In the world of sports, the NFL is the king of money and the king of ratings — in part because it's the king of parity.
The year-to-year fluctuation between success and failure in this league is what keeps fans of 4-13 teams hopeful before each season and fans of 13-4 teams on edge.
You never know how quickly your franchise can plunge — which is part of what has made the Seahawks so remarkable over the past decade-plus. Their front office just always seems to keep them competitive — and this year may have been the brass' finest hour.
Imagine a preseason poll from a certified psychic asking the following: Between the Seahawks and the Broncos, one is going to sneak into the playoffs, and the other is going to finish with one of the five worst records in the NFL — who do you think will do which? Assuming all the respondents were hooked up to a polygraph, the survey would likely have 95% saying Denver would make the postseason and Seattle would end up in the cellar.
Instead you got a result in which the Seahawks (9-8) shocked the oddsmakers by earning an 18th game behind a journeyman quarterback and a slew of rookies, and where they ended up with a top-5 pick thanks to the Broncos going 5-12. It's the kind of dream that would cause a 12 to punch you if you woke them up from it. And yet, here we are.
So how do you do anything other than shower coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider with praise? Look at what they've done.
1) They traded away potential Hall of Fame quarterback Russell Wilson for substantial draft capital (and impact players such as Noah Fant and Shelby Harris) when Wilson appeared to be in his prime. This may not have been quite as courageous as others have made it out to be — Wilson, it appears, made it clear that he didn't want to stay with the team long-term. But that doesn't mean it was easy.
They had a QB who had led them to a winning season every year he was healthy and was signed through 2023, and then let him go? Temporary chaos was supposed to ensue — but only in Denver, where Wilson's play plummeted, the Broncos finished with the fewest points in football, and Seattle ended up with the No. 5 overall pick after collecting Denver's draft selection in the swap.
2) They cleaned up on a rookie draft class that undoubtedly helped launch them into the playoffs. Second-round pick Kenneth Walker III is the Vegas favorite to win Offensive Rookie of the Year after racking up 1,050 rushing yards in 15 games on 4.6 yards per carry. Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate Tariq Woolen — a cornerback selected in the fifth round — finished tied for the league lead with six interceptions and made the Pro Bowl.
Fourth-round cornerback Coby Bryant finished tied for third in the NFL with four forced fumbles, and though it's hard for the layman to judge an offensive lineman's performance — rookie Charles Cross (first round, left tackle) started all 17 games for Seattle, and Abraham Lucas (third round, right tackle) started 16 games. Cross' block to free up Walker for a 9-yard run on fourth-and-one late in the fourth quarter Sunday kept the Seahawks' season alive.
You never know how these players are going to develop long-term — whether opponents will figure them out or if they'll stay healthy. And though you might not agree with Carroll when he says "this is a championship team," as he did after Sunday's win over the Rams, it's hard to dispute the quote that came a sentence later: "We're in a really good place right now."
And much of that is because 3) They built up a whole lot of draft stock. The Seahawks have the No. 5 pick and the No. 36 pick lined up from Denver. If they get knocked out against San Francisco on Saturday (they are 10-point underdogs) they'll have two more picks in the middle of the first and second rounds. The big question, obviously, is whether they are going to commit long-term to quarterback Geno Smith or snag a blue-chip signal caller early in the draft, but the pieces are there to build.
They have receiver DK Metcalf through 2025. They have Pro Bowl safety Quandre Diggs — the only active player to have at least three interceptions in six consecutive seasons — through 2024. They are set up long-term and are in the playoffs — a borderline miracle.
This was a long way from a perfect regular season for the Seahawks. A late stretch in which they lost five out of six games — three to sub.-500 teams — almost buried them. Still, somehow, they are postseason bound and set up for the future.
Carroll and Schneider have endured hits for questionable decisions before. It's the nature of the job. But they've been all hits lately — and given the circumstances, they just delivered a regular season for the ages.
