The Seattle Seahawks’ season concluded on Jan. 5 in a win against their division rivals, the Los Angeles Rams, with a score of 30 to 25. Capping off their season, the team has a record of 10 to 7, tying with the Rams for the top spot in the division. Despite the equal record, the Seahawks unfortunately did not end up in playoff contention due to the Rams having the upper hand in breaking the tiebreaker.
As to how the Seahawks lost the divisional tiebreaker, it all comes down to the NFL’s tiebreaking procedures. At the end of the season, if two teams finish with an identical W/L percentage, a 12-step process is ensured to determine who advances to the playoffs — the full process can be explained on the NFL website. In this instance, the tiebreaker between the Rams and the Seahawks made it up to the fifth deciding step of the tiebreaking procedure.
- Head-to-head Record. The Rams and Seahawks went one-to-one against each other, so we advanced to the next step.
- Best Record in the Division (NFC West). Both teams tied each other with a record of four to two in the division, so we advanced to step three.
- Best Record Against Common Opponents. Similar to the previous step, they have the same record against the teams they both encountered, so we advance to the next step.
- Best Record in the Conference (NFC). Both teams again tied each other with a record six to six, so we move on.
- Strength of Victory (SOV). If we compare the records of the teams that the Rams beat to the Seahawks, the Rams’ opponents have a better overall record compared to the Seahawks compared to ours, so the tiebreaking procedure ends here — the combined record of the Rams’ opponents is 64 to 72. The Seahawks, on the other hand, are 64 to 89. For further clarification, click here.
The Seahawks’ 2024-25 season marked the start of a new era for the team. It was an era of modest success, with a few drawbacks here and there. For one, we’ve seen the arrival of a brand new coaching staff after former Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll stepped down at the end of last season. Although not part of the coaching staff, Carroll is involved with the team behind the scenes as an advisor. The team’s current head coach, Mike MacDonald, assumed the role as the team’s head coach after Carroll’s resignation. The departure of Carroll led to an interesting dynamic that occurred with the Seahawks, as the team went from having the oldest coach in the league (age 72) to the youngest — MacDonald being 36 at the time of hiring.
With MacDonald manning the Seahawks, he hauled in a brand new coaching staff at the beginning of the season since several of the coaches during Carroll’s era would also step away. The team acquired former Dallas Cowboys defensive line coach Aden Durde to serve as defensive coordinator and college football coach Jay Harbaugh as special teams coordinator. Adding to these picks, several positional coaches were hired to aid in MacDonald’s style of play.
At home, the Seahawks had a three-to-six record. One of the improvements for next season that MacDonald wants to put steady focus on is improving the home record for both the team and fans.
“The first thing that comes to mind is, we’ve got to play better at home,” MacDonald says in an interview with the press. “We’ve got to make this place a nightmare for teams to come in and play us and utilize our fans and the crowd and the 12s. The whole 12 as one Mantra, we’ve really got to make that come to life when we’re at Lumen, so that’s going to be a major focus for us this offseason.”
Conversely, the team did rack up a seven-to-one record on the road.
Offensive Performance
If one aspect of the team could be refined, it’d be the team’s overall offensive performance. Without a doubt, there were several key highlights coming from the offense, such as QB Geno Smith’s career-high 4 TD passes in a close win against the Rams last Sunday. However, many facets of the team’s offense played an instrumental role in each of their seven losses.
Smith had a solid season as the team’s quarterback. He was fourth in passing yards (4,320), fifth in completion percentage (70.4%), 13th in yards per pass attempt (7.5 per game), 13th in passing touchdowns (21 touchdowns) and had an average passing rating of 93.2. Along with these stats, Smith suffered crucial drawbacks throughout the season, some which could be attributed to the team’s underperformance. For example, Geno accumulated 15 interceptions throughout the seasons — five of these came from the red zone. Or, his fifty sacks during the season — although the fault can’t be fully placed on Geno.
Rushing was an area of difficulty for the Seahawks. The offensive line faced difficulty creating gaps and blocking defensive linesman for running back Kenneth Walker III. There were several key instances throughout the season where offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb outright abandoned the running game, such as in their week five loss against the 1-to-3 New York Giants, where 87% of the plays were passing plays, leading Smith to be sacked seven times. The Seahawks’ running performance can be attributed to the eventual firing of Grubb this past offseason. Running the ball is an integral part of football. It allows for pressure to be taken off the quarterback and it essentially dictates the pacing of the game. The Seahawks failed to perform here. This is an area of the offense that needs to be further developed as the team heads into the next season, especially if they want to make playoff contention.
Other areas must be assessed and worked on for next season, such as their issues with penalties (they had 119 offensive penalties, placing them fifth in the league) or the performance of their offensive line (they were given a 57.7 grade by the Pro Football Network, which is equivalent to an F.)
Defensive Performance
Compared to last season’s stats, major developments were made in the team’s defense. The Seahawks improved both their rushing defense (from 31st to 16th), pass defense (24th to 11th and total points per game (25th to 12th).
Heading into the next season, the defense is expected to face further developments. While good, the defense still has a long way to go before they can reach all-star caliber. But hopes are looking high for both the team and Seahawks fans.
