The Seahawks improved to 3-0 with Sunday's win over the Dolphins, making Mike Macdonald the first head coach to begin his Seahawks career with three straight wins. This is also the team's first 3-0 start since they opened the 2020 season with five straight wins on the way to an NFC West title. Next up for the Seahawks is a tough test in Detroit on Monday Night Football, but before we turn our attention to that game, it's time once again to open up the mailbag and answer some 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.

@MrEd315 asks, "Be honest, John, how surprised are you with the Seahawks' 3-0 start? And what has impressed you the most?"

A: In all honestly, not very surprised at all, especially given the injury situation Miami was dealing with at quarterback. From the day the schedule came out in the spring, it looked like the Seahawks had a chance to start off fast in Mike Macdonald's first season, opening with a Denver team that struggled last season, and was starting a rookie quarterback making his NFL debut, followed by a trip to New England to face the Patriots, who went 4-13 last year. Of course teams can turn their fortunes around quickly, and for all we know, New England or Denver could be playing great football and be a playoff contender by December, but if you're just talking about perception heading into the season, those first two games looked winnable for Seattle. Miami loomed as a big test in Week 3, but the unfortunate injury to quarterback Tua Tagovailoa limited an explosive Miami offense—as did a great Seahawks defense, which we'll dive into in a later question—and the Seahawks were able to win that game by three touchdowns.

When you consider that the Seahawks were talented enough to win nine games last year, and were counting on Macdonald to help turn the defense around, the expectations, internally at least, have always been high, so this 3-0 start feels more like a team simply taking care of business than anything surprising.

As for what has impressed me the most, I'd just say the speed and aggressiveness with which the defense is playing. Yes, Macdonald's scheme has made a difference and should help the Seahawks do a lot of great things on defense, but he'd be the first one to tell you that Xs and Os can only do so much, and he and the defensive coaching staff have players flying around, playing confident and making a lot of big plays.

XRay_Bird asks, "Do you believe our defensive productions is sustainable, or do you think it's a result of the offenses we've faced?"

A: If by sustainable you mean holding teams to three points like Seattle did on Sunday, then probably not, but the aforementioned effort and confidence that unit has displayed should carry over from week to week. Yes, there will be bigger tests than what the Seahawks have seen so far, starting in Detroit on Monday, and some teams will score more points and move the ball better than Seattle's first three opponents have been able to. But overall, a lot of what Seattle's defense is doing feels like it should be effective every week, especially a pass rush that has been very disruptive, even without outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu, who could be back as soon as this week, as well as a secondary that has been fantastic. That combination of pass rush and standout coverage has helped the Seahawks become the first team since the 1979 Steelers to start 3-0 while holding all three opponents under 150 net passing yards, according to NFL Research.

Again, there will be a few hiccups throughout the season, but I don't think what the Seahawks have done so far is simply the result of beating up on not-so-great quarterback play.

@mookiealexander asks, "What do you think about the way Stone Forsythe has played? He's looked the best he's ever looked over the past two weeks at right tackle."

A: I'm not going to pretend to be some sort of offensive line expert, but I'd agree that overall Forsythe has held down the fort admirably at right tackle after George Fant's injury, especially last week against Miami.

And I know everyone has varying opinions of player grades, but Pro Football Focus gave Forsythe a solid 73.1 overall grade, one of the tops in his career, for his play against Miami on Sunday. Forsythe playing well is important heading into Monday's game against the Lions and NFL sack leader Aidan Hutchinson. Forsythe should go into that game with some confidence, having played well in Detroit last season when he started at left tackle in place of an injured Charles Cross.

With Fant on injured reserve and no timeline on Abraham Lucas' return, getting good play out of Forsythe going forward would be huge for the offense.

@JoeMomma833 asks, "Any news on how serious the injuries to Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy III are?" @Jmac1204 also asked about those injuries.

A: If you haven't been paying attention to Mike Macdonald's press conferences thus far, he's not too interested in talking about injuries, so it doesn't come as much surprise that, when asked about those two injuries on Monday, he didn't have any updates to provide. With a Monday night game, the first injury report this week won't come out until Thursday, then we'll get a little better feel for their availability when the final injury report with game designations (questionable, doubtful, out) comes out Saturday.

@PoonaStan asks, "How effective do you believe this team can be in the long run given our offensive line struggles? And do you think Abe Lucas/Christian Haynes could fix those issues?"

A: The line needs to be more consistent, to be sure, and there have been far too many drive-killing penalties. So far the Seahawks have survived that, but as the schedule gets tougher, the offense will have to step things up, and that will start with how things are going up front. Getting Lucas, who was great as a rookie, back on the field would definitely help, but there's no real timeline on that happening so for now the players who are available will have to get the job done. As for Haynes, Macdonald said the rookie guard deserves a shot to compete, so perhaps we see him split time with Anthony Bradford in the near future. Also, it's been mentioned in this space before, but center Connor Williams is still pretty new to the team and is only nine months removed from an ACL tear, so it's very reasonable to expect his play to get better as the season goes along. So far, great defense and some elite quarterback play from Geno Smith, who has dome some great things under duress, have been enough to carry the Seahawks to a 3-0 start, but Seattle's linemen would be the first to tell you they can do more to help the offense raise its level of play.