This is a guest article by Curtis Allen…
Record: 3-1
Thoughts
In many ways, this quarter mirrors the 3-1 first quarter of 2025.
In those four games:
- The Seahawks had a preventable loss (San Francisco / Washington)
- Two wins were harder than they should have been (Pittsburgh & Arizona / New England & LA Chargers)
- There was a dominating blowout (New Orleans / Arizona)
They were adjusting to a new Offensive Coordinator. The running game was a mess.
The Defense was excellent overall and dominant at times.
Injuries to key players hurt.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba proved to be even better than we thought he could be.
Why does it feel so different than last year’s first quarter, then?
Mainly it is perception.
Last year’s team entered the season after finishing 10-7, having a very good season but missing the playoffs. In the offseason, the team was radically retooled with players at key spots and was supplemented by a fantastic draft class.
A 3-1 start was a good sign that progress was being made. A new era was welcomed like a breath of fresh air. This was finally, fully 100% Mike Macdonald and John Schneider’s team.
They kept improving, stacking 3-1 quarters to enter the stretch run at 9-3. They peaked at the right time, running the table to bring home the team’s second Lombardi Trophy.
This year?
The team entered the season the reigning champions, with an impressive amount of their roster intact. However, the rookie class has taken hits with two of their top three picks landing on Injured Reserve and the third slowly working his way into the lineup.
They are also playing with more of a target on their back as the reigning champs. Plus their main division rivals look as tough and resilient as ever.
The road to the Super Bowl is considerably easier as the #1 seed.
To get there, they will in many ways have to emulate last year’s processes: improve the running game steadily and measurably, maintain defensive structure, continue to successfully integrate depth players around injuries and round the offense into a shape that operates without turnovers at key times.
MVP
1. Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Easiest choice on the report card. Smith-Njigba has exploded out of the gate. Look at his trajectory against his Offensive Player of the Year season if he can somehow manage to keep this breakneck pace up:
He has done this with two games of backup Drew Lock and two games of less-than-peak Sam Darnold as his Quarterbacks. You would think a receiver putting up video-game numbers would be paired with a legendary Quarterback, but he was not.
He is so open, so frequently that there is in-game discussion of why the Seahawks are not feeding him even more targets.
Keep progressing at this rate, and he could take a step into Calvin Johnson territory as the dominant Wide Receiver of his day.
2. Leonard Williams
The Seahawks made another major investment in Williams recently, locking him up through his age 35 season with a $90 million contract to keep him in Seattle.
Most Interior Linemen will begin to decline in the early 30’s. Leonard Williams is still ascending.
His power and speed are intact.
In four games, he has three sacks, six more Quarterback hits and five tackles for a loss.
His leadership, his fire and his pure athleticism are the engines that make this defense so dominant.
3. Julian Love
In the three games he played this quarter, he has two brilliant interceptions, four passes defended and two tackles for loss.
While many things contributed to the Week One win against New England, Julian making key play after key play after key play was truly the difference.
His spatula-under-the-pancake interception against the Cardinals was a thing of beauty.
All three levels of this defense have leaders who can affect the game in different ways. Love is the back end’s and the Seahawks felt it when he was out in Week 3.
Rookie of the Quarter
1. Jadarian Price
Price has looked very good in short stints. His ability to accelerate and stop on a dime is as advertised. He had several good runs, but you could sense he was just a step or two away from breaking a big one. It is coming.
Unfortunately, he has fumbled twice and reinjured his shoulder and chest and is on Injured Reserve. Combine that with an inability to get some push when bottled up and there are some things to work on while he recovers.
2. Beau Stephens
As Anthony Bradford has landed on Injured Reserve, the fifth-round rookie has performed a job share at Right Guard with Christian Haynes. The staff has regularly mentioned that they want to get Stephens reps to accelerate his development.
Good idea, as both Haynes and Bradford are Free Agents in 2027.
He has proven to be more than just a hype man.
While Haynes has done fine, Stephens is arguably the future and getting him reps now could pay big dividends in terms of continuity into later this season and next.
3. Everyone else
Bud Clark is on IR, Julian Neal took Special Teams reps and Avery Smith and Montorie Foster Jr have gotten a few snaps here or there. Not much to report.
Successes
1. 2-0 under Drew Lock
The banner was raised. The fireworks went off. The Super Bowl win was celebrated one last time.
