NFL Power Index Explains Seattle Seahawks' Offseason Moves

Although they ended up one yard short of a Championship, the Seattle Seahawks were the best team in the NFL last season. From a numeric standpoint, it wasn’t particularly close. The scary part for the rest of the league should be that the Seahawks invested in improving themselves in the few areas where they weren’t dominant last season.

I spent the better part of the day updating my database and rerunning my regressions with the new data from 2014 added in. Once that was done, I ran the Power Rankings model with the new data.

It was absolutely not surprising to find that the Seahawks were the best and most dominant team in 2014. It was surprising though to see the Seahawks more than two full points ahead of the next best team.

The Seahawks had the best combination of offense and defense in the league by a very wide margin. They were the only team with a Yds Index above two, and they nearly broke the three barrier. There should be no surprise that the defense was great, but that the offense was similarly dominant is a bit shocking.

Of course, not everything about the Seahawks was great last season. Their special teams were near the bottom the league, and the efficiency on third down efficiency was rather mediocre.

Interestingly, the explains Seattle’s offseason moves. If you want to get better on third down on defense then you need need to add to your pass rush. Enter Frank Clark, the teams top draft pick.

Want to get better on third down on offense, then add a sure-handed target that dominates in the center of the field. That description fits Jimmy Graham perfectly.

As for special teams, just removing Brian Walters from the game plan was sure to improve things. The Seahawks took it well beyond that by trading up for Tyler Lockett in the draft. The diminutive receiver has the potential completely change games with the return game. He should make the Seahawks much better in those area.

It is an interesting way of looking at things. The 2014 Seahawks were the league’s best and most dominant team, but they still had weakness that had to be addressed. That they were willing and able to do so is why the Seahawks have been one of the league’s most successful teams since the current leadership came to town.

2014 Final Power Rankings, with Stat Indexes

Rank	Team	Yds	ST	Pt Dif	3%	SoS	TO	Power
1	Seattle	2.9	18.2	8.7	5.4	1.6	9	69.97
2	Green Bay	1.1	18.8	8.6	6.9	1	14	67.76
3	Denver	1.6	21.9	8.0	7.6	1	5	67.02
4	New England	-0.2	16.8	9.7	4.1	1.2	12	65.75
5	Dallas	1.0	17.7	7.2	3.7	-0.3	6	64.03
6	Baltimore	0.8	23.6	6.7	0.7	0.2	2	63.52
7	Detroit	0.6	23.0	2.5	1.4	0.1	7	63.13
8	Buffalo	-0.2	19.0	3.3	3.5	0.6	7	62.91
9	Indianapolis	0.0	25.1	5.5	7.7	0.8	-5	62.69
10	Cincinnati	0.6	24.7	1.3	3.1	0.6	0	62.39
11	Kansas City	0.3	23.7	4.5	3.2	0.7	-4	62.26
12	Houston	0.2	19.6	4.1	4.8	-1.8	12	62.16
13	San Francisco	0.7	20.6	-2.2	-3	1	7	62.01
14	Pittsburgh	0.0	19.7	4.3	7.1	-1	0	61.83
15	Philadelphia	0.2	20.3	4.6	5.6	0.3	-8	61.60
16	Miami	0.3	24.5	1.0	-3.9	0.1	2	61.14
17	Arizona	-1.5	20.5	0.7	2.5	1.3	8	61.02
18	Carolina	-0.2	22.4	-2.2	-0.5	0.6	3	60.59
19	Minnesota	0.0	18.5	-1.1	-2.6	-0.3	-1	59.95
20	Cleveland	-0.3	21.4	-2.4	-8.2	-1.1	6	59.86
21	Atlanta	-0.7	17.3	-2.3	-2.5	-0.2	5	59.85
22	San Diego	-0.7	17.1	0.0	2.1	0.9	-5	59.42
23	St. Louis	-0.4	22.0	-1.8	-3.1	0.9	-2	59.26
24	NY Giants	-1.7	13.9	-1.2	7	-0.3	-3	59.11
25	New Orleans	-0.4	29.8	-1.4	2.3	-0.3	-13	58.98
26	Tennessee	-0.2	26.1	-11.5	-11.3	-1.3	-10	57.09
27	Tampa Bay	-0.6	22.5	-8.3	-6.3	-0.4	-8	57.06
28	NY Jets	-0.1	18.5	-7.4	-6.3	0.2	-11	56.70
29	Jacksonville	-0.6	21.4	-10.2	-10.9	-0.7	-6	56.64
30	Washington	0.1	22.1	-8.6	-11.5	-0.5	-12	56.61
31	Chicago	-1.3	14.6	-7.7	-4.6	0.5	-5	56.07
32	Oakland	-1.6	27.5	-12.5	-4.6	1.5	-15	52.16

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NFL Power Index Explains Seattle Seahawks’ Offseason Moves

By Keith Myers | Jun 23, 2015

2014 Final Power Rankings, with Stat Indexes

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