The Seattle Seahawks Defense is the Best in the League in One Crucial Area

If you need any further proof of Mike Macdonald’s brilliance as a defensive coordinator, look no further than this.

You probably didn’t need further proof, given his remarkable track record of producing elite results everywhere he goes. The 2025 Seahawks alone provide a compelling argument, as they’re #1 in points allowed, EPA per play, and DVOA without a single first team All-Pro, but you just keep on finding more strong arguments the deeper you dig down.

For instance, this chart from TruMedia, which plots out blitz rate per team with rate of successful pressure when blitzing. The first part is simple enough, and is something that’s been discussed a lot this season. The Seahawks blitz about 21% of the time, one of the lower numbers in the league. It’s one area where the current Seattle defense is similar to the Pete Carroll defense.

(Note that Carroll’s Raiders and Macdonald’s Seahawks blitz at almost the exact same rate.)

However, the similarities end there, as the second piece of data being charted here paints a very extreme picture. And by extreme, I mean extremely good. By a pretty significant margin, the Seahawks are the best team in the NFL at generating pressure on their blitzes, doing so at a nearly 56% rate. The Texans are in second at 52%. No one else is above 50%.

It’s tremendous evidence that, while the Seahawks do not blitz very often, they’re extremely good at how they do it and when they do it, making sure they get their money’s worth out of sending extra defenders. Which is certainly an improvement over where things were in the last several years under Pete Carroll, where blitzes often felt like they went nowhere.

Of course, it also speaks to how good the players are at blitzing. Devon Witherspoon and Nick Emmanwori are among the deadliest defensive back blitzers in the game, Drake Thomas has proven to be very good at it, and despite rare utilization we know from his time in Los Angeles that Ernest Jones IV is a superb blitzer.

No team makes life harder for opposing offenses with the blitz than the Seahawks. — Seattle Seahawks safety Ty Okada (39) sacks Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud (7). | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

Of course, with a conference championship game looming this weekend, this data does make one ask the obvious question. So obvious, in fact, that I’ve already written an article in the last few days discussing it, but I feel like it must be re-discussed in light of this information. Given that the team is so incredibly good at blitzing, should they be blitzing more?

Obviously, there’s a law of diminishing returns. If the Seahawks started blitzing at an extremely high rate, it would become more predictable, and teams would probably find counters to it. But there is an appropriate amount of blitzing that would probably maintain the extremely-high success rate, and maybe you can get away with a high rate for a game, or at least a half.

This is very relevant for this upcoming weekend. Matthew Stafford has been the best quarterback in the league against the blitz during the 2025 regular season, including destroying the Seahawks’ blitz in week sixteen for the first three quarters before the defense pulled back the reins. In two playoff games, however, he’s been a mess when blitzed.

If you check the chart, by the way, you’ll notice that the two teams that roughed Stafford up with the blitz over the last two weeks, the Carolina Panthers and Chicago Bears, are very poor blitzers. Both teams blitz at approximately average rates, but are bottom five in success rate on their blitzes. Again, if these teams can beat you with the blitz, then anyone can.

It’s a very difficult question to answer. But unless the Seattle offense gets rolling on Sunday, it’s very likely that finding the correct answer will determine if the Seahawks are Super Bowl bound. Do you attack a suddenly-vulnerable Stafford with extra men on the rush, or do you assume that he and McVay will be ready for that and have made adjustments during the week?

But, as we’ve established, Mike Macdonald is a genius, so whatever answer he comes up with is probably going to be the right one.

Is it a good idea to send extra pressure at Matt Stafford this weekend? — Chicago Bears cornerback Kyler Gordon (6) sacks Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (9). | Matt Marton-Imagn Images

More Seahawks on SI stories