Yup. That's why I said 'on par'. It's not possible to compare units from different eras
Exactly, which is why doing a 1:1 stat comparison isnt accurate. The LOB rarely had to contend with prevent D calls because more often than not, our offense didn't even get rolling until the 3rd or 4th qtrs and we often won games by a TD or less.
Tough to handcuff our D by making them swallow garbage time leads where in some cases, the strategy is to take less risk when you are up big and force the opposing team to HAVE to go on a long, time consuming drive to get points.
It also isn't fair that our D has been handcuffed by several short field situations where our offense have given away the ball in our own end and forced them into tough situations. That wasn't the kind of thing Pete's teams did often (TOs ).I can think of 31 points off the top of my head that the D swallows because we gave the ball away.
The defense is at full strength for the Falcons game, but the defense, even with important players out, was never a problem. It's the offense that has been "JSN and some guys." The Vikings shut down JSN, which is why the offense didn't score a TD until garbage time in the fourth quarter, with the Seahawks already up 19-0 against a then-4-7 team with a terrible offense. Earlier in the season, when a bunch of people were trash talking at 49ers fans about how everything the 49ers did depended on McCaffrey, I was thinking that the Seahawks' dependence on JSN was much bigger, but I kept quiet so nobody would accuse me of jinxing things, but the Vikings game seems to have supported that position strongly. Until proven otherwise, the Seahawks offense is JSN and some guys.
As you point out, the Darnovers make the Seahawks defense look less excellent than it has been.
As I've said elsewhere, I'm perfectly fine with the Seahawks keeping Darnold for 2026 on his current contract, because it's at a relatively reasonable price for what he can do. And really, I don't see how the Seahawks could realistically have a better option for 2026 than Darnold on his current contract. Not 2027, because even though his 2027 cap hit would be less than those of top QBs, the difference between Darnold's expected performance and that of a top QB is a lot bigger than the difference between his 2027 cap hit and that of a top QB. 2027 looks more expensive than I think Darnold will be worth, but the contract doesn't guarantee the 2027 compensation, so I'm not worried about it. I see that as a padding year so Darnold's agent could say it was a $100M contract. And by 2027, the market could possibly have changed enough that Darnold on the last year of that contract looks like a good deal, but I currently consider that unlikely. On the other hand, as soon as I saw numbers for Darnold's contract, I considered it extremely unlikely he'd be worth keeping even for 2026, but I should mention that my current view takes that into account and he
still doesn't look likely to be worth what his current contract would pay him in 2027.
I think there is a path to a title with a limited QB like Darnold
whose cap hit is what Darnold's is for 2025-26 (that part is important!), and I think the Seahawk front office and coaching staff can find it, but the trick is that the window is very short. I just really, really,
really hope the Seahawks don't get excited about the team's W-L record this year and give Darnold an extension that gives him cap hits like a top QB.