Aaron Schatz’s 2026 Football Almanac puts the Seahawks under the analytical microscope

Aaron Schatz, creator of Football Outsiders’ DVOA framework, has released his annual Football Almanac for 2026, and the project continues to include a dedicated Seattle Seahawks chapter. The Yahoo Sports write-up of the almanac focuses on “key Seahawks takeaways” and frames the Seahawks’ recent outcomes through advanced, efficiency-based analysis rather than surface-level box-score storytelling.

Schatz’s almanac is published in partnership with FTN Fantasy for a third consecutive year, according to the item. The same coverage notes that the Seahawks chapter is designed to deliver “advanced analytical insight,” and it is paired with a larger, league-wide statistical appendix meant to contextualize how teams performed beyond traditional counting stats.

Because the Yahoo summary is structured around reading the Seahawks chapter, the most concrete takeaway that can be asserted from the published material is the book’s purpose: it organizes Seahawks film-and-math discussion into a DVOA-style lens. That matters in the NFL off-season because the league’s evaluation culture increasingly rewards efficiency metrics, situational tendencies, and opponent-adjusted output when teams and fans try to answer the persistent question, “Was it repeatable, or just timing?”

The Seahawks, as a franchise, remain a useful reference point for this type of work, since their identity has often been tied to how they perform in phases of the game, not just totals. An efficiency-first almanac approach also encourages readers to break down outcomes by context, such as how teams generate advantages versus how they capitalize once they obtain them. Schatz’s work is known for that style of decomposition, and the Yahoo piece positions the Seahawks chapter as an application of those principles to Seattle’s profile.

The coverage also emphasizes that the almanac includes a league-wide appendix, which suggests the Seahawks portion is meant to sit inside a broader comparative landscape. That is significant because one team’s “dominant” season can look different when measured against strength of schedule, matchup quality, and game-state splits. The appendix framing implies readers can check whether a team’s performance patterns were common across the league or stood out in ways that are more likely to recur.

What to watch next is how the public conversation around the Seahawks evolves after the almanac’s release. During training camp and the regular-season run-up, teams, media, and fantasy communities often use these analytical summaries to support narratives about play style, coordinator impact, and roster fit. For now, the most defensible value of the almanac item is that it adds another structured way to evaluate Seattle’s football beyond simple wins and losses.

From a reader’s standpoint, the key caveat is that the Yahoo piece is a set of takeaways from inside the almanac, not the almanac itself. Without the specific Seahawks observations being reproduced in the provided text, it is not possible to verify particular numbers, conclusions, or named examples from the chapter here. A full read of the Seahawks chapter would be required to quote specific findings or quantify the claims.

Even with that limitation, the almanac’s release timing, and its continued partnership with FTN Fantasy, suggests a sustained effort to make advanced football evaluation accessible to mainstream NFL audiences. For Seattle observers, it offers a framework to discuss what produced success, why it mattered, and whether similar efficiency drivers might surface again.