Five minutes later, Sam Darnold lay on the ground in a heap and was taken to the hospital. The stadium was full of foreboding. It felt a little like a cross between a cruel joke and some kind of karmic tax collection.
Lock came in and looked rusty early on.
After halftime, he found his rhythm and confidence. Quickly getting the ball to his offensive weapons proved successful, and some tougher throws executed with precision turned the tide.
The defense stepped up and made life miserable for Drake Maye and for a moment, all was not lost.
The following week against Arizona, the Seahawks would play their most complete game of the quarter, modeling their team approach for everyone to see: study your opponent, test your jab a little, adjust accordingly and then attack without mercy. Take the ball away, build up a lead and then close the game in punishing style with an epic 9-minute drive that featured run after run.
It was made possible because of a masterful game by Lock. On his second snap of the game, he immediately clocked that Jaxon Smith-Njigba had broken through the Cardinal coverage and got him the ball. No fear. No hesitation. Pure confidence and a beautiful arcing pass.
Later, the game called for precision lasers. Lock delivered again and again.
What happened? Brian Fleury had tapped into Lock’s potential in a way other Offensive Coordinators could not.
In a league where a game or two can make all the difference, we may very well look back on these two games where Lock stepped in a pushed the season to the heights it hit.
2. Defensive Continuity
Fifth overall in points conceded. First overall in yards conceded. First in passing yards conceded and interceptions.
25% pressure generated overall, but with only a 17% blitz rate.
I made this point last year. There can be a tendency to copy & paste last year’s tremendous numbers into this year and focus on other things.
Just ask the 0-4 Houston Texans how that is working out. They are #26 in scoring, #28 in passing yards conceded and #22 in plays faced.
It is far harder than just plugging in the same players and running the same system.
Offenses adapt, and you must adapt as well.
Mike Macdonald is doing that, taking maximum advantage of ‘guys who don’t look like they can play that position’ like Drake Thomas, Nick Emmanwori and others to vary his attack with the same personnel.
And it is working.
3. No Super Bowl Hangover
Champagne was poured. Cigars lit. Parades were had.
Gaudy rings were handed out at a lavish dinner.
$370 million in cash was spent this summer to bring most of this team back. They signed the highest-paid Wide Receiver in the game. The second highest-paid Cornerback.
Derick Hall, Rashid Shaheed and Josh Jobe got paid.
Jake Bobo and Drake Thomas got extensions.
Leonard Williams got a healthy extension.
The Seahawks got major Hollywood attention with a Hard Knocks season that was arguably the best of the series.
Can you feel any of that in the building right now? At all?
Some snickered at Smith-Njigba talking about being happy to put the Championship year and the summer celebrations behind him and focusing on getting even better.
He’s done exactly that.
If you could script this team’s attitude to open this season the moment they walked off the field in Santa Clara with the Lombardi, I do not know if it could have been composed any better.
It is fair game to point at how teams like the Rams, Texans, Patriots and the Chargers handled their offseasons after very successful years. The Seahawks compare favorably in many ways, be it attitude, execution or drama (or rather, lack thereof).
This team is no less hungry than it was last year.
Struggles
1. Third Downs
The offense currently rates a miserable #31 in the NFL on Third Downs.
Closing games out and chipping into deficits would be so much easier if they could just convert a handful more to get to the middle of the pack.
The running game is the big culprit here. Last year in the first quarter, they had more run plays for zero or negative yards than anyone else in the NFL.
This year? They have improved one spot to #31.
Last year in the first quarter, they had twelve runs of ten or more yards. This year? Eleven.
It is slow going. They need the kind of improvement that last year’s team down the stretch provided. Many remember Zach Charbonnet’s tough running and Kenneth Walker’s slashing runs through gaps late in the season. But it took some time to get there, from the play calls to the execution. The first quarter was dreadful.
This year is only slightly better.
The Seahawks have a longer to-go average yardage on Third Down than all but seven NFL teams currently.
Running successfully more often will help mitigate that. Third and four opens the playbook far more than third and eight.
2. Penalties
The Seahawks have been flagged for 35 penalties through four games. That projects out to 149 over the course of the season.
How did they do last year?
Do you really want to know?
Okay.
100. They had 100 penalties.
They are on course to have almost 50% more penalties this year than last year.
One thing to get out of the way: the league as a whole is a penalty mess right now. The numbers are out of control.
