Tag Archives: Devon Witherspoon

Contracts, NFL Combine

Hawks seem ready to replace Woolen, Bryant and Walker

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While John Schneider is staying pretty tight-lipped, as usual, about the Seahawks’ personnel plans, we have heard enough scuttlebutt from the Combine to have a pretty decent idea what is going to happen over the next couple of weeks.

For one, the draft lines up very well where the Seahawks might need to replace some guys – and the Hawks have been meeting with a bunch of prospects who could fit.

Two, we now have a very good idea where Schneider and the team stand on Kenneth Walker III – it is basically what we expected.

Three, we know a bit more about how and why the Hawks probably are going to handle extensions for Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Devon Witherspoon.

Let’s break it all down, using intel offered up by ESPN’s Brady Henderson and others.

Continue reading Hawks seem ready to replace Woolen, Bryant and Walker →
Super Bowl LX, The roster

Back-to-back? Defense that dominated Pats will return in 2026

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In his first team meeting in 2024, Mike Macdonald predicted the Seahawks would be in the NFC Championship Game.

“It’s inevitable,” he told his first group of Seahawks, which included many of the guys who beat the Rams in the NFC title game a couple weeks ago.

Macdonald did not predict a Super Bowl win, but he and his team delivered that Sunday, beating the Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl LX. Afterward, he said he had “100% confidence” that his team would win. That’s certainly how it felt to us (we had predicted a 31-13 win).

Macdonald brought a vision to Seattle, and – along with some great help from John Schneider — he has made it come to life by creating the best defense in the NFL. It is a unit that is poised to dominate in 2026 — and probably beyond.

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Super Bowl LX

Hawks 29, Patriots 13: Super Bowl LX highlights

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The Seahawks dominated the Patriots 29-13 in Super LX. Here are all the highlights:

Continue reading Hawks 29, Patriots 13: Super Bowl LX highlights →
#LARvsSEA, Playoffs

Reaction, stats, highlights from Seattle’s NFC title win vs. the Rams

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The Seahawks are back in the Super Bowl after a rousing 31-27 win over the Rams in the NFC title game.

With his defense struggling to contain the Rams for much of the game, Sam Darnold led Seattle with 346 passing yards, three touchdowns (all under pressure) and no interceptions. It was a spectacular performance that silenced any remaining Darnold doubters.

The analysis of the game is still ongoing two days later, and we finally have time to post the CHawk Talk — what everyone is saying about Seattle’s big win.

Here are some of the many highlights from NFL Twitter.

Continue reading Reaction, stats, highlights from Seattle’s NFC title win vs. the Rams →
Playoffs

The Dark Side defense, by the numbers

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With no offense meant to Houston, New England or Denver, the Seahawks have perhaps the scariest defense in the NFL. It was easy to see coming.

In 2024, Mike Macdonald put together a top-10 defense — led by Leonard Williams, Jarran Reed, Devon Witherspoon, Julian Love and Ernest Jones IV.

It was clear he was building the next dominant Seattle unit. John Schneider added DeMarcus Lawrence and Nick Emmanwori, Uchenna Nwosu returned to health — and voila! Seattle ended up as the No. 1 scoring defense in the NFL for the first time since the Legion of Boom days.

They call it the Dark Side.

Continue reading The Dark Side defense, by the numbers →
The roster, Trades

The promising future of the Hawks this year and beyond

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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 →
#SEAvsJAX, Injury report

Hawks still at 80%, but Macdonald should have winning plan vs. Jags

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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.

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Week 12: Arizona, X's & O's

Defense is now ‘locked in,’ but can Hawks find key to offense, too?

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Mike Macdonald finally has his defense playing the way we all expected. After three pretty dominant weeks against NFC West foes, including a 16-6 clampdown of Arizona in Week 12, that unit looks capable of holding down most offenses the rest of the way and helping the Seahawks make the playoffs.

But the offense is going to have to start doing its part.

Before we get to the offense’s problems, let’s start with the defense’s turnaround, which hopefully has not come too late.

Continue reading Defense is now ‘locked in,’ but can Hawks find key to offense, too? →
Week 7: At Atlanta

Have Hawks learned enough about selves to start a new streak?

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Mike Macdonald’s Seahawks finally got themselves a quality win – and they needed it big time.

With a surprising 34-14 blowout of a red-hot Falcons team that had won three straight, the Hawks avoided the dreaded four-game losing skid that might have been the death knell for any playoff hopes (just one team out of 15 in Seattle history had overcome a streak of four or more losses to make the playoffs).

And now the question is whether they can sustain it.

“It was inevitable that (adversity) would happen, so you want to see a rebound,” Julian Love said. “We’re still learning how to win as a team. … We’re still building; we’re still learning who we are as a team.”

Continue reading Have Hawks learned enough about selves to start a new streak? →
Franchise history, NFL draft, The roster

Is a new homegrown defense in the offing?

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Byron Murphy said he loved watching the Legion of Boom Seahawks when he was a kid. (For some of us a decade is not that long ago, but for a 21-year-old it was half his lifetime ago.)

The LOB was a dominant defense with a core that John Schneider put together mostly through the 2010-12 drafts: Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, K.J. Wright, Richard Sherman, Bobby Wagner, Bruce Irvin. Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett (Murphy’s favorite player on that defense) were the only core outside additions. And that group of stars dominated the NFL from 2012 to 2016.

Schneider has not been able to replicate that magic over the past decade. He had the perfect chance to do it again in 2016 and 2017, but he absolutely whiffed on most of his 11 picks on Days 1 and 2. Ever since those failures, he has been patching together his defense with trades for veterans.

But, thanks to three straight years with high picks in the draft, maybe he finally is building another core – this time for Mike Macdonald.

Continue reading Is a new homegrown defense in the offing? →