Rashid Shaheed has legit case as Seahawks' 2025 MVP

The Seahawks traded for Shaheed before their Week 10 game against the Arizona Cardinals — getting the trade deadline deal done to bolster an already quality special teams unit and give Darnold another weapon on offense.

Seattle was 6-2 at the time, keeping them firmly in the mix in the NFC West race. But they were going to have to be nearly perfect down the stretch to keep up with the 49ers and Rams.

It was, and at times still is, slow going for Shaheed on offense. He isn't a focal point of the attack, particularly since defenses began to take away the deep ball from the Seahawks' offense soon after trading for him, but Kubiak has still gotten him involved.

Following a 21-19 loss to the Rams in Week 11, the Seahawks earned consecutive wins over the Titans and Vikings to advance to 8-3. The offense, despite the wins, had adopted a new bad habit of extremely slow starts in the first half, which would surely hurt them in the future against better teams.

That's where Shaheed came in. With the Seahawks tied 6-6 at halftime against the Falcons in Week 14, Shaheed started the second half with a 100-yard kick return touchdown — his first with Seattle. The Seahawks won the game 37-9.

Two weeks later, the Seahawks (11-3) trailed the Rams (also 11-3) by 16 points with just over eight minutes left in the game. The winner of the game would continue to control their own destiny in the race for the hotly contested NFC West title, and potentially the No. 1 seed.

Shaheed returned a punt 58 yards for a touchdown, and the Seahawks trailed 30-22 after a two-point conversion. On Seattle's next drive, Shaheed picked up 31 yards on a run play that set up a 26-yard touchdown pass from Darnold to tight end AJ Barner on the very next snap.

Seattle tied the game, 30-30, after Zach Charbonnet recovered what was ruled as a deflected backwards pass in the end zone. The Seahawks went on to win the thriller of the year, 38-37, in overtime.

If it weren't for Shaheed's heroics, there's a very good chance the Seahawks would have ended up as the fifth or sixth seed and gone on the road for the playoffs. Instead, they now have the Lumen Field faithful backing them up until a potential trip to Super Bowl LX.

Shaheed rewarded fans in the Divisional Round against the San Francisco 49ers, returning the opening kickoff 95 yards for his third special teams touchdown in 10 games with the Seahawks. Seattle won 41-6 after Shaheed stole all the momentum from the very start.

When you weigh Shaheed's impact at the most critical moments and how that has contributed to key wins, it's hard to find a player who has single-handedly been more important to the Seahawks' current stature as Super Bowl favorites.

The trade for Shaheed is looking like it will go down as one of, if not the best mid-season moves ever in the John Schneider era.