Rost: 3 lessons the Seahawks learned from 2024 season

When you get bad news or make a big mistake, it rarely feels better to have someone tell you it was a lesson learned.

The 3 losses for 2024 Seattle Seahawks that sting the most

Yeah, we get it: Inherently there’s always something to take away from any bad situation. But the lesson never acts as sugar to help the medicine go down; more often than not, it just feels like a tougher dose of medicine (gross).

But for any team that didn’t make the playoffs this season, taking a hard look at what went wrong is exactly what the doctor ordered… even if it doesn’t feel good to do it with a game remaining in the regular season (you can always play for pride, right?).

What simple lessons did the Seahawks learn this year?

1. Don’t mess up the easy ones

Rarely will I be overly critical of the talent on an NFL roster. Every team has first-round picks, every team has talent, and every team has coaches who – even if they’re not great leaders or eventually lose the job – still know football and got those jobs because, most of the time, they earned a shot.

However, the Seahawks really had no business losing to the New York Giants. Really good teams rarely fall to really bad ones. The Giants entered that matchup against Seattle short their starting running back and their best offensive weapon, and they still dropped nearly 30 on the Seahawks.

If the Seahawks win on Sunday against the Rams, they’ll finish with a 10-7 record. Normally that might be enough, but it won’t this time around because of a fifth tiebreaker – strength of victory. And with that little wiggle room, I can’t think of a game Seattle would want back more than that horrible loss in Week 5.

2. Any massive preseason worries aren’t normally misguided

The Seahawks weren’t projected to win the NFC West, but national and local critics knew they had some talent. There was plenty of faith in their wide receiver room and in their young cornerbacks. Perhaps they could even surprise people! However, from the jump they had question marks at two position groups: Interior offensive line and inside linebacker.

When enough people are concerned you have a problem, you might have a problem. I know you can think of a case right now where analysts or reporters just got it wrong – trust me, it’s happened – but those concerned about what the Seahawks were going to do at those positions were concerned for good reason. And Seattle didn’t prove them wrong.

The Seahawks’ front office made calculated risks here. They prioritized an extension for defensive lineman Leonard Williams (which, to their credit, worked out) over getting a new deal done for former first-round linebacker Jordyn Brooks. They lost out on the latter when Miami made an offer quickly. They prioritized the defensive line over the offensive line with their first-round pick of Byron Murphy II. It was not a decision that was heavily criticized at the time, considering their horrendous run defense in 2022 and 2023, and the lack of high-profile interior linemen in the first round, but it’s meant to show that throughout the offseason Seattle chose where to add and where to gamble. The gamble just … didn’t pay off.

Unfortunately, that felt like it was something we could sense early. Neither linebacker was consistently healthy or available throughout the preseason, and despite a strong start to the season, the run defense continued to be a liability as Seattle entered tougher matchups. Ultimately, neither finished the season with the team. Meanwhile, on the offensive line, there was a regular rotation at right guard for a good chunk of the year and center Connor Williams retired during the bye week.

3. Fixing the defense isn’t enough

Mike Macdonald was brought here to do two things. First, fix a defense that had become mediocre: Awful against the run, inconsistent with the pass rush, and overall a far cry from the historically elite unit that dominated the early 2010s. So far, so good. They went from 22nd against the pass to seventh, 31st against the run to 18th, and 24th in points allowed to 10th.

Second, he’s a smart, innovative defensive mind brought here to compete with the smart, innovative play-callers in the West. That one’s a bit more up in the air. Ultimately, Macdonald’s Seahawks didn’t win the division in a year where the Rams started 1-4 and the 49ers lost several playmakers to injuries. The lesson learned here is a pretty obvious one: Improving the defense isn’t enough for the Seahawks to close the gap between them and the conference’s best teams. Frankly, almost nothing Seattle did offensively was good enough to be a playoff team. The Seahawks were 19th in points per game (21), 14th in yards per game (331), 22nd in yards per rush attempt (4.2) and 30th in rushing yards per game (93), and have yet to score a touchdown on an opening drive.

Macdonald was brought here to fix the defense, but he’ll stay here by fixing whatever Seattle can’t get done offensively.

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