By: Eric Yin
SEATTLE – This Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks beat the Arizona Cardinals to sweep the season series. Despite the popular belief that the Seahawks would be tanking, they are right in the middle of the playoff picture halfway through the season. The win against Arizona was Seattle’s fourth in a row, giving them firm control of the NFC West. Sports Illustrated, SB Nation, The Seattle Times, and The Athletic have all been covering the Seahawks’ shocking season and their playoff chances. While Seattle’s playoff push may be the lede, an even bigger story is bubbling right underneath: could the Seahawks steal the show at the NFL Honors ceremony?
The NFL Honors ceremony is comprised of seven individual accolades:
- Most Valuable Player (MVP)
- Offensive Player of the Year (OPOY)
- Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY)
- Offensive Rookie of the Year (OROY)
- Defensive Rookie of the Year (DROY)
- Comeback Player of the Year (CPOY)
- Coach of the Year (COY)
Of these seven awards, the Seahawks are in legitimate contention for five: MVP, OROY, DROY, COPY, and COY.
MVP and CPOY
A career backup prior to this season, quarterback Geno Smith currently leads the league in completion percentage, has the fourth-highest quarterback rating, and is looking like the best quarterback in the NFC. Against the Cardinals Smith added another dimension to his game, channeling his inner Kyler Murray and taking off for 38 yards on six carries. Smith has catapulted himself into the top-five MVP odds and is the favorite for CPOY.
As the NFL season progresses, Smith’s odds at MVP only seem to be improving. The front runner for MVP, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, has thrown two interceptions in back-to-back games. The other AFC contender, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw for one touchdown and one interception in a 20-17 overtime win against the Tennesee Titans. The Chiefs were 12.5-point favorites. And the final favorite, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen hurts, is only in the MVP discussion due to his 8-0 record. Just this past Thursday, the Eagles had trouble closing out the 1-5-1 Houston Texans. If the Eagles’ struggles start resulting in losses, Hurts will fall out of MVP contention.
With the race tightening, the door is cracked open for Smith to make away like a bandit with the MVP award. As NFL Analyst Mike Florio said on the Pro Football Talk Show after the Seahawks week 9 victory: “Geno Smith is a very clear MVP candidate… he can win it if, big if, the Seahawks secure the one seed over the Eagles.”
Smith may need a lot of things to go right to win MVP, but he is a lock for CPOY. He is currently the favorite, with only Giants running back Saquon Barkley offering any competition. Partly due to the nature of being a quarterback, Smith simply has had more impact than Barkley. Smith also has a more compelling narrative, as he has gone from career backup into top 5 quarterback seemingly overnight. Finally, Seattle owns the head-to-head victory over the Giants, stifling Barkley to just 53 yards on 20 carries in their week 8 matchup. Smith that same game: 212 yards on 67% completion with 2 touchdowns.
OROY
Outside of Geno Smith, the biggest story for the Seahawks this year has been their stellar rookie class led by Kenneth Walker III. Walker only got the starting job in week 5 due to lead running back Rashaad Penny going down with a season-ending injury. Despite other offensive rookies getting to accumulate stats five weeks earlier than Walker, he has already become the betting favorite. Walker had averaged 5.33 yards per rush along with 5 touchdowns and 403 yards through four games. He didn’t let up in week 9, scorching the Cardinals on the ground for 109 yards and 2 touchdowns. During this stretch from weeks 5-9, Walker has looked like one of the best running backs in the game, rookie or not.
DROY
The other slam dunk from the 2022 draft is 5th-round pick cornerback Tariq Woolen. He currently has the second-best odds for DROY, right behind New York Jets cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner. Tariq currently has 4 interceptions and 2 fumble recoveries on the season, both exceeding Gardner’s totals. Tariq Woolen is giving up a quarterback rating (QBR) of 47.1 when targeted, rating him as the tenth-best player in pass coverage. Sauce, meanwhile, is giving up a QBR of 61.6. Woolen kept up his good performance against the Cardinals this week, holding one of the NFL’s best wide receivers in De’Andre Hopkins to just 36 yards. Woolen’s play even attracted the attention of one of the greatest cornerbacks in NFL history, Charles Woodson. If that’s not enough, I don’t know what is.
COY
And lastly, one cannot forget about head coach Pete Carroll who is currently third in the COY betting odds. Heading into the year, many doubted Seattle’s ability to contend with their talent-depleted roster. Carroll’s ability to coach was also brought into question. Since then, Carroll has proven everyone wrong by guiding his “rebuilding” Seahawks to a 6-3 record. His players are clearly bought into his hard-nosed defensive centric mentality, and it showed against the more talented Cardinals this past week.
In most other years, Carroll would be a certainty for COY. Unfortunately, this year is shaping up to be one of the tightest COY races yet. A few factors are going in favor of Carroll though. COY typically goes to the most successful team or the biggest surprise team of the NFL. Nick Sirianni (Philadelphia Eagles), Kevin O’Connell (Minnesota Vikings), Mike Vrabel (Tennessee Titans), and Mike McDaniel (Miami Dolphins) will only win if they are the most successful team as their rosters are loaded with talent, and it is not a surprise they are great. Robert Saleh (New York Jets) and Brian Daboll (New York Giants) are in contention because they have their teams playing above their pay grade. Carroll is in the enviable position of potentially being both the biggest surprise and the most successful. Unlike the Jets and the Giants who have the ninth and fourth hardest remaining schedules, the Seahawks have the fifth-easiest remaining schedule. And unlike the Eagles, Vikings, Titans, or Dolphins, if the Seahawks secure a top 2 seed in the NFC it would be THE story of the NFL.
Since Carroll arrived nearly a decade ago, the only team to win more games than the Seahawks has been the Patriots. Yet, the Carroll Hawks have never won an NFL Honors Award, even with Hall of Famers like Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Russell Wilson, and Bobby Wagner. It would be a poetic irony that the Seahawks finally win an NFL Honors Award after all their Hall of Famers left, and I’m all here for it.