Seahawks-Rams: Persons and Personnels

How do the Seahawks matchup with L.A.'s outlier offense?

It’s the game of the week, if not the game of the season, and Seahawks fans have plenty of questions about how Seattle’s 7-2 team matches up with the Rams’ 7-2 team. So many questions that I couldn’t fit them all in Wednesday’s Seaside Joe. Here’s part 2! (And Friday will be part 3!)

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Danno: Do you feel the relatively large number of injuries suffered by Seahawk players this year is in anyway related to the very physical, aggressive style of play they employ? Is this just a cost of doing business as the toughest team on the field?

I’m not aware of any record that indicates that the Seahawks have suffered a relatively large number of injuries. They’ve only got two starters on IR, both on defense, and one of those injuries (Jarran Reed) was pretty out of nowhere. I wouldn’t know of any connection between a style of play and injuries. Using a player like Nick Emmanwori for example, a guy just rolled up on his leg in the first game.

You can scroll this list of players on IR at Sharp Football and see Seattle’s list is rather average or better-than-average. The 49ers lost their two best players on defense and have played without a lot of starters for most of the season. The Chargers lost their two bookend tackles. The Dolphins have 15 players on IR. The Lions have 17 players on IR.

Yes, Seattle has other guys who are not on IR or didn’t go on IR, like Ernest Jones, Josh Jobe, Devon Witherspoon, Nick Emmanwori, Jake Bobo, Tory Horton, Robbie Ouzts. Maybe Jalen Sundell is going there. But if we start adding up those guys too, then we have to do it for the other 31 teams and I’m not going to be able to get that done today unfortunately.

It’s nice to think that the Seahawks play the most aggressive, physical style of football in the league, and maybe they do. But I’m not necessarily able to connect the dots between style of play and injuries suffered; most of the time it seems to be bad luck.

If there’s a report indicating that the Seahawks do have an inordinate number of injuries and I missed it, please do share:

Don Ellis: Last game, the Rams played quite a bit of 13 personnel for their offensive sets and had success both running and passing out of this formation. Which players do you think play an important role in stopping the scheme? How do the Hawks match up when the Rams roll out their 3 TE sets?

Let me quote directly from “JoshiosTweets” on Twitter, a Rams fan who has a keen interest in answers to questions like yours. First, some personnel data:

Second, here’s what Josh wrote about the useage of more tight ends:

“When the Rams roll out three tight ends on a play, the defense adjusts its personnel to include fewer defensive backs. They aren’t doing this because of the tight ends themselves, but because of the high chance of a run. This is what makes the small number of passes they conduct in 13 so successful.

In the last 4 weeks, Seattle has responded to 12/13 personnel with a Nickel formation 83% of the time. This is not what the Rams are used to seeing in response to their 13 personnel. There’s a slight difference, though: Seattle’s opponents are only running the ball 47% of the time in 12/13.

Seattle has not seen the level of run that the Rams employ with multiple tight ends, so they had no reason to adjust their personnel. Just because other teams were not successful against the Seahawks does not mean the Rams cannot be successful. Need to see a lot of RUN (65%!!) and 3rd down passes in 13 personnel from the Rams on Sunday.”

I legit could never in a million years write a better answer to your question than that! (Well, maybe I could do it if I had 800,000.)

The Rams are running 13 personnel on 40% of their snaps in the last four games, which is more than double the team in second place (Steelers 18%). It’s FOUR TIMES as much as the team in third place. And in that time the Rams have the most efficient offense in football.

Why is it so effective? This sums it up nicely:

There has been a lot written and said about 13 personnel in the last week because of the Rams. Tom Brady said during the game that in 13 personnel that there are less possible coverages for the defense to run compared to 11 personnel so it makes the quarterback’s job a lot easier post-snap. Now consider that the quarterback is Matthew Stafford and the receivers are Puka Nacua and Davante Adams. From a running perspective, well now you’ve got two extra tight ends as blockers instead of two receivers or a receiver and a fullback, which obviously the Rams don’t use a fullback.

According to SumerSports, no team has faced 13 personnel fewer times in 2025 than the Seahawks. I don’t think anybody knows what to expect.

Important Players

Ernest Jones IV deleted a tweet on Tuesday that many fans interpreted as a sign that he knows he’s going to return this week. Jones is probably the defensive player that the Seahawks need the most against the Rams.

I would expect that to push Tyrice Knight back into a supporting role, which I would be totally fine with in this game. The Seahawks need to stop the run.

The versatility of a player like Nick Emmanwori to play the run against Kyren Williams but also follow a dynamic downfield receiving threat like rookie Terrance Ferguson (it’s interesting to think about how this matchup was created in the second round of the draft six months ago) could be another key to Seattle’s defense. Former Seahawk Colby Parkinson has been a plague on the Rams salary cap but really picked up his value immensely since McVay went to heavy 13 personnel.

When the Rams get to the red zone they have four receiving threats at tight end and two “number one” receivers so all hands on deck for this one.

I have a gut feeling that the player we’ll be talking about the most — good or bad — is Coby Bryant.

Scott M: Gotta give Kenneth a shout out. Totally called that Seattle should consider singing Stefon Diggs. He’s doing pretty good for NE. I thought at the time he was over and out. Good call.

I completely forgot about that. To be fair, I completely underestimated how much he would cost. During my “financially responsible” offseason plan series, I wrote that the Seahawks should trade DK Metcalf and go for a player like Diggs, but guessed he might only cost $10 million for a year.

The Patriots gave Diggs a three-year, $63.5 million deal with a practical guarantee of $22.6 million.

Comparing his deal to Cooper Kupp’s, Diggs got less fully-guaranteed money but more per year and he will probably end up making more. The Patriots may have expected Diggs to be a rental. He’s not even on pace for 1,000 yards (554 yards in 10 games) but he’s catching 82% of his targets. Can New England risk getting rid of Drake Maye’s best receiver next year?

Seattle’s in a similar situation with Kupp, but I think it’s more likely that the Seahawks will move on from Kupp, especially after adding Rashid Shaheed.

Beezo: Other than All_22_Films and The QB School, what are your go to team analysis channels on YouTube? Particularly id like to see more match-ups based content. All_22 had a quick comment about how timing based offenses are the most difficult for Seahawks, and that sounds a lot like what the Rams and 49ers run.

The QB School hasn’t covered Sam Darnold since the beginning of the season, so I haven’t had time to watch his channel at all. Most of my content is driven by the YouTube algorithm, which means that the videos are usually about the Seahawks and from channels that I regularly watch.

This video by The O-Line Committee this week is probably what every Seahawks fan is begging for right now:

Saturday Morning Inspection covers the Seahawks most weeks and he just posted about Robbie Ouzts, another in-demand subject:

MattyDubs NFL Film says he plans to post about the Seahawks every single week.

Turfd Football posted about the Seahawks personnel useage on Tuesday.

Fourth and Film is great for just generally understanding the game better.

The Football Scout tends to like posting about the Seahawks but hasn’t done so in a few weeks.

Thinking Football has great content, sometimes about the Seahawks. Here’s one about the Rams that is relevant this week. Alex Rollins posts every Saturday and just did a video about the Seahawks.

And yeah, we can usually expect 2-3 videos about the Seahawks every week from All-22.

I always hear people complain that the Seahawks are overlooked and nobody cares about the Seahawks. I mean, from my perspective the Seahawks are one of the top-5 most talked about and posted about teams in the NFL this season. The only question I have is, “Do we have enough time to watch it all?”

Just finish reading Seaside Joe first!

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