It is the quiet time of year in the NFL. No training camps, no games, generally no big trades or free agent signings. There’s a lot to look forward to, and as the reigning Super Bowl Champions, the Seattle Seahawks sit atop the mountain until Week 1 of the regular season. At that point it is a blank slate and all teams are on an even playing field vying for the prize. With team changes, odds on who will win the next Lombardi being calculated in Las Vegas, where do all the the teams rank going into
the new season? Let’s find out!
How the power rankings were created
For the Hawks Eye Podcast with Bryce Coutts, Bryce and I wanted to create a Preseason Power Rankings that was as unbiased as possible. It would take into account some stats from the 2025 season, and use a couple statistics that would look to the new season. That way, even if we do not agree with the results, it would start conversations. Here are the markers we decided on using: Vegas Super Bowl odds, DVOA, EPA, and Strength of Schedule.
How does Las Vegas calculate the Super Bowl odds? They start by looking at statistical power rankings, then they add live betting market data to those statistical power rankings to balance financial liability. The oddsmakers in Las Vegas will evaluate each team’s metrics, historical data, player injuries. Throughout the preseason, the regular season, and playoffs, they will tweak the lines to make it as accurate as possible and minimize their risk. The current odds have the Seahawks as the third most likely to make the Super Bowl, though at the time of creating the power rankings they were second.
What is DVOA? DVOA stands for Defense-adjusted Value Over Average. It was created by FTN Fantasy‘s Aaron Schatz, and it is a metric that evaluates both a team and player efficiency. DVOA compares every single play to the league average, adjusting as needed for down, distance, field position, and the strength of the opposing teams defense. The more positive the score percentage, the better for offense and total DVOA. If you were to look at defense DVOA ranking, the more negative the score percentage, the better. The Seahawks were the number one total DVOA team in 2025 with a 41.3% DVOA score.
EPA, or Expected Points Added, is a metric that measures how much value a play adds to an offense’s scoring potential. They base the metric on historical data such as down, distance, and field position, much like DVOA. They give every scenario a point value for the likeliness of the offense’s scoring potential. On offense for 2025, the Seahawks ranked 15th in EPA, and on defense they ranked second.
How is strength of schedule determined? They combine the win percentages of the teams opponents from the previous season. Seahawks have the 19th hardest schedule based on this metric.
The preseason power rankings
Based on all of the metrics listed, the Seahawks are heading into the 2026 season ranked second right behind the Rams. The offensive and defensive EPA rankings is what ultimately had the Seahawks ranked just below the Rams, who had the 10th ranked defense and second ranked offense compared to the Seahawks 15th ranked offense and second ranked defense.
If you were to say you would have the Seahawks ranked first since they are the Super Bowl champions and beat the Rams two out of their three matches, that would be totally fair. Based on the aggregated metrics we used, the Seahawks are the underdogs right behind the Rams, which fits the theme of the Seahawks being underestimated. How closely will this ranking be to the end of the regular season? We will have to see. For the regular season, Bryce and I will be using EPA, Pro Football Networks stats, DVOA, and point differential, and input the data each week to update the power rankings.
If you would like to see Bryce and I discuss these results, feel free to watch the review here.
