Why the Seattle Seahawks can be a 'tier one' NFC contender

After an impressive 5-2 start, the Seattle Seahawks are gaining buzz as a legitimate NFC contender.

ESPN’s Solak: Macdonald deserves Coach of the Year consideration

The Seahawks’ defense, despite being shorthanded due to several key injuries, has lived up to expectations as one of the league’s best. Their offense, led by spectacular starts from Sam Darnold and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, has surprisingly also been among the league’s best.

The result is a well-balanced team that’s just a few plays away from being 7-0.

And a team that looks capable of doing some serious damage in the wide-open NFC come January.

“This defense is ready to make a NFC playoff run now,” ESPN NFL analyst Benjamin Solak told Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy on Thursday. “So if you tell me the offense ends up being roughly what we’ve seen so far, or maybe (even) a little bit worse, then the Seahawks are right there as tier-one NFC contenders.”

Here’s a closer look at why Solak believes the Seahawks have the potential to make a Super Bowl run.

An elite defense

After returning nearly every key player from last year’s second-half surge, Seattle’s defense has hit the ground running in Year 2 under head coach Mike Macdonald.

The Seahawks rank near the top of the league in virtually every major defensive category, including sixth in points allowed per game (19.4) and fourth in yards allowed per play (4.7). They’re the only team in the league to hold six opponents to 20 points or fewer. And they’re one of just three teams to hold five opponents under the 300-yard mark.

Even more impressive? The Seahawks have done so while missing two of their top defenders – two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon and veteran safety Julian Love – for most of the season.

With both expected to return from injuries after this week’s bye, Seattle’s defense has the potential to take another step forward and solidify itself as perhaps the best unit in the league.

“That defense is gonna be able to win them games against elite offenses, period,” Solak said.

The biggest strength of Seattle’s defense is up front.

The Seahawks have been stifling against the run, ranking second in yards allowed per carry (3.3).

And they sport one of the league’s best pass rushes, as they’re tied for third in sacks (23) and rank fourth in pressure rate despite blitzing at the third-lowest rate, according to Pro Football Reference.

That’s a credit to Macdonald, who has lived up to his reputation as a defensive guru who excels at scheming up pressures from numerous different spots. It’s also a credit to the versatility of Seattle’s pass rush, which has five different players with at least 19 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus.

“Seattle has a wonderful understanding – from the personnel to the coaching staff – that (they) are going to generate pressure and disruption and chaos as a collective unit,” Solak said. “… They throw a lot of bodies at you. There’s never a clean place (for quarterbacks) to step up.

“And that’s gonna work for the playoffs,” Solak added. “You think about Jared Goff’s bad games, you think about Jalen Hurts’ bad games, Brock Purdy’s bad games – they come when they face defensive lines like this where there’s always somebody in your lap. It is a special, deep and exciting group.”

A surprisingly good offense

While their defense entered this season with high expectations, the Seahawks new-look offense came in with a slew of question marks.

Could Darnold replicate his success from last year’s breakout campaign in Minnesota? Could Smith-Njigba be a true No. 1 receiver without DK Metcalf there to command attention from opposing defenses? Was new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak’s scheme the right fit for this team?

So far, those questions have been answered with flying colors.

Darnold has been sharp and efficient, averaging a league-high 9.1 yards per pass attempt while ranking sixth in ESPN’s QBR metric, seventh in passing yards, eighth in touchdown passes and 10th in completion rate. He also has the second-best big-time throw rate and one of the lowest turnover-worthy-play rates, according to PFF.

Smith-Njigba, meanwhile, has exploded for a league-high 819 receiving yards, which puts him on pace to break Calvin Johnson’s single-season NFL receiving yardage record. The third-year wideout currently has 190 more receiving yards than any other player in the league and the eighth-most receiving yards in NFL history through the first seven games of a season.

And with Darnold and Smith-Njigba leading the way, Seattle’s offense ranks fifth in points per game (27.6) and third in yards per play (6.0).

“It is extremely rare that you have this much turnover on one side of the ball and have everything click as fast as it has,” Solak said.

The one big concern is that Seattle hasn’t gotten its run game going. The Seahawks are averaging just 3.7 yards per carry, which ranks 30th in the league.

Also, as Solak points out, it might be unrealistic to expect Smith-Njigba to continue his record-setting pace. After all, records exist for a reason – they’re difficult to break.

But even if Darnold, JSN and the rest of Seattle’s offense regress slightly from what they’ve shown over the first seven weeks, Solak still thinks this offense is “for real.”

“Is this going to come down to some degree? Probably,” Solak said. “But this is still legitimate. Sam is playing excellent football. Smith-Njigba is incredible. Every single week, I am astonished by Kubiak and how well he is coaching. The offense is for real in Seattle.”

The big picture

So, what does that all mean?

According to Solak, it means there’s a legitimate path for the Seahawks to be playing for the Lombardi Trophy on Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.

Solak acknowledged that most Super Bowl teams in the modern era have featured elite offenses paired with average to slightly above-average defenses. But as the Legion Boom-era Seahawks, the 2015 Broncos and the 2024 Eagles showed, there are instances of the inverse – teams that reached the Super Bowl with an elite defense that carried a slightly above-average offense.

“It is rare to see a defense … so good that it can take an average, maybe an above-average offense, all the way,” Solak said. “(But) that’s the ceiling with this group.

“This is a defense that’s good enough to take a run, run, play-action, sit on the football, win a low-scoring game (style of) offense all the way to a game in San Francisco in February,” he added. “That’s in the cards. They’re not there yet, but it’s in the cards.”

Listen to the full conversation with ESPN’s Benjamin Solak at this link or in the audio player near the bottom of this story. Tune into Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

Why the Seattle Seahawks can be a ‘tier one’ NFC contender

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