The Seattle Seahawks face another tough AFC North team in Week 9. This will mark the second straight week they've been challenged by very good defenses from that division. The difference in Week 9 compared to Week 8, though, is that the Baltimore Ravens have a very good starting quarterback and he will be playing on Sunday.
Seattle managed to squeak by in Week 8, but if the same situation occurs against Baltimore, Seattle will be unlikely to win. Lamar Jackson, for instance, is probably not going to throw passes that deflect off the helmet of Jamal Adams like Browns QB P.J. Walker's late fourth quarter throw did. Another big difference, of course, is that Seattle won't be at home as they will travel to Baltimore.
Still, in their last 19 10 am PT kickoff games, the Seahawks are 16-3. That's a pretty incredible record for any team. Head coach Pete Carroll clearly knows how to prepare his team for early kickoffs, and most importantly, the team believes Carroll knows what he is doing. Here is some other news for your Friday.
The Seattle Seahawks defense line is different than two weeks ago and that is OK
First, Seattle added Frank Clark to help replace the injured Uchenna Nwosu. Nwosu is more of a pure edge rusher while Clark is more of a defensive end, but the ultimate goal of what they need to accomplish is the same: Chase down opposing quarterbacks. Clark was better with the Kansas City Chiefs in the postseason in the two previous years than he was in the regular season, but Seattle needs him to be great now.
In Clark's first game back with Seattle after signing as a free agent before Week 8, he played only 22 defensive snaps (28 percent of Seattle's total). Clark said he wanted to play more but started to cramp up. He at least was credited with an assist on a tackle, though. Hopefully moving forward he will be more productive.
Seattle's other recent defensive line addition, Leonard Williams, should be ready to go for Week 9. He should only be limited in reps by getting acclimated to Seattle's system. In a press conference on Wednesday, Williams said the move to Seattle was "going to be a fun change" for him. He also liked how the first thing asked of him was to play basketball and not speak to the team.
Williams is 6'5" and 300 pounds of muscle so hopefully he can make it even easier for guys such as Jarran Reed and Dre'Mont Jones to get interior pressure and stuff the run. Seattle's defensive line wasn't bad to begin with, but with Williams it might be among the better units in the league.
Devon Witherspoon wins an award
12s already knew that Devon Witherspoon was all he was hyped up to be after the Seahawks took him fifth overall in the 2023 NFL draft. In just the third game of his career, Witherspoon had 2 sacks and a 97-yard pick-six on Monday Night Football against the New York Giants. If the national audience didn't know who he was before that game, they likely still remember his performance now.
The NFL certainly remembered that performance from Witherspoon, along with his games from October, as he was awarded the Defensive Rookie of the Month for October. Witherspoon missed the first game of the season with a hamstring injury, be he's been involved in every game since and has 8 passes defended and 33 tackles.
Witherspoon is currently the third-best-graded cornerback, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required). He leads all corners in pass rush grade and is used often in blitzes. He seems to have an uncanny knack for knowing exactly when the ball is about to be snapped and then makes a fast and direct line to the quarterback. He's special.
Witherspoon is the seventh Seahawks player to earn Rookie of the Month honors. Second-year Seattle players Riq Woolen and Kenneth Walker III won the award in 2022. Witherspoon being honored is just another example of how good and deep Seattle's roster is when it comes to young players.
Seattle holds in latest FanSided power rankings
There are a few different ways of looking at this week's FanSided NFL power rankings as they relate to the Seattle Seahawks. One is that Seattle is partly 5-2 because they have played a relatively easy schedule so far. For example, Seattle has played the New York Giants, Carolina Panthers, and Arizona Cardinals already this season, and those teams rank 30th, 31st, and 32nd, respectively, in the rankings.
One good thing is that after Week 9's tough matchup against the Baltimore Ravens, the Seahawks will face teams ranked 22nd and 23rd, respectively, the Los Angeles Rams and Washington Commanders. Then Seattle won't face a top-half-of-the-league team in the final three games. But all the other teams Seattle will face might not be much fun.
The San Francisco 49ers are rankled 11th, but the Dallas Cowboys are fifth, the Ravens are third, and the Philadelphia Eagles are first. We always assumed that the late part of the season would be very difficult and that hasn't changed. Seattle is 5-2, and likely needs at least 9 wins to make the playoffs and if they don't play well the rest of the year, they might have a tough time getting to 9.
Seattle is ranked seventh, though, so FanSided thinks the Seahawks are pretty good, too. If Seattle can find a way to beat the Ravens, Seattle might move into the top five. Of course, power rankings are ultimately meaningless in the NFL because wins outranked beauty points.