After more than a month of training camp and preseason dress rehearsals, the real bullets will finally start flying when the Seattle Seahawks officially open the Mike Macdonald era with a Week 1 home clash coming up against the Denver Broncos on September 8.

While Macdonald arrived in the Pacific Northwest as a first-time head coach at any level, he inherited a Seahawks squad with no shortage of talent that just missed the postseason with nine wins in 2023. Defensively, the team limped to a 25th overall ranking in points allowed and plunged back to the bottom of the NFL in rushing yards allowed, but the unit returns a fun blend of experienced veteran stars such as Leonard Williams as well as high-upside talents such as Riq Woolen and Devon Witherspoon, setting the stage for the group to make a dramatic bounce back.

Can Seattle’s defense emerge as one of the NFL’s most improved under Macdonald’s watch? Here are five bold predictions heading into the start of a new season in the Emerald City:

Coming off a spectacular rookie season where he tied for the NFL lead with six interceptions, Woolen wasn’t able to come close to replicating that performance last season in part due to injuries. Meanwhile, while Witherspoon put up a historic stat line tallying pass breakups, sacks, and tackles for loss, he only picked off one pass as a rookie, so double-digit combined picks between the two would be a massive, maybe even implausible jump from a year ago. With that said, the two players combined for 24 pass breakups between the two of them, regularly getting their hands on the football as active disruptors in coverage. If training camp serves as any indicator, more of those plays will be bound to turn into picks, especially in Macdonald’s aggressive defense predicated on speeding up opposing quarterbacks through post-snap disguise and a wide array of pressure packages. With both players healthy and presenting excellent fits for the scheme, look for a massive jump in the turnover department as the two young cornerbacks push for superstardom.

The Seahawks have come up just short of landing their first Defensive Rookie of the Year award the past two seasons with Woolen and Witherspoon finishing third and fourth in final balloting respectively. Being the second defender drafted in April, Murphy already has surfaced as a front runner to win the award and end a 48-year drought for the franchise, but depth and talent around him may limit his opportunities enough that he won’t be able to stack sack numbers likely necessary to take home the trophy. Still, easing him into a bigger role with Williams and Jarran Reed ahead of him has a great chance to present a less is more scenario, and by the end of the season, he will be wreaking havoc for opposing offensive lines with his elite first step and underrated power. Expect him to live up to the early hype contributing in a myriad of ways mucking things up at the line of scrimmage and making frequent visits into the backfield, even if he doesn’t quite have the sack numbers to garner Rookie of the Year honors.

Leading up to the season, the Seahawks have had to play a bit of musical chairs at linebacker with veteran Jerome Baker missing most of training camp with a hamstring injury. The former Dolphins starter returned to practice last week and looks to be trending in the right direction to play in Week 1, but his extended absence has granted Macdonald and his staff an extended opportunity to evaluate Knight, who has made tangible strides over the past month as he becomes more comfortable in a new scheme. After recording tackles in bunches in the preseason, it shouldn’t be a surprise if the fourth-round pick sees some defensive action early with Baker unlikely to be ready for a full workload and if he continues to play well against starter competition, it’s going to become harder to keep him out of the lineup as the season progresses. Possessing all the traits Macdonald prefers at linebacker, it feels like Baker may only be keeping the seat warm until the rook is ready, which has a chance to be much earlier than anticipated when he was drafted out of UTEP.

Several players have come close to double-digit sacks for Seattle in recent years, including Uchenna Nwosu and Boye Mafe coming within a sack of the achievement each of the past two years. But the team still hasn’t had a player reach that mark since Frank Clark and Reed each enjoyed career years in 2018, standing out as the longest such drought in the entire NFL. Fortunately for Macdonald, he doesn’t have anything close to a bare cupboard in the pass rushing department to work with. Nwosu and Mafe already have been in striking distance of 10 sack seasons in the past and should benefit further from moving around more to create ideal matchups, while second-year defender Derick Hall could be a dark horse to watch for a breakout after a strong preseason. Even in the interior, Reed hit seven sacks last year and could surpass that number playing in Macdonald’s defense, while Dre’Mont Jones’ inside and outside versatility presents the potential to push for a career high in sacks as well, making this an exciting group to watch hunt down quarterbacks.

When it comes to reasonable expectations, nobody should expect Macdonald to work a miracle overnight and suddenly transform the Seahawks into a top-10 defense. While there’s plenty of talent, there are still notable question marks at linebacker and safety that must be answered, and learning a complex new scheme will undoubtedly have growing pains early in the season, especially in the communication department. But as things round into form, assuming injuries don’t hit the team too hard, the pieces are in place for Seattle to be dramatically improved under Macdonald’s watch, starting with a diverse defensive line and a talented cornerback group that stacks up favorably against any other team in the league. It likely will be asking too much for the team to allow less than 21 points per game after ranking 25th in that category a year ago, but don’t be shocked when the team approaches that threshold as a top-12 unit by end of the season either.