New York Giants Week 8: First Look at Seattle Seahawks Defense

Brandon Olsen has your breakdown of the Seattle Seahawks defense.

Don’t look now, but the New York Giants are off to a 6-1 start with a rookie head coach in Brian Daboll and Daniel Jones, who many people wrote off well before this season. The Giants are a top-three surprise team in 2022, with another big surprise coming from this week’s opponent, the Seattle Seahawks.

Let's get to know about the defensive side of the ball's personnel and weaknesses.

Personnel

The Seahawks defense with Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, and Bobby Wagner is long gone. The new era of Seahawks defenders is still in a similar mold: big, long athletes.

The heart and soul of this defense is Quandre Diggs, who is in his third full season in Seattle. Diggs is one of the few safeties in the NFL that is consistently tasked with roaming the deep middle of the field and helping overtop. Diggs lines up as a deep safety on 81.7% of his snaps played in this defense.

Diggs’ running mate is Ryan Neal, who didn’t start the year as a starting safety but, over the past few weeks, has played himself into the job with Jamal Adams out while also playing an excellent game last week against the Los Angeles Chargers.

In week seven, Neal played 71 snaps, had six tackles (including four for a gain of three or less), allowed four catches for just 13 yards, an interception, and three passes broken up. Perhaps his biggest weakness has been against the run, where he’s struggled not only with finishing tackles but also with the occasional poor pursuit angle.

In the cornerback room, the big name is also a very big man as it’s rookie Tariq Woolen at 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds. Woolen is not only an early candidate for the biggest steal of the draft but also in the early running for Defensive Rookie of the Year.

Perhaps the best part about Woolen translating from UTSA to the NFL is that he’s the same style of player, just significantly better. Woolen still plays incredibly physically at all times, with more penalties (which often happens for a rookie), while also using his length to wall off receivers and create turnovers.

Woolen has been targeted 32 times this season, allowing 18 completions for 230 yards, one touchdown, and four interceptions with a 49.7 passer rating. That’s a dominant season by any standard, let alone for a player who most draft evaluators thought would need a few seasons to be a legitimate starter.

If you’re comparing the current Seattle Seahawks defense to a poor man’s version of the "Legion of Boom," you wouldn’t be far off. Diggs is Earl Thomas over the middle; Neal is a much lighter Kam Chancellor; Tariq Woolen is the receiver-turned-cornerbackCB Day 3pick that shines in Richard Sherman; and on the opposite side of the field is a bruising big corner in Michael Jackson, in the mold of Brandon Browner.

Jackson is another fifth-round pick, but he’s been in the NFL since 2019, bouncing between the Cowboys, Patriots, and now Seahawks. This year is Jackson’s first year as a contributor.

In the slot for Seattle is Coby Bryant, one of two Cincinnati Bearcats rookies making an impact early in their careers. Bryant is a versatile chess piece in the secondary, primarily lining up as the nickel corner but rarely lining up as a linebacker or edge defender and rushing the quarterback.

Bryant has struggled mightily early on as a tackler, as have many other Seahawks defenders, including Darrell Taylor, Uchenna Nwosu, Diggs, and Jordyn Brooks.

At linebacker, Jordyn Brooks is the man. Playing 490 of 493 possible snaps for this Seahawks defense, he’s one of the most important pieces of the defense not only in terms of talent and execution, but the scheme is built around his versatility and ability to perform.

Brooks’ running mate on the second level is Cody Barton, the fourth-year linebacker out of Utah. Barton’s been with the Seahawks all four years of his career, but this is the first season in which the third-round pick is more than just a depth player and special teamer.

While the snaps have increased significantly, the talent hasn’t caught up yet. Barton has struggled mightily for most of this season as a run defender and cover man. The issue in run defense isn’t so much his ability to tackle--he’s been phenomenal as a tackler--but Barton is constantly a second slow to react and isn’t nearly aggressive enough engaging and shedding blockers.

