Maybe Marcus Mariota’s Moons marred Mike Macdonald’s midmorning mood amid many muddy miscues, but Sam’s Seahawks should separate sucky September scores in soggy situations from Seattle’s season-long and Super Bowl-sized sights.
Maybe So.
If the Seahawks could have a great day on defense while still surrendering 33 points to a team led by a backup quarterback, a first-time offensive coordinator, and yesteryear’s news at wide receiver, they certainly did their best to prove that Macdonald didn’t lose his mojo. Seattle held Washington to season-lows in total yards (258) and rushing yards (82) and if you remove Mariota’s three touchdowns he was as inept as he could be.
I know “remove three touchdowns” is way too big of a caveat, but these were GIFTS by the Seahawks’ offense turning the ball over, not necessarily reasons to condemn the defense. Although some players on defense do deserve blame.
Per several analytic measures, the Seahawks defense had one of the best games ever for a team that either allowed 33 points or didn’t force a turnover. By success rate, Seattle was the second-best defense in the NFL on Sunday. By EPA, Mariota was terrible.
So I’m not worried about the Seattle Seahawks.
Super Bowl teams sometimes lose to not-Super Bowl teams. Not only did the Seahawks lose to the Bucs last season, they had close calls against the Cardinals and Colts, plus some really awful halves against bad teams. This was just kind of a Seahawks team that never fully recovered — but they almost recovered.
And that is also a sign of a great team.
Great teams aren’t just flawless. They’re resilient when they screw up. Seattle screwed up several teams, they fought back, they didn’t win. That’s okay and I’m not worried about the Seahawks after one unexpected loss.
But maybe I’m a little worried about some Seahawks.
Not Worried: Devon Witherspoon
There was something wrong with my TV during the game. Did this happen to anyone else? Every time Terry McLaurin caught a pass against the Seahawks, the cameras distorted the name “Witherspoon” on the back of the jersey and it somehow ended up looking like it said “Jobe”. Really weird.
This was my only concern with extending Witherspoon for $33 million per season and $59 million fully guaranteed. At no point did the Seahawks say, “McLaurin is literally the only guy beating us right now, let’s put our $33 million cornerback on him.”
Nor would they: Although Witherspoon has played 33% of his snaps at outside cornerback, 74% of those snaps end up being runs. That means that Witherspoon is only moving outside in obvious running situations and that’s kind of concerning because it implies Macdonald doesn’t see him as an asset against the run or lined up outside against “height/speed” receivers.
And I don’t know if I’m just looking at this the wrong way. Perhaps if Witherspoon was covering McLaurin, then Stefon Diggs would be the guy who went off against Seattle instead. But I’m not sure about that because throws at Witherspoon went 5-of-6 for 37 yards. In fact, throws at Witherspoon this season are 16-of-20, including 12-of-16 in the slot.
Not much has come out of those throws — yet — just 110 yards and no touchdowns. However, there are times when Witherspoon’s mistakes are hard to miss (like that missed tackle in the fourth quarter that led to a critical first down on Sunday) and we’ve yet to see some of his superpowers this season.
Witherspoon on the blitz has been fine, but not produced any sacks yet. This is just me speculating, but could teams be a little less surprised by it this year? Also, Witherspoon blitzed 12 times last season, compared to already eight times in 2026. I don’t think any of us want to see another Jamal Adams situation.
I’m not worried about Witherspoon because Witherspoon makes the defense better and the money he’s being paid is manageable, in my opinion, even though back in May I wrote that I would “hesitate” to pay him like one of the NFL’s best cornerbacks.
Devon Witherspoon is like a $20 million cornerback with a $33 million cornerback’s contract.
It’s not that he’s a $33 million waste, it’s more that I think Seattle paid a premium over cost because they didn’t want to lose their top-5 pick draft investment or risk a holdout. The Seahawks can live without him, but they don’t want to and I don’t blame them.
Witherspoon is known as being vocal and that helps make him one of the best leaders and role models on the Seahawks. However, moving forward I’d like to see a little more walk to back up the talk — as in shutting down a top receiver and forcing more than one turnover per season.
Worried: Josh Jobe
I’m not saying Jobe’s days are numbered this early into a three-year, $24 million contract, but I could see teams consistently targeting him moving forward knowing that if he gets beat early he will get beat often.
