The Seahawks are back to work after their bye week, and at 5-2 they are positioned well not just in the NFC West, but in the overall conference standings, with only one team, the 5-1-1 Packers, having fewer than two losses. Up next is another cross-country trip to face the Washington Commanders on Sunday Night Football, but before we turn our attention to that game, it's time once again to open up the mailbag and answer questions from you, the fans.

As always, thanks to everyone who asked questions this week, and apologies if I wasn't able to get to yours this time around. And remember, the mailbag is always open for submissions at Seahawks.com/mailbag.

@holliwinters57.bsky.social asks, "What are the chances we finally get a healthy defense back?"

A: One of the more impressive parts of this Seahawks season so far has been how well Mike Macdonald's defense has played despite missing several key starters throughout the first seven games.

The Seahawks lost rookie safety Nick Emmanwori a few plays into the season opener, then saw Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon suffer a knee injury in that game that has caused him to miss five of the last six games. Pro Bowl safety Julian Love has missed four games with a hamstring injury, Pro Bowl cornerback Riq Woolen missed one with a concussion, outside linebacker Derick Hall has missed the past two games with an oblique injury, and earlier this season, four-time Pro-Bowl outside linebacker DeMarcus Lawrence missed a game with a quadricep injury. Yet despite all those significant injuries, the Seahawks still rank in the top 10 in the league in total defense and scoring defense, have only allowed one opponent to score more than 20 points, and have held five of seven opponents under 300 yards.

And now, the Seahawks are expecting to be healthier coming out of the bye. There won't be an injury report until Wednesday, and we won't get game status designations (questionable, doubtful, out) until Friday, so it's too early to know for sure on any of those injured players, but Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald did say following last week's win over the Texans that the hope is to get Witherspoon, Love and Hall back this week. Were they to get that trio back, the Seahawks would be at full strength on defense for the first time since the 49ers' first drive of the season opener.

@hollykeefe06 asks, "Do you expect the Seahawks to be active at the trade deadline?"

A: I guess the answer depends on what you mean by active. If you mean, will they for sure make a trade, then that's not a question I can answer right now. But if, by active, you mean making calls and pursuing potential deals, then I can say with full confidence that they will be active. General manager and president of football operations John Schneider has always taken pride in being involved in every potential deal possible, and the Seahawks have made several big additions via midseason trades during Schneider's tenure in Seattle, including Marshawn Lynch, Quandre Diggs, Duane Brown, Leonard Williams and Ernest Jones IV.

"We're always active," Macdonald said. "You know how John rolls, we're in everything. We're constantly trying to do what's best for us. Sometimes that's through acquisition."

@tetons_ asks, "Can anyone stop JSN this year?"

A: So far, the answer has been no. On his way to leading the NFL with 819 yards through seven games, Smith-Njigba has been remarkably consistent, recording 100-plus yards and eight or more catches in five of seven games. And in the two games he didn't top those marks, Smith-Njigba still managed 79 yards on four catches in a win over Arizona, and 96 yards and a touchdown on five catches in a win over the Saints, numbers that would have been bigger had he and several other starters not sat out most of the fourth quarter.

That's not to say Smith-Njigba won't have a quiet game at some point this season. On his way to setting an NFL record with 1,964 yards in 2012, Calvin Johnson had five games under 100 yards, including a season-low 46 yards against Richard Sherman and the Seahawks. Cooper Kupp, who came close to that record with 1,947 yards in 2021, had six sub-100-yard games (though he went over 90 yards in five of those), with a low of 64 yards. All of that is to say that, even in the greatest of receiving seasons, there will be days where the production dips, so Smith-Njigba will probably have a quiet game at some point, but what he is doing so far this season has undoubtedly been very, very impressive.

@pnw4democracy.bsky.social asks, "The running game still isn't functioning like it should. What is the plan to fix it?"

A: The Seahawks have indeed been more inconsistent than they'd like in the running game, and that is a topic coaches dove into during the bye week. What solutions they came up with won't be shared publicly, for obvious reasons, but Macdonald is confident they will get that aspect of their offense going.

"I think we're on the right track," Macdonald said Monday. "We have a better understanding of what we do well and what we don't do as well, how we build things, who's out there, that sort of thing. But we don't need any wholesale changes. We need to keep attacking it. There's detail involved, there's operation involved, game plan, scheme, all the above is room for improvement. I think we saw last game, we took a stride. We just got to keep moving in that direction."

@SeanO_PNW asks, "With Pearl Jam turning 35 years old recently, rank their last four studio albums: Backspacer, Lightning Bolt, Gigaton, Dark Matter."

A: Sheesh, Sean, just ask me to rank my children next time, it might be easier (just kidding, girls!).

