USA Today projects the Seahawks to win the NFC West again
By Lee Vowell
USA Today thinks the Seahawks will win the NFC West again in 2017, but they think one team is possibly the best ever.
It’s the time of year when everyone who can prognosticate will. 12th Man Rising even does it. Rarely will one of these predictions be completely accurate. Maybe this is why the newspaper/website/app has the New England Patriots going 16-0.
Not that the Patriots are not really good because they are. They are also the same team that should have lost the Super Bowl. As USA Today points out, the Patriots have a tough three game road stretch late in the season. More than likely, the Patriots will have lost to a team or teams before that stretch. But you cannot blame USA Today for going bold.
The Seahawks will win the west
The Seahawks are picked to win their division and go 11-5. The paper does not have a lot of faith that the Seahawks will get any real home field advantage in the playoffs, however. Seattle’s non-divisional road games are the reason Seattle will end up with five losses, according to the projection.
The Arizona Cardinals will finish second in the NFC West with 10 wins. The Los Angeles Rams (four wins) and the San Francisco 49ers (two) will round out the division.
Other teams in the NFC that USA Today sees as having ten or more wins? The Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Green Bay Packers. That would make seven teams win double-digit games. In 2016, the NFC only had five of those teams, the same as in 2015.
Related Story: Who will make the Seahawks 53-man roster?
All this is to say that USA Today may not have accurately reviewed the realistic win totals of teams. Including that Patriots prediction…