On Mini Bye, Top-Seeded Seahawks Hoping for Help From Colts on Monday Night Football

Likely still celebrating a massive 38-37 overtime win over the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday Night Football, the Seattle Seahawks won’t have to worry about playing this weekend, providing a much-needed extra few days of rest before the final two weeks of the season.

While idle this weekend, however, Seattle will be keeping tabs on several games taking place around the league. On Saturday night, Chicago came back from a late deficit to tie Green Bay and eventually win 22-16 in overtime on a touchdown pass from Caleb Williams to D.J. Moore, improving its record to 11-4. With the loss, the Packers fell to 9-5-1 and officially were eliminated from contention from the No. 1 overall seed, taking a contender out of the picture with two weeks left to play.

But while the Seahawks didn’t have a dog in the fight at Soldier Field and would have benefited from either team losing, that won’t be the case on Monday night, as one week after beating 44-year-old quarterback Philip Rivers in his return from retirement, they will be cheering hard for Indianapolis to pull off an upset against visiting San Francisco. The 49ers sit just 1.5 games behind the Seahawks in the NFC West standings and by virtue of a Week 1 win at Lumen Field, they currently hold the tiebreaker over their rivals with a crucial rematch at Levis Stadium looming in Week 18 to close out the season.

If San Francisco beats Indianapolis on Sunday and both the Seahawks and 49ers win their Week 17 contests against the Panthers and Bears respectively, that rematch will have the highest stakes possible for a season finale with the winner not only winning the NFC West, but capturing the lone bye as the No. 1 seed. In other words, both teams have full control of their destiny.

However, if the 49ers slip up on the road and somehow lose to the Colts, who still have an outside shot at a wild card in the AFC and thus have plenty left to play for, that finale in Santa Clara could wind up being irrelevant, at least in terms of the top seed and division crown. A fifth loss coupled with the Seahawks winning in Carolina next weekend would knock the 49ers out of contention for the division title.

Of course, if the Rams beat the lowly Falcons in Week 17 as expected, the Seahawks would still need to win out to win the division and retain the top seed. Losing to the 49ers would give them a 3-3 record in the NFC West, while the Rams beating the Cardinals in the finale would push their division record to 4-2, giving Los Angeles the tiebreaker with both teams sitting at 13-4.

Under that scenario, Seattle would drop down to the fifth seed, traveling in the wild card round to play either Tampa Bay or Carolina - who face off twice in the final three weeks with the NFC South title on the line - instead of having a week off before hosting a Divisional Round game at Lumen Field. Stating the obvious, that’s a massive difference between having the postseason run through Seattle in the NFC or having to go on a playoff run on the road with an extra game.

As things stand, with the Packers no longer in contention, five teams remain the mix for the top seed, including the Seahawks, Rams, Bears, 49ers, and Eagles, who defeated the Commanders on Sunday to improve to 10-5 on the season. Winning out would ensure a bye for Seattle, but one loss in the next two weeks would dramatically lower the chances of finishing with the top seed while also significantly hurting its chances of winning the NFC West.