Seahawks 2022 schedule: Russell Wilson’s return in opener, Bobby Wagner’s for the finale

Russell Wilson’s reunion to start. Bobby Wagner’s return — as a member of the defending Super Bowl champions — to end.

The Seahawks’ 2022 regular-season schedule features their two most-anticipated games as bookends, in weeks one and 18.

The Seahawks don’t have to wait — at all — to play against Wilson for the first time. His first NFL game for anybody but Seattle will be...at Seattle.

The most anticipated Seahawks game is the first one: Wilson and his Denver Broncos at Seattle inside Lumen Field on Monday night, Sept. 12, 5:15 p.m. in ESPN’s national showcase game.

Former longtime Fox Sports mainstay announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will make their regular-season ESPN debut calling that Monday night opener.

Wagner and his new Los Angeles Rams are playing in Seattle on the final regular-season weekend, Jan. 7 or 8, depending on playoff implications by then. The Seahawks released their All-Pro linebacker in March, the same day they decided to trade Wilson to Denver.

The night Wilson will become the fifth quarterback in NFL history to play against the team with which he won at least 100 games. The others: Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre and Joe Montana.

Wilson won 104 with a Super Bowl title for Seattle from 2012 through last season. The Seahawks traded him to Denver in March.

The fun surrounding this Monday night showdown has already started, four months before kickoff.

That is one of only two primetime games scheduled for the Seahawks this season. The other is on Thursday night, Dec. 15, at home against the division-rival San Francisco 49ers to begin the league’s week 15. That’s Seattle’s fewest primetime games since 2012.

The Seahawks had been in at least four prime time games every season from the year after they drafted Wilson in 2012 through last season, when Seattle had five prime time games.

Wilson getting injured in a 7-10 season, Seattle’s most losses since 2009, and missing the playoffs for only the second time in 10 years led the Seahawks in 2022 to getting scheduled for their fewest primetime games in a decade. Seattle had two in 2012, when the league set its schedule before then-rookie Wilson became Seattle’s starting quarterback.

The maximum number of prime time games a team can play during the 17-game regular season is six. That can become seven if the league flexes a game in-season to prime time later in the year. (It could become eight, but only for a flex for that featured a team into the final Sunday night game in week 18, for a must-win-to-make-the-playoffs game).

Seattle’s and every team’s opponents, home and away, were set in January with the end of the 2021 league season. The NFL slots opponents according to rotations and finishes in league standings from the previous season.

The league announced last week the Seahawks will play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Munich, Germany, in week 10, Sunday, Nov. 13. That first NFL regular-season game in Germany will kickoff at 6:30 a.m. Pacific Time.

Seattle’s bye comes after that game. It’s the second time in three seasons the team’s lone week off comes that late in the regular season. Its bye in 2019 came on Nov. 18.

Significantly, four of Seattle’s final five games and five of its final seven following that late bye are at home.

The Seahawks host Carolina Dec. 11 and the 49ers in primetime four nights later. After a Christmas Eve game at Kansas City, Seattle finished at home against the Jets and Rams.

The flip side is three of the Seahawks’ first five games are on the road, including at San Francisco in week two, at Detroit in week four and at New Orleans in week five.

Seattle returns home for its first home NFC West game Oct. 16 against Arizona.

Then comes three of the next four on the road: at the Los Angeles Chargers in week seven, at the Cardinals Nov. 6 and the game against the Buccaneers in Germany.

The Seahawks have the 11th-toughest schedule in the 32-team league for this year. That’s based on their opponents’ records from 2021. Seattle plays in the ultra-competitive NFC West, which includes the Super Bowl-champion Rams and fellow playoff teams Arizona and San Francisco from last season, raising Seattle’s strength of schedule.

It’s also because the Seahawks have to play the high-flying AFC West with Wilson’s Broncos, at Patrick Mahomes and Chiefs (on Christmas Eve), at Justin Herbert and his Chargers and home against Derek Carr’s Raiders. That’s no picnic.

