2013 Seahawks are the 2nd best team of the last 25 years, according to ESPN
Recently, ESPN's Bill Barnwell ranked the 25 best teams from the last 25 years. The 21st century is a quarter complete, so why not examine which teams have stood out the most during this span? Seattle's faithful 12th Man will be thrilled to see the 2013 Seahawks rank very highly on this list, near the top even. According to Barnwell and ESPN, the 2013 Seahawks are the second best team in the NFL during the previous 25 years.
The 2013 Seahawks trailed only the 2007 New England Patriots for the top spot. Super Bowl loss or not, it's hard to argue that Pats team wasn't an all-timer.
Naturally, Barnwell waxed poetic about the Legion of Boom. Where else would you start? He elaborated on just how suffocating the defense was, and how the foundations for this success was built on the treasure trove of draft picks from 2010-2012. However, one aspect Barnwell points out that separates the Legion of Boom from other great defenses of this era (such as Baltimore and Tampa) was the fact the team was better overall, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
Barnwell writes:
This team had Marshawn Lynch running for 1,257 yards and 12 touchdowns before adding 288 yards and four more scores during the playoff run. Wilson averaged 8.2 yards per attempt, threw for 3,357 yards and added 539 more yards on the ground, all while making a sensibly priced sedan (just under $31,000) per game. Harvin and Sidney Rice, nominally the team's top two wideouts on paper because of their contracts, combined for 16 catches during the regular season because of injuries. Golden Tate, Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse stepped in and held their own.
This Seattle team often gets lumped in with the 2000 Ravens and 2002 Bucs with an assumption that the Legion of Boom carried them. Yes, they were the heart of the team, but it's not like Wilson and Co. were slouches on their side of the ball either.
The reason the 2013 Seahawks narrowly missed out on the No. 1 spot was because Barnwell described them as "sloppy" at times that year... and it's hard to argue. Seattle often plays to their opponents level, for good and for ill. They had to survive in overtime against a Tampa team that was 0-7 going into that game, and barely squeaked past a bad Rams team 14-9 on Monday Night Football. Not to mention the ugly 17-10 home loss to Arizona despite intercepting Carson Palmer four times. No, they weren't pretty, but when it mattered this squad got the job done.
Not for nothing, but the 2014 Seahawks did crack into the Top 25 at No. 23 overall.
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