JSN on top, Sam Darnold comes back down to earth, front-7 screwed by Seahawks' PFF grades

Seattle had a few clear standout performers this week, but some of PFF's grades for the Seahawks defense make no sense whatsoever.

Oct 20, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks linebacker Uchenna Nwosu (7) celebrates after tackling Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud (7) for a loss during the first quarter at Lumen Field. | Kevin Ng-Imagn Images

Football is a complicated sport and sometimes good analysts can disagree. Normally our eyeball test matches the Pro Football Focus grades that come out the following day, with maybe an outlier or two where we disagree.

Last night's win for the Seattle Seahawks over the Houston Texans is the first time this season where we find ourselves vehemently disagreeing over PFF's take on several Seahawks players - especially the majority of the defensive front-seven, who had terrific games from where we're sitting.

On offense, Jaxon Smith-Njigba was an easy choice to earn the highest grade, and that's what he earned. Meanwhile, Anthony Bradford was once again rightfully on the bottom.

Defensively, Boye Mafe was recognized for his solid game, as did Byron Murphy II. However, the rest of the Seahawks' front-seven got completely screwed by PFF's grades. Let's break it down.

JSN tops offense

Jaxon Smith-Njigba breaks Sam Darnold's several-game streak of earning the highest PFF grade for Seattle's offense. JSN pushed his lead over the rest of the NFL's receivers to nearly 200 yards, totaling eight catches, 123 yards and another touchdown. For his efforts he posted a 90.1 overall grade. That puts him just a fraction behind Puka Nacua for PFF's top wide receiver grade in 2025.

Right tackle AbeLucas (82.6), running back Zach Charbonnet (79.9), center Jalen Sundell (79.0) and left tackle Charles Cross (68.4) rounded out the top-five highest grades on offense.

Sam Darnold posts first bad grade of 2025

It was bound to happen sooner or later, and it might as well come against the best scoring defense in the league. Sam Darnold had a brilliant first half, but a poor second half, resulting in a mediocre 61.4 overall grade for the game - his first poor mark of the season from PFF. Darnold was strip-sacked for a touchdown in his own end-zone and threw an inerception to Derek Stingley, erasing the solid drives he led in the first half.

Oct 20, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud (7) and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) greet each other after the game at Lumen Field. | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

Anthony Bradford does it again

Right guard Anthony Bradford is getting to be a running gag having the lowest PFF grade on the team. When Bradford wasn't getting flagged for holding he kept himself busy by blocking his own teammates and running into his own ball-carriers. Bradford wound up with another atrocious grade in pass blocking (15.2) and a team-worst 40.0 overall.

Boye Mafe leads defense

Fourth-year edge rusher Boye Mafe enjoyed his best game of the season, getting a ton of pressures and finishing with six stops. For his trouble Mafe earned an 85.5 pass rushing grade and an 83.4 overall even though they didn't think much of his run defense, tackling or coverage. That mark was the highest on the Seahawks' defense this week.

Ernest Jones, Seahawks DL get screwed

From our perspective, middle linebacker Ernest Jones had the best game of any Seattle defender this week. However, he somehow ended up with the team's worst grade on this side of the ball. Despite posting an impressive interception, Jones only got a 40.1 grade in coverage, bringing his overall grade down to 50.7 overall.

Jones wasn't the only Seahawks defender who deserved a much higher grade from PFF. The next-lowest mark went to Uchenna Nwosu (58.7 overall) despite notching his team-best sixth sack of the season. Jarran Reed (60.2) and Leonard Williams (61.4) were also near the bottom despite being extremely disruptive throughout the evening.

While we're at it, Nick Emmanwori (67.2), Ty Okada (64.9) and DeMarcus Lawrence (64.8) all should probably have gotten better than the middling grades they did. Hopefully this was just a fluke week and our analysis will match up better with PFF's after the bye.

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