Opponent Breakdown: Seattle Seahawks

An insider's look at the Miami Dolphins' upcoming opponent.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith (7) on a video call after defeating the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium last Sunday. / David Butler II-Imagn Images

The Miami Dolphins will look to bounce back from their damaging Week 2 loss when they face the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field on Sunday.

Miami Dolphins On SI Publisher Alain Poupart and Hawk's Nest host Brandon Cain conducted a podcast simulcast (simulpod? simulpodcast?) earlier this week to break down everything related to the team and the matchup.

Here are excerpts from that interview. The full interview can be found below.

DISSECTING THE SEATTLE SEAHAWKS OFFENSE

On Seattle starter (and South Florida native) Geno Smith, where does he stand in the NFL QB hierarchy?

Cain: The first two years he's been here, the supporting cast hasn't been there. First year, you had six rookie starters, yet he got the comeback player of the year award. And so people said, Gino is the guy he is. And I know you're out there on the East Coast, and it's everybody gets stuck with that first thought of him with the Jets. Now get a second chance for the first time in 10 years, working his butt off, doing that hard work, that lonely work, that in-the-middle of the night work, that non-Instagram work where you're grinding on tape, where you're becoming a master from the neck up. And I think that this is why I think he is ready to go out there and excel because now you finally are putting a supporting cast out there that's up to snuff for the first time maybe in his whole career.

How did former Dolphins center Connor Williams look in the first two games?

Cain: He wasn't really well graded this last week by PFF [Pro Football Focus]. He was about middle of the road last week watching the all 22 on him and locking in on I think he's bringing to the table. What we'd hoped because we're moving to a more of a spread-based concept and we want more mobile-based offensive lineman, and you guys know with Conor Williams and your system asked their linemen to do a lot of similar stuff pull in space — climb to the second level get to the reach blocks, all these things. He's probably still finding his footing. I mean, quite literally, being that there is no training camp there. He came in very late. I think they're kind of putting him out there as much for how much they know he upgrades it, even in maybe his somewhat not at 100% state. But it was a great value signing.

On the Seahawks wide receiver trio of D.K. Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and Jackson Smith-Njgba.

Cain: We've got a really great mix and they all have little different skill sets to them, which allows you to kind of float those through very nicely on our side of it. They're explosive as hell and they will attack you. I think you guys have a good secondary deal with that. [Jalen] Ramsey has been matched up many times with D.K. one-on-one with the Rams. They've had many battles go back and forth. Ramsey sometimes has gotten the best of him. D.K. sometimes has got the best of him on the other side of it. So I think that's a give-and-take kind of fight. An interesting battle is how Skylar deals with the pressure because he can't be patient. He's not gonna be able to be patient. It's gonna have to be McDaniel drawing things up from quick and easy. I think that pass rush is going to be right on top of him with the injuries you guys are dealing with on that offensive line.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE SEAHAWKS AND THE GAME

Whether the Seahawks are a legit 2-0 team or the beneficiaries of a soft schedule.

Cain: Probably a bit of both. And I think that it's going to still remain to be seen if we can be a contender this year. You've got one of the younger teams in football. I would be lying to you if I just stood up here and pounded my chest and said, I know this team's going to be a contender this year. There's just as much of an easy way for it to kind of go this or that direction. I think the floor is pretty good like a 7.5-win team coming in this year was the floor. I also think that there is the ceiling there of an 11- to 12-win team if everything worked out really good. But where they're exactly on that variance level, it's still probably too early to tell because you can't discount the fact you got [Bo] Nix at home, rookie, first start, on the road. Jacoby Brissett's a backup; he's a competent backup, but that's a bad Patriots offensive line as well, in addition to it.

The view of new LB Jordyn Brooks from Seattle.

Cain: This is a guy that I'm on record, on the draft night he was drafted, of having an outlook of him as a player, which is the player he was for us during the timeframe. I can't speak the player he'll be for you, but when it comes to where I hit on, and what I tracked him for being, and then what he was, I was right on the button with this one. You can find the videos of it with me saying this with it. So I'm not speaking out of pocket on this in the least. Jordyn Brooks is a thumper. Jordyn Brooks can run when he's at his best, as well as any linebacker in this sport. There's no doubts about those parts. He brings things to the field. You go up, and he tackles. A lot of these running backs are gonna fall forward. He's gonna put them in the stop most of the time. He's very good in that way. Jordyn Brooks has no natural feel in coverage. And this is the thing that can improve. The athleticism and speed are there to improve, but tracking back to college, even on this, I watched two years of his college tape. The coverage abilities are not naturally there, and when you ask him to drop in the zone, now he's a bit better, man. Man, he can hold on a little bit; the speed helps him because he just stays in the hip pocket, and he runs. But you have him start to do any spot drops or zone drop stuff, and he is going to be a man lost. You attack him with flood zone concepts; he's going to take the first guy, carry it out, the second guy's going to walk in there, and it's going to be wide open. When you look at it, go for his coverage grades through his career with Seattle.

The confidence level from the folks in Seattle heading into this game.

Cain: Well, I think it's more of like we have an opportunity to be 3-0, more than it's that, oh, we're gonna walk on Dolphins. I mean, we're eating dolphin tail tonight. I mean, get the candles lit. It ain't gonna be like that. I think that there is a heavy amount of respect in the Seahawks fan base, at least from my chat, in regards to the offensive mind that is [Mike] McDaniel. We've had [Kyle] Shanahan taking us to the woodshed here out in his own system for the last few years since he's been in here — and so very, very healthy respect from us on our part and what his ability to do. Though we get to play this at home, there's no part of this for me that, with how we played so far, we've had two opponents that are very winnable games, and it's been a struggle. We've had to find some footing here. I think this is still a game that's going to be a pretty hard-fought game and maybe we're able to maybe distance at the end of the fourth quarter, but it wouldn't surprise me if it came down to the wire. And if you guys even came in and won at this point, this is the NFL. We saw last week, any given Sunday, anything can happen. And as much as it might look like a W on paper, it ain't until you get the W at the end of the game.