own this team’s perennial turnover woes under his watch
I almost never put Coach Macdonald in the Losers. I will now. The Seahawks have turned it over 64 times under Macdonald, which is ridiculous given he’s only coached 40 regular season games. Are a lot of these turnovers on Geno Smith and Sam? Yes. But Seattle’s ball security has consistently been atrocious and the Seahawks cannot go a game without fumbling.
Macdonald’s attention to detail on defense is second to none. The offense (and, at times, special teams) consistently being mistake prone and charitable with the ball is a literal Day 1 problem since he’s been head coach. It’s the total opposite of Pete Carroll’s almost overly obsessive belief in low turnovers. You’re not going to have an elite defense every year to keep you in games. These will become blowout losses if Seattle doesn’t rectify this.
John Schneider got the running back re-tooling wrong
Not re-signing Kenneth Walker III in itself is not indefensible. It’s what happened afterward that I think needs re-examination. Zach Charbonnet being out for half the year means that the Seahawks gambled on the first half of the season being a “by-committee” approach between Jadarian Price, Emanuel Wilson, and George Holani. There isn’t a proven RB1 in that trio and the latter two are not and never will be regular starting RBs. Price has shown promise and him getting hurt is bad luck, but Seattle chose the one early-round back without any heavy workload history.
You can get away with rotating guy who are starting caliber like Walker and Charbonnet and run a functioning offense. You can’t do that with the backs they actually have while Charbonnet is still hurt. And with Price hurt? Yards are being left on the field by Wilson and Holani through little fault of their own; they’re being asked to do more than what they’re capable of. Emanuel Wilson is Wario K9: He’s not fast, he doesn’t make people miss, but my god he will run the play as intended. You’ll never have to complain about Wilson freestyling when he shouldn’t. But you ain’t getting an extra yard than what the play is expected to get.
This is the 2017 offensive line but for the running back position. I think Schneider got this wrong and I don’t say it with full hindsight, because I wanted the Seahawks to sign Tyler Allgeier or someone who has some level of starting experience. We got what we got.
Final Notes
- Jason Myers narrowly avoided the losers list for his part in missing a field goal and nearly missing the tying one for overtime. If it’s not one thing it’s another with this inconsistent special teams unit.
- Sorry, I don’t have the energy for anymore. It’s 11:25 pm PT. If you put me in a position to predict whether the Seahawks make the playoffs or not, I lean towards no. I understand the 49ers and Broncos are a tough two-game combo on a short week, but they’re been pretty sloppy with normal rest. If it’s not penalties, it’s turnovers, it’s drops, it’s just bad ball. I don’t see how they beat the Kansas City Chiefs next week, and nothing would be more fitting than K9 rushing for over 100 yards and ending Seattle’s streak of not allowing a 100-yard rusher. This mini-bye is the biggest test of Macdonald as a coach, because this “run it forward” season is only running head-on into a brick wall, Wile E. Coyote style.