Along the defensive front, the best and most consistent player has been outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu, the free agent addition from the Los Angeles Chargers. Nwosu has generated 25 pressures and three sacks this season, leading the Seahawks. Nwosu was one of the more overlooked signings this offseason, as he was one of the better pass-rushers available but also a sound run defender, and that’s carried over to Seattle so far.

Opposite Nwosu is Darrell Taylor, who has had an incredibly rough third season in the NFL (second actually playing). Taylor’s been average as a pass-rusher but has been nothing short of a complete liability against the run, something that was an issue for him coming out of college, and he hasn’t improved much at the next level.

Lining up inside is the trio of Poona Ford, Shelby Harris, and Quinton Jefferson. The trio rotates depending on the situation, but they’ve all found success this season, giving the Seahawks a position group they can have comfort in.

Jefferson and Harris have the second and third most pressures on this team, with 17 and 13, respectively. Harris was brought to Seattle in the Russell Wilson trade but has found himself excelling in this defense, individually and elevating the talent around him.

Scheme

The 2022 season is a weird year to evaluate the Seahawks defensive scheme because they’re in that gray area of trying to find out what the coaches like to do versus what the players are best at. What we can do, though, is look at what Clint Hurtt has done with this Seattle Seahawks defense in the short time he’s been in control so far.

Schematically, the Giants will face another aggressive defense like the Jacksonville Jaguars were last week. The Giants have played teams who either like dropping defensive linemen into coverage or sending off-ball players as blitzers, and the Seahawks are in that latter bunch.

Hurtt has the Seahawks defense using off-ball linebackers and defensive backs as a fifth rusher while dropping six defenders into coverage. On the back end, the coverage usually plays a light version of cover three with three defenders over the top and three defenders underneath. Although Cover 3 usually has four underneath defenders, this is reduced because of the additional rusher.

The Seahawks will send Jordyn Brooks as the additional rusher on 9.8% of his pass-defense snaps when he’s generated five pressures on those 28 rush attempts. While Brooks is the most common additional rusher, Cody Barton rushes 8% of the time, Ryan Neal 6%, and Coby Bryant on 4% of snaps.

When there isn’t a blitz on the way, the Seahawks play a variety of modern coverages similar to the Baltimore Ravens a couple of weeks ago. Covers 1, 3, 4, and 6 are the most common, giving a variety of post-snap coverages despite the Seahawks style of showing one high pre-snap.

Two-high pre-snap looks have taken the league by storm, but the Seahawks still prefer to keep the middle of the field closed (MOFC) with Quandre Diggs over the top. This is partially because, from a MOFC look, you could play Cover 1, 3, and 6 easily. (Cover 4 is slightly more difficult but still achievable.)

It’s difficult to know what coverage the Seahawks are playing based on their pre-snap looks, especially when they do a good job at rotating over to their assignment.

Up front, the Seahawks will try to generate pressure even when they don’t blitz by running stunts. The Giants have faced stunts before this season, primarily with the Dallas Cowboys (who run stunts more than anyone else), but the Seahawks run stunts more than most teams.

The most comparable team in terms of running stunts on the Giants schedule was the Chicago Bears, but the Seahawks are significantly better at executing than the Bears.

What This Means for the Giants

The Giants did a good job completing short passes against an aggressive blitz-happy defense in the Jaguars last week. Rinse and repeat that same game plan this week against the Seahawks.

Those fire zones that we talked about in the last segment that usually have three deep defenders and three underneath? It is incredibly difficult to cover an NFL offense with three people underneath. The Giants love working underneath, which should be no different this week.

Saquon Barkley will be the workhorse no matter what, but this week should be another week of Barkley seeing targets out of the backfield, either in the flat with room to run or over the middle past the blitzers.

Working more option plays will likely also be a focal point for the Giants, forcing an aggressive defense to either account for Jones as a runner or be gashed on the ground.

Final Thoughts

Daniel Jones should have another solid performance this week with an opponent that will leave passes open underneath, give him scramble opportunities, and dump off opportunities to Saquon.

This game isn’t easy for the Giants, but the game plan is simple: move the ball downfield and get into scoring position.

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