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Seattle Seahawks Breakdown: Sizing up the tight NFC West race

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Seattle Seahawks Breakdown: Sizing up the tight NFC West race


Sparked by a midseason turnaround on defense, the Seattle Seahawks have rattled off a four-game win streak to surge into first place atop the razor-tight NFC West.

Unexpected Impact: 4 Seahawks key to surge back atop NFC West

With four weeks remaining in the regular season, Seattle holds the division lead at 8-5. The Los Angeles Rams are one game behind at 7-6, while the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers are both two games back at 6-7.

The NFC West is the only division in the league where all four teams are still realistically alive for the division title. All four NFC West teams are within two games of each other, whereas each of the other seven divisions have at least a four-game gap between their first-place and last-place teams.

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According to ESPN’s Football Power Index, the Seahawks have a 52% chance to win the NFC West and 55% chance to reach the playoffs. The Rams have a 32% chance of winning the division, followed by the 49ers at 9% and the Cardinals at 7%.

Here’s a closer breakdown of the NFC West race. All odds and strength of scheduling rankings are according to ESPN.

Seattle Seahawks

Record: 8-5

NFC West title odds: 52%

Division record: 3-2

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Head-to-head: 2-0 vs. Cardinals, 1-1 vs. 49ers, 0-1 vs. Rams

Remaining schedule: vs. Packers (9-4), vs. Vikings (11-2), at Bears (4-9), at Rams (7-6)

Remaining strength of schedule: 8th-hardest

Breakdown: The Seahawks are in the driver’s seat of the NFC West race, but their next two games are against Green Bay and Minnesota – who own two of the four best records in the NFC. The good news is that both matchups are at home, but Seattle is currently the underdog in both games, according to ESPN’s FPI. The Seahawks’ regular-season finale against the Rams could very well end up being a de facto NFC West title game, especially since Los Angeles currently holds the head-to-head tiebreaker after beating Seattle on the road in Week 9.

Los Angeles Rams

Record: 7-6

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NFC West title odds: 32%

Division record: 2-1

Head-to-head: 1-0 vs. Seahawks, 1-0 vs. 49ers, 0-1 vs. Cardinals

Remaining schedule: at 49ers (6-7), at Jets (3-10), vs. Cardinals (6-7), vs. Seahawks (8-5)

Remaining strength of schedule: 13th-hardest

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Breakdown: At the moment, the Rams are the biggest threat to the Seahawks. Los Angeles is just one game behind Seattle and currently holds the head-to-head tiebreaker after beating the Seahawks in Week 9. The Rams travel to face the 49ers on Thursday night, which will have major implications on the NFC West race. If the Rams win, they would put themselves in position to move into first place with a Seahawks loss to the Packers on Sunday night. The Rams then have a favorable matchup the following week against the 3-10 Jets, while Seattle faces 11-2 Minnesota that same day.

Arizona Cardinals

Record: 6-7

NFC West title odds: 7%

Division record: 2-2

Head-to-head: 1-0 vs. Rams, 1-0 vs. 49ers, 0-2 vs. Seahawks

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Remaining schedule: vs. Patriots (3-10), at Panthers (3-10), at Rams (7-6), vs. 49ers (6-7)

Remaining strength of schedule: 28th-hardest

Breakdown: The Seahawks beat Arizona twice in the past three weeks to sweep the season series and secure the head-to-head tiebreaker between the two teams. That means Seattle’s two-game lead over Arizona is essentially a three-game lead, which would be very difficult for the Cardinals to overcome – even with their favorable closing slate.

San Francisco 49ers

Record: 6-7

NFC West title odds: 9%

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Division record: 1-3

Head-to-head: 1-1 vs. Seahawks, 0-1 vs. Rams, 0-1 vs. Cardinals

Remaining schedule: vs. Rams, at Dolphins, vs. Lions, at Cardinals

Remaining strength of schedule: 7th-hardest

Breakdown: The injury-plagued 49ers are currently in last place, but they could surge right back into the mix if they beat the Rams on Thursday night – especially with the Seahawks facing challenging opponents the next two weeks. Many wrote off the 49ers as the injuries continued to pile up during their recent three-game losing streak. But as they showed with their emphatic 38-13 rout of the Bears on Sunday, the defending NFC champions can’t be counted out just yet.

