As we find ourselves in the NFL's offseason lull, the anticipation for the upcoming season is palpable. The Seattle Seahawks, basking in the glory of their recent Super Bowl triumph, are the team to beat until the gridiron action kicks off again in Week 1.
Once the season starts, it's a level playing field with every team eyeing the ultimate prize. With roster changes and Vegas odds being calculated, it's time to delve into where all the teams stack up heading into the new season.
Crafting the Power Rankings
For the Hawks Eye Podcast, Bryce Coutts and I embarked on a mission to create a Preseason Power Rankings that would spark conversation and debate. We aimed for an unbiased approach, using a blend of statistics from the 2025 season and projections for the upcoming season. Our chosen metrics included Vegas Super Bowl odds, DVOA, EPA, and Strength of Schedule.
Vegas Odds and Their Influence
Las Vegas oddsmakers are the maestros of prediction, blending statistical power rankings with live betting data to create odds that are as accurate as possible while balancing financial risk. They scrutinize each team's metrics, historical performances, and player injuries, adjusting the odds throughout the preseason and regular season. As of now, the Seahawks are pegged as the third most likely team to make the Super Bowl, though they were second when we crafted the power rankings.
Understanding DVOA
DVOA, or Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, is a brainchild of FTN Fantasy’s Aaron Schatz. This metric evaluates team and player efficiency by comparing each play to the league average, adjusting for variables like down, distance, and the strength of the opposing defense.
A higher positive score indicates better offensive and total DVOA performance. Interestingly, the Seahawks topped the DVOA charts in 2025 with an impressive 41.3% score.
EPA - A Measure of Offensive Potential
Expected Points Added (EPA) is another critical metric that quantifies the value a play adds to a team's scoring potential. It’s based on historical data, much like DVOA, assigning point values to various scenarios. In 2025, the Seahawks ranked 15th in offensive EPA, while their defense shone brightly, ranking second.
Strength of Schedule
The strength of schedule is determined by the win percentages of opponents from the previous season. For the Seahawks, this places them with the 19th toughest schedule, a factor that could play a significant role as the season unfolds.
The Preseason Power Rankings
Taking all these metrics into account, the Seahawks enter the 2026 season ranked second, trailing only the Rams. The Rams boast the 10th ranked defense and second ranked offense, nudging them just ahead of the Seahawks, whose defense is second but offense ranks 15th.
Some might argue that the Seahawks, as reigning champions who bested the Rams in two out of three encounters, deserve the top spot. And that's a fair point.
But based on our aggregated metrics, the Seahawks are positioned as underdogs, a role they’ve historically embraced. How this ranking holds up as the season progresses remains to be seen.
Bryce and I will continue to track the data using EPA, Pro Football Network stats, DVOA, and point differential to keep the power rankings updated each week. The journey to the next Super Bowl promises to be as thrilling as ever.
In Other News...
Former Seahawks Quarterback Nears A Brutal NFL Reality
Sam Howells NFL journey keeps moving in a direction no quarterback wants, with the former Seahawks passer now trying to settle in with the Cowboys after bouncing through several teams in a short span. Dallas currently has him working as the No. 3 quarterback behind Dak Prescott and Joe Milton, which is a familiar kind of pressure point for a player who has already seen how quickly a depth chart can change.
Howell does have starting experience from his time with Washington in 2023, but the bigger picture is getting harder to ignore. He has been traded multiple times, and after landing on his fifth team in five years, his path now looks less like a reset and more like a test of whether he can hold onto any stable role at all. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks Suddenly Have A Familiar Tight End Dilemma Brewing
With Brian Fleury taking over as offensive coordinator, Seattle is preparing for a scheme that should lean heavily on the tight end position, and that has already made the depth chart worth watching. The Seahawks are not short on bodies there, either, with AJ Barner, Elijah Arroyo and Eric Saubert among the names in the room as the team sorts out how it wants to use the position this season.
Colby Parkinsons name only adds to the intrigue because he still fits what Seattle wants to do and has shown he can be a useful red-zone piece. He is now with the Rams, but as roster decisions near, the possibility of a familiar face coming back into the conversation gives the Seahawks another layer of complexity at a spot that already feels crowded and important. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks May Soon Regret Giving Up On Riq Woolen
Riq Woolens fall from starter to ex-Seahawks cornerback happened quickly enough that Seattle moved on, but his next stop has kept the conversation alive. After becoming a free agent, Woolen landed with the Philadelphia Eagles, where the early spring reports have been encouraging and the new staff already sounds intrigued by what he can bring to the secondary.
For Seattle, the broader question is whether the cornerback room can absorb the loss without a problem. The Seahawks added three corners in the draft and have other options in the mix, but the depth chart still looks vulnerable enough that one injury could make Woolens exit feel much bigger than it seemed when he was no longer in the starting lineup. [Read more 🡒]