But per the NFL’s parity-driven scheduling system, finishing last in the division at 7-10 in 2021 gives the Seahawks games against the lowly New York Jets and Giants, too. Seattle hosts the Giants in week eight, Oct. 30, and the Jets on New Year’s Day.

Seahawks 2022 schedule

PRESEASON

Aug. 13 at Pittsburgh, 4 p.m., KING-5 TV

Aug. 18 CHICAGO, 5 p.m., ESPN

TBD at Dallas, TBD

REGULAR SEASON

Sept. 12 DENVER, 5:15 p.m., ESPN, ABC

Or maybe the NFL just wanted to feature Drew Lock’s revenge game against the Broncos?

Sept. 18 at San Francisco, 1:05 p.m., Fox

First time since 2011 Seattle’s first road game is at the 49ers.

Sept. 25 ATLANTA, 1:25 p.m., Fox

Both teams with new quarterbacks after moving on from franchise, Super Bowl passers.

Oct. 2 at Detroit, 10 a.m., Fox

First of consecutive 10 a.m. Pacific Time starts. Carroll has mastered those over the years.

Oct. 9 at New Orleans, 10 a.m., Fox

Saints starting completely over on offense post-Drew Brees, post-Sean Payton.

Oct. 16 ARIZONA, 1:05 p.m., Fox

Seahawks 2-5 in their last seven home games against the Cardinals.

Oct. 23 at Los Angeles Chargers, 1:25 p.m., Fox

First time playing at Chargers since Sept. 2014, a crazy-hot, IV-fluids festival in San Diego.

Oct. 30 NEW YORK GIANTS, 1:25 p.m., Fox

Second time in three seasons the Giants play at Seattle. New York upset the Seahawks last time.

Nov. 6 at Arizona, 1:05 p.m., Fox

The annual game on the Seahawks’ field of horrors (major injuries, Malcolm Butler’s INT) in the desert.

Nov. 13 at Tampa Bay (in Munich, Germany), 6:30 a.m., NFL Network

Expect Seahawks to arrive for 1st NFL game in Germany vs. Tom Brady on Wednesday. Week off after.

Nov. 20 BYE

Second time in three years the bye is this late. Sub-optimal.

Nov. 27 LAS VEGAS, 1:05 p.m., CBS

Last time Seahawks played the Raiders in the regular season they had a cracker of a time in London (2018). The Raiders are way better now.

Dec. 4 at Los Angeles Rams, 1:05 p.m., Fox

First time playing against Bobby Wagner since the Seahawks cut their All-Pro in March.

Dec. 11 CAROLINA, 1:25 p.m., Fox

The 437th time the Seahawks and Panthers have played in the last decade. Or seems like it.

Dec. 15 SAN FRANCISCO, 5:15 p.m., Amazon Prime/over-the-air TV locally

You don’t HAVE TO pay Jeff Bezos to watch. Will be shown on over-the-air stations in Seattle and San Francisco.

Dec. 24 at Kansas City, 10 a.m., Fox

Which would be better for the Seahawks on Christmas Eve: Playing Patrick Mahomes at Arrowhead, or a lump of coal?

Jan. 1 NEW YORK JETS, 1:05 p.m., CBS

A benefit of finishing last in 2021: the pre-set inter-division matchup is vs. last in AFC East

Jan. 7 or 8 LOS ANGELES RAMS, TBD

Wagner’s exact Seattle return date will be determined by playoff contention of these teams by then.

This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 5:23 PM.

Gregg Bell

The News Tribune

Gregg Bell is the Seahawks and NFL writer for The News Tribune. He is a two-time Washington state sportswriter of the year, voted by the National Sports Media Association in January 2023 and January 2019. He started covering the NFL in 2002 as the Oakland Raiders beat writer for The Sacramento Bee. The Ohio native began covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season of 2005. In a prior life he graduated from West Point and served as a tactical intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, so he may ask you to drop and give him 10. Support my work with a digital subscription