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Seattle Seahawks land 2 players on list of potential salary cap cuts in 2026

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Seattle Seahawks land 2 players on list of potential salary cap cuts in 2026


No matter how the playoffs go for the Seatte Seahawks, general manager John Schneider and his team are looking at a very busy offseason ahead.

In addition to their usual preparations for the 2026 NFL draft, Seattle has a ton of important players who are about to become unrestricted free agents. That list includes special teams superstar Rashid Shaheed, running back Ken Walker and defensive standouts Boye Mafe, Riq Woolen and Coby Bryant.

It’s going to be really difficult to keep that entire group together, even with a lot of cap space projected to be open in 2026. The Seahawks may have to create room with some salary cap casualties after the season is over.

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On that note, Over the Cap has listed a pair of Seattle players as potential cap casualties. Let’s review both of them.

OLB Uchenna Nwosu

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Dec 18, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; Los Angeles Rams running back Blake Corum (22) dives for a touchdown against Seattle Seahawks linebacker Uchenna Nwosu (7) in the second half at Lumen Field. | Kevin Ng-Imagn Images

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Coming in at No. 46 on OTC’s list is veteran edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu, who has one year remaining on his contract with a cap hit just over $20 million. Nwosu has been valuable when he’s on the field but he’s also missed a ton of time due to injuries and it will be difficult to justify his cap hit with so many other players to pay.

Seattle can save a little over $11.5 million if they cut Nwosu, before June 1 or after. However, they would also take on a dead money hit north of $8.5 million, which takes a lot of the flavor out of those cap savings.

In 45 games with the Seahawks, Nwosu has tallied 19.5 sacks, 52 QB hits, 24 tackles for a loss, five forced fumbles and eight pass breakups.

That’s a lot of good production across the board as an all-around defender, but he’ll turn 30 years old before next season is over and there are a lot of mouths to feed for Mike Macdonald’s defense.

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Over the Cap projects there’s a 58.5% chance that the Seahawks will wind up cutting him. Our best guess is that will be the case, especially if they want to pursue someone like Maxx Crosby on the trade market.

K Jason Myers

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Jan 3, 2026; Santa Clara, California, USA; Seattle Seahawks place kicker Jason Myers (5) kicks a field goal against the San Francisco 49ers during the second half at Levi’s Stadium. | Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images

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The only other Seahawks player who made the list (at No. 77) was placekicker Jason Myers, where the team has an interesting choice to make.

Myers has been around since the 2019 season and he’s come through for them more often than not. In 117 games he’s converted 200 of 232 field goal attempts, coming out to 86.2%. On extra point attempts he’s gone 292/307 for 95.1%.

Those are very solid numbers for an NFL kicker, and when you have a solid option at this position you don’t mess with it.

Another factor working in Myers’ favor is that Seattle really can’t save all that much money by cutting him. According to OTC’s numbers the Seahawks would create $5.1 million in cap room by cutting him, with a dead money hit of $1,875,000.

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Five million might get Seattle a decent backup for their interior offensive line, or another contributor to Mike Macdonald’s defense. It’s not enough to really move the needle for this roster, though.

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OTC gives it a 52.5% chance that Myers will get cut, but we don’t see that happening. If they want to lower his cap hit, the Seahawks can create a little over $3 million for 2026 with an extension. That’s the only move they should be looking to make at this spot.

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Kraken Extend Streak In Comeback OT Loss | Seattle Kraken

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Kraken Extend Streak In Comeback OT Loss | Seattle Kraken


And while Dunn’s head coach insisted afterwards he doesn’t believe in “measuring stick games” the Kraken measured up fairly well in this one considering they played a pretty poor first period and needed half of the second frame to get any type of offense going against the league’s No. 2 defensive unit.

