Week 13 playoff picture

Where the Seahawks stand and who they need to root for

If the Seattle Seahawks beat the Minnesota Vikings this weekend, it will guarantee Seattle their 28th winning season out of 50 tries. Even more relevant to the state of the franchise, it would be the Seahawks’ 13th winning season out of the last 14 years with the lone exception being the year that Russell Wilson got injured.

The Arizona Cardinals are one loss away from guaranteeing their 29th losing seson since 1985. The Cleveland Browns are on the verge of their 23rd losing season since re-joining the NFL 27 seasons ago.

This is a week of gratitude for what you have, after all.

As the Seahawks get closer to guaranteeing their 21st playoff berth in franchise history — but only their second since 2021 — it feels right to keep fans updated on Seattle’s progress and the pertinent games every weekend. As the Chicago Bears take on the Philadelphia Eagles as I write this, the Seahawks are the 5th seed and would travel to Tampa Bay to face the Buccaneers if the playoffs started today:

I know that people like to do the “well, the playoffs don’t start today” bit and that’s 100% ACCURATE. However in this case if the Seahawks don’t win the division, then going to Tampa Bay in six weeks is very, very real.

Week 13 NFC playoff picture games

Thursday: (8-3-1) Packers 31, (7-5) Lions 24

Thursday: (6-5-1) Cowboys 31, Chiefs 28

Friday: (8-3) Bears vs (8-3) Eagles

The Cowboys hang around in the picture by beating the Chiefs, which keeps them one half-game behind the Lions in the wild card race. A month ago, Dallas was 3-5-1 and coming off of a bad season, whereas Detroit was 5-2 and coming off of a 15-win season. Now if the Cowboys beat the Lions in Week 14, Dallas will be closer to the NFC playoffs than Detroit.

Sorry that I’m posting this before the Bears-Eagles game ends, but at least this game doesn’t quite impact Seattle’s playoff road yet. Obviously though with five 8-win teams in the NFC, this whole thing is packed tight.

Sunday: (9-2) Rams at (6-6) Panthers

This game happens in the morning, so the Seahawks will already know where they stand by their afternoon kickoff. The Seahawks can’t take sole possession of first place if the Rams lose, but they can at least tie L.A.’s record.

I really, really, really doubt that will happen. The Panthers haven’t had a single big win with Bryce Young at quarterback since drafting him three years ago.

But it’s the NFL, anything can happen.

Sunday: (8-4) 49ers at (3-8) Browns

Another game in which it is hard to imagine Seattle’s rival losing. The story before the game will be Shedeur Sanders’ second start but the story after the game will probably be less optimistic about Cleveland’s future with the quarterback. If there’s a sliver of hope, it’s that the Browns are a far better team at home than they are on the road. Actually, Cleveland’s defense has been really, really good at home this season.

I wrote about the 49ers’ schedule advantage before the season thanks to their disappointing finish in 2024: They get to face the Browns, not the Steelers; they got to face the Giants, not the Moons.

San Francisco’s last 4 wins: Falcons, Giants, Cardinals, Panthers. Their next 2 games: Browns, Titans.

Maybe the one place where it won’t be an advantage is when they take on the Bears on Sunday Night Football in Week 17.

Sunday: (3-8) Cardinals at (6-5) Buccaneers

This game is only relevant based on Tampa Bay’s playoff seed (despite how bad they’ve been recently, the Bucs are only 2 games behind the 3-seed and their next 6 games are all winnable*) and whether or not they even win the NFC South division.

*Cardinals, Saints, Falcons, Panthers, Dolphins, Panthers

As bad as the Bucs have been in losing 4 of their last 5 games, I look at that schedule and see a team that could finish with six straight wins. Baker Mayfield is “trending to start” this weekend.

Playoff Odds

The Athletic’s playoff simulator is giving the Seahawks a 93% chance to make the playoffs but only a 13% chance to win the NFC West. I know that a lot of fans take issue with these odds but this is why I said the last Rams game was so meaningful: It gave L.A. a lot of power because even if the Seahawks beat the Rams in Week 16, there’s a good chance that the Rams will still go into the final 2 weeks with the tiebreaker advantage.

The Seahawks need to go +2 wins with a win over the Rams. And that’s assuming that the 49ers don’t win out.

AFC Playoff Picture

The other conference doesn’t have as many teams with 8+ wins (half as many) but we are seeing a weird throwback to the Tom Brady-Peyton Manning era…as if the NFL really wants those teams to succeed:

When I look at this playoff picture, I think to myself that the Seahawks might be undefeated if they played in the AFC.

Seaside Joe 2461