Thanksgiving home game highlights Seahawks’ schedule

By Bob Condotta / The Seattle Times

A Thanksgiving night game at Lumen Field against the San Francisco 49ers — the first home game on that holiday in Seahawks’ history — highlights Seattle’s 2023 regular-season schedule, which was announced Thursday.

“It’s a great tradition, and we are lucky to be part of that,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Thursday in an interview on the NFL Network after the schedule was released. “We’ll have fun with it.”

The game is the first on Thanksgiving for Seattle since beating the 49ers in the Bay Area 19-3 in 2014.

“Well, that’s a lot of games ago,” Carroll said with a laugh on the NFL Network when reminded of the indelible image of that game of Richard Sherman on the field afterward chowing on a turkey leg, which had been handed to him by the NBC broadcast crew.

That Nov. 23 game, which will be telecast on NBC, is part of a set of back-to-back Thursday games, with Seattle playing the following Thursday, Nov. 30, at Dallas (the Cowboys will have played their traditional game on Thanksgiving). The Dallas game is part of the Amazon Prime video package.

It is the first time since 2014 that Seattle has played two games on Thursday night (that year, Seattle played its opener on Thursday, as well, as the defending Super Bowl champ).

The 49ers and Dallas games are two of three prime-time contests for the Seahawks in the wake of their surprising 9-8 season and wild-card playoff berth in 2022.

Seattle was scheduled with just two prime-time games in 2022 after the trade of Russell Wilson and expectations from the outside that the team was in a rebuilding mode, the fewest for the Seahawks since 2012.

Seattle had either four or five prime-time games every year from 2013-21.

Seattle opens the season on Sept. 10 against the Los Angeles Rams, one of eight home games for the Seahawks this year, with the schedule rotation requiring all NFC teams to play nine road games. Seattle has already been installed as a 4-point favorite for that game by SportsBettingAG.

It’ll be the first time Seattle has opened the season against a division foe since losing to the Rams in St. Louis in 2015.

“It’s a good place to start in the division just to make noise there,” Carroll said on the NFL Network. “They are on a whole different track than they’ve been and we’re anxious to see where they are. We are too. We’re moving. Both teams will be brand-new as this season brings on the opener.”

The Seahawks will play at Detroit in Week 2 before returning home Week 3 for a game against Carolina and No. 1 overall draft pick Bryce Young.

Among Seattle’s nine road contests is a Christmas Eve game in Nashville against Tennessee, the second straight year the Seahawks have played on the road on that day, last year losing at Kansas City.

That game is part of what could be a tricky ending to the season with four of Seattle’s last six games on the road and three against teams who made the playoffs a year ago — San Francisco, Dallas and Tennessee — as well as the regular-season finale at Arizona. Seattle also hosts defending NFC Conference champ Philadelphia in between the trips to Dallas and Tennessee.

Otherwise, the schedule is fairly well balanced with Seattle playing four of its first seven and five of its first nine games at home.

The schedule includes four 10 a.m. kickoffs, something that historically has been an issue for the Seahawks but not in recent seasons — Seattle has won 14 of its last 17 10 a.m. games since 2018.

Seattle’s bye comes on Oct. 8, the fifth week of the season, following its Monday night game in New York.

Seattle’s bye last year came after the 10th week, following the trip to Munich to play Tampa Bay.

Seattle does not have any international games this season but will still travel an estimated 31,600 miles, the most of any team in the NFL (Seattle last year traveled a league-high 31,016 miles).

Also announced on Thursday was the list of opponents for Seattle’s three preseason games. Seattle will open the preseason at home against Minnesota and then host Dallas and conclude the preseason with a trip to Green Bay.

Here is the complete schedule with TV designation (all times PT and all games Sunday unless otherwise noted):

Sept. 10 — vs. Los Angeles Rams, 1:25 p.m., FOX

Sept. 17 — at Detroit Lions, 10 a.m., FOX

Sept. 24 — vs. Carolina Panthers, 1:25 p.m., CBS

Oct. 2 — (Monday) at New York Giants, 5:15 p.m., ESPN

Oct. 8 — Bye

Oct. 15 — at Cincinnati Bengals, 10 a.m., CBS

Oct. 22 — vs. Arizona Cardinals, 1:05 p.m., FOX

Oct. 29 — vs. Cleveland Browns, 1:05 p.m., FOX

Nov. 5 — at Baltimore Ravens, 10 a.m., CBS

Nov. 12 — vs. Washington Commanders, 1:25 p.m., FOX

Nov. 19 — at Los Angeles Rams, 1:25 p.m., CBS