The extremal index $θ$, a number in the interval $[0,1]$, is known to be a measure of primal importance for analyzing the extremes of a stationary time series. New rank-based estimators for $θ$ are proposed which rely on the construction of approximate samples from the exponential distribution with parameter $θ$ that is then to be fitted via the method of moments. The new estimators are analyzed both theoretically as well as empirically through a large-scale simulation study. In specific scenarios, in particular for time series models with $θ\approx 1$, they are found to be superior to recent competitors from the literature.