While most of the NFL looks to the future the NFL draftconference championship players who are headed to NFL free agencyand the wild carousel of head coaches, the Seattle Seahawks prepare to host their NFC West rivals, the Los Angeles Rams, in the NFC Championship game. With Mike McDaniel and QB Fernando Mendoza (likely) joining the AFC West this offseason, the West has a strong claim to run the NFL for years to come, starting with this weekend’s NFC title game.
Seattle’s return to the top of the conference in HC Mike Macdonald’s second season, after leaving Pete Carroll, who helped resurrect the team, is impressive. That QB Sam Darnold was able to overcome his tag of a bust in the NFL draft to be a major part of the Seahawks’ rapid rise is a major surprise. While Seattle had the best defense in the NFL this year, by a decent margin, Darnold’s offense was also a Top 10 unit.
While Los Angeles’ offense gets most of the attention, the Rams’ defense has also been a top-five group during the regular season. Byron Young, Jared Verse and Kobie Turner create high-level pressure at the line of scrimmage to help a group of talented but less famous defenders behind them.
Since the teams have competed in multiple postseason games, for the championship round we will use FTN data for both the regular season and playoffs combined.
Los Angeles Rams vs.Seattle Seahawks
Edge: Seahawks – Talk about an exciting matchup and, perhaps, “the real Super Bowl” for the 2025 NFL season. The first and second ranked teams with the best offense and the best defense facing off for a chance to make it to the big game have all the makings of an all-time great matchup. FTN’s DVOA data shows a decent gap in total DVOA between Seattle (45.1%) and Los Angeles (35.9%), but it shows the gap between the two AFC West rivals and the rest of the league, with no other team having more than 22%. The betting odds, with the Seahawks listed at -2.5, agree with the analytical data.
DVOA provides other information as you make betting decisions, discuss the playoffs with your coworkers, or as you make daily fantasy decisions. We’re excited to see the games played on the field and see if FTN’s DVOA was able to predict who is headed to the Super Bowl this year.
