Seattle Seahawks LB Boye Mafe Adjusting to Increased Attention From Opponents

While still enjoying a breakout season for the Seattle Seahawks, Boye Mafe has been shutout in the sack column in four consecutive losses as opponents have dedicated extra blockers to keep him away from quarterbacks and he continues to search for ways to succeed with the additional attention.

RENTON, Wash. - Before his sophomore season kicked off in September, despite turning heads in training camp and being coined as the most improved player by coach Pete Carroll, Boye Mafe remained one of the Seattle Seahawks biggest mysteries heading into the 2023 campaign.

After all, Mafe generated only three sacks and 10 quarterback pressures as a rookie, posting a pressure rate below seven percent in a reserve role. With such limited production, he stood out as a major unknown with him poised to jump into the starting lineup opposite of veteran Uchenna Nwosu.

Living up to the hype created by Carroll in August, Mafe's stellar summer translated into a fast start as the Seahawks won six of their first nine games. Even after Nwosu went down with a season-ending pectoral injury, the former second-round pick out of Minnesota continued to torture quarterbacks, setting a new franchise record with a sack in seven consecutive games.

During that span, Mafe produced 30 pressures - more than three times his entire total as a rookie - for a 13.3 percent pressure rate. Per Pro Football Focus charting, he ranked 19th among qualified edge defenders in pass rush win rate and 17th in pass rush productivity, emerging as one of the league's best young edge defenders.

Since setting Seattle's new mark for most consecutive games with a sack, however, Mafe has had to deal with the consequences of his own greatness. As opponents have taken notice of his ascent and started treating him like the rising star that he is, he's seen an uptick in double teams and chip blocks from running backs and tight ends over the past four games.

“It’s definitely changed a little bit, how they decided to block me and how they use different things," Mafe said before Friday's practice. "The greatest thing for me is just understanding if I’m taking on chips, doubles, whatever it is, is how to let that opportunity open up for other guys and find my way to also continue to be productive in those situations. Whatever it may be that I need to do, finding what those things are and using those to my advantage.”

With opposing offenses dedicating more attention to Mafe in an effort to limit his ability to wreak havoc off the edge, the former Minnesota standout hasn't registered a sack in a month and only has produced one quarterback hit in the past four games. Along with limiting his effectiveness, the strategy has successfully slowed down Seattle's pass rush as a whole with the team only producing one sack in two of those four games, which all resulted in defeats.

Though he has double-digit pressures in the past four games, Boye Mafe has not recorded a sack and only one quarterback hit in the past month as the Seahawks have lost all four contests / © Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

Most notably, without Nwosu available for the rest of the season, the Seahawks haven't received much production at all from the rest of their edge group. Though Darrell Taylor has a pair of sacks in the past four games, rookie Derick Hall hasn't generated a single pressure and veteran Frank Clark has been so ineffective the team decided to make him a healthy scratch in two of the past three weeks.

For his part, Mafe hasn't been a complete non-factor since his sack streak was snapped in a Week 11 loss in Los Angeles. In fact, his disruptiveness has not dipped much away from the sack department. According to PFF, he still has tallied 13 quarterback pressures and a respectable 12.5 percent pressure rate, which isn't much of a drop off from his red-hot start.

The difference, of course, has been that Mafe hasn't been able to get home near as often thanks in part to the extra attention being sent his direction. Aside from not having any sacks in the past four games, he only has registered a single quarterback hit and one batted pass in that span. While he has been productive as far as pressures go, he hasn't been able to deliver impact plays as he did earlier in the year.

Reflecting on his recent individual slump, Mafe acknowledged that the way opponents have attacked him with extra blockers and slide protection has made it more difficult to get to the quarterback. Exhibiting the mindset shared by all great pass rushers, he doesn't think that should make much of a difference slowing him down and expects more from himself.

“Understanding that you have to find a way to get around it because players do it, there's no excuse of how that’s the reason I haven’t been productive. I got to find a way to be better," Mafe remarked.

Down to the final four games of the season and a game out of a wild card spot, Mafe will look to snap his drought on Monday night against the Eagles, who boast one of the league's premier offenses with Jalen Hurts at the helm. Citing the dual-threat quarterback's mobility and penchant for extending plays, he will have to be cognizant of not losing contain and allowing the signal caller to do damage escaping the pocket. He also will have to be careful about how far upfield he rushes to prevent Hurts from climbing the pocket as a runner.

As is always the case with talented running quarterbacks, Mafe will have to have his head on a swivel and play with great eye discipline defending Hurts.

With that said, Hurts ranks second out of 28 quarterbacks in the NFL in average time to throw (3.18 seconds), often holding onto the ball hoping for one of his star receivers to come open downfield. As a result, even behind an excellent offensive line with top-tier tackles in Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata, he has been sacked 32 times, the fifth-highest total in the league this year.

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If Mafe can get back in a groove with the vocal 12s roaring behind him at Lumen Field and win a fair share of his matchups against Johnson and Mailata, who actually has allowed the sixth-most pressures (41) among tackles this year per PFF, he should have a prime opportunity to get several hits on Hurts. At the very least, assuming the Eagles continue the recent trend sending double teams or chip blocks his way, he's hopeful those situations will open things up for the rest of the Seahawks rushers to create consistent pressure.

“If I don’t have a one on one or someone else has a one on one, that’s an opportunity for them, or if I have the one on one then I have to take advantage of those opportunities and when those do happen there’s so many guys that have to block, we have talent across the line. If they decide to leave me one on one, I have to take advantage of that and same with the other guys when they get their one on one, they take advantage of that.”