The Seahawks are 3-1 a month into the Mike Macdonald era, and as that record would suggest, they've done a lot of good things in their first four games under their new head coach. There's also, as was evident in Monday's loss to the Loins, room for this team to grow.

"We're four weeks into the season and, look, the message all week has been that we're on the foundation of our football team and where we want to be and it's obvious, we're not the team that we want to be yet, and we shouldn't be the team that we're going to be," Macdonald said after Monday’s loss.

With the Seahawks now four games into their 2024 campaign, let's take a look back at some of the plays, players and moments that stood out in the first quarter of the season.

Important disclaimer: These are very unofficial honors selected by a writer who might not really know what he's talking about, so please take all of this with a grain of salt.

Offensive MVP: QB Geno Smith

DK Metcalf has been one of the best receivers in the NFL, and is the first player in team history with three straight 100-yard receiving games; Kenneth Walker III has been fantastic in his two games, rushing for 183 yards and four touchdowns while averaging 5.7 yards per carry; and Charles Cross is establishing himself as one of the league's elite left tackles; but with apologies to those three and everyone else on offense, the answer is pretty clearly Geno Smith, a two-time Pro-Bowler who might be playing his best football yet in his third season as Seattle's starter.

A lot has been on Smith's shoulders this season, with the Seahawks and new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb leaning heavily on the passing game, and Smith has been up to the challenge. As has been the case since taking over Seattle's starting job in 2022, Smith has been one of the NFL's most accurate quarterbacks, ranking second in the league with a 72.3 percent completion percentage, and he's doing that while throwing at a higher volume than any other quarterback, leading the NFL in completions (115, attempts (159) and passing yards (1,182) through four games.

Smith has also come through in big moments, including game-tying and game-winning drives in Seattle's overtime win over the Patriots in Week 2.

"Geno's playing at a really high level," Grubb said. "I've said it for quite a while now, I think that Geno's an elite quarterback, and it's showing up."

Defensive MVP: S Julian Love

One of the best parts about Seattle's defense through the first quarter of the season has been how many different players are stepping up, making this a nearly impossible decision. Up front, Leonard Williams has been a force in the interior line, while Boye Mafe and Derick Hall are both having great seasons on the edge. Tyrel Dodson has provided leadership and playmaking as the team's new middle linebacker, Rayshawn Jenkins is making plays all over the field at safety, and Seattle's cornerback trio of Riq Woolen, Devon Witherspoon and Tre Brown have given up very little to opposing receivers. But if we have to choose just one player, we'll give the slight edge to safety Julian Love, who is off to a great start following his Pro-Bowl season last year.

Love leads the team in solo tackles with 22 and is third in total tackles with 26 despite missing the second half of Monday's game, and he also has two tackles for loss, an interception, a forced fumble, two passes defensed, and a key blocked field goal late in Seattle's Week 2 win at New England.

Love, who is Pro Football Focus' No. 2 graded safety this season (89.9), missed the second half of Monday's game with a thigh injury, and perhaps on a related note, the Seahawks gave up two of their longest plays of the season with him sidelined, including a 70-yard touchdown catch that, as Macdonald explained, was the result of a blown coverage, something that perhaps a veteran safety and key communicator on the back end of the defense could have helped the defense prevent.

Special Teams MVP: K Jason Myers

Myers started his year 5 for 5 on field goal attempts, and while there have been two misses since then, both have been from more than 50 yards, including a 62-yard attempt at the end of the half in Detroit. Most importantly, Myers has made kicks in big moments, including the game-tying kick at the end of regulation in New England, followed by the game winner in overtime.

Other standouts have been punter Michael Dickson, receiver Laviska Shenault Jr., who has been good on kick returns and in coverage, safety Coby Bryant, receivers Dareke Young and Jake Bobo, tight end Brady Russell and defensive end Mike Morris.

Best Rookie, Offense: TE AJ Barner

Guard Christian Haynes looked good in his most significant playing time last week, and if he ends up in the starting role at some point he could take over this spot, but so far the top offensive rookie has been Barner, a fourth-round pick out of Michigan who has seen his role grow as the season has gone along, as is evident in his five catches for 40 yards over the last two games. That includes Barner's first career touchdown, a 9-yard catch, on Monday night.

Best Rookie, Defense: DT Byron Murphy II

Linebacker Tyrice Knight has started the past two games for an injured Jerome Baker and played very well, and he currently ranks fourth on the team with 22 tackles, but Murphy, the team's first-round pick, is the choice here by a slight margin.

Murphy's stats—six tackles, half a sack, one quarterback hit and one tackle for loss—don't stand out, but what those numbers don't show is how disruptive he's been on the interior line, frequently drawing double teams while helping his teammates make the plays that do show up on the stat sheet.

