Christian McCaffrey, Trey McBride, Tetairoa McMillan Scout the Seahawks' Defense

As the epicenter of the 49ers' offense, McCaffrey has faced the Seahawks a lot over the last few seasons, and he did so three times this past season — twice in the regular season, when his team split the series, and in the divisional round, when McCaffrey's injury-riddled 49ers lost 41-6.

In those three games against Seattle, McCaffrey had 127 rushing yards on 41 carries, and added 20 catches for 146 yards. As the saying goes, you can't really stop CMC, you can only hope to contain him.

I asked McCaffrey if the Patriots called him and asked for a scouting report on that Seattle defense, how would he lay it out?

"I would never give another team a scouting report," McCaffrey said with a smirk.

Let's say a good friend just hypothetically called you and asked, I countered.

That seemed to work.

"It's an awesome defense," he said. "They've got a great scheme. They've got players that fly around, play hard, and they play really well together. I think that's what makes them really good. Obviously, they have really good individual talent, but they play in that scheme really well together and they play hard, so definitely a tough defense."

Christian McCaffrey explains why the Seahawks' defense is so good (0:36)

Arizona Cardinals TE Trey McBride

McBride, the massively underrated tight end who keeps setting records for his position, had a pretty good game against Seattle in Week 4, with seven catches on 10 targets for 52 yards. But in the Week 10 rematch, McBride went off as few have against the Seahawks, with nine catches on 13 targets for 127 yards, a touchdown, and several explosive plays in which he was more open than anybody on Seattle's coaching staff would have preferred.

We talked specifically about two plays — McBride's 28-yard corner route catch with 8:02 left in the first half, and his 18-yard drag route catch with 6:19 remaining in the second half.

The Seahawks were in Cover-4 on the corner route catch, and as McBride said, linebacker Drake Thomas and safety Ty Okada got caught in some bad places, leaving McBride very much open for the big gain. Thomas was probably expecting cornerback Riq Woolen to drop deeper to that side, but Woolen was caught up with receiver Zay Jones' quick comeback off the line.

"The way that they played it, the corner's supposed to drop a little bit more and take that corner [route] away. I knew I was running off the safety. It was pretty open there. That really goes to coaching. I think they got a little mixed up on defense, and left me wide open. Got a little easy 20-yard catch."

McBride's drag route catch amounted to a combination of two factors — safety Nick Emmanwori slipping as he tried to keep up with the tight end, and a great design in which former Cardinals offensive coordinator Drew Petzing had three receivers to the other side of the field clearing the way as McBride came across.

"Guy slips, so I get lucky. So that's the reason I'm able to get open. We're running a little pick for me. Everyone's picking for me. And I'm coming across as low as I can, trying to let all these guys pick for me. I was able to get a little more of a cheap little first down right before we scored."

Still, McBride was respectful in his scouting report.

"I think just the players they have on the defensive front line are really good, with [Leonard] Williams and [Boye] Mafe, and the edge rushers that they have. And then their middle linebackers, with [Ernest] Jones, who's a heck of a player, too. And then you get to their back end, and that's where they really get dangerous, [Devon] Witherspoon and [Julian] Love and [Coby] Bryant, [Riq] Woolen, the rookie [Nick Emmanwori], all those guys.

"I mean, you can go on and on. Those guys are good. They're tough, and they play well together. So the Patriots have their work cut out for them, for sure."

Trey McBride Discusses the Seattle Seahawks' defense (6:52)

Carolina Panthers WR
Tetairoa McMillan

When Tetairoa McMillan, the Panthers' fine rookie receiver, played the Seahawks in Week 17, it did not go as he would have preferred. McMillan caught one pass on four targets for five yards, and one of those targets was intercepted by Seattle safety Julian Love.

Overall in 2025, he caught 75 passes on 126 targets for 1,095 yards, and seven touchdowns. The Seahawks were the only team to put the clamps on McMillan to that degree, and he has a lot of respect for the Dark Side.

"That was the coverage we expected," McMillan said of the Love interception out of Cover-3. "It was just kind of a miscommunication, but at the end of the day, it's football, and he made a great play — hats off to him."

As to the overall scouting report...

"They're a tough, physically sound team," McMillan said of the Seahawks. "They've got good pieces over there. They've got people who can take away one side of the field, and they' have 're really good at taking the ball away. They fly around, they're very physical, and they're very tough.

"I mean, they're a really solid defense."