What is the Seahawks’ ceiling for the 2023 NFL season?

This is the last month without some level of Seattle Seahawks football in our lives for the rest of this year. There is great anticipation that Seattle can build upon their 2022 season and be a contender to win the NFC West, if not make a deep playoff run. I know Louis Riddick is high on the Seahawks as his sleeper team.

So for this weekend’s discussion, we want to know what you think the ceiling is for the 2023 Seahawks, and ONLY the 2023 Seahawks.

You might be wondering why I didn’t include the floor as part of this question. After all, you can peruse the schedule and go “worst case scenario they’re 7-10” or something to that effect. In my opinion, every team’s floor is pretty much “worst record” or “one of the worst records in the league” because too many bad things can happen even to greatly talented teams.

A series of injuries to key players, bad bounces, controversial calls, and other moments of misfortune can turn a Super Bowl contender into a cellar dweller. It is inevitable that the Seahawks are going to be impacted by injuries to some degree, because that’s an inevitability across the league. On the flip side, not every team’s ceiling is the Super Bowl. Rosters lacking in high-end talent (especially at quarterback) have a pretty defined ceiling, hence you won’t be seeing anyone sensible backing the Arizona Cardinals to win it all.

The general opinion is that the Seahawks will be fighting to make the playoffs again, but (aside from health) if Geno Smith sustains his level of play, the defense is anything resembling competent, rookies such as Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Devon Witherspoon are immediate successes, and the offensive line continues its promising development, Seattle’s ceiling might be higher than previously thought. Athlon seems to think the Seahawks can go pretty damn far.

I can see the Seahawks being an elite offense, which in itself should make them a playoff team at minimum. If Geno doesn’t really improve that drastically or stagnates, it should still be a pretty good offense below the level of Kansas City or Philadelphia. The defense is a very different question mark that I believe is both schematically related than talent related. Will Jordyn Brooks struggle upon return from injury? How will Jamal Adams perform when he’s back? Can Dre’Mont Jones live up to the hype? Is Pete Carroll going to rely less on nickel and dime packages, particularly on run downs? Are they ever going to defend running backs catching passes like they used to? Too many questions surrounding the defense that may result in answers we may not like, and that sounds like a defense that may come out of the gates struggling once again.

To me, Seattle’s ceiling is winning the NFC West and at least one playoff game but stopping short of a Super Bowl. Don’t get me wrong! An NFC Championship run would be phenomenal, and a Divisional Round appearance would be encouraging. This is not supposed to be a particularly deep conference this year, so the path to being a contender is theoretically easier than if they were in the AFC.

Now it’s your turn!

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