Seahawks not too far from Super

This is the first of a two-part look at the Seahawks, and realistically what would have to change for the Hawks to play in next year’s Super Bowl.

Seattle fans don’t have to be dreamers to picture their guys in the spotlight under which the Chiefs and 49ers played out the Super Bowl last Sunday – but they do have to be honest about a few things.

That’s exactly what Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider are doing right now.

So what are they thinking?

The Super Bowl has come and gone.

And just like it would have done in any other year, the Chiefs’ victory brought up the obvious question...

How far away are the Seahawks from playing in this thing after the 2020 season?

From one direction the answer would seem to be pretty bright.

Quarterback Russell Wilson has the talent and savvy to achieve this sort of thing — and owns a Super Bowl ring to prove it.

He ought to have two.

But peek at where various teams stand from a few other angles, and the result doesn’t leave you filled with quite so much optimism.

LET’S START with the good news...

In today’s NFL, you can’t win massive games — playoff games — without a very, very special quarterback.

Just ask the 49ers, who seemed to have all the other pieces (not to mention a 20-10 lead deep into the fourth quarter), but collapsed in disarray when QB Jimmy Garoppolo was asked to rally his team from a 24-20 deficit with nearly four minutes on the clock and three timeouts in his pocket.

The huge question going into Super Bowl LIV was whether or not Jimmy G could win a game that landed on his shoulders, and now we know the answer.

On the other side, Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes’ performance was somewhere between average and dreadful through three quarters.

Garoppolo actually looked like the better quarterback for a long time Sunday.

It was an illusion, however.

Jimmy G’s completions had all come off play-action, a complement to the 49ers’ running game that left receivers wide open as the Chiefs played almost entirely to defend the run.

In addition to having easy targets, Garoppolo didn’t have to deal with any meaningful pass rush since the Chiefs’ front seven were preoccupied with Rasheem Mostert and the rest of the 49ers running game – so the Chiefs rarely gambled and turned anyone loose to pressure the quarterback.

When the game got turned upside down, however, with the Chiefs suddenly scoring twice to take the lead, Garoppolo and the 49ers looked like any middle-of-the-pack team — unable to handle solid pass protection, watching passes batted down, witnessing a quarterback get glassy-eyed and unable to see what few open targets he had, and so forth.

The Seahawks probably guessed all that was coming, since they’d done the same thing to the 49ers themselves in both regular-season games.

With any luck at all (or seeing a flag on an obvious pass interference call), the Hawks would have swept San Francisco and earned home-field advantage in the playoffs.

We’ll never know if they could have beaten Green Bay at CenturyLink Field, but it’s fair to say we’d like their chances a hell of a lot better than in Wisconsin.

You saw the key in the Super Bowl.

A gifted mobile quarterback will dominate almost every fourth quarter, and in front of the baying mobs at CenturyLink, that’s Russell Wilson time.

HAVING RUSS gives you a chance in any game.

That’s a given, and it’s the Seahawks’ security blanket – so clearly, what Carroll and Schneider have to do is assemble a good enough roster around Wilson that he can produce his magic in the playoffs.

In the Super Bowl, too.

But you’ve got to get that far.

This is a good spot to remind you that the Hawks, despite some key injuries and ugly numbers on defense, did win 12 games.

Sure, there are holes to be filled if this team is going to take on the Chiefs, Baltimore, New England or whoever in another Super Bowl.

There are plenty of key pieces in place, however, assuming...

Yes, assuming that Seattle can start this attempt to toughen up by re-signing some of its own key free agents.

Cap space is almost impossible to sort out for the average fan, but we’ll take a shot and say that Seattle has $58.3 million available at the moment, seventh-most in the NFL.

That sounds surprising, considering that Schneider signed just about everyone walking down the street while trying to get the Hawks over the hump.

There were a lot of incentive-laden deals in there, however, and some of the Seahawks’ key contributors (Chris Carson, for example) were either on rookie contracts or, like linebackers Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright, have new long-term deals that are already in the books.

IN FRIDAY’S analysis, we’ll look at which of their own defensive free agents the Seahawks pretty much have to re-sign – Jadaveon Clowney, of course, and one or more of interior linemen Al Woods, Jarran Reed, and Quinton Jefferson — and then we’ll sort out what can be done to help Wilson on offense.

Remember that slick tight end Will Dissly should be back to pair with Jacob Hollister, which means that the patchwork line must receive the most attention — because Wilson has to stay healthy.

Guard Mike Iupati and tackle Germain Ifedi are free-agent question marks, Iupati because of consistent injuries and Ifedi simply, well...

Is he good enough to try keeping him?

I suspect we’re going to find that the Hawks aren’t that far from being a Super Bowl team.

They may have to throw the ball a little more — sorry, Pete — and I’m not sure exactly what they can do if it comes down to facing Mahomes, but we’ll take a good look at it.

You might be surprised.

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns for The Press appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He also contributes the “Zags Tracker” package on Gonzaga basketball each Tuesday.

Steve’s various tales from several decades in sports — “Moments, Memories and Madness” — run on Sundays.