The best is yet to come: What we learned from Seahawks Week 7 win over Arizona

The defense, once a long-term project, is nearing its completion

Well, okay, in the time I spent writing this, it was announced that Uchenna Nwosu will miss the rest of the season with a chest injury and that the Seahawks are planning on filling his roster spot with the recently released prodigal son, Frank Clark. And given that Nwosu has been a key piece in the Seahawks' front seven to this point, I may be putting the cart before the horse here until we figure out who will take his place and in what capacity.

But I'm choosing to take some of Dennis Green's advice here — I want to crown them, so I will crown them. And I say the Seahawks' defense is one prove-it game away from being a top-5 unit in football. The overwhelming combination of pass rushers and blitzes Clint Hurtt can throw at opposing QBs is unlike anything I've seen from the Seahawks defense in my lifetime. I'm seeing stunts and safety blitzes and corner blitzes I once thought were reserved for, well, not the Seahawks, anyway.

They're backed up by a set of linebackers that plug any and every hole left behind. Bobby Wagner is still one of the best in the game, especially in the run game, where he forces halfbacks to hesitate right into a crashing Boye Mafe or Jamal Adams. Jordyn Brooks is quickly ascending to Wagner's level, to the point that declining his fifth-year option, which was a guaranteed sensible move for Seattle with Brooks coming off of major knee surgery, is starting to look like a huge mistake.

And behind them is a gaggle of Batman villains in the secondary. They're unhinged, they're menacing, and they will ruin the lives of ordinary people. Devon Witherspoon is wasting no time becoming the latest corner-stone for a Kiffin-derived defense. Jamal Adams looks like he's back to his old self, throwing his 215-pound frame into every corner of the field. Quandre Diggs has found new life by incorporating some of his old nickel corner skills into his game. Riq Woolen is starting to mature into a top-notch cover corner. Even Tre Brown, the forgotten 4th-rounder from a draft class no Seahawks fan wants to remember, is rounding into a fine part-time cornerback, himself.

There is no level at which this defense does not have a lethal combination of talent and depth. And they'll need it with San Francisco, Dallas, and Philadelphia looming on the schedule over the course of the next two months.