Despite the Seahawks season coming to an end with no playoff appearance, this season has been nothing short of exciting for the young team. The Seahawks ended their season with a 10-7 record, and ended up second in the NFC West division.
With a new head coach, Mike Macdonald, a young team, and a challenging schedule, the Seahawks have pushed through this season with grit. With the highs and lows this season brought, the playoff hunt has been exhilarating.
Through the past few weeks, the Seahawks had a clear path to the playoffs: maintain first place in the division by continuing to win. However, knowing the team, there had to be some bumps in the road.
The Seahawks went into their week 10 bye week with a record of 4-5, sitting at the bottom of the NFC West. However, after their much needed bye week, the team started a four-game winning streak, which briefly put them on top of the NFC West.
Coming off of the winning streak, there were high hopes in the air for their playoff hunt. However, they had hard competition right on their heels.
An important Sunday matchup against the determined Green Bay Packers was in front of the team. The Seahawks sadly fell 30-13, creating a major setback for their playoff hunt.
The next week, they were looking at the Minnesota Vikings, who have been steamrolling through their season. This matchup ended up being close, but nonetheless, Seattle lost with a close score of 27-24.
Knowing they needed to prove themselves as true contenders for the playoffs, they were not able to perform up to standard.
The Seahawks fell behind their division rival Los Angeles Rams, falling to second in the division (with only one seat available in the playoffs to represent the NFC West). Picking up a 6-3 win over the Chicago Bears brought their chances of a playoff appearance up, as fans stayed hopeful.
After losing control of their own outcome, the Seahawks needed help from other teams to boost them past the Rams in the league’s tie-breaking procedures. Seahawks fans had to put their trust in the week 17 matchups: The Hawks needed at least three teams to win, from the Packers, Jets, Dolphins, Falcons, and Lions.
Sadly, losses from the Packers, Jets, and Falcons ended the playoff hopes for the Seahawks’ 2024-25 season.
In week 18 the Seahawks took on, and defeated, the Rams bringing both teams to an identical 10-7 record to close out the regular season. The two evenly matched teams were actually tied in the the first four NFL tie-breaking procedures (head-to-head matches, record for games in the division, record for common games, and record for games in the conference).
The Rams, however, edged the Seahawks out with a slightly better strength of victory (the fifth tie-breaking metric), boosting them to playoffs, while the Seahawks ended on the outside looking in.
While a 10-win season typically is good enough to get into the playoffs, this year – in this conference, in this division – it was just a bit too low to continue to be fighting for a championship.
This season has shown that the team needs improvement with their offense. They struggled with inconsistency. Quarterback Geno Smith struggled tremendously with interceptions, giving up 15 this season. Highlighting their need to improve the offense, the Seahawks have already let go of their offensive coordinator, Ryan Grubb – moving on from him after his first, and only, year in the position.
Macdonald, who had been hired from the Baltimore Ravens after serving as their defensive coordinator, brought domination to the defense this season. And although the Seahawks didn’t make the playoffs in his first year at the helm, Macdonald does become the first head coach in Seahawks history to win 10 games in their first season.
In a press conference interview with head coach Macdonald, he speaks about the performance of the team in 2024, saying it is “the beginning of something really special.”
Even though the team’s season ended early, they showed growth throughout. Fans saw areas that needed improvement, including additions to the offense; but they also saw a glimmer of what could be to come under this new regime.
As this season ends there are a lot of reasons to feel positive about the trajectory of the club, and fans are left with hope that next year the Hawks will do what they need to in order to be playing deep into the post-season.