Last week in an ESPN Insider feature, Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus ranked all 32 NFL rosters based purely on talent.

The premise was to take coaching and scheme out of the equation. He looked at data from the last two years, weighed 2015 more heavily than 2014, tried to add subjective context and adjusted for certain positions like quarterback.

In other words, if Roger Goodell awarded him an expansion franchise and said he could have any 53-man roster, these would be Monson's rankings.

And in them, he had the Seattle Seahawks 13th.

I disagreed with the ranking and approached Sam about doing a Q&A via email. He was kind enough to play along.

Thomas Rawls was a revelation in 2015, but can he play that well again behind a makeshift offensive line? Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

Kapadia: As someone who covered the Philadelphia Eagles prior to the Seahawks, I find their respective rankings (Eagles fifth) especially fascinating. My guess is you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in Philadelphia – fans, coaches, personnel people – who would prefer that roster over the Seahawks’. And I doubt you’d find anyone in Seattle who would want to trade players with the Eagles.

The Seahawks were first in Football Outsiders’ DVOA rankings last year, while the Eagles were 22nd. The Seahawks were plus-156 in point differential, while the Eagles were minus-53.

I can see the case for some of the teams ranked ahead of the Seahawks, but looking at it objectively, it’s tough to understand how you could prefer the Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings and Oakland Raiders. What am I missing?

Monson: Well, it’s important to look at what we’re trying to quantify here - just the playing talent on the roster. Last year the Seahawks were No. 1 on the list, but the offensive line was a disaster, and if anything it got worse on paper over the offseason. Plus they lost Marshawn Lynch, the guy who papered over a lot of those cracks for the past few seasons. That loss was mitigated by Thomas Rawls, and they went RB-heavy in the draft, but Lynch had proven dominance over years. Those new guys do not. That line will be an issue again.

The defense, long one of the league’s best, has begun to show cracks. Bobby Wagner hasn’t played up to his reputation for awhile, and depth is suddenly an issue in a lot of areas. The Seahawks have excellent coaching, scheme and talent in a few key areas, so that may well translate to more wins than this would indicate. But then if you sort win/loss rankings by the entire NFL last season, they were 11th, so it’s not crazy.

As for the Eagles' part, that surprised us when we were putting together the numbers, but when you think about it a little, there is far more talent there than people are giving them credit for. Chip Kelly was kicked to the curb in part because he appeared to be taking a talented roster backwards, and when you look beyond just 2015, there is some very good play in the recent past for a lot of their players.

PFF was also higher on the play of Sam Bradford last year than many. He was our 11th-rated QB overall. While Seattle may win more games than its talent would indicate, the Eagles may lose more with less-assured quantities in scheme and coaching. As for teams like Oakland and Minnesota in particular, I think you’re sleeping on two very talented rosters there.

Kapadia: Thanks for the explanation. But I still think you’re nuts.

I believe you had the Seahawks’ offensive line ranked dead last in run blocking last year. How do you reconcile that with the fact Rawls averaged 2.97 yards before contact, second to only Le'Veon Bell? Doesn’t that indicate that he had room to run?

Also on the offensive line, you listed Mark Glowinski as someone they need to upgrade. He started one game as a rookie. How’d you draw that conclusion?

Monson: Oh, it’s that kind of Q&A, eh?

Room to run can come from blocking, or it can come from a combination of scheme and breakaway runs where he wasn’t touched, skewing the average. 41.4 percent of Rawls’ runs were breakaways, which was third in the NFL. Todd Gurley was first, and the Rams didn’t have a good line either.

The Seahawks are good at buying the running back some free yards with their option looks, and the bottom line is that several guys can blow their blocks on the play, and it can still succeed if they’re the right wrong blocks and the defender can’t quite make the play. Rawls was excellent last year, as good as Lynch ever was at hiding that line. Whether he can do that long term the way Lynch could is a question going forward.

As for Glowinski, it’s more that he’s projected to start now, and so far we’ve seen nothing to suggest he’s capable of that. One start in 2015, and it was disastrous from a run-blocking standpoint, and even his preseason was bad. Maybe he’ll take a huge leap forward and surprise us, but I wouldn’t count on it.