3 things the Seahawks should address

Will Mike Macdonald step on the gas?

On Monday, Seaside Joe highlighted two huge organizational wins for the Seattle Seahawks that has led to a strong start in 2025. Conversely, these are a few improvement opportunities moving forward for the team in their upcoming schedule.

Get someone else the ball

Puka Nacua (37.6%) and Garrett Wilson (36.5%) are the only receivers with a higher target share than Jaxon Smith-Njigba (35.4%) this season. The only duo with a higher rate of combined target rates than JSN and Cooper Kupp are Nacua and Davante Adams, as shown in this chart by Sam Hoppen:

(If you’re trying to read this on a phone screen, you might need to open it somewhere else to see it clearly?)

It’s not that there is anything inherently wrong with a heavy concentration of targets to one or two players because you’ve got good teams that do that (Rams, Seahawks, Eagles, Bucs) and good teams that spread it around (Bills, Packers, Steelers). But for me the there has to be a question answered of whether Seattle is doing this intentionally or if it’s just how the first four games have flowed and whether or not it is a reflection of how the QB/coaches feel about every weapon who is not JSN.

It is a very strange feeling to look at a team’s receiving numbers after four games and see this:

• JSN, 35 targets, 402 yards

• Kupp, 20 targets, 162 yards

• Tory Horton, 10 targets, 74 yards

• Elijah Arroyo, 9 targets, 82 yards

• A.J. Barner, 9 targets, 81 yards

• Kenneth Walker, 7 targets, 58 yards

Last year, the Seahawks had six playters who averaged 20 yards per game or more. This year, JSN and Kupp are the only players over 20.5 yards per game and Kupp is on pace for about 700 yards. JSN has almost 50% of the team’s total passing yards, which is just a wild stat and points to one potential problem in the future if the Seahawks end up competing for the Super Bowl:

Is the offense functional if JSN misses a game?

At this stage, we don’t know how much Kupp has left in the tank. We don’t know how good Arroyo and Horton will become. The depth at receiver was a question going into the season and nothing we’ve seen so far should have alleviated that skepticism.

For that reason, the Seahawks have to keep the phone lines open for a potential wide receiver addition on the trade market and waiver wire as the season continues. This may never become necessary — JSN is capable of leading this receivers room — but if the dial keeps getting turned up on his useage then Seattle has to be ready for anything.

Internally, I would think that Horton and Arroyo see their target shares go up in the meantime.

• Horton has 10 targets in the past 3 games, catching 6 of those and scoring twice

• Arroyo had a season-high 4 targets in Week 4

• JSN has had fewer targets in each successive week (13 to 10 to 6 to 5) but I think we also have to see him get more than 5 targets in the future

This looks like a question that is resolving itself with the continuation of the schedule.

Mike Macdonald has to be more aggressive on fourth down for Kubiak’s sake

Through four weeks, the only team that has attempted fewer fourth downs than the Seahawks is the Bengals. Seattle is 1-of-3 on fourth downs, putting them in the bottom tier for those more aggressive head coaches and that is ultimately going to be a problem if and when the Seahawks reach the NFC playoffs and have to go toe-to-toe with the two best aggressive head coaches in the NFL:

• Dan Campbell, Lions (7-of-9 on fourth down)

• Nick Sirianni, Eagles (5-of-7 on fourth down)

Welcome to the modern NFL, you are not going to survive by being overly cautious and too passive on fourth down. Especially when your opponents are going to probably convert them against you.

In terms of going for it when analytics suggests to go for it, the Seahawks are neither particularly aggressive or un-aggressive but it is a small sample size. Hree you’ll see them right at the 50% marker:

I can respect and appreciate an old school coach who sees the benefit to a cautious approach at midfield, either on the edge of field goal range or when you have a chance to close out the game, but Macdonald can’t forget the people who he is potentially hurting by punting or kicking in all of these situations:

Klint Kubiak, Sam Darnold, the offensive line, and the rest of the players.

Don’t let the sixth time they try to convert 4th down all season be in the NFC Divisional playoffs. There’s good reason to believe that players and coaches need to be experienced well before they have to go against the Lions and Eagles for the most high-pressured play of their entire season in the playoffs! Now is the best time to start to get comfortable with those intense situations.

Isn’t that probably part of the reason that the Lions and Eagles are so damn good at it? Or the Kansas City Chiefs, a team that’s 9-of-10 on fourth down this season.

That’s more than 3x as many fourth down opportunities!

Macdonald is doing a lot right in his first (and hopefully only) run as a head coach but one where he might want to improve is by catching up to the two most successful teams in the conference over the last three seasons. If you are not prepared to beat the Eagles and Lions in a fourth down contest, did you even play?

Cut down on the missed tackles

According to Pro-Football-Reference, the Seahawks are tied with the Cowboys for having the third-most missed tackles in the NFL this season.

I know “missed tackles” has been a controversial stat at times, but it does match what my eyes see. By comparison, the Rams have missed three tackles.

Yep. Three.

Leading the way in missed tackles is Coby Bryant, who has been blamed for six missed tackles compared to 15 successful tackles. Again, I think this matches my memory of watching Bryant this season. This is not a criticism of Bryant’s overall value to the defense — his 28.6% missed tackle rate is 5x his 2024 mark so this should improve — it’s just what happens to have been the case in the first four games.

Bryant has missed more tackles in 2025 than all of 2024.

His missed tackle rate is the fifth-highest in the NFL and the highest among all safeties. But Bryant’s two interceptions is the second-most in the league behind three picks for Kevin Byard and Devin Lloyd. A look at Bryant’s game log shows improved coverage week after week, but at least one missed tackle in all four contests.

Boye Mafe also has a missed tackle rate of 28.6% but Mafe hasn’t been in on many stops. He has just 5 tackles and 2 missed tackles. While we’re on the subject, Mafe’s first quarter-season has been the latest sequel to “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t”…

5 tackles, 0 sacks, 0 TFL, 6 pressures. This is the last thing Mafe wants in a contract year.

If we have to get into it, Mafe, Derick Hall, and DeMarcus Lawrence have combined for 256 pass rushing snaps in 2025 and 0 sacks. These are all streaky players, as is Uchenna Nwosu, so maybe in the next four weeks they will lead the league in sacks, but to this point of the season the production is lacking. This is most concerning for Mafe though because he’s going to be a 28-year-old free agent.

Getting back to the missed tackles, Seattle has relatively few weaknesses to clean up to go from a very good defense to a very great defense. One of those fixes is better tackling.

Devon Witherspoon had the worst missed tackle rate on the team in 2024 at 13.3% (now he’s at 10.5%) and the most efficient tackler was Byron Murphy II at 0.0% on 36 tackles during his rookie season. Murphy has 16 made tackles without a miss in 2025, giving him 52 in his career and a perfect 0% missed tackle rate.

The Seahawks had 95 missed tackles in 2024, an average of 5.6 per game. Their average in 2025 is 8 per game.

That’s a huge swing. Last season’s best teams in missed tackles were unsurprisingly many of the best teams that made the playoffs (Steelers, Ravens, Broncos, Vikings, Commanders, Lions were top-6) and many of the worst teams were disasters (Raiders, Panthers, Saints, Jets).

So whether or not you feel this missed tackle rate could be the downfall of the defense — it probably isn’t — it’s fair to say that the fourth-most missed tackles in the league is not what Macdonald is coaching. All they have to do is clean it up.

Seaside Joe 2402