How Would Seahawks Fare in an MLB-Style Season Reboot?

The MLB had to adapt to a geography-based 60 game schedule. What if the Seahawks and the rest of the NFL follow a similar path? Let's get hypothetical.

While the NFL remains focused on playing its 2020 season as originally scheduled, the continuing rise of COVID-19 cases across the United States could eventually bring their plans to a halt. If alterations to the schedule have to be made in order to have a season at all, the NFL could adopt a similar strategy to that of Major League Baseball by limiting teams’ travel with all games played within their respective division, and perhaps with their sister-conference counterpart as well.

For example, in this scenario, the Seahawks would only play teams in the NFC and AFC West divisions.

In MLB, all teams are set to play 40 games against the four other clubs in their division and another 20 versus the five teams in the geographical equivalent division in the opposite league. Using this formula and converting it to a more appropriate format for the NFL, this would shake out to six games versus NFC West opponents and four against the AFC West for the Seahawks.

That would mean one road game and one home game apiece versus the Rams, 49ers, and Cardinals, just like in any other season. Additionally, assuming the NFL in this scenario would go with their usual scheduling protocol, it would be the Seahawks turn to visit the Chiefs and Chargers and host the Raiders and Broncos.

This wouldn't be very ideal, to say the least. The Seahawks’ current 2020 schedule is already fairly demanding as is (tied 13th for hardest schedule with the Bears), but this hypothetical slate of games would present an even tougher challenge, giving them a bump in opponent’s 2019 regular season win percentage from .508 to .522.

What jumps off the page the most here is that, with such a schedule, the Seahawks would have three games versus last year’s Super Bowl contestants. They’ll also have to face improved Broncos and Raiders teams and a Chargers organization that’s won their last two matchups versus the Seahawks. Furthermore, Seattle would lose out on five games from their current schedule against teams that combined for a .325 win percentage last season and another versus a Tom Brady-less Patriots team.

Simply put, the Seahawks wouldn’t get many breaks, if any, if something like this were to happen. All seven potential opponents offer up their own unique set of problems for Seattle, making it incredibly hard to feel 100 percent confident about their chances in any of these games.

Although the Seahawks can certainly stand toe-to-toe with any of these teams, the amount of talent they could be faced with each week in a limited season may be a recipe for disaster. The possibility of facing Patrick Mahomes one week, the 49ers' defense the next, and the Cardinals' new-look offense after that would be... a lot to deal with. 

Ultimately, the logistics of this particular strategy probably wouldn’t make sense for the NFL, even at their most desperate to save the 2020 season. A few of the NFL’s divisions aren’t the most geographically accurate, meaning some teams would still have to fly rather far from home. For example, in this scenario, the Seahawks would be required to travel quite a way to Missouri to play the Chiefs. And, of course, there's the laundry list of changes that would have to be made and negotiations to take place in accordance with such a unique schedule.

If the season has to be severely shortened, it would probably make the most sense to simply have all regular season games played just between divisional opponents. Honestly, that would be an even worse scenario for Seattle. 

Whatever the route may be, it would be a far tougher path than what the Seahawks have laid out in front of them right now. And while there's no challenge this team won't accept with open arms, especially with the level of competition this could present, it certainly increases their chances of missing the playoffs for just the second time in Russell Wilson's career. But if any team in the NFL could overcome the gauntlet either of the aforementioned scenarios present, with all odds seemingly against them, it would be the Seahawks.