Analysis: Debating Seahawks’ Rankings on ESPN Top 10 Lists
During the agonizing buffer period between the conclusion of offseason programs and the start of training camp during June and July, the annual arrival of NFL ranking season comes full force to help fill the gap for football fans.
Among the most notable rankings to be revealed each year, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler unleashes a top-10 list for 11 positional groups on offense and defense, using polls of select executives, coaches, and scouts to compile the rankings. The changes from year-to-year can be a fascinating case study in itself, seeing how opinions of certain players change over time with the rankings being predicated on the best players at each position in the present.
Interestingly, after winning Super Bowl LX, the Seattle Seahawks only had four players who landed top-10 spots at their respective positions. In contrast, nine other teams had five or more players who received such distinction, including the Lions with a league-high nine players who made the annual lists and the NFC West rival 49ers and Rams each having five apiece.
Looking at this year’s top-10 rankings provided courtesy of Fowler and ESPN, did those who placed votes get it right with the defending champions? Or did they miss the mark with several deserving players?
WATCH: Sounders Unravel for Worst Loss to Timbers in MLS Era
The Seattle Sounders, fresh off six weeks away from MLS play for the FIFA World Cup, came into a Thursday night home bout with their archnemesis, the Portland Timbers, looking to start the summer run strong.
Not only did they not accomplish that feat, but the Sounders (7-4-3, 6th in Western Conference) lost 5-1.
It’s already being labeled the worst loss to Portland in franchise history, as striker Kevin Kelsy bagged a brace. Seattle midfielder Hassani Dotson scored off a set-piece header late with the game far out of reach.
The Timbers (5-8-2, 7th) worked the wide areas to death, scoring three goals in seven minutes early in the second half to completely demoralize Seattle. The nearly 36,000 fans in attendance, a franchise best this season, left in droves.
After the game, head coach Brian Schmetzer took accountability as his team, down key pieces like Cristian Roldan and Alex Roldan, was simply out-competed in the biggest derby game of the season. Players cleared out of the locker room quickly postgame, seemingly opting to process the stunning result on their own.
Emerald City Spectrum reporter Qasim Ali attempts to make sense of the landslide defeat.
WATCH: What Has Gone Wrong for Mariners’ Cal Raleigh During Dreadful First Half?
After smashing 60 home runs in 2025, Cal Raleigh has endured a brutal follow-up season thus far, battling injuries and sporting an ugly .169 batting average heading into the All-Star break. What has led to such a massive drop off from a historically great campaign?
Emerald City Spectrum writer Nick Lee dissects Raleigh's dismal first half by the numbers, analyzes what has gone so wrong for the slugger so far, and breaks down what the “Big Dumper” can do to right the ship as the Mariners try to get back on track and vie for another AL West title in the final three months of the regular season.
Instant Takeaways: Kraken Announce 2026-27 Schedule, Including Pair of Games in Finland
The Seattle Kraken will have two games in Finland, two tough road trips, and a rough end-of-season schedule in 2026-27.
Today, the NHL announced the full, 84-game schedule for every NHL team. The Kraken season begins on the road against the Calgary Flames on Oct. 1. After two games in Alberta, Seattle hosts their first home game on Oct. 4, also against the Flames.
Where's the Respect? Seahawks QB Sam Darnold Deserves Better Than Constantly Moving the Goalposts
It’s human nature. Sometimes, we make a decision early on about something and can be virtually immovable in that opinion regardless of which direction the winds of change blow, or how hard. It’s called pride. We all have it. We are slow to admit we are wrong and look for any shred of evidence to prove our premature declarations correct, folly or not.
When the Seattle Seahawks signed Sam Darnold last offseason, he still had the stink of a disappointing first six seasons on him. That was even after a breakout 2024 with the Minnesota Vikings that saw him at the helm of a 14-3 football team when he produced just over 4,300 passing yards and 35 touchdowns. Pundits quickly discredited that redemption arc after a clunker of a playoff game, when the Vikings lost to the Rams 27-9 in the NFC Wild Card Round. Darnold threw one interception, lost a fumble, and was sacked nine times. That was the last time we saw Darnold before signing with Seattle and the media did not forgive him.
