Why the Seattle Seahawks offense can be special in 2023

A couple of weeks ago, Athlon Sports put out their 2023 NFL preview. In somewhat of a stunner, they have predicted that the Seattle Seahawks will win the NFC Championship, before falling to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. 

Athlon predicted that Pete Carroll will be the NFL Coach of the Year. The magazine also said Seattle will get the number 2 seed in the conference. In the postseason, the Seahawks will get home playoff wins over Detroit and San Francisco, before stunning the Eagles in Philadelphia to get to the franchise's fourth Super Bowl.

While this is just about as close to a fairytale season as any Hawks fan could hope for, it gives volume to a growing sound that the Seahawks could make some real noise this season. If the Seahawks were going to have a "super" season, what would that look like, and what is the roadmap to Las Vegas in February? Unfortunately, we may have to look to our Southern California rivals for historical comparisons to glory.

Acknowledging the greatness of a Seahawks rival

While this part is a bit painful to talk about, there are some very strong similarities to what the Seahawks are building and the best the Rams franchise has put on the field.

The first comparison I want to look at is the 2018 LA Rams:

13-3 NFC champs

32.9 ppg (number 2 in NFL)

24.0 opponents ppg (20th in NFL)

DVOA- 2nd offense, 19th defense, 17th special teams 

Goff - 364/561 64.9%, 4688 yards, 32/12 TD:INT ratio (37/9 ratio before Kupp ACL)

Robert Woods - 86 rec, 1,219 yards (14.2 y/r), 6 TDs

Brandon Cooks - 80 rec, 1,204 yards (15.1y/r), 5 TD's

Cooper Kupp - (8 games played) 40 rec, 566 yards (14.2 Y/R), 6 TDs

Todd Gurley - (14 games) 256 attempts, 1,251 yards, 17 TDs, 59 rec, 580 yards, 4 TDs.

The 2018 Rams were arguably the best team in the Sean McVay era, despite coming up embarrassingly short in Super Bowl LIII. With stars in their prime such as Aaron Donald, Todd Gurley and Robert Woods, and Brandin Cooks, the team was loaded with starpower for young Jared Goff to guide.

With a young passing game coordinator by the name of Shane Waldron working magic with Sean McVay, the Rams were the best offense in football not named Kansas City. The Rams looked unstoppable before a Cooper Kupp torn ACL severely hindered the offense. Their scoring dropped by nearly a touchdown per game the rest of the way, which ultimately came back to haunt them in their 13-3 Super Bowl defeat.