The Seahawks’ divisional round playoff win over the 49ers began with Rashid Shaheed returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown, in the latest reminder of what a big move the Seahawks made at the trade deadline.
The Seahawks acquired Shaheed on November 4, the day of the trade deadline, by sending fourth- and fifth-round draft picks to the Saints. His impact has been enormous.
The win over the 49ers was the third time Shaheed has returned a kick for a touchdown in his 10 games with the Seahawks, and the Seahawks won all three games. He was previously named the NFC’s Special Teams Player of the Week after a kickoff return touchdown in the Seahawks’ win over the Falcons, but by far his biggest contribution was in the Seahawks’ win over the Rams.
In that game, the Seahawks were losing 30-14 in the fourth quarter, until Shaheed went to work. Shaheed had a 58-yard punt return touchdown in the fourth quarter, and then on the first play of the Seahawks’ next drive, Shaheed ran the ball 31 yards, setting up a Seahawks touchdown on the next play. In the blink of an eye, the Seahawks had gone from a 30-14 deficit to a 30-30 tie, and Shaheed was the main reason for that. The Seahawks went on to win the game in overtime.
Without Shaheed, the Seahawks wouldn’t have home-field advantage over the Rams in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game. They wouldn’t have beaten the Rams without Shaheed, and without that win over the Rams, the Seahawks would have been a wild card team instead of the No. 1 seed in the NFC. (If the Rams had won that game, the two teams would have finished with the same record, and the Rams would have won the tiebreaker.) Because of that trade, the Seahawks will be playing at home with a chance to go to the Super Bowl on Sunday.
Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said that as a defensive coach, he had always been well aware of Shaheed as a tough player to stop, but getting him on the team at the trade deadline turned out to be even better for Seattle than the Seahawks could have hoped.
“He was someone that we were targeting throughout the process,” Macdonald said. “From my perspective, the coaches’ perspective, he’s a player we really respect. When he’s catching the ball on kick return you’re like, ‘Here we go, we’ve got to contain this guy.’ When he’s on the field on offense, you can’t let him get behind you, and the receiver run game is something you have to account for as well. It really does help the team big-time, so that was awesome.”
Macdonald said targeting Shaheed in a trade was part of the Seahawks’ overall approach of never missing an opportunity to get better.
“We’re relentless,” Macdonald said. “That’s our philosophy, we’re just constantly chasing, what are the things we can do to make our team better, all the time.”
The Seahawks are showing how much a team can improve if it’s willing to take a big swing at the trade deadline. Other teams should take note.