As anyone who reads this mailbag regularly or follows me on twitter knows, I'm a rather big Pearl Jam fan, so I spent way too much time on this list, including consulting a few co-workers and friends who are also Pearl Jam fans, and also re-listening to all four albums. Pearl Jam's best and most well-known work came earlier in their career, which as the question notes, began in 1990, with their first show taking place in Seattle at the Off Ramp on October 22, 1990 when they were still known as Mookie Blaylock. The beauty and challenge of this question is that by only ranking the most recent four albums, it eliminated the more obvious choices from earlier in their career like Ten, Vs., Vitalogy, No Code and Yield. I thoroughly enjoy every album Pearl Jam has put out, so ranking them is hard, but let's give it a go anyway.

Maybe it's recency bias, maybe it's nostalgia since my oldest daughter's first Pearl Jam concert was on the Dark Matter Tour, or maybe it's just that the combination of a great band working with Andrew Watt, one of the best rock producers in the biz, but to me Dark Matter, which came out in 2024, is the best of Pearl Jam's recent work. In fact, depending on when you ask me, I might put it up as their best album since Yield, which came out in 1998, which shows the talent and longevity of the band that they're still putting out such high-quality work nearly 35 years after their debut album.

Again, that's not to say I don't like every one of Pearl Jam's albums, but if you're making me choose, Dark Matter gets the slight edge over Backspacer for the best of those four. Unlike my friend and fellow Pearl Jam enthusiast, Seattle Times reporter Tim Booth, I'm not an irrational Backspacer hater. Backspacer, which came out in 2009, kicks off with some fun up-tempo songs, then hits a great three-song stretch with Just Breathe, Amongst the Waves and Unthought Known, the latter of which is particularly outstanding live. The End is a great slow song to close out the album as well. And, oh by the way, Just Breathe was the first dance at our wedding, so my wife would probably not be thrilled if this album didn't rank highly.

Lightning Bolt (2013) comes in third on the list for me, and includes several songs I really enjoy, including Sirens, Lightning Bolt, Pendulum (another song you'll appreciate a lot more if you've heard it live), and the final track on the album, the gorgeous Future Days.

Rounding out the list for me is Gigaton, which again, by no means is a bad album, it's just not quite as good, to me, as the other three. There are several songs I really enjoy on Gigaton, including Seven O'Clock, Comes Then Goes, Retrograde and River Cross, and giving this album a little extra meaning is when it came out: March 27, 2020. As most of you probably recall, the world was pretty much shut down in late March, 2020 thanks to COVID-19, so having something like a new Pearl Jam album, the band's first in seven years, to look forward to, was a pretty big deal. For me, and I'm sure plenty of other folks, there are certain albums, TV shows, movies or other forms of art and entertainment that came out during the COVID lockdown that have a little extra meaning because they provided entertainment or distraction or levity in some pretty dark times. For me, that list includes Ted Lasso, the Fake Doctors, Real Friends podcast, Hamilton's release on Disney+, ESPN's the Last Dance, Taylor Swift's Folklore (some good father-daughter bonding there) and Gigaton. Would I have appreciated any of those things as much in more normal times? Maybe, maybe not, but they were all particularly meaningful given what was going on in the world at the time and how few options for entertainment we had.

Finally, to wrap this way-too-long answer up, as I mentioned, I consulted a few other Pearl Jam fans, so here's how they ranked them.

Jesse Ireland, one of my oldest friends who I went to PJ concerts with as a teenager: Dark Matter, Backspacer, Lightning Bolt, Gigaton.

Tim Booth, Seattle Times reporter and unfairly harsh critic of Backspacer: Dark Matter, Lightning Bolt, Gigaton, Backspacer.

Brian O'Connell, Seahawks director of broadcasting: Dark Matter, Lightning Bolt, Backspacer, Gigaton.

Eric Enberg, Seahawks VP of suites & premium: Lightning Bolt, Dark Matter, Backspacer, Gigaton.

Mike Naehr, Seahawks director of suite sales: Backspacer, Lightning Bolt, Dark Matter, Gigaton.

@haaeson asks, "How was your bye week?"

A: Lovely, thank you for asking. We did Disneyland with the kiddos for the first time, which obviously was a blast for them, while also being exhausting. So a fun bye, but not a relaxing one.

@luxmaiorum.bsky.social asks, "When will Robbie Ouzts be back?"

A: Ouzts, Seattle's rookie fullback, has missed the past four games on injured reserve with an ankle injury, but he was back on the practice field Monday for the first time, having been designated for return. That doesn't necessarily mean Ouzts will be game ready this week, but it's an important first step towards his return. We probably won't know the likelihood of Ouzts playing this week until Friday's final injury report of the week.

@MegaNuck, who appears to be a Ravens fan, asks, "Can Mike Macdonald come back to Baltimore?"

A: Sorry, no, we're pretty darn happy with him here in Seattle. Though the schedule rotation does have the Seahawks scheduled to return to Baltimore in 2031, so you can always wait until then to see Macdonald up close. And yes, I realized it's far from a given that a head coach will be in one job for nearly a decade, but based off what we've seen from Macdonald so far in his short time leading the Seahawks, I would expect this to be a long and successful tenure in Seattle.