No one questions that the Seahawks, at 3-3, are weathering their first season without Russell Wilson far better than almost anyone anticipated.
But that doesn’t mean everyone is convinced that the Seahawks are a good team capable of making a playoff run.
Seattle’s playoff odds remain fairly middling among those who try to calculate such things — FiveThirtyEight.com has the Seahawks at 24% this week, for instance.
“Until we win a lot of games, we are not going to get any credit,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. “If that’s going to come we have to win a lot of games here. They are looking — people that have an opinion, that have one of those megaphones — they’ll have to deal with us eventually if we can keep doing something. We have a long way to go.”
The Seahawks can get a lot closer to being taken seriously the next two weeks, with an opportunity to accomplish a first this season — beat a team with a winning record.
Up first are the 4-2 Chargers at 1:25 p.m. Sunday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Next week the Seahawks face one of the NFL’s surprise teams, the 5-1 New York Giants, at Lumen Field.
A win in one of those games would give the Seahawks credibility and keep them in the hunt for the NFC West title, a tightly wound division. The 49ers and Rams are tied with Seattle at 3-3 entering the weekend, and Arizona is 3-4 after defeating the Saints on Thursday night.
As Seattle’s schedule ratchets up the next two weeks, the Nov. 1 NFL trade deadline approaches.
The first major move directly impacted the NFC West, as the 49ers on Thursday night acquired running back Christian McCaffrey from Carolina for a package of second-, third- and fourth-round picks in 2023 and a fifth-rounder in 2024.
“That’s a big-time trade, big-time commitment to go after [McCaffrey],” Carroll said Friday. “He’s a great player, so that makes them better.”
The trade comes as the 49ers are facing a crossroads in their season, hosting Kansas City on Sunday and playing at the Rams next Sunday. The Rams have a bye this week.
So the next week-and-a-half could go a long way toward shifting directions in the NFC West, in the standings and in moves made off the field.
The Seahawks may not be inclined to do much this season, in part because they have just over $3 million in salary-cap space. But they also might not want to mortgage much of the future, in cap space or draft picks, for the present. The past few weeks have yielded promising results regarding the Seahawks’ goal to rebuild a young foundation at critical positions.
Last Sunday’s 19-9 victory over Arizona was a step in the right direction with those efforts. The Seahawks finally coupled a solid defensive game with an offense that made the plays when they were most needed. The Seahawks held the Cardinals to a field goal other than a touchdown scored on a botched Seahawks punt.
The Seahawks had allowed 111 points the previous three weeks, which included losses to the Falcons and Saints, and defensive players admitted this week the struggles were beginning to wear on them.
Asked how much the Seahawks needed a good defensive outing against Arizona, third-year linebacker Jordyn Brooks said, “A lot. … I mean shoot, all you could do is go up from that point. It was embarrassing week after week of giving up yards and giving up points.”
Players and coaches credited first-year coordinator Clint Hurtt for making schematic changes to the new 3-4 defense being implemented. The most notable was allowing linemen to attack a gap at the snap more instead of reading and reacting, or playing a two-gap technique.
“The defensive line, they played freaking great,” Brooks said. “We kind of changed some things up technique wise for them. It allowed them to be a little bit more free, and I think that paid off for them and us.”
But Seattle’s defense will get a stiffer test against a Chargers team that is third in the NFL in passing offense (280.0 per game), seventh in offense overall (374.8) and may get leading receiver Keenan Allen back from injury.
And even with the Arizona game, Seattle remains 30th in total defense (410.8 yards per game) and tied for 30th in points allowed (27.2).
“One thing about this group is that everybody stuck together,” Brooks said. “During the couple of weeks we had where it was a rough stretch, there was no pointing the finger, everybody was just [homing] in on their details, continuing to try to get better, and I thought the Cardinals game was a good momentum shift for us. Now we just have to rinse, repeat and just stay consistent to that performance.”
Carroll said if the Seahawks can do that they may begin to sway those who are taking a closer peek but not yet fully ready to commit.
“I think we are just laying low,” Carroll said. “ … There were no expectations for us at all. We haven’t done anything yet, we are just getting rolling. I think we are in a different situation and setting than people figured we would be, so they are looking. … We just have to keep on climbing through it.”