The Seattle Seahawks are about to spend two straight weeks staring down the league’s best tight ends, and Sunday’s matchup with the Arizona Cardinals gives them a chance to set the tone.
First comes Trey McBride in Week 9. Then, after a trip to face Brock Bowers and the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 10, Seattle gets a Week 11 bye before running into George Kittle and the San Francisco 49ers in Week 12. That stretch puts the Seahawks’ defense in the spotlight, but the Cardinals game is the one that can help define what this unit wants to be.
Seattle has already shown it can take away top playmakers at other positions. This season, the Seahawks have limited elite quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers, and they made a strong statement in Week 7 against the Kansas City Chiefs.
That game never reached the red zone for Kansas City, and tight end Travis Kelce finished as the team’s leading receiver with just four catches for 44 yards on eight targets. Once Seattle controlled the line of scrimmage and disrupted the Chiefs’ run game, Kansas City’s plan to keep working Kelce underneath and over the middle lost steam.
McBride is the one tight end Seattle has already seen at that level. When the Seahawks met the Cardinals in Week 2, he caught eight of 10 targets for 41 yards and a touchdown.
That score came with 14:57 left in the second quarter, and after that Jacoby Brissett looked his way only four more times. McBride caught three of those throws for 13 yards.
Sunday could start the same way, with McBride getting early attention. But if Seattle keeps forcing Arizona to lean on him, the pressure can build on the offense and on Gardner Minshew II, the Cardinals’ new starting quarterback, along with first-year play-caller head coach Mike LaFleur.
With the halfway point of the season arriving Sunday, this is more than just another divisional game. It’s a chance for the Seahawks to sharpen one of the clearest strengths in their defensive identity: taking away the tight end.
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