Since Nehemiah Pritchett is so far outplaying Jobe — and outplaying him by so far — when is the tipping point for Macdonald to say that he would rather get a look at Trevon Diggs (or Terrion Arnold if by miracle he’s available this season) than Jobe? The answer could simply depend on how long it takes for Diggs to feel up to speed from his weeks spent on the practice squad.
Jobe has allowed a touchdown in each of the last two games and although last week’s was credited to Trey McBride, this one came against McLaurin. I’m not going to be tricked into believing it’s 2022 again: McLaurin is not good. He had two catches on nine targets the previous week against the Cowboys.
This was Mariota-to-McLaurin and the Seahawks had no answer for it.
Because Pritchett is a starter (literally Pritchett is a starting cornerback, whereas Witherspoon is almost only in that alignment to get the snaps right now) and playing much better than Jobe, I think Seattle would risk eating the entire $14.25 million guarantee by putting him on the bench if it comes to it.
I can’t imagine that Jobe will be able to fix what he’s bad at because he’s not getting any more athletic at this stage of his life and he’s been getting used as a “go-to guy” for opposing offenses. If Macdonald can put him in a position to succeed moving forward, that could be the coach’s magnum opus.
Next week’s assignments will be Tre Harris and Quentin Johnston, and although I’d like to say that seems relatively “easy”, that’s what I would have said about McLaurin and Treylon Burks.
Not Worried: Sam Darnold
If anything, I’m more confident that Darnold is one of the best quarterbacks in the current national football league.
Interceptions are part of the game (Josh Allen had 0 TD, 2 INT yesterday) and last season Darnold proved he’s capable of learning and growing from those mistakes.
Worried-ish: Offensive Line
There hasn’t been much individual analysis yet on how backups Beau Stephens and Christian Haynes played this week, all we know is that Haynes played 60% and Stephens played 40%. We also know that Seattle had 18 carries and gained only 44 yards.
Both teams were manhandled in the trenches on run downs.
One week we’re praising the improvement of the Seahawks offensive line, the next we are lamenting their regression. It’s probably a normal back and forth and maybe sometimes that IS a sign of progress. For most of the last 15 years, it never felt like Seattle’s offensive line went forth.
So why am I “worried”?
Only in the sense that it’s too early to tell if Haynes and Stephens are significant downgrades from Anthony Bradford (they might be) and it’s still not totally clear if we have something to be worried about with Abe Lucas. He just doesn’t seem like he’s as solid as he used to be, but that could be an overreaction.
Not Worried: Jadarian Price
Don’t get me wrong, I cited both before and after the draft that Price was and continues to be a questionable pick. Not because he’s a running back, but due to the fact that he was basically a shot in the dark having lacked reps in college, is not a burner, and tore his Achilles a few years ago.
However, I also pointed out that the pick may have only happened because the 2026 draft class looked awful as a whole and thus far it doesn’t seem like Seattle should have any regrets with who they didn’t pick. All things considered, sure, Price was a reasonable choice for this team at this time. But now we have to add fumbles to his list of concerns.
I’ve seen some fans treat fumbles as if they’re purely based on luck and that’s not at all the case. Kenneth Walker’s ball security is a skill and he’s the best running back in the NFL at it. From my research years ago, Walker fumbled one time in college. He has fumbled three times in the NFL. That’s about one fumble every 400 attempts. Right now, Price is averaging one fumble every 14 attempts.
Part of the issue goes back to the previous section on the offensive line:
Price is great if he is untouched behind the LOS
Price is bad if he is touched behind the LOS
Worse yet, Price is being hit behind the LOS 54% of the time, seventh-worst among 41 qualified running backs.
Given a better situation, Price should be a better running back. When and how will his situation improve? That’s not clear to me. But Price is not even 23 (his birthday is October 9) and as previously stated just needs to get more reps. I’m not worried about him yet and I think if his ceiling is that he’s a “good, not great running back” well that’s kind of what I expected anyway.
Worried: Rashid Shaheed
Last December, I wrote that the Seahawks “should be careful” to not extend Shaheed based on “a high note” and yet that seems like it’s exactly what they did. Later, I added that Shaheed is basically like KaVontae Turpin of the Cowboys and if that’s how they paid him — maybe $7 or $8 million per season — it would be a really expensive return man but potentially still fine.
