The Seattle Seahawks remain in the race to win the NFC West and secure a spot in the playoffs.

In an ugly game at Soldier Field on Thursday night, the Seahawks defeated the Chicago Bears 6-3 to improve to 9-7.

According to NFL.com, the Seahawks had a 15% chance of making the playoffs entering the night – and remained at 15% after the win. To clinch the division and punch their ticket to the postseason, the Seahawks need a Los Angeles Rams loss to the eliminated Arizona Cardinals on Saturday at SoFi Stadium, combined with a Seattle victory over those Rams in a potential win- and-in-Week 18 matchup.

However, if the Rams beat the Cardinals on Saturday, things get a little more complicated. In this scenario, the Seahawks could still reach the postseason with a win against Los Angeles in Week 18, but would need a lot of help around the NFL.

The Rams currently hold the strength of the win tiebreaker over Seattle and can clinch a playoff spot this weekend by defeating the Cardinals and officially secure the strength of the win tiebreaker. To do this, the Rams need 3.5 or more wins from the Vikings (over Packers), Bills (over Jets), 49ers (over Lions), Commanders (over Falcons), Bengals (over Broncos) and Browns (over Dolphins).

If the Rams beat the Cardinals on Sunday, the Seahawks will need at least four wins from the other teams in the aforementioned group in the Packers, Jets, Lions, Falcons, Broncos and Dolphins – just to stay alive in Week 18.

The Bears, meanwhile, have been out of NFL playoff contention for a while, but are now slipping from No. 9 in the 2025 NFL Draft to No. 7 with their 12th loss of the year.

After the Seahawks’ win on Thursday night, here’s what the NFL playoffs picture looks like on Sunday (note: teams with playoff spots in contention are in bold and all playoff odds are provided by NFL.com):