The Seattle Seahawks were on the field for 2,080 official plays during the 2025 season – 1,015 on offense, 1,065 on defense.
All played their role in the Seahawks finishing their 50th anniversary season with a franchise record 14 wins and clinching the No. 1 seed in the playoffs for the fourth time.
But some plays stood out more than others.
And what more appropriate number to settle on for our plays of the season than 12?
So here we go:
1. The Zachward Pass
The strangest play of the Seahawks’ season might have been the most important – running back Zach Charbonnet scoring on a two-point conversion attempt when he picked up the ball in the end zone after Sam Darnold’s pass went backward. Charbonnet’s score – which came after officials halted play after both teams were lined up for the kickoff – tied the game at 30 with 6:23 remaining, allowing the Seahawks to make up a 16-point deficit in just 1:40 of clock time. That set the stage for a 38-37 overtime win over the Los Angeles Rams.
Or maybe the most important play really was …
2. The ‘nail in the coffin’
The win over the Rams is going to be well-represented on this list. And why not? Not only was it as important of a regular-season win as the Seahawks have ever had, it was recently named the NFL’s game of the year by the league’s website. The final play wasn’t necessarily as dramatic in how it unfolded as some others – Sam Darnold finding Eric Saubert in the end zone for a two-point conversion. That the ball went to Saubert – who finished the season with just four catches – on as big of a play as there was all year seemed to perfectly encapsulate the team’s “12 as One’’ philosophy.
“Putting the nail in the coffin in that game, being a part of a culmination of a lot of other plays that guys made to be in a big moment (and) have my name called and answer is cool,” Saubert said.
3. Lawrence carbon-copy TDs power rout of Arizona
Even in down years, the Arizona Cardinals often have found a way to make life hard for the Seahawks in Seattle. Not this year. Two identical-looking plays in which blitzing linebacker Tyrice Knight forced fumbles by Arizona QB Jacoby Brissett that DeMarcus Lawrence picked up and ran in for touchdowns – of 34 yards in the first quarter and 22 yards in the second – gave the Seahawks a 38-7 halftime lead en route to an easy 44-22 win.
“It was the same play, same ending, same results,” said Knight, who got the start for the injured Ernest Jones IV.
4. Shaheed’s return sparks historic comeback
And now back to the Rams game. Just before Rashid Shaheed returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown against the Rams with 8:03 to play Dec. 18, the Seahawks trailed 30-14 and had just a 2.7% probability of winning the game, according to NFL’s Next Gen Stats.
Shaheed’s return sparked a 16-point spurt in the span of one minute, 40 seconds that tied the game at 30 and forced overtime and set the stage for the plays to come.
“That definitely kind of ignited (the comeback),” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said of the largest fourth-quarter comeback in team history.
5. Jones finds open field against Vikings
The Seahawks had more trouble early than many anticipated in Week 13 against a Vikings team forced to give rookie quarterback Max Brosmer his first career start. Late in the first half, the Vikings went for it on fourth-and-1 at the 4, trailing just 3-0. Brosmer was flushed out of the pocket by Lawrence and he decided to try to get rid of the ball and avoid a sack.
His sidearm pass went straight into the hands of Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones IV, who had a straight path to an 85-yard pick six.
“I’m thinking, ‘There’s no way he’s about to throw this,’” Jones said. “He let it go, then I catch it, and I’m like, ‘There’s nobody in front of me.’ So, I immediately started running.”
The game was never in doubt and, combined with a Rams loss to Carolina, the Seahawks gained control of their future to the No. 1 seed.
6. Shaheed fulfills Macdonald premonition
With the Seahawks locked in a frustrating 6-6 tie at the half in Atlanta against a struggling Falcons team Dec. 7, Macdonald – in a move possibly meant to light a fire under his team – said that he expected recently acquired returner Rashid Shaheed to take back the opening kickoff of the second half for a touchdown.
Shaheed did as told, breaking loose for a 100-yard sprint that put the Seahawks ahead 13-6 and sparked a 31-3 second-half onslaught and a 37-9 win.
“Based off the film that we watched, we knew that we were going to have an opportunity to score, and that’s what we did,” Shaheed said.
