3 Seattle Seahawks defensive players who will improve under Mike Macdonald

Expect Boye Mafe to reach another level in 2024

I don't mind saying - again - that I was on the Boye Mafe freight train very early last year. Okay, so I was off a bit. I predicted Mafe would hit double digits in sacks, and he "only" had nine. He also set the all-time Seahawks record with a sack in seven straight games.

He added eight hurries and another eight QB hits for a total of 25 pressures, per pro-football-reference. Pretty solid, until you check his stats on PFF (the paywall guys), who list Mafe with 58 pressures. One of these totals is wrong, and probably both. Regardless, Mafe took a big jump forward last year.

I expect him to take just as big a leap forward in 2024. One reason for that - one very big reason - will be the return of Uchenna Nwosu. The Hawks co-leader in sacks in 2022 played just six games last year and the defense most definitely felt his absence. With Nwosu out, no one picked up the slack, and Mafe had just four sacks in his final 11 games. With the return of number 10, Mafe won't see the double-teams he did in the second half of the season.

That doesn't even touch on the fact that Mafe will now be coached by the guy who led the Ravens to a league-leading 60 sacks. His coordinator will be the man who coached sack machine Micah Parsons. The surprise shouldn't be that Boye Mafe will step up his game this year. It would be shocking if he didn't take another leap forward in 2024. It will be one exciting year in Seattle.

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