NFL Power Rankings: There's another shake-up at the top
For two weeks, the Seattle Seahawks were at No. 1 in our RADIO.COM Sports NFL Power Rankings, but that felt more indicative of what Russell Wilson has done this season than what Pete Carroll's team is as a whole.
The Seahawks slipped up in Week 6, blowing a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter of an eventual overtime loss to Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday Night Football. But their offense still scored 34 points. Perhaps you can wonder why Carroll didn't let Wilson cook sooner, but unleashing the offense has proven to be a stroke of genius, as the Seahawks are averaging over 33 points per game in 2020.
Even in a game where Wilson was picked off three times, the future Hall of Famer still threw for 388 yards and tossed three touchdowns, all of which were caught by Tyler Lockett in a career game.
The problem is that for as much as you associate Carroll's Seahawks teams with playing great defense, they've been abysmal on that side of the ball this year. Through six games, the Seahawks are allowing a league-worst 479.2 yards per game, and opponents are averaging 28.6 points per game against them. It's at the point where if the Seahawks don't score 30 plus points per game, their chances of winning seem pretty slim.
Because of the iconic stretch that Wilson is in the midst of right now, you feel like the team's offensive output is fairly sustainable, which is crazy to think about. But will that formula be effective enough to keep the Seahawks as the top seed in the NFC and allow them to win multiple games in January? That's less clear.
The Seahawks are still very much among the elite team's in the NFL, but they need Jamal Adams back, and could stand to make another impact addition to their defense before the Nov. 3 trade deadline.
Here are our full RADIO.COM Sports NFL Power Rankings ahead of Week 8 of the 2020 NFL season: