Week 7’s NFL weather map is mostly working in the league’s favor, but Sunday night in Seattle is shaping up to be the outlier. The Chiefs and Seahawks are set for a wet one at Lumen Field, with heavy rain expected before kickoff and continuing through the game.
That forecast could have a real say in how Patrick Mahomes and Sam Darnold manage the offense. Seattle is trying to get back on track and, at the same time, hand Kansas City its first loss of the season. With a 55-degree kickoff awaiting them, the elements may end up being part of the story.
Elsewhere, Sunday looks far cleaner. The league opens the day in Paris with the Steelers and Saints at Stade de France, where conditions are projected to be mostly sunny and 60 degrees at kickoff. The NFL has also added serious security measures as France deals with heavy citizen protests against the government.
Most of the rest of the board should play out in comfortable conditions. Baltimore’s AFC North matchup with Cincinnati is expected to bring mostly sunny skies and minimal wind, while Tampa Bay’s trip to Carolina also comes with sunshine and only mild gusts. Miami at the Jets should be similarly calm, and Cleveland at Tennessee is set for ideal conditions with plenty of sun.
A handful of indoor or roofed venues should keep weather from becoming a factor at all. The Falcons host San Francisco in a retractable-roof stadium, the Giants visit Houston under a retractable roof, Minnesota’s dome will shelter Colts-Vikings, and Detroit, Las Vegas, and Green Bay all land in indoor settings as well.
At the higher end of the temperature range, Denver at Arizona is forecast for mostly sunny skies and 81 degrees at kickoff, while New York at Houston is listed at 78 degrees. Monday night in Philadelphia looks straightforward too, with Cowboys-Eagles expected to be played under cloudy conditions and a 58-degree kickoff.
In Other News...
Jaxon Smith-Njigba Is Forcing The Chiefs Into A Tough Reality
Jaxon Smith-Njigba keeps making opposing defenses adjust, and the latest reminder came from Kansas City defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who acknowledged the challenge of trying to slow down the Seahawks receiver. For Seattle, that kind of attention is a sign of how far Smith-Njigba has come as a featured part of the passing game, and it also underscores how much stress he can put on a defense that has to account for him on every snap.
The Chiefs are hardly the only team seeing that reality now, but their conversation about matching up with him fits a broader league-wide theme: receivers who force coverage changes can reshape game plans before the ball is even snapped. Seattle has been looking for exactly that sort of offensive edge, and Smith-Njigbas growing influence is starting to create it in a way that opponents are openly admitting is difficult to handle. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks Are Headed For A Free Agency Squeeze Fans Will Debate
At 3-3, the Seahawks are staring at a familiar roster decision window, and this one could be trickier than most. Several players who have mattered to the season are moving toward free agency, which means Seattle is about to sort through not just who fits on the field, but who fits its long-term budget and depth chart.
Uchenna Nwosu has played well enough to make himself expensive, while Drew Locks work as a backup has put him in line for a multi-year deal. The picture is less settled for Ty Okada, whose standing is clouded by both his performance and Bud Clarks emergence, and Anthony Bradfords absence offered a reminder of how much he matters up front, a factor that could help him land another contract. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks Could Steal A Packers Defensive Wrinkle Fans Need To See
The Packers have found a clever way to keep offenses guessing with a coverage rotation they call the Trix technique, a wrinkle that starts with a safety aligned like an edge rusher before he drops into zone coverage. It has already drawn attention around the league after NFL analyst Brett Kollmann broke it down and pointed to defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon as the mind behind it, and it is the kind of schematic detail that tends to catch the eye of teams always looking for a little extra disguise on defense.
For Seattle, the appeal is obvious. The Seahawks have the kind of safety group that could make a version of it work, with Nick Emmanwori, Julian Love and Ty Okada all mentioned as possible fits for the assignment. Okada stands out as a particularly intriguing candidate for the job, and if the Seahawks are looking for another way to manufacture confusion and force mistakes, this is exactly the sort of transferable wrinkle worth studying closely. [Read more 🡒]