For the first time since their Superbowl win in 2013, the schedule has eased off for the Seattle Seahawks.
A winnable opening month
The Seahawks schedule for the opening month of the 2016 season looks a kind one on paper as they face three teams who finished below .500 last season in the form of divisional rivals, San Francisco 49ers and the once again Los Angeles Rams. While in week one they host the Miami Dolphins, who finished dead last in the AFC East with a 6-10 record despite spending some serious money on the roster last year.
The final opponent in the opening month for Seattle is another AFC East team in the form of the New York Jets who missed out on the playoffs in 2015 despite winning 10 games. This game is by far the toughest for Pete Carroll's team before they hit their bye week in week five, especially with it being a road game too.
However, the most glamorous matchup in the opening month has to be the first road game of the year, as the Seahawks will be the first regular season visitors for an NFL game in LA since 1994. It promises to be a great game too with Seattle looking to improve a poor record against Jeff Fisher's team and his young, talented offence, which includes number one pick in the 2016 draft, quarterback Jared Goff.
Mid-season road trip
The Seahawks will come out of their bye week with a home game against the Atlanta Falcons, another team who were below 500 in 2015, but then they play four of their next six games on the road in the crucial middle part of the season.
Two of these four road games see them take on divisional rival, Arizona Cardinals in week seven and then travel to Foxborough three weeks later to battle the New England Patriots. For the last two seasons, Arizona has been the only team who can match Seattle in the west in terms of the division and head to head, although Seattle were easy winners by a score of 36-6 to end the regular season in Glendale at the start of 2016.
As for the Patriots, Seahawks fans don't need to be reminded about the recent history between the franchises, of course talking about the 28-24 loss at Superbowl 49 where Malcolm Butler picked off Russell Wilson's one yard pass in the final play of the game.
However, the Seahawks won the last regular season meeting between the teams in the 2012 season at Centurylink Field. A game famous for Richard Sherman's trash talk aimed at New England QB Tom Brady. The 24-23 victory was also a real breakout game for then rookie Russell Wilson who threw for just short of 300 yards and three touchdowns.
This part of the schedule is certainly balanced out though, as Seattle's four other opponents in this six week run are even more teams who had more losses than wins last year in the form of the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the road and the Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills coming to the great North West.
Testing holiday season
If the first five weeks of the season are seen as kind to the Seahawks, well the last five are certainly not with three divisional games ending the year after two games against what you might call new rivals to Seattle in the shape of the defending NFC champions, Carolina Panthers and the Green Bay Packers.
Seattle's emergence as a title contender has forced a rivilary with Green Bay, who are always there or there abouts in the NFC playoff picture, while a bad feeling has emerged with the Panthers due to the close nature of nearly every single meeting in recent history and the fact that Carolina stepped up last season and knocked the Seahawks out the playoffs.
Pete Carroll certainly wouldn't want these games in back to back weeks, 13 and 14 to be must win ones for his team in trying to make the playoffs for a fifth straight year. Their record against the Packers and Panthers is good though despite losing three games against the two teams last year and Green Bay has to face the 12th man who've helped them to some dramtic victories over the Cheeseheads in recent times.
As mentioned three NFC West games finish out the year and are always going to be far from easy, even when your rivals have nothing to play for, usually stopping you from making the playoffs is enough motivation. Two of these final games are in Seattle, however and the Seahawks will always be favourites within that cauldron of noise at Centurylink.