Nick Bosa, James Conner suffer major injuries
The NFC West race is hitting a little bit different on Monday
When the Seahawks face the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday, they won’t see running back James Conner because he will undergo immediate surgery on an ankle injury that is better heard about than seen. That was news on Sunday, but another injury update hit on Monday that rocks the NFC West race: Nick Bosa tore his ACL again.
The 49ers were already a M*A*S*H unit going into the season but since the Seahawks played them in Week 1, San Francisco has lost Brock Purdy for the past two games and now Bosa for the rest of the year. The 49ers are 3-0 but when is enough going to be enough?
San Francisco’s starting edge rushers will be Bryce Huff, 21-year-old Mykel Williams, and Sam Okuayinonu.
The Seahawks have been shorthanded the past couple of weeks and their results have gone above and beyond the highest expectations of what could go right despite a depleted secondary. So the Cardinals and 49ers could end up being fine, but these injuries in particular will change the math in the NFC West to some degree.
As for the Seattle Seahawks, they wake up on Monday ranked 5th in points scored and 2nd in points allowed.
Here are some of your thoughts and takeaways from Seattle’s 44-13 holy molyfication of the Saints as posted in Sunday’s game recap. If you’re a free subscriber and you want to join the commentary sanctuary, join Regular Joes for only $5 per month or $55 for an entire year of guaranteed daily Seahawks content:
Isaac B: Three games into this and the Seahawks, so far, have been playing like a contender should play. When facing other contenders, they may win or lose, but the other team feels it and walks away battered and bruised because of it. The 49ers were worse off after playing the Seahawks than before. Mission accomplished.
When I woke up this morning and checked the Seahawks page at Pro-Football-Reference, I couldn’t believe this is the same team as the one we’ve been following in recent years:
One of the main points of emphasis for identifying great teams is that they sometimes beat the crap out of other teams. Seattle has rarely done that and now they’ve won back-to-back games by at least two touchdowns. Plus they did have the 49ers on the brink.
Sam Darnold has looked better in each successive game. Jaxon Smith-Njigba leads the NFL in yards per route run. The offensive line is dramatically improved. Byron Murphy is an emerging superstar. The defense is second in points allowed and third in yards per carry allowed and fourth in takeaways. And special teams…dare I say, Jay-OK?
A lot of season left to go, but the Seahawks have an opportunity in front of them to establish before the Week 8 bye that they’re a real threat to win the NFC.
Week 4: at Cardinals, TNF
Week 5: vs Bucs
Week 6: at Jaguars
Week 7: at Texans, MNF
Mostly Lurking: So are we concerned about our rushing offense? I mean it was a fantastic game overall but we could have still had Grubb for all the rushing we did
Mike Macdonald agrees:
I don’t think every offensive lineman is totally ready to be an elite run blocker yet. WARNING: AVERT YOUR EYES IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE GREY ZABEL WHIFF AND FALL DOWN
It happens. At least with Zabel we can assume that he’s getting better and that he’s having a much better season than Laken Tomlinson. I’m not going to put this on the play calling. Also, is George Holani an NFL caliber running back? We don’t know that yet. Zach Charbonnet wasn’t around to necessarily help offset some of those bad blocks.
Steve Illman: K9 had 30+ yards called back on penalties....Kamara held to 42yds, 2.3ypc!!!
The Seahawks rank 3rd in yards per carry allowed this season. Compare that to the past few seasons:
2022: 4.9 yards per carry allowed (27th)
2023: 4.6 YPC allowed (28th)
2024: 4.6 YPC allowed (28th)
2025: 3.2 YPC allowed (3rd)
Alvin Kamara and Christian McCaffrey aren’t really used to being this demoralized by Seattle’s run defense.
Bill H: Tory Horton PR TD, but my favorite part of it was Chaz Surrrat (#44) absolutely de-cleating the last Saint with a chance to tackle Holt. I was critical of Jay Harbaugh and special teams early on, but they had their Mojo today with the PR’s & KR’s and coverage on our KO’s. McDonald has the whole team elevating their play…Saints are terrible, but to beat someone that bad in the NFL is impressive.
Not bad special teams play from a former quarterback.
Surratt started six games at quarterback for North Carolina in 2017, but then made a semi-genius/crazy decision to switch to linebacker in 2019 rather than risk being yet another failed QB prospect. Vikings draft him in the third round two years later (same year that Klint Kubiak was the OC) but he’s one of the NFL’s surprise cuts in 2022 and wallows in Jetsurgatory. Best of all, the Seahawks signed Surratt after he got released by the 49ers.
Surratt might be the next Nick Bellore, writing a book on how to survive in the NFL thanks to a willingness to do whatever the team needs and not need the spotlight. I don’t know how many quarterbacks are humble enough to make the switch.
Mike McD: Also, this game made me think back to other special teams games. Which I came up with Leon Washington. Fun memories.
