The New Orleans Saints will head to Lumen Field to face the Seattle Seahawks in Week 3 of the 2025 NFL season. To break it down, John Gilbert and Mookie Alexander of Field Gulls join us to preview Sunday afternoon’s matchup.
NJ: Mike Macdonald is entering his second season as Seattle’s head coach—what’s the biggest difference you’ve noticed in his approach this year?
JG: It’s seems that it’s less that Macdonald has a different approach this season, and more simply that with the benefit of a second
offseason in the building, he’s been able to better mold the roster the way he would like. It’s still very early in the season, but the players added in free agency and the draft have had a much larger impact early in the season compared to last year, with the 2024 outside free agent class one that the organization would likely prefer to forget.
MA: I’d say he’s more hands on with the offense this year. Even by his own admission as a rookie head coach, with defense as his calling card, he sort of delegated those duties to his offensive coaching staff, and the end result was offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb uncorking one of the worst Seahawks offenses in years. Grubb is gone, former Saints OC Klint Kubiak is in, but Macdonald is clearly more involved with the offense from a coaching standpoint, which traces back to OTAs and minicamp. I sense that Grubb was never a real fit for Macdonald given Seattle was so late in the hiring process, so Kubiak and his staff are more closely aligned with his vision of how he wants his offense to operate. Macdonald may be a coach from a defensive background, but in his second season I think he’s getting more comfortable becoming a true head coach and overseeing the whole operation and not areas he’s more familiar/comfortable with.
NJ: With New Orleans selecting QB Tyler Shough in the second-round of this past draft, I’m sure Saints fans would be interested to hear how Seahawks third-round pick Jalen Milroe looked throughout his first offseason as a pro.
JG: Milroe flashed athleticism during the offseason, training camp and in the preseason, giving rise to hope among fans that he could develop into a situational weapon for the Seattle offense. Through the first two games of the preseason, he flashed the athletic skillset that made him such an intriguing prospect, going 9-15 for 107 yards, with 56 more yards on the ground at a clip of seven yards per carry. Then fans got to see him in extended action in the preseason finale, and it was obvious that he’s a highly-athletic, developmental project.
That, of course, hasn’t stopped a small group of fans for calling for Milroe to start every time Sam Darnold has a poor play, but there’s a reason why Milroe has seen the field for exactly one offensive snap through the first two regular season games.
MA: Don’t expect to see Milroe much this season, maybe not even this weekend. He was inactive last week as an emergency 3rd QB and had one (unsuccessful) snap against the San Francisco 49ers. As tantalizing as Milroe’s physical traits are, the truth of the matter is he’s too raw to take over the reins of the starting offense any time soon. I was at a couple of training camps reporting for Field Gulls, and he was consistently with the third-team offense. Established beat reporters consistently had him working with 3s, and in preseason he worked with 3s almost the whole way bar a couple of series to start the Packers game. Milroe has a great arm and his speed in the open field is real, but there are accuracy issues to clean-up and the ball security in the preseason finale (three turnovers) wasn’t great. I actually came away from camp and preseason a little more optimistic about what he can do as a passer than my skepticism of him at the end of his Alabama career.
There’s really no rush with Milroe this year given Sam Darnold is the guy for now. Milroe was always likely to be a “stash for later” prospect who needs time to develop all facets of his game without the pressures of running the first-team offense. If we do see Milroe more often this season I suspect it’ll be in the back-end of the year after more reps with the starters.
NJ: What do you think is Seattle’s biggest weakness heading into Week 3?
JG: From a personnel perspective, through the first two games it appears as though what the offense is most lacking is a speedy deep threat who challenges the defense and keeps the safeties out of the box and opening up the underneath for Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Cooper Kupp. It certainly hasn’t kept JSN from going off in the first two games of the season, but the rest of the receiving options on the roster have had a very slow start to the season, with rookie tight end Elijah Arroyo being the team’s third leading receiver with just 38 yards so far.
