What makes the Seattle Seahawks’ defense unique

On By Littum

With a dramatic midseason turnaround, the Seattle Seahawks’ defense has found its stride under first-year head coach Mike Macdonald.

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The Seahawks have allowed a league-low 14.8 offensive points per game since Week 9, after holding each of their last five opponents to 19 offensive points or fewer. Seattle has also held four of those five opponents to fewer than 300 total yards in regulation.

The latest strong defensive performance came last Sunday when the Seahawks shut out the Arizona Cardinals 30-18 to stay atop the NFC West with their fourth straight win. After watching the film from that game, the NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremias described what stood out most about the Seahawks’ defense during his weekly conversation on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.

“Every single play you saw on the defensive side of the ball, it was another player making the play,” Jeremiah said. “Like, just the depth of their front (and) the guys they roll through there, they all play together. … I don’t know that there’s another team that gets so many contributions from so many different players .”

The statistics confirm it.

Defensive lineman Leonard Williams has been on a tear, posting 4.5 sacks, six tackles for loss, an interception return touchdown and two pass breakups over a recent two-game stretch. But it has been far from a one-man show.

Over the past five games, the Seahawks have had seven different players record at least one sack, 12 different players with at least one tackle for loss, 12 different players with at least one pass breakup and five different players with at least one interception.

Even a player who hasn’t generated as many stats — rookie first-round defensive tackle Byron Murphy II — has made a notable impact.

“I know Byron Murphy’s not going to show up in the box a lot because Leonard just plays out of his mind and does what he does,” Jeremiah said. “But (Murphy) picks up two blockers. He does some dirty work. And the linebackers fill up and play aggressively. Ernest Jones was all over the field. … So they’ve got a really, really, deep, talented group there.”

Listen to the full conversation with Daniel Jeremiah at this link or in the audio player at the top of this story. Watch Brock and Salk weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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