Dontae Johnson Color Rush Jersey , but in an era of needing to funnel content out at all times, ESPN has already provided us with extremely early predictions for the 2019 NFL season. Their panel of columnists and analysts were asked who would win Super Bowl 54 in Miami, as well as who would be league MVP.This is behind the ESPN Insider/ESPN+ paywall, so I can’t give you everything, but I will give you the Seahawks related snippets. Kevin Seifert is going bold by having Russell Wilson as the 2019 regular season MVP, citing his excellent 2018 campaign despite a run-first approach.Now I’m of the opinion that the Seahawks offense’s consistent habit of starting slowly just about eliminates Wilson from the MVP race before it can really begin. I imagine he’d have gotten votes in the 2015 season if they didn’t go the entire first-half of the season without scoring more than two offensive touchdowns in a game. But hey, trends can be broken, and if the Seahawks passing offense gets into gear early in 2019 and keeps that pace up, we could see Wilson in that MVP conversation.Unsurprisingly, Patrick Mahomes topped the predictions tally, with four of nine panelists picking the Kansas City Chiefs star to repeat as league MVP. Aaron Rodgers was the only other QB to receive more than one vote, while other MVP predictions went to Drew Brees and Andrew Luck.As for the “way too early” Super Bowl LIV pick? Well again D.J. Fluker Color Rush Jersey , very early, free agency hasn’t started, but why the hell not? Former Seahawks beat writer Mike Sando, now an ESPN senior NFL columnist, has got Seattle in the Super Bowl... except they lose to the New England Patriots again.The other predictions included the Los Angeles Chargers over the Chicago Bears (from Matt Bowen), the New Orleans Saints over Houston Texans (Dan Graziano), and unsurprisingly multiple analysts went with the Kansas City Chiefs over the Los Angeles Rams, while KC Joyner went Rams over Chiefs. Yes, KC picked KC to lose.I’m sure we’ll be bringing up national media prognostications throughout the offseason, so this is just the start. Will anyone dare pick a terrible season for the Seahawks again? You’re all on notice. The Seattle Seahawks had late-season runs to get to the top of DVOA in 2012, 2014, and 2015. That probably will not happen in 2018 Barkevious Mingo Color Rush Jersey , but the Seahawks are certainly looking like a team on the rise.Seattle is now 10th in DVOA after ranking 11th last week and they are ninth in weighted DVOA. Following Week 12, the Seahawks were 11th overall, 11th on offense, 11th on defense, and 11th on special teams (no typo), and are currently 10th, 10th, 16th, and 9th. The concern there is the defense of course, even after a 43-16 win over the San Francisco 49ers, because the Niners are bad and Nick Mullens/Dante Pettis/Jeff Wilson looked kinda good at various times.Seattle’s next objective: Kirk Cousins, Dalvin Cook Ed Dickson Color Rush Jersey , Stefon Diggs, and Adam Thielen. That’ll be much harder to defend, but thankfully Russell Wilson has the offense on the move up.The Seahawks now rank fifth in passing DVOA and 10th in rushing DVOA. They’ve faced the 14th-most difficult schedule of defenses by DVOA, compared to say, the New Orleans Saints, who’ve seen the 30th-ranked schedule — though Wilson has comparable numbers to Drew Brees in many respects. Just saying.The number one ranked passing team is the Kansas City Chiefs, who Seattle hosts in two weeks, and the number one ranked rushing team is the LA Rams, who they’ve already faced twice.Overall, the Seahawks have faced the 10th-hardest schedule by DVOA while the Chicago Bears, a team they could face in the wild card round, has seen the easiest slate of teams this season so far. The Rams could go 15-1 as they face the easiest remaining schedule Jaron Brown Color Rush Jersey , while Seattle ranks 22nd in that same category. If the Seahawks have anything going for them maybe (I’m reaching here) it’s that they’re at least balanced with how average they are on defense: 16th against the pass and 15th against the run. They’d probably like to trade up to be better against the pass, especially if they manage to get to the point where they’re facing Brees or Jared Goff in the playoffs, but this is where they stand now without Earl Thomas. The Seahawks struggle against number one receivers, ranking 26th in DVOA against in that category.Individually, Russell Wilson is now 8th in DYAR and 6th in DVOA. Chris Carson is 20th in DYAR, 20th in DVOA, and 13th in success rate. Rashaad Penny’s DVOA of 8.3% is the same as Kareem Hunt’s but on significantly fewer attempts. Tyler Lockett is 1st in DVOA among all WRs with a huge lead over number two Michael Thomas. Jaron Brown is 1st in DVOA for WRs with fewer than 50 targets. Overall, it’s been another nice second half run for Seattle with four games left to go. The next will be a difficult matchup against the Vikings but a big win at home could give them a much bigger push than their blowout win over San Francisco.