New York Giants Week 4: Examining the Seattle Seahawks Defense

The New York Giants offense has averaged 14.3 points per game, good for second-to-last in the NFL. This week is one of the best opportunities for a get-right game facing a Seahawks defense that’s allowed under 30 points per game.

Personnel

This is a Seahawks defense that rotates players often, and with two starters potentially returning from injury this week, they just got deeper.

Star cornerback Tariq Woolen is expected to return this week after missing last week’s game against the Carolina Panthers. Woolen, a second-year cornerback, headlines a cornerback duo featuring rookie first-round pick Devon Witherspoon.

Long, physical, and athletic, the Seahawks have one of the best cornerback duos in the NFL. To be clear, that's not just the best young cornerback duos, but one of the best outright duos right now.

The room will rotate to involve Tre Brown and Michael Jackson, but it remains to be seen how much they will play, considering that Witherspoon is now better adjusted to the NFL.

New York Giants Open as Underdogs at Home vs. Seattle

The Seahawks will also likely be welcoming back star safety Jamal Adams, which throws another wrench into the toolbox for the secondary, as now there will be Adams, Quandre Diggs, and former Giants safety Julian Love. How much of a pitch count Adams will be on (if any) will be something to watch this week.

Both Love and Diggs have gotten off to rough starts this season, but again, the return of Adams could help solve those issues. I would expect Diggs to operate as the deep safety, with Adams working down into the box and Love playing in the slot occupied mostly by Artie Burns and Coby Bryant so far this season.

The Giants will have a slight “advantage” because this secondary is incredibly inexperienced as a unit. There are plenty of veterans, but this will be the first game that Woolen, Witherspoon, Adams, Love, and Diggs play together.

Bobby Wagner is back in Seattle and is now leading this linebacker room with Jordyn Brooks as his running mate. The big difference between this duo now and what they were during the 2021 season is that Brooks has made strides in his development, meaning that the Seahawks now have two very quality linebackers. Last season, their starting linebackers against the Giants were a developing Brooks and an underwhelming Cody Barton.

New York Giants Week 4: Examining the Seattle Seahawks Offense

Through just three games, Wagner and Brooks have combined for 27 tackles for a gain of three or less. That puts Wagner tied for fifth in the entire NFL, and Brooks tied for seventh.

The Seahawks defensive line improving on the interior has helped keep these linebackers clean to make plays. The front four has been solid this season but not dominant.

In a bizarro world kind of way, the interior defensive line has generated more pressure, while the edge group has had more success against the run. Uchenna Nwosu on the edge has been outright dominant this season against the run, logging seven tackles, all seven being for a gain of three or less.

Boye Mafe and Darrell Taylor have been operating opposite Nwosu, but neither has been impressive.

On the interior, Jarran Reed, Dre’Mont Jones, and Mario Edwards Jr. have found their stride as a rotation that has combined for 27 pressures, providing pass-rush juice consistently from the inside. The Seahawks defensive front could find success getting into the backfield this Monday.

Scheme

Last season was the first year for the Seahawks defense under defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt, and the defense spent a lot of time just trying to figure out what they wanted their identity to be. In year two, they’ve established an identity as a zone-heavy defense that’s more aggressive with their pass-rush plan than they’ve usually been with Pete Carroll as head coach.

Before last season's matchup, the off-ball pass-rusher with the highest blitz percentage was Brooks, with a 9.8 percent rate. This year, they’ve been more aggressive, using linebackers that can contribute to the pass rush, especially when the edge rushers in this offense haven’t been able to generate much pressure on their own.

Brooks is still being used as a rusher on 9.9% of his pass-defense opportunities, an ever-so-slight increase in usage rate. The big difference is that he’s not the primary rusher from the off-ball spot; it's now Wagner who is rushing on 14.3 percent of his pass-defense snaps.

Coverage-wise, this defense has simplified to focus on doing less in the back end but being better at those fewer coverages. After all, it doesn’t matter if opposing teams know what you’re doing if you’re good at it.

The Seahawks this season have relied heavily on Cover 3, playing it more than any team except for the Colts, Packers, and Panthers--more as in more than half of their defensive snaps.

Cover 6 has seen an increase in usage defensively in recent years as offenses have gotten more creative. Cover 6 is Cover 4, played to the offense's strong side, with Cover 2 playing to the weak side. It allows defenses to show a two-high safety look pre-snap and even post-snap looks similar to Cover 3, creating confusion for opposing offenses.

The Seahawks have used stunts to help them generate more pass-rush as well, and the expectation this week should be that Seattle will break those out often. In a stunt, one rusher will attack an offensive lineman to occupy them, while another rusher loops around that initial defender, leaving the offensive lineman in an almost impossible position.

The Giants offensive line last season struggled facing stunts, and this year, with a rookie center and a patchwork rest of the line, that will likely continue as defenses will continue to attack that way.

What This Means for the Giants

Unless things change for the Giants offense regarding Saquon Barkley, who figures to be questionable for the game, this will be rough. When missing a superstar like Barkley, offenses should open up the playbook, but against the 49ers last week, the Giants were bland to the point of looking like they didn’t want to be there.

The Giants need to open the offense up and be more willing to use quarterback Daniel Jones as a runner while also allowing running back Matt Breida to run the football.

In Week 2, the Lions broke out some solid runs against the Seahawks on the interior, and the Giants should look to replicate that while also giving Jones the option to keep the ball by reading the side opposite Nwosu.

Last week, quarterback Andy Dalton and the Panthers had to throw the ball often to chase the Seahawks and found success all over the field, but found most of his success attacking the short area of the field and moving down the field methodically. The Seahawks will have Woolen back to limit the deep ball, but their defensive scheme still allows plenty of space underneath to operate.

Final Thoughts

The Giants' offensive play-calling has been uninspiring for most of this season. If Barkley isn’t cleared to return for this game, then it will be hard to envision this offense moving the ball downfield with any consistency.

This is a game that should be looked at as a toss-up with two teams that are looking to take the next step in their rebuilding process toward becoming contenders. Expect a gritty, low-scoring affair.

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