Best Team in the NFL Isn't Seattle Seahawks, But Comes From NFC West

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.

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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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This story was originally published June 3, 2026 at 8:02 AM.