Some will consider this heresy, but the current Seahawks team, streaking toward the playoffs, could end up being the best in the franchise’s 50-year history.
Legion of Boom included.
The opinion is based on the impression that while scary good, they aren’t anywhere near fully formed or thoroughly polished. At 13-3, they’re still on the rise.
The 27-10 win at Carolina on Sunday made it six straight for the Hawks, with the three losses this season coming by a scant nine points.
The offense stumbled along for half the game, and they still breezed past a contender for the NFC South title.
The Hawks’ win total, alone, puts them in the company of two other Seattle Super Bowl teams (2005, 2013), and slightly ahead of the 2014 Super Bowl team that went 12-4.
With so many young stars rising in almost every position group, especially on the defense, the growth seems incrementally obvious as the weeks pass.
They have one more regular-season game, at San Francisco, and are still in line to secure the NFC’s No. 1 seed with home-field advantage through the playoffs.
They’ve won nine of their last 10 in spite of some inconsistencies.
• Quarterback Sam Darnold had two more turnovers in this game, to add to his league-leading total of 20. He also averaged just 5.4 yards per attempt against the Panthers.
In so many games, he’s had stretches when he appeared to be a serious liability, often getting the ball tipped at the line of scrimmage, or losing the handle on it under pressure.
And, repeatedly, he has gathered himself and led the offense on late rallies that provide the winning points. Get on a hot streak like he fashioned early in the season, and this team is on a rocket ride through the playoffs.
Sunday, Darnold was once again spotty. On one play in the second quarter Sunday, under pressure, Darnold got his throwing arm hit while preparing to pass (ruled a fumble), but he then made a terrific tackle on the Panthers’ A’Shawn Robinson, causing the 320-pound lineman to fumble.
In the course of a few heartbeats, Darnold fumbled, made a tackle, and forced a fumble. Admirable effort, but if your quarterback is stacking up defensive stats, it’s a dubious achievement.
Get into the playoffs, and just one play like that can swing the outcome. But, of course, so can the kind of clutch passes he’s completed late in recent games.
Let’s not put it all on Darnold. The offensive line still allows undue pressure on Darnold at times, which contributes to his turnover count.
• Can the Hawks continue to put so much reliance on the defense while the offense sleepwalks through half the game? Apparently, they can.
In the last seven games, the Seahawks have scored only two first-half touchdowns – one against the Rams and one against the Titans.
Despite the offensive turnovers and lack of production, the defense has consistently proved itself to able to keep opponents from capitalizing. Sunday was another example of championship-worthy defense.
The Panthers managed just 139 yards offense – 40 yards via passes.
Strange, against the Rams the previous game, they gave up nearly 600 yards, and the team was minus-3 in turnovers. And still won in overtime.
The game before that, in an 18-16 win over the Colts, Seattle scored no touchdowns at all, but won with six field goals.
As the playoffs near, and the quality of defenses improve, it’s important that the running back tandem of Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet has become a bankable 1-2 combination. Charbonnet led with 110 yards and two touchdowns, as the Hawks rushed for 163 yards.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba added another nine catches to his record-setting season, while tight end A.J. Barner is becoming more of a consistent receiving threat, with a touchdown adding to his total of five this season.
Fair to note, compared to some of the Seahawks Super Bowl teams, this group plays with solid discipline while still being aggressive. Averaging roughly six penalties a game for 48 yards, this group draws considerably fewer flags than the ’13 and ’14 Seahawks, who led the league both penalties and penalty yardage.
So seldom do we see head-scratching penalties, blown coverages or losses of gap integrity with the 2025 team.
What’s been developing in recent weeks is a frame of mind that all the other elite Seahawks teams have had: The strong belief they can win every week no matter how many things go wrong.
They’ve had plenty of chances to convince themselves of that in last couple months.
They will have to be able to close the deal in some pressure situations as they go forward, but this team is already near the top, and still trending upward.