5 most important players: Seahawks-Moons

Tory Horton might need to step up as a big WR2 this week

Despite being 7-13 against Washington in the regular season, Seattle’s worst winning percentage against any team (.350), the Seahawks are 3-0 against them in the playoffs and the Moons are the only team that they’ve beaten three times in the postseason.

It’s round 24 between these two cross-country Washingtons on Sunday night but the first time that the Seahawks will get a close look at Jayden Daniels, the second-year player who has the ominous distinction of being the franchise’s best quarterback since Robert Griffin III. You see, Daniels won the Heisman, got picked second overall by Washington, and was named Offensive Rookie of the Year en route to taking his team to the playoffs as an elite dual threat weapon.

RGIII won the Heisman, got picked second overall by Washington, and was named Offensive Rookie of the Year en route to taking his team to the playoffs as an elite dual threat weapon.

Thankfully Daniels’ rookie season did not end the same as Griffin’s, a knee injury against the Seahawks in the wild card round that most of you surely remember, but he’s been labeled as a quarterback having a second-year slump (just like RGIII) anyway.

As I delved into earlier this week, the Moons don’t run plays under center and therefore they don’t run play action. As one dimensional as any passing offense can be in 2025, Daniels’ dip in production started at the end of last season (including arguably his worst game of the year in the NFC Championship) and could be related to defensive coordinators getting a better idea of how to beat Washington.

-Daniel has a completion percentage under 58% in three of his five starts this season.

-His rushing numbers are down, although I assume that Daniels could break off a 50-yarder at any moment.

-I’ve seen Moons fans even say that Daniels is less accurate and less decisive than he was as a rookie.

These struggles may have nothing to do with whether Jayden Daniels is capable of being a top-5 quarterback, but the fact that he’s had multiple ailments (knee, hamstring) during the season, a bad supporting cast (Terry McLaurin has been ruled out and Laremy Tunsil is questionable), and Kliff Kingsbury calling the plays.

No matter how you draw it up, the Seahawks are facing a 3-5 Moons team that is far less successful than what most people were predicting before the season.

That statement intentionally avoids any phrasing that would suggest Seattle has an easy win on Sunday. Washington being a mediocre team up until now doesn’t preclude them from finding the spark that led to Dan Quinn and Daniels winning 14 games together (including playoffs) in 2024.

But another coincidence connected to RGIII: The Moons started 3-5 in his second season too.

Then they lost their last 8 games of the season. After going 12-11 in his first 13 starts, RGIII went 4-15 in his last 19 career starts. Even as ugly as his final play against Seattle was in the wild card, nobody knew he would only win 4 games again ever. I don’t have this level of concern for Daniels because in addition to not suffering the same knee injury, he’s also a better quarterback than RGIII.

But if Daniel only ever loses one game again, hopefully it’s against the Seahawks.

5 most important

QB Sam Darnold, Seahawks

Quinn’s defense ranks 30th in net yards per pass attempt allowed this season. Here are some notable QB performances against the Moons in 2025:

• Geno Smith: 289 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT

• Dak Prescott: 264 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT

• Jordan Love: 292 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT

• Michael Penix: 313 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT

• Patrick Mahomes: 299 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT

• Caleb Williams: 252 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT

Washington’s pass defense has been stout twice this season, once against Russell Wilson and once against Justin Herbert. Where did that game against Herbert (who still went 22-of-29) come from? I’m not sure. But if you’re betting on fantasy numbers, this is a great opportunity for Darnold to pad his stats.

FRIDAY BONUS ARTICLE: WHY TARIQ WOOLEN PROBABLY WON’T BE TRADED

WR Deebo Samuel, Moons

Some people claim that they hate to say “I told you so”. Not me. I love it.

Any time a good player starts to threaten to holdout for more money, the Internet loves to get behind him and cry foul that the “meanie” team owners are just being cheap and stupid. This was the case for Terry McLaurin before the season and despite being a 30-year-old wide receiver, it was a lot easier to find people siding with him and not encouraging Washington to trade him if he was going to hold out.

