After missing the playoffs for the second straight season in 2024, the Seattle Seahawks hope to return in 2025. The franchise last won a playoff game in 2019 and has just three postseason victories in the last decade.
Seattle was the only team to win 10 or more games this season and not make it into the playoffs. Fourteen other teams did so, and all were in the postseason.
Even though it’s early, Bleacher Report writer Erik Beaston published NFL playoff bracket predictions for the 2025-26 season, and the Seahawks were left out. Seattle’s division rivals, the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams, each made the cut.
Beaston projected the 49ers as the NFC’s No. 1 seed, while the Rams squeezed in at No. 5. He put the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles as the No. 6 seed.
While no explanation is provided for why a rising Seattle team was left out of the postseason, Beaston did explain his reasoning for the Rams and 49ers making it in.
“The San Francisco 49ers had a season to forget in 2024, following up a Super Bowl LVIII appearance with a 6-11 record that landed them in the NFC West basement,” Beaston wrote. “With running back Christian McCaffrey and wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk expected back on the offensive side of the ball, and Robert Saleh back as the highest-paid defensive coordinator in NFL history, the red and gold are poised for a comeback that could, and should, see them top a winnable NFC.”
San Francisco fell far short of expectations in 2024, while LA was much better than anticipated this season. The Rams (10-7) won the NFC West via tiebreaker despite finishing with the same record as the Seahawks, and they went on to reach the Divisional Round after upsetting the Minnesota Vikings (14-3) in the Wild Card.
LA lost, albeit narrowly, to the eventual Super Bowl champion Eagles.
“The Los Angeles Rams were the one team with a legitimate shot at knocking off the Eagles this postseason and, barring any drastic trade that sends Matthew Stafford out of Hollywood, should be able to ride underrated back Kyren Williams and a young, explosive defense led by Defensive Rookie of the Year Jared Verse back to the postseason as a wild card in the fifth seed,” Beaston wrote.
The other NFC teams projected to make the postseason over Seattle were the Washington Commanders (No. 2 seed), Detroit Lions (No. 3), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (No. 4) and Dallas Cowboys (No. 7).
