What is and isn’t working for Seahawks and rest of NFC West

Nov 8, 2024, 9:53 AM

Geno Smith of the Seattle Seahawks is pressured by Byron Young of the Los Angeles Rams during a 2024 game. (Rio Giancarlo/Getty Images)

(Rio Giancarlo/Getty Images)

BY STACY ROST

Host, Bump & Stacy (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.)

When your team is losing you hardly want a silver lining, but every team in the NFC West has one: this is the most competitive – and most wide open – division in football.

Seattle Seahawks Midseason Grades: Evaluating the first half of 2024

The San Francisco 49ers are still the odds-on favorite to win, despite their injuries, while the Arizona Cardinals’ odds have picked up steam. That leaves the Seattle Seahawks (4-5) quite behind the pack in Vegas, but again, just a game back from the Cards (5-4) and half a game back from the Los Angeles Rams and 49ers (4-4) in the actual division standings.

On Bump and Stacy this week, we spoke with Mike Golic Jr, NFL analyst and host of Gojo and Golic, about whether the playoffs are out of reach for the Seahawks as they enter the final eight games of the season.

NFC West standings

“Yeah, I certainly don’t know if I’d be going that far, just because we know how wide open the division feels right now,” Golic said. “With the Rams receiver corps starting to get healthy and the changes they’ve made defensively, you can look and see, ‘Well, that team that already has a Super Bowl under their belt might have a leg up’ or ‘That 49ers team getting Christian McCaffrey back with the cavalry of offensive weapons, that’s been a team that’s the perennial NFC representative.’ And it might feel a bit hopeless. But I would say, listen, with the amount of body blows those teams have already taken injury-wise, you’re never out of the woods fully. You’ve seen in this division that you’re one play away from the top at any given moment.

“The tendency can always be well let’s look forward to the future and ignore the present when it gets uncomfortable. I’m a fan of a college football team that puts me through hell almost every year. But I would still say that the NFC West is far too wide open to count anyone out.”

Here’s what’s working and what’s not for each team:

49ers (4-4)

What’s working: history, coaching, and roster strength

What’s not: injuries

San Francisco has already lost wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and defensive lineman Javon Hargrave for the season and has been dealing with injuries to running back Christian McCaffrey (who’s expected to make his season debut this weekend against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and safety Talanoa Hufanga.

The 49ers have been one of the most snake-bitten teams in the league and yet they’ve managed to keep their head just above water record-wise. That’s important – and not good news for the other three teams in the division as San Francisco looks to get healthier here in Week 10. But while San Francisco has remained one of the most productive offenses (second in total yards per game), they’ve not been quite as deadly in the red zone without McCaffrey (28th in red zone touchdowns scored).

Rams (4-4)

What’s working: history, elite QB-WR pairings, a promising and young defensive line

What’s not: injuries

The Rams season looked done for just three weeks ago. They were 1-4 with trade rumors circling around star receiver Cooper Kupp. Then they rattled off three wins in a row, including a monster performance against what had been a tough Vikings defense in Week 8. In those three games their young defense has managed seven combined takeaways (this after managing four over the first five weeks). Worse still for Seattle, three of the Rams’ next four games are against two-win teams (Miami, New England, and New Orleans).

Cardinals (5-4)

What’s working: Kyler Murray is playing his best football

What’s not: history and lingering question marks on defense

Don’t look now but Kyler Murray is quietly playing some of his best football. Few expected the Cardinals to be contending and you’d be forgiven for overlooking their games, but he’s got just three interceptions on 252 pass attempts, which is the best mark (1.2%) of his career. He also has three game-winning drives and his second-highest passer rating.

Seahawks (5-4)

What’s working: QB-WR combos and a healthier defensive line

What’s not: the offensive line and run defense

Same story, new year for the Seahawks. The thing they do well (their passing offense) is still just fine. Geno Smith leads the league in passing yards (though you’d love to see Seattle get Kenneth Walker III more involved to balance out a one-dimensional offense) and while his touchdown-interception ratio (10 to nine) is simply too high right now, there’s also important context around a few of those picks. Namely, the performance of the offensive line has been among the worst in the league. Bad injury luck for the remaining NFC West teams could always favor a surprise visit to the playoffs for the Seahawks, but they won’t be going anywhere once they get there without improvement up front.

Nuggets

Dan Graziano joined us Thursday and had a few interesting things to say about a report from Adam Schefter on DK Metcalf, and Geno Smith’s market value.

• First, on an ESPN report that the Seahawks weren’t interested in moving Metcalf at the trade deadline: “Oh there were teams interested. I mean, look at who got the receivers, right? Like, the Pittsburgh Steelers called on every potentially available receiver since March, so I’m sure they were among the teams that checked in. … What happens is teams will look at the contract on the rosters and say, ‘Well, DK Metcalf, he’s only got one more year left, they drafted a guy in the first-round last year. Are they thinking about moving on? Or are they going to extend him? Let’s call and find out, right?’”

• On Geno Smith’s market value: “Any starting caliber quarterback is going to get picked up. The question is what would he be worth on the open market, contract-wise? And I think the way he’s played, the answer is probably more than the Seahawks are paying him. You look at Baker Mayfield after the year he had in Tampa, he gets three years and 100 million, so about $33 million per year. That’s a year after Geno got three years, $75 million. So that gives you a sense of where these guys are that are, you know, in their second or third chapters and having success, how the league looks at them.”