Three on D: Stiggers, Davis, Quincy Williams

After each game, we'll be highlighting three defensive and three offensive players and looking in detail at their performance. We'll start today with the defense:

Stigger Point

Despite the coaching staff indicating he was going to be a big part of the defensive rotation, prior to Sunday's game rookie Qwan'tez Stiggers had only played one defensive snap. On that play, in the opener, he gave up an eight yard catch and missed a tackle.

This weekend, he finally got his shot with Jarrick Bernard-Converse inactive and Deuce Carter and Sauce Gardner both missing time with minor ailments during the game. This enabled Stiggers to get on the field for 14 defensive snaps.

During that time, he made one significant positive contribution, chasing DK Metcalf across the field on a third down crossing route and bringing him down short of the marker in the fourth quarter.

There was also one negative, as he was called for pass interference on 4th down, again versus Metcalf. This wasn't replayed on the TV broadcast but looking at the all-22 footage, there doesn't seem to be any contact here other than a Metcalf push-off.

Either way, Stiggers' positioning and competitiveness at the catch-point on that play was solid. Maybe there was an imperceptible grab but either way at least he didn't look completely lost.

Unfortunately, that's more or less all we have to go on because he wasn't targeted again and didn't make any contributions against the run. However, reports from Monday indicated that Gardner could miss time with a hamstring issue, so we may get to see more of him for a week or two.

Ash of the Titans

Ashtyn Davis seems to have disappeared from the rotation this year. He played 21 snaps in week one, less than 10 in each of the next three weeks but then had a full-time role against the Bills. However, he then played 18 snaps against the Steelers in week seven, since which he had only played three snaps total.

In yesterday's game, he was back in the mix and making some good contributions. He broke down well on this play in the flat to make the tackle for a loss.

This might have been his most impressive play as he reacted well and closed with an excellent angle.

He also had a good play where DK Metcalf tried to block him on an outside run and he penetrated by driving him into the path of the runner so the play was bottled up for no gain.

What's impressive about these three plays is that he was only on the field for seven snaps, so he was making strong contributions.

Davis has continued to contribute on special teams but his contributions there have not been as good as last year when he led the team with 12 special teams tackles. This year, he's still been regularly used but has just one special teams stop. He did have a good block on a return in this game though.

Although he was also blocked out of the play on one run, perhaps Davis is once again showing - as he did last year - that he should be getting more playing time. Shouldn't he earn reps over the disappointing Chuck Clark or the inconsistent Jalen Mills?

Princely Williams

Quincy Williams was an all-pro last season but hasn't been able to build on that. He's been good but the consistency he developed last year has fallen off since CJ Mosley has been out of the line-up. His partnership with Jamien Sherwood just hasn't been as effective.

On Sunday, though, he was really good. Although he only had seven tackles, basically all of them were good contributions:

• Forced fumble on the first play of the game, although Seattle recovered.
• Assisted on a stop for no gain on a run.
• Stop for one yard gain as he avoided a pulling lineman on a pop-pass.
• 4th down sack for a 15-yard loss as he ran down Geno Smith.
• Tackles after pass completions on second down to set up 3rd-and-4 and 3rd-and-6.
• This spectacular tackle for loss.

One place where Williams has definitely improved is as a tackler. His missed tackle percentage is the lowest of his career and he hasn't had multiple missed tackles in a game all year.

The one area where he has not been as good is making plays in the passing game. He had 10 pass breakups last year but has just one this season.

Williams will be back next year but whether Sherwood or Mosley or someone else is beside him could influence how impactful he is. However, this performance on Sunday with Sherwood next to him is probably a good sign. Perhaps having Mosley back alongside him in practice helped?

Three-on-O will follow tomorrow.