Best Newcomer: S Rayshawn Jenkins & LB Tyrel Dodson

Two of Seattle's free-agent additions this spring, Dodson and Jenkins have both been central to the defense's success. Jenkins is the only Seahawk to play every defensive snap this year, while Dodson has been off the field for just six total plays, and both have been among the most productive players on the team. Dodson leads the Seahawks with 33 tackles, and also has three tackles for loss, a sack and a forced fumble, while Jenkins is second on the team with 31 tackles, many of which have come in the open field to snuff out potential bigger gains.

Jenkins and Dodson are just two of several free-agent signings making big contributions early on, a group that also includes left guard Laken Tomlinson, center Connor Williams, tight end Pharaoh Brown, receiver/kick returner Laviska Shenault Jr., nose tackle Johnathan Hankins, linebacker Jerome Baker and safety K'Von Wallace.

Unsung Hero: DT Johnathan Hankins

Hankins' signing didn't necessarily make a big splash—run-stuffing nose tackle isn't a role known to generate headlines—but Hankins has been a vital piece of Seattle's defense in his 12^th year in the NFL.

As defensive coordinator Aden Durde explained in the offseason, Hankins was brought in to be an early-down, run-defending lineman, but injuries on the defensive line have called upon Hankins, and Seattle's other healthy linemen, to do more the past two weeks, and he has answered the call admirably while seeing more playing time the past two weeks than he has in several years. And while a lot of Hankins' job involved unglamorous work, he has also made some big plays, including three tackles for loss, ranking him near the top of the league for interior linemen.

Also worth a mention here is right tackle Stone Forsythe, who took over the starting job for an injured George Fant in Week 1, and has gotten better every week, including Monday's performance in which he played a big role in keeping Pro-Bowl defensive end Aidan Hutchinson from recording a sack after he had 6.5 in his first three games.

Best Play, Offense: Geno Smith's 71-yard touchdown pass to DK Metcalf vs. Miami.

Seattle's longest scoring play of the season helped the Seahawks roll to a convincing win over the Dolphins, and perhaps more importantly from a big picture standpoint, it demonstrated the chemistry Smith and Metcalf have build over the years, and that is showing up a lot in Ryan Grubb's offense. On the play in question, Smith and Metcalf were both able to recognize a particular coverage look, quickly communicate an adjustment to Metcalf's route, and make a big play.

"That was a play that we had been repping all offseason, give DK the option to read that right there," Smith said after the game. "If we get the coverage we like, he's going to take the top off it. So they were playing low quarters on that side; they play up half to the other side; we got the safety in the position we want him, and he really bit down on the dig route and DK was able is it get behind him. I thought the protection was great. Allowed us the extra second we needed to get ball downfield. That was a big play for us."

Best Play, Defense: Riq Woolen's Week 1 interception, an "incredible play."

Riq Woolen helped clinch Seattle's Week 1 win with an interception that, thanks to his rare speed, looked almost easy. To those who know defense and cornerback responsibilities, however, what Woolen did was anything but routine.

Woolen, lined up at right cornerback, chased Broncos receiver Courtland Sutton all the way across the field to undercut a crossing route near the left sideline. It was similar to a play Woolen has made a couple of time in his career, including a pick-six against Detroit as a rookie, but it was anything but a simple interception.

"What an incredible play," Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said. "He had that guy man to man and ran all the way across the field on a movement pass. I don't know if you guys can find another play like that ever. That's really hard to do. He's one of the few people on this planet that can make that play. Shoutout to him."

In terms of impact on a game, another big play for the defense was the third-and-one stop by Tyrel Dodson and Jarran Reed late in the fourth quarter of Seattle's Week 2 win in New England. That run stop, in a game in which the Patriots ran the ball well, allowed the offense to get the ball back for the game-tying drive.

Trend to continue: Third-down defense.

Through four games, Seahawks opponents are converting just 28.9 percent of their third down tries, which ranks fourth in the NFL. A lot goes into that, including a productive pass rush, great coverage on the back end, and creative play-calling from Mike Macdonald, and all of that has added up to help the Seahawks take a big leap in that very-important stat. Just how big of a leap has it been so far? Last year the Seahawks ranked 31^stin third-down defense, allowing opponents to covert at a 46.3 percent rate.

Trend to improve upon: Lack of takeaways on defense.

The Seahawks got off to a good start in this area, forcing three turnovers in a Week 1 win over the Broncos. Since then, however, the Seahawks have gone three straight games without a takeaway, which doesn't sit well with Mike Macdonald, who last year oversaw a Baltimore defense that led the NFL with 31 takeaways.

"You can't go three games with no takeaways and two games in a row losing the takeaway battle and expect to have success," Macdonald said. "So that's definitely a point of emphasis with us. But you've got to do it the right way. The ball comes alive when you play the right way on defense. You can't sacrifice tackles for the ball. All those things are important to stress, but I think it's more important that we focus on playing the right way and attacking the ball when those opportunities come alive. Then, I think you might see some of those numbers start to jump."

Check out the Seattle Seahawks 2024 Schedule