Seattle Seahawks Top Breakout Candidates

So much focus on big-name free agents and potential draft picks, but sometimes the next great player on your roster…… is already ON your roster.

Not every free agent ends up being a good fit, and not every draft pick contributes right away.  The road to mediocrity (and failure) is littered with teams who get high draft picks every year, take the obvious players in those spots, and still lose.

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What often separates the good teams from the bad, and even the great teams from the good, is the ability to not only identify talent, but to nurture and develop it as well; to “coach ’em up” as the saying goes.

This is a particular area of strength for the Seattle Seahawks. Each year we see significant contributions from players who were little-known backups one year, only to make great strides and become major factors the next.  Last year it was Jordan Hill before his late-season injury, in previous years guys like Byron Maxwell, Breno Giacomini, Jermaine Kearse, and Malcolm Smith came out of the virtual woodwork to play key roles.

The light hasn’t gone on for Tharold Simon yet, but he’s precisely the kind of player who could be waiting in the wings for a bigger role in the future. In fact, the ability of players like these to develop into solid regulars (if not breakout stars) is part of the essence of the Seahawks philosophy;  pay what’s necessary to keep your core of superstars in town, while managing the salary cap by filling out the rest of the roster with good players who come at a much lower cost.

In some ways we see this as a calculated maneuver in Seattle.  Players are drafted low or signed as UDFA’s, “stashed” or hidden on the practice squad or in some cases IR, with the idea in mind that they will be part of the depth chart in a year or two. Sometimes it works (Richard Sherman anyone?) and sometimes not (Jesse Williams), but when it does, it gives the team a huge salary cap advantage.

So who are the potential breakout candidates for 2015?  Here are seven who stand out as possibilities.  The criteria I used is simple: these are players who were on the roster last year and didn’t play major roles either because of injury or the quality of players ahead of them on the depth chart (or in one case, because he wasn’t on the team).  Listed in reverse order of potential impact.

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