It’s Week 6, I know, but how early is truly too early to look at the playoff race? There are already some key head-to-head and division tiebreakers worth monitoring the rest of the way, so we might as
well get this ball rolling with the Seattle Seahawks in the thick of the division race and, frankly, the No. 1 seed in the wide open NFC.
Thanks to their 30-19 win over the San Francisco 49ers, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the No. 1 seed in the conference. The 49ers are still No. 2 by virtue of their win over the Seahawks, but the Fred Warner injury may be too much to overcome for their defense. Another way to put this: Seattle’s two losses are to the top two teams in the conference.
Where does the Seahawks’ 20-12 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars leave them in the playoff picture? Let’s take a look!
NFC Playoff Standings
Division leaders
1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-1)
2. San Francisco 49ers (4-2, win over SEA, 4-1 NFC)
3. Philadelphia Eagles (4-2, 3-1 NFC)
4. Green Bay Packers (3-1-1)
Wild card teams
5. Seattle Seahawks (4-2, loss to SF, 1-1 NFCW, 2-2 NFC)
6. Detroit Lions (4-2, 1-1 NFC)
7. Los Angeles Rams (4-2, 0-1 NFCW, 0-2 NFC)
Not in playoffs
8. Minnesota Vikings (3-2)
9. Washington Commanders (3-2) – Plays on Monday vs. Bears
10. Carolina Panthers (3-3)
11. Atlanta Falcons (2-2) – Plays on Monday vs. Bills
12. Chicago Bears (2-2) – Plays on Monday vs. Commanders
13. Dallas Cowboys (2-3-1)
14. Arizona Cardinals (2-4)
15. New York Giants (2-4)
16. New Orleans Saints (1-5)
Obviously everything is so tightly bunched up that it wouldn’t take much for the Seahawks to either be a top two seed or out of the playoffs completely. We’ve got a lot of football left but it’s good to have early perspective on where Seattle stands.
One thing to point out is that the Seahawks play teams No. 7 through No. 11 after the bye week, starting with the Washington Commanders. They’ll obviously have the Los Angeles Rams twice, so there are huge opportunities to create separation from the bottom half of the NFC starting in November.
Outside of 2021, the Seahawks have effectively been in the thick of every playoff and/or division race for the entirety of the John Schneider era. That will surely continue in 2025, and hopefully when we’re doing the Week 16 playoff picture the Seahawks have somehow wrapped up the NFC West already.
We will update this article after Monday Night Football.
