With the NFL Scouting Combine on the horizon and free agency decisions looming, alongside the NFL Draft just a couple of months away, I’m determined to delve into what made the 2025 Seattle Seahawks a standout team.
A key factor in the Seahawks’ return to Super Bowl prominence was their prowess in the trenches. Sacks, aside from turnovers, are a major drive killer, and seasons with Russell Wilson and Geno Smith often felt like they would reach triple digits in sacks.
By leveraging Stathead, I compiled sack statistics from every season since 1982, including playoffs. The 2025 Seahawks excelled in both avoiding sacks and registering them, with only one comparable team boasting one of the best offensive lines in football history.
Seattle Seahawks Best Sack Differentials Since 1982
Seahawks Season |
Opposing QBs Sacked |
Seahawks QBs Sacked |
Net Sack Differential |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 56 | 33 | 23 |
| 2005 | 55 | 32 | 23 |
| 1998 | 53 | 34 | 19 |
Sam Darnold achieved his first full season with a sack rate below six percent after joining the Seahawks, finishing with a 5.49% rate—a performance not seen from a Seahawks starting QB since Matt Hasselbeck in 2007. For comparison, Darnold’s sack rate was markedly higher with the Minnesota Vikings.
It’s no surprise that during the Russell Wilson era, the Seahawks never enjoyed a positive sack differential. This was due to a combination of subpar offensive lines and Wilson often creating chaos in the backfield.
While there’s significant potential for the Seahawks’ offensive line, the 2005 squad featured Hall of Famers Walter Jones and Steve Hutchinson, alongside a solid center in Robbie Tobeck. Future hopes rest on Charles Cross and Grey Zabel mirroring their predecessors, but they are still on the journey. The team’s rapid improvement this year is commendable, particularly with Zabel stepping in for Laken Tomlinson and other strategic adjustments.
However, the success isn’t solely attributable to the offensive line or Klint Kubiak’s play-calling, which was designed to protect Darnold. His enhanced pocket maneuverability played a crucial part in only allowing one sack during the Super Bowl, despite facing a high blitz rate.
PFF’s pressure-to-sack ratio illustrates Darnold’s improvement; while he was slightly above the median at avoiding sacks under pressure with the Vikings, he excelled with the Seahawks, maintaining a rate well below the median. His ability to swiftly release the football helped streamline the offense, a hallmark of the effective 2005 Seahawks squad.
The Seahawks’ defense has always posed a threat to opposing quarterbacks, but what truly elevated the team was an offense capable of maintaining structure and preventing chaos from overwhelming their performance.
