When the Seahawks and 49ers last collided in January, Seattle had San Francisco’s number in every way that mattered. The Seahawks won 13-3 in a winner-take-all Week 18 game for the NFC West title, then came back two weeks later and buried the 49ers 41-6 in the divisional round. In both games, Seattle’s “Dark Side” defense kept San Francisco out of the end zone, and those two outings went down as two of the four lowest point totals the 49ers have posted since Kyle Shanahan became head coach in 2017.
Now the rivals are back at it Sunday in Seattle, with the 49ers arriving unbeaten and the Seahawks looking very different from the group that handled them so thoroughly in January. The personnel has shifted on both sides, and a few coaching changes add another layer to a matchup that already carries plenty of weight in the young 2026 NFL season.
San Francisco’s offense is built differently than it was in those January games. The 49ers brought in six-time Pro Bowler Mike Evans in free agency and reunited with Deebo Samuel after Samuel spent 2025 with the Washington Commanders.
Both have opened the season well. Evans has 213 receiving yards and two touchdown catches, while Samuel has piled up 259 scrimmage yards and three TD receptions.
The downside for San Francisco is the loss of Jauan Jennings in free agency. Jennings led the 49ers wideouts in receiving yards in both 2024 and 2025.
George Kittle is also back in the mix and healthy after missing the playoff loss to Seattle with a torn Achilles he suffered the week before. He did suit up for last year’s Week 18 meeting, but the ankle injury he was playing through left him with just five catches for 29 yards.
This season, he’s been a force. Kittle ranks third among all tight ends with 244 receiving yards and leads the position with four touchdown catches.
The one major absence in San Francisco’s skill group is fullback Kyle Juszczyk. The 10-time Pro Bowler is out with a knee sprain, and it’s his first missed time since 2022.
That matters because the 49ers have leaned heavily on “21” personnel - two backs and one tight end - all season, using it on 40.8% of their snaps, according to Sumer Sports. That’s the highest rate in the league by a wide margin.
It was even higher, at 46%, in the two January games against Seattle. Backup tight ends Luke Farrell and Brayden Willis may pick up some of the fullback work, but Sunday should bring less of that package if Juszczyk stays out.
On defense, the 49ers are healthier and deeper than they were in January, especially at linebacker. Fred Warner is back after a season-ending ankle injury last October, and Dre Greenlaw has returned to San Francisco after a year away with the Denver Broncos. Both are grading among the top 10 linebackers in Pro Football Focus this season.
The pass rush has also been upgraded, even if the sack numbers still lag. San Francisco finished with a league-low 20 sacks last year, then added defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa in a trade with the Dallas Cowboys and drafted edge rusher Romello Height in the third round.
The 49ers still have only six sacks, but they’ve climbed to sixth in ESPN’s pass rush win rate after ranking 29th a year ago. Odighizuwa and Height are both top-10 players in pass rush win rate at their positions.
The big issue remains Nick Bosa, who is out again and set to miss his third straight game with a calf injury after missing nearly all of last season with a torn ACL.
There’s also a new voice running the defense. Raheem Morris, who previously coached the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is now the 49ers’ defensive coordinator after Robert Saleh left to become the Tennessee Titans’ head coach. Morris spent the previous three seasons as the Los Angeles Rams’ defensive coordinator from 2021-23.
Seattle’s offense has changed just as much, starting in the backfield. Kenneth Walker III is now with the Kansas City Chiefs, Zach Charbonnet is on the physically unable to perform list as he works back from knee surgery, and rookie first-round pick Jadarian Price is on injured reserve with a chest injury.
That’s a far cry from January, when Walker totaled 133 scrimmage yards in the Week 18 win and 145 scrimmage yards with three touchdowns in the playoff blowout. Charbonnet added 97 scrimmage yards and a score in the Week 18 game before tearing his ACL early in the divisional round.
With so much turnover, Emanuel Wilson is positioned for the biggest share of the workload after putting up 120 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns last week. George Holani is questionable with rib and knee injuries, and Seattle’s remaining options are Velus Jones Jr. and recently signed Robert Henry Jr., neither of whom has carried the ball yet this season.
The Seahawks are also dealing with a change on the offensive line. Starting right guard Anthony Bradford is on injured reserve with a knee/hip injury, and third-year pro Christian Haynes and rookie fifth-round pick Beau Stephens are expected to keep rotating in his place.
There’s a coaching wrinkle on Seattle’s side too. Brian Fleury has moved across the rivalry and taken over as offensive coordinator after Klint Kubiak left to become the Las Vegas Raiders’ head coach.
Fleury spent the previous seven seasons on Shanahan’s staff in San Francisco, where he worked as the 49ers’ tight ends coach from 2022-25, run game coordinator in 2025, offensive quality control coach in 2020-21 and defensive quality control coach in 2019. That background in Shanahan’s system gives Sunday’s matchup a little extra bite.
Seattle’s defense, meanwhile, has mostly kept the same core together. The Seahawks returned 14 of their top 17 defensive players from last season based on snap counts, with starting safety Coby Bryant, third cornerback Riq Woolen and rotational edge rusher Boye Mafe the only departures in free agency.
So far, the group has hardly missed a beat. Seattle enters Sunday ranked No. 1 in both yards allowed per play at 4.0 and DVOA.
Ty Okada is set to make his season debut and start at Bryant’s old spot after missing the first four games with a hamstring injury. Nehemiah Pritchett has handled Woolen’s former CB3 role well, and the pass rush is still producing, with the Seahawks ranking seventh in sacks at 11 and first in ESPN’s pass rush win rate at 69%.
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