Leonard Williams breaks down the Seattle Seahawks' biggest defensive problem

The biggest problem the Seattle Seahawks have heading into Week 6 is a rash of injuries on defense. At Wednesday's practice there were five starters sitting out and two more listed as limited participants, making for a bleak outlook on this side of the ball for Sunday's game in Jacksvonille.

While there's nothing that defensive end Leonard Williams can do about the injuries, he is determined to turn around the dynamic for another big problem, though. In last week's shootout loss to Tampa, Seattle had serious issues tackling.

Here's what Willams had to say about making a change in this area in his press conference earlier this week.

Leonard Williams says the #Seahawks on defense are holding themselves accountable for poor tackling and poor pursuit to the ball vs Tampa Bay. Angles were bad.

Plus: “Effort erases mistakes,” so if a missed tackle “nine guys are there” to make the stop. pic.twitter.com/eHqobRqen5
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) October 8, 2025

While it might seem that the pass rush was a bigger problem, tackling is more of a long-running issue for this defense.

According to Pro Football Focus, the Seahawks are just the 26th-best tackling team in the league right now.

That's still an improvement over the atrocious results this defense got during Pete Carroll's last few seasons as head coach, but obviously not up to the standard that Mike Macdonald wants to set for his defense.

Seattle's coverage has also been spotty (PFF has them ranked 20th there) at times, especially in the fourth quarter and in crunch-time, when their defensive backs have frequently looked a step behind their assignments.

The good news is that the Jaguars aren't exactly loaded at wide receiver, but the Seahawks are so thin in their secondary right now they might have the advantage.

Most likely Macdonald will need to manufacture more pressures with Derick Hall out - and if that means much more blitzing than normal, so be it.

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