The Seattle Seahawks’ 2024 season has come to an end. While we obviously would’ve loved to see the Seahawks play a little deeper into January, it wasn’t meant to be. They at least won their finale, squeaking past the Los Angeles Rams’ mixture of starters and backups in a pretty entertaining 30-25 game at SoFi Stadium. It took the strength of victory tiebreaker to knock the Seahawks out for a second consecutive season, which tells you how narrow the margins were for making and missing the playoffs.
Here’s the final Winners and Losers of the season.
Winners
Geno Smith
It was a very good game from Geno Smith (20/27 for 223 yards and a career-high 4 touchdown passes). He added to his game-winning drive collection even while playing through immense pain late in the fourth quarter. Financially, he hit $6 million worth of contract escalators in terms of completion percentage, passing yards, and wins.
I don’t know if Smith will be on the Seahawks next season. I’m a little more cautious now than I was several weeks ago but I think it makes most sense to keep him on the team. Whether they finally bother to draft a quarterback who could be his successor is a different story, especially in an underwhelming looking draft class.
Kenny McIntosh
I’m definitely sold on McIntosh getting more involved in the offense next season. He runs hard and runs downhill and fights through contract better than I’d expected. McIntosh had 49 yards on seven carries, although he’s fortunate a lost fumble was overturned due to a penalty. I’d like to see him more involved as a route runner next year.
Zach Charbonnet
Charbonnet had 59 yards on 14 carries and more good pass-blocking reps but that’s not why he’s on here. It’s incredibly rare to have a 0-catch, 32-yard game.
That lateral play from Jaxon Smith-Njigba to Charbonnet on 3rd and 10 in the third quarter goes down as a reception for JSN, but Charbonnet gets credit for all of the receiving yards (as does Geno Smith for passing yards).
I’m going to dig a little deeper into the history books but that might be among the highest receiving yards totals ever for someone who didn’t actually catch a pass. Peak Seahawks weirdness.
AJ Barner
Another red zone touchdown for Barner, who finished the game with five catches for 34 yards and some excellent blocking. I didn’t see Barner getting 30 targets this season, much less 30 catches and four touchdowns. He has been my favorite surprise out of this draft class and I think he’s the TE1 heading into next season.
Noah Fant
What a painful way to end your touchdown drought. He led the Seahawks with 63 yards on five catches and had the winning score for his first TD since Christmas Eve in 2022. Given the rise of Barner and Fant’s salary, there’s a significant chance the Seahawks move on from Noah this offseason, but this was one of those games where he showed the best of his abilities as a pass-catching threat.
Tyler Lockett
His record for most receptions in a season is safe—sorry to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, but tying Lockett at 100 while playing one more game means Lockett gets the tiebreaker—and both of his catches in what could be his final Seahawks appearance were critical 3rd down conversions. It would’ve been cool to see Geno and Lockett connect on one more deep shot but it was defended well.
Thanks for everything, Tyler. If this is the end (in a Seahawks uniform), it’s been one hell of a ride.
Jake Bobo
MORE BOBO! Okay I don’t mean like make him WR2 or WR3, but I can’t believe it took until Week 18 to finally throw a back-shoulder fade his way. Seattle has repeatedly struggled in contested catch situations at the top of its depth chart, and if nothing else, Bobo can do that pretty well. He went up against starting Rams cornerback Cobie Durant and won his matchup for his first touchdown of the year. Better late than never, I suppose.
Jason Myers
Another make from 50+ yards to cap off an excellent season for the veteran kicker.
Leonard Williams
“Big Cat” took that Pro Bowl snub personally. Maybe the AP voters for the All-Pro teams will feel differently. His two sacks gave him 11 on the season, a half-sack shy of his career-high. He’s the first Seahawks player to reach 10+ sacks since Frank Clark in 2018, and the first to hit double digits from the interior defensive line since Jarran Reed (also in 2018).
He’s not slowing down at 30 years old. He’s only getting better.
Julian Love
Speaking of Pro Bowl snubs, Love was one of the best safeties in the NFL this season. He was much better (at least to me) this year than he was in his actual Pro Bowl year. Love had an interception and three passes defensed, including one that was nearly a forced fumble if not for an overturn on replay review.
I’ve gotten on John Schneider for some of his free agent whiffs. Love was a quality FA signing and a deserved extension.
Ernest Jones IV
It wasn’t quite the Ernest Jones IV super revenge game but he did record a sack (split with Tyrice Knight) and leveled Jimmy Garoppolo on another blitz. Jones has been so instrumental in the turnaround of Seattle’s run defense and I have full confidence that he’ll be re-signed. I don’t need it to happen tomorrow; it just has to happen.
