Field Gulls
Last week, after beating the Jacksonville Jaguars, the national media began looking at the Seattle Seahawks as a legitimate playoff team, and perhaps even a Super Bowl contender. However, how will this change after the Seahawks stout victory over the Houston Texans on Monday Night Football?
Well, this week, despite the win, the national media seems to be treading water on the Seahawks. The main media sites polled (NFL.com, Pro Football Talk, Bleacher Report, ESPN, and CBS Sports) all had Seattle lingering in the same area they had them last week. One thing that you quickly notice with power rankings is that once you reach the top of the league, there is not much room to move up, so the margin for error becomes much smaller.
Last week, NFL.com had Seattle ranked as the third best team in the league. This week, despite the win, NFL.com had moved the Seahawks down to fourth, with the Detroit Lions, Indianapolis Colts, and Kansas City Chiefs being the only teams ranked ahead. In this ranking, NFL.com noted that the Seahawks defense is “championship-quality” but the offense, special teams, turnovers, and clock management made the Monday night victory less impressive than it could have been.
Both ESPN and Pro Football Talk (PFT) rank the Seahawks at ninth overall. For PFT, who kept Seattle at ninth, the same as last week, noted that the Seahawks’ offense needs more consistency. ESPN, who moved Seattle down one spot, from 8 to 9, mentioned Tory Horton as an unsung nonstarter/role player for the team, highlighting his nine catches on only 18 targets for 113 yards and three touchdowns.
One national media site that moved the Seahawks up was Bleacher Report, who moved Seattle up one spot from 11 to 10th. In this ranking Bleacher Report noted the Seahawks having a top six scoring offense and defense, however they will need to work on not turning over the ball as they are among the league leaders in giveaways.
The new national media site we are looking at here is CBS Sports. Last week CBS Sports had the Seahawks as the seventh best team in the league. And after a victory over the Texans, that ranking of 7th will stay the same. CBS, along with the other sites showed praise at both sides of the football for the Seahawks, mentioning the nasty pass rush that Seattle deploys along with the explosive plays that the offense can hit as well.
Overall, the national media still is a fan of the 2025 Seahawks. This week seems to show a different tune in that Seattle is not the up and coming team anymore. Now that the general view of the Seahawks is a playoff, perhaps Super Bowl contender, the expectations have grown, leaving the margin for error even smaller. If the Seahawks want to continue rising in these rankings they will need to stop allowing teams to stick around in the game like they did last night against Houston. Even though we have...
