Early NFC West power rankings after huge trade

Coming in second in my NFC West power rankings are the Seattle Seahawks. This team started out on an unbelievable run as the “Let Russ Cook” campaign ran wild, as if he was world-renowned chef Gordon Ramsay. Eventually that caught up to them, and DK Metcalf admitted that opponents had started to figure out the playcalling pattern from former offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. Wilson transformed from Ramsay-level cooking down to a fast food cook towards the end of the season at times. New offensive coordinator Shane Waldron was one of Wilson’s favorite candidates, and the team listened to him and pulled the trigger (take note, Houston Texans).

Still, Wilson and head coach Pete Carroll are a great match, and maybe missing the offseason last year was part of the reason for the drop in offensive production that happened late in the year (especially losing the New York Giants). Somehow Ken Norton, Jr. didn’t get fired after the historically bad defensive play in the first half of the season and helped devise a second half formula when playing at home against the Rams to secure the NFC West title.

Seattle will definitely be up in the division title race, but will they be able to hang on? Chris Carson was listed questionable for four games this season. That’s literally 25% of the schedule, so is he reliable enough to stay healthy when it really matters? I think they may look to replace him especially if Seattle lets him walk in free agency.

However with only one pick in the first three rounds of this years’ draft it ties their hands on where they go in the draft. Seattle has also been nearly allergic to picking in the first round with no first round picks from 2013-15, 2017, 2021 and 2022, either trading out of the first round or sending them in trade deals. Time will tell if they will regret this strategy, as the Seahawks enter a critical year as they haven’t made it past the divisional round since 2014.