Week 5 Preview: The first 49ers-Seahawks tilt of the season highlights the slate

Robert Mays (0:00)

Welcome to The Athletic Football Show, brought to you by the US. Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card. I'm Robert Mays. Today, it's the Week 5 Preview. Two games of the week. We hit Rams, Bills and Niner Seahawks, some bangers of headliner games in Week 5 Dug into one thing from a couple other games, chat a little bit about the Eagles season and where that is headed, a little bit of Lane-Johnson celebration, whole bunch of stuff on the Week 5 Preview today. Let's get to it with me, Derrik and Dave right now.

It's the Week 5 Preview. A lot of good stuff to dig into today. We got two games of the week. Got a couple other newsy bits, chat a little bit about the Eagles, a little bit about what's happening with the Broncos, play calling situation. Lot of stuff to chew on today.

Dave Helman (0:54)

It's been a wild week for unexpected news. Correct.

Robert Mays (0:58)

In mid-season news, there's been a lot of bangers over the last 48 hours or so.

Derrik Klassen (1:02)

Does Sean Payton taking back play calling count as surprising news?

Robert Mays (1:07)

Let's call it notable.

Derrik Klassen (1:09)

Let's call it notable news.

Robert Mays (1:11)

Stuff that, the type of news you don't always get heading into Week 5 That's how I'll frame it. Is that better?

Derrik Klassen (1:17)

Yeah, I think that that's a little bit more fitting.

Dave Helman (1:19)

Two huge news items. So the other one, and we'll talk about it, Lane Johnson retiring. One is even knowing Lane said this was going to be his last year, you weren't ready for it to happen.

Robert Mays (1:28)

Of course not.

Dave Helman (1:29)

So shocking, and then you hear the Payton news and you're like, well, yeah, okay. We had an idea that that might be coming.

Robert Mays (1:36)

Let's dig into our first game of the week here, 49ers at Seahawks. Really looking forward to this one.

Doesn't take a lot of explanation as to why this is a game of the week. I think right now you can make a pretty solid argument that 49ers have been the best team in the NFL over the first four weeks. When you look at a multi-year period and you take everything into account, still think you would probably be in the right to say that the Seahawks are the best team in the NFL, just with everything that we know and banking last year combined with this year. And so it doesn't take a lot to sell me on this one.

Dave Helman (2:09)

And with the way it went last year, too, I'm so excited for the renewal of this, where, you know, I mean, the 49ers won that great game in the season opener, and they've been up until last year had been the more consistently successful team. And by the end of the year, you were like, Oh man, Mike McDonald's got Kyle Shanahan's number, doesn't he? And so to see what this looks like with the Niners rolling and, you know, some of their new pieces contributing, I was going to say healthy, that's not really still a thing, but maybe healthier looking than we hoped. Either way, I'm excited for the renewal of this one.

Robert Mays (2:44)

I think that's a good place to start. The idea that for the most part, I mean, Mike McDonald has had Kyle Shanahan's number in a way that very few defensive coaches do. And so Derrik, I think the entry point I'm interested in here is, is there a reason to think that this is going to look different for the Niners offense than it did over the final two matchups from last year where they really got dominated by Seattle? Seattle controlled those games on that side of the ball.

Derrik Klassen (3:09)

I think it can be a little bit better. You know, I think the offensive line is playing better right now than it had last year. You have Mike Evans who does not feel 100% healthy, but still feels like a nice middle of the field presence, which we can talk about in a little bit. I still think the way that the Seahawks play defense is perfectly suited to not let the 49ers do what they want to do because the 49ers rushing offense is all about how can we create space in the Seagap, whether that's with motions or they're shifting to it. They're flipping formations, whatever they're going to do. How do we get that to pop?

It's really hard to do that against the Seahawks edge guys, whether it's Demarcus Lawrence, Chen and Iwosu, some of the run tools they use where they're blitzing with their spoon off the edge or Emmon Warrior, whatever it's going to be and so I think they are just a perfect matchup to shut that down right now, especially Juice Check is not going to play in this game. He's out for a while now. I think that they're going to have to retool their offense a little bit and so in this week particular, I think that's tough. Then the other element of it, this is a Seahawks defense. We talked about it especially all the time when they play Rams, those middle of the field 11 to 20 yard throws over the middle. You have to be able to challenge those windows and you have to have the arm to fit them. Purdy will throw them.