Derick Hall, Boye Mafe still have 0 sacks in 2025

5 most-important players: Seahawks-Cardinals

There have been times in the last two seasons, including this past week against Washington, when Jaxon Smith-Njigba had over 100 yards and yet it was obvious that he could have had considerably more if not for a penalty, a bad call, or being overlooked by the quarterback. On Sam Darnold’s touchdown pass to Elijah Arroyo in double-coverage, JSN had beaten his man and got 10 yards behind him for what would have been a wide open 26-yard score.

With so many injuries among Seattle’s pass catchers this week, the Seahawks may have no other choice but to look to JSN 15-20 times and given how unstoppable he’s been…why not?

5 most important players

QB Jacoby Brissett, Cardinals

Brissett was the 91st pick of the 2016 draft, which in some ways means that if you think Jalen Milroe (92nd pick) was drafted to become a franchise quarterback, then so was Brissett. The Patriots also drafted Brissett as a third-string quarterback (they had Jimmy Garoppolo at the time), but New England traded him to the Colts for Philip Dorsett after one season when news hit that Andrew Luck could miss the entire year.

While some quarterback careers yo-yo between good and bad, Brissett’s has been uneven because teams can’t decide if he’s a backup or a starter. The Cardinals are his sixth different team in the last six years but if he continues playing like he has, Brissett will be back with Arizona in 2026.

With 56 career starts under his belt, Brissett’s 1.3% interception rate is the lowest in the history of the NFL.

Going from the Cowboys defense to Seattle’s is like hot tob to a cold plunge and this is not the first time in Brissett’s career that he has seemed to establish himself as a starter.

Back in 2019 with the Colts, Brissett had 14 touchdowns/3 interceptions and a passer rating of 101 through Indy’s first six games, but then he had four touchdowns over their last NINE games. If the formula holds true, Brissett will return to Arizona in 2026 (he’s already signed) and the Cardinals will draft somebody to take over in the future…which is probably Week 5 next season?

The biggest issue facing Arizona’s offense this weekend will be succeeding under pressure:

• The Seahawks are second in pressure rate (40.1%)

• Jacoby Brissett’s passer rating drops from 122.9 to 69.9 when under pressure

• Brissett’s completion rate falls from 80.3% to 43.5%!

When Seattle faced Kyler Murray in Week 4, they had a season-low 25.5% pressure rate. With a different QB in place, one who may not have an escape hatch, can the Seahawks double that rate and how will Brissett respond?

Seattle has the talent to win if Sam Darnold has a bad day. Do the Cardinals?

OLB Derick Hall, Seahawks

Hall returned after missing a month and Next Gen Stats counted four pressures on 13 pass rushing snaps, a season-best pressure rate of 30.8%.

Compare that to the last time he played the Cardinals, Hall was only credited with one pressure on THIRTY pass rushing snaps.

There is always another wrinkle to pressure numbers, as always, because websites can’t get on the same page: Pro-Football-Reference credited Hall with zero pressures and three missed tackles. It was the first time in Hall’s career that he was blamed for multiple missed tackles.

If you’re still asking whether or not Derick Hall is a good pass rusher or not, stick with the pudding: For at least the last 40 years, teams have rewarded edge rushers who sack the quarterback.

This is not my rule. This is not my opinion. The entire league has dictated that if you get a lot of sacks, you’re worth more than some quarterbacks; seven edge rushers make more per year than Sam Darnold.

And if you get a lot pressures without sacks, well you might have some value to a lot of teams as a complementary piece to someone who does. Hall had zero sacks in 2023. He had eight sacks in 2024 (some of which were “QB runs out of bounds” or “QB falls down”). He has zero sacks in 2025. (Boye Mafe sack update: also zero)

First the offseason went by and the Seahawks added Demarcus Lawrence and two undrafted free agents. Then the trade deadline passed and the Seahawks held firm with the six players they have right now. So in all likelihood, these six are the edge rushers who Seattle carries through the end of the season and playoffs. Fine, the Seahawks are winning and they’re getting a lot of pressure on the quarterback and sacks are coming from all over the defense, including 5 by Byron Murphy and 3 by Drake Thomas. No complaints here.

