The Seattle Seahawks are the kings of unexpected excellence so far in the 2022 NFL season. If you expected Geno Smith to play exactly like an NFL MVP candidate, raise your hand.
Okay, put it back down, because you’re lying.
Now, let’s move to Seattle’s defense, which started the season out very young, and with linebacker Bobby Wagner, the last player left from the legendary Legion of Boom defense that terrorized the league in the early aughts, cast away to the Los Angeles Rams. The Seahawks were going with a new defensive coordinator in Clint Hurtt (elevated from defensive line coach and assistant head coach), all the new attendant concepts with a new coaching staff, and a group of new players and young veterans. Again, nobody expected anything special from a team seemingly rebuilding from the studs.
It started out pretty roughly on the defensive side of the ball. Through the first five weeks of the 2022 season, Seattle ranked 31st in Football Outsiders’ Defensive DVOA metric (opponent-adjusted efficiency) — 29th against the pass, and 26th against the run. Overall, only the Detroit Lions were worse.
Then, starting with Seattle’s 19-9 Week 6 win over the Arizona Cardinals, that same defense became an entirely different animal. Over the last four weeks, the Seahawks rank second in Defensive DVOA behind only the New England Patriots — fifth against the pass, and third against the run. Early Sunday, Seattle will take on Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Germany, and while that offense doesn’t present the same challenges it did over the last two seasons, Brady is still capable of creating explosive plays out of very little.
The Buccaneers’ offense has several problems, but Tom Brady isn’t one of them
No matter who the Seahawks have faced over the last four weeks and four straight wins, they’ve created serious problems for each opponent offense.