The best sources, Vegas and Football Outsiders, say we're already Super Bowl contenders. Actually, Super Bowl favorites.
If we want to be the undisputed favorite, then pass blocking needs to improve.
According to PFF, Russell was pressured 62% of the time last week, so Seattle's already league worst pressure percentage went up. The difference is, we schemed to throw a lot more short passes. This resulted in 2 of the worst INTs Wilson has thrown in a long time (didn't hit a receiver's hands, wasn't tipped, wasn't end-of-half). It was also the first multi-interception game Wilson has had since week 5 of his rookie season. The pass blocking is bad and there's no way to have flawless QB play behind it. You always have to give up something.
This game should provide pretty conclusive evidence that Wilson holding onto the ball too long has very little to do with how bad the line looks. Last year Wilson led the NFL in length of time holding onto the ball, and the line still managed to not be the worst in the league in giving up pressures and wilson's production thrived.
Wilson and Bevell have been trying different tactics every week. Pre-Arizona (Tennessee et al), Wilson was jittery, got lots of yards, but had to scramble a lot. Arizona, he stood strong in the pocket, passed beautifully, but fumbled a lot. St. Louis, he stood strong in the pocket, passed efficiently, but wasn't productive because he gave up on plays earlier to keep from fumbling. Tampa Bay, he got the ball out as fast as possible, was productive, but threw two ugly interceptions (one of which reduced our win probability by almost 50% in one play!) and was hurt by several dangerous hits[1].
I personally prefer the pre-Arizona trade-off. Few fumbles or interceptions, scramble to get yards and be in control of the hits you take, rather than taking monstrous hits in the pocket and throwing interceptions. I think that's the best trade-off behind this quality of pass blocking.
1. As Sando said about the game:
"I'm not sure how Wilson made it through the game against Tampa Bay after absorbing brutal hit after brutal hit. He didn't take a sack, but the Buccaneers delivered direct shots to his left arm, head and knee. Wilson was obviously hurting. This situation has been brewing for a while. The key now is for Wilson to make it through upcoming games against Atlanta and Minnesota before a bye week. Left tackle Russell Okung should return in a couple weeks and right tackle Breno Giacomini could return before then. "
[ source:
http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/mike-sando/post?id=3015 ]