NFL execs give Seattle Seahawks obscene conference ranking going into Week 1

Thankfully, there are only a few days left in this offseason of disrespect for the Seattle Seahawks and their new coaching staff. Ever since Pete Carroll was shown the door in January and Mike Macdonald was brought in to replace him, this team has been consistently been getting disrespectful rankings from fans, pundits, analysts and in some cases their own peers around the NFL.

The latest helping of disregard comes courtesy of a poll conducted by The Athletic , where they asked executives around the league to rank all 16 teams around the NFC. Somehow, the Seahawks only came in at number nine on the list.

Apparently the execs are leery about putting much faith in a coaching staff that is largely lacking experience at this level. Here's what one of them said about Seattle.

NFL exec on Seahawks' 2024 coaching staff:

“I think those guys are really good coaches... It is just an unprecedented deal for guys to have no NFL experience ever. Macdonald had some, but (offensive line coach Scott) Huff and Grubb had zero. We are talking a run-game coordinator and an offensive coordinator that have never coached in this game.”

Nonsense. There are plenty of coaches and assistants around the league who have a ton of experience and are holding onto a spot thanks to their relationship with ownership or their connections with the rest of the staff. In fact, the very reason why we're so excited about this team is because their staff will be bringing in fresh ideas and different ways of doing things than Carroll's staff did.

At a bare minimum Seattle should be ranked no lower than number seven in the conference (ahead of Atlanta and Chicago) going into the new season.

Speaking of the number seven, another big part of the problem as we perceive it is that even the average NFL executive may not be aware of how good Geno Smith has become. If they haven't regularly watched the Seahawks the last two seasons they might still be clinging to their first impressions about Smith that were formed early in his career with the New York Jets. Geno is of course a radically improved QB today compared to the version we saw in 2013-2014 and he has been performing at a fringe top-10 level most of the last two years.

At least the Seahawks have a soft landing to start off. They should be able to take care of business against both the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots in Weeks 1-2. If they can also beat the Miami Dolphins when they visit in Week 3 then we'll know they are a legitimate playoff threat.