7. Myers saves Seahawks with long game-winning kick
A Week 15 game that would be remembered mostly for future Hall of Fame QB Philip Rivers returning to play for the injury-riddled Colts, his first game in five years.
It ended with the Seahawks needing Jason Myers to save them from what would have been the most devastating loss of the season.
After the Colts took the lead on a 60-yard Blake Grupe field goal, the Seahawks hastily got in position for Myers to try a 56-yarder with 22 seconds left heading into the tricky open end zone. No problem. Myers drilled it, giving them an 18-16 win. It was the longest game-winning kick in team history and Myers’ sixth of the game, also a franchise record.
“It was a little pull slice there,” Myers said of battling the wind. “But once it got up I knew I hit a really strong ball.”
8. Walker third-down run deflates 49ers
Drake Thomas’ fourth-quarter interception of a pass in and out of the hands of 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey might have been the play that sewed up the 13-3 division-clinching win Jan 3.
The moment the Seahawks seemed fated to win came a few minutes earlier when Kenneth Walker III ripped off a 19-yard run on a third-and-17 play. The score was 10-3 at the time, and the 49ers seemed on the verge of getting the ball back and a chance to make it a game.
Walker’s run led to a field goal. The deflated and exasperated reaction of 49ers general manager John Lynch, seen on the TV broadcast, as he realized Walker had picked up the first down might serve as defining a moment as any in this season.
9. Holani ‘crazy’ recovery keys Steel City win
Twice this season, the Seahawks made game-turning plays by simply falling on balls in the end zone that their opponents left uncovered.
The first game was in Week 2 at Pittsburgh when George Holani raced to recover a kickoff in the back of the end zone that bounced over returner Kaleb Johnson, who thought the ball was dead once it crossed the goal line. It wasn’t.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, that ball is live,’” said Holani, who followed the team’s dictum to fall on every loose ball and got an easy seven points to put the Seahawks ahead 24-14 in an eventual 31-17 win.
10. Smith-Njigba takes advantage of Jags
If there was ever a brief moment when it might have been hard to tell where this season was headed, it was Week 6 at Jacksonville, when the Seahawks fell behind early 6-0, a week after losing at home to Tampa Bay to fall to 3-2.
But midway through the second quarter, down 6-3, quarterback Sam Darnold noticed that Jaxon Smith-Njigba had man coverage in the slot from the Jags’ Greg Newsome II, who had been acquired by Jacksonville in a trade earlier in the week and had just entered the game.
Newsome was no match for Smith-Njigba, who got behind him easily for a 61-yard TD that put the Seahawks ahead for good, sparking a 20-12 win and a string of 11 victories in 12 games to close out the season.
“It was good to take advantage of that look and execute,” Smith-Njigba said.
11. Okada’s ‘slow motion’ interception corrals Commanders
When the 2025 schedule was revealed, a Sunday night game at Washington against a Commanders team considered a Super Bowl favorite figured to be one of the most challenging of the season. It instead turned into one of the most impressive wins with the Seahawks jumping out to a 28-0 first-half lead en route to a 38-14 win. The early scoring binge was keyed when safety Ty Okada – thrust into the starting lineup because of an injury to Julian Love – leapt high to pick off a Jayden Daniels pass near the sideline that led to a Darnold-to-Tory Horton TD pass a few minutes later.
“Just made it almost feel like it happened in slow motion,” Macdonald said of Okada’s grab. “Seeing the second foot come down and toe tapping. Wish I could say we taught him that, but that’s just a phenomenal play all around. That was a big point in the game right there.”
12. JSN slam dunks Texans
On the night (Oct. 20) the Mariners’ season ended, Smith-Njigba further announced himself to the nation, catching eight passes for 123 yards and a TD to spark a 27-19 win over a Houston Texans team featuring one of the best defenses in the NFL.
His 11-yard TD put the Seahawks up 14-0 early and was punctuated by Smith-Njigba rising high over the cross bar of the goal post for an emphatic slam of the ball – a big no-no these days, which drew him a fine of $14,491.
Smith-Njigba called it a spur-of-the-moment decision to dunk the ball.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna get fined,’” he said. Did he regret it? Yes and no, Smith-Njigba said before finally concluding it was “money well spent.”