Jim Moore: Let’s raise our glasses and toast a flat-out awful Seattle Seahawks season

In May after the Mariners were swept in a four-game series by the Red Sox, I wrote that their season was over. They were 17-25 and seemingly heading nowhere again.

I picked the wrong Seattle team to make that kind of declaration. The Seahawks already look cooked, and hopefully that will be another reach of a statement.

After all, were they really that bad in a 27-23 loss to the Falcons? No, as in heck no. But consider their opponent Sunday afternoon at Lumen Field. Atlanta is projected to be one of the worst teams in the NFL and, as such, is a 300-1 longshot to win the Super Bowl. The Seahawks are 400-1 ahead of only the Texans at 500-1.

So the thought is, if the Falcons could do whatever they wanted against the Seahawks with a recycled quarterback and a supposedly subpar team, what will better teams do against them? Probably win, and in easier fashion than the Falcons did.

This Sunday the Seahawks are 6 1/2 point underdogs at Detroit. The Lions are 1-2 but were 3-13-1 last year. In any of the past 10 seasons with Russell Wilson, the Seahawks would have been favored at Detroit.

No matter what anyone says to the contrary, the Falcons’ game determined the direction of the Seahawks’ 2022 season. If they won - and oddsmakers had them favored by one point at kickoff - the Seahawks would have been tied with the Rams at 2-1 on top of the NFC West.

I’m guessing I might have written something about it being great and everything but also wondering if it would be short-lived given the team’s widespread deficiencies. But maybe they could hang around for awhile since the division isn’t quite as formidable as it’s been in the past.

Now, if you’ve been on the fence of rooting for the Seahawks or not, you have a better idea of what to do. In your heart of hearts, even if you’re the most ardent 12 in the history of 12’s, you must recognize that this team isn’t very good and won’t get better anytime soon.

You could probably talk yourself into a 7-10 season, maybe even 8-9, but that’s the worst outcome of all. Middle of the pack doesn’t get the Seahawks a top draft pick or a playoff berth. To have a successful season, the Seahawks need to make the playoffs or be flat-out awful.

Let’s raise our glasses and have a toast to flat-out awful. It’s time to admit there’s a much better chance for flat-out awful than surprisingly good and that flat-out awful is the best thing for this team long-term.

A 3-14 season signals an opportunity to get Alabama’s Bryce Young or Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud with one of the top two or three picks in the 2023 draft.

It goes against what we’ve always done as fans, rooting like mad for our favorite teams. I can’t imagine rooting against the Cougs, but if you told me a 1-11 season might lead to a national championship down the road, I could be talked into that - as long as they never went 0-12, because I want the Huskies to have sole ownership of that.

Can you pull for Jared Goff this week and Jameis Winston when the Seahawks play at New Orleans next week? If you think about the bigger picture, sure you can. And when the Seahawks return to play at Lumen Field again on Oct. 16th, if you really want to play this thing out for all its worth, you could sit quietly in your seat and not scream when Kyler Murray is in shotgun formation.

If you think this is ridiculous, I get it, maybe it’s time to hang up the keyboard. But consider what happened Sunday - did you see a team that will cash in on the Vegas Super Bowl odds? A team that will beat the Bills or the Chiefs? A team that will beat anyone the rest of the way?

OK, yes, I’m with you, I saw a team that could beat a handful of teams in their next 14 games. I just don’t want that handful to become two handfuls. If you want to beat the Giants in October, the Raiders in November and the Panthers in December, fine. Just don’t go on any mini-runs that give the fan base false hope of doing something spectacular, because that’s taking pipe dreams to new levels.

It’s taken me awhile to see this team for what it is. I went into the season hoping the Seahawks would have a better record than the Broncos mainly because I wanted Pete Carroll to be right about trading Wilson and doing it his way as a coach. That was wishful thinking along the lines of preposterous.

More rational people see a team that will have glimpses of promise among scattered wreckage. So it makes more sense to put down the blue pom-poms and pull for the greater good, celebrating one loss at a time.

Jim Moore has covered Washington’s sports scene from every angle for multiple news outlets. You can find him on Twitter @cougsgo, and on 950 KJR-AM, where he co-hosts a sports talk show from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays.