The Seattle Seahawks entered Week 16 in second place in the NFC West and as the No. 5 seed and exited with the division lead and control of the coveted No. 1 seed. While the easiest way for the Seahawks to confirm their home-field advantage throughout the playoffs is to win their remaining two games, the Monday Night Football matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and Indianapolis Colts does affect what\u2019s on the line for Week 17.<\/p>\n
Current NFC playoff picture<\/p>\n
If 49ers win: Seahawks can clinch NFC West in Week 17, but not No. 1 seed<\/p>\n
The bad news is the Seahawks would have to play their starters in Week 18 if they want the No. 1 seed. The good news is that Seattle still can wrap up the NFC West if the following results happen:<\/p>\n
That would be enough for Seattle to win the NFC West for the first time since 2020, but Week 18 would be exclusively about fending off the Bears for the No. 1 seed. Chicago would hold a conference record tiebreaker on the Seahawks should the teams finish with identical records at the end of the season.<\/p>\n
If 49ers lose: Seahawks can clinch NFC West, No. 1 seed in Week 17<\/p>\n
San Francisco\u2019s loss was step one for Seattle\u2019s unlikely but not impossible path to securing the division and a first-round bye for the playoffs with a week to spare. One wrinkle? The Seahawks would prefer the 49ers not lose in Week 17.<\/p>\n
The NFC West\/No. 1 seed double clinch scenario consists only of the following:<\/p>\n
Of course, if the Seahawks lose to Carolina then the Falcons vs. Rams game holds all of the importance for Seattle in terms of the division. A Rams win just about locks up the NFC West given their final game is at home to the 3-12 Arizona Cardinals, whereas a Rams loss or tie still keeps Seattle in first place entering Week 18.<\/p>\n
And as we all expected, Philip Rivers (4-0 lifetime against the 49ers) will have a major say in what\u2019s at stake for the Seahawks in Week 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Seattle Seahawks entered Week 16 in second place in the NFC West and as the No. 5…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,179520,160188,99],"class_list":["post-364751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-seattle-seahawks-playoffs","tag-seattle-seahawks-scores-and-results","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}