The Short, Painful Version
The Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs finished the preseason with a 9-9 tie, which is the football equivalent of both teams submitting the same group project and nobody wanting to present it.
The score was final. The game was not a mathematical mystery. Seattle kicker Jason Myers pushed a 52-yard attempt to the right as time expired, preserving a result that felt less like a conclusion than a shared decision to stop adding evidence.
The Moment Everyone Knew
Kansas City led 3-0 after one quarter, but the game never escaped a three-point orbit. Seattle answered with a field goal, Kansas City added another, and the Seahawks entered halftime down 6-3. The teams traded six points in the second half, leaving Myers with the chance to turn a tie into a road win.
He missed. The preseason kept its favorite ingredient: a roster question that refuses to resolve on schedule.
Jalen Milroe gave Seattle the most substantial offensive evidence, completing 16 of 26 passes for 223 yards and a touchdown. Garrett Nussmeier played the entire game for Kansas City and finished 22 of 34 for 198 yards with an interception. Neither quarterback was playing for a starting job, but both were playing for the kind of depth-chart confidence that becomes useful when September gets rude.
Credit Where It’s Annoyingly Due
Kansas City’s young rushing group produced 155 yards, with Emmett Johnson gaining 39 yards on seven carries. Andrew Armstrong led the Chiefs with five catches for 54 yards, and Marcus Harris supplied six tackles and three tackles for loss.
Seattle found its own flashes through Milroe’s downfield work and a defense that intercepted Nussmeier through Trevon Diggs. Those plays mattered because the preseason is not only about the final score; it is about which reserve player makes the next roster conversation impossible to ignore.
The Desk’s Roster Thermometer
The Desk’s Lead Protection Grade is B (88). The formula uses Kansas City’s three-point largest lead, the zero-point final margin, and an even fourth-quarter differential. In plain English: neither team protected much, neither team lost much, and the final kick declined to settle the argument.
That is a respectable audition for players fighting for roles, but it is not a verdict on either roster. The Chiefs finished the preseason 0-2-1, and Seattle did the same. The only thing those records prove is that exhibition football has found another way to make a tie feel like a meeting that ran long.
The Desk Has Ruled
This was useful football wearing a mildly ridiculous final score. Milroe created the louder Seattle case, Nussmeier got a full night of work, Kansas City ran the ball well, and Myers gave everyone one last thing to debate.
Desk ruling: call it a tie, file it as evidence, and do not let a missed preseason field goal become a constitutional crisis.