The Seattle Seahawks’ 2025 schedule, which was released on Wednesday, appears to be pretty favorable in terms of opponent quality. Seattle’s opponents this fall had a .474 win percentage last season, which equates to the 11th-easiest schedule in the league, according to the NFL.
The Seahawks also have an advantage in an underrated area: rest differential.
Rest differential measures how many additional (or fewer) days of rest a team has compared to its opponent heading into a particular matchup. For instance, let’s say Team A is facing Team B. If Team A has 10 days of rest heading into the matchup and Team B has just the standard seven days of rest, then Team A would have a plus-3 rest differential and Team B would have a minus-3 rest differential. A team’s rest differential for the season is the sum of their rest differential for every game.
This season, the Seahawks have a plus-eight rest differential. That’s the fifth-best mark in the league, according to Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis.
For comparison, Seattle’s rest differential last year was minus-14. That was the fourth-worst in the league, per Warren Sharp.
Why does rest differential matter? For one, football is an incredibly taxing sport on the body, so extra days of rest can mean a healthier and fresher team on gameday. In addition, teams can gain an edge by having more time to prepare and fine-tune their game plans.
Breaking down Seahawks’ 2025 rest differential
Here’s a closer look at Seattle’s rest differential for the upcoming season. The Seahawks have five games where they will have a rest advantage and only one game where they will have a rest disadvantage.
• Week 5 vs. Tampa Bay: plus-3 rest differential (Seattle plays on Thursday night in Week 4)
• Week 6 at Jacksonville: plus-1 rest differential (Jacksonville plays on Monday night in Week 5)
• Week 7 vs. Houston: minus-7 rest differential (Houston has a bye in Week 6)
• Week 9 at Washington: plus-7 rest differential (Seattle has a bye in Week 8)
• Week 10 vs. Arizona: plus-1 rest differential (Arizona plays on Monday night in Week 9)
• Week 17 at Carolina: plus-3 rest differential (Seattle plays on Thursday night in Week 16)
