“I have little doubt that he’ll be a bright spot for the Seattle defense,” said Field Gulls of Ernest Jones
The Los Angeles Rams enter hostile territory in Week 9 with a trip to the Seattle Seahawks in a crucial NFC West matchup. Time to see whether Sean McVay will dominate Seattle’s first-year head coach Mike Macdonald like Pete Carroll before him.
This week, I spoke with John Gilbert from SB Nation’s Seahawks blog Field Gulls to get the scoop on Macdonald, an update on a familiar face and more.
Q – The Seahawks have lost four of their last five following a rather shocking 3-0 start to the season. How were the Hawks able to start so strong and what has contributed to their fall back down to earth these last few weeks?
A – This one is pretty simple to answer in that the Seahawks were lucky enough to start the season against three weaker opponents in the Denver Broncos, New England Patriots and Tua Tagovailoa-less Miami Dolphins. Those three teams are a combined 9-11 as of right now, and the team of the three with the best record, the Broncos, the Hawks were lucky enough to face in Week 1 as Bo Nix was making his first career start and the Denver defense hadn’t really come together.
In the five games since then they’ve played opponents who are a combined 23-16, and somehow managed to lose to the 2-6 New York Giants. Reality is that the Seahawks are good enough to beat bad teams, but not good enough to hang with the top tier of teams right now. When things break their way they can hang a double digit victory on a team with playoff aspirations like the Atlanta Falcons, but when things don’t go their way they can drop a home game while giving up 420 yards to a Daniel Jones-quarterbacked opponent.
Q – Head coach Mike Macdonald is the youngest head coach in the NFL—barely beating Sean McVay—and has had a rollercoaster tenure thus far in the Pacific Northwest. What are some things that Macdonald has done well on as a first-time HC and where does he need to grow?
A – If there’s been a roller coaster I think it’s been more driven by fan expectations than by Macdonald’s performance. A lot of fans looked at the Ravens defense of last season and thought Macdonald would bring some sort of magic wand that would magically return the Seattle defense to the glory days of the Legion of Boom, but that obviously hasn’t happened.
In my opinion Macdonald has been fine. He inherited a team that had missed the playoffs two out of the past three years, and the one time they made it they did so as a seven seed simply because the league expanded the postseason. There were a lot of issues that needed to be addressed, and the team addressed a lot of those issues by moving on from key players and then hoping the production could be easily replaced. That has proven to not be the case.
Q – Star wideout DK Metcalf has been out the last two games and the Seahawks’ passing game has struggled mightily in his absence. During that span, Seattle has mustered just two passing plays of 20+ yards. What has been the main contributor to that issue aside from Metcalf being out of the lineup and what are some other problematic areas on offense that a young LA defense can exploit?
A – Metcalf left the Week 7 win over the Falcons with a minor MCL sprain, and his absence against the Bills was obvious. Throughout the season, defenses have respected Metcalf’s speed and big play potential by shading deep safety coverage to his side of the field and playing significantly off in order to prevent the big play.
With Metcalf out due to the knee injury in Week 8, the Bills crowded the line and the deep safeties were often just ten yards off the line of scrimmage. Buffalo had absolutely zero respect for the Seattle receivers as deep threats, and the condensed field. Tyler Lockett, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Jake Bobo are all great at finding open space and catching the ball when it comes their way, but when things are as crowded as the secondary was against Buffalo, there’s not a whole lot of room for them to find in which to sit down. The lack of spacing also allowed for better performance by the Buffalo defense to stop the Seattle run game before it could ever get out of the station.
Q – Former Rams linebacker Ernest Jones got traded to Seattle last week and had a solid debut with 15 total tackles. What grade would you give Jones in his Seahawks debut and how else might Macdonald use him on defense?
A – I’m far from a schematic expert on the defensive side of the ball, but Jones was all over the field and showed exactly why the Seahawks added him. It’ll be an uphill battle for him to become fluent in a third defensive scheme this season after spending training camp with the Rams and the first seven weeks of the season with the Titans, but I have little doubt that he’ll be a bright spot for the Seattle defense through the end of the year.
Whether that will lead to him being retained in free agency, or whether the Seahawks will once again be looking for two new starting linebackers heading into 2025 remains to be seen, but after his Seattle debut a lot of fans are hoping the team keeps him around.
Q – Who are some underrated players on either offense or defense that Rams fans should keep an eye out for in Week 9?
A – On the defensive side of the ball second year outside linebacker Derick Hall has been having an absolute breakout season. He’s been solid setting the edge against the run and leads the team in sacks, so he’s definitely a name Rams fans should know heading into the game.
When the Seahawks are on offense there are a couple of names to watch. The first is A.J. Barner, who in recent weeks appears to have moved past veteran Pharaoh Brown as the second tight end, and who has developed into more of a receiving threat than many imagined when he was drafted. The other is whoever is at right guard. Second-year man Anthony Bradford and rookie Christian Haynes have rotated at the position in recent weeks, and regardless of which one has been on the field there has been no shortage of struggles. They’re both young and athletic with significant upside, but they both lack experience, and as Rams fans likely know well, inexperienced offensive linemen can be an adventure.
