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Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse — a survey of fans across the NFL, powered by SurveyMonkey. Each week during the regular season, we send 32 polls to 100+ plugged in fans from each team. Seahawks fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.
We have an offseason edition of FanPulse cooked up for you in this final week of March. For the most part, the juicy bits of NFL free agency are essentially over, and the biggest names area off the market.
All 32 fanbases were polled on whether they think their team got better or worse in free agency. This is optimists’ season, so 29 of 32 teams had more than 50% say “better,” including the Seattle Seahawks. However, respondents only voted 57% in favor of better, which is 27th among all fanbases. The five lowest are the Houston Texans (54%), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (53%), Minnesota Vikings (42%), Miami Dolphins (29%), and New England Patriots (15%).
The Seahawks’ biggest free agent moves were to re-sign RG D.J. Fluker, LBs Mychal Kendricks and K.J. Wright, as well as ST standout Neiko Thorpe, all while adding left guard Mike Iupati to the lineup. They also replaced kicker Sebastian Janikowski with Jason Myers, who had a career year with the New York Jets.
However, the major losses that probably split opinion so much would be the departures of future HOF safety Earl Thomas and starting nickel corner Justin Coleman. At a lesser level, third-down back Mike Davis went to the Chicago Bears, and LG J.R. Sweezy departed for the Arizona Cardinals.
As for offseason confidence polling, Field Gulls participants are at 77%, which is about middle of the pack. The Cleveland Browns are #1 in that category (and tied for 1st in free agency opinion, unsurprisingly), while Washington is understandably dead-last. For perspective, our Week 17 confidence polling was at 92%, so even after a playoff loss and key departures in free agency, it’s not all doom and gloom.
Next week, our FanPulse will feature numbers (and a graphic!) on who we think is the favorite to win the NFC West, along with a look at the rest of the league’s respective responses.