Seahawks spent $124M on defense, changed their front to beat the 49ers. Are they closer?
They spent up to $124 million to remake their defensive front. They changed all of it except for one player.
They extended quarterback Geno Smith with a new $75 million, three-year contract after his Pro Bowl season of 2022.
They drafted a cornerback with the fifth pick in this year’s draft. Dynamic Devon Witherspoon is now a candidate to be the NFL rookie of the year. Then they drafted a running back in the second round, Zach Charbonnet.
They changed their personnel and scheme on their defensive line to be quicker and more aggressive.
The Seahawks did all of that since they last played the San Francisco 49ers for one reason.
To beat the San Francisco 49ers.
Thursday night at Lumen Field (channel 5, 5:20 pm.), they — and all watching in the NFL Thanksgiving night national television showcase — will see how successful Pete Carroll, John Schneider and their Seahawks have been in remodeling to compete with the Niners to win the NFC West.
San Francisco beat Seattle three times last season by a combined score of 87-43. The 49ers are the standard the Seahawks aspire to be, to win the division and have all-important home playoff games.
“I don’t mind giving them credit. They’re as balanced as anyone in football right now. They’re right there,” Carroll said this week.
“You can’t win 12 games in a row like they did (last season on their way to the NFC championship game) and factor in the playoffs and all of that and bring it back to the next season without great continuity and a plan.
“I think Kyle (Shanahan, the 49ers coach) has done a fantastic job. I’ve always had great respect for the guys that come out of his family, and he’s really at the top of his game.”
Shanahan’s Niners are back on top of their games, too. After an injury-filled three-game losing streak, San Francisco has returned from its bye fully healthy. And fully loaded. The 49ers have thrashed AFC South-leading Jacksonville on the road 34-3 and Tampa Bay 27-14 last weekend.
The 49ers are 7-3. The Seahawks are 6-4. That is following Seattle’s meltdown late in blowing a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter and losing at the Los Angeles Rams last weekend.
A loss at home on Thanksgiving night to the 49ers and the Seahawks will be two games plus a tie-breaker behind San Francisco with six games left in the regular season. Seattle’s next games are another Thursday game at Dallas (7-3), a road game at San Francisco then a mammoth test against defending NFC champion Philadelphia (9-1).
Yes, Thursday would be a good time for the Seahawks to extend the NFL’s best record since 2012 following an in-season loss (45-19, .703 winning percentage).
The gap between Seahawks, 49ers
How much have the Seahawks closed the gap on the 49ers?
“Yeah, I like where we are,” Carroll said, “and what we’ve done coverage-wise and system-wise (on defense). This team really does check you out, and they’ll check out you’re scheme.
“We give them a lot of credit and have a lot of respect for them. But I feel like we’re much farther along than we were.”
The Seahawks focused most of their re-doing since the last time they played the Niners on defense. Seattle will start eight players on defense who did not play in the team’s January playoff game in Santa Clara.
That’s because their defense is what San Francisco dominated most thoroughly last season.
They made Witherspoon Seattle’s highest-drafted cornerback since Shawn Springs in 1997. Carroll said the night he drafted Witherspoon in April the former Illinois cornerback has instincts like those of Hall of Famer Troy Polamalu.
The rookie nickel defensive back gives Seattle a new option to defend wide receivers Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk across the middle on San Francisco’s many crossing routes.
Witherspoon has also been a smart and decisive blitzer. The Seahawks didn’t have one of those against quarterback Brock Purdy in the NFC wild-card game in January.
Jamal Adams, Bobby Wagner and Jordyn Brooks did not play in that playoff game in Santa Clara 10 months ago, Seattle’s season-ending 41-23 loss. Adams and Brooks were out with season-ending leg injuries. Wagner was already in his offseason having finished his lone year with the Rams.
The Seahawks signed defensive end Dre’Mont Jones for $51 million from Denver and tackle Jarran Reed for up to $10.8 million this spring to be quicker against 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey’s cuts through the line of scrimmage. Seattle traded last month for New York Giants defensive tackle Leonard Williams to join Reed inside. Since Williams’ arrival weeks ago, Jones has been a better run stopper more outside the offensive tackle at end than he was earlier this season inside.
He and the Seahawks’ defensive line had better be better. Shanahan had his 49ers romp for 181, 170 and 189 yards in the three meetings last season. He ran the ball 112 times at Seattle in those three games.
Reed knows. While in the visiting locker room at SoFi Stadium Sunday minutes after the Seahawks’ bitter loss to the Rams, the eighth-year veteran was already focuses on Seattle’s Thanksgiving-night chance to re-tie the Niners atop the NFC West. Or to fall way back in that race.
“We’re going to sit on this for probably about 24 hours, maybe (just) the play ride. Then we are going to move on to Thursday.
“It’s tough. But it’s what we’ve got to do. We don’t have time to think about it.”
Witherspoon, 22, has never played two games in four days.
He said he’s not doing anything different to prepare for the 49ers on a short turnaround than he has any other week this debut season — except study more in a shorter amount of time.
“Watch film,” he said. “We’ve got a great team that we are going against. They’ve got a great offense, a great defense. They play sound football.
“So we’ve got to go out there and execute.”
This story was originally published November 21, 2023 at 1:00 PM.
