SEATTLE — Predicting a win total before a season even begins can be a silly endeavor.
After all, how many so-called national experts predicted nine wins and a playoff bid for the 2022 Seahawks? Very few, with most predicting a losing season.
You’re seeing a lot of the same sorts of prognostications ahead of this 2025 season that opens on Sunday.
But we think something different will happen.
On our official season preview for the 2025 Seahawks, there’s a few key points that have our team optimistic.
For starters, the schedule is highly favorable. While there are absolutely tough battles with non-divisional teams like the Commanders and Houston to fight with along with the always volatile NFC West games, there are plenty of games where the Seahawks will be favored.
New Orleans, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Indianapolis, and Carolina are all teams that the Seahawks figure to be further along than. Certainly, that doesn’t guarantee a win; that’s never the case in the NFL. Heck, the Giants taught the Hawks a lesson in that way last season. But the point remains, there’s no absolutely brutal months-long stretches that the Seahawks schedule featured in 2023 and 2024.
So, regardless of how you feel about the roster, the schedule is set up so that the Hawks can take advantage if they play to their potential.
But let’s talk about that roster.
Clearly, anyone who is pessimistic about this year’s Seahawks team is focused on the offense. Gone are Geno Smith, DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. Arriving is Sam Darnold, Elijah Arroyo and Cooper Kupp. The offensive line was upgraded in a big way with Gray Zabel as a first round pick, too.
Here’s the reality, Darnold and the newcomers may not have fared as well as DK, Geno and others in the past systems that were run on that side of the ball in Seattle. But that doesn’t matter.
Because it’s a totally new approach on offense. It’s one that will rely on the Seahawks revamped line creating holes for stars like Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet to run through. Darnold will be asked to manage the game and pick his spots to make big plays. The team has talked about using the run game, the play-action pass game, and getting Darnold on the move before throwing to spark the offense.
Different from recent seasons? Absolutely. But cause for poor predictions? Hardly.
There’s another factor that should have fans optimistic, something that slid slightly under the radar of the rest of the nation late last season.
The Seahawks defense was vastly improved in the home stretch of the 2024 season, among the top five in the NFL. It coincided with the arrival of Ernest Jones IV at linebacker and the principles of Mike Macdonald’s defense taking form.
Now? We’ll see a full season of that. The defense is largely intact from last year, with added weapons like rookie Nick Emmanwori for Macdonald to deploy at will.
So a defense that was elite in the home stretch when the current personnel were on board, an offense that certainly has something to prove.
Where did we land on win totals for 2025?
Niko: 10-7 (possibly 11-6)
Najee: 12-5
Both predict a Seahawks playoff berth.