The Seattle Seahawks have made it through the first quarter of the season and enter their only bye week of 2023 at 3-1. As Seattle has been a pretty injured group, being successful before getting some well-deserved rest is a win in itself.
Seattle defeated the New York Giants 24-3 in Week 4. The Giants only score coming on a 56-yard field goal. While the Giants were also without several key players offensively, Seattle's defensive domination was real.
Now the question is whether Seattle can continue their defensive improvement after the bye week. In 2022, Seattle was on a bit of a roll ahead of their bye week and then went into a stupor after that. If Seattle is to make the playoffs again this season, they cannot afford such a slump. But here are five notable players from the victory over the Giants.
Winner No. 1 - Seattle Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner
A week after Bobby Wagner got a bit of hate on social media for "only" having 5 tackles against the Carolina Panthers - here's a hint: the Seahawks defensive line was good enough in Week 3 to get a bunch of tackles so that Wagner didn't need to - the future Hall of Famer was in on 17 tackles in Week 4, and also had 2 sacks. I guess Wagner isn't so washed up yet. He also had 2 tackles for loss.
Fandom can be a weird thing. There is zero reason why 12s should not eternally love Wagner for all he has done for the team and that he plays his butt off in every game. Is Wagner as fast as he was 10 years ago? No, but he is still capable of being just as effective. He was named second-team All-Pro when he was with the Los Angeles Rams in 2022. Per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), he is the second-best graded linebacker in the NFL through the first four games in 2023 as well. Wagner still rocks!
In 2023, Wagner has been in on 50 tackles, third in the NFL, and is fourth in solo tackles with 27. Instead of thinking Wagner is washed up, maybe we should know that Wagner has still been amazingly good this year and has helped make Seattle's run defense immensely better. In fact, if Wagner wasn't on the team, Seattle probably would be - at best - 2-2 and would have lost to the Detroit Lions.