When they said that this was the first Seahawks punt return TD since Tyler Lockett in 2015, I said to myself, “Yeah, wow, he really did look like an amazing punt returner at the start of his rookie season.” We would have never guessed it would take another 10 years!
I have a feeling Horton will be more consistent as a punt returner than Lockett.
Stephen Pitell: We have a better QB, WR room, and TE room and OL, than last year. Every position group is better than last year.
+Better offensive coaching staff and more available talent at running back if Kenneth Walker stays healthy. Even with Charbonnet out, Seattle was able to keep Walker to 30 snaps given the circumstances.
Rusty: Horton, rookie of the year? Yeah, I’m getting a bit ahead of things.
What I can tell you is that Horton has caught 2 of the 12 rookie touchdown receptions this season (16.6%) and has 1 of the 3 punt return TDs in the entire league and he has the longest (95) return of the season. There were only six punt return TDs in 2024 (already half that many this year) and only one return longer than 94 yards.
I know you’re only half-joking, but for the hell of it here are some very early OROY candidates:
WR Tetairoa McMillan, 216 yards
TE Tyler Warren, 193 yards
WR Emeka Egbuka, 181 yards, 3 TD
TE Harold Fannin, 15 catches, 136 yards
RB Quinshon Judkins, 155 yards
QB Cam Ward, 54/99, 506 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT
Zabel is sadly not going to be a candidate even though he could deserve it; An offensive lineman has never won OROY.
Paul G: “What was your favorite play of the day?” When Lock came in early in the 4th quarter.
It’s interesting that with so many starters inactive this week that Jalen Milroe basically had to be active but then he only got one snap. He’s not quite the “Lamar gadget option” that we thought he might be this early. Not saying that’s a big deal, just if ever there was a time to unleash Milroe you would think it was this game.
Chris H: Josh Jobe needs to play. When/if the secondary gets back to full health, he still needs to start. Opposite Spoon if they play him outside, or opposite Woolen or Kendrick if Spoon kicks inside. Next to Spoon, he's the most physical of the CB's, and it's not close. He knocks people around when he's making tackles and seems to enjoy doing it. Woolen had a decent game in coverage, but his run support is still.....what's the word......nonchalant.
Here are the updated Seahawks coverage stats after Week 3:
Jobe: 110 coverage snaps, 17 targets, 7 catches, 42 yards, 0 TD/1 INT, 24.4 rating, -11.7 coverage EPA (negative numbers are good)
Woolen: 119 coverage snaps, 12 targets, 8 catches, 127 yards, 1 TD/0 INT, 129.5 rating, +6.9 EPA
Kendrick: 68 coverage snaps, 8 targets, 4 catches, 22 yards, 0 TD/2 INT, 16.7 rating, -11.4 EPA
And Devon Witherspoon has only played in one game so he doesn’t have a large sample size, nor does Nehemiah Pritchett. These are just 3-game sample stats and could change a lot in the coming weeks — I wouldn’t expect perfect coverage from Derion Kendrick — but has the opportunity been earned? I would say it has.
Jobe’s EPA ranks 5th and Kendrick’s 6th among all NFL cornerbacks and by the way former Seahawks CB Mike Jackson is 2nd (-16.8).
Marty H Deeter: Well, aside from the positives from special teams, JSN and such, I am still quite concerned with lack of consistent contributions from TE Arroyo, WR Kupp and both RBs Walker lll and Charbonnet.
I’m just going to focus on one of those players right now: Cooper Kupp has been better than we could have dreamed.
He only played 54% of the snaps on Sunday (JSN played 49%) and he had 31 yards. If he is needed to play in the second half, that’s when Kupp is typically activated. He is averaging over 10 yards per target in the last two games and he’s an excellent run blocker. If Sam Darnold make a couple of different decisions in Week 1, Kupp could have scored twice. I would call Kupp one of the more pleasant surprises right now.
Share your pleasant surprises in the comments section if you begaw!
Seaside Joe 2394
My pleasant surprise is seeing Darnold improve week to week and just how good he’s been so far. If he started at his floor, the sky’s the limit. The more he gets settled in this offence the better he’ll get. He’s already far better than Smith IMO. Great offseason move.
The run game is really the only part of the Seahawks game that is yet to be unleashed. Run defense, pass defense, passing offense, and special teams are all in a good to great spot. Hopefully the consistency will come in time. Lots of learning going on with a young offensive line. Pass pro has been solid, so that's a plus.
I'm so impressed how the defense absorbed both Spoon and Love being out, with minimal impact to performance. Those are two very important players, and the Ready Squad did more than just fill a void. Impressive stuff, and shows the quality of the player and the coaching staff.
So now they have checked off the box for beating the pants off of an inferior opponent. Next up, beat really good teams. I'm not sure the Cardinals fall neatly into either of those categories, but Tampa is pretty solid, although just squeaking out their wins in the last minute. How the Rams lost that game yesterday to the Eagles is beyond me. I guess even McVay has a coaching brain fart every once in a while.