Lefko: The best and worst-case Seahawks scenarios for this season

Seattle Sports' Mike Lefko looks at pivotal areas for the Seattle Seahawks to detail how the best-case and worst-case scenarios would play out in 2025.

BY MIKE LEFKO

Sep 4, 2025, 10:59 AM Updated: 11:58 am

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We are just days away from the start of the 2025 Seattle Seahawks season, and at this point the biggest questions and storylines around this team have been hashed, rehashed, and de-hashed (I’m not even sure that one is a real thing but that’s how much we’ve talked about all of this) into oblivion.

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Instead of analyzing it further, let’s just lay out two timelines – the best-case and worst-case scenarios – for the key elements that will lead to success or failure for the Seahawks this year.

Sam Darnold

The extremes that Darnold has reached in his career make Seattle’s new quarterback the most polarizing element of this team. He is on his fourth team in the past four seasons and had fallen to the realm of career backup until 16 games last year revitalized the course of his career. The problem is that the Vikings played 18 games, and the two that loom largest are those final two losses where Darnold turned in his worst performances. So, which version are the Seahawks getting in 2025?

• Best Case: Behind play-calling that is tailor-made to suit his strengths, Darnold’s steady presence commands an offense that can march the ball down the field on the ground or through the air. Last year, Darnold’s numbers were vastly better in play-action, and the increased threat from the run game opens up that aspect of his game once again.

The Rams continue to deal with the uncertainty of Matthew Stafford’s back, Arizona’s Kyler Murray channels the energy of a frenzied hedgehog, and the 49ers’ holes and lack of depth on defense are too much for them to overcome. Darnold is put in positions where he doesn’t have to hold the ball for eternities, and the Seahawks win the division.

• Worst Case: Last year, Darnold had the benefit of Justin Jefferson and a Vikings offensive line that finished with the second-best pass block win rate in the NFL. The Seahawks’ offensive line is a work in progress, and it doesn’t improve enough to let Darnold find his rhythm on a consistent basis. A true deep threat doesn’t emerge from the receiving corps, and with no one able to stretch the field, passing lanes don’t open in time, separation doesn’t materialize, and as the sacks pile up, the fateful radio call from the Vikings’ playoff loss to the Rams escapes from Dave Wyman’s mouth at some point during the season.

Offensive line

This is the biggest unknown heading into the season. Personnel-wise, the Seahawks added one big piece in first-round pick Grey Zabel and are banking on the complete makeover of the offensive coaching staff and scheme to pull a unit that was fifth-worst in run blocking and below average in pass blocking in 2024.

• Best Case: Grey Zabel lives up to his first-round billing and creates a foundational wall of stability alongside Charles Cross on the left side of the line. Abe Lucas, fully healthy for the first time since the start of the 2023 season, becomes the version of himself the Seahawks expected after his stellar rookie season that saw him earn plenty of accolades.

The Seahawks felt good enough about Jalen Sundell’s emergence at center and how he fits in this offense to not address that position externally, and he rewards that faith with a solid performance and serviceable performance. Anthony Bradford’s strong preseason is the precursor to what his physicality and transformed body can do for the run game as the right side of the line mauls opponents on a weekly basis. I’ll let our resident O-line expert, Ray Roberts, sum up why there are a myriad of reasons to be optimistic about the offensive line this season (click the link below).

Ray Roberts: How Seahawks’ new blocking scheme creates advantages

• Worst Case: Jalen Sundell has played a total of 57 snaps in his NFL career, and the acclimation process is slow with growing pains felt early in the season. The same happens with Grey Zabel as the rookie learning curve is felt in both the run game and in pass protection. Against first-team defenses and elite defenders, success in the preseason doesn’t translate to the regular season, and the Seahawks find out that there isn’t enough talent on the O-line, nor do they have all the right pieces, to generate a sustained and consistently effective offense.

Wide Receivers

Perhaps no position group is better suited for this exercise than the wide receiver corps, which saw a thorough overhaul in the offseason. It’s almost like a home renovation project. In your mind, there is a vision for how it should look, and you go into it planning on the finished product being better, but it doesn’t always work out that way.