Fast forward 12 months from then. Darnold doubled down with yet another 14-3 regular season paired with another 4,000-yard season with 25 passing scores. The national media waved it off as another mirage in the vast Darnold Desert. Then the playoffs started. Even with just 12 completions and 124 passing yards in the Divisional Round against the 49ers, he was efficient and mistake-free with zero turnover-worthy plays. Still, many claimed, “the defense carried him!” or “Ken Walker did all the work!”
“Just wait for the NFC Championship Game against the presumed MVP Matthew Stafford,” they shouted in mass on social media.
Analysis: Way-Too-Early Torrent Lineup Prediction
The Seattle Torrent, who finished last in the PWHL last season, will have made nine new additions to their roster. After losing captain Hilary Knight and top pairing defender Cayla Barnes, the lineup had some holes.
But after drafting an eliter goal scorer-second overall, addressing defensive depth later in the draft, and adding high upside European free agents; the Torrent lineup looks substantially different.
How will Seattle’s revamped lineup look when the season opens?
WATCH: Should Mariners Buy or Sell After All-Star Break?
Though they sit a game under the .500 mark at the All-Star break, the Seattle Mariners remain in the mix for both an AL West title and a wild card spot, leaving plenty to play for entering the second half of the season as they try to round back into form as the contender most expected them to be. Considering their standing, should they be active buyers at the trade deadline or shift into the role of seller with an eye on the future while still competing for a playoff spot?
Emerald City Spectrum reporter Callaghan Bluechel goes over the fork in the Mariners' road as Jerry Dipoto and company approach the trade deadline, and whether they should buy, sell, or do some mix of both.
Decisions Await Seahawks Entering Crucial Seasons for Jalen Sundell, Anthony Bradford
Taking a welcomed diversion from the past when the organization almost seemed hellbent on executing cost-cutting measures and regularly volunteered to play musical chairs at multiple positions along the offensive line, the Seattle Seahawks have pulled a near 180-degree turn when it comes to investing in the trenches.
Starting with the selection of North Dakota State’s Grey Zabel with the 18th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, making him the highest-selected guard by the franchise since Hall of Famer Steve Hutchinson back in 2001, Seahawks general manager John Schneider solidified the offensive line for years to come on multiple fronts. Along with Zabel being under contract through at least 2028 with a fifth-year option for 2029, tackles Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas each signed lucrative multi-year extensions, locking up the young bookends who have been starting together since they arrived in tandem as rookies in 2022.
As things stand, those three players all remain under contract together through the 2028 season, keeping an impressive young nucleus in place while providing the type of rare offensive line continuity the Seahawks haven’t enjoyed since the days of Walter Jones, Hutchinson, Robbie Tobeck, and Chris Gray dominating opponents in the early-to-mid 2000s. And according to Spotrac, Schneider still has managed to do that without breaking the bank, as the team still ranks 23rd in offensive line spending for 2025 and currently sits 25th and 22nd in that metric for cap space allocated to the line in 2027 and 2028.
But coming off a Super Bowl LX win, which not so surprisingly coincided with the best line play the team had experienced in over a decade, Schneider’s past philosophy of going cheap up front will truly be put to the test. Though all five starters return from last year’s squad, quite the rarity for a defending champion, difficult decisions await on the futures of right guard Anthony Bradford and center Jalen Sundell, who will be unrestricted and restricted free agents respectively next March as they prepare for their second season starting alongside one another.
Instant Takeaways: Late Storm Comeback Falls Short vs. Sky
The Seattle Storm erased an 11-point halftime deficit against the Chicago Sky but fell short in another close loss, 95-90, on Wednesday, July 15, at Wintrust Arena.
Seattle (6-20) was led by an efficient 25 points from Flau’Jae Johnson (11 of 17 FG), but it wasn’t enough to push the Storm over the edge. Dominique Malonga (16 points), Awa Fam (14), Jade Melbourne (11) and Katie Lou Samuelson (11) also scored in double figures.
