Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome to the final Seahawks mailbag of 2024. Yes, there is plenty of disappointment this week after the Seahawks were eliminated from playoff contention, but as Mike Macdonald put it, the Seahawks are still chasing a 10^th win and looking to "put our best foot forward” in Sunday's game against the Rams, so we'll look to do the same with this week's mailbag.

As always, thanks to everyone who asked questions this week, and apologies if I wasn't able to get to yours this time around. And remember, the mailbag is always open for submissions at Seahawks.com/mailbag.

And I'll go ahead and throw in the same disclaimer as last week, I see your questions on the futures of several prominent players who are still under contract next season, and while I get the interest in that topic, and can also acknowledge that the business side of the NFL means not everyone plays out their contracts, it's not really my place, on the team website, to speculate on a player getting cut, traded, etc., or on the future of coaches, for that matter, so you'll have to forgive me for ignoring those questions.

@horseshoetosser asks, "With our playoff hopes potentially coming down to the fifth tiebreaker, how many tiebreakers are there?"

A: If the Seahawks are able to win on Sunday to improve to 10-7, they'll have the dubious distinction of being the first 10-win team to miss the playoffs since the league expanded to a 17-game schedule, and the first 10-win team to miss the postseason since the 2020 Dolphins went 10-6 and missed out.

And while the Seahawks know they could have done more to help their chances, and will no doubt lament some of their close wins, especially at home, it's still pretty tough luck to go 10-7, including a 4-2 division record (again, this is if they win Sunday), and still miss the playoffs.

As for the question on tiebreakers, if the Seahawks beat the Rams, they will indeed miss out on the playoffs on the fifth tiebreaker, strength of victory, because with a Seahawks win/Rams loss Sunday, both teams would have the same record, and be tied on the previous four tiebreakers: head to head, division record, record in common games and conference record.

There are a total of 12 tiebreakers, all of which can be found here, covering things like point differential in conference games, point differential in all game, net touchdowns, then finally, if two teams were somehow tied after 11 tiebreakers, a coin toss.

@holliwinters57.bsky.social asks, "As we near the end of the season, what does our schedule look like for 2025?

A: We won't know the actual schedule until May, but by Sunday evening, we will know all of the Seahawks' opponents for 2025. Most of the opponents are predetermined by the league's schedule formula, and in the 2025 that means the Seahawks will, in addition to their home and road game against the NFC West, play all four teams in the AFC South and NFC South, as well as three opponents determined by where the Seahawks, and those opponents, finish in the standings. In other words, the Seahawks who are locked into second place in the division, will play second-place finishers from the AFC North, NFC North and NFC East. Only one of those three, the Washington Commanders in the NFC East, is settled heading into Week 18. Here is the home and road breakdown:

Home: Cardinals, Rams, 49ers, Texans, Colts, Saints, Buccaneers, NFC North second-place finisher (Lions or Vikings).

Road: Cardinals, Rams, 49ers, Falcons, Panthers, Jaguars, Titans, Commanders, AFC North second-place finisher (Steelers or Ravens).

@emilioctru asks, "I know you're a fellow Bill Lawrence fan. Best show of his out of the following three, in your opinion: Ted Lasso, Scrubs or Shrinking?" @VDOOZER, aka, Mr. Lawrence himself then weighed in to suggest we also consider his newest show, Bad Monkey, in addition to those three.

A: First off, thanks for joining the conversation, Bill, always knew you were a big Seahawks mailbag fan. For those who aren't familiar with Bill Lawrence, well first of all, you're missing out, but secondly, he is the very funny man who created several successful comedy series including Spin City, Scrubs and Cougar Town, and who co-created Ted Lasso, which won pretty much all the awards, as well as Shrinking, and most recently, and he chimed in to point out, Bad Monkey, with those last three shows all appearing on Apple TV.

Full disclosure, I'm not yet caught up on season two of Shrinking, so I don't feel like I can make a fair assessment there, but the first season was great and I've heard the next season was even better. So to me this will come down to Scrubs and Ted Lasso, which is pretty much an impossible choice. Scrubs is one of my all-time favorite comedy series, one I've re-watched multiple times, and it pulled off the very difficult feat of nailing the series finale (Season 8, that is, we won't talk about the spinoff-ish Season 9). In many ways, I feel like Ted Lasso was even better, and I think it helped that it came along at a time, during the COVID-19 pandemic when the show's combination of humor and heart—a staple in every Lawrence series—was very, very needed. But at the same time, Scrubs was so funny for so long, which is an incredibly tough thing to pull off, it had a fantastic ensemble cast, and one of the best on-screen bromances of all time between Zach Braff and Donald Faison, who become real-life best friends (and who have a very funny podcast called Fake Doctors, Real Friends, that you should all be listening to).

