It’s Week 13 in the NFL, and the Seattle Seahawks are in good shape to reach the postseason for the first time since 2022.
Seattle Seahawks take notice of ‘incredible showing’ from fans on road
In their second year under head coach Mike Macdonald, the Seahawks are 8-3 and sit in second place in the NFC West behind 9-2 Los Angeles Rams, who are the only team in the entire NFC with a better record than Seattle.
Though the Seahawks lost their first meeting of the season with the Rams on the road just over a week ago, they’ll get a second shot at LA at home on Thursday Night Football in Week 16, very much leaving open the possibility of Seattle winning its first division title since 2020.
But what about where the Seahawks stand now?
If the playoffs were to start today, this is what the Seahawks’ situation would be.
Projecting the playoffs for Seattle Seahawks
• What seed would the Seahawks be?
As things stand, the Seahawks are the No. 5 seed to the playoffs as the first wild card from the NFC. The Seahawks are actually tied for the second-best record in the conference, but are positioned as the fifth seed because the NFL seeds every division winner over every wild card team regardless of record. So even though Seattle has a two-game advantage over the 6-5 Tampa Buccaneers record-wise, the Bucs are slotted ahead of the Hawks as the No. 4 seed.
• What would be the Seahawks’ opening playoff matchup?
Because only the top seed in each conference gets a bye in the wild card round of the playoffs, the Seahawks would have to go on the road in the opener. That would mean a trip fro Seattle to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa to take on the Buccaneers.
• What would happen if the Seahawks won their wild card game?
The NFL playoff bracket doesn’t paint a clear picture here, because after the wild card round, the No. 1 seed gets a home game in the divisional round against the lowest-remaining seed from its conference. So in this case, the Seahawks would play the top-seeded Rams in the divisional round unless either the sixth-seeded Green Bay Packers beat the third-seeded Chicago Bears, or the seventh-seeded San Francisco 49ers beat the second-seeded Philadelphia Eagles.
If a lower seed than the Seahawks matched up with the No. 1 seed in the divisional round, then Seattle would play the other remaining team from the NFC, with the game being played at the home stadium of whichever team has the better seed.
• What’s left for the Seahawks?
Seattle’s remaining games in the regular season are:
– Week 13: Seahawks vs. Minnesota Vikings (4-7)
– Week 14: Seahawks at Atlanta Falcons (4-7)
– Week 15: Seahawks vs. Indianapolis Colts (8-3)
– Week 16: Seahawks vs. Los Angeles Rams (9-2) – Thursday Night Football
– Week 17: Seahawks at Carolina Panthers (6-6)
– Week 18: Seahawks at San Francisco 49ers (8-4)
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