Snapping a two-game losing streak, Chicago (8-16) was led by 20 points from Azura Stevens and 17 from rookie Sydney Johnson. Chloe Bibby added 14 points off the bench for the Sky, who have also been struggling to win close games this season.
Ryanne Brown Overcomes Injury, Shows Up in Reign's Biggest Game of the Season
When Ryanne Brown tore her ACL on July 7, 2024, she knew her season was over. The 25-year-old defender out of Wake Forest was an occasional starter for the Seattle Reign and had even been loaned out to Danish side Kvindeligaen for eight starts in 2022-23 after being drafted in the second round of the 2021 draft.
With 2024 being a down year for a typically contending Reign squad, 2025 promised to be a year for young talents to break out in the Emerald City. And that they did, as young talents like Emeri Adames and Maddie Dahlien had their moments en route to finishing fifth in the league.
But Brown was nowhere to be found — she ended up missing all of the 2025 season.
"I was expecting to come back summer '25, I felt good actually coming back from my knee," Brown said after training on Tuesday. "Then I tweaked my hamstring, which kept me out a lot longer than expected."
After all the heartache and watching from the sideline, a now 27-year-old Brown scored her first NWSL goal on Sunday against the rival Portland Thorns, a bold right-footed shot from distance just eight minutes into the game for her first NWSL goal in her first start in over 700 days.
Kraken Need Bounce-Back Season From Goalie Joey Daccord
There has been much discussion on how the Seattle Kraken can improve this offseason from their disappointing 34-37-11 season. From possible trades, free agent signings, the internal audit of the organization, and the draft, the fanbase has many opinions on what must be done for Seattle to turn the corner and get back to the playoffs.
One thing that is flying under the radar among the persistent Shane Wright trade rumors and free agency is the underwhelming performance of goalie Joey Daccord last year.
Daccord signed a five-year, $25 million contract ahead of the 2024-2025 season after showing flashes of brilliance the year before. He followed that up with a solid campaign, finishing eighth in the NHL in quality starts and 10th in saves. By most metrics, he was a top-half-of-the-league goalie. He had fully taken the starting job from Philipp Grubauer and made the Kraken look smart to give him that extension.
Then, last season happened. For whatever reason, things did not click as well for Daccord in 2025-26.
Dominant Seahawks’ Front Line Ready to Take Disruptive Nature to Another Level for ‘Dark Side' Defense
Adequately coining themselves as the “Dark Side” defense during the midst of a historic 2025 season, the Seattle Seahawks deployed Death Star-worthy weapons of mass destruction from all three levels of coach Mike Macdonald’s unit on the way to a Super Bowl LX victory.
Playing the quarterback of the defense with elite cerebral whit, a commanding demeanor, and playmaking prowess, Ernest Jones may as well have been wearing Darth Vader’s mask rather than a football helmet. Playing seemingly every position except nose tackle during a spectacular rookie season, safety Nick Emmanwori pulled off a football-equivalent feat to Darth Revan mastering both the light and dark side at the same time. Bringing tenacious ferocity and fearless aggression snap after snap, Devon Witherspoon’s relentless style and penchant for dishing punishing, bone-jarring hits makes him a worthy Darth Maul clone.
But while all of those players starred for Seattle’s No. 1-ranked scoring defense and helped the empire reign supreme over the rest of the NFL, Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II anchored the true foundation of the unit’s dominance up front, collectively holding the title of Emperor Palpatine while unleashing ruthless terror on opposing offenses that caused disturbances in the force that sent shockwaves all across the league.
Ranking Seahawks: Ex-Colts Starter Rodney Thomas Looks to Jumpstart Career, Headlining No. 50-46
With the calendar recently flipping to July and offseason workouts wrapped up league-wide for the summer, the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks will soon descend upon the Virginia Mason Athletic Center for the start of training camp, kicking off a much-anticipated 2026 season.
To celebrate the new incoming season, I will be ranking every member of the Seahawks 90-man roster over the next several weeks leading up to report day, providing detailed profiles, exploring best and worst case scenarios, and breaking down what to expect from each player entering the 2026 campaign.
