Field Gulls
And then, there were four.
With the Divisional Round in the rear view, we have just four teams left in the NFL’s tournament to see who gets to play in Super Bowl LX on Sunday, February 8. The NFC Championship game is a particularly interesting pier-sixer in that it has two teams that have already faced off twice this season, with the Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams splitting the series in the regular season — both times in thrilling fashion.
When we look at X-Factors for each team in these games, for the Seahawks, it’s hard to think of a player on their roster who has done more to annoy the Rams this season than Rashid Shaheed. Even before the November 4 trade that brought Shaheed to Seattle from New Orleans, Shaheed was already putting Sean McVay’s team at sixes and sevens, and the time seems ripe for a repeat performance.
It was one of those trades that created a blip on the radar at the time, but even the Seattle Seahawks may not have known just what an effect the addition of former New Orleans Saints receiver/returner/runner Rashid Shaheed would have on the franchise when they dealt 2026 fourth- and fifth-round picks for Shaheed’s services on November 4. Offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak obviously knew what Shaheed could do based on Kubiak’s role as the Saints’ offensive coordinator in 2024, but what the 2022 undrafted free agent out of Weber State has done for the Seahawks has been above and beyond.
Not so much as a receiver, though Shaheed does have the speed to take the top off a defense — he’s caught just 15 passes on 25 targets for 188 yards and no touchdowns since the trade — but as a wild-card in the run game, and most certainly as a return stud, Shaheed has made all the difference in the world.
You don’t need to tell the Los Angeles Rams, who have already dealt with Shaheed three times this season, and will have to do it again in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game (6:30 p.m. EST, FOX). Shaheed caught two passes on four targets for 27 yards in Los Angeles’ 21-19 Week 11 win over Seattle, adding a 2-yard run and a 20-yard punt return. That was merely a warmup for what happened in what may have been the NFL’s Game of the Year so far; Seattle’s 38-37 overtime Week 16 win over their division rivals.
In that game, Shaheed caught no passes on no targets, but that’s not what he was there to do. With 7:04 left in the fourth quarter, and the Rams up 30-22, Shaheed took the ball on a misdirection end-around run, and with several blockers running point downfield, ran 31 yards to the Los Angeles 26-yard line. Sam Darnold hit tight end AJ Barner for a 26-yard touchdown on the next play, and with one of the weirdest two-point conversions ever, Seattle had tied the game.
The Seahawks, by the way, went...