Don’t pay receivers who are about to go over the hill. It’s really that simple. The Seahawks look like geniuses for trading DK Metcalf. Washington paid McLaurin $50 million guaranteed to come back to the team and he’s going to miss his fifth game of the season. With mediocre numbers when he’s healthy.

As such, Deebo Samuel has led the team in targets in half of their games so far and no Washington player has crossed the century mark for receiving yards in 2025. Samuel’s 96 yards against the Chargers is the only time this year a player on the offense has even had more than 77 yards.

Zach Ertz has led the team in targets on a few other occasions. Ertz is a week shy of turning 35.

Samuel, who has made a small fortune on the back of ONE career season when he had more than 900 yards, at least has some familiarity with playing in Seattle. However, in his last two games he has caught 7 passes for only 26 yards. Who is Daniels going to turn to on Sunday? History says he’s going to force feed Samuel and Ertz, which means that as long as the Seahawks can shut those two down maybe Daniels isn’t as comfortable with Luke McCaffrey, Jaylin Lane, and Chris Moore.

CB Tariq Woolen, Seahawks

I kind of just want to see where this goes. With Devon Witherspoon returning for the first time in over a month, how does Mike Macdonald interchange him and Nick Emmanwori in Seattle’s base defense? Given that Julian Love is going to miss more time, maybe we could see more of Witherspoon, Emmanwori, and Woolen all on the field at the same time.

Knowing that Woolen might still be on the trade block, this game could be a turning point for his entire Seahawks career. Jayden Daniels has only thrown one interception this season and Woolen only has one career interception in primetime. This would be a great situation for his second and Woolen has never intercepted an NFC East passer.

Witherspoon’s importance is obvious because he’s back, so I’d rather put the spotlight on the cornerback looking over his shoulder.

DE Jacob Martin, Moons

How long has the Seaside Joe newsletter been running consecutively? This non-negotiable daily streak started on March 4, 2019. That makes today the 2,434th day in a row.

It also means that when this newsletter started, Jacob Martin was still on the Seahawks.

Seattle’s sixth round pick in 2018, showed some promise as a rookie by posting three sacks, tied with Quinton Jefferson for the third-most on the defense behind Frank Clark and Jarran Reed. It was enough to use as part of a trade package to acquire Jadeveon Clowney in 2019, a move some were skeptical of given that Martin could have had a longer, better career with Seattle.

Skeptics were right.

The breakout season never came for Martin, whose six seasons with somewhere between 3 to 4 sacks since 2018 is two more than any other player:

But he’s still in the NFL and he’s only 29. This also looks like it will actually be Martin’s best career season.

Martin is coming off of a 2-sack game against the Chiefs and with the season-ending injury to team sack leader Dorance Armstrong, his odds of setting a new career-high (the current is 4) are starting to look inevitable; Martin’s currently at 3.5 sacks. He’s a full-time player for only the second time in his career and it doesn’t seem like anyone’s going to threaten that role. Here he is ripping off the right side of your screen:

This should be an interesting matchup for Charles Cross, a player who Martin preceded by 4 years.

WR/PR Tory Horton, Seahawks

He’s probably not one of the most important, but Horton hasn’t caught a pass in a month so hopefully a mention will get him going. The NFL’s leader in punt return yards (238) and the longest punt return of the season (95), Horton could impact the game in several different ways.

The Seahawks also need someone else other than Jaxon Smith-Njigba to make an impact at receiver as a receiver; Cooper Kupp makes an impact as a blocker and A.J. Barner is a weapon at tight end, but will Horton’s role increase much as a rookie?

Horton has almost exclusively been targeted on long-distance plays:

14 of his 18 targets have been on plays with at least 10 yards to go for a first down, half of those targets are first down. He’s been targeted 5 times on third down but none of those plays moved the chains.

It would be one thing if the Seahawks ended up sticking to their original plan of keeping Marquez Valdes-Scantling and easing Horton into duty, but since he beat MVS for a job (fair and square) that makes him an important player right away. Now both Jake Bobo and Dareke Young are injured. Neither will play on Sunday. Cooper Kupp is questionable with a “heel/hamstring” (I’m not a doctor but the problem may be that those parts have become attached somehow).

This is a big opportunity for Horton. Is it a big game?

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