Seattle Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks enter head coach Mike Holmgren's final season as, once again, the biggest birds in the little pond that is the NFC West. But how much longer this team remains on that perch is questionable.

Seattle is now the four-time defending West champ, after going 10-6 last season, and has made the playoffs five straight years. But the Seahawks never looked like serious conference-title contenders last year, and their season ended in that snowstorm blowout in Green Bay in the divisional round, lengthening the birds’ NFL odds for this season in the process.

Seattle did manage to go 9-7 vs. the NFL betting lines last year, including 6-2 ATS at home and, strangely enough, 4-1 ATS when favored by a touchdown or more. Meanwhile, the totals went 7-9 in Seahawks games a season ago, which averaged 43 total points.

Seattle ranked ninth in the league in total offense last year at 349 YPG, but with RB Shaun Alexander at way less than 100% the running game suffered, ranking just 20th at 101 YPG. On the other side of the ball, the 'Hawks ranked a middling 15th in total defense at 322 YPG and 12th vs. the run at 103 YPG. Add it up, and Seattle ranked a respectable 10th in total yardage at +27 YPG.

Over the offseason, the Seahawks let the injured Alexander go and they lost a pretty good kicker when Josh Brown bolted in free agency. Seattle intends to replace Alexander with newcomer Julius Jones, and he'll join at least two other new starters on offense this year. QB Matt Hasselbeck remains one of the better players in the league at his position, after compiling a 28/12 TD/INT ratio last year, and WR Bobby Engram grabbed 94 balls for over 1,100 yards. But there are a couple of question marks along the offensive line, and the receiving corps is thin.

The defensive is unspectacular, but ranked fourth last year in both INTs and sacks, and helped Seattle to a +10 turnover ratio, fifth-best in the league. The window for big-time success for this group of Seahawks seems to be closing. Many key contributors are closer to the end of their careers than to the beginning. And it's hard to tell what kind of effect the impending coaching change will have on this team.

Fortunately for Seattle, no other team in the West has been able to rise up and challenge them for the top spot. So even if the Seahawks can come up with just nine wins, that may well be enough to claim a fifth straight division title.