12s know the Seattle Seahawks should have had two different teams in a recent Super Bowl champions ranking that ESPN produced. The team lost Super Bowl XLIX because something bad happened that didn't involve Marshawn Lynch at the end of the game. But let's set that sadness aside. Seattle did win Super Bowl XLVIII in blowout fashion.
Both of Seattle's Super Bowl teams were led by head coach Pete Carroll and the Legion of Boom defense. Quarterback Russell Wilson and the offense were fine, too, but the unit was not good enough to win a championship had the defense been less than elite.
But the defense was not just elite, it was arguably the best defense in the history of the NFL. 12s would make that argument anyway.
Seattle Seahawks' Super Bowl champions ranking has a wonderfully fitting number
But how good was the Super Bowl-winning team compared to other teams that have won a championship? According to ESPN, the Seahawks were in the top quarter of the best teams ever (for those that won the Super Bowl). At least based on DVOA, and DVOA was formulated by the author of the article, Aaron Schatz. Schatz knows his stuff, of course, but to believe Seattle's ranking is correct, you also have to believe Schatz's DVOA formula is pristine.
Since Schatz ranks Seattle's championship team at the most perfect number of, yeah...12, let's assume he has a good idea about what he is doing. Had Seattle ranked 40, there might be a different argument.
Also, if you are curious, this season's Philadelphia Eagles team does not show up until 39, so there is no recency bias. The top team was the 1991 Washington team that went 17-2 and beat the Buffalo Bills 37-24 in the Super Bowl.
Schatz ranks the Seahawks at number 12 in part because Seattle had the highest DVOA in the championship game against, at the time, the best offense in the NFL, the Denver Broncos. Oddly, though, according to the writer, the only season the Seahawks led the league in DVOA was their Super Bowl-winning year. How can this be when Seattle had the best defense in the league from 2012 through 2016?
Of course, that last part does not matter because Schatz is only ranking the teams that won a championship. The Seahawks lost three games in 2013, and each by a touchdown or less. The special teams had the fifth-best DVOA in the league. That is how deep and great the team was.
Maybe Seattle is still ranked too low at 12. Still, they are only one of two teams in this century to rank in the top 13.