3 things the Seahawks must do to defeat the Broncos in Week 1

It's football time, 12s! The Seattle Seahawks begin their 2024 season on Sunday against the Denver Broncos. The game will mark the first game new head coach Mike Macdonald will roam the sidelines as the guy in charge.

Macdonald signed a six-year deal to be Seattle's coach, though, so he isn't going anywhere any time soon, and Week 1 will have no bearing on his career. Still, getting off to a good start, especially defensively, will put a lot of nervousness 12s feel to rest. At least until Week 2.

For many years, Seahawks fans have watched the defense digress while the same poor tendencies were not getting fixed. Linebacker coverage? Ew. Run defense? Vomit inducing. Here are three things Seattle needs to do in Week 1 to get a win, however.

Three things the Seahawks need to accomplish to get a Week 1 victory over the Denver Broncos

Stop the run

This seems simple enough, right? In theory, it is, at least. But 12s are likely still having PTSD from the past two seasons of watching the Seahawks defense get run over. Last year, Seattle was 31st in run defense and that was after starting the first third of the season being fairly efficient against the run. Then Uchenna Nwosu got hurt and all bets were off.

Nwosu is dinged up to start 2024 as well, but the huge difference is that former head coach Pete Carroll is gone and new head coach Mike Macdonald is in. Macdonald's scheme should allow for quarterback pressure, sure, but fundamentally it is built to stop the run. Seattle has the players to make the scheme work as well, especially with rookie defensive tackle Byron Murphy II.

The issue, however, and one that might worry 12s during the game, is that even as good as the Baltimore Ravens defense was last year with Macdonald is the defensive coordinator, Baltimore was 24th in yards allowed per carry at 4.5. Seattle needs to contain the run so that Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix has to do too much.

Have offensive balance

Last year, Seattle passed the ball 61.6 percent of the time which was fifth in the NFL. For all those still thinking that Pete Carroll liked to run the ball too much then 2023 will prove that to be a falsehood. The fact is that the Seahawks' offense was far less efficient than it should have been because former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron got far too pass happy.

Seattle has two quality backs, Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet, who will be used better under new OC Ryan Grubb. Grubb understands that for receivers such as DK Metcalf and Jaxon Smith-Njigba to consistently get open deep, opposing defenses need to respect that Seattle is capable chew up yards on the ground.

Is Geno Smith the most important player on the team? Definitely. Walker might be the offensive MVP in 2024, however.

Get the Broncos off the field on third down

For years, Seattle has struggled with getting teams off the field on third down. Last season, the Seahawks allowed conversions 46.3 percent of the time and that was 30th in the NFL. In 2022, Seattle ranked 27th. A lot of the problem was that Seattle's linebackers were terrible in coverage and the design of the defense seemed to be one where Seattle sat back and reacted to what the offense was trying to do.

Mike Macdonald brings a far more aggressive mentality. He doesn't want the defense to react to the offense, he wants opposing offenses to have to think about what the defense is going to do. He will move players such as Devon Witherspoon around quite a bit to keep offenses guessing, sure, but adding inside linebackers Jerome Baker and Tyrel Dodson this offseason should mean fewer third-and-long completions over the middle of the field.

The biggest advantage to forcing Denver off the field on third down, though, is that it will not allow Bo Nix to build confidence and momentum. Nix is going to struggle enough with the volume that 12s can produce at Lumen Field. The quarterback needs to struggle with the defense as well.

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