In Week 4 of the 2026 NFL season, the Seattle Seahawks will look to put their first loss of the season behind them as they host the winless Los Angeles Chargers at Lumen. It would appear to be a mismatch on paper. Then again, that appeared to be the case in Week 3, and things did not go Seattle’s way.
Like the Chargers, the Washington Commanders were winless. They were also playing without their starting quarterback and best offensive lineman. Nonetheless, the Marcus Mariota-led Commanders put up 33 points (seven of which came via a defensive score) against the vaunted Seattle defense.
In all likelihood, the loss to the Commanders was an anomaly. Perhaps Seattle overlooked a team that was struggling. If so, the 12 can feel pretty confident that the defending Super Bowl champions have learned their lesson. Mike Macdonald will certainly remind them of what can happen when a team – even one as good as Seattle – plays a sloppy game.
3 things for the Seattle Seahawks to fix before Week 4
There are several very concrete problems that the Seahawks must address before the Chargers come to town. Lets pick one from each unit – offense, defense and special teams.
Commitment to the run
New offensive coordinator Brian Fleury called 46 pass plays and 17 runs against Washington. That is truly astonishing. Game flow only explains part of the issue. Seattle did trail, but they were never very far behind.
They could have run the ball more. They chose not to. Part of the reason appears to be distrust in their best runner, Jadarian Price, after his early fumble. The other runners are grinders, not likely to break big runs.
It isn’t as if the Commanders boasted a run-stuffing defense. In their first two games, Washington had allowed over 300 yards on the ground. Philadelphia and Dallas had averaged 5.6 yards per carry against Daronte Jones’ defense. Seattle only ran the ball 17 times (18, if you include one Sam Darnold scramble) for 39 yards. That cannot happen against the Chargers.
Shut down the wide receivers
In their first two games, Seattle’s secondary blanketed opposing wideouts. The Patriots and Cardinals’ wide receivers caught a total of 16 passes for 126 yards. On Sunday, five Commanders wide receivers caught 15 passes for 159 yards.
Part of this is due to the fact that the Commanders’ receivers, Terry McLaurin and Stefon Diggs, are the most dangerous pass catchers on their team. That is not true of the Cardinals, and after AJ Brown was hurt, it wasn’t really true of the Patriots either.
Still, the Seahawks secondary has to do a better job against the Chargers. They allowed Commanders wideouts to average 10.6 yards per catch and 6.9 yards per target, both major increases over what they had surrendered in the first two weeks.
The Chargers have a dangerous weapon in Ladd McConkey and an improving second-year player in Tre Harris. The Seahawks will no doubt be better in coverage when Julian Love returns, but whether he plays in Week 4 or not, the entire coverage unit has to shut down the outside receivers.
Kick coverage is lagging
Seattle usually has an advantage in special teams. They gain a lot of hidden yards because they have an outstanding punter and usually boast above-average return and coverage units. I have no concerns about punter Michael Dickson, and I still feel good about the return game, even if Rashid Shaheed has yet to look as explosive as he did last year. The coverage units are a different story.
Seattle lost the field position battle to Washington. The Commanders had slightly better kickoff returns and an even bigger advantage in punt returns. The Seahawks, who generally win the field position battle, had a net punting average of 38.5, compared to Washington’s 42.0 in Week 3.
That is largely due to spotty coverage on both kickoffs and punts. It will be interesting to see if Macdonald chooses to activate one of his better kick-coverage men, like Ricky White III or Montorie Foster, against the Chargers.
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