Why have folks stopped watching the Seahawks?

Since everyone’s speaking about how nobody watches the Professional Bowl anymore, guess what else “nobody” watches?

The NFC West.

In line with the end-of-season knowledge compiled by Sportico, the Seattle Seahawks pulled the Seventh-smallest nationwide TV viewers within the NFL this 12 months. Seattle performed in 4 nationally televised video games on the season. Identical to the offensive line, 25 groups had extra favorable outcomes final season.

Seattle averaged 14.01 million viewers this season, behind the 5-12 pair of the New Orleans Saints and New York Jets, and the three-win Cleveland Browns.

The Seahawks can’t declare a top-10 market like Dallas or New York, however they’re the thirteenth greatest. By the way, the Los Angeles Rams and Arizona Cardinals lurked round Seattle’s place for the 2024 season.

Cardinals are simply unhappy, man.

Seattle’s 6-3 win over the Chicago Bears on Thursday Evening Soccer was not precisely appointment viewing.

I’m going to go on a limb and say that within the wake of what as soon as outlined the Seahawks, held in opposition to what the protection has been the earlier 5 years, a correlation exists.

Actually, I wrote this in regards to the first sport for the Seattle Dragons – held in Seattle in 2020 – and the fan response.

However maybe the largest takeaway I had was that that is (principally) good soccer being performed in the identical stadium, CenturyLink, and the followers are completely right here for it.

If you consider it, there are solely eight XFL groups throughout the nation, and the truth that they selected the Seattle market to start says lots in regards to the sports activities tradition of the Northwest.

Pete Tenney, Director of Content material for the Dragons, informed me that they opened up extra seating for this sport primarily based on the response in-stadium and on TV to the Dragons’ first sport in D.C. Actually, Seattle completely shattered the attendance of the opposite inaugural XFL video games to this point. 29,172 folks confirmed up in Inexperienced, Navy, Orange, and retro-Seattle blue in honor of Steve Largent. Common attendance throughout the remainder of the league has been 17.5k.

The gang acquired 20,000 orange towels (which felt noticeably un-Seahawk-like) and have been dialed in the complete sport.

However this protection is nice, and the followers know that much more. The third down quantity, the sack celebrations, getting up for a first-and-ten after a turnover, all of it spoke to a fanbase that’s each educated and excited for this group. The vitality all through the sport is totally sufficient to attract you in, even with out the third deck of CenturyLink in use.

Even the emotional connection to the sport for the previous 10 years has been largely on protection. Outdoors of Russell Wilson, Tyler Lockett, Marshawn Lynch, and a few Doug Baldwin/Jermaine Kearse moments, who anybody is speaking about are the defensive stars. Nonetheless are.

The dismal rankings should not a coincidence. Nonetheless, they’re not a misplaced trigger, both. This protection is shut. Macdonald could be the man to carry them again. There are characters on the roster, albeit in a totally completely different manner than the Legion of Growth. We’ll by no means get that again. However Devon Witherspoon is enjoyable. Leonard Williams is enjoyable. Julian Love is enjoyable. Riq Woolen is an enigma.

I used to be greater than a bit shocked by the ranking outcomes at first. However upon additional reflection, particularly with buddies and colleagues who’ve settled right into a form of viewership apathy regarding the Seahawks, it’s not going to be any Klint Kubiak razzle-dazzle or a 1,200-yard season out of Kenneth Walker that brings them out of the depths.

Actually, I feel to win the fanbase again it begins on protection. Could be curious to see what this appears to be like like if the protection pops off subsequent 12 months.