But they eventually got it going and the salvaged point, as Dunn mentioned, was huge in that it allowed the Kraken to remain in third place in the Pacific Division – just two points behind leaders Vegas and Edmonton – as they now embark on a five-city road trip. They extended their points streak to 10 games in the process, going 8-0-2 that stretch to transform a season hinging on the brink.

Mats Zuccarello got the overtime winner for Minnesota, converting a Kirill Kaprizov pass off a 2-on-1 break after the Kraken had been foiled just moments prior on their own odd-man rush. That foiled an outstanding night for Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer, who’d made several huge stops in both overtime and the third period to keep things tied, as well as prior to that frame to give his team the shot at a comeback.

The Kraken had spent the past week filling opposition nets with pucks but waited until the final 17 minutes to score their first goal of this game. By that point, they’d been trailing 2-0 since a pair of 42-foot wrist shot goals by Ryan Hartman and Brock Faber in the first period silenced the home crowd.

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“The first period was awful, and our execution was probably the biggest part of that,” Dunn said. “It’s just tough when you’re chasing the game a little bit to start the game. So, we kind of set ourselves up for the second period to come out and play the right way and I thought as the game went on, we got a lot better.

“And I thought it was a pretty competitive game both ways. A lot of chances both ways.”

Grubauer kept things close from there, stopping 31 of 34 shots on the night to give his team a chance to get back in it.

Adam Larsson then got the Kraken on the board three minutes into the final period with a slap shot goal from the right circle after Dunn had rung one off the post on a prior blast seconds earlier. And the Kraken weren’t done yet.

The Wild ran into penalty trouble not long after and the Kraken capitalized on the power play with Matty Beniers banging home a net front rebound off a Jared McCann shot that lifted the home side into a 2-2 tie and sent the Climate Pledge Arena crowd into a frenzy.

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Valter Walker vs. Marcin Tybura booked for UFC Seattle

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Valter Walker vs. Marcin Tybura booked for UFC Seattle


Heavyweights will collide in “Rain City.”

MMAmania.com confirmed with multiple sources today (Thurs., Jan. 8, 2026) that No. 10-ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight Marcin Tybura will take on surging Brazilian prospect Valter Walker at UFC Seattle on Sat., March 28, 2026, inside Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington.

Walker (15-1) stumbled out of the gate in his UFC debut, suffering a loss to Lukasz Brzeski in 2024. Since then, however, “Clean Monster” has completely rewritten the narrative — and the UFC record books.

Walker opened 2025 by submitting Don’Tale Mayes with a heel hook (watch highlights), his second straight victory via the technique. Five months later, he followed it up with another first-round heel hook against Kennedy Nzechukwu (watch highlights), setting a new UFC record for most consecutive heel hook submission wins with three.

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But he wasn’t finished.

At UFC 321 in Oct. 2025, Walker once again locked in a first-round heel hook — this time against Louie Sutherland — tying Rousimar Palhares for the most heel hook submissions (four) in UFC history while extending his own record for consecutive heel hook finishes (watch it).

A win in Seattle would almost certainly vault Walker into the Top 10 of the Heavyweight rankings.

Tybura (27-10), meanwhile, will be defending his No. 10 spot when he steps into the cage. The Polish veteran went 1-1 in 2025, handing highly touted U.K. prospect Mick Parkin his first professional loss at UFC London before suffering a quick knockout loss to debuting Ante Delija at UFC Paris (watch highlights), snapping a two-fight win streak.

Now 40 years old, Tybura is 5-3 over his last eight appearances.

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Here are some other bouts currently scheduled for UFC Seattle:

Casey O’Neill vs. Gabriella Fernandes

Alexa Grasso vs. Maycee Barber

Nicolle Caliari vs. Carol Fiori

To checkout UFC’s upcoming schedule of events click here.

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