INGLEWOOD—After the Seahawks held on for a season-ending win over the Rams, and after head coach Mike Macdonald handed out game balls to Geno Smith, Leonard Williams and Artie Burns, assistant head coach Leslie Frazier had one more ball to hand out.

"The most wins by a first-year coach in the history of the Seattle Seahawks," Frazier said before tossing a game ball to Macdonald, whose 10 wins eclipse the nine that Mike Holmgren and Chuck Knox both had in their first seasons in Seattle.

Moments earlier, Macdonald told his players, "We're going to build off of this. We're going to be back. We're going to be freakin' back. I'm just so freakin' proud of you guys. I know fell short of the ultimate goal, but you talk about building a foundation, we're right there."

Yes, the Seahawks fell short of the postseason by the narrowest of margins, losing the fifth tiebreaker, strength of victory, to the Rams, who also finished 10-7 to win the NFC West. But they could still enjoy a final victory, not just because it gave them that 10^th win and allowed them to finish on a positive note, but because they see this as just the beginning of something special after a first season under Macdonald.

"I'm telling you man, this team is heading in the right direction," said quarterback Geno Smith, who threw for a career-best four touchdowns, set single-season franchise records for passing yards, completions, attempts and completion percentage, and led his fourth game-winning drive in the fourth quarter or overtime this season. "This team is on its way. That's with or without me. These guys in this locker room, these coaches, this organization, outstanding organization, and I believe in it. I believe the best of the best is going to happen for this team. I just want to continue to fight with these guys."

Smith later clarified that his "with or without" me comment wasn't in regards his future, but rather just in the faith he has in the direction of the team, saying, "I have a bright future. I think y'all can see that and I believe we have a bright future together. Obviously, I'm just saying that but yeah, we all have a bright future together."

With the Seahawks finding out last weekend that they were eliminated from playoff contention despite a Week 17 win, Macdonald spoke throughout the week, both to his team and to the media, about the importance of the game for other reasons, most notably the team's desire to continue to improve and build a foundation for the future.

And while Sunday's 30-25 win wasn't the prettiest of victories, it was still an accomplishment for a team that got bad news early in the week, then had to find new motivation and still play well enough to get a win on the road.

"We talked about throughout the week that our goals changed," Macdonald said. "Coming out of the weekend, I thought our guys did a tremendous job of staying focused on what our new goal was, finishing the year the right way. It was a great team win. It wasn't necessarily pretty but I'll tell you what, we fought through some injuries and [played] some guys that we didn't initially plan on playing a big role. We can rattle those guys off, but guys stepping in and playing good football for us and ultimately winning the game, guys like Artie Burns and Kenny McIntosh, Michael Jerrell at right tackle and there are a lot of guys in there that stepped up and did a great job for us. So it's great for us to close the season out the right way."

The ability to bounce back from bad news and still play well enough to win showed Macdonald that "We got the right guys and they got the right mentality. I'm just really proud of just the cohesiveness, the connection that we built and having each other's backs like fighting through when things don't go your way. It's ultimately our responsibility to put ourselves in a better situation at the end of the season but coming out of the weekend, just the resilience and the positivity was really cool. So proud of our guys."

Said receiver Tyler Lockett, "It's just the fact that everybody on this team wanted to play for each other. They wanted to go out there and they wanted to win. And it makes football so much easier when you know the next man cares just as much as you care. It's hard to be able to get that because in the league you get paid so much money and so many people could have tapped out and said, 'You know what? I'm ready for free agency, or I'm ready for the off season so I could get away from all of this stuff.'

"And the biggest thing that you always hope is to have a team that could be able to buy in, not just when camp starts, because everybody is ready to prove themselves, but when you get to this part of the season and when it's November, December, beginning of January, you'll be surprised by how many people usually are no longer bought in. And this team was bought in from the very jump, even when we were on that losing game streak and fans were going crazy, people were going crazy, it didn't matter. People still bought in and I think it showed who we were as a team and who we're going to continue to be."

Because the Seahawks missed out on the playoffs, they won't head into the offseason satisfied with what they got done in 2024, but they can move into a new year feeling very good about the overall direction of the franchise. After a tough stretch in the middle of the season, the Seahawks went 6-2 coming out of their bye week, they finished 4-2 in the NFC West, they matched a franchise record with seven road wins, and they saw their defense take considerable strides in the second half of the season under Macdonald's leadership.

"It's important," safety Julian Love said of ending with a win. "We're trying to build a foundation. To get to 10 wins, 4-2 in the division, it is a good thing. We were trying to find that motivation to go out there and attack, it's a division game, so we're just trying to set the tone going into the offseason."

For Macdonald, finishing the year making measurable improvements has him excited to get back to work on what he thinks can be a special 2025 season.

"It shows us that we can grow, evolve and make adjustments throughout the season that are necessary for us to win," he said. "If you look at some of the splits we had… Our road record is something that we're proud of. Our division record is something we're proud of. Obviously, we have to do a better job at home, but there are a lot of things to be proud of coming out of this game.

"There are so many lessons learned from the season and we're going to grow from this. I really believe this is the beginning of something really special and I'm excited. I kind of wish we could just—I want to go back to work. We need to take a deep breath here and think about how we're going to move forward, but I'm excited to get back to work."