Seattle Seahawks

Picks

Darnold now has two weeks to heal up from oblique injury and threw the ball 36 times for 25 completions vs. Rams. Darnold has played a lot of zone-centric schemes in the last 10 games. Now faces man-heavy Pats secondary. He's No. 3 in completion % vs. man and 13th in catchable pass rate vs man (compared to 17th and 30th vs zone in those stats). Darnold has completed less than 20 passes only twice in the past seven games and one of those Unders was playing hurt against 49ers in Div Rnd.

Shaheed has been tamed by a lot of zone defenses since coming to Seattle but faces his first man-centic secondary in New England at the perfect time. He's a deep ball threat with great speed and sepration and can take the top off this Pats defense. New England will double JSN as much as it can, which leaves Shaheed in single coverage and very live to catch off a big gain. He's coming off a 51-yard reception in the NFC title game and the last time he faced a team that runs man as much as the Patriots, he went for 114 yards including an 87-yard home run.

Shaheed is a home run threat and faces a man-heavy scheme from the Patriots, which also him to utilize his speed and seperation. Seattle is also using the WR in the running game with tricky handoffs. He has options on how to get inside the end zone.

Since being traded to Seattle, Shaheed has faced only zone-heavy defenses (eight opponents rank between 1st to 15th in zone usage). He's much better vs. man coverage, which the Patriots use at the 6th highest rate. New England also allows average of 42.7 ypg to WR3. Shaheed's biggest day of the season came when the Saints played the Giants (7th in man), with 114 yards.

After the New England Patriots’ pop-gun run to the Big Game - in which their offense struggled against quality defenses - they once again find themselves against a top-tier stop unit. The Patriots have posted just 12 and 13 first downs in their last two postseason games while averaging 3.2 and 3.9 yards per play in those contests. Quarterback Drake Maye has been limited in his production while absorbing 10 total sacks. Seattle’s defense is tops in the land with a vaunted pass rush that ranked among the best in the NFL in pressure rate, sacks, QB hits, and hurries despite blitzing at one of the lowest rates. On top of that, the Seahawks offense has been humming in the tournament, torching the 49ers for 41 points and hanging 31 points on the Rams. New England hasn’t faced a team this complete… well, all season.