Despite injuries and a lack of national star power, the Seattle Seahawks’ defense continues to outdo itself. Their dominance against the Washington Commanders in primetime was just another example of how imposing a force Mike Macdonald’s unit can be, especially when it comes to terrorizing quarterbacks.
Halfway through the season, Seattle ranks fifth in sacks and fourth in pressures and pressure rate. And it’s all a credit to Macdonald’s scheme and the players’ collective execution of it. No one player has more than six sacks. It’s the 12 players who have combined for the 27 Seattle has acquired on the season.
Four of them came against the Commanders Sunday night, capping yet another performance that showed the NFL world that Seattle’s pass rush is not to be overlooked.
Seattle Seahawks defense making quarterback discomfort a defining trait
For the third time this season, the Seahawks pressured a quarterback at the highest rate they’ve seen in their career. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Seattle pressured Jayden Daniels on half of his dropbacks, the highest pressure rate he’s seen in his young career.
Seattle opened the season by bringing the most pressure Brock Purdy had ever seen in his career and did so again a few weeks later against Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
While Purdy and Lawrence can move around better than the pocket passers of yesteryear, Daniels is one of the most dynamic running quarterbacks in the league, so putting that much pressure on him can be a consequential decision. After all, Daniels rushed for 51 yards and a score on 10 carries, some of that a result of him escaping the pressure.
“Something we talked about going into the game was not rushing scared,” defensive tackle Leonard Williams said after the game. “I think sometimes when you see running quarterbacks, you see a lot of linemen not truly rushing. They’re almost like trying to, like, spy the quarterback. And I think we didn’t want to do that this week. So we thought it was, like, worth the risk to let him scramble a few times to, like, actually attack him.”
Certainly, the plan of attack worked, even if the defense had to give up its second 100+ yard rushing game of the season.
Nonetheless, it’s a lethal advantage Seattle carries into every game. And while there’s an argument to be made that Seattle could be even more dangerous with one truly elite presence on the edge of that pass rush, the fact that so many players contribute effectively in Macdonald’s game plan to pressure opposing quarterbacks is a lot of what makes the defense so dangerous.
Teams can’t just focus on Uchenna Nwosu, Byron Murphy, or Leonard Williams as primary pass-rush threats. They also have to account for guys like Drake Thomas or unheralded defensive backs screaming into the backfield on well-timed blitz packages.
The consistency of the pass rush and its ability to pressure quarterbacks in ways they’ve never experienced before is an impressive feat all on its own. And the benefits are paying big dividends for the team as a whole as they continue to keep pace at the top of the NFC as a result.