After going 3-1, the Seattle Seahawks were busy gearing up for Week 5 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But they were also expecting the Week 4 game against the Cardinals to come back and bite them. That’s exactly what happened as the NFL released its ‘Gameday Accountability’ report on Saturday.

The spotlight is on two Seattle players. The first one is RB Kenneth Walker, who has been fined $11,593 for ‘Unsportsmanlike Conduct’ (taunting) in quarter 2 of the game against the Cardinals. The incident took place at 6:58 when Walker got up after a short run, pointed at Arizona’s CB Kei’Trel Clark, who had tackled him, and threw the ball at Clark.

Throwing the ball at Clark earned Walker a penalty and a fine. As per ‘Rule 12, Section 3, Article 1’ of the NFL rulebook, “Using baiting or taunting acts or words that may engender ill will between teams,” is a prohibited act.

This is the first ‘Unsportsmanlike Conduct’ issue in Walker’s NFL career so far. His previous four career penalties include unnecessary roughness, offensive illegal block above the waist, offensive low block, and offensive holding.

Interestingly, the $11,593 fine is less than 1% of his annual salary. According to Spotrac, he is making $1,856,125 in the final year of his rookie contract. All that said, Walker’s action was a response to Clark pulling his ankle after the tackle. The CB did not receive any fine for his involvement in the contentious play. In fact, no Arizona player received any fine in Week 4.

Walker is joined by teammate Devon Witherspoon, who has also received an $11,593 fine for taunting, as per the ‘Accountability’ report. This incident took place at 3:04 in the fourth quarter. He stood over Cardinals’ tight end Trey McBride after making a tackle. This isn’t his first ‘Unsportsmanlike Conduct’ issue, though.

If we go back to last season, Witherspoon received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for taunting Arizona’s players.

Well, the Seahawks will have to deal with Walker and Witherspoon’s fines for now. After all, the league is trying to curb the issue of taunting because it wants to elevate sportsmanship. Hence, the NFL is pointing out such instances this season. For Witherspoon, however, this comes at a particularly bad time.

HC Mike Macdonald ruled him out of the upcoming matchup against the Buccaneers. He has not been practicing because of his knee injury.

But Seattle will need to be careful. Last season, they were among the top 10 NFL teams with the highest number of penalties.

The team seems to have been better in 2025. Here are the other instances they were fined this season:

Week 3: Leonard Williams was fined for ‘Unnecessary Roughness’.
Week 2: (No fines)
Week 1: (No fines)

Regardless, the Hawks would rather move forward and concentrate on Week 5. It is going to be a tough game, after all.

HC Mike Macdonald is focused on the next game

The coach knows that the Bucs have earned respect the hard way, by playing with their hearts out. QB Baker Mayfield kept his team united and led them with ferociousness. According to ESPN‘s Brady Henderson, “Coach Mike Macdonald said that by the Seahawks’ in-house metrics, Mayfield is probably the best quarterback in the NFL right now in terms of extended-play situations.” With the eighth-fastest average time before throw at 2.68 seconds, Mayfield has troubled his rivals.

However, the more worrying part for the Hawks is the absence of their players. Three defensive players. CB Witherspoon (knee), DT DeMarcus Lawrence (quad), and S Julian Love (hamstring) are out.

• Witherspoon has helped them win games with 17 tackles (12 solo), 1 defended pass, and 0.5 sacks in just two starts.
• Lawrence also missed the full week 5 practice because of his quad injury. The Seahawks signed the 11-year veteran on a 3-year $42 million contract. And he has supported them well in the 2025 season. In four games where he was the starter, the 4-time Pro Bowler has recorded 12 tackles (5 solo).
• They will also miss Love, who started three games for them but logged 18 tackles (15 solo), 1 sack, and 2 PDs.

So, Macdonald knows that they need to be alert at all times as they are playing without three defensive starters. On the offense, G/T Josh Jones is dealing with an ankle injury, and the Hawks marked him ‘out’ of the Week 5 game. But there’s a silver lining too.

Mayfield was also dealing with a knee and right biceps injury. However, he practiced for the full session later. For the fans, it will be a battle between injury-depleted Seahawks and a banged-up Bucs QB.