Continuing with No. 50-46 on my annual rankings, an incoming rookie will enter the fold seeking a key backup role along the offensive line and a ball-hawking safety hopes a hard reset changing zip codes will pay major dividends jump-starting his career after a promising start.
SEC Bats Aplenty: Analyzing Mariners’ First Six ‘26 Draft Picks
The Mariners had the luxury of an obvious first-round choice last year in the form of Kade Anderson, a relatively complete left-handed pitching prospect out of LSU, with the third pick of the draft. The team had no such clear option this year, however, as the thin crop of sure-thing prospects were already gone by the time the M’s had a pick.
But that is usually the case for any team making picks in this sport. The players the Mariners got are nowhere near sure things, all in need of development but all with defined profiles for the M’s to build upon. Of the first six picks the Mariners made - all four of Saturday’s picks and the first two (out of 16) of Sunday’s picks - five are hitters, four of the hitters are from an SEC school, and three of those hitters are (currently) third basemen. All six of these early picks are coming into the system from college.
Seattle certainly wasn’t bucking early trends with the hitting selections, as teams across the league tapped batting talent in the early rounds. But regardless of trends and overall initial valuation consensus, the M’s (like most teams) view their picks as big swings with big (even if unlikely) potential.
“As Jerry (Dipoto, Mariners president of baseball operations) told me when I first took this job: he says, ‘every draft, you just think it’s like a 3-1 count: if it’s there, swing; if it’s not, don’t,’ and we stayed the course with that,” said Mariners scouting director Scott Hunter.
What do these players bring with them to the Seattle farm system, and what might be expected of them as they begin their professional careers?
24th overall: 3B Ace Reese, 21 years old, Mississippi State, $3.5 million (under slot value) signing bonus.
Baseball America overall grades: 55, average risk, 45 adjusted.
Other future value (FV) estimations: 45, high risk (FanGraphs); 45 (Over-Slot).
Three Burning Questions for Mariners at All-Star Break
The Seattle Mariners, along with the rest of MLB, have completed the unofficial "first half" of the 2026 season. The baseball world focuses on Philadelphia over the next few days as the All-Star festivities begin in the City of Brotherly Love. The Mariners enter the break one game below .500 at 48-49. It certainly has been a frustrating, uneven first half of a season where the team, and its fans, felt a berth to the franchise's first ever World Series was at hand.
Nothing in this beautiful, amazing, dumb sport is that simple. Now, the Mariners have serious questions. Ones that need addressing if the Mariners are to even make the playoffs at all, much less punch their ticket to the Fall Classic.
Are Cal Raleigh and Josh Naylor ever going to snap out of it?
The fact that the Mariners are in a playoff spot (tied for last Wild Card spot) despite getting virtually nothing from Raleigh and Naylor is a minor miracle. They are batting a combined .218 with just 17 homers combined. For reference, these two sluggers had - you might want to sit down for this - 49 home runs before the All-Star break. After Naylor arrived at the deadline last season, he was an instant spark and the deal he signed to stay in Seattle long term seemed like a no-brainer.
Spanish Guard Commits to Washington State to Round Out 2026-27 Roster
Washington State basketball picked up another commitment on Wednesday, as Spanish guard Pedro Sancho Moraga officially signed with the Cougars, becoming the final addition to David Riley's 2026-27 roster.
The 6-1 Sancho Moraga heralds from Valencia, Spain, and spent last season at the Academy of Central Florida after developing through Valencia Basket Academy and later playing for Zentro C.B.'s junior team in Madrid.
There are no publicly available statistics from his season at the Academy of Central Florida. However, during the 2024-25 season while playing professionally in Spain at just 17 years old, Sancho Moraga averaged 2.4 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 1.0 assists in 15 games. Those numbers don't jump off the page, but Washington State's coaching staff is betting on his potential rather than immediate production.
Cassie Miller Shines, Reign Top Thorns 2-0 to Split Cascadia Series
The Seattle Reign came into Sunday's rematch with their vaunted rival Portland Thorns at 4-6-2 and losers of four of their last five games.
