The Seattle Seahawks
defeated the Arizona Cardinals 31-7 in Week 2 to set a franchise record 12-game winning streak and improve Mike Macdonald’s road record to 15-2 as a head coach. The offense started off with a boom before a couple of bust drives resulted in a 7-7 tied scoreline at halftime, but Seattle took advantage of a raucous traveling fanbase and a rock-solid run defense to shut Arizona out 24-0 in the second half.There were plenty of honorable mentions who embodied the idea of complementary football this week. AJ Barner, Jalen Sundell and Brady Russell moved bodies in the blocking game, regardless of their silence on the stat sheet. Brian Fleury trended toward a Dud selection with a few failed red zone trips early on, but once he decided
to keep feeding the top dawg on the Seahawks’ offense, the first half’s labor set up plenty of fruit down the line.
Here are your four Studs and two Duds for Week 2.
STUDS
Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Barring an all-time performance in either Sunday Night Football or Monday Night Football, Jaxon Smith-Njigba will be the NFL’s Week 2 Offensive MVP. The superstar wide receiver was as good as any game last season today. He toasted the frantic Cardinals secondary for nine receptions on 11 targets, a whopping 155 yards and three touchdowns. The Cardinals blew a couple of coverages, but were extremely stingy against the rest of the Seahawks’ receiving corps—who only racked up 80 yards on 15 targets themselves. The big difference in the game today was that JSN found countless ways to exploit good defensive backs, giving Drew Lock and Seattle’s offense a nuclear option. He opened the game by fooling safety Budda Baker and cornerback Will Johnson with ridiculously technical route running, exploding free for a career-long 82-yard touchdown and giving Lock the confidence he needed to rout the Cardinals later on. He began the second half by “bean-topping” cornerback Max Melton for a 7-yard score, despite them being in a phone booth together at the goal line. He capped off the hat trick by taking two defenders—Baker and Denzel Clarke—out of a 3rd-and-6 play on one buttery cut to ice the game in crunch time with a 12-yard touchdown. Today proved there’s no reason he can’t win back-to-back NFL Offensive Player of the Year awards.
Drew Lock
Many were hesitant to believe in Seattle with quarterback Drew Lock making his third career start for the Seahawks today, but he was undeniable. He flexed the arm talent that made him the 42nd overall pick back in 2019 by layering throws to all areas of the field, but the confidence with which he attacked them is what should command respect. His 19-for-26 passing line gave him a 73.1% completion percentage, which would be elite even for a starter. There’s no reason to fault him for pushing 155 of his 235 passing yards to JSN, either; wouldn’t you? The chemistry they had wasn’t as big of a dropoff from Sam Darnold as most people expected. What’s crystal clear, though, is that Lock has a lot of the same traits as Darnold. Is he a top five backup in the league in terms of fit?
Julian Love
Julian Love is the number one All-Pro candidate at the safety position through two weeks of the 2026 NFL season. Not only does he have an interception in each (three games in a row including Super Bowl LX), but he’s been one of the most menacing hitters on tape. Nick Emmanwori and Devon Witherspoon were more popular breakout candidates as younger names who played more last season, but Love’s announced himself as the gold standard for all defensive backs to meet this season. Three tackles, another interception and another half of shutout football later, this should be the week Love receives more national media attention.
Leonard Williams
The Seahawks’ defensive gameplan under Mike Macdonald begins with stopping the run, which Leonard Williams does in his sleep. His stat line is consistently dominant while rotating between the defensive tackle and end roles—four tackles, two assists, a sack and two tackles for loss. You can also see his influence in the rest of the defense’s stats, but his key performance indicator is the silence of the opposition’s run game. The Cardinals’ leading rusher, running back Jeremiyah Love, only had 29 yards on nine carries. This means the Seahawks’ “Dark Side” defense still hasn’t allowed a 100-yard rusher for 31 straight games, dating back to the 2024 regular season. Once Arizona had to abandon the run, tight end Trey McBride’s big day came to a screeching halt, as did the rest of their scoring. That doesn’t happen without the man they call “Big Cat.”
DUDS
Rashid Shaheed
While Smith-Njigba filled up the stat sheet, fellow wideout Rashid Shaheed stayed quiet—and gave up a costly punt return fumble that let the Cardinals stay in the game longer than they should’ve. He earned a ton of trust down the stretch last season after starting his Seahawks career slowly, but he’s fallen back into inconsistent usage patterns to begin 2026. He’s more of a big-play threat already, so some quiet weeks can be forgiven—but turning the ball over today means he has to earn trust back. The easiest opportunities for growth in this game are the two fumbles from Shaheed and running back Jadarian Price. The fact the team won 31-7 while coughing up the ball twice speaks to how dominant the rest of the offense and defense were after the halftime adjustments. However, there’s no doubt the team will be hammering the gauntlet drill this week in practice.
Rodney Thomas II
There’s a lot to like about how safety Rodney Thomas II has played as a backup, but more cracks started to show in his game against Arizona—and he’ll be under immediate pressure to stay on the active roster as Emmanwori and Ty Okada return to the starting lineup in coming weeks. He was great at crashing into the box again today, but dropped one of the easier interceptions you’ll see at the NFL level. Like Shaheed, he gave the Cardinals unnecessary life when he committed a pass interference penalty on wide receiver Michael Wilson which extended their drive that ended the first quarter and resulted in their only score of the game. There’s plenty of reason to believe the Yale graduate can attack his weaknesses in practice this week, but the Washington Commanders will be attacking the same ones if and when he plays next Sunday.
This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks' Four Studs and Two Duds in Week 2 win over Cardinals
