Hawks (

22.25) at
Cards (

18.25)

Published Sep 18, 2026 · 9:55 PM ET

MJBy MJohnsonBioHide

ABOUT THE WRITER

Mike Johnson has earned more than $500,000 in DFS profit across a wide range of tournament formats. He combines his background in coaching and finance with years of tournament experience to identify market inefficiencies in every matchup.

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GAME OVERVIEW ::

• Seattle escaped Week 1 with a home win over the Patriots but lost quarterback Sam Darnold for at least a couple of weeks. Drew Lock takes over and performed admirably in relief against New England.
• Jaxon Smith-Njigba once again dominated the team’s targets and had a massive Week 1 game, while everyone else fought for scraps.
• First round pick Jadarian Price passed the eye test in Week 1, but was splitting time with George Holani and the Seahawks appeared set to get Emanuel Wilson involved as their short yardage back.
• Arizona completed one of the more shocking upsets of Week 1 in Los Angeles over the Chargers behind strong play from their defense, QB Jacoby Brissett, and TE Trey McBride.
• The Cardinals appear to have three wide receivers involved in a relatively equal capacity, while the backfield was split very evenly between Tyler Allgeier and Jeremiyah Love.

HOW SEATTLE WILL TRY TO WIN::

The big news for the Seahawks in Week 1 was obviously the hip injury for QB Sam Darnold, who will miss at least this game and potentially more. In his absence, veteran QB Drew Lock filled in admirably and the Seattle offense looked largely the same to what we came to expect in 2025. All-world WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba had a massive 50% target share and accounted for 60% of the team’s receiving yards despite a difficult matchup with the Patriots secondary. The Seahawks backfield was once again split with Jadarian Price and George Holani rotating throughout the game, while Emanuel Wilson got involved in some short yardage work. Price looked significantly better than Holani, but the Seahawks are likely to continue to split things up similar to how they did last season with Zach Charbonnet and Kenneth Walker III.

Seattle’s offensive approach is very clear and has not changed much from last season’s Super Bowl run. They are a high volume rushing team that operates a passing attack that relies on efficiency and explosive plays, with that passing game focusing primarily on JSN and everyone else fitting into specific roles. Cooper Kupp made some nice plays in the opener, including a touchdown that was taken off the board due to an illegal shift, and in general looked better than he did for most of 2025 from an eye test perspective. Tight end AJ Barner is a legitimate threat, but volume can never be relied upon, while WR Rashid Shaheed’s touches are sporadic but he provides by far the most explosiveness in the passing game outside of JSN.

Seattle has a familiar opponent this week in divisional foe Arizona, who have a new head coach and offensive coaching staff but whose defensive coordinator, Nick Rallis, is a holdover from former head coach Jonathon Gannon’s staff. Arizona’s defense surprised many in Week 1 by shutting down the Chargers offense, although it is debatable how much of that was the Cardinals and how much was the Chargers poor execution. Arizona is not a team that gets much pressure on the quarterback and is a middling matchup on the ground. Expect Seattle to have some success running the ball and rookie Jadarian Price should improve on his debut performance as his role is likely to grow. The one bright spot for the Chargers against this Cardinals defense was Ladd McConkey torching them by moving all over the field and creating matchup problems. Expect JSN to have a field day in this one as well, with Arizona playing a high rate of zone coverage and ranking 5th in the league in cushion (how far their defensive backs play off the line of scrimmage). JSN should be getting free releases all day and create separation at will. As long as Lock can provide serviceable QB play, the Seahawks usual approach should stay intact.

DFS+ Interpretations::