Seahawks are 11-4 in last 15 games
What the Seahawks have to do to stay out in front in the NFC West standings
Going into their bye week last season, the Seattle Seahawks were 4-5, which meant that in the 17-game era (2021-present) they had a combined record of 30-31 up to that point. From bye week to bye week, the Seahawks have since gone 11-4.
If this multi-season combination of records was a 17-game season, Seattle would be within ear shot of going 13-4 with two more wins. Two years ago, 13-4 would have been the best record in the NFC and tied with the Ravens for the top mark in the NFL. 13-4 was good enough to give the Packers the number one seed in 2021.
13-4 seems to work about every two years.
Seahawks last 15 games
5-1 against the NFC West
Although three of those wins are against the Arizona Cardinals, the Seahawks are nevertheless 5-1 in the division since last Week 11. Their last loss before the 2024 bye was the 26-20 overtime defeat at the hands of the Rams, a game that saw Seattle up 13-3 at halftime and a win was within reach on the first possession of overtime.
Even though the Seahawks’ Week 18 win over the Rams was a narrow victory over backups, Seattle was right there with them in Week 9. They had a Week 11 win over the 49ers and once again was right there with them in Week 1 of this season.
The premise of the Seahawks being the best team in the NFC West since the middle of last season is not farfetched.
Good teams
These are Seattle’s last 4 losses:
2024 Week 15: 30-13 loss to the 11-6 Packers
2024 Week 16: 27-24 loss to the 14-3 Vikings
2025 Week 1: 17-13 loss to the 5-3 49ers
2025 Week 5: 38-35 loss to the 6-2 Bucs
If we go back further to their previous two losses, there is the the 26-20 loss to the Rams (10-7 playoff team) and a 31-10 loss to the Bills (13-4 AFC Championship game team).
Tampa Bay is definitely going to be a playoff team and San Francisco definitely could be, so potentially the Seahawks most recent loss to a non-playoff team would be last Week 6, a Thursday night loss to the 49ers at a time when the 49ers still looked like one of the NFL’s best teams.
That really only leaves one “gross” loss on Seattle’s resume since Mike Macdonald became the head coach:
Execute a field goal, or better yet score a touchdown, and maybe Macdonald’s track record would be close to perfect against “teams the Seahawks should beat”. Although to be fair, every team that Pete Carroll lost to in 2023 finished with a winning record and 7 of Seattle’s 8 losses were to teams that won at least 10 games.
Not losing to bad teams is good, but Super Bowl contenders beat good teams.
The Seahawks are 2-2 this season against teams that have winning records, but the Steelers and Jaguars really don’t seem like contenders to make a deep playoff run and they’re both in the AFC. Seattle looked far superior to those teams and they went toe-to-toe with the Niners and Bucs but were unable to close out either of those opportunities with a win.
The remaining schedule should be a blessing if the Seahawks can take advantage of it. However, Seattle can’t go 1-3 or 0-4 against the teams left on the schedule who currently have a winning record and expect any of us to believe that they are going to end up in the Super Bowl.
Seahawks remaining schedule
The highlighted teams have a winning record right now.
Five of Seattle’s next six games are against teams with a losing record, almost all of which are dealing with questions at the quarterback position:
Moons: Jayden Daniels expected to return on Sunday, but Terry McLaurin will probably be ruled out. Dan Quinn’s defense is 30th in net yards per pass attempt allowed and Kliff Kingsbury’s offense is exceptionally one-dimensional. Washington has lost 4 of the last 5.
Cardinals: The only team with a losing streak longer than 3 games, Arizona has dropped 5 in a row. Kyler Murray could return after missing the last 2 games.
Rams: Some people think they’re the best team in the NFC, if in the NFL. Of all the QBs to get injured, Matthew Stafford is actually not one of them. The Seahawks have to beat the Rams to win the NFC West.
Titans: Their -120 point differential is -39 points worse than the team in 31st (Saints). Cam Ward is the most sacked QB and Tennessee (dead last in almost every offensive category) is on its second head coach after firing Brian Callahan.
Vikings: Minnesota is 3-4 and one of their wins was against Jake Browning’s Bengals while another was against Dillon Gabriel’s Browns. In Week 1, they were down 17-6 to Caleb Williams in the fourth quarter until J.J. McCarthy had one great quarter of football. McCarthy should return this week, but does that make the Vikings a better team? By Week 13, Minnesota could be onto a third quarterback as they’re searching for options after putting Carson Wentz on IR.
Falcons: Can you beat the Bills and still get fired a couple months later? Raheem Morris might find out soon. Atlanta beat Buffalo in Week 6 but then lost to the 49ers and just lost 34-10 to the Dolphins. Neither Michael Penix or Kirk Cousins look like the answer right now. Can they figure it out in the next 6 weeks?
Just totally hypothetically and not as a prediction (!), if the Seahawks beat all the losing teams on their schedule in the next 6 weeks and lose to the Rams, then Seattle would be 10-3 prior to then facing the Colts and Rams.
That seems like a good record but remember:
That’s only if the Seahawks go 5-1 in their next 6 games!
What if they go 4-2? Then they would be 9-4, with a loss to the Rams, and most likely would need to win their last four games to even have a shot at winning the division. That’s how razor thin the margin is when Seattle loses games to NFC West opponents, which is why Week 1’s loss had the potential to be so damaging, even if it was Week 1.
I know this seems premature, to be writing about what the Seahawks would have to do in December if they drop at least 2 games in November, but this IS the reality facing Seattle. The Seahawks can’t afford any slipups against “bad” teams — as we’ve covered, they haven’t had any of those under Macdonald since last October 6th — and they’ve come too close to touching the hot stove against the Cardinals, Jaguars, and Texans already.
Seattle has to be just as disrespectful to Washington as their previous two opponents (Cowboys 44-22, Chiefs 28-7) and then in their rematch against the Cardinals the Seahawks have to answer the call of duty.
These two wins would give the Seahawks a 7-2 overall record and 4-2 in the NFC (the 49ers are already 5-1) and set Seattle up for a huge midseason showdown against the Rams, a team that could be 7-2 (Saints, 49ers are on deck) and 2-2 in the NFC if they win their next two. But drop a game and the Seahawks are probably back to playing “catch up” for the rest of the season.
That’s the team that the Seahawks were when Macdonald started his tenure, not the team that they’ve been for the last 12 months. Beat the teams you should beat, then become the team that should beat everybody.
Seaside Joe 2432
I’m ready for the Seahawks to be “disrespectful” to ALL of the teams on the schedule. 10-0 with a bunch of big-time ass whuppins’ thrown in.
(A guy can dream…)
I think we're seeing good self scouting and planning. In game changes are looking good for the most part. I think we are ahead of schedule. I expected this unit to take half the season to iron out wrinkles and get cohesive along the o line. I like what I'm seeing, from the preseason you could tell these guys like and respect each other and want to win. If we keep up this pace I think we're in the hunt and competing for it all, which is awesome. I'm getting that same sense I got when the LOB was starting to form. That confidence that you get from seeing your team begin to dominate their opponents, not just get lucky and pull out a win. Play good clean football and let's see how far we can take this! Begaw!