Seahawks knocked out of playoff picture for first time since start of season

Updated NFC playoff picture: Seaside Joe 1736

Not only are the Seattle Seahawks out of the NFC playoff picture for the time being, recent history hasn’t necessarily been the best look for teams that Seattle has already faced. Will the Seahawks be able to overcome the red hot L.A. Rams and other NFC wild card racers, as Pete Carroll has predicted? Or be left out of the playoffs for the second time in the last three years?

The Rams beat the Cleveland Browns 36-19 on Sunday, improving to 6-6 and knocking the Seahawks from the seventh seed to the eighth spot in the NFC and out of the postseason picture for the time being. Because L.A. has swept Seattle 2-0 this season, the teams are not “tied” despite both being 6-6; the Seahawks will need to be better than the Rams over the next five games in order to reclaim second place in the NFC West.

The Seahawks play 49ers, Eagles, Titans, Steelers, Cardinals.

The Rams play the Ravens, Moons, Saints, Giants, and 49ers.

Three of Seattle’s next four opponents have winning records. Three of L.A.’s next four opponents have losing records. Added context for the season finale is that San Francisco might not need to play their starters in Week 18 because the 49ers rolled over the Eagles on Sunday 42-19.

Philadelphia still holds the number one seed with a 10-2 record compared to 9-3 for San Francisco, but if the Niners do a game better than the Eagles in the next four weeks than they won’t need to do anything in Week 18. The Rams would then be facing Sam Darnold instead of Brock Purdy and none of San Fran’s key players, including Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, and Trent Williams on offense. There’s just no way that they will play if the 49ers win more games than the Eagles in the next four weeks.

Both teams play the Seahawks and Cardinals, but the Niners also face the Ravens and Moons, while the Eagles play the Cowboys and Giants.

For Seattle to come out ahead of the Rams, there’s a good chance that they will be counting on the 49ers coming to play for a win in Week 18 instead of not caring about the outcome at all.

The other 6-6 team ahead of the Seahawks is the Minnesota Vikings, who are on a bye this week. The Vikings play the Raiders, the Bengals (without Joe Burrow), the Lions, Packers, and Lions to finish the season.

Detroit is 9-3 and has all but finished locking up the NFC North. The Lions are not out of the race for the number one seed, so that race will also play a part in how San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Detroit (and the Cowboys, who are also 9-3) manage the end of their seasons. But there’s a chance that the Liosn won’t care about Week 18 either; there is no question that the winner of the NFC South (currently the 6-6 Falcons) won’t have a realistic shot at anything but the four seed, so it’s possible that the Lions will be locked into the three seed by Week 18.

But the Seahawks may have a better chance of overtaking the Vikings than the Rams, because Minnesota is down to their third QB (Josh Dobbs) and head coach Kevin O’Connell isn’t committed to him remaining the starter after his last start. Minnesota’s current listed backup is former 49er Nick Mullens.

Next on the playoff list is the 5-6 Green Bay Packers, who are set to face the Kansas City Chiefs on SNF as I type this, but we can’t count them out: The Packers next face the Giants, Bucs, Panthers, Vikings, and Bears.

That’s Tommy DeVito, Baker Mayfield, Bryce Young, (???), and Justin Fields(?) to finish their season. The Packers could lose on Sunday and still have a shot at winning 10 games because that could be the easiest remaining schedule of any team.

As for what I alluded to earlier regarding this not being the best sign for the Seahawks:

• The Rams are not just ahead of Seattle in the standings, they’re just flat out playing better. L.A. beat the Browns by 17 points, a team that the Seahawks barely squeezed by on October 29, and yes Joe Flacco is at least on par as a quarterback with P.J. Walker. The Rams have won three in a row and the offense is playing well with Matthew Stafford, Puka Nacua, and running back Kyren Williams, even with Cooper Kupp looking like he’s already enjoying retirement.

• The Moons, Seattle’s only win since the start of November, have been blown out 31-19 BY THE GIANTS, 45-10 by the Cowboys, and 45-15 by the Dolphins since the Seahawks won 29-26.

• The Panthers are now 1-11. The combined record of Seattle’s non-Lions wins is 19-43 and that includes a 7-5 record by Cleveland. And I don’t pay attention to Lions criticism, but I assume someone out there is skeptical that Detroit hasn’t had to face a team that currently has a winning record since the Chiefs in Week 1, other than the Ravens, and they lost that game 38-6.

AND DESPITE ALL OF THAT…

I know this sounds all very pessimistic and negative. I just think it’s the most fair thing for a Seahawks writer to do, which is to always remain objective on how I think the team is playing relative to other NFL teams. Objectively, I got to spend 90+% of the time from 2012-2020 getting to write that the Seahawks were one of the NFL’s best teams.

That hasn’t been the case recently…and yet despite all of that, if the Seattle Seahawks beat the 49ers next week, who the hell cares? Strike this entire episode of Seaside Joe from the record books if that happens, because if that happens, Seattle will be in the thick of the playoff race again and prove to be an interesting opponent against Super Bowl contenders.

I hope it happens, I’ll be right here if it happens, and we’ll update the wild card picture with enthusiasm next Sunday if it happens. Just make sure you’re subscribed to Seaside Joe to not miss when it happens and join the Regular Joes club to leave your comments when it happens.