Seahawks-Panthers lives in purgatory of meaning

Whether Week 17 matters depends on what happens outside of Carolina

Normally you might think of the Carolina Panthers as a trap game because there’s a potential division title game against the 49ers in the season finale, but the strange twist to Week 17 and a reminder that the future is not real is the fact that if the Seahawks beat the Panthers there’s a scenario in which Week 18 actually does not matter.

And yet the Seahawks can also beat the Panthers and then come to find out that Week 17 did not matter. Both of Seattle’s next two games both matter and don’t matter simultaneously. John Schneidinger’s cat, if you will.

“The future doesn’t exist. The only thing that exists is now and our memory of what happened in the past. But because we invented the idea of a future, we’re the only animal that realized we can affect the future by what we do today.” - David Suzuki

Of course, the next game matters because the wire is live. The Seahawks can’t make any assumptions about how the 49ers will do next week (San Francisco losing to the Colts tomorrow would be great, but doesn’t eliminate the Rams or Bears from overtaking Seattle’s position) and their IDEAL outcome is to guarantee that Week 18 does NOT matter. To rest starters against the 49ers and if San Francisco wins, they win. Or to quote the Matrix: “There is no Spoon”.

But the Seahawks can also go all out to beat the Panthers and come to find out that a win was the same as a loss as far as the playoff picture goes. Then hopefully Seattle just comes out of the game healthy. Which, by the way, is the exact same situation for the Panthers: They also don’t know if this game matters or not as it relates to winning the NFC South, even after beating the Bucs on Sunday.

If the Seahawks and Panthers could actually predict the future, both teams might want to rest starters in Week 17 and treat the finale like the playoffs. Instead, Seattle’s just hoping that they beat the Panthers and that it also matters. In such a vast universe, it’s only fitting that most of what matters is dark.

All-22 Films posted an extra long 43-minute Mike Macdonald defensive breakdown on Saturday:

We also got some content from MattyDubs about the offense this weekend:

I’m just posting a few random thoughts on Sunday.

Motivated Panthers team on deck

The Panthers beat the Bucs on Sunday, giving Carolina an 8-7 record and first place in the NFC South. The Panthers will have a chance to clinch the division title next week if they beat Seattle and Tampa Bay loses to the Dolphins. Although if the Bucs beat the Dolphins, which we all assume is likely, then in a way it seems this game is meaningless to Carolina’s playoff hopes because the Panthers and Bucs play again in Week 18 and that’s the division title game.

However, the Panthers will have no idea if the Bucs won or lost (both games are 10 AM PT) so in their minds they are playing to clinch the playoffs. This game also isn’t meaningless to Seattle even though we know that the division title game is probably in Week 18:

If the Seahawks lose to the Panthers, they leave the door open for the Bears to get the number one seed or the Rams to win the NFC West even if Seattle beats the 49ers in Week 18. If 11-4 Chicago wins out and both teams finish 13-4, then the Bears are the one seed. If Seattle loses one of two and the 49ers lose either of their next two but beat the Seahawks, then L.A. can win the division.

So the Seahawks need this win over Carolina so that they don’t open that door for the Bears and Rams.

In the last seven games the Panthers have beaten the Rams, the Packers, the Bucs, and the Falcons. They’ve also lost to the Saints twice and the 49ers. Carolina also hasn’t won or lost consecutive games since the middle of October, so the Panthers are due for a loss.

If the Seahawks don’t come out as flat on defense as they looked against the Rams in Week 16, Bryce Young shouldn’t enjoy as much success as he did today. Young has 14 TD/3 INT/1 lost fumble in 8 wins and 7 TD/6 INT/3 lost fumbles in 7 losses.

Chat going off!

Saturday’s post about why Grey Zabel is the rookie of the year has 133 comments and counting, with many of you chiming in with personal anecdotes and life stories that I really appreciate. Thursday’s post had 145 comments. Last Sunday’s post had 137 comments. The day before, 93 comments. Friday, 80 comments.

I’m not just bragging about the fact that we’re averaging almost 100 comments per newsletter and we’ve grown about 4x in the chat over the past couple of years, I think this just speaks to the excitement in the air about the Seahawks as the playoffs approach. It’s a palpable feeling that many of us wake up with every morning and go to bed thinking about every night as the Seahawks have grown from a team to watch to THE team to watch.

It’s been 10 years since we could be this optimistic about the Seattle Seahawks in December and so it makes sense that we would want to share that feeling with other fans.

If you’re not already, consider joining the comments whenever you feel like it makes sense for you. I see new names every day:

I like the Jalen Milroe plan

Remember Jalen Milroe? Here’s his Google Trends search rate from the start of June to the start of December, showing a spike during training camp when there were rumblings of his involvement in every Seahawks game this year:

Well, that didn’t happen.

Milroe had one snap each in Week 1, Week 3, and Week 5. He had three carries for four yards with a fumble. If you ever want to piss someone off, blame Milroe for two of Seattle’s three losses this season. “Hey, the Seahawks are 11-1 when Milroe doesn’t play!”

But I like what the Seahawks are doing with Milroe. This is how his development should have always been handled.

These teams have had to turn to their third quarterback in 2025: Chiefs, Vikings, Jets, Dolphins, Ravens, Bengals, Browns, Colts, Moons, Giants, Cardinals. The Colts felt they had to sign Philip Rivers, the Bengals had to trade for Joe Flacco, and the Raiders traded for Kenny Pickett just before the season. The Giants felt they had to sign Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston and draft Jaxson Dart. The Browns had four quarterbacks until they traded Pickett and Flacco.

Teams that have had extensive starting work from backups this season includes the Cardinals, the 49ers, the Falcons, and the Texans, not to mention that the Saints had a QB competition and switched midseason from Spencer Rattler to Tyler Shough. Teams with at least one start by the backup includes the Raiders, the Steelers, and the Panthers. Now it appear that the Packers could need Malik Willis to help them during a playoff run.

That’s 20 of 32 teams. More than half of those 20 needed at least a third QB.

The Seahawks have Sam Darnold, Drew Lock, and Milroe all signed through next season at least, and they have to be prepared for the possibility of using any or all of them between now and the conclusion of the 2026 season. Ideally, the Seahawks never need to see Lock (unless it’s garbage time, as has been the case a few time already) and especially never need Milroe, giving Seattle’s third QB 2.5 years to develop his weaknesses from the time he was drafted to the start of his third season.

When I see how many bad quarterbacks there are with teams grasping at straws for help from Hall of Fame semifinalists, I think it can’t hurt to pick a guy you actually like and give him more than a couple of years to understand what he needs to do to be a good player for your team.

Malik Willis was a really bad quarterback coming out of college in 2022. As of Saturday, he seemed like he might actually be decent, if not good. That’s what the Seahawks appear to be going for with Milroe and I like it.

Almost 40% of us were nervous about the last play

Here were the results from Friday’s poll:

My answer would have been “no” because I was feeling pretty agnostic about the outcome at that point. I was hopeful that the Seahawks would close the deal but I think realistic about the fact that converting a two-pointer is anything other than easy. So I didn’t think that the Seahawks would fail, I just didn’t know for sure that they would succeed.

Fate was with Seattle that night, in addition to Eric Saubert.

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