As Rams get the attention, Seahawks can’t forget about 49ers

The Seattle Seahawks are the defending Super Bowl champions, and yet it seems like people keep trying to gloss over them and anoint the Los Angeles Rams as the team to beat in the NFL next season.

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While there’s all this consternation up in Seattle about the hype around the Rams, the Seahawks can’t forget about their other big NFC West rival, as Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob point out.

“The Los Angeles Rams may not be the biggest threat in the West for your Seattle Seahawks. It might be the San Francisco 49ers, who we used to love to hate so much back in the day,” Bob Stelton said. “That’s kind of dissipated over the years, but I think people are overlooking this team.”

The Rams have received a ton of attention for making a pair of splashy trades to bring in star cornerback and UW Huskies product Trent McDuffie as well as NFL sack king Myles Garrett. But there are a few reasons you really can’t count out the 49ers, who like LA also went 12-5 in the 2025 regular season.

“The Rams are scary on paper. The team that might scare me a little more is the 49ers,” Stelton continued. “I think we forget, the Rams won 12 games last year but so did the 49ers, and they had (backup quarterback) Mac Jones (start eight) of their 17 games. And you look at the numbers between him and (starting QB Brock) Purdy, they’re almost identical across the board. They were without (star tight end) George Kittle. They were without all of these key elements to their team, specifically their starting quarterback, and they still won 12 games last year.”

Perhaps the biggest reason the 49ers were still able to perform at a high level despite injuries to key players is their system and culture under head coach Kyle Shanahan, who is entering his 10th season. Shanahan’s coaching staff is continuously raided – for example, the Seahawks hired Klint Kubiak away from the 49ers last year to be their offensive coordinator, then when Kubiak was hired as Las Vegas Raiders head coach, Seattle went back to San Francisco to hire Brian Fleury as its new OC – and yet the Niners have maintained a level of success.

“They continue to get pilfered as far as their coaching staff goes, including us with Brian Fleury,” said Dave Wyman, a former NFL linebacker and current Seahawks Radio Network broadcast analyst. “… It’s more about their scheme and how they run their offense. Remember a few years ago, they had like three running backs that all went for close to 500 yards. … The point about everybody taking their coaches, they’re without those coaches now, but it seems like Shanahan has a way of replenishing those kinds of coaches and just keeps moving on with the system that he has, and what him and (49ers general manager) John Lynch have done with that roster.”

Wyman pointed to three standouts from San Francisco’s impressive playoff win over the Eagles that hammer home how well the 49ers’ system runs under Shanahan.

“We’ll give you three names here: (wide receiver) Demarcus Robinson, (defensive end) Keion White, and (linebacker) Garret Wallow. Those guys are household names, right?” Wyman quipped. “Robinson was the leading receiver, he had six catches for 111 yards and a touchdown in the game against Philadelphia. Keion White was the sack leader. And then Garret Wallow, the backup linebacker – I think he was a third stringer – had five solo tackles, 11 (total) tackles. So it’s just whoever they plug in, they get production out of. You can’t deny how good the coaching is there.”

Watch the full conversation in the video at the top of this post, and catch Wyman and Bob from 2-7 p.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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