We’re seeing great Seahawks football again — in a new way

Nov 4, 2025, 12:06 AM

Host, Brock & Salk (6-10 a.m.)

Seattle fans know what good football looks like. It didn’t take long to see how physical and impressive the Matt Hasselbeck-led group was in the early-to-mid 2000s. They recognized the cocky, brash and dominant Legion of Boom well before the rest of the country caught on.

It sure looks like we are seeing it again.

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The Seahawks have once again built a team that can challenge for a Super Bowl. It’s still early enough in the season that some may think that is an overly bold statement, but it’s really not out of line. They’re tied for the lead in the NFC through the first nine weeks of the season. Their defense is top five in points allowed and second in stopping the run. It is tied for third in sacks and second in sack yards lost. And it stands fourth in interceptions.

But there’s balance. The offense is also top five in points, which makes sense considering the quarterback ranks third in passer rating and the top receiver leads the league in yards by a country mile.

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The sky is now the limit for a fun, feisty group that is starting to believe that they are good enough to think big this season. And there is no reason not to think big along with them.

But make no mistake, this team has very little in common with the other two units that reached the Super stage.

Look, I loved the LOB. It was the perfect group with the perfect personality at the perfect time. It fed off perceived disrespect, the absolute refusal to make things easy on anyone from opponents to members of the media, and a raw physicality that paired well with the brotherly love and competitive challenges that defined the locker room culture. And it was all led by a coach that embraced the chaos he and (especially) his players created wherever they went. They were more like the Raiders of the 1970s than any team we had seen since.

But as much as we all loved that team, the constant attempts to compare each new version to it fell flat. The Baby Boom or Legion of Whom or Zoom or whatever… it just never worked. And the reason is simple: that team was totally unique. There are no other Earl Thomases, Marshawn Lynches, Richard Shermans or Kam Chancellors walking the earth. And while the design of that roster was perfect for its day, that day has passed with the changes to tackling and blocking rules, and cultural changes in college football. Any attempt to recreate that incredible chemistry has been a fool’s errand.

But this team is almost nothing like the LOB team. It is coached differently, has a different kind of offense, a different type of defense, and (from what I can tell) a totally different personality.

Where the LOB defense was built from the secondary up, this team is clearly designed from the front line back. Leonard Williams is playing superstar-level football, and his running mates up front have reaped the rewards of the attention he receives. Byron Murphy looks like the first-round pick they hoped he would be. Jarran Reed has found the fountain of youth and is playing as well as I can remember. Demarcus Lawrence has brought grown man strength to the edge, and an edge to the men who play there. And the speed, smarts and versatility of this group has allowed Mike Macdonald to use all of his considerable brain power to design new ways to confuse and confound offenses.

The LOB offense was built around its successful power running game and a quarterback who was still finding his way in the league as dual threat. Russell Wilson was magical, but his offense always looked different from every other team’s because of his success in the read option, the off-schedule plays and the various methods he used to work around his height-related challenges.

This Klint Kubiak offense is (mostly) about as classic as it gets. The quarterback is often under center, the running backs come downhill, and they excel in play-action. Sam Darnold is, in many ways, the antithesis of Russ. He loves to throw the ball over the middle. He plays (mostly) on schedule. He makes life easy on the receivers around him. And while the last Seahawks Super Bowl team spread the ball around (maybe because of the perceived “pedestrian” receivers?), this one focuses on a budding superstar in Jaxon Smith-Njigba that, right now, can’t be stopped.

But the biggest difference has to be the way they are coached. Pete Carroll was the ultimate substitute teacher: always willing to sit back and let his crazy bunch of students run wild. Discipline was compromised in favor of a ferocious level of competition. Details were less important than playing on the absolute edge. It made for a wild ride that completely blew away the league.

We are still learning about Macdonald’s style, but it appears to be very purposeful. He is a tactician both during the week and during games. His teams chase every edge, and I think that starts with the preparation. They aren’t as ferociously disciplined as Bill Belichick’s winning teams, but they play with a much more controlled aggression than Carroll’s.

And they seem to be able to smile through it all. They are, at their core, a fun team. They are easy to watch. They are entertaining to listen to. And they take care of business on the field.

We don’t know yet what the future will hold for these Seahawks. But they are off to a great start. And for the first time in a while, we don’t have to look to the past to understand them. They are creating their own legacy.