• Best Case: Cooper Kupp, not needed as the focal point of this passing attack, puts up a solid 800-900 yards and is closer to the version of the receiver that he was before injuries hampered his last three seasons. It is illogical to think even the best version of Kupp comes close to his historically great 2021, but he does emerge as a key safety valve for Darnold as the guy who is there to make the tough receptions to move the chains.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba builds off a Pro Bowl season and emerges as an elite receiver in the NFL. His high reception volume continues to climb as Darnold finds ways to get him the ball, and that connection builds into a facsimile of what the Vikings’ passing attack looked like when it thrived last season. The Tory Horton preseason buzz is solidified after his speed takes the top off of a couple of defenses for big touchdowns early in the season. The receivers are supplemented by the tight ends, who help turn this passing attack into a hydra of weapons.

• Worst Case: Cooper Kupp can’t stay healthy. The ankles that have betrayed him over the last few seasons cause him to miss a handful of games, and at 32 years old the separation is no longer there to make him a viable receiving threat. Tory Horton’s development as a route runner takes time, and defenses are able to key in on JSN, throwing double teams at him, bracketing him in coverage for the entirety of games, and generally doing everything possible to take the only legitimate receiving threat out of play.

Cornerbacks

Riq Woolen is entering the final year of his rookie contract, and he might be the most fascinating player to watch on the Seahawks this season. Which version of Woolen appears will go a long way to determining how much success this group has and whether this defense can truly be one of the best in the league.

• Best Case: Woolen plays like his future is on the line. He understands the perception about him and what is at stake, as he revealed in an interview with Wyman and Bob at the start of training camp. The freakish athleticism manifests itself into a season similar to his rookie year where he had a warranted case to be the Defensive Rookie of the Year.

Nick Emmanwori emerges as the nickel cornerback, allowing Devon Witherspoon to slide outside. There has been a reluctance to put him as an outside corner, but with the draft capital the Seahawks used to move up and get Emmanwori, they put their best defenders on the field and allow Witherspoon to get a majority of snaps at outside cornerback. Head coach Mike Macdonald cackles with glee each week as he draws up new ways to blitz Emmanwori and Witherspoon from anywhere on the field. The mad scientist + the cornerback talent = a nightmare for opposing quarterbacks trying to throw on the Seahawks.

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• Worst Case: Woolen plays like he has for the past two seasons, with flashes of talent but maddeningly inconsistency in coverage and a liability when trying to tackle ball carriers. The Seahawks stick with Witherspoon as the primary nickel option, and while deploying him all over the field with success, it leaves Josh Jobe as your other cornerback on the outside. His limited experience starting at that position in the NFL, along with the lack of options behind him, makes this feel like the most uncertain and potentially biggest liability of any defensive starter on the roster.

Defensive improvement

The defense is in such a good spot that even the worst-case scenario is “they don’t improve enough to be a top-five unit,” but that’s what might be needed with all the changes on the offensive side of the ball.

• Best Case: There are hours upon hours worth of interviews and articles that all point to the impact that Ernest Jones had on the defense when he arrived in the middle of last season. A full season as the middle linebacker leads to significant strides for the defense, especially when it comes to stopping the run. The same can be said for Tyrice Knight, who didn’t take over as a starter until Week 11 last year. Continuity at linebacker and throughout the defense pays dividends immediately as Seattle avoids the rough patch that occurred last year.

• Worst Case: The lack of depth and impact talent at edge rusher keeps that group from becoming a difference-maker for the defense. A similar lack of depth at inside linebacker comes back to hurt the Seahawks if whatever medical issue that kept Tyrice Knight out during the preseason causes him to miss games during the year.

Season outlook

How does this all actually play out? That’s all anyone truly cares about: if the Seahawks take the next step and start to emerge as a Super Bowl contender.

• Best Case: The defense turning into one of the best units in the league helps the offense not have to do too much in order to win games. An advantageous schedule that features the AFC South and NFC South leads to the Seahawks stockpiling wins. By the time the end of the season rolls around, this team is firing on all cylinders and rolls through late-season matchups against the Rams and 49ers. The Seahawks put up a 12-win season and win the division.

• Worst Case: The division collectively got better than the Seahawks did this offseason. If there is a consensus for why national pundits are down on the team, it seems to be the uncertainty on offense and that the 49ers are healthy, the Rams are really good, and the Cardinals have their best defense since Kyler Murray has been there.

The Seahawks’ learning curve on offense is on full display during a season-opening loss to the 49ers. A road game at Pittsburgh turns into the same offensive futility as the offense takes a few weeks before it hits its stride. By then, a brutal stretch to open November leads to a handful of losses and the Seahawks find that they don’t have enough firepower to compete with the 49ers and Rams this season.