Seahawks LB Boye Mafe Adjusting to Increased Attention From Opponents

Most notably, without Nwosu available for the rest of the season, the Seahawks haven't received much production at all from the rest of their edge group. Though Darrell Taylor has a pair of sacks in the past four games, rookie Derick Hall hasn't generated a single pressure and veteran Frank Clark has been so ineffective the team decided to make him a healthy scratch in two of the past three weeks.

For his part, Mafe hasn't been a complete non-factor since his sack streak was snapped in a Week 11 loss in Los Angeles. In fact, his disruptiveness has not dipped much away from the sack department. According to PFF, he still has tallied 13 quarterback pressures and a respectable 12.5 percent pressure rate, which isn't much of a drop off from his red-hot start.

The difference, of course, has been that Mafe hasn't been able to get home near as often thanks in part to the extra attention being sent his direction. Aside from not having any sacks in the past four games, he only has registered a single quarterback hit and one batted pass in that span. While he has been productive as far as pressures go, he hasn't been able to deliver impact plays as he did earlier in the year.

Reflecting on his recent individual slump, Mafe acknowledged that the way opponents have attacked him with extra blockers and slide protection has made it more difficult to get to the quarterback. Exhibiting the mindset shared by all great pass rushers, he doesn't think that should make much of a difference slowing him down and expects more from himself.

“Understanding that you have to find a way to get around it because players do it, there's no excuse of how that’s the reason I haven’t been productive. I got to find a way to be better," Mafe remarked.

Down to the final four games of the season and a game out of a wild card spot, Mafe will look to snap his drought on Monday night against the Eagles, who boast one of the league's premier offenses with Jalen Hurts at the helm. Citing the dual-threat quarterback's mobility and penchant for extending plays, he will have to be cognizant of not losing contain and allowing the signal caller to do damage escaping the pocket. He also will have to be careful about how far upfield he rushes to prevent Hurts from climbing the pocket as a runner.

As is always the case with talented running quarterbacks, Mafe will have to have his head on a swivel and play with great eye discipline defending Hurts.

With that said, Hurts ranks second out of 28 quarterbacks in the NFL in average time to throw (3.18 seconds), often holding onto the ball hoping for one of his star receivers to come open downfield. As a result, even behind an excellent offensive line with top-tier tackles in Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata, he has been sacked 32 times, the fifth-highest total in the league this year.

If Mafe can get back in a groove with the vocal 12s roaring behind him at Lumen Field and win a fair share of his matchups against Johnson and Mailata, who actually has allowed the sixth-most pressures (41) among tackles this year per PFF, he should have a prime opportunity to get several hits on Hurts. At the very least, assuming the Eagles continue the recent trend sending double teams or chip blocks his way, he's hopeful those situations will open things up for the rest of the Seahawks rushers to create consistent pressure.

“If I don’t have a one on one or someone else has a one on one, that’s an opportunity for them, or if I have the one on one then I have to take advantage of those opportunities and when those do happen there’s so many guys that have to block, we have talent across the line. If they decide to leave me one on one, I have to take advantage of that and same with the other guys when they get their one on one, they take advantage of that.”