Jim Moore: Whether the Seahawks win or lose Sunday, they’ve had a successful season

Regardless of how this Sunday’s game against the Rams turns out, we can call the Seahawks’ season a success. I don’t care if they lose to Sean McVay’s team to fall to 8-9, who envisioned the Seahawks going 8-9 when the season started?

Answer: No one aside from Pete Carroll and Geno Smith, a strong candidate for Comeback Player of the Year. His latest accomplishment: Earning a $1 million bonus for exceeding 4,000 passing yards this season.

Then again, for those who wanted the Seahawks to “tank” the season since they weren’t likely to be Super Bowl contenders anyway, 8-9 would be one of the worst outcomes because it wasn’t good enough to make the playoffs and not bad enough to get a top 10 pick in the 2023 NFL draft.

A week after I wrote that the Seahawks would be better off to lose their last two games for higher draft positioning, now that they beat the Jets, heck, they might as well beat the Rams too.

But you could make a case that losing to the Rams makes more sense for two reasons:

1) The difference for the Seahawks between making or not making the playoffs, could be the difference of seven spots in the draft order, from No. 11 if they lose to No. 18 if they sneak into the postseason.

2) If there were ever a one-and-done team in the playoffs, the Seahawks certainly look the part. The No. 7 playoff team faces the No. 2 playoff team in the first round. If the No. 2 team is San Francisco, they have no shot to win. If it’s Dallas, little or no shot to win. If it’s Philadelphia without Jalen Hurts, a slight chance to win. If it’s Minnesota, that’s where it gets interesting - the Vikings might be 12-4, but they’re a flawed team with a minus-19 point differential.

The Seahawks are 8-8 with a plus-3 point differential, about where a .500 team should be. So if they were to play the Vikings, they might be a two-and-done team, and I know that doesn’t rhyme, but they’d have a reasonable chance to advance to the second round.

Since we’re fresh into a new year, let’s keep those champagne glasses half-full and focus on why the Seahawks have a better chance than 22 percent of making the playoffs, as projected by fivethirtyeight.com.

As you probably know, the Seahawks need to win this week and hope that Detroit beats Green Bay. Odds-wise, the Seahawks are 6 1/2-point favorites over the Rams, while the Lions are 4 1/2-point underdogs to the Packers.

If you’re a Rams’ fan, you’d acknowledge that the Super Bowl champions have been mostly horrible this year but would also point out that they’re 2-2 since Baker Mayfield took over at quarterback and that Cam Akers has averaged 120.5 rushing yards the last two games.

You’d also like to think the Rams might get an emotional lift, wanting to play well in Bobby Wagner’s return to Seattle.

But Las Vegas likes the Seahawks by nearly a touchdown for three pretty good reasons - Seattle’s been the better team over the course of the entire season, has more incentive and is playing this game at home.

Then when considering the Lions’ hopes of beating Green Bay, I get the feeling that most analysts and beer guzzlers at the corner bar think the Packers are so red hot, surely they’ll whip up on Detroit and earn the NFC’s final playoff berth.

However, these aren’t the Lions from the past, the Lions in the present are pretty damn good, and they’ll be jacked at kickoff, knowing that a win and a Seahawks’ loss would put them in the playoffs for the first time in six years.

Detroit has won seven of its last nine games to get to 8-8, most recently beating the Bears 41-10, racking up 504 yards of offense. Jared Goff has thrown for more than 330 yards in three of his last five games, and Amon-Ra St. Brown has 100 receptions for 1,011 yards this year.

And Aaron Rodgers figures to be in a shaky pocket against the Lions, who have two premier pass-rushing rookies in Aidan Hutchinson, who has 7 1/2 sacks, three interceptions and two fumble recoveries; and sixth-rounder James Houston, who has eight sacks in six games, including three on Sunday against the Bears. Rodgers threw three interceptions in a 15-9 loss to the Lions in Detroit in November.

There has never been a scoreboard-watching Sunday like the one coming up. Besides checking in on the action at Lambeau Field, the 12’s will be dialed into the goings on in Denver, where the Broncos (4-12) have a chance to give the Seahawks the second overall pick in the draft if they lose to the Chargers, and the Bears beat the Vikings in Chicago.

Yes, the Bears have lost nine in a row and will probably make it 10 in a row against the Vikings and get the second pick. But it’s a division game, and the Bears were competitive in a 29-22 loss at Minnesota earlier this season.

So there are four games of interest, and if all go the Seahawks’ way, it might not be the best season in franchise history, but it would be one of the most memorable nonetheless.

Jim Moore has covered Washington’s sports scene from every angle for multiple news outlets. You can find him on Twitter @cougsgo, and on KJR-FM 93.3, where he co-hosts a sports talk show from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays.