'Best He's Been': Emotional Jordyn Brooks Catalyst For Surging Seattle Seahawks' Defense

Demonstrating far more bravado on the field than in the past, a grateful Jordyn Brooks continued to make the most of his return from a torn ACL in a dominant outing for the Seattle Seahawks as they shut down the Arizona Cardinals in a 20-10 win.

SEATTLE, Wash. - With the Seattle Seahawks nursing a slim 17-10 lead midway through the third quarter, Arizona Cardinals quarterback Joshua Dobbs took the snap from under center on 3rd and 2, faked to running back Emari Demercado, and then ran a naked bootleg to his left.

Initially after the fake, Dobbs appeared to have plenty of green turf in front of him to pick up a new set of downs for the Cardinals. But just nine months removed from surgery to repair a torn ACL, flying around the field as if the injury never happened, Seahawks linebacker Jordyn Brooks had other plans.

As Dobbs turned upfield and made the decision to scramble for the first down, Brooks rocketed from his weakside linebacker spot on the other side of the formation in picturesque pursuit, meeting the quarterback three yards in the backfield. Teaming up with edge rusher Darrell Taylor, the tandem stopped the ball carrier in his tracks at the line of scrimmage for no gain, forcing Arizona to punt for the fourth time in seven possessions.

"You can't see anything in his game that's off. This is the best he's been," coach Pete Carroll told reporters after the game, marveling about Brooks' astounding recovery from a severe knee injury. "And he showed that, and he's just cleaned his game up so well, where he's way more consistent than he was. It wasn't a consistency -- he would go for stuff and maybe not at the right time. His timing now is really much advanced. And so he's just playing better football."

Typically a calm and reserved playmaker who prefers to let his pads do the talking on game day, Brooks looked like safety Jamal Adams had stolen his uniform on Sunday, jawing and strutting his stuff in the backfield to cheers from a boisterous sellout crowd as he celebrated his partial sack.

While such behavior may seem out of character, Brooks couldn't possibly be having more of a blast starring for a surging Seahawks defense that held an opponent under 250 total yards and 17 points for a third straight game in a 20-10 victory at Lumen Field. When asked about the increased emotion and fire between the lines following the game, he credited the talent around him and a new perspective for the change in persona.

"Look who I'm playing with," Brooks responded. "I'm playing with Bobby Wagner. I'm playing with Jamal, Q Diggs, young 'Spoon, Tariq Woolen, Uchenna, J Reed. I mean, it's a bunch of guys that can play ball. When you look around and see that, if that don't make you excited, I don't know what does. ... And honestly, getting hurt has given me more appreciation for the game. I think in the past, y'all see me make a play and I wouldn't do anything, I'd just walk off. But it's just appreciating where I'm at and appreciating who I'm playing with. And so I think that's what you're seeing right now."

From a statistics standpoint, Brooks has finished games with more tackles than the nine he produced against the Cardinals on Sunday afternoon. But now in his fourth NFL season, you'd be hard-pressed to find a game where he played at a higher level since entering the league as a first-round pick in 2020.

Running sideline-to-sideline and crashing the line of scrimmage with relentless tenacity, Brooks put on a clinic after halftime, seemingly finding his way to the ball carrier on every play. In addition to his clutch third down stop on Dobbs midway through the third quarter, he later added a fantastic play chasing down speedy receiver Rondale Moore on a jet sweep for a one-yard loss and also brought down the quarterback after an aborted snap for a three-yard loss.

Making plays all over the field as a run defender, pass rusher, and in coverage, Jordyn Brooks had one of the best performances of his career as the Seahawks held off the Cardinals in a 20-10 win / © Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

Having been teammates with Brooks in his first two seasons before spending a year away in Los Angeles, fellow linebacker Bobby Wagner sees a young defender playing with more trust in "what he sees" and free from the burden of overthinking things. Like Carroll, he continues to be blown away by his performance in the aftermath of an injury that often requires close to a year to fully round back into form from.

“He’s always been fast and can always make plays, but I think some of the plays he’s just trusting his instincts, trusting his film study," Wagner commented. "And I think that always happens over time as you play in this league, you learn to trust what you see, you learn to trust your preparation. He’s done a really, really good job. I don’t want to keep harping on it, but I will. What he’s doing is so impressive, because he had a crazy injury. ... He’s making a lot of plays. I don’t want to overlook the road that he had to get to get to this point, and how well he’s playing.”

With Wagner back in the fold as the Mike linebacker in the middle, Brooks has had to adjust to not being on the field every down. When the Seahawks transition to dime packages with a sixth defensive back on the field, which they did quite often to his frustration on Sunday, he has to sprint to sideline in favor of an extra safety or cornerback.

But rather than sulk about not being on the field full-time, Brooks has been using the sub-package usage as motivation. In particular, as he did stopping Dobbs on the designed naked bootleg, he wants to come through on every opportunity on short yardage "money" third and fourth downs, aiming to make himself an indispensable playmaker that Seattle can't afford to take off the field moving forward.

Re-emerging as a centerpiece for a Seahawks defense featuring a blend of hardened veterans like Wagner and exciting rookies like cornerback Devon Witherspoon, Brooks sees a unit starting to form an identity built around speed, violence, and discipline. While happy with the latest showing against the Cardinals, he's far from satisfied with the belief they have not yet peaked and he's eager to see just how good the unit can be as the group continues to gel.

“It’s been fun. Dude’s been getting hits. First half we were a little slow coming out, but second half, it was fun. I think these last three or four weeks we’ve really been finding our identity. I’m just happy where we are, and excited to see where we’re going.”