Geno Smith and the Seattle Seahawks, against all odds, have won just enough games to get into the 2023 NFL playoffs. They finished the regular season with a 9-8 record, which was much better than what a lot of people thought this team would end up with after 18 weeks of football. Although a Wild-Card team winning a Super Bowl is not unprecedented in the NFL, no franchise that made the postseason as a No. 7 seed has ever kissed the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Can the Seahawks be the ones to pull that insane feat? Here are three reasons why they can.

3. They're not even supposed to be here

Of all the teams that made it to the NFL playoffs this year, the Seahawks are the longest shot to win. But if you tell people prior to the 2022 NFL regular season that the Seahawks would get this far, they would have likely given you an interesting stare before looking for someone else to talk to. After all, the Seahawks were thought to be in a transition phase in the franchise's first full season since their divorce with Russell Wilson. People relentlessly mocked the Seahawks for having a quarterback competition between Geno Smith (more on him below) and Drew Lock.

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Seattle ended up with the right decision, going with Smith, who proved the naysayers wrong. I say all that because when it was all said and done in the regular season, the Seahawks proved that they can compete and that they belong in the playoffs — even if that meant getting a hand from the Detroit Lions. It's still crazier to think at this point that the Seahawks will win the Super Bowl than it was to believe before Week 1 of the 2022 campaign that they'd make the boat to the playoffs, but with a “nothing to lose” mentality and arguably with the least pressure to win, Seattle is the underdog who could be a massive thorn in the side of the big dogs in the playoffs.

If the Seahawks are to win the Super Bowl, they would have to get past the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday in Santa Clara, which is a very tall order, especially when considering the fact that Seattle went 0-2 against the Niners in the regular season. Having said that, it is possible, even if they make an effort not to overlook Seattle, that the Niners fail to prevent themselves from taking their foot off the pedal against a super dark horse like the Seahawks because just like most of us, no one believed that the Seahawks could get this far.

2. Geno Smith

The Seahawks have something other teams that made the postseason don't: a Pro Bowl quarterback. Together with Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles and Kirk Cousins of the Minnesota Vikings, Smith has managed to earn himself a place in the Pro Bowl, which speaks volumes about how far he and the Seahawks have exceeded expectations. And he might not be done yet.

Smith finished the 2022 NFL regular season with 4,282 passing yards and 30 touchdowns against just 11 interceptions, while also completing 69.8 percent of his throws. With Smith balling out under center, the Seahawks were able to put together a season in which they were ninth overall with 23.9 points per game average.

While it was mentioned earlier that the Seahawks have the least pressure among the teams bound for the playoffs, it's that chip on Smith's shoulder that most propelled the success of the Seahawks on their way to clinching a seat in the postseason. It's also great for Smith and the Seahawks to have some momentum, having finished the regular season the consecutive victories over the New York Jets and the Los Angeles Rams.

1. A Seahawks playoff ‘Carroll'

Pete Caroll knows what it takes to win a Super Bowl. Other coaches surely have a clear idea as well of what would their teams need to go all the way and raise the Vince Lombardi in February in Glendale. But Carroll is just among the very few head coaches in the playoffs who have actually won a Super Bowl before. He hasn't been the sharpest on the sidelines this season, but there's something right he's definitely making behind the scenes for the Seahawks to get to this point.

With no longer the star-laden roster he used to have during the 2010s when Wilson was leading the offense and the Legion of Boom taking care of business on the other side of the field, Carroll has, most of the time, pulled the right strings and called the right shots for Seattle. Carroll has even already started the mind games ahead of the playoffs, seemingly planting the seeds of false confidence in the mind of the 49ers.