The Seahawks are playing dominant football right now — following up a blowout of Washington on Sunday Night Football last week with a 44-22 blasting of Arizona this week.
This sets up a monster matchup with the also 7-2 Los Angeles Rams in Week 11.
Before we look at that game, let’s look at the best numbers from the big win over Arizona.
Continue reading By the numbers: Hawks put together back-to-back blowoutsIn the wake of Seattle sending two mid-round picks to the Saints for Rashid Shaheed, many are saying the Seahawks are in “win now” mode or that they are “going for it” — as if they weren’t already doing that.
Some also are wondering why the Seahawks would give up fourth- and fifth-round picks for a guy whose contract runs out after this season.
Let’s put some perspective on it.
Continue reading Shaheed a ‘win now’ acquisition, but ‘now’ lasts beyond 2025
With the trade deadline days away, moves are being made and chatter is picking up – so let’s connect some possible dots around the Seahawks.
One of the big ones that emerged today was Saints guard Cesar Ruiz to Seattle – a move that conceivably would help the Hawks at right guard.
The Seahawks are “in the market” for an offensive lineman, per Jordan Schultz. And ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported: “Teams I’ve spoken to are under the impression that guard Cesar Ruiz might be available at the right price.”
Scuttlebutt is that “the right price” would be a third-round pick. That surely is too steep for John Schneider, but what if it came down to a 5 or 6 by next Tuesday’s deadline? Or what if it was a pick swap – maybe the Hawks give up a 3 and get back a 5? Ruiz is signed for two more years, so they would have a chance to get value out of such a deal.
Continue reading Hawks ‘in the market’ for O-line help — what about Saints’ Ruiz?
As the Seahawks take a week off to rest, self-evaluate and prepare for the final 10 games, they are in great position – both for this season and beyond.
At 5-2, they are one of seven NFC teams with a winning percentage over .700 – and right where we thought they would be, positioned for a second-half run into the playoffs.
By DVOA, they actually are rated the best team in the league – thanks to the top-ranked special teams and the No. 2 defense. Their net point differential (plus-57) is fifth.
The Hawks are blowing away Vegas projections, which had the Hawks finishing with seven or eight wins (a 7.5 over/under). We had predicted at least 11 wins. Well, this team is on a pace for 12. Looking at the rest of the schedule, the Hawks look capable of a 7-3 finish – thus a 12-5 record for the season.
This is clearly a playoff team. The bigger question: What happens once the playoffs arrive? Do the Hawks have what it takes to go all the way?
Let’s look at what they have and what they might need to make a Super Bowl run this year and beyond.
Continue reading The promising future of the Hawks this year and beyond
“Just imagine when it’s all three phases clicking.” – Mike Macdonald to his team after a mistake-filled 27-19 win over Houston
If you had told us the Seahawks would score 27 points and beat Houston by eight on Monday night, we would have taken that. Heck, we still will – since the Hawks moved to 5-2 and kept pace with the NFC leaders with a 27-19 win.
But, as the quote above shows, even Mike Macdonald was dreaming about the blowout that should have been – and the day his team plays a complete game.
Early on, it looked like this might be one of those. The Hawks jumped to a fast 14-0 lead and kept threatening to blow the game wide open in the first half. But they kept turning the ball over, committing penalties and having other odd things happen. What should have/could have been a 24-0 halftime lead instead was just 14-6. And despite their dominant defense, the Hawks never could put away the Texans until the final seconds.
Continue reading Defense dominates; Mike Mac dreams of ‘all three phases clicking’
As the Seahawk face the NFL’s best defense on Monday, it is worth noting that Sam Darnold doesn’t have to do it all alone.
Mike Sando of The Athletic does a fun project called the Betrayal Index, which ranks quarterbacks by how much they have to carry their teams (i.e., how good they are vs. where their defenses and special teams rank in EPA).
Darnold is among the top 10 passers in that metric (as he is in pretty much every metric), but he is just one of four QBs who are complemented by top-10 defense/special teams combinations.
And his defense is about to start getting even better.
Continue reading Already supporting Darnold well, defense should get even better
“We need to improve on our run game. It’s pretty cut and dry.” – Mike Macdonald
The Seahawks have the NFL’s No. 5 scoring offense (27.7 ppg), the No. 10 offense by EPA and the No. 4 offense by DVOA – all without any consistent running attack.
There are two schools of thought about the Seahawks’ struggling running game – and both have their merits.
The first is what Mike Macdonald said on his radio show Monday: The running game is not good enough. The second is that the threat of the running game via play action has enabled the passing game to thrive and it’s a fair sacrifice to make.
Continue reading Hawks are winning with play action, not giving up on run game
The Seahawks’ most reliable factors so far this season have been their QB1-WR1 connection, their defensive front and their special teams. They lost to the Bucs last week largely due to a rare bad game by the defensive line.
They won 20-12 in Jacksonville today because that unit returned to dominance and helped out Sam Darnold and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who continued to play as well as any QB-WR duo in the NFL.
Last week, Mike Macdonald said Baker Mayfield had too many “Mississippis” (a reference to the old backyard football pass rush rule). Well, the Seahawks got to Trevor Lawrence after one “Miss” on half of his dropbacks today.
Continue reading The formula for winning: Darnold, JSN and D-lineAs the Nov. 4 trade deadline approaches, NFL teams are expected to make a lot of moves – just as they have for the past few years.
Some Seahawks fans have been clamoring for the team to try to acquire Cincinnati pass rusher Trey Hendrickson, but there might be a better option out there.
The Patriots, under Mike Vrabel’s new staff, have completely ruined Keion White, a 2023 second-round pick who turned into a stellar player in 2024. They have moved the 6-5, 285-pound lineman to outside linebacker, and he has not taken well to it – benched from the starting lineup.
That has him on ESPN’s list of names to watch in the weeks leading up to the deadline. The Hawks definitely should be calling the Patriots about him.
Continue reading Hawks should call about Keion White
One of these days, the Seahawks might field a full team – and we’ll see just how powerful they really are. For now, like so many teams around the league, they have to be content playing with about 80% of their top players – their battered secondary and pass rush still not full strength.
That was not quite enough against Tampa Bay last Sunday, but trust Mike Macdonald to have learned from that defensive meltdown (370 passing yards, 38 points allowed). Even if the Hawks are again without Devon Witherspoon and Julian Love, Macdonald likely will put his defense in position against Trevor Lawrence and the Jags in Jacksonville.
Continue reading Hawks still at 80%, but Macdonald should have winning plan vs. Jags
CHAWK TALK: Everything being said about the Seahawks 