Key Matchups to Watch as Seahawks Host Texans on Monday Night Football
Looking to keep pace with the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams in the NFC West, the Seattle Seahawks will return to their home field in a battle of top-six defenses as the Houston Texans come to town for Monday Night Football.
Rebounding from a tough loss to the Buccaneers one week earlier, the Seahawks took care of business with a 20-12 road win over the Jaguars in Jacksonville to improve to 4-2 on the season. Riding a two-game winning streak after losing their first three games, the Texans enjoyed an early bye week and will fly out to the Emerald City well rested and very much alive in the AFC South race behind the Colts and Jaguars.
Looking towards Monday’s prime time contest, which positional battles will have the greatest sway on which team lands a big win? Here are six key matchups to watch at Lumen Field:
Seahawks tackles Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas versus Texans defensive ends Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter: Depending on the metric being utilized, Cross and Lucas have both played like top-20 tackles in the first six weeks for Seattle. Cross sits 19th among qualified blockers at his position with a 97.1 percent pass block efficiency rate, while Lucas has only given up one more quarterback pressure (10) than his bookend teammate. Both players also sit just outside the top-20 in run blocking grades despite the team’s inconsistencies creating room to operate for Ken Walker III and Zach Charbonnet thus far this season. In their fourth seasons respectively, though they haven’t been perfect by any stretch of the imagination, each of them has played at a high level for most of the 2025 campaign.
With that said, the Seahawks have yet to face an opponent with two elite-caliber pass rushers off the edge, and even if statistics don’t suggest so in some aspects, the Texans present that challenge for Cross and Lucas with Anderson and Hunter tag-teaming for the Texans. Aside from them combining for seven sacks in the first five games before a Week 6 bye, Anderson ranks fourth in the NFL in pressures (29) alongside Micah Parsons and Nik Bonnito and Hunter barely sits outside the top 20 himself with 20 pressures. The dynamic duo sits first and third among edge defenders in Pass Rush Win Rate respectively, a clear indicator of their disruptive tendencies collapsing the pocket. Run defense has been more hit-and-miss for them, however, with Hunter having a 22 percent missed tackle rate and the pair producing six total run stops in the first five games.
Seahawks defensive tackles Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy II, and Jarran Reed versus Texans guards Juice Scruggs and Ed Ingram, center Jake Andrews: Coming off a down performance by the group as a whole in a loss to Tampa Bay, Williams, Murphy, and Reed inflicted the punishment on Jacksonville’s interior line last weekend, combining for 16 pressures, 3.5 sacks, and two quarterback hits to go with four run stops collectively. Murphy served as the catalyst for the wrecking crew, setting a new career-high with two sacks and seven pressures getting after Trevor Lawrence, while Williams led the team with eight pressures, added a sack, and opened up sack opportunities for teammates on effective stunt games up front. Between those three players, Seattle has two defensive tackles in the top 10 in pressures and three in the top 36, which explains why the team has ranked in the top three in pressure rate without sending blitzers all year long.
Only a few weeks ago, the Texans would have looked like a major mismatch trying to contain the Seahawks’ fearsome trio in the interior, as they got off to a rough start protecting C.J. Stroud. But a few personnel changes have sparked improved play with Scruggs replacing a struggling Laken Tomlinson at left guard and Andrews holding his own at center. Andrews has only allowed four pressures with a 98.5 percent pass block efficiency rate in four starts, while Scruggs has yielded two pressures and a quarterback hit in two games, providing an upgrade in terms of keeping Stroud upright. Neither has been overly effective as run blockers with Scruggs having a dismal 34.2 run blocking grade from PFF and Andrews ranking 29th out of 31 qualified centers with a 48.8 grade, which shouldn’t surprise considering the team ranks 28th in ESPN’s Run Block Win Rate metric. This still should be advantage Seattle, especially at home, but Houston’s new-look interior will hope to show recent results aren’t a fluke against a top-tier opponent.
Seahawks running backs Ken Walker III and Zach Charbonnet versus Texans linebackers Azeez Al-Shaair and Henry To’oTo’o: Calling this season a roller coaster for Walker and Charbonnet would be an understatement, as blocking has been wildly erratic in front of Seattle’s thunder/lightning package. When they have had room to operate, particularly Walker, they have been more than effective enough complementing Sam Darnold and the passing attack, including a 100-plus yard performance by Walker against the Steelers in Week 2 and a pair of 80-plus yard games against the Cardinals and Buccaneers. But on the flip side, Walker has been shut down in the Seahawks’ other three games, including being limited to 34 yards on 10 carries by the Jaguars last weekend, while Charbonnet has been dogged by perpetually subpar blocking with a 2.6 yards per carry average on the season.
On the surface, Week 7 doesn’t provide an ideal opportunity for the situation to improve either, as the Texans rank sixth in rushing yards allowed per game (90.6) and eighth in yards per carry (3.9). Packing a punch for a sub-230-pound linebacker, Al-Shaair has been a rock in the middle of Houston’s defense with 19 tackles against the run, though he hasn’t made many impact plays with only five of those being credited as run stops by PFF and a 6.3 yards average depth for tackles that ranks near the bottom of the league. To’oTo’o has more run stops (seven), but also ranks first in the league with a 26.3 percent missed tackle rate on run plays. This is a solid, yet unspectacular duo that benefits from strong trench play in front of them and if the Seahawks can spring Walker/Charbonnet to the second level with any regularity, opportunities to create explosives and rack up yards after contact could present themselves.