MA: The Seahawks don’t take care of the ball well enough for my liking. In 19 games under Mike Macdonald, the Seahawks have turned it over at least once a whopping 15 times and at least twice 11 times. If you want to blame Geno Smith and his 15 interceptions for the turnover issues last year, then whatever, but Geno lost no fumbles and the Seahawks as a team had nine lost fumbles. Seattle’s special teams returners were so bad last season that their primary options both got cut after losing fumbles against the New York Jets. So far the special teams has been much better this season, but they’ve had critical lost fumbles by Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Sam Darnold, plus Darnold’s two interceptions against the Steelers. If there’s ever a route to victory for the Saints on the road at Lumen Field, it’s going for punch-outs, strip sacks, and having an aggressive secondary against a passing offense that will generally rely on shorter passing routes to eventually open up more explosive shots later in the game. Turnovers have been a significant issue under Macdonald and thus far in 2025 that problem hasn’t been shaken off.
NJ: Who is one under-the-radar Seahawks player that stood out this offseason and might be a difference-maker against the Saints?
JG: In a secondary full of recognizable names, including Julian Love, Devon Witherspoon, Nick Emmanwori and Riq Woolen, Josh Jobe has done nothing except everything that has been asked of him. Jobe spent the first two seasons of his career with the Philadelphia Eagles after going undrafted out of Alabama in 2022, before spending the first half of the 2024 season on the Seattle practice squad. He provided solid depth in the secondary in 2024, and has made a handful of high level plays through the first two weeks this season.
MA: Cornerback Josh Jobe has gone from a practice squad player to a key part of Seattle’s secondary. He had an interception off of Brock Purdy in Week 1 and had a big role in shutting down DK Metcalf in the win over the Steelers last week. Per NextGenStats, teams targeting Jobe are just 2/8 for 8 yards and an interception. Devon Witherspoon (who might not play due to a knee sprain) and Riq Woolen may get the headlines, but Jobe has emerged as a legitimate starting outside corner in this league and could be key to Seattle’s pass defense thriving on Sunday. I’d also watch for rookie receiver Tory Horton on offense, who has just two catches on the season (both against the Steelers) but one of those was a 21-yard touchdown. He’s a speedy player who can do real damage as a return specialist, and he was so good in camp and preseason that the Seahawks jettisoned Marquez Valdes-Scantling off the roster to make Horton the de facto WR3.
NJ: According to FanDuel Sportsbook, the Seahawks (-390) are currently 7.5-point favorites over the Saints (+310) in Sunday’s matchup; what is your final score prediction?
JG: One of the jokes on Field Gulls is that when I pick the Seahawks to win in 5Qs, they lose, and when I pick them to lose, they invariably win. But if the Seahawks lose to this year’s version of the Saints, they deserve every bit of the loss. Seattle is far from a juggernaut this season, but I simply cannot pick a team that lost to Mac Jones in 2025, so my prediction is Seattle 26, New Orleans 13.
MA: I’m picking a comfortable Seahawks win but somehow don’t feel great about it. Seattle was just 3-6 at home last season and already 0-1 this year. The last time the Seahawks were huge favorites at home was against the New York Giants, who probably should’ve won by more than the 29-20 final score. New Orleans has been very competitive against Seattle’s NFC West rivals, but I think that Spencer Rattler will be a bit rattled going on the road in a hostile environment, which will lead to some mistakes he generally hasn’t made through the first two weeks of the season. Seattle’s defense will lead to offense through takeaways and short fields, and in the end the Seahawks will pull away late for a 31-13 win. Despite the lopsided score I have on here, I give New Orleans a chance based on the Cardinals and 49ers performances and Seattle’s years-long unwillingness to have comfortable victories.
Thank you again to John Gilbert and Mookie Alexander for joining us to preview this week’s matchup! You can check out the rest of their work here.
