The Seahawks have almost never been in this spot.
Yet they should be against the 49ers.
The Seahawks are home underdogs for the opening game of their 50th NFL season, Sunday against San Francisco. Oddsmakers have the 49ers as 2-1/2-point favorites for the 1 p.m. game at Lumen Field (FOX 13 Seattle television locally).
This is just the second time in 15 openers Seattle has been a home underdog in Week 1.
The other time: Sept. 12, 2022, the Russell Wilson return game. That was the night the Seahawks were 6-1/2-point underdogs yet beat Wilson’s Denver Broncos — and victorious quarterback Geno Smith uttered to a national TV audience, “They wrote me off, but I ain’t write back.
Sunday against the 49ers is only the seventh time in Seahawks history Seattle is not favored at home in Week 1. Four of those previous six times came in the first years of the franchise, in the expansion years of 1976-80.
The Seahawks are 1-4 in those previous home-underdog season openers. Their only win was Sept. 12, 2010. That was then-coach Pete Carroll’s first Seattle game, a 31-6 victory as a 3-point underdog with Matt Hasselbeck at quarterback inside what was then known as Qwest Field. That was against … the 49ers.
Though it’s rare, it figures the Seahawks aren’t favored this weekend. They’ve missed the playoffs in each of the last two seasons. They’ve lost six of their last seven meetings with the 49ers. No one, including the Seahawks themselves, know how Seattle’s new offensive system, new quarterback Sam Darnold and new offensive line are going to be against their NFC West rivals. Professional athletes love the motivation they get from being slighted, true disrespect and even manufactured ones. They go out of their way to seek chips on their shoulders.
So is coach Mike Macdonald emphasizing this underdog status for Sunday to his Seahawks as they go through this first game week for 2025?
“You know how we roll at this point. We’ve got to focus on us going out and playing Seahawk football from the first snap to the last. That’s our focus,” Macdonald said Monday, starting the first game week of his second season as a head coach. “If you are trying to make it too complicated, you get all out of whack.
“At some point, there’s things that have motivation material, ‘bulletin-board material,’ things like that. Probably keep it in the house when we use it.
“You can tell it’s ‘whatever’ to us right now.”
How often does the 37-year-old, first-time head coach use “bulletin-board material” to motivate NFL players?
Not often.
To Macdonald, that’s a distraction from what he demands his players and coaches focus on each week: the process of improving.
“Every once in a while,” he said. “For who we are, you start thinking about not what we need to do.
“Sometimes there’s times for it,” Macdonald said, “but that’s our philosophy here. There’s not a right way or wrong way. This is the way that we choose to approach it.” An apt Week 1 foe
Macdonald saw that process of improving, specifically on learning new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak’s outside-zone blocking system and running game, get a head start this spring into summer. The coach was impressed with his players fully buying in with 100% participation to the voluntary offseason workouts, film sessions and practices in May and June at the team facility in Renton.
“It’s incred … I mean, it’s so important,” Macdonald said.
“It’s about stacking wins. It’s about being with your teammates, building the connection, building your bodies, building the callous, understanding the details. Incremental gains all the time.”
“I found that when you do it with your teammates in this atmosphere, you work the hardest. You get the most out of it. You get the most bang for your buck, and your team becomes better for it.”
That process is getting an apt test in Week 1.
The 49ers and the defending division-champions Rams are the reasons Seahawks chair Jody Allen and general manager John Schneider hired Macdonald in January 2024 from being the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator, to replace the fired Carroll. The 49ers and Rams have mostly dominated Seattle. They are why the Seahawks have not won the NFC West since 2020. They have only one division title in the last eight seasons.
In that span, San Francisco and Los Angeles have dominated the Seahawks along the line of scrimmage. The Niners’ and Rams’ offensive and defensive lines have manhandled Seattle’s lines.
That’s exactly where the Seahawks are attempting to remake themselves.
The 49ers and Rams are why Macdonald and Schneider released their two starting inside linebackers and traded for new middle backer Ernest Jones in the middle of last season.
San Francisco and L.A. are why Seattle selected Grey Zabel with the 18th pick in this year’s draft. The Seahawks’ highest-drafted interior offensive lineman since Hall of Famer Steve Hutchinson in 2001 is the team’s new starting left guard.
Schneider is loving that decision entering Zabel’s first NFL start Sunday.
“He’s been awesome. He’s a huge piece,” Schneider said.
The Niners and Rams are why Jalen Sundell, Zabel’s North Dakota State teammate two years ago, is the Seahawks’ new starting center. Macdonald and his coaches expect Sundell to use his athleticism to blocking San Francisco’s defensive linemen, linebackers and defensive backs in this outside-zone scheme.
“And the fact that (Zabel) played with Jalen, too, the fact that those guys played together, you got two guys that there’s a familiarity there, that unit bonding and that cohesiveness,” Schneider said.
“He’s a tough guy,” the GM said of Zabel, from Pierre, South Dakota. “He’s got a great personality. He doesn’t act like an ass. Jalen didn’t, either (as a rookie last year). It’s a cool program they have there (at NDSU). They came in. They both acted like pros.
“And he’s done that right away,” Schneider said of Zabel. “He hasn’t acted like anything’s too big for him, but yet he’s still doing all the rookie hazing stuff and carrying helmets.”
It’s only Week 1, of 17. Yet this rare opener, an underdog at home to begin the season, is a barometer for Schneider and Macdonald to see if their 2024 rebuild of Seattle’s defense and now this year’s remodel of the offense are working.
This is as much a measuring-stick game as the Seahawks can have, be it in September or any time. Some of the players who have been with Seattle for a minute feel these underdog Seahawks will measure up to the 49ers. And to the NFC West.
“It’s exciting,” Pro Bowl veteran safety Julian Love said.
“Away from the game, I’ll say, we feel settled in as a family. I feel settled where we’re living in the community, with the fans. It’s a cool vibe we’re on right now.”
“Then for the team, I feel like we’ve taken a step up each of these past few years,” Love said, entering his third season with the Seahawks after signing from the New York Giants. “I love the place we’re at right now. We’re super competitive. We’re close. That locker room, you guys see it, but we’re close in there.
“It’s all building into what we want to become.
“On top of all that, Mike setting a standard of what the team, specifically this year, wants to be the 2025 Seahawks, I’m excited. We’re in an exciting spot.”
Love paused. He knows none of that matters if they don’t perform better against the 49ers, beginning Sunday.
“Now we’ve got to go out and work to earn what we can do,” Love said.
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