The Seattle Seahawks made waves this offseason when they agreed to trade away quarterback Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos. With Wilson on his way to the Mile High City, many immediately took the move as a sign the Seahawks are gearing up for a complete rebuild.
That’s not necessarily be the case, nor should it be. Moving on from both Wilson and Bobby Wagner means the roster will be revamped to a degree but the Seahawks are in better shape than many are giving them credit for.
The floor fell out from under Seattle this year, dropping their record 7-10. Yet they were closer to being a playoff team than many might have realized. They was losing, but they weren’t being blown out. From Weeks 5-12, the Seahawks defense surrendered point totals of 26, 23, 13, 7, 17, 23 and 17. Seattle was 1-6 in those games, with the lone win coming against the lowly Jaguars.
The problem? Between Geno Smith and a clearly-injured Russell Wilson, the Seahawks did not have a QB capable of navigating them to victory in close games like they are accustomed to doing.
Let’s look at three of these defeats, specifically the 13-10 loss to the Saints, 23-20 overtime loss to the Steelers, and the 17-15 loss to Washington. It wouldn’t take much to convince someone if Wilson was healthy, or if the Seahawks had a quarterback better than *Geno Smith* those three losses turn into wins.
Assuming the rest of the games played out the same way, then their 7-10 record becomes 10-7. This means the Seahawks would have been the sixth seed instead of the San Francisco 49ers. Meanwhile, the 49ers would have dropped to the seventh seed to play Tom Brady’s Buccaneers.
The NFC West is still the most challenging division in the conference, but the rest of the NFC has become rather weak. Of course, making the playoffs means the Seahawks have to figure out the aforementioned QB problem. At the moment, Drew Lock and Jacob Eason are the only on es on the roster. That will have to change, but if they make the right call at QB Seattle could be back in the postseason right away.
