If the Seahawks (13-3) beat the San Francisco 49ers (12-4) in Saturday\u2019s night\u2019s de facto NFC West title game, Seattle will claim the NFC\u2019s No. 1 seed and the conference\u2019s lone first-round bye.<\/p>\n
And if the Seahawks lose, they are now guaranteed to be the No. 5 seed.\u00a0That became official with the Los Angeles Rams\u2019 27-24 upset loss<\/a> to the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night, which ensured that Seattle will finish with a better record than the Rams (11-5).<\/p>\n NFL playoff picture<\/a><\/p>\n Had the Rams beaten Atlanta, the Seahawks could have still dropped to the No. 6 seed with both a loss to the 49ers and a Rams win over the Arizona Cardinals in their regular-season finale.<\/p>\n And why does that matter? Well, this year, there\u2019s a big difference in the NFC between being the No. 5 seed and the No. 6 seed.<\/p>\n The No. 5 seed will face the No. 4 seed in the wild card round of the playoffs, which means a favorable matchup against the NFC South champion \u2013 either the Carolina Panthers (8-8) or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-9). Meanwhile, the No. 6 seed will travel to face the No. 3 seed, which will be either the Chicago Bears (11-5) or the Philadelphia Eagles (11-5).<\/p>\n Of course, the Seahawks hope to render all of this a moot point by beating the 49ers and capturing the No. 1 seed for the fourth time in franchise history. All three of the Seahawks\u2019 Super Bowl appearances came as a No. 1 seed.<\/p>\n In fact, since the NFL adopted its current divisional format in 2002, 24 of the 46 No. 1 seeds have reached the Super Bowl. During that same span, just four wild card teams have reached the Super Bowl \u2013 the 2005 Steelers, the 2007 Giants, the 2010 Packers and the 2020 Buccaneers.<\/p>\n But if the Seahawks lose to the 49ers and end up as a wild card, at least now they have the consolation of a more favorable wild card round matchup.<\/p>\n The Seahawks face the 49ers at 5 p.m Saturday at Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. Radio coverage on Seattle Sports<\/a> will begin at 2 p.m. with the pregame show.<\/p>\n More on the Seattle Seahawks<\/p>\n \u2022 How much does Rashid Shaheed injury hurt Seattle Seahawks?<\/a>
\u2022 A key part of Seattle Seahawks\u2019 success isn\u2019t on the stat sheet<\/a>
\u2022\u00a0\u2018Best in the world\u2019: Byron Murphy II shining for Seahawks\u2019 defense<\/a>
\u2022\u00a0There\u2019s a benefit to playing Saturday for Seahawks and 49ers<\/a>
\u2022 Brock Huard: \u2018We haven\u2019t seen many defenses like\u2019 these Seahawks<\/a><\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SeattleSportsEmail-830x100-1.jpg\")
\t