Yup! I think that the only team that makes the playoffs in the NFC West this year will be the winner of the division, because I’m sure any Wild Card teams will be coming from the NFC North and East. So Seattle would have to win the division to make the postseason. If that happens, I’ll feel like the team won a real championship.
My expectations weren’t extremely high with a brand new coaching staff (not just new to Seattle, but new to their roles in the NFL for the most part). And from that front it has been… Fine. Maybe better than expected if this defensive success is sustained the rest of the year.
After that, I’m picking my favorite non-Seattle teams and I like the Lions, Bills, Commanders, and Texans. Those teams are fun for me to watch as long as they aren’t beating up on the Seahawks.
Really hoping my Steelers can take care of business against the 2-8 Browns on Thursday night. Though it would be a very Steelers thing to do to follow up back to back wins against two hot teams (Commanders, Ravens) with a loss to a 2-8 team.
While I am inclined to agree with you, NFL.com has us with a 25% chance of making the playoffs and an 18% chance of winning the division, with Washington and GB having only 82% and 81% chances of making the play-offs (so at least a 37% chance someone else makes the play-offs which is most likely the team 2nd in NFCW).
The Commanders but had a look at their run in (Cowboys x2, Titans, Saints , Falcons, Eagles) even with a rookie QB who might start feeling the pressureand I can’t seem them losing many of those.
The Packers have a tougher schedule if we can beat them (at home) we would be one game behind and hold the tiebreaker which could be enough to see us through if we get 2nd.
Getting thuogh on a WC however means almost certainly No 7 seed and as I said I can’t see us winning on the road to the No 2 seed whoever it turns out to be.
As a Lions fan for the past 60-ish years it warms my toes that the Lions are getting some recognition. Over the decades we have had some wonderful winning moments with the Tigers, Pistons, and Red Wings, with usually only vague daydreams of the Lions even making a run to get into the playoffs.
The impact reaches well beyond sports. The city of Detroit is already benefitting from this regular-season success in so many ways. Your San Franciscans and your New Englanders and your Kansas Citians can become complacent with their regular playoff runs, and understandably so. This is uncharted, exciting new territory we are venturing into.
Even just an appearance in the Super Bowl and this city will explode (hopefully in ways that are all positive).
mmm
ETA: I usually pull for the Bills for similar reasons
Oh, we Chiefs fans can relate to playoff droughts. After KC won Super Bowl IV in January of 1970, they didn’t win another playoff game until 1991, making the postseason just 4 times in that span.
The Royals win a World Series in 1985, proceed to not even make the playoffs for almost 20 years, and then lose a WS in 2014 and win a WS in 2015 before another run of 7 years without any playoff appearances.
Many fans have short memories. The Seahawks have have had their share of playoff droughts but on the fan forums before he left a lot of people were calling for Pete Caroll’s head because we hadn’t looked like making the superbowl since 2014.
In Pete’s last 9 seasons we had a record above 500 all but once but having a team that went out in the WC or Divisional round was proof the team was unacceptable.
Count me as part of the group that would enjoy seeing a Lions / Bills Superbowl, but that’s really my second choice. First choice would be Lions / Texans.
As a life-long Detroiter, it still feels surreal that the Lions are good. I mean, I understand why, intellectually. It makes sense with ownership transferring to Sheila, who loves football but also knows to trust the people she hires to make the decisions, with Brad and Dan and the culture they have worked very hard to build. Of course it’s paying off. We have a team who truly understands it takes every single one of them to succeed. Amon Ra is obsessed with being the best but doesn’t have a stereotypical diva WR attitude. Everyone thought Goff was sent here to metaphorically die and has developed into an amazingly analytical (if not necessarily athletic ) QB. I could go on.
So I understand why we are good. But my decades of Lions experience still has influence on me. I don’t think they’ll fall apart but it still seems so strange that they’ve built themselves up this well at all.
Though the Lions are one of my Packers’ divisional rivals, I’m pulling for them this year. The Packers aren’t looking consistent enough to make a deep playoff run, and the Lions are fun to watch. Plus, having grown up as a Packer fan during the dire years of the '70s and '80s, I empathize with long-suffering Lions fans – if the Packers can’t win it, I love seeing a team win which hasn’t done so for a long time.
In my fantasy league this week, My Josh Allen is playing his Lamar Jackson. Or rather they would if Buffalo didn’t have a bye. So let’s hope Jayden Daniels has an outstanding day versus the Cowboys.
Like Daniels passes for 4 TDs and runs for another 2? I could go along with that.
Cleveland money line might have some value. I’m not touching this game in our work football pool because I agree. I would not be shocked if the Browns win this one.
Patrick Mahomes was the first QB drafted by the Chiefs in the first round since Todd Blackledge in 1983. I’m convinced that all those years of the Chiefs picking up everybody else’s has-been and backup QBs was because Blackledge turned out to be such a bust.
Good to hear. As a Lions fan I was the same way, from the other side of the coin-- during all the mediocre Lions years, once it became clear they had no chance of making the playoffs, I’d start rooting for the Packers. As a fellow old-school Midwestern team I’ve always highly respected the Packers, despite them being the main divisional arch-rival of the Lions.
) QB. I could go on.