I find it hard to get excited about a .500ish team. The current playoff format is absurd, with 14 out of 32 teams qualifying, allowing mediocre teams like ours to advance to the postseason. The concern isn't with providing fans with the highest quality product, it's maximizing their profit.
And it's not just the fact that so many teams qualify. Taking away two first round byes causes teams to rest their starters in the final week rather than motivate them to play balls to the wall through the entire regular season, turning a lot of those Week 18 contests into a glorified preseason game.
This .500ish team is great. We were predicted for 5 wins. The Hawks have the same record of the darlings of the NFL, Tampa Bay, Green Bay, Pittsburg, Miami and New England and a better record than many teams picked by the "experts" to be in the playoffs.
Denver all they needed was a QB we were told, the team was loaded, we were told. The Rams, they were definitely going to be in the playoffs again. Remember the Hawks were going to be in LAST place in this division.
It is the nature of the NFL PARITY. Yes there are a couple of teams with really good records, but when you examine their games you will see easy schedules, advantage scheduling who where u play, ref assistance, video review assistance and in some case just luck.
If the Seahawks are mediocre, than 60 percent of the league is as well, that is not an indictment of the Hawks but rather the product in the NFL. This team easly played to a 10 or maybe even 11 win level Yes the D sucked a few times and they lost games they shouldn't, BUT they lost 2 sure games that were taken by ref decisions. That would have made the Hawks 10 wins right now.
The team has exceeded the predictions, has a lot of growth to go through, but the team is no more Mediocre than teams winning their divisions.