RENTON, Wash. – The Seattle Seahawks chose to be buyers ahead of Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline, as general manager John Schneider made a couple of deals to address problem areas on coach Mike Macdonald’s new defense.
Schneider sent a 2026 sixth-round pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars for veteran defensive tackle Roy Robertson-Harris, then shipped inside linebacker Jerome Baker and a 2025 fourth-round selection to the Tennessee Titans in exchange for Ernest Jones IV, who is the new mike linebacker.
Schneider’s goal each year is to field a championship-caliber roster. He stood pat during a quasireset in 2022 and then watched as the team overachieved in the regular season before being blown out in the wild-card round of the playoffs. With higher expectations last season, Schneider coughed up a 2024 second-round pick and a 2025 fifth-round pick to grab defensive tackle Leonard Williams for the final 10 games of the season. Schneider then felt the team underachieved by going 9-8 and missing the playoffs.
Schneider’s in-season moves reflect his view of the team. Even if the compensation wasn’t always steep, trades to acquire left tackle Duane Brown (2017), safety Quandre Diggs (2019), defensive end Carlos Dunlap (2020) and Williams were made with eyes on making a deep playoff push. It doesn’t always pan out that way – Seattle hasn’t won a playoff game since 2019 – but Schneider’s process is motivated by a desire to play meaningful football in January.
This season is no different in that regard. But unlike those previous seasons, Seattle might be reaching its inflection point earlier in the year.
The Seahawks (4-4) host the (3-4) Los Angeles Rams on Sunday in a pivotal game for the clubs holding third and fourth place in the NFC West, respectively. The NFL projection model created by The Athletic’s Austin Mock gives Seattle a 17% chance of winning the division. The Rams have slightly better odds at 22%.
A loss to Los Angeles would drop Seattle to last place regardless of the outcome between the Arizona Cardinals and Chicago Bears on Sunday, and it would decrease the Seahawks’ division title odds to 9% and their playoff odds to 11%, according to Mock’s model. A win would increase Seattle’s odds of an NFC West title to 24.5% and boost its playoff odds to 29.4%. And the model views Sunday’s game as a virtual coin flip.
“There’s a lot of football to be played, but definitely a win puts you in a lot better position and furthers the story you’re trying to develop as a football team throughout the season,” Macdonald said.
Falling to 4-5 just a couple of days before the trade deadline would also bring into question whether the Seahawks should continue to behave like buyers. Four of Seattle’s five games coming out of its Week 10 bye are against NFC teams (three against divisional foes), so there would be an opportunity to climb out of a fourth-place hole, but it would be extremely difficult, particularly when one of the team’s main deficiencies is trench play.
The Seahawks could avoid facing that question with what would qualify as a season-altering win over Los Angeles, which has won two straight and looked like a new team on offense when receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua returned to the lineup and combined for 157 yards and a touchdown in Week 8 against Minnesota. A victory would be Seattle’s first over the Rams with Matthew Stafford at quarterback (the QBs in Seattle’s two wins since the Stafford trade were John Wolford and Baker Mayfield).
There are remnants of Pete Carroll’s “treat every game like a championship opportunity” mindset inside Seattle’s building. But at the same time, the players can’t ignore the magnitude of this game.
“I think it’s big,” safety Julian Love said. “It’s a division game so all of them are battles, for sure, especially with these guys who are catching (fire) right now.”
Said cornerback Tre Brown, who returned from an ankle injury to compete to get his starting job back: “Every week is very important, but this one is definitely going to be important because it’s an NFC West rival, and we’re all competing for the same thing. It’s very important for us to go out there and handle business this week.”
Because eight games remain after the bye, the Seahawks aren’t overhyping this matchup, but they know they must deliver a better on-field product than what they’ve displayed in recent weeks. On defense, many of the things Seattle did during its 3-0 start have disappeared, and as a result, the Seahawks have the third-worst scoring defense in the league since Week 3. Only the Saints and Panthers have allowed more points in that span. Seattle has given up 741 yards to running backs in that span, the second-highest total in the league ahead of only the Patriots (all stats provided by TruMedia unless stated otherwise).
“We’re … even-keeled,” defensive tackle Jarran Reed said. “Not too high, not too low. We’re just trying to mentally lock in during the week, make sure we have a good week of practice. That’s offense, defense and special teams, and take it into Sunday.”
The Rams’ run game is led by Kyren Williams, who ranks 11th among running backs with 533 yards and second with eight rushing touchdowns, behind Baltimore’s Derrick Henry ( nine). He sits 11th in success rate among running backs with at least 50 carries. The Rams had to lean on Williams without Kupp and Nacua, but now their lead back might be even more efficient with the offense back to full strength at the skill positions. Opposing running backs have combined for at least 118 yards in each of Seattle’s last five games. The Seahawks know that getting back on track starts with limiting Williams’ effectiveness.
Reed said the key to improving their run defense will simply be a return to “playing our game” and being sharper on details such as holding blocks longer and setting edges.
“We can’t be on one weekend or off one weekend,” Reed said. “We have to be consistent with our game. It starts with us up front.”
Left tackle Charles Cross described the mood of the team as “hungry.” His side of the ball is still searching for a rhythm. Macdonald is optimistic Sunday’s game will feature the return of receiver DK Metcalf, who missed the Week 8 loss with a knee injury (Metcalf didn’t practice Wednesday). Right tackle George Fant (knee) returned to practice Wednesday, but it’s unclear whether he’ll play against the Rams. Sixth-round rookie Mike Jerrell would be in line to make a third consecutive start if Fant is unable to go.
On Wednesday, Macdonald intimated that there will not be a right guard rotation this week. Anthony Bradford will start “and we’ll roll with AB,” Macdonald said. Third-round rookie Christian Haynes has rotated in over the past several weeks.
The run game is the key to everything Seattle wants to be on offense. Seattle has the lowest designed rush rate in the league, and quarterback Geno Smith leads the league in dropbacks. Ken Walker III ranks 36th out of 43 qualifying running backs in success rate and has the 12th-highest percentage of runs that have lost yards or gone for no gain.
Macdonald suggested that simplifying the run game will be part of the solution.
“It feels like when we’re carrying a bunch of run schemes, some of the details and the targeting and where we’re (identifying) it, trying to get the run off the ground is really where we’ve fallen short,” Macdonald said. “So, we need to do a better job of getting Ken going, just giving him some more space and let him do his thing.”
When the run game has been productive, Macdonald said, the common denominator has been “where we can get a hat on a hat to account for everybody in the box, keeping it simple and getting the ball to (Walker) as quickly as possible.”
Seattle is understandably operating with a sense of urgency this week. This is a pivotal point in the season considering where Schneider and Macdonald are hoping to take this team in their first season together. A win keeps that vision within reach. A loss might generate a discussion about whether Schneider made the right choice regarding his view of the team ahead of the deadline.