Seahawks cornerbacks Riq Woolen, Devon Witherspoon, and Josh Jobe versus Texans receivers Nico Collins, Christian Kirk, and Xavier Hutchinson: Health-wise, the Seahawks have been battered and bruised in the secondary for most of the season thus far, including Witherspoon missing four of the first six games with a knee injury and Derion Kendrick replacing him in the slot. Woolen also sat out last Sunday with a concussion and has endured a tough season by his standards when healthy. Still, despite the injuries, Jobe has been an above-average starter on the boundary and Kendrick intercepted two passes with three additional pass breakups in Witherspoon’s stead, so the team has been able to keep the ship afloat with a loss to the Buccaneers being the only blemish. Now, they hope to have Woolen and Witherspoon back in action against an opponent where their respective strengths will be welcomed and then some.
For all of the missed opportunities he has failed to capitalize on this year, the 6-4 Woolen is one of the few cornerbacks in the NFL who has the size and athleticism to stack up with the 6-4, 222-pound Collins, whose nine receptions of 16 yards or more rank in the top 10 among receivers this season. The ex-Michigan star can beat opponents in a myriad of ways, having the ability to take the top off a defense as a vertical threat and create yardage after the catch, and keeping Woolen on him as much as possible would be the best strategy. Meanwhile, Witherspoon - assuming he’s able to play - will be tested in his return by a wily vet in Kirk, who previously was a 1,000-yard receiver in Jacksonville and does much of his work operating as a smooth route runner underneath and in the intermediate from the slot. Jobe will see his share of snaps against Collins, but should see a lot of Hutchinson as well, while rookie Jayden Higgins may be an X-factor to watch with great size (6-4) and downfield capabilities.
Seahawks receivers Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, and Tory Horton versus Texans cornerbacks Derek Stingley Jr., Jalen Pitre, and Kamari Lassiter: To this point, every team that has tried to slow down Smith-Njigba has failed miserably. The NFL’s leader in receiving yardage has been torching everyone regardless of who he faces, averaging 116 yards per game and nearly 17 yards per reception while topping the league with 16 explosive receptions. The offense has clearly ran through the budding superstar, but Kupp has been effective with his opportunities from the slot, catching 23 out of 29 passes for 261 yards and a touchdown, while Horton has turned three of his nine receptions so far as a rookie into touchdowns to go with a punt return for six points. Those three wideouts have been incredibly reliable for Darnold, combining to drop just three passes as a group.
In terms of competition, Houston may provide the best challenge for Smith-Njigba so far in Stingley, who intercepted seven passes with 11 pass breakups to earn First-Team All-Pro honors last season and has an interception and three pass breakups without a touchdown allowed in 2025. The 6-1 cornerback has occasionally been susceptible to giving up big plays downfield, including allowing a 56-yard reception earlier this season, but he excels at getting his hands on the football and plays sticky coverage on short and intermediate routes that Smith-Njigba has cut his teeth on. In the slot, Pitre has been a problematic ball hawk for quarterbacks to deal with as well, already intercepting three passes in the first five games to go with a pass breakup and no touchdowns allowed. Lassiter has been the “weak” link giving up two scores in coverage, but the former second-round pick out of Georgia still has been solid with an interception and two pass breakups, making this as talented of a secondary as Seattle has faced this season.
Seahawks linebackers Ernest Jones, Tyrice Knight, and Drake Thomas versus Texans tight ends Dalton Schultz and Harrison Bryant: Locked in at the MIKE position, Jones has turned in a strong first full season as a Seahawk, posting quality coverage numbers with two pass breakups, an interception, and no touchdowns allowed for a 75.8 passer rating against. Next to him, coach Mike Macdonald and his staff have quickly transitioned away from Knight getting the bulk of the WILL linebacker reps to Thomas, which becomes more understandable given the fact Knight has allowed 18 receptions on 18 targets on 104 coverage reps and Thomas has been significantly better with a pass breakup and a forced incompletion on 134 reps. None of those three players has surrendered a touchdown yet through five games, but tight ends have had moderate success against them, including Tampa Bay’s Cade Otton catching four passes on four targets for 81 yards when covered by linebackers in Week 5.
So far this season, Schultz has been Stroud’s second favorite target with 21 receptions for 186 yards, turning nearly half of those catches into first downs. He’s been especially effective on third down, where he ranks in the top 10 among tight ends in receptions (seven) and receiving yards (73). The Seahawks will have to be cognizant of his whereabouts every play, as he can be utilized as a security blanket on dump offs as well as occasionally threatening the seam and attacking the middle of the field as an intermediate weapon, and that onus will fall on the linebackers to cover him like a blanket and take away that option for the quarterback. If he does make the catch, they need to get him down without allowing much damage after the catch and try to keep him in front of the sticks.
