How Cardinals’ defense has taken page from Seahawks
Arizona heavily featured the Cover 6 defense Seattle likes to use during its Week 1 upset of the Chargers.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba of the Seattle Seahawks is tackled during a game against the Arizona Cardinals on Nov. 9, 2025, in Seattle. (Soobum Im/Getty Images)
(Soobum Im/Getty Images)
The Seattle Seahawks are about to face the team coming off the NFL’s biggest upset in Week 1.
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The Arizona Cardinals went on the road and knocked off the Los Angeles Chargers 26-14 last Sunday in a result that eliminated many from their NFL survivor pools.
In that Week 1 win, the Cardinals’ defense did something very similar to what Seattle’s does under Mike Macdonald: use plenty of Cover 6.
The Cardinals used Cover 6 a league-high 42.9% of the time last week, according to Football Insights. The Seahawks were the next closest at 40.5%, and 22 teams used the coverage less than 20% of the time.
The strategy paid off for Arizona in the opener. Its defense held Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert to 209 yards, one touchdown and one interception on 17-of-27 passing, and posted the 10th-best EPA per dropback at minus-0.09.
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It was a noticeable switch in defensive strategy for Arizona under fourth-year defensive coordinator Nick Rallis following the departure of defensive-minded head coach Jonathan Gannon. Last season the Cardinals used Cover 6 just 6% of the time while mostly relying on Cover 3 (28%) and Cover 4 (26%) defenses, per Football Insights.
James Reber from NFL Next Gen Stats dubbed the Cover 6 as the defense that turned the Seahawks into a Super Bowl winner last season. They were tied for second while using the coverage 20% of the time in 2025.
What is the Cover 6 defense? And what makes it effective? Seahawks Radio Network analyst and former NFL wide receiver Bryan Walters broke it down during Four Down Territory on Friday’s edition of Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy.
What is Cover 6?
Typically the number in a coverage call refers to the number of defensive backs playing deep coverage. A Cover 1 features one deep safety, a Cover 2 features two deep safeties and so on. However, a Cover 6 doesn’t follow that rule. It is actually a combination of the Cover 2 and Cover 4 defenses.
“What that means is half of the field is playing Cover 4. You’re gonna have two safeties playing kind over the quarters of the field,” Walters said. “And then the other half is gonna be a Cover 2 concept, so a corner is gonna be in the flat and a safety is gonna be over the top of the corner.”
Impacts of the defense
Cover 6 had the highest interception rate (2.63%) in the league last season on snaps when defenses were not playing prevent, per Shawn Syed of Sumer Sports.
Walters detailed why Cover 6 can be difficult for offenses, and why it can also be tough to execute for defenses.
“What makes it confusing and what makes it tough on offenses is you can’t really get a clean presnap read about it,” Walters said. “… When you see a Cover 6, you’re kind of reading both ways. You’re saying, ‘Well, this side could be Cover 2, this side could be Cover 4.’ And it’s really easy to disguise for a defense because you’re shifting which side you play Cover 2 and shifting which side you play Cover 4.
“It can confuse the offense a little bit, but on that (note), it also could confuse the defense as well because you have to be on point in communication. You have to be on it because given motions and shifts and which side they line up the passing strengths and receiver side, you got to be communicating, ‘Alright, well now this side is shifting to Cover 2 and we’re going to play Cover 4.’ There’s a lot of broken coverages in it, there can be, so that’s what makes it difficult.”
Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Listen to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.
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