The best team in the NFL is the Los Angeles Rams, not the Seattle Seahawks, according to ESPN’s Football Power Index.
Why?
“The explanation is straightforward — offense is more stable year-to-year than defense. And Seattle’s Super Bowl run was clearly fueled by an elite defense. Even though most of the unit (and the Seattle team as a whole) is back, regression is expected even if we don’t know the exact source of it,” ESPN explains.
At the end of last season, Seattle’s defense had a 4.6 FPI rating, meaning it was worth 4.6 points per game relative to the average NFL defense. However, heading into the 2026 season, it dropped down to 2.1 – which is still the highest defensive rating in the league.
Los Angeles also benefited from the recent acquisition of star pass rusher Myles Garrett, whom the team added in a blockbuster trade with the Cleveland Browns.
The Rams are the Super Bowl favorites, with a 14.9% chance to win the title, which is more than 4 percentage points higher than for the next-best team: the Buffalo Bills. Los Angeles was already the Super Bowl favorite before adding the two-time defensive player of the year.
Seattle, meanwhile, has just a 7% chance to win the Super Bowl according to the latest data from ESPN.
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