That said, the Seahawks have been flagged for several penalties that they can control.
If the Seahawks do not get flagged for several key penalties against the Patriots, that game has a whole different look. Seattle cruises to a blowout and the reigning champs look even more formidable.
The Commanders game. The Chargers game.
Both were materially affected by penalties that the team is responsible for.
If there is one little crack in the armor of the Super Bowl Hangover, it is that they may have gotten a little sloppy.
Do you have any doubt Mike Macdonald will tighten things up? That the league may finally settle and normalize a little?
I do not.
3. Darnold INTs
Darnold had back-to-back games with very poor choices that led to interceptions that could easily have been avoided.
It was the nail in the coffin that sealed the loss against the Commanders, and a golden opportunity to steal a possession from the Chargers at home and build an even more insurmountable lead was lost.
To be fair, in that Commanders game, Darnold responded to his interception with a red-hot drive to scale the length of the field in less than a minute. It featured consecutive completions of 18, 11, 15, 17, and 7 yards.
We know how this script goes. If Darnold plays well and avoids turnovers, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and the defense can be the difference in the game. If he does not, the game is up in the air.
This may be a bit of rust that did not get worked out due to the injury. It may not be.
Right now, as it stands, Smith-Njigba is so regularly getting open, the defense is so frequently shutting things down, and the running game is getting just-enough production, Sam Darnold does not need to play hero ball to win the game.
A couple of frustrating series where he wisely throws it away on Third down may tip the balance back to the Seahawks’ favor and allow them to close out games more effectively.
Quarter Two Games
This is a tougher stretch indeed — and the Seahawks will have to answer the call. They have done it before. They have also responded to lacklustre games with good, proper ones before as well.
Two small schedule things to note that are positive:
- The Seahawks get a mini-bye after the Thursday Week 6 game, a nice break in a tough stretch. Also because their Bye Week is not until Week 11
- After they come home from the Denver game, they stay in Seattle for almost a month. No travel for a month in the NFL is a great time to get healed up and prepped for the stretch run
Week 5 – SF
Week 6 – @ Denver (Thursday Night)
Week 7 – Kansas City (Sunday Night & Throwback Uniforms)
Week 9 – Chicago (Monday Night)
Second Quarter Goals
1. Beat San Francisco
We all know what needs to be done, we don’t need the lesson that beating the current best team in your division means.
As much as we love to think about those two beatdowns in Week 18 and the Divisional Round last year (with Kyle Shanahan joking at the Super Bowl that why is anyone asking him how to beat Seattle’s defense a particularly satisfying moment), it is time to put those into the history books and turn to the task at hand.
San Francisco is 4-0 despite being hammered with injuries once again. Brock Purdy plays incredibly well.
The game is in Seattle. The Seahawks need to hold serve and get into the Niners’ heads once again.
The loser of this game will be looking over their shoulder at the Los Angeles Rams, and Myles Garrett is not far off from coming back.
Mike Macdonald needs to once again draw up genius plans defensively to keep the offense in check. Brian Fleury will need to seize all his intel about how to find a weakness in San Francisco’s defense.
And the team must execute. No turnovers. No game-swinging penalties.
2. Connect the Offense Further
Right now, the offense is the Jaxon Smith-Njigba Show. And that’s fine. If he keeps getting open and producing at this rate, we can gladly accept cries of how the team is not distributing properly.
The problem would come when Darnold decides a risky chance on a throw to him is preferable to a near-guaranteed chance for other players. Thankfully, he has proven to be a good distributor of the ball.
But it could tip and sway very quickly if Fleury, Macdonald and Darnold are not careful.
Getting the Offensive Line more connected in the running game will help tremendously.
Winning some more Third downs will alleviate things as well. If you convert, there are at least three more offensive touches guaranteed.
3. Tune Up the Special Teams
This is the one area that could really make the difference down the stretch again. The Rams somehow seem worse than they were last year. If they come into that late stretch with problems still, Seattle must take advantage.
Right now, Jason Myers is fine but had a shaky game last week against the Chargers. The Seahawks need him back at his near-perfect best.
The kicking coverage units have been average.
And Michael Dickson has had a few punts with chances to pin opponents deep that do not accomplish their task.
This is something that can be worked on and improved in-season. Hopefully, Special Teams aces like Chazz Surratt and Irv Charles return to health and contribute to the level we know they can.
