The Seattle Seahawks may seem as if they’re trending in the wrong direction entering 2018. Yet there’s still a chance they return to NFC West champions. Here are three reasons why.
A betting person probably wouldn’t put too much money on the Seattle Seahawks to win Super Bowl LIII, let alone even make the playoffs in 2018.
Case in point, Andy Benoit of The MMQB has head coach Pete Carroll’s squad finishing the upcoming year with a 7-9 record — third place amid a transformation shift within the NFC West, the division Seattle dominated not long ago.
It’s not hard to see why predictions aren’t favoring the Seahawks this season. After all, they went through one of the more tumultuous offseasons in the league entering 2018. In addition to changing out a sizable chunk of Carroll’s staff, Seattle elected to part ways with a massive chunk of player talent during the offseason:
#Seahawks lost this off-season: Sheldon Richardson, Richard Sherman, Paul Richardson, Jimmy Graham, Michael Bennett, Mike Davis, DeShawn Shead, Jeremy Lane, Eddie Lacy, Thomas Rawls, Matt Tobin, Kam Chancellor[?] Cliff Avril[?]
+2nd, 5th round picks [Richardson, Tobin trades]
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) March 17, 2018
Defensive end Michael Bennett was traded off to the Philadelphia Eagles. Tight end Jimmy Graham, who was never fully utilized in Seattle much anyway, is now with the Green Bay Packers. Perennial All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman joined the Seahawks’ hated rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, this offseason. And the once-vaunted Legion of Boom is a shell of its former self.
All this points to a massive rebuild by general manager John Schneider, right? It has to.
Well, not so fast.
The Seahawks are still in the NFC West picture. Granted, their chances for securing another division crown are much slimmer in 2018 than they were last year or the season before. But the prospects for getting back in the divisional hunt aren’t quite as off as you might think.
So here are three reasons why Seattle could wind up pulling off a seemingly unlikely NFC West championship.
Next Page: No. 3