But records never matter in the biggest grudge match in the NWSL, and Seattle proved it by delivering the Thorns their only shutout loss of the season to place Portland at 8-4-3 in a 2-0 win. Seattle moved up to 10th place with the win, still three points out of a top-eight playoff spot with a game in hand over the Orlando Pride.
Reserve keeper Cassie Miller, in for the second straight week for injured star Claudia Dickey (ankle), had the game of her life to earn the clean sheet. Miller tabbed nine saves in front of nearly 15,000 fans - Seattle's fourth-highest attendance figure in any match. It marked the full circle of a story for the 31-year-old that featured a leg injury which forced her to miss most of the 2025 season.
Also rounding out a comeback story was right back Ryanne Brown. Brown tore her ACL during the 2024 season, prompting her to miss all of 2025 and play just 22 minutes total in 2026 in the lead-up to Sunday.
She earned her first start with typical starter Madison Curry (ankle) out with an injury, and scored an incredible long distance goal to open the scoring. Maddie Mercado doubled the advantage later in the first half while Miller endured 10 shots on frame to seal a 2-0 win.
Head coach Laura Harvey, who hasn't had much to smile about on the field lately, put this game up there with any of Seattle's performances in 2026.
"It was probably the closest to the best 90-minute performance that I can probably remember since (the 2-1 win) over Orlando (in March)," Harvey said. "Really proud of the group."
Chants of "Build a bonfire, build a bonfire, put the Thorns on the top!" rang out as time wound down on a picture perfect day - one that could turn Seattle's season around.
Bullpen Rises to Occasion as Mariners Snap Five-Game Skid, Take Series Finale From Rays
Finally putting an end to their losing ways, the Seattle Mariners’ offense showed up early and the bullpen delivered a brilliant performance in a resounding 8-2 rout of the Tampa Bay Rays, salvaging the series finale to avoid the sweep going into the All-Star break.
The Mariners needed to use seven pitchers to secure the win due to a scary first inning injury to starter Emerson Hancock that resulted in him exiting the contest an inning later. The offense picked the ‘pen up, however, plating seven runs by the fourth inning, and eight runs overall.
It was a rare complete team performance by Seattle, and manager Dan Wilson hopes to get some key players back from injury coming out of the break while building off his team’s lights-out execution as the season marches towards the playoffs.
“Talk about a team effort from top to bottom today,” Wilson said afterward.
Ranking Seahawks: Emmanuel Henderson Jr. Aims to Impress With Elite Speed, Special Teams Traits Atop No. 55-51
With the calendar recently flipping to July and offseason workouts wrapped up league-wide for the summer, the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks will soon descend upon the Virginia Mason Athletic Center for the start of training camp, kicking off a much-anticipated 2026 season.
To celebrate the new incoming season, I will be ranking every member of the Seahawks 90-man roster over the next several weeks leading up to report day, providing detailed profiles, exploring best and worst case scenarios, and breaking down what to expect from each player entering the 2026 campaign.
Continuing with No. 55-51 on my annual rankings, a dynamic rookie receiver hopes to cut his teeth on special teams as he did at the college level, while three veterans entering the final year of their contract will face pressure to stick on the 53.
Instant Takeaways: Self-Inflicted Wounds Doom Storm vs. Mystics
Natisha Hiedeman’s career-high 31 points weren’t enough for the Seattle Storm in another turnover-plagued 84-79 loss to the Washington Mystics on Sunday, July 12, at CareFirst Arena.
Hiedeman was as good as she’s ever been, but the Storm didn’t get consistent offense across the board. Dominique Malonga (10 points) was the only other player to score in double figures for Seattle (6-19), which dropped to 2-11 on the road this season.
Washington (11-10) got 27 points from Shakira Austin, 19 from Sonia Citron and 12 from Kiki Iriafen. The Mystics have been used to winning close games, and they showed how battle-tested they are against the Storm.
However, in the end, it was the Storm’s turnovers and missed opportunities that doomed them in this game.
Explore our latest Seattle sports content by clicking on your favorite team(s) below!
