I used to think of Dak as "Russell Wilson Lite"
Dak has improved to the point where I consider him on Russell Wilsons level. It is bigger than "stats" with these 2 QBs. It's leadership, its clutchness, its toughness, it's off script playmaking, it's "do anything to win"
With that said...the Seahawks were TRUE Super Bowl threats when the defense was very good. Does not mean Russell Wilson was not great, it means that without a very good defense...you are asking Rusell/Dak to outscore people for 16 games + playoffs. Now during the regular season....you are not playing against elite teams and coaching staffs every week. So theoretically, you should get a "break" from time to time during the regular season. But that is not the case in the playoffs.
A couple of years ago, when we beat the Seahawks in the playoffs and lost to the Rams the following week. It was because we emptied our clip beating the Seahawks and had nothing left for the next game. The playoffs are a different animal. It is the best of the best. It is a war of attrition. I mean against the Rams, we let a guy get off his couch and gash us for over 100 yards.
Getting a healthy DeMarcus Lawrence back will help. Crossing my fingers that the secondary remains healthy and opportunistic, but they can be had. They at least have the personnel to force TOs. The LBers can absolutely be had and that will not get much better this year. When your hope is that the rookies "hold up"...that is a recipe for disaster during a playoff/Super Bowl run. This defense would not survive if it had to take out Stafford, Rodgers, Murray and Brady in no particular order.
Am I excited? Yes! Am I enjoying this year? Yes! Can you win with Dak? Yes! But do you remember when the Rams beat us in the playoffs a couple of years ago? Do you remember what Bellicheck did to beat the Rams in the Super Bowl that year? Do you think we could do that if that is what was necessary? Did not mean Brady was not good enough. We saw what he did years later in his first season with the Bucs . It simply meant the coaching and defense was NEEDED to beat the Rams that year...and if we needed to pivot and rely on coaching and defense...we could not.