I am 100 percent certain that Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider could not care less about what various football publications have to say about his roster decisions. Winning the Lombardi Trophy twice has a way of inoculating a GM from such concerns. Therefore, the following juxtaposition is mere coincidence.
On Saturday, Bleacher Report's Gary Davenport ranked the top ten edge rushing duos (or trios, in some cases) in the NFL. The Seahawks did not make the cut. Three days later, news broke that Schneider had agreed to terms with veteran edge rushing specialist Dante Fowler, Jr.
As I said, pure coincidence. Not that Schneider and head coach Mike Macdonald did not want to upgrade their edge rushing unit. Like most defensive coaches, Macdonald will always want more quality at that spot, and with the departure of Boye Mafe, the Seahawks would appear to have a need for a replacement.
Seattle Seahawks' edge rushers are just fine, thank you
But the need was not dire before Fowler’s arrival. Because, even without Mafe or Fowler, Seattle already had a top ten unit, regardless of those BR rankings.
At first glance, there are a lot of reasons why the Seahawks may have fallen out of the top ten.
The team ranked tenth – the Minnesota Vikings – had the highest team pass rush win rate in the entire league last season. The team ranked ninth – the Detroit Lions – boast one of the league’s truly elite edge rushers in Aidan Hutchinson.
And if you look quickly at Seattle, you are more likely to focus on their elite secondary – with Devon Witherspoon, Julian Love, and Nick Emmanwori or their elite interior linemen – with Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II. If you only consider sack totals, you might think that Seattle’s edges are good, but not great.
All of the above is oversimplified. Start with this…
Yes, the Vikings had an exceptional pressure rate in 2025. They also blitzed the most in the league. By a very wide margin. The Vikings blitzed on over 44% of passing plays last season. Only two other clubs were above 30% -- none over 34%. Given those numbers, they had better pressure more than anyone.
The Seahawks, on the other hand, rarely blitzed, which makes their overall team pressure ranking – seventh best in the league – all the more impressive.
As for Detroit, Hutchinson is as good as his rep suggests. But who else do they have? Compare them to Cleveland, two spots ahead of Detroit at number seven. As good as Hutch is, Myles Garrett is better. And it seems fairly obvious that Alex Wright is better as a complement than anyone currently on the Lions roster.
I’m not really trying to diminish the players on Detroit or Minnesota here. But a simple side-by-side comparison with Seattle’s three primary edge rushers seems pretty conclusive to me.
Uchenna Nwuso had a 3.9% pressure rate in 2025. That was the worst among Seattle’s three returning primary edge rushers. Derick Hall’s pressure rate was 5.0%, and Demarcus Lawrence’s was 6.2%.
Those last two numbers are exceptional. They are both better than Hutchinson’s figure for the season. And far better than any other edge on either Detroit or Minnesota.
Remember, this is looking forward to the upcoming season, so Seattle does not get credit for Boye Mafe. But Detroit lost Al-Quadin Muhammad, and the Vikings traded away Jonathan Greenard. All three teams lost valuable rushers.
The Bleacher Report's ranking places a great deal of faith in Lions rookie Derrick Moore. Sure, maybe. He might have a great season. I’ll just note that most scouting services had Moore ranked as around the tenth-best edge rusher in this year’s draft class. That's tenth-best among incoming rookies.
I’ll go with the Derick on Seattle – Derick Hall – who had two sacks in the Super Bowl last year.
The simple fact is this. By almost every metric beyond simple sack totals, Seattle’s trio of Lawrence, Nwosu, and Hall outperforms Minnesota’s Dallas Turner and Andrew Van Ginkel. Depending on how highly you rate the incoming rookie Moore, they may be better than Detroit’s contingent as well.
One of the reasons other teams valued Boye Mafe as much as they did, despite his modest sack totals, was his top ten pass rush win rate (PRWR). Seattle was the only team in the NFL to have two edges in the top twenty in that crucial stat last season. Mafe is gone, but Lawrence returns. His PRWR matched Hutchinson’s last season.
Now with Fowler on the roster, the Seahawks edge rushing capabilities are that much better. He is getting on in years and is certainly not an every-down player. But he can still generate pressure off the edge. Â
He also boasts a very good pressure rate (5.6%) and figures to do exactly what Hall did last season. Meanwhile, Hall should only get better as he slides into a more prominent role with Mafe now gone.
I doubt Schneider and Macdonald are losing much sleep over this. In fact, they are probably delighted with the B/R rankings. Last year, the season was practically over before the national media recognized just how good the Seahawks were. Continue to underestimate them at your own peril.
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