Mike Macdonald
Fully cognizant that these were not the A-listers on the Rams, winning 10 games in your first season while implementing a very different defense than your predecessor is a positive for Coach Mac. First-time head coach, first-time father, and nearly a first-time division champion. Any concerns I have regarding the Seahawks in the long-term are completely separate from my optimistic view of Macdonald.
Losers
The defense outside of Leonard Williams, Ernest Jones, and Julian Love
That was rough. I’ll name some individuals later on but that was a pretty poor pass defense showing. Zero punts forced after halftime, only two punts total for the game. The Rams didn’t get much of a run game going and Blake Corum was hurt, so stopping RB3 and RB4 doesn’t mean a ton to me.
Jimmy Garoppolo cleared over 300 yards passing and had way too many easy throws off play-action and on screens. Something was just way off with this defense even before Riq Woolen and Tre Brown left with injuries.
Sloppy tackles, bad eye discipline, and not a particularly effective pass rush off the edges against backups.
Jay Harbaugh
I don’t think Harbaugh will get fired and maybe he shouldn’t get fired considering how many departed players this past offseason (e.g. Will Dissly, Nick Bellore) who were important special teams contributors. Harbaugh is very much on thin ice entering next season, because the woes in the return game and in kick coverage have been a season-long issue.
Jason Myers and Michael Dickson were the only high points for a unit that had to cut both of its return specialists for fumbles and has otherwise struggled to return punts, cover kicks, and protect against blocked field goal/extra point attempts. The Rams game featured Jaelon Darden fair catching a punt at his 5 despite ample room, Tyrice Knight somehow not downing a punt that was dying to be pinned inside the 5, two big kick returns given up, and a punt return that should’ve been stopped inside the 10 and was brought back to the 25.
Nehemiah Pritchett
He was pressed into duty after injuries at corner thinned out the Seahawks’ depth chart. Pritchett couldn’t have been less ready for the spotlight and got torched on a couple of big plays to Damarcus Robinson and Jordan Whittington.
I’ve not seen a lot out of Pritchett to believe he’s a roster lock next season. The Seahawks have to take a serious look at corner depth in 2025.
Tre Brown
I think his fate is sealed as a “do not re-sign” just on one drive. He had a couple of brutal missed open-field tackles and then committed a face mask penalty on a play in which he suffered his knee injury.
Brown played his way out of the starting lineup after a terrible performance against the New York Giants. When tasked with some unexpected snaps against the Minnesota Vikings, he had a critical mistake and got beaten for a touchdown one play later.
Rayshawn Jenkins
Jenkins was repeatedly out of position and taking poor tackling angles in the second half. He’s an inexpensive two-year signing but the rise of Coby Bryant has me more than willing to look at other options as a big nickel.
Final Notes
- I thought about making Ryan Grubb a winner but I’ll stop short of calling him that. He finally broke season-long tendencies regarding play-action to the weakside and even some simple red zone concepts like the seam pass to Fant and the fade to Bobo. If Grubb is to be retained, he needs veteran NFL offensive minds around him for an entire offseason. If he’s not retained, that doesn’t mean he won’t ever become a good NFL offensive coordinator, but I think a firing would be justified. I think it’s too easy to pin the blame the offensive line for the failings of this offense when Grubb has also been his own worst enemy in terms of playcalling, sequencing, route spacing, and pre-snap tells. We’ll see how this goes later in the week; don’t discount Grubb potentially returning to the college game.
- DK Metcalf was shut out in the 2nd half for the second time in three weeks, and he didn’t hit the 1,000-yard receiving mark as a result. He did get into the end zone for the fifth time this season. It’s crazy that all of his touchdowns were outside the red zone.
- Up and down day for Devon Witherspoon, who entered the game with only one touchdown allowed all year. Garoppolo caught him out on both touchdown passes, although Witherspoon was able to break up two passes and impact the failed tying two-point conversion. He still had a strong season and I can’t wait to see what he brings in year two under Mike Macdonald’s system.
- That’s a wrap for our game coverage for the year. Thanks to everyone for reading our work throughout the season, and we hope we’re your go-to place for what should be a very interesting offseason. I’ll be splitting my time between Field Gulls and main SBNation.com over the next month helping them out on playoff coverage, but after the Super Bowl it’s going to be full focus on what lies ahead for next season. I’ve been running Field Gulls for five seasons and haven’t experienced a playoff win yet. I’d sure love for that drought to end come January 2026.