Instead, the Seahawks went up to $17 million per season and $34 million guaranteed for a player who played almost no regular role in the offense.
My best justification for that contract since then is that other $17 million receivers include names like Wan’Dale Robinson, Romeo Doubs, and Jayden Reed, so maybe this was just the new normal for bottom-tier WR2 types and that Seattle was planning a larger role for Shaheed in 2026. So far that is not what the Seahawks are getting …
They’re getting the same Rashid Shaheed from 2025 who averaged 1.5 catches per game.
Actually it’s worse than that because Shaheed has also yet to do anything special on special teams. His return numbers are down across the board (from 16.2 yards per punt return to 9.7) but to be fair it’s only three games and this is a stat/job that specifically relies on one or two explosive plays to bring up the average. However, Shaheed strangely turned down several obvious return opportunities against the Patriots for fair catches, and I don’t know if he was instructed to do that to protect himself since he’s meant to be an offensive weapon.
I also at one point predicted that if the Shaheed investment failed on offense, the team would then go back to trying unleash him as a returner. What would it actually take to anoint this investment as a significant overpay?
(Not pictured: A fumble.)
12 targets, six catches, 8.8 yards per reception, and four rushing yards. So far the only difference between last season and this season is that Seattle wasn’t forcing this many targets to Shaheed in 2025, they kind of just gave up on that experiment for the time being. Now that they owe him so much money, it feels like the Seahawks refuse to admit their mistake.
Why are we pretending that Shaheed is something that he’s not?
It feels as though Shaheed is treated as a 2025 second-round pick who had a really underwhelming rookie season but given more time to adjust to the NFL he could tap into his potential as one of the league’s best burners. And he is one of the NFL’s fastest players, there’s no doubt about it.
He is also a former undrafted free agent in his fifth season who has never been a team’s consistent number two and that also matters.
By now we should have already seen Shaheed’s ceiling and it probably happened early in his career with the Saints. And if he’s meant to be a deep threat who takes the top off of the defense with his speed, well that only matters if the Seahawks are willing to throw him the ball there and he proves that he can catch it:
Instead, 20+ yard throws to Shaheed are 0-for-1. And over half of his targets (7/12) are under 10 yards.
Meanwhile, what does $1 million receiver Tory Horton lack as a player compared to Shaheed? Nothing as far as I’m aware.
Horton got his first three targets of the season on Sunday, catching all three for 48 yards. He also returned a kickoff 29 yards and could easily step in for Shaheed in both phases. Maybe Seattle was afraid that Horton wouldn’t even be available for half of the season — and health continues to be a concern with him — but as long as Horton is active I think he probably does need to steal opportunities away from Shaheed.
Horton was a fifth-round pick, but in many ways he is that “second-round” pick I spoke about earlier. Horton may actually become a WR2 who needs to tap into his potential. For Shaheed, I think the juice has been squeezed.
If you had to pick a starter to be worried about, who would you pick and why?
I’ve been a Witherspoon truther. He has some elite football playing skills, but I don’t see him as an elite corner. His aggression is his strength, but it can also take him out of a play here and there. Fortunately, Macdonald knows how to use him to the team’s advantage. I appreciate Witherspoon, but sometimes his praise is overblown. And I want him to play great ball! My modest expectations leave room for him to impress me!
On the OL, we miss Bradford’s strength. When he makes the right first move, he dominates. (When his first move is wrong, he’s not quick enough to recover. Zabel, on the other hand, gets second chances. This makes it easy to turd pick AB’s worst plays for the sake of a narrative.)
Why did the Moons’ DL dominate against the run? Because they outmuscled our interior OL. Why didn’t we barnyard? Because AB was out, and that play is won by outmuscling the opponent. Having quick athletes on the OL is great, but it’s good to have a power guy as well. For whatever reason, Lucas doesn’t look to be 100% either.
Walker was so darn good at the end of last season. When AB and company made the right moves, K9 would see it and follow it. When the OL got beat, Walker didn’t hesitate to sprint to the edge for yards. Yesterday, the OL wasn’t getting wins, and the only guy who can win to the edge is inexperienced and has been fumbling. Wilson and Holani depend on OL success, and we weren’t getting much without AB’s strength.