The future is bright, but Seahawks need to capitalize now

By all accounts, the Seattle Seahawks are exceptionally well positioned for the long run.

They have an incredible slew of young talent, with a whopping eight players on rookie contracts who received at least one All-Pro vote this season. They have the fourth-most salary cap space of any team, per OverTheCap.com. They have one of the league’s best general manager/head coach tandems in John Schneider and Mike Macdonald.

So regardless of what unfolds the rest of this postseason, the future is awfully bright in Seattle.

Lefko: Seahawks hired Mike Macdonald for a moment like this

That being said, even if the Seahawks are just at the beginning of a long window of contention, it’s difficult to imagine a more golden opportunity than the one staring in their face right now.

To begin with, the Seahawks have one of the great advantages in American sports – a No. 1 seed in the NFL playoffs.

With both a first-round bye and home-field advantage through the NFC bracket, Seattle enters the postseason sitting just two home playoff wins away from the Super Bowl. History shows just how advantageous that is: Since the NFL adopted its current divisional format in 2002, a whopping 24 of the 46 No. 1 seeds have advanced to the Super Bowl.

On top of that, the Seahawks were dealt a favorable hand in getting to face an injury-ravaged 49ers team in Saturday night’s NFC Divisional Round clash.

The Seahawks just stomped the 49ers 13-3 in the regular-season finale less than two weeks ago, outgaining them by 188 total yards in a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score would suggest. And the 49ers, already decimated by a slew of injuries, just suffered another costly setback when star tight end George Kittle tore his Achilles in the wild card round.

That doesn’t mean Saturday’s rematch will be a cakewalk. Playoff games are generally tough, no matter the circumstances. But in a parity-driven league where every edge matters, the well-rested and much healthier Seahawks couldn’t have asked for a much more advantageous path to the NFC Championship game than this.

And then, looking at the NFL landscape as a whole, consider just how wide-open this year’s playoff field is.

The Los Angeles Rams seem to be Seattle’s biggest potential challenger, but they’ve looked shaky in recent weeks. The 49ers have been decimated by injuries. The Chicago Bears have the league’s 23rd-ranked scoring defense.

The AFC’s top two seeds – the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots – are led by second-year quarterbacks who have barely gotten their feet wet on the playoff stage. The Houston Texans have been sputtering on offense. And while Josh Allen is a bona fide superstar, he’s surrounded by a Buffalo Bills team with no shortage of flaws elsewhere.

In addition, consider who’s already sitting at home.

Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, who reached five of the past six Super Bowls, didn’t even make the playoffs. The Detroit Lions, who won a league-high 27 games over the past two seasons, didn’t make it either. The defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles have already been eliminated. The Green Bay Packers, who loomed as a dangerous threat before superstar pass rusher Micah Parsons’ season-ending injury, are already out as well.

The Lombardi Trophy is there for the taking.

Again, the Seahawks look primed for a lengthy run of success. But that doesn’t always guarantee a title.

Just ask the 49ers. Despite reaching seven NFC Championship games and three Super Bowls since 2011, they’ve yet to win it all over that stretch.

Just ask the Bills. They have more regular-season wins than any team since 2020 and are in the divisional round for the sixth straight year, and yet they’re still seeking their first Super Bowl trip during that span.

Just ask the Packers. Since winning the Super Bowl in 2010, they’ve reached the divisional round nine times, yet haven’t made it back to the Super Bowl since.

To use a baseball analogy, the Seahawks may get plenty more good pitches to hit in the coming years.

But in some cases, that first pitch to hit ends up being the best.

More on the Seattle Seahawks

• Seattle Seahawks’ 1st playoff injury report has mostly good news
• How Schneider built Seattle Seahawks back into a title contender
• What national voices are saying about Seahawks QB Sam Darnold
• 3 reasons Daniel Jeremiah expects Seahawks to beat 49ers again
• What to know about Seahawks-49ers divisional round matchup

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