The Seattle Seahawks will get their first look at 2025 first overall pick Cam Ward in Week 12 when they travel to Nashville for a Week 12 date with the 1-9 Tennessee Titans.
Ward’s rookie season has been a struggle, largely due to the pressure he has faced all season long. He’s the league’s most sacked quarterback, having taken 41 sacks through 10 games. He’s been sacked on 11% of his pass attempts, and nearly a quarter of his pass attempts have come under pressure.
It’s a poor recipe for Ward and the 13.5-point underdogs with Seattle’s elite pass rush coming to town this week.
Cam Ward already feeling the heat from Seattle Seahawks' front before kickoff
Ward highlighted Seattle’s pass rush as one of his team’s biggest challenges in this week’s contest.
"I think they're real talented, all those guys up front," Ward said on Wednesday. "They do a lot of games, especially in third down, but it's a talented group. They really don't need a lot of blitzes to get pressure on the quarterback. So, I just got to be decisive, get the ball out and help the o-line out."
Seattle ranks fifth in total sacks and third in pressures this season, while only sending more than four rushers 18.7% of the time, the fifth-lowest rate in the NFL. What Seattle may lack in star power in the front seven, they more than make up for in executing Mike Macdonald’s scheme. No player has more than 5.5 sacks for the Seahawks defense, but 15 players have registered at least half a sack.
The pressure issues for Ward are somewhat two-fold. Obviously, the athletic rookie eats some sacks while trying to extend plays when receivers don’t come open, but his offensive line hasn’t exactly been doing him many favors either. According to composite data from PFF, SIS, and ESPN, Tennessee’s offensive line is the league’s seventh-worst unit in pass protection.
Still, Ward believes he’s getting better at handling pressure each week.
"I just think every week I get better at it," he said. "So whether the stat sheet says it or the score says it or not. I just think I know I'm getting better at something little every week that I got to get to be at my best.”
Nonetheless, Ward has been sacked at least twice in every game this season. Last week against the Houston Texans, Ward was sacked just three times, the lowest mark of the season since the Titans' Week 5 win over the Arizona Cardinals.
Seattle’s pass rush has been one of the team’s biggest strengths throughout the 2025 campaign, applying more pressure on opposing quarterbacks than they’ve seen in their entire careers on three separate occasions. Doing so a fourth time against Ward might be a tall task considering the pressure he’s been under in his rookie season already.
Still, it’s Seattle’s biggest defensive strength against Tennessee’s biggest offensive weakness this Sunday, and the outcome of that matchup should position the Seahawks to walk away with another comfortable road victory.