11 years and seven days ago, the Seattle Seahawks pulled off a miraculous comeback against the Aaron Rodgers-led Green Bay Packers to advance to the Super Bowl; it was their second conference championship in a row.
Of course, that appearance in the big game against Tom Brady, or perhaps more notably, Malcolm Butler, didn’t go as well as their matchup with the Denver Broncos a year prior.
Yes, that would be the final Super Bowl trip for Russell Wilson, Pete Carroll, and the “Legion of Boom,” but if you can think back to that overtime defeat of the Packers, it meant a ton for the organization and their standing around the league.
It solidified their status as the top dog in the conference, and in the two years that followed, only the future conference champs, the dominant Carolina Panthers and the high-scoring Atlanta Falcons, took them out of the postseason.
In short, a little over a decade ago, a home win over an NFC giant cemented the organization at the top of the conference; today, they have the same opportunity.
Here, I’ll give you the three ways in which the Seahawks will completely redefine their future with a win over the Los Angeles Rams.
1. Mike Macdonald Joins Elite Coaching Company & Status League-Wide
In January 2024, at 36-years-old, Seattle made Mike Macdonald their head coach. He had been the defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens and the Michigan Wolverines, and league-wide, it was a respectable hire.
In year one, he gave the Seahawks their first double-digit win season since 2020 and took one of the league’s bottom-three defenses in 2023 to a nearly top-ten unit in 2024.
Obviously, this season has elevated his status even more, as he’s led the organization to its first-ever 14-win regular season, the one seed in the NFC, and a dominant postseason debut against a division rival.
Macdonald has solidified himself as one of the best young coaches in the league, but a win today takes the “young” part out of that equation.
This Boston native and Georgia alum will become one of the top head coaches in the NFL if his team can make the Super Bowl in his second season of work.
Today marks a mountain-sized opportunity for Mike Macdonald.
2. Sam Darnold Becomes “The Guy” & Finds Long-Awaited Stability
Similar to his head coach, it is hard to overstate just how much this game means to Seattle’s quarterback and former top-three pick, Sam Darnold.
The 28-year-old has been through more than you can probably even remember in his nine-year NFL career. Three really rough years as a New York Jet, two in Carolina, a year as a backup in San Francisco, and now two big seasons in a row for two different teams.
Minnesota revived his career in 2024, as he led the Vikings to a 14-win season, made his first Pro Bowl, and threw for career-highs in just about everything.
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A rough end to the season and a poor postseason debut brought back some negative narratives about Darnold, but the Seahawks looked past that and paid him to be their franchise quarterback.
Some laughed at the decision, some applauded it, but virtually nobody said he would bring them to the Super Bowl; with 4,000 passing yards and now 15 wins in total under his belt, Darnold can deliver that with a win today.
If he does, he finally becomes “the guy” for a franchise and lands the kind of stability he has quite literally never had.
3. Seattle Enters Next Season As Super Bowl Favorite & Becomes A Perennial Contender
Lastly, this Seahawks season is on the brink of becoming one of the fastest organizational turnarounds we’ve seen in recent NFL history.
Seattle is a home-win away from changing the narrative completely; they won’t go into next season as an up-and-coming, young team that was “ahead of schedule,” like we saw following the surprise Washington Commanders championship appearance last postseason.
Rather, this will be the Super Bowl favorite out of the NFC, and potentially league-wide. Again, you can probably count on one hand the number of people who guessed that before this season.
The NFC West will still be a hard obstacle, but Matthew Stafford is one of the oldest quarterbacks in football, the 49ers are injured and aging, and Arizona is at the start of a rebuild.
Elsewhere in the conference, Philadelphia has far more questions than answers; Green Bay is completely unproven in the postseason; does anybody else really stand out as top competition in the conference?
It may sound trivial, but I’m willing to bet Seattle won’t become a stranger to the NFC Championship game in the years to come, and they may stack a ring or two in the process.
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