The Seahawks' 'No Excuses' Path to the Playoffs

If the Seahawks expect us to believe they're a playoff team, then they better take care of take-careable business: Seaside Joe 1902

It’s never good to count wins and losses on schedule release day, but when I saw that the Seattle Seahawks open their schedule at home against Bohemian Nix it became impossible to not imagine a scenario in which Mike Macdonald wins his head coaching debut.

To be fair, this would be like the 2022 Broncos imagining a 1-0 start in Russell Wilson’s Denver debut against GENO SMITH, so that’s why we don’t start tallying Ws in May.

However, if the Seahawks aim to be a playoff team this season, and by all accounts that is their intention, there won’t be any excuse for losing a home opener against a team that could be forced to start a rookie quarterback in Week 1 (QB6 in the draft, at that) and that ranked 28th in points per drive allowed on defense in 2023.

What else qualifies under ‘no excuse, if the Seahawks expect people to believe they’re a playoff team in 2024’?

9 home games

If the Seahawks can’t start at least 2-1 at home with games against the Broncos in Week 1 and Giants in Week 5, there’s no excuse for that. Seattle has a nine-game home schedule and no fake home games that are actually in Munich, Germany…nine real-deal Lumen Field games including Broncos, Giants, Cardinals, and Vikings.

Those are four teams I would project to miss the playoffs—you don’t have to feel the same, but months out from a matchup there aren’t many more favorable than facing either Sam Darnold or J.J. McCarthy as a rookie—plus the Dolphins, 49ers, Bills, Rams, and Packers.

If the Seahawks go 4-0 at home against the four teams I mentioned, they need to find probably three more wins out of the other five games. Then Seattle would have a 7-2 record at Lumen Field and need only go 2-6 on the road to finish above .500.

Unfortunately, the Seahawks have been anything but daunting at Lumen: Seattle lost 30-13 to the Rams in Week 1, let the Carolina Panthers stick around for far too long in Week 3 (the Panthers went 0-9 on the road), lost 31-13 to the 49ers in Week 12, and the defense had one of its most pitiful performances of Pete Carroll’s entire Seahawks career in the home finale against the Steelers.