Field Gulls
The Seattle Seahawks are coming out of the bye week at 5-2, sitting firmly in the NFC playoff picture but with plenty left to prove. It’s been a first half defined by resilience, defensive growth, and flashes of what this new-look offense could be — but also questions about identity and consistency.
To break it all down, I sat down with Gregg Bell, Seahawks beat reporter for the Tacoma News Tribune, for an in-depth conversation on The Hawks Eye. Few people have a better feel for the mood inside the building than Gregg, and he offered a clear, detailed picture of where this team truly stands at midseason.
We opened by talking about the overall tone in the locker room — how players and coaches are approaching this strong start under Mike Macdonald’s steady leadership in Year 2 (4:07). Gregg shared his impressions of how this team’s personality has shifted from the Pete Carroll era to Macdonald’s structure-driven style and how veterans like Leonard Williams are shaping the group’s mindset.
From there, we dug into one of the biggest questions of 2025: why the run game continues to stall (12:27). Gregg broke down what he’s seeing from the offensive line, Klint Kubiak’s zone approach, and how the lack of rhythm has impacted play-action and overall balance.
“They’re only running outside zone the last few weeks at like 17% clip because they’ve been unable to get the horizontal movement in the push,” Bell said. “ They’ve had to resort to some inside zone and even some trap pulls, some gap scheme to try to get something going in the run game besides just outside zone. So that’s why when they’re not playing as designed, it’s supposed to be outside zone 60-70% of the time. The coaches will tell you that [they] just have to keep going with it. and and you’ll you I’m sure fans, people listening to this are frustrated by them running the ball when they’re not gaining yards. But Kubiak and Macdonald are convinced that they have to do that. One to get the running game eventually to take hold in within games and week over week, but two to run the play action passes and slow down pass rushes against it.
“Macdonald was really scarred last year by what Ryan Grubb was doing by just going back and dropping back the throw and chucking the ball all over the place.”
We then pivoted to the NFL trade deadline (23:41), discussing whether John Schneider should make a move or ride it out with this roster. Gregg gave his perspective on realistic areas of need — from interior O-line depth to another front-seven piece — and how the front office is weighing short-term vs. long-term upgrades. He also dropped an interesting nugget about one offensive lineman Seahawks fans are familiar with, and why he believes the team won’t go anywhere near pursuing him before the deadline.
“Here’s a little inside ball on Wyatt Teller,” Bell said. “The locker room...