But will Hall/Mafe join the party or just confirm that Seattle is still on the market for replacements? Or will we ever see Jared Ivey and Connor O’Toole?

LT Charles Cross, Seahawks

With so many notable changes and differences at the other four spots, even including Anthony Bradford’s struggles, the guy most likely to get a huge raise next year has sort of been forgotten. The Seahawks exercised Cross’s fifth-year option, which is worth $17.5 million in 2026, but why wouldn’t he make it clear to management that he wants to be the league’s highest-paid left tackle?

Is Cross worth that much? He doesn’t have to be the NFL’s BEST left tackle to be worth it, he just needs to make the argument that Seattle needs him more than he needs them. Which is probably true unless the Seahawks were comfortable moving Abe Lucas to the other side. But then who plays right tackle?

The NFL’s highest paid LT now is Rashawn Slater, which makes it that much easier for Cross to ask for $29 million AAV given that Slater has missed 2 of the last 4 seasons. Seattle has leverage — they hold his rights in 2026 and they can franchise tag him for three more years after that — but Cross can get back some if he dominates the best pass rushers.

Right now one of those players is Josh Sweat.

With seven sacks in his first year with the Cardinals, Sweat is on track for a new career-high, possibly getting into 15+ territory. He had 2 sacks and a season-high 5 QB hits on Monday against the Cowboys. According to Next Gen Stats, Sweat has had 5 of his 7 sacks against left tackles, making it even more imperative for Cross to have a strong game this week.

If he wants to pressure the Seahawks into paying him before they have to, he has to keep players like Sweat from pressuring Darnold when he wants to.

TE Trey McBride, Cardinals

McBride has caught five touchdowns this season, but four of them have happened since Brissett took over at quarterback three games ago.

The Seahawks have done well against more WR1 and WR2 matchups this year and maybe have some of their more regrettable days against TEs like Cade Otton (81 yards), Dalton Schultz (98 yards), George Kittle (25 yards, 1 TD in a half), and a costly touchdown allowed to Jake Tonges.

The last time they faced AZ, McBride had 52 yards but it took 11 targets to get there. That was with Murray. Seattle now needs to keep McBride out of the end zone with Brissett at quarterback and they won’t have Julian Love and they probably won’t have Ernest Jones IV.

WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Seahawks

We don’t have to complicate it or get cute: JSN is having the best season of any receiver (maybe any player) in the league and it makes perfect sense that Seattle is going to feature him again this week.

Tory Horton is doubtful, Jake Bobo and Dareke Young are out, Cooper Kupp is questionable, A.J. Barner is questionable.

If Kupp, Barton, and Horton are all inactive, then the player with the second-most targets on the Seahawks remaining will be Elijah Arroyo, who has 19 (2 per game). That’s if we don’t include Rashid Shaheed, who just got to Seattle a few days ago. Not that Shaheed won’t be used right away, he might even be great, and it would be the perfect time to step up.

The Seahawks are probably going to have Cody White out there again too.

You’re probably thinking that Arizona will just triple-team JSN in this case, but it’s not that simple: Starting cornerbacks Will Johnson and Max Melton are also ruled out. Those are huge losses for the Cardinals, pushing Kei’Trel Clark and rookie Denzel Burke into larger roles against Darnold and a receiver on pace for over 2,000 yards.

The Cards have already given up 100+ yards to three different WR1s and in the last game CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens might have both gotten there (85 and 79) if they weren’t splitting between each other. Well, JSN doesn’t have to split. Actually, he kind of can’t split.

If you could say that a game was a perfect storm for 200 receiving yards, this would be it.

JSN had 79 yards on five targets against the Cardinals in Week 4. He might get 20 targets this week. Even if it’s that obvious, is there anything Arizona can do to stop him?

Who are your 5 most important?

Seaside Joe 2441