Seahawks’ 4 possible foes after playoff bye, why it’s likely to be on Saturday
The Seahawks’ Saturday shows may continue into the playoffs.
The NFL first-round, wild-card playoffs are now set, thanks to the results Sunday of the final day of regular-season games.
Seattle (14-3) had already earned its first-round bye by beating the San Francisco 49ers Saturday night. That gave the Seahawks the NFC West title and top seed in the conference’s postseason.
The second seed is Chicago. The Bears (11-6) will host the seventh-seeded Green Bay Packers (9-7-1) Saturday night. Vegas oddsmakers have Chicago as a one-point favorite over its North division rivals.
The third-seeded Philadelphia Eagles (11-6) will host the sixth-seeded 49ers (12-5) Sunday afternoon. The Eagles are favored by a field goal.
The NFC’s fourth seed is Carolina, the limping South division champion. They lost two in a row to end the regular season but won the division Sunday when Atlanta beat New Orleans to create a three-way tie with the Panthers, Buccaneers and Falcons at 8-9. Carolina won the three-team tiebreaker.
The Panthers will host the fifth seed Los Angeles Rams (12-5) Saturday. L.A. is a 10-point favorite.
The Seahawks will await the lowest-seeded team that wins. That means the Panthers, Rams, 49ers or Packers could be playing in Seattle in the division round the weekend of Jan. 17-18 at Lumen Field.
Odds are and precedence says the Seahawks will next play on Saturday, Jan. 17.
The top seed in the NFC has played on the Saturday of the divisional round every playoffs since the end of the 2019 season. Including the AFC, at least one of the two conference seeds have played on that Saturday in round two every year since the 2016 season.
The league likes to reward the number-one seeds with the advantage of an extra day of rest and preparation should they win in divisional round to each of the conference championship games. Those are on the following Sunday, Jan. 25.
The Seahawks have played the Rams, Panthers and 49ers in the last few weeks.
Pro Bowl returner Rashid Shaheed’s punt-return touchdown began Seattle’s rally from 16 points down with 10 minutes left to a 38-37 win in overtime Dec. 18 at Lumen Field.
Ten days after that wild victory, the Seahawks shut down the Panthers in Carolina in a 27-10 win.
Seattle hasn’t played Green Bay this season.
The Seahawks had a joint practice in Green Bay with the Packers in late August Then the two teams’ reserves each other in Lambeau Field for the final preseason game this summer.
Seahawks offense’s needs
Quarterback Sam Darnold knows no matter which foe the Seahawks get in two weekends, he and his offense need to improve on the 13 points they scored at San Francisco in their regular-season finale.
Darnold took a sack on first and goal from the 1 early in the game. The Seahawks then ran and failed from the 11 on second and goal and from the 8 on third down. On fourth down Darnold’s pass into the end zone was well wide of Cooper Kupp incomplete. Those seven lost points kept the 49ers in the game into the fourth quarter (on the scoreboard, anyway; Seattle’s defense dominated San Francisco).
“You celebrate a win like this,” Darnold said in Santa Clara, California, following Seattle’s win over the 49ers, “and then (Sunday) you might celebrate it a little, too, because you have a bye.
“But (then) we’re right back to seeing what we can do better and how we can get better for the next game.
“That’s the beautiful thing about the NFL and what we do.”
Exacting coach Mike Macdonald is also going back to work to improve the offense. He was asked after the 49ers game about the 180 rushing yards his Seahawks had against San Francisco. They had 115 in the first half, their most in a first half since December 2024.
“Honestly, it’s easy to feel good about it right now,” Macdonald said. “That said, some of the counters (on run defense) they had gave us trouble. I think we need to do a better job of countering their counters. And we will. We’ve done a great job throughout the season of making second-half adjustments.
“It was great to start the game the way we did with the run game. Now we want to shoot for a four-quarter run game.”
