It seems opinions are mixed about how the Seattle Seahawks will fare this season, but the general feeling is that Seattle is trending downward.
With the NFL season beginning Sunday, this week’s Seattle Sidelines poll asked readers to predict how many games the Seahawks would win this season. Here’s how you voted:
POLL: How many games will the Seahawks win this year? Full context, including a rundown of the team’s situation heading into the season, here: https://t.co/zuM28X8h0k
— Nick Patterson (@NickHPatterson) September 3, 2018
Add the two together and there was no overwhelming choice. Thirty-seven percent of the voters predicted Seattle would win seven or eight games, 30 percent predicted nine or 10 wins, 27 percent predicted six or fewer, and just 6 percent stumped for 11 or more.
I should also add that 80-some votes on the blog were mysteriously wiped out, so apologies if you voted on the first day and your vote ended up not being tallied. My recollection is that while the early blog voting was a little more generous toward the Seahawks than the final result, I don’t think those votes would have changed the numbers drastically.
These are not particularly rosy predictions. Nearly two thirds of the voters believe the Seahawks will finish .500 or worse. Keep in mind Seattle hasn’t finished .500 or worse since going 7-9 in 2011, the year before Russell Wilson became the team’s quarterback.
No doubt this is the reaction to the team’s trend line, combined with the raft of offseason departures. Though Seattle hasn’t had a losing record in six seasons, it did miss the playoffs last year for the first time in the Russell Wilson era. Then came the release of cornerback Richard Sherman, the trade of defensive end Michael Bennett, and the career-ending injuries of defensive end Cliff Avril and strong safety Kam Chancellor. I’m sure those circumstances make optimism about the 2018 season difficult.
There was good news for Seahawks fans this week, however. All-Pro free safety Earl Thomas, who had been holding out for either a contract extension or a trade, returned to the team this week and may play in Sunday’s season opener at Denver. There’s no certainty about whether Thomas will play at his same lofty heights this year, as we don’t know what kind of game shape he’s in or how the acrimony that built between him and the team may show up on the field — those kind of rifts can’t always be mended. But one has to think the Seahawks are better off having Thomas on the field than off it, particularly considering the difference in how Seattle’s defense performed without Thomas in the past.
Most of the voting in this poll occurred prior to Thomas informing the world Wednesday morning that he was returning to the team, so maybe the results would have been different had the poll been posted a couple days later. But based on the results we received, most Seahawks fans will be pleasantly surprised should Seattle make the playoffs.
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