As the dust settles on a glorious and unrivaled title run for the 2025 Seattle Seahawks, the 2026 version of the team will need to get used to going from the ‘hunters’ to the ‘hunted’.
The NFC West rival, Los Angeles Rams, have started stacking roster transactions to move into championship position. Who could blame them, as they feel the burn of coming up short of a Super Bowl appearance by a grand total of four points?
Within the last week, the Rams made a blockbuster trade with the Kansas City Chiefs
for the University of Washington’s own (which irks me) Trent McDuffie. They then paid the man. In addition to complicating future negotiations with Seattle’s own superstar corner, it helps to shore up a weakness from last season.
In the NFC Championship game (which carried the vibe of the true match between the NFL’s two best teams) this past season, Sam Darnold silenced critics with a 25-for-36, 346-yard and three TD performance (all scores were against pressure) against the LA defense. On the other side, Matt Stafford went 22-for-35 with 374 yards and three TD’s. Darnold outdueled Stafford, earning a 127.8 QB Rating compared to Matt’s 127.6 vs. Mike Macdonald’s Dark Side defense.
You think that bothers Sean McVay? How about the fact that Jaxon Smith-Njigba unleashed a 115-yard outburst in the first half alone? He ended the game catching “at least one pass against six different Rams defenders in coverage” (Next Gen Stats via SI).
The beginning of the league’s legal tampering period brought about news of another cornerback addition by the NFC team in Los Angeles: KC’s Jaylen Watson signed to reunite with McDuffie and bolster LA’s pass defense.
The Rams were the only team besides the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (who did so against an injury-laden Seattle squad) to exploit the Seahawks’ historic ‘25 defense. To do so, then still lose because of a soft secondary had to have been keeping McVay and Les Snead (THE “F- them picks” GM) up at night, based on these huge swings.
Want another trait that these two share in common? McDuffie put up a 5.9% missed tackle rate last year, good for 8th in the NFL among CB’s. One of the seven corners with a better rate than that is none other than Jaylen Watson, with a 5.8% missed tackle rate.
The Los Angeles Rams are seeking to be a better team in both coverage as well as tackling on the outside in the upcoming campaign.
There are a slew of chess moves left to be played in this divisional arms race, leading into the 2026 NFL season, and Seattle’s second ever title defense.
