GLENDALE, Ariz. — Seahawks middle linebacker Bobby Wagner felt almost as many emotions coming off the field Sunday as he made tackles during the game.
Seattle came from behind to beat Arizona 21-20 and finish with a winning record at 9-8.
And Wagner also made 15 tackles to finish with 183 for the season, the most in the NFL and a career high. He tied teammate Jordyn Brooks for the franchise record for most in a season (Brooks did it in 2021).
But as he walked off the field, he said it also hit him that it could be the last time he does so as a Seahawk — he returned in March on a one-year contract with no promises for the future.
"There's a lot of emotions, but I try to be present because you never know what's going to happen," Wagner said. "I don't know what the future holds but that is out of my control. My control was coming back and being the best leader I can be, being the best teammate I can be."
Those emotions, he said, almost overrode any feelings about his accomplishments in what was his 12th season in the NFL and at age 33.
"It's cool," he said of leading the league in tackles. "I don't know if I've fully processed that, but I just wanted to come back and prove that I can perform at a high level. All the numbers will take care of itself. There's a lot of things I'm excited to work on in the offseason. I'm going to work on those things, and we'll see where it takes me."
He's said all along he hopes that's back in Seattle, where he not only feels he showed this season he can still play the game at his usual high level but also was able to bask in some appreciation for the career he had from 2012 to 2021 before his release and spending one year with the Rams.
Seahawks 2024 opponents set
The end of the season also means Seattle's 2024 regular-season opponents are now set.
In a flip from this season, the Seahawks will have nine home games and eight road games. Fourteen of the games were already in place via the league's scheduling formula. The other three — playing the same-place finishers in the NFC East, AFC West and NFC South — became solidified with Sunday's games.
Seattle's home games next season are Arizona, Rams, San Francisco, Green Bay, Minnesota, Buffalo, Miami, Giants and Denver. All of those were set before Sunday other than the game against Denver, which was solidified when the Broncos lost to the Raiders. That game may not feature a reunion with Russell Wilson, who many expect to not be with Denver next season after he was benched late last month.
Seattle's road games are Arizona, Rams, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, New England, Jets and Atlanta. Atlanta entered the day with a chance to win the NFC South but finished third by losing to the Saints while Tampa Bay beat Carolina.
Dates, times and TV info will be revealed in the spring, and with the league increasing its international presence, there is a chance one of the games could be moved overseas.
Carroll will wait to hear on Arizona TD
The Cardinals took the lead in the fourth quarter on a play that had Carroll spending minutes afterward talking to the officials about its legality.
The TD came on a fourth-and-three at the Seattle 8 when the Cardinals sent kicker Matt Prater onto the field with quarterback Kyler Murray heading off. Only, Murray circled back onto the field and Prater and holder Blake Gillikin then split out wide left. Murray quickly called for a shotgun snap and hit tight end Trey McBride in the back of the end zone for a TD that made it 20-13 with 9:48 left.
Carroll spent the ensuing timeout protesting that he had been attempting to call a timeout and wondering if there shouldn't have been a pause for Seattle to try to substitute.
"We'll hear the explanation if anybody cares about this game enough to dig into it," Carroll said. "But there was a substitution there, and we had a chance to substitute. I'm running down the sideline trying to get [a] timeout, and I was too far away. They couldn't hear me. We could have had an opportunity there because they did sub. The kicker came in, and they said that afterwards. They'll have to talk about it and figure it out, and we'll figure out what happened with that, but it was a great execution by them to get that done. We had him covered on the whole thing, but they still threw it and caught it. Their top guy makes the great catch in the back of the end zone. It's a great play by Kyler."
Asked what he saw Murray do on the play, Carroll said, "He went around the numbers area, which I don't know if he was across the numbers or not but he was out there. It was enough to where if he goes past it, he's got to come all the way back in."
Arizona coach Jonathan Gannon said the team has been working on that play the past few games and finally saw a chance to call it.
Notes
— Carroll said tight end Noah Fant cracked a bone in his hand and confirmed that linebacker Jordyn Brooks reinjured the same sprained ankle he has been battling since the Dallas game.
"He reinjured his ankle," Carroll said of Brooks, who had been questionable entering the game. "He was barely able to get back. He made it through the week but he was tender on it, but [it was] the same ankle again. I think Noah broke his hand or something like that. I think he cracked a bone in his hand."