Anyway, Scrubs and Ted Lasso are too different, and of different times, for me to feel good about ranking them, but if I have to pick, and maybe this is just nostalgia talking, I might give the slightest edge to Scrubs, though it sounds like we may have more Ted Lasso in the future, so maybe I'll change my mind in the future.

@justwhitney.bsky.social asks, "Why do so many Seahawks fans not realize how good Geno Smith is?"

A: I'm not sure I can remember a player more divisive among fans than Smith, and this question, combined with several from fans wondering why he's still the starting quarterback, is a great example of that.

It's no secret from what I've written and tweeted about Smith that I think he's a really, really good quarterback—and assessment Seahawks coaches have backed up several times this season—and while he's not perfect, he still does a ton of good things to help the Seahawks win.

There have been too many interceptions this year, to be sure, and Smith is the first to say as much, but if you actually watch them all, it's clear that many of them, the majority even, were more the fault of bad pass protection or a receiver running the wrong route or dropping a pass, than they were the result of a bad decision or inaccurate thrown. Smith does take some risks, but he also has the arm talent to make some absurd throws that very few quarterbacks in the NFL can make. Decisions about the future are way above my paygrade, obviously, but Smith to me looks like a player that, with a little more help around him in terms of the running game and more consistent pass protection, can be as good or better than he was in 2022 when he ranked among the league leaders in several key statistical categories, and with the improvements the Seahawks have made on defense, that would win you a lot of games.

And even in this supposed down year, Smith has a good shot to finish the season by breaking his own franchise records for single season pass completions, passing yards and completion percentage. He also can become just the 19^th player in NFL history to complete 70 percent of his passes in a season, and he led three more game-winning drives this year after leading eight the previous two season, a total that could have been one higher had the defense held onto a fourth-quarter lead against the Vikings.

Again, Smith can be better, he'd be the first to tell you that, especially when it comes to the turnovers, but when I watch him play, I see so much more good than bad in his game. None of that is to say the Seahawks won't or shouldn't continue to look to add to that position with an eye on the future, but I wouldn't bet against Smith having a big season a year from now, especially if the Seahawks can make a few improvements around him.

@twelfthmanblog.bsky.social asks, "Has John Schneider truly invested less draft capital on the offensive line than other NFL teams?"

A: I appreciate this questions because I feel like there's a bit of a false narrative going around that Schneider just doesn't care about/doesn't invest in the offensive line. Does every move work out, of course not, and it's fair to criticize some of the decisions he and every talent evaluator makes, but it's just not true that he hasn't tried to upgrade the line. Teams all around the NFL have struggled to build strong lines, it's just a really tough position to evaluate and develop given how different the college game is compared to the NFL, but the Seahawks have definitely put a lot of draft capital into trying to improve there.

I'm not going to pretend to know how every team has invested its picks in linemen, but the Seahawks haven't skimped there. Since Schneider became the team's general manager in 2010, the Seahawks have had three top 10 picks, and used two of them on offensive linemen. They've picked at least one lineman in every draft, and have selected multiple offensive linemen in eight drafts. And while some of those have been late-round picks, they have used a lot of their high-value picks on linemen, including three first-round picks, two second-round picks and five third-round picks, two of which were their second selections in those drafts.

Can the Seahawks do better when it comes to building the line? Of course, but again, most NFL teams have had a hard time with building O-lines, and it hasn't been for lack of trying when it comes to investing draft picks.

@bcuafmsupri asks, "Draft more O-linemen, make a trade or work free agency? Or all three?"

A: Following up on that last question, it seems highly likely that the Seahawks will look to add to their line in the draft, but as Schneider always says, they try to leave no stone unturned when it comes to roster building, so my guess is they'll also look at free agency, as well as possible trades if the right deal presents itself. The Seahawks will also hope that, with a lot of young players making significant contributions this year, including center Olu Oluwatimi, guards Sataoa Laumea and Christian Haynes, and tackle Michael Jerrell, there will be improvement from players already on the team that could lead to an improved line next year.