Week 17 NFL Elo Ratings and playoff odds: Special Seahawks Edition

phineas

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/week-17-nfl-elo-ratings-and-playoff-odds-special-seahawks-edition/

Gotta be honest, i had never heard of this elo ratings system before i read this article but, there is a lot of cool information in here that may be common knowledge to those that follow the team closely but, if youre just a fan on sundays and arent listening to everything seahawks from sunday to sunday it may open your eyes. It also hammers home just how competitive (and lets face it, dominant) #myhawks have been for about 3 years straight.

phineas

If the Seahawks win the Super Bowl again this year, they should be in the conversation about the greatest team ever — at least according to Elo. In the 32 percent of simulations we ran this week where Seattle won the Super Bowl, it finished with an average Elo rating of 1799. That would rank as the third-best end-of-season Elo rating since 1970, behind only the 2007 Patriots (who hold the top spot despite having been upset by the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII) and the 2004 Patriots — and just ahead of the 1985 Chicago Bears and the 1989 San Francisco 49ers.

Yes, we’re getting ahead of ourselves (as we have before with Seattle). The 2014 Seahawks haven’t won anything yet. But it’s worth explaining why the system likes them so much.

Thats just a couple paragraphs from that page, there are a few charts and some explanations on the system. Seriously, check it out. Well worth thebread IMO.