The Seattle Seahawks have officially punched their ticket to the 2025 postseason. We don’t know yet what seed, and likely won’t know until the final game of the season. But they are going, with as good
a chance of making some noise as we’ve seen in some time.
The NFC itself has taken some shape this weekend as well, with the Dallas Cowboys being eliminated from The Dance. There will be minimal shakeup over the next two weeks, so it’s time to rank the Seahawks potential playoff opponents. First up: desirability
Playoff matchups ranked by most favorable matchup
1. Green Bay Packers
The Packers suddenly look like the most obvious one-and-done in the NFC. What a crazy unfortunate turn of events for them. With Jordan Love and Micah Parsons, this was going to be my second-least desired matchup for Seattle. Without them… Green Bay has lost to two playoff teams in a row.
It’s incredibly unlikely they’d miss the playoffs outright. It’s just as unlikely that the current version of this team is going to advance their way to face the Seahawks, and it would be a lopsided matchup if they did.
2. Carolina Panthers
They’re starting to play better, aren’t they? On the whole, they’re actually not. Bryce Young threw 3 TD on 20 pass attempts against the Rams, and they forced three interceptions. That’s a recipe for playoff success. On either side of that, they’ve lost to the New Orleans Saints twice. Rico Dowdle has come back down to earth, Chuba Hubbard is very fun to say, I don’t know. These guys are interesting, but not intimidating.
Carolina did beat Tampa Bay, and Bryce Young to Tet McMillan has become impressive, but they’re not trustworthy enough, especially if they have to go on the road. I’ll take the Panthers number one.
3. Chicago Bears
What a Saturday game! Still – for matchup and quarterback purposes, we’d happily take Chicago. The Bears have a wonderful run game – 2nd best in the league. That plays straight into the strength of Seattle once again – they’re 4th in the NFL in run defense and only Sean McVay has found any true weaknesses.
Once those two cancel out, Caleb Williams is the QB on this list I trust the least. Williams has six games with fewer than 6.2 Yards per Attempt. Sam Darnold has one.
Here’s Williams dancing literal circles around the NFL, which finally worked against the Anemic Bay Packers but would work far, far less against Mike Macdonald and Nick Emmanwori.
4. The Santa Clara 49ers of San Francisco
May be a controversial take to some. This could also age terribly in two weeks. But I do not fear any of these seven offenses except Los Angeles, and that includes San Francisco. They are the strangest, most fraudulent 11-win team I think I’ve ever seen. Are we congratulating them for beating the Indianapolis Colts on MNF? The team without both starting tackles, their starting center went down, bupkis of a secondary, and Philip Rivers still put up double everything he did against Seattle. Christian McCaffrey would be the one who could do some damage against the Seahawks, but it’s not enough. Especially considering he hadn’t done it on the ground all year until Monday.
The matchup here is just not good now. The defense does not have the pass-rush juice to wreck Sam Darnold, the run game is terrible, and it will result in Brock Purdy needing to do too many heroic throws. Not this year’s Purdy. Not this year’s Seattle secondary.
They beat the Seahawks in Week 1, and a crazy game against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 5. But they also have eight wins against teams with a combined 33 wins. 4.125 total wins per opponent. Frauds.
5. Philadelphia Eagles
Let’s call all five of these first teams low fear. The Eagles tried their darnedest to get the whole zip code fired and not even make the postseason, but the Dallas Cowboys beat them to it. They bring with them the unenjoyable prospect of having to defend Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts on the ground, but they also bring mass amounts of dysfunction.
Hurts and company will be forced to nearly abandon the pass game against Seattle. Only Williams and Young have a lower EPA per play from the playoff hopefuls.
Once again, a team with an inconsistent pass attack must rely on the run, and that is good news for the Seahawks. Again, Championship teams have a way of pulling out championship mentality, which is why Philadelphia isn’t any lower on the list, but undoubtedly Seattle would be the betting favorite in a head-to-head.
6. Detroit Lions
Struggling with this one. Primarily because the Lions have almost the smallest shot of even making the postseason on this list. Technically, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a better chance of winning their division.
But I don’t know what’s going on with them, and though Detroit is massively scuffling, they have scored 24 or more points five games in a row. 11 out of 13, actually. They regularly do something dumb to shoot themselves in the foot, make unbelievable plays to get negated by unbelievable penalties, etc.
If they don’t do that! The Lions whooped the living crap out of Seattle last year, and the best version of Jared Goff is the second best quarterback on this list. He’s been on vacation much of this year, but a high-functioning Detroit team making the playoffs and playing the Seahawks is far less favorable than most the others.
7. Los Angeles Rams
This is not ranked for viewability. That, obviously, would be different.
This one’s the most obvious though, and feels like the most inevitable. Sean McVay vs. Mike Macdonald, the new masterclass in adjustments and unhinged game plans. It’s awesome, it’s terrifying, and perhaps the Rams could lose to the Eagles or someone along the way.
But if pressed today, my money would be on a game three between these two.
