2023 Seahawks schedule analysis: Seattle gets very little national TV love

The Seattle Seahawks schedule is out, and the instant analysis and over-analysis of games that are anywhere from four to eight months away has begun! We might as well join in on the instant reaction, sprinkled in with some observations. If you think this is an article about wins and losses, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Where are the national TV games?

The Seahawks had two primetime games and technically three nationally televised regular season games in 2022, which is important to note because Seattle was widely expected to be a terrible team. Not only did they defy expectations, they actually made the playoffs.

You would think that with eight games total against the AFC North and NFC East, in addition to the usual NFC West rivalry with the San Francisco 49ers, they might have a chance to get that number bumped up. After all, the NFL increased the number of national broadcasts even more this year!

Well... Seattle got three. That’s it. One against the New York Giants on Monday, and then consecutive Thursdays versus the 49ers and Dallas Cowboys.

For perspective, the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers both got more. Chicago had the league’s worst record last season! The Las Vegas Raiders have five in primetime and a Christmas afternoon game. 18 teams got more national TV love (including non-primetime) than Seattle.

Maybe this is like Geno Smith’s contract extension: Prove it in 2023, and you’ll get more spotlight in 2024.

Don’t sweat the 10 AM games

Seriously, stop doing that. Seattle has four on the docket this season, but these are not the Mike Holmgren days. The Seahawks have been a terrific 10 AM team under Pete Carroll and in fact are 14-3 since 2018 (well... 13-3 if you want to discount the 10 AM PT kickoff in London from the 2018 season). All of their 10 AM games are also immediately followed by home games.

The Tennessee Titans, Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens, and Detroit Lions are the opposition. They’ll be collectively tough (in theory) regardless of kickoff time.

The most treacherous stretch?

Purely guesswork because inevitably some teams we thought would be bad will actually be good (or better than though), while some prospective contenders will potentially stink. If we go by the projections, then the November-December spell of at Ravens (AFC contender), at Rams (division rival), vs. 49ers (division rival on a short week), at Cowboys (NFC contender), at 49ers, and vs. Eagles (defending NFC champions) may make or break the season. I doubt this is what actually happens because we’re in freaking May and we’ve watched too much football to know how much reality deviates from preseason expectations.

Seahawks avoid the multiple short weeks

For some reason, playing three games in 12 days has been treated like an earth-shattering thing. It’s not. Playing on Sunday in consecutive weeks and then on Thursday is also three games in 12 days. What’s not common is the Sunday-Thursday-Thursday combo, but that’s only a relatively recent thing over the past several seasons as a means of having two Thanksgiving teams also have another Thursday game the following week.

You know what would’ve sucked? Seattle having multiple short weeks and two Sunday-Thursday trips.

Seattle’s lone MNF trip is followed by a bye week, so they only have one occasion in which they have less than a full week between games. I won’t complain about that.

Playing the Rams on opening day is way more daunting than it should be

Good chance the Rams aren’t any good this season even though Messrs Stafford, Donald, and Kupp will all be back healthy. We’ve seen the Rams almost beat Seattle with all of them not even playing. Sean McVay cooking up schemes and plays the Seahawks already struggle with is one thing, but no prior regular season film could make this extra dicey despite what is a clear talent disparity.

On the other hand... I think we’d all be on a high if the season began 1-0 with a third consecutive victory over the Rams, wouldn’t we?