The 49ers head into Sunday’s trip to Lumen Field with a perfect 4-0 record, but Seattle has already shown it knows how to make life miserable for San Francisco. The Seahawks went 2-1 against the 49ers last season, including a win in the season finale at Levi’s and another in the divisional round before finishing off the New England Patriots at Levi’s Stadium. After doing that twice in the 49ers’ building, Seattle now gets the chance to keep the pressure on at home.
This one starts with the matchup everyone will be watching: Kyle Shanahan against Mike MacDonald. The 49ers’ offense has had to grind through the last two meetings with Seattle, and while the unit was shorthanded then, the Seahawks’ defense was also operating at a high level. San Francisco spent the offseason trying to add separators at receiver, and while the group still isn’t exactly where it wants to be, it is better equipped to handle what Seattle brings - especially with Brock Purdy’s play in 2026.
The biggest challenge for Purdy and the offense is the Seahawks’ pass rush. San Francisco has kept Purdy clean through four games, which is no small thing no matter the opponent, but Seattle presents the toughest test yet.
ESPN has the Seahawks first in pass rush win rate, and they’re doing it while sitting at the bottom of the league in blitz rate. That means the 49ers cannot afford to live in obvious passing situations or straight drop-backs.
Seattle’s numbers against the pass are a little more nuanced than the overall ranking suggests. Through four weeks, the defense is second in EPA/play allowed, but it drops to 19th on throws coming quicker than 2.5 seconds, according to SumerSports.
It’s also 28th in EPA/play allowed on short throws. That points directly toward the quick game, where the 49ers will likely lean on Deebo Samuel, while Mike Evans will need to get past the sticks quickly for Purdy.
The other part of the puzzle is whether Shanahan and Purdy can solve MacDonald again. They’ve had success against MacDonald-led defenses before, but the recent history tells a very different story.
According to SumerSports, in the first three meetings between Mike Macdonald and Brock Purdy, Purdy posted 87th, 65th, and 87th percentile performances by EPA/dropback. In the last two, Macdonald’s Seahawks held him to a 10th and 5th-percentile EPA/dropback.
That matters because the 49ers have not found the end zone against Seattle in eight quarters. The earlier matchups were strong outings for Purdy; the last two were not. San Francisco gets a more favorable setup this time, but Sunday still asks plenty of questions of Shanahan and his quarterback.
There’s also the broader chess match against Seattle’s fronts. So far, the 49ers have destroyed base defenses, producing a league-best 0.29 EPA and seeing base looks at a league-high 48.6% rate.
Against nickel, they’ve faced the second-lowest rate in the league at 41.4%, yet still lead the NFL with a 0.24 EPA. Against light boxes, they’re first again with a 0.52 EPA, though they’ve seen those looks at the lowest rate in the league, 29.7%.
Seattle does not live in base. Under MacDonald, and again in 2026, the Seahawks rank 29th in base usage at 15.5%, but they’ve been excellent when they do line up that way, allowing the third-best EPA at -0.37. They spend most of their snaps in nickel, where they rank 10th at 68.2% and have allowed the third-best EPA at -0.23.
The run defense is the part that makes Seattle especially tricky. The Seahawks can stop the run without crowding the box, and the numbers back it up. Their light-box rate is 51.4%, eighth-highest in the NFL, and they still allow the fifth-best EPA at -0.16.
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