Field Gulls
Last week, after losing a heartbreaker to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Seattle Seahawks saw their first drop in the national media power rankings in over three weeks. However, how will this change after the Seahawks impressive ninth consecutive road win in Week 6 against the Jacksonville Jaguars?
Once again, it is not surprising to see the five national media sites viewed (NFL.com, Pro Football Talk, Bleacher Report, ESPN, and Yahoo) move the Seahawks up again. This is usually the tune of power rankings. You win? You move up. You lose? You move down. The question that remains is how far did Seattle move up?
Let’s start with the lower rankings and move up. Bleacher Report and Yahoo both had the Seahawks out of the top ten last week. And despite an impressive win against the Jaguars, it still was not enough for either of these sites to move Seattle into the top ten. Bleacher Report, who moved the Seahawks from 14th to 11 on this week’s power rankings, noted the Seahawks impressive seven-sack, 17 quarterback hit performance against the Jaguars. Yahoo meanwhile moved the Seahawks up two spots, from 12th to 10th on their list.
The next tier of rankings come from Pro Football Talk (PFT) and ESPN. Both sites last week had the Seahawks just out of the top ten, but both them into the top ten after the victory in Jacksonville. In moving the Seahawks up from 11th to 8th in their rankings, ESPN highlighted an incredibly impressive performance by Byron Murphy II. “Along with seven pressures, Murphy had two sacks Sunday to give him a team-high 4.5 through six games.” PFT, who moved Seattle up four spots from 13th to 9th, referenced the recent dominance on the road by the Seahawks, joking that they should start wearing their road white jerseys at home.
The highest power ranking by the national media sites remains with NFL.com. Over the last two weeks, they have ranked Seattle 5th, even after the loss to the Buccaneers in Week 5. Well, after winning this past week, NFL.com continues loving Seattle, moving them into 3rd. The only teams higher than the Seahawks are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (first) and the Detroit Lions (second). In this notable ranking, NFL.com sung the praises of Mike Macdonald (who is 10-1 as Seahawks head coach on the road), the defense (who came roaring back after a rough performance against Tampa Bay), Sam Darnold (who has played clean, efficient football), and Jaxon Smith-Njigba (who is “becoming one of the best at his craft.”)
Overall, most national media sites firmly believe the Seahawks are a playoff team, with NFL.com showing love to Seattle that is akin to that of a contender. After week five, the average power ranking between the five sites (NFL.com, PFT, Bleacher Report, ESPN, and Yahoo) was 11.0. After Week 6, the average power ranking between these same five sites is 8.2, the same average as before the Tampa Bay loss. Seahawks fans surely hope...
