There is no question that the Seattle Seahawks are very happy to have defeated the San Francisco 49ers last week and secured the top seed for the NFC playoffs. Though I argued that Seattle needed the win more for psychological than practical reasons, those practical benefits are undeniable.
The week off will provide welcome rest, especially to veteran defenders like Leonard Williams, DeMarcus Lawrence, and Jarran Reed. It also allows banged-up players like Charles Cross, Coby Bryant, and Elijah Arroyo an extra week to heal.
Home-field advantage up until the Super Bowl is also a huge perk, despite Seattle’s brilliant road record. And the mere fact of getting to skip a game – and therefore a chance to lose – does wonders for a team’s odds of winning it all. Yes, there are major benefits to getting that number one seed and the first round bye.
But there is one potential drawback as well.
Seahawks have to avoid bye week rust when they begin their playoff quest
Seattle just played its most dominant game of the year. It didn’t show up on the scoreboard, where they only won by ten. But on the road against a quality opponent that was playing very well and desperately wanted to win, the Seahawks controlled every aspect of their Week 18 game with San Francisco.
Any coach or player will tell you that when your team is playing that well, the last thing you want is a week off. Mike Macdonald’s men would have happily taken on anyone in the league the very next day. Now, one of Macdonald’s primary goals is to maintain that level of intensity and execution through the bye week.
The challenge is not quite as extreme as the one faced by elite college teams in the FBS playoffs. Over the last two seasons, teams with a first-round bye are a staggering 1-7 in their initial quarterfinal matchup. In college, teams with a bye typically have a full month off before their first playoff game, which is a radically different timeline from their routine.
Seattle will only have one week off. That is a situation that every NFL team should be accustomed to since they all get a bye during the regular season. In his brief tenure as head coach, Mike Macdonald has proven very effective at using that week off. He is 2-0 after a bye.
In 2024, he used the extra time to achieve a major course correction. He entered his first bye week having lost five out of six games, then proceeded to win four straight afterwards. This season, there was no course correction required. Seattle entered their bye playing well. They came out of the week off and steamrolled back-to-back opponents.
Clearly, Mike Macdonald knows how to keep his team sharp.
But he should remind his players of this recent history.
In the last five years, teams with a first-round bye are 7-3 in the divisional round. That’s very good, but it’s not unbeatable. Last year, not many analysts gave the upstart Washington Commanders a shot at going on the road and beating the formidable top-seeded Detroit Lions. Detroit entered the game with a stunning plus-222-point differential on the season.
Then they proceeded to play their sloppiest game of the year, committing five turnovers and losing 45-31, leaving their fans stunned.
Sam Darnold should be able to tell his teammates all about that. In their final regular season before that bye, the Lions had destroyed Darnold’s Minnesota Vikings, a playoff team themselves. He knows just how good Detroit was last year and how well they were playing come playoff time.
Then, after a week off, Darnold also so how quickly an entire season can simply crumble if a team isn’t ready to play.
Mike Macdonald’s mission is to make certain that the Seattle Seahawks’ team that shows up to play in the divisional round of the playoffs is the same team that crushed San Francisco in week 18.