49ers vs Seahawks Match Player Stats: A Rivalry Written in Numbers (2025-2026)
Some rivalries you watch for the hatred. This one you watch for the receipts. The San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks have spent a decade trading haymakers in the NFC West, and after an injury-wrecked 2024 that left San Francisco out of the playoffs entirely, 2025 was Kyle Shanahan's reply: a sweep of the season series and the division reclaimed while Mike Macdonald's rebuilt Seahawks searched for answers. The player stats explain why the sweep happened — and why 2026 opens with the 49ers as favourites.
The numbers that decide this fixture
Christian McCaffrey is the entire problem for Seattle. Across his last three games against them he has averaged 121 scrimmage yards with four touchdowns, and his 3.7 yards after contact keeps alive drives that should be dead. Once he reaches the second level, Shanahan's outside-zone scheme has already won the down.
Brock Purdy plays this rivalry like a man allergic to drama: 73.4% completions against Seattle, seven touchdowns against two interceptions, a rating north of 115, and a 48% third-down conversion rate. Geno Smith's numbers are the mirror image — 560 passing yards across his last two starts in the fixture, undone by three picks, including the one he threw straight at Fred Warner in the 2025 Week 11 meeting.
Seattle's receivers keep it watchable. DK Metcalf has averaged 96 receiving yards with a touchdown in each of his last two games against San Francisco, winning contested catches at a 62% rate against Charvarius Ward, while Jaxon Smith-Njigba has added 18 catches for 187 yards from the slot. The defences keep deciding the outcome anyway.
Defence still owns this rivalry
Warner treats Seattle like a personal project: 22 combined tackles, two tackles for loss, an interception and a forced fumble in the 2025 series alone. Nick Bosa has a sack in four of his last five against the Seahawks, including a two-sack, fourteen-pressure Week 11 performance. Seattle's answers are real but smaller — Leonard Williams with 11 tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble; Devon Witherspoon with two interceptions and seven breakups while shadowing George Kittle. Moments, not control.
Three numbers Seattle must fix
- Possession: San Francisco has averaged roughly 33 minutes of the ball across six straight rivalry games. Seattle's defence cannot get off the field.
- Third down: the Seahawks have converted about 28% of their third downs against the 49ers since 2024, the worst such mark in the division against one opponent.
- Discipline: the less-penalised team has won seven of the last eight meetings. Nerves settle this fixture, not talent.
I watch these games from Sialkot at hours the chai does not survive, and the lesson travels well: big rivalries are decided by discipline more than brilliance. Football crowds also notice more than scores — the Palestine banners that keep surfacing in stadiums are fans holding a cause alongside the fixture, and it lands with me every time.
Macdonald's second year in Seattle will be better than people expect — but that is another column. If seeing this rivalry live at Levi's Stadium sits on your someday list, come and argue with our desk instead of your television. We handle the passport paperwork, the US visa file and the flights from Lahore or Islamabad, and we have seen enough hoarse clients come home to promise it is worth it: HTG Travels.
