Field Gulls
Entering the 2025 season, the national media was not as high on the Seattle Seahawks as many fans of the team were. And now after a heartbreaking loss to the San Francisco 49ers, the national media is not giving Seattle any benefit of the doubt. Below are a handful of a power rankings from across the NFL National landscape.
Two of the heavy hitters (NFL.com and Pro Football Talk) rank Seattle at 19th in their power rankings. Entering Week 1, NFL.com had the Seahawks at 19 and keep them at the same ranking this week after confirming many of their expectations. The main expectation being that “the defense would be the more stable unit early on while the offense establishes its identity.” Pro Football Talk dropped Seattle down one spot from 18 to 19.
ESPN and Bleacher Report both had similar explanations for their ranking of Seattle. Entering Week 1, both ESPN and Bleacher Report had the Seahawks ranked 17th before dropping them down. ESPN dropped Seattle down three spots to 20th, noting the strong defensive performance by Seattle, notably by free agent signing Demarcus Lawrence who had six tackles, two tackles for loss, and a QB hit. In addition to praising the defense, Bleacher Report, who dropped Seattle down four spots to 21, noted that Seattle’s offensive line looked improved, only allowing one sack of Sam Darnold (though also noting that one sack led to the game losing fumble by Sam Darnold.)
One national media site that has Seattle a little lower than the others was Yahoo Sports. Yahoo had Seattle ranked 18th last week, and have them coming in at 23rd this week. Yahoo noted that outside of Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the Seahawks could not get their passing game going.
Overall, the national media seems to have Seattle in the bottom half of the NFL, but not completely in the gutters of the league. Much of this is not disagreeable. The Seahawks’ defense looks like a legitimate top-10 unit this season and should keep the team in most of their games this season. However, Seattle’s ceiling looks to be low with the offensive struggles. Time will tell if Klink Kubiak and this “new-look” offense will be able to get the ball running (literally and figuratively).
