Field Gulls
Well, here we are. Last season, 10 wins was not enough for the Seattle Seahawks to reach the playoffs. Will 10 wins be enough this year? Will they improve and reach 11 wins for the first time since 2020? Most of the Field Gulls staff is picking the ‘Hawks to have a wonderful 50th season and win at least 11 games, with John Fraley serving as the lone dissident. I had to double check to make sure John Gilbert wasn’t writing under Fraley’s name, and indeed Gilbert has some level of optimism.
Stick around and read our takes, and then we want to read yours!
Mookie Alexander: The ceiling of the Seahawks is directly tied to the offensive line. If preseason was a mirage and they’re actually not that much better than recent teams, Sam Darnold will significantly regress, the Jalen Milroe subpackages won’t work as effectively, and the running game will be inconsistent. Anything approaching league average and the Seahawks will be a dangerous team. Mike Macdonald’s defense should be bare minimum good, with the potential to be great. I think some of the “easier” games on the schedule (e.g. Jacksonville, Carolina) will be tougher than people realize, while they’ll finally have big-time wins against playoff caliber teams. I’m anticipating a much-improved run game, an efficient if unspectacular year from Darnold, a top 10 defense, but also enough hiccups given how young this team is that they’ll have an absolutely stinker or two along the way. Screw it, it’s time to have a home playoff game in front of fans again. 11-6, win the NFC West over the Rams, win the Wild Card game and lose to the top seed in the Divisional Round.
Tyler Alsin: It boggles my mind that an entire national corner has become believers in Anthony friggin Bradford, but here we are. I am fascinated by this team; I’m fascinated by the tight ends, by Klint Kubiak’s whole thing, by a defense with as much carryover from the previous season as I think I’ve ever seen. I also recognize that Sam Darnold will be important, but perhaps not so much that the team either has 14 wins or 5 wins based on his performance. Finally, I firmly believe the 49ers to be on the verge of terrible, and the in-division sweep of San Francisco will return. 12-5, and one playoff win at the hands of the defense. After that, it does begin to depend on Darnold.
Ted Zahn: After a successful first season under Mike Macdonald largely due to the second half defensive turnaround, we’ll actually see the offense play the style Macdonald prefers – run the damn ball. It won’t always be pretty, but hot damn is it going to be physical! The offense follows the defense from last year and starts to come into form during the second half of the season. **Seattle wins the NFC West with an 11-6 record on a tiebreaker with the Los Angeles Rams. They win two...
