The Seattle Seahawks maintained their No. 1 spot in DVOA after Monday night’s 27-19 victory over the Houston Texans. Do you like defense? Then I hope you enjoyed Monday night’s doubleheader, because you got to see the top three defenses in the league by DVOA. The Detroit Lions are now second overall and the No. 1 defense after beating the Buccaneers 24-9. The Seahawks are the No. 2 defense and the Houston Texans are third. The Texans are still a surprising eighth overall despite a 2-4 record, although a large part of that rating is their huge Week 5 victory over an injury-riddled Ravens squad.

As for the top offenses, they come in behind the Seahawks and Lions on the overall DVOA table. The top offense this year is Indianapolis, and the Colts rank third overall. The next two offenses are the Chiefs and the Rams, who rank fifth and fourth overall, respectively.

The strangest rating might now might be the Washington Commanders at No. 7 despite a 3-4 record and a bad 44-22 loss to the Dallas Cowboys this week. The reason is that the Commanders were phenomenal in their three wins. All three games currently have DVOA ratings over 70%, although that could change as opponent adjustments develop. The Commanders are below 0% for all four losses and have the highest variance of any team in the NFL this year. The total package is better than you think, but really inconsistent, and of course they have a lot of injury issues including starting quarterback Jayden Daniels.

It was a good week for the rest of the NFC East, at least when it comes to the DVOA ratings. Dallas climbed eight spots from 17th to eighth after beating the Commanders soundly. The Eagles moved up four spots to No. 11 with a victory over Minnesota. The Giants drop a spot after their close 33-32 loss to Denver, but their actual rating is up a couple of percentage points. They just got passed on the table by the suddenly hot Carolina Panthers, who are now up to 21st overall.

Tampa Bay drops to 16th in DVOA after Monday night’s loss, but they’re one of the teams where things are about to get a lot easier. The Bucs’ schedule so far ranks third in the NFL, but their future schedule based on average DVOA of opponents is 27th. The top two schedules so far belong to Baltimore and Jacksonville, and their schedules rank 29th and 23rd the rest of the way, respectively. If the Ravens get Lamar Jackson, watch out. If.

The flip of this would be the Minnesota Vikings. Their schedule so far has been 26th and their upcoming schedule is the hardest in the league. Things will also get tougher for our top two teams after they come back from a Week 8 bye. The Seahawks’ schedule goes from 24th to fifth and the Lions’ schedule goes from 23rd to seventh.

* * * * *

These are the FTN DVOA and DAVE ratings through seven weeks of 2025. Our Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA) system breaks down every single play and compares a team’s performance to the league average based on situation in order to determine value over average. (Explained further here.) Opponent adjustments are currently at 70% of their final strength.

OFFENSE and DEFENSE DVOA are adjusted for performance indoors and consider all fumbles, kept or lost, as equal value. SPECIAL TEAMS DVOA is adjusted for type of stadium (warm, cold, dome, Denver) and week of season. As always, positive numbers represent more points so DEFENSE is better when it is NEGATIVE.

DAVE is a formula which combines our preseason forecast with current DVOA to get a more accurate projection of how a team will play the rest of the season. For teams with six games, DAVE is currently 41% preseason forecast for offense and 70% preseason forecast for defense and special teams. For teams with seven games, DAVE is currently 35% preseason forecast for offense and 63% preseason forecast for defense and special teams.

RK
TEAM
TOTAL
DVOA
LAST
WEEK
TOTAL
DAVE
RK
W-L
OFF.
DVOA
OFF.
RK
DEF.
DVOA
DEF.
RK
S.T.
DVOA
S.T.
RK

1
SEA
41.8%
1
19.9%
4
5-2
15.9%
7
-16.7%
2
9.2%
1

2
DET
39.8%
3
28.4%
1
5-2
16.8%
5
-17.8%
1
5.2%
5

3
IND
39.5%
2
18.6%
5
6-1
33.9%
1
-2.4%
16
3.3%
8

4
LAR
34.6%
4
20.9%
3
5-2
21.3%
3
-14.0%
4
-0.7%
19

5
KC
27.0%
5
24.3%
2
4-3
24.4%
2
-4.2%
9
-1.5%
23

6
GB
20.6%
7
13.8%
7
4-1-1
10.3%
8
-11.8%
7
-1.4%
22

7
WAS
11.7%
6
9.9%
9
3-4
3.2%
14
-0.1%
18
8.4%
2

8
HOU
9.5%
8
2.1%
15
2-4
-8.2%
24
-14.4%
3
3.3%
7

9
DAL
8.0%
17
6.9%
10
3-3-1
20.4%
4
15.4%
30
3.0%
9

10
PIT
7.4%
9
4.0%
12
4-2
8.0%
9
1.9%
20
1.3%
13

11
PHI
6.9%
15
11.0%
8
5-2
7.1%
10
-1.9%
17
-2.0%
24

12
ATL
5.3%
10
-2.2%
21
3-3
-0.1%
15
-12.5%
6
-7.1%
30

13
BUF
5.0%
12
15.4%
6
4-2
16.1%
6
11.1%
26
0.0%
17

14
DEN
3.8%
11
4.4%
11
5-2
-2.7%
19
-7.5%
8
-1.0%
20

15
JAX
3.0%
14
1.2%
16
4-3
-0.4%
16
-3.9%
10
-0.4%
18

16
TB
1.0%
13
2.6%
13
5-2
5.9%
13
-3.2%
14
-8.1%
31

RK
TEAM
TOTAL
DVOA
LAST
WEEK
TOTAL
DAVE
RK
W-L
OFF.
DVOA
OFF.
RK
DEF.
DVOA
DEF.
RK
S.T.
DVOA
S.T.
RK

17
ARI
-1.9%
18
-1.1%
18
2-5
-5.8%
21
-3.8%
11
0.1%
16

18
SF
-2.5%
22
0.2%
17
5-2
6.9%
12
3.3%
21
-6.1%
29

19
CHI
-3.2%
21
-1.6%
19
4-2
-4.3%
20
0.3%
19
1.4%
12

20
NE
-4.4%
19
-1.8%
20
5-2
6.9%
11
11.9%
28
0.6%
15

21
CAR
-7.6%
24
-14.9%
25
4-3
-7.8%
23
-2.4%
15
-2.1%
25

22
MIN
-7.8%
20
-4.5%
23
3-3
-13.4%
27
-3.4%
12
2.2%
10

23
LAC
-7.9%
16
-2.9%
22
4-3
-1.5%
17
3.6%
22
-2.7%
26

24
NYG
-8.2%
23
-9.8%
24
2-5
-9.2%
25
3.7%
23
4.7%
6

25
BAL
-12.4%
25
2.4%
14
1-5
-2.4%
18
11.3%
27
1.2%
14

26
CLE
-20.8%
29
-18.7%
28
2-5
-27.9%
31
-13.1%
5
-6.0%
28

27
NYJ
-25.8%
27
-21.6%
30
0-7
-25.6%
29
7.5%
24
7.4%
3

28
LV
-27.5%
28
-18.1%
27
2-5
-26.0%
30
-3.3%
13
-4.8%
27

29
CIN
-27.6%
32
-15.1%
26
3-4
-6.3%
22
20.2%
32
-1.2%
21

30
MIA
-29.7%
26
-20.2%
29
1-6
-15.5%
28
20.1%
31
5.9%
4

31
NO
-35.6%
30
-22.1%
31
1-6
-10.5%
26
12.1%
29
-12.9%
32

32
TEN
-40.5%
31
-32.6%
32
1-6
-33.4%
32
8.8%
25
1.6%
11