Seahawks keys at D.C.: Sam Darnold and the ball, Devon Witherspoon’s role
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is the league’s leading receiver.
The guy throwing all the passes to him, Sam Darnold, is leading the NFL in yards each time he throws. He’s been all the Seahawks expected when they traded Geno Smith this spring then signed Darnold, the 2024 Minnesota Vikings star, to a $100 million contract to be their quarterback.
In some ways, Darnold’s been more than they expected.
Darnold attacking defenses with Smith-Njigba running deep and all over the field, plus a tricky, aggressive defense, have the Seahawks at 5-2. They lead the NFC West entering their Sunday night showcase game at Bobby Wagner’s Washington Commanders (3-5) in Landover, Maryland, just outside the nation’s capitol (5:20 p.m., NBC, KING-5 television locally).
Yet the Seahawks have multiple problems on offense: Darnold and friends turn the ball over too much; and they still aren’t running the ball the way they have redesigned themselves to.
Improving those issues will help them hold off a desperate, reeling Commanders team — and keep the Seahawks atop the division entering a home game with Arizona next week.
Washington reached the NFC championship game last season but has lost three straight. Quarterback Jayden Daniels didn’t play in the Commanders’ 28-7 loss at Kansas City Monday night because of a hamstring injury. His team announced Friday he will play Sunday night against the Seahawks.
Washington is minus-5 in football’s most important statistic, turnover margin. That’s third-worst in the league.
The fourth-worst? Seattle.
The Seahawks are at minus-4. Darnold has turned the ball over in the deciding moments of the Seahawks’ only losses.
He lost a fumble to San Francisco’s Nick Bosa in the red zone with Seattle down 17-13 in the final minute of the opener Sept. 7. That was after the 49ers Pro Bowl edge rusher bulled right tackle Abe Lucas into Darnold as the QB was looking to throw a check-down pass.
Darnold then chose not to throw to his “hot” receiver, rookie Tory Horton, on Tampa Bay’s safety blitz late in a tie game against Tampa Bay Oct. 5. Darnold held the ball too long. Unblocked Antonie Winfield Jr. hit him as Darnold tried to throw a check-down pass to Cooper Kupp instead over the middle. The hit caused the pass to deflect off a lineman’s helmet to Tampa Bay’s Lavonte David. The interception handed the Buccaneers their winning field goal.
In Seattle’s most recent game, Oct. 20 against Houston before its bye last week, Darnold again held onto the ball too long while in his own end zone. He tried to scramble outside left tackle Charles Cross’ block on Will Anderson. The Texans edge rusher sacked Darnold and forced the QB to fumble. Anderson recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown.
“As a team, we had four turnovers,” Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak said of the Houston game. “Just not good enough offensively.”
And it’s not been just that game. They’ve played only one game this season with zero turnovers: their 20-12 win at Jacksonville last month. In the three other games Darnold has not had an interception, the Seahawks have lost fumbles. In the one other game they haven’t fumbled, in week two at Pittsburgh, Darnold threw two interceptions.
“You can’t put your defense in those positions,” Kubiak said. “And those are things we’re focusing on eliminating moving forward.”
Yet that doesn’t mean the play caller is going to have Darnold throwing quicker, shorter passes instead of waiting for Smith-Njigba to break open against all the coverages he has beaten through the first seven games. It doesn’t mean Kubiak is going to change what he’s been calling for the sake of reducing risk.
The players just simply have to take better care securing the ball. “The other part of that is you’ve got to stay aggressive,” Kubiak said. “And part of being aggressive is there’s going to be times where that stuff happens. “So, we don’t want to lose that part of our game either.”
Second key: Run better
At first glance the Seahawks appear to be running the ball OK. They are averaging 106.1 yards rushing per game, 21st in the league.
But that’s not been because Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet have been rippin’ it running the ball. It’s been because Kubiak has called so many running plays for Walker and Charbonnet. Seattle is running 49% of the time. That’s the most in this pass-happy league.
The Seahawks are 31st in the NFL in yards per rush (3.68). That’s actually worse than last season (4.2).
The league knows Seattle is going to run. The Seahawks face more “stacked boxes,” eight or more defenders crowding near the line of scrimmage, than any other NFL team.
“Searching for answers,” is how coach Mike Macdonald described his team’s running game.
So how do the Seahawks solve this?
By running some more. They need their offensive line of Cross, trash-talking rookie left guard Grey Zabel, center Jalen Sundell, struggling right guard Anthony Bradford and Lucas to push more defenders back and out of Walker’s and Charbonnet’s running lanes.
“We’ll never be satisfied with where we’re at,” Kubiak said. “But I really have a ton of respect for how hard our backs are working and how our young line has come together. Every week is a new scheme and a new game.
“It’s just another area of our offense that we’ve got to continue to improve on.”
What encourages Kubiak to keep calling running plays?
“I see our starting five (offensive linemen) coming together and getting on the same page,” he said. “I see our running backs being detailed. And I see a group that’s improving weekly.”
And now Seattle is getting its 275-pound rookie fullback back from an ankle injury. The team activated Robbie Ouzts off injured reserve on Saturday.
Can Ouzts clear some better paths for the Seahawks to run better Sunday night against the Commanders? Washington ranks 22nd in run defense, 21st in points allowed and 27th overall.
Third key: Incorporate Devon Witherspoon
The two-time Pro Bowl cornerback is playing, for just the third time in eight games. He’s back from what Macdonald had said was a bruised medial-collateral ligament in his knee.
The question Macdonald has considered this week: Does Witherspoon go back into the role he’s had most of the two seasons Macdonald has been his Seahawks coach?
Witherspoon has primarily been the team’s nickel, slot cornerback inside when Macdonald goes to five defensive backs. That’s been about two-thirds of the time. But while he was out injured rookie safety Nick Emmanwori came back from his own leg injury to be the nickel. And Emmanwori has excelled there. He’s been Seattle’s best back-seven defender, and surest tackler.
It doesn’t seem wise to take Emmanwori, smashing in his first week-to-week job in the NFL, out of what he’s doing best. And it’s not as if Witherspoon would be wasted staying outside at cornerback. It’s his spot in base defense.
Putting him there and Emmanwori in nickel creates the question at the second outside-cornerback spot: Josh Jobe or Riq Woolen?
Macdonald loves Jobe. Loves his aggressive plays on passes in flight. Loves his tackling. Loves his instincts.
Opponents have targeted Woolen, not Jobe, for big plays this season. Woolen spent much of the first half of the season leading the league in penalties. He has six flags, while missing one game with a concussion last month.
We know Ty Okada, coming off his best game yet, is poised to start a fourth consecutive game for injured Julian Love. The Seahawks put Love, their Pro Bowl safety, on injured reserve Saturday.
Who the three primary cornerbacks are will be the news to start the game Sunday night.
The pick
Witherspoon’s return leads Macdonald to blitz more with the dynamic cornerback plus Emmanwori getting after the less-than-fully healthy Daniels. Ouzts’ return isn’t a decisive edge but helps the sickly running game. And Darnold reduces if not eliminates the turnovers to score enough points for Seattle’s defense to win the game. Seahawks 24, Commanders 16
This story was originally published November 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM.