The Seattle Seahawks opened the season with a 13-10 win over the New England Patriots on Wednesday, Sept. 9, and the snap counts tell the story of just how messy - and how resilient - that victory was.
Seattle lost Sam Darnold after the first offensive series and leaned on backup quarterback Drew Lock for almost the entire game. Even with that shakeup, the Seahawks clawed back from a 10-point deficit and finished the job with three fourth-quarter interceptions of Drake Maye. It was the kind of Week 1 win that isn’t polished, but still counts all the same.
The offensive workload was as heavy as it gets for the line. LG Grey Zabel, RG Anthony Bradford, LT Charles Cross, C Jalen Sundell and RT Abraham Lucas each played 50 snaps, good for 100 percent of the offensive plays. That group held up through the full afternoon, and while pass protection still left room for improvement, the run game was productive and forceful.
Brian Fleury also leaned on tight ends throughout the game. AJ Barner logged 44 snaps, Elijah Arroyo had 11 and Eric Saubert got 10, a clear sign of how often Seattle stayed in heavier personnel.
At receiver, the Seahawks never went to a four-wide set. Jaxon Smith-Njigba played 45 snaps, Cooper Kupp 39 and Rashid Shaheed 33, while Montorie Foster Jr. did not get an offensive snap at all and instead contributed seven snaps on special teams.
The backfield rotation was close, but one runner clearly made the strongest case for a bigger role. Jadarian Price played 24 snaps and finished with 10 carries for 52 yards, while George Holani had 23 snaps, eight carries and 29 yards.
Emanuel Wilson only saw three snaps and turned two carries into three yards. Price looks like the back who separated himself after one game.
On defense, the snap totals were driven by the absence of Ty Okada and Nick Emmanwori, which opened the door for some less familiar names. Drake Thomas, Julian Love and Ernest Jones each played 71 snaps, while Devon Witherspoon, Josh Jobe and Rodney Thomas II were right behind them at 70. Nehemiah Pritchett was next with 53 snaps, giving Seattle a clear No. 3 corner role with more opportunity ahead.
Thomas was the biggest surprise among the heavy defensive snap leaders. Signed off the practice squad before the game after not making the initial 53-man roster, he responded with four tackles and one pass break-up while playing nearly every snap. That’s a big day for a player who was only forced into the spotlight because of the inactives.
The front seven rotation looked much more familiar. Byron Murphy played 50 snaps, Leonard Williams 49, Derick Hall 44, DeMarcus Lawrence 42, Jarran Reed 34, Uchenna Nwosu 33, Rylie Mills 16 and Dante Fowler Jr.
- Seattle kept fresh bodies rotating through those spots, but its top players still soaked up the bulk of the work.
Tyrice Knight logged 14 snaps, and that number appears tied to Emmanwori being out, since the defensive back can function in a hybrid linebacker role in certain looks. Brandon Pili played six snaps and Patrick O’Connell just one. If Okada and Emmanwori return in Week 2, that alignment should change.
All in all, the snap counts match what the game looked like: a defense carrying the load, a backup quarterback surviving long enough to win, and an offensive line that never came off the field.
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Seahawks Opener Chaos Turned A Tense Win Into Something Else
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For a few tense minutes, the football game was secondary to the disruption above it, a reminder of how quickly a night at the stadium can veer off script. The fan was eventually handcuffed, and while the crowd settled back in, the incident lingered as one of the stranger moments of an opener that already had plenty of bite. [Read more 🡒]