Seahawks 25 best players, #22 Jermaine Kearse

The Seattle Seahawks roster is generally regarded as one of the best in the NFL top to bottom, but what about the talent level within the roster? Our co-editor Dan Viens takes a shot at ranking the team’s Top 25 players in order.

(PART 4 OF 25 IN A SERIES)

NFL Network does their Top 100 NFL players list every year, and this off season we’ve seen our share of analysts taking a crack at ranking the best rosters in the league. As we enter into the dog days of the off season, with the start of training camp still over a month away, I wanted to see what it would look like if I tried to rank the best 25 players the Seahawks have.

It was harder than I thought.

The top 10 was pretty easy. I would suspect most would end up with the same 10-12 names in some order or another. After that it gets dicey.

Among the challenges, how do you figure in the rookies and players who have never played a down in Seattle?

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My criteria was wide-ranging. Sometimes I went with pure talent, and other times I gave more weight to the players importance to the team. And in certain cases the players role…….played a role in my ranking. When in doubt, however, I would just ask myself “who’s the better player?”

So here we go……

The 22nd Best Player On The Seahawks Roster Is….

#22: Jermaine Kearse, WR

Kearse might be one of the most polarizing figures in recent Seattle sports history. To hear some fans tell it, he’s worthless and doesn’t belong in the NFL let alone on this team. Yet here he is, back again, this time on the biggest contract of his career (3 years, $13.5 million).

Why the disconnect between fanbase and team? First, Kearse has been known to come up with untimely drops, most notably a couple that resulted in interceptions in the NFC title game against the Packers two years ago. But anyone who focuses on the negative plays isn’t seeing the forest through the trees. Kearse has also produced some of the most memorable plays in the teams postseason history:

• The long TD on 4th down to turn around the 2013 NFCCG against San Francisco.
• The bomb for a score in overtime to seal the 2014 win vs. Green Bay, more than atoning for the earlier drops.
• The juggling, acrobatic sideline grab to give the Hawks a chance to take a shot at winning Super Bowl XLVIII against New England.

2015 was Kearse’s most productive season, as he ended up with 49 catches for 685 yards and 5 TD’s. And the last time he played a game ended up being the best of his career, as he hauled in 11 balls for 110 yards and 2 scores in the divisional round loss to Carolina. But despite all his flashy career highlights, it’s his outstanding contributions on special teams that has often separated him from the other WR’s when it comes to cut-down day.

Next: Ahtyba Rubin checks in at 23rd on list of Top 25 Seahawks

This may be the first year in his career that Kearse sees his touches go down instead of up, with the emergence of Doug Baldwin and Tyler Lockett. And in fact, his days on the roster may be numbered as the Seahawks continue to load up on high-upside young receivers like Kasen Williams, Kevin Smith and Kenny Lawler. But for now, today, based on what he’s done on the field…..Kearse belongs in this spot on the list.