Seahawks likely won’t rest starters vs. SF 49ers in Week 17

The SF 49ers are likely to see the NFC West-clinching Seahawks’ A-team to close out the regular season with playoff seeding on the line.

It would be wonderful if the SF 49ers could somehow figure out a way to send their hated NFC West rivals, the Seattle Seahawks, into the postseason on a sour note.

Yes, that means the Niners would endanger their climb up the 2021 NFL Draft order. But any Niners win over Seattle is cherished, and all one needs to do is recall the memories of that heroic goal-line stand against the Seahawks in Week 17 a year ago to recall just how special San Francisco wins are over quarterback Russell Wilson and Co.

The division-clinching Seahawks are almost entirely locked into the No. 3 seed in the NFC playoff picture. Having won the division, and with the lowly NFC East incapable of producing a .500 team, head coach Pete Carroll’s squad can’t fall any lower than where they’re at right now.

Yet there’s still a chance, albeit small, Seattle could secure the top seed and a first-round bye.

According to Football Outsiders, this chance at the No. 1 seed is 6.9 percent. The only way the Seahawks reach this is if they beat the SF 49ers on Sunday, combined with both the Green Bay Packers (currently the No. 1 seed) and New Orleans Saints (currently the No. 2) seed both losing their respective games to the Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers. Seattle could also climb into the No. 2 seed — a slightly better chance at 27.9 percent — with a win over San Francisco and a Saints loss.

It would be one thing if the Seahawks and Niners were playing the late game with both Green Bay and New Orleans kicking off during the early slate of contests, then those results could influence Carroll’s decision with who starts and who rests in Week 17.

But with each one of these games kicking off at 4:25 p.m. ET, that means the outcome won’t be determined until roughly at the same time.

Seahawks probably won’t rest starters vs. SF 49ers

San Francisco might have been favored if there was clear-cut knowledge Seattle wouldn’t start Wilson, wide receiver D.K. Metcalf, safety Jamal Adams and a good portion of its remaining top talent. And while there are some arguments a few of the Seahawks’ key players should rest anyway in preparation for the postseason, that’s not what Carroll told reporters would happen.

Here’s what Carroll said on Monday:

"We’re going for it, we would love to have that break for players if we can get it. …We’re playing for it, because it’s good for you, it’s good for your body and all that, so we’re going to try to take care of business and get that thing if it’s possible. So we’re going all-out again this week. There’s no other thought than this is a championship opportunity to put ourselves in the best situation going into the playoffs.The other side of this is maintaining the consistency and maintaining the regiment that we have and the mentality that we have, I don’t want to break that thing right now, I don’t want to break that mentality at all. We want to stay right with it and keep pushing, trying to get better. We’ve got a lot of room to get better, we made a lot of mistakes that we can we can fix during the course of this week for the next game and leading into the next couple games and all that. So I don’t like taking the chance of breaking the mentality."

Nope. Doesn’t sound like the SF 49ers will be going up against a bunch of backups like they did in their Week 17 win over the LA Rams back in 2017.

That certainly diminishes the odds of a Niners victory, particularly knowing left tackle Trent Williams (elbow) and wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (ankle) are the latest players to be added to the long list of those shelved to season-ending injuries.

Still, while a win over the Seahawks’ B-team would still feel pretty good, it would be an empty feeling and not carry much weight.

If the Niners are somehow up to the task of pulling off a victory over Seattle in a meaningful game with full complements of starters, that would be a different story.