The Seattle Seahawks’ defense has been wildly impressive to open the season. A lot of that success stems from Mike Macdonald’s front four putting immense pressure on the quarterback and stuffing the run, two keys for any defense to follow in the modern age of the NFL.
Of course, Seahawks fans know that as impressive as the defensive front has been, the backend has given up a few plays. Overall, Seattle ranks 20th in pass defense.
Seemingly, a lot of those yards are coming through tight ends. It makes sense that if opposing quarterbacks are running for their lives, they’d opt to find their comfort target underneath. Unfortunately, that gives Arizona a serious advantage ahead of Thursday night’s matchup.
Trey McBride could exploit the Seattle Seahawks’ weakness in coverage
According to NFL Fantasy Football on X, the Seahawks give up 20.67 fantasy points per game to tight ends. Of course, we’re talking about real football here, but the fantasy stat does highlight a glaring weakness for Seattle.
Against San Francisco, tight ends had seven catches for 40 yards and two scores. Against Pittsburgh, tight ends had seven catches for 59 yards. Against New Orleans, tight ends had eight catches for 72 yards and a score.
With Kyler Murray being a quarterback who knows how to escape pressure and Trey McBride being one of the best young tight ends in the NFL, Seattle could be in some real trouble if they don’t have answers for McBride.
Through three weeks, McBride has picked up 17 catches for 188 yards and a score. In the two contests against Seattle last year, McBride had 19 catches for 203 yards. Of course, Lee Vowell will be quick to remind you, as he did this offseason, that for all of the stats McBride has against Seattle, he’s only scored once against the Seahawks in his three-year career.
Still, Seattle has given up three scores to tight ends in three weeks, and McBride is already halfway to his total touchdown mark from a year ago. Arizona still has plenty of problems on offense, but one of them isn’t getting the ball into he hands of their playmaking tight end. And as long as those other issues persist, they have to lean more on McBride.
With Julian Love and Nick Emmanwari both limited in practice so far this week, if either isn’t 100%, holding McBride down in the passing game.
But, Arizona will be without James Conner, and Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr. still aren’t on the same page. If Macdonald’s defense can allocate extra resources to slowing McBride down, they may be able to reverse their misfortunes against that particular position in Week 4.