When the Seattle Seahawks did not re-sign Boye Mafe in free agency
, it seemed logical to think that veteran Dante Fowler Jr would assume at least the bulk of Mafe’s snaps. Seattle didn’t draft an edge rusher, didn’t have anything going on with the UDFA market, and didn’t sign or trade for another pass rusher throughout the offseason, so Fowler figured to be getting a healthy workload at a small fraction of the cost of Mafe’s $20 million/year contract.Well, Fowler is getting a small fraction of Mafe’s
snaps.
Dante Fowler is hardly playing
Through three games of the 2026 regular season, Fowler has played a grand total of 39 defensive snaps (including no-plays due to penalties), barely 20 percent of the overall defensive snap count. For perspective, DeMarcus Lawrence played 45 snaps against the Washington Commanders, Derick Hall had 35, and Uchenna Nwosu had 36. Those three either exceeded or closely matched in one game what Fowler has played over three games. Seattle has repeatedly healthy scratched Connor O’Toole and has barely played Mike Morris, so the fourth edge rusher on the team is a distant one.
If we go by NextGenStats, Fowler has three pressures on 19 pass rush snaps, good for a respectable 15.8% pressure rate, with both of his quick pressures coming against the Arizona Cardinals. He has yet to chart a pressure by winning on the outside.
When Fowler isn’t playing, it means more work for Messrs Hall, Lawrence, and Nwosu. Here’s what the snap percentage breakdown looked like for Seattle’s main quartet last season when they were on the field, so this leaves out all of the combined games missed due to injury or suspension.
Seahawks pass rush rotation snap percentages in 2025
Derick Hall: 45.8%
Boye Mafe: 50%
Uchenna Nwosu: 55.7%
DeMarcus Lawrence: 59%
Keep in mind that Nwosu’s percentage is a little lower than expected because he just came back from injury and had a fairly low snap count in his first few games. Let’s take a look at a three-week sample size (vs. Cardinals, at Rams, at Titans) when all four were available and played a normal snap count (e.g. didn’t leave the game early due to injury).
Derick Hall: 99 snaps (48.7%)
Boye Mafe: 78 snaps (38.4%)
Uchenna Nwosu: 120 snaps (59.1%)
DeMarcus Lawrence: 136 snaps (67%)
Mafe played the fewest snaps but still was touching 40 percent, so the Seahawks made sure they had a healthy rotation of four edge rushers.
Here’s what the snap percentages look like through Week 3 for Hall, Nwosu, Lawrence, and Fowler.
Seahawks pass rush rotation snap percentages in 2026
Derick Hall: 56.8%
Uchenna Nwosu: 48.9%
DeMarcus Lawrence: 61.6%
Dante Fowler Jr: 20.5%
We expect Hall to play more, in part, because he just got paid. Lawrence is on pace for a higher snap share than last season, while Chenna is down a bit. Fowler hasn’t had a snap share this low since the 2023 season with the Dallas Cowboys.
Fowler has started the season as almost exclusively a situational edge. Twelve of Fowler’s 19 pass rush snaps have come on third down. When he’s been on the field for first- and second-down, he’s primarily been on running plays.
Seattle is more or less playing a three-man edge rotation with an occasional cameo from Fowler, which is considerably different from last season. Nick Emmanwori has had some snaps at edge but he didn’t play Week 1 and scarcely played Week 2. Tyrice Knight, who had some edge looks in training camp and preseason, has had a grand total of one passing down rep in the regular season, and he was tasked with covering the flat. There is no “in the aggregate” replacement happening.
As to why Fowler is playing so infrequently? I’m not sure. He hasn’t been bad in a limited sample size, but there must be something that is giving Mike Macdonald and the coaching staff pause. Unless that changes any time soon, the Seahawks will be putting the onus of their edge rush productivity on three players instead of four, one of whom already declared he’s retiring after this season. Without a true, standout, 10+ sack guy among Lawrence, Hall, and Nwosu, I don’t think that’s a promising proposition as the season progresses and the Seahawks play offenses much better than they’ve faced thus far.
