Seahawks 2025 Season in Review

Seattle's defense bled minus 124.5 expected points added on the season — second-stingiest unit in football, and the engine of this entire story. Here's how a top-two defense carried this team, how Sam Darnold quietly authored a top-five efficiency season, and the one ground-game number that says this offense had to win a very specific way. 14 three. NFC West champs, number one seed, and they didn't just win the conference — they won the Super Bowl, beating New England 29 to 13. The Seahawks smashed.

Let's set the table. Seattle finished plus 32.7 in offensive expected points added, a thirteenth-ranked, slightly-above-average offense. The defense was the headliner at minus 124.5 expected points added allowed — second in football. 27 takeaways ranked eighth, 47 sacks ranked eighth, and a 43 percent third-down conversion rate ranked seventh. Steady floor, not boom-or-bust: outside of three close losses — the early stumble to San Francisco, the 38 to 35 shootout against Tampa, and a two-point game at the Rams in Week 11 — they were never out of a game. They closed the regular season on an eight-game winning streak, then steamrolled the playoffs by a combined 101 to 46.

Now let's talk about the passing offense — the side of the ball that actually drove the points. Sam Darnold produced plus 56.6 expected points added on 510 dropbacks, plus 0.11 per attempt, top-10 in the league. His adjusted net yards per attempt of 7.4 ranked fourth among qualified starters, and his completion percentage came in 4.3 percent above expectation — also top-five, meaning he was hitting throws the tracking data flagged as harder than average. Jaxon Smith-Njigba was the engine: 119 catches, 1793 yards, 10 touchdowns, 37 percent target share. The defining snap came in Week 12 at Tennessee — third and six, tie game, second quarter — Darnold ripped a deep ball down the right sideline to Smith-Njigba for a 63 yard touchdown. Single most valuable offensive play of their season at plus 6.4 expected points added. Pass protection held up too, a 5.2 percent sack rate in the 70-fifth percentile leaguewide. The passing game smashed.

Now let's dig into the rushing offense, because this is where the story gets uglier. Seattle ran 508 times for 2098 yards — 4.1 a carry, 123 a game, both middle-of-the-pack. The problem is efficiency. Rushing expected points added came in at minus 36.8, 20-ninth in the league, thirteenth percentile. They ran a lot, they got yards, and on a per-play basis the run game was actively hurting them at minus 0.07 per carry. Kenneth Walker carried 221 times for 1027 yards and five scores, while Zach Charbonnet took the goal-line work with 12 rushing touchdowns — seventh in the entire league. So the run game's value wasn't between the twenties. It was inside the five. Seattle won 14 games despite the ground game, not because of it.

Next up, the pass defense — and this is where Seattle truly separated. 213 passing yards a game, just 20 passing touchdowns all year, passing expected points added allowed of minus 64.8, 80-first percentile leaguewide. The rush got home 47 times, delivered 110 quarterback hits, and held opponents to a 32 percent third-down conversion rate — a top-of-the-league stop rate. And they took the ball away in clusters: 27 takeaways, 18 interceptions. The signature snap came in Week 13 against Minnesota — fourth and one at Seattle's own four-yard line, Vikings driving for a go-ahead score, and Ernest Jones jumped a short route and took it 85 yards the other way for a pick-six. Worth minus 10.7 expected points to Minnesota on one snap. That was this defense — not just stout, but capable of ending drives by sprinting the other direction. The secondary smashed.

And the run defense was somehow even more dominant. Just 92 rushing yards a game, only nine rushing touchdowns all season, rushing expected points added allowed of minus 59.7 — a one hundredth percentile number, the best run defense in the league by this measure. Per carry, opponents averaged a brutal minus 0.15 expected points, meaning every handoff against Seattle was, on average, a losing play. The front seven didn't just plug gaps — they created chaos. When your run defense is generating points instead of just preventing them, you're playing a different game than everyone else.