Seahawks get familiar foe for NFC divisional round Saturday

Published 8:30 am Monday, January 12, 2026

The Seahawks now know who they are going to play to begin their playoffs. It’s an old, despised rival. In a rematch from a recent showdown.

Sixth-seeded San Francisco rallied from a deficit at halftime at Philadelphia Sunday to beat the third-seeded Eagles. The win over the defending Super Bowl champions makes the 49ers the lowest remaining seed in the NFC to win on wild-card weekend.

That means the 49ers (13-5) will play at top-seeded Seattle (14-3) in a showdown of NFC West rivals next weekend at Lumen Field in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.

The league stayed with precedent and set the game for next Saturday, Jan. 17, either at 1:30 p.m. or 5 p.m.

The NFC’s top seed has played on the Saturday of the divisional round every playoffs since the end of the 2019 season. Including the AFC, at least one of the two conference seeds have played on that Saturday in round two every year since the 2016 season.

The league likes to reward the number-one seeds with the advantage of an extra day of rest and preparation should they win in the divisional round to each of the conference championship games. Those are on the following Sunday, Jan. 25.

The Los Angeles Rams (13-5) will play the Bears (12-6) in Chicago in the other NFC divisional game.

This NFC West is the fourth division all-time to get three teams into a divisional round in the same NFL postseason. The others: the 2022 NFC East, the 1997 NFC Central and 1992 NFC East. In each previous instance, one of those three teams from the same division advanced to the Super Bowl.

Seattle split its two division games against San Francisco this season.

In week one in September, the 49ers led 17-13 late in the game when Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold lost a fumble near the San Francisco 10-yard line in the final seconds of the game to ensure the Niners’ seventh victory in eight games against the Seahawks.

In week 18, Jan. 3 in Santa Clara, California, coach Mike Macdonald’s Seahawks defense dominated Kyle Shanahan’s offense in the NFC West title game. Seattle held San Francisco to 127 yards in a 13-3 win. It was the 49ers’ fewest points in a game in nine years.

“You know, it’s a little funky going against a team two games in a row,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said to NBC in an interview broadcast Sunday night during halftime of its telecast of the Chargers-Patriots AFC divisional playoff game. “So we’ve got to do a great job of debriefing and having some answers, knowing that Kyle will have some stuff dialed up for us.

“They’re a heck of a team. We’ve got to play great situational football. They are so good on third down, really on both sides (offense and defense). And special teams. I mean, the starting field position was a big part of last game.

“We did a great job taking care of the ball on offense (against the 49ers Jan. 3). We attacked it on defense. We’ve got to be able to do that back at Lumen.”

This is Seattle’s first time with a wild-card playoff bye and top seed since January 2015, at the end of its last Super Bowl season.

After two practices this week and this weekend off, Seahawks veteran wide receiver Cooper Kupp said the Seahawks have a we-aren’t-satisfied attitude heading into the divisional round.

“We’re still under construction. We’re still working towards something,” Kupp said. “The attitude and the effort for the last couple of days, the focus that was in this room out in the walk-throughs and out there on the practice field speaks about the guys that we have here.

“Everyone is excited about this opportunity. We’re going to take these next few days and recover and come back ready to go.”