The bye week has come to a close, and it’s time for the Seattle Seahawks to get back to game action, which means a Week 9 Sunday Night Football matchup against the Washington Commanders.
Washington is led
by former Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, and enters the game at 3-5, fresh off a 28-7 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football in Week 8. It’s certainly not the encore performance from a team that went to the NFC Championship Game in 2024, and joining Field Gulls to preview the matchup is Andrew Y of Hogs Haven.
So, without wasting any further time, it’s right to the questions and the answers provided.
1. Dan Quinn was a name often linked to the coaching opening in Seattle to replace Pete Carroll. Seahawks fans are happy with Mike Macdonald through a season and a half, so how do Washington fans feel about the Quinn hire at this point?
Overall, I’d say fans are pretty positive about the Dan Quinn hire. Bottom line, he took a team that was 4-13 in 2023 to the NFC Championship game the very next year (his first year as head coach), so he’s already accomplished a lot. Now obviously he had help with the addition of Jayden Daniels at QB, a roster largely rebuilt by GM Adam Peters in the offseason, and Kliff Kingsbury serving as OC, but Quinn certainly deserves some of that credit. He’s a player’s coach and the players genuinely seem to love him and play hard for him. Quinn also gets credit for being aggressive on 4th down and generally making in-game decisions that are in line with what analytics suggest a team should do to maximize win probability.
The main criticism of Dan Quinn is that he’s supposed to be a defensive head coach, but the defense looked bad since he’s been here. Granted, he inherited a terrible defensive roster and there was only so much that could be done to fix it in an offseason, but the defense still has looked poorly coached due to coverage busts or communication breakdowns, particularly to start the season. I think the problem has been that Quinn favors a specific defensive philosophy revolving around man coverage and a high blitz rate, but it’s a poor fit to his personnel and he is slow to adapt his scheme to the players.
2. So far in 2025 the Commanders are similarly ranked in terms of points per game allowed, but the team is putting nowhere near as many points on the board. Obviously Jayden Daniels missing time has played a big role in that, but what other factors have contributed?
The two biggest factors have been way more injuries and a much more difficult schedule than last year. In terms of injuries, the top three WRs for the Commanders were expected to be Terry McLaurin, Deebo Samuel, and Noah Brown. Noah Brown got injured in week 2 and is on IR. Terry McLaurin got injured week 3 and has only played a single game since, but re-injured himself in it and will miss this week. Deebo Samuel has been playing injured since week 6 and hasn’t been as effective since then. In addition, starting RB Austin Ekeler tore his Achilles in week 2 and is done for the season. Most teams would struggle on offense without their starting QB, top 3 WRs, and a starting RB.
In terms of the schedule, only 5 of Washington’s opponents last season ended the season with a winning record. This year, the Commanders have already played 4 teams with winning records.
3. What is a name that Seahawks fans likely aren’t familiar with, but who will play a role in the outcome and whose name will be heard over the course of the broadcast?
I’ll throw out two names. Luke McCaffrey is the younger brother of Christian McCaffrey and converted from QB to WR in college. He functions as a rotational WR, but his real value has been in kickoff returns. He currently has the 2nd-most kickoff return yards in the NFL and the 7th-most yards per return. He’s largely the reason our offense almost always starts around the 40 yard line.
Jordan Magee is a LB the Commanders took in the 5th round of the 2024 draft. He’s mostly been hidden until recently, but he’s flashed in limited appearances and Dan Quinn has said he’ll get more playing time. Magee adds much-needed youth and speed to the LB group and his motor means he always seems to be around the ball, ready to make a tackle.
4. The Commanders have several former Seahawks on the roster, including Bobby Wagner, Nick Bellore, George Fant, Tyler Ott and Jacob Martin. How have these former Seattle players performed for Washington during the 2025 season?
Bobby Wagner has been the anchor of the defense from a leadership and defensive playcalling perspective and he’s still an excellent tackler, but he’s lost a step with age and is a liability in coverage or on outside runs. Nick Bellore has been a standout special teamer in coverage and is a big reason Washington allows the 4th-fewest average punt return yards and 6th-fewest average kick return yards in the NFL (here’s a great play from him week 1 against the Giants). George Fant is serving as something like 4th-string OT and thankfully, his name has not been called yet. Tyler Ott has been an excellent long snapper whose only mistake of the season has been a false-start penalty in week 7. Jacob Martin has actually been heating up recently, as the three DEs ahead of him on the depth chart (Dorance Armstrong, Deatrich Wise Jr, and Javontae Jean-Baptiste) have all been placed on IR. Martin has passed the eye test by getting consistent pressure and had a breakout 2-sack game last week against the Chiefs.
5. What is your prediction for the game and why?
The Commanders have not been playing very good football recently, largely due to a crushing amount of injuries. However, there have been glimmers of the team starting to adjust their scheme to fit their players and get young players more playing time. The Commanders defense was able to hold the Chiefs to 7 points in the first half, before collapsing in the second half. As a result, I still think the Commanders will lose, but maybe they’ll keep it close, so I’ll guess a score something like 24-21 Seahawks.
And now it’s on to Sunday Night Football on NBC, with the game scheduled for 8:20 Eastern/5:20 Pacific.
