Seahawks 25 best players, #20 Nick Vannett
By Dan Viens
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 6 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?
More from 12th Man Rising
- 4 prospects Seahawks could reach for at No. 20 in 2023 NFL Draft
- Seattle Seahawks Mock Draft: Post-first wave of free agency
- Seahawks podcast: A review of the first week of free agency
- 4 experiments the Seattle Seahawks could cut short in 2023
- 3 pros and cons of Seattle Seahawks drafting Anthony Richardson
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 20th Best Player On The Seahawks Roster Is….
#20: Nick Vannett, TE
This might be the first one on the list that many of you will take issue with, if only because lack of familiarity often breeds ignorance. But in the case of Nick Vannett, don’t assume that he’s nothing special simply because you haven’t seen him play.
Vannett, in short, is the real deal. Anyone who read any of my lead-up to the draft knows how high I was on him from the first time I saw him play for Ohio State last fall. Drafted and talked up primarily for his elite-level blocking skills, what those around the Seahawks are now finding out is what a polished route-runner and pass-catcher he is. At 6’6″ and 257 pounds, he presents an inviting target, and he runs easy routes and catches the ball naturally. He impressed everyone from Russell Wilson to Pete Carroll with how good he looked in OTA’s, and even GM John Schneider called him the “best Y tight end in the draft.”
Vannett could become one of the most valuable players on the Seahawks offense this year, for two reasons:
- His in-line blocking skills could help ease some of the edge responsibilities for a young, rebuilt offensive line (in much the same way that Zach Miller used to), and his ability to line up as an H-back or even in the backfield will augment the running game.
- His more traditional TE skill set will allow the Seahawks to be more creative with Jimmy Graham, and use him as more of a weapon. No more having to try and force-feed him into the offense as a blocker who can’t block.
Next: Seahawks extend WR Doug Baldwin
Vannett may fly under the radar, for now, but based on everything I’ve seen (and what the Seahawks have seen from him since the draft), he looks like a guy who could be an outstanding player in Seattle for a very long time….and worthy of being ranked in this spot.
Just watch.