Seattle Seahawks: 15 best first-round draft picks of all-time

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14 Oct 1990: Defensive linemen Jeff Bryant of the Seattle Seahawks sacks quarterback Jay Schroeder of the Los Angeles Raiders during a game at the Los Angeles Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. The Raiders won the game 24-17. /

Defensive End/Tackle. 1982-93. Jeff Bryant. 11. player. 36.

Jeff Bryant was the sixth overall pick in the first round of the 1982 NFL Draft out of Clemson University. He was a reliable pass rusher and run stopper who rarely missed games. Bryant played his entire NFL career in Seattle.

In the last 11 seasons of his career, Bryant missed only 10 games. That is an incredible streak of consistency for an interior lineman. But Bryant wasn’t just a player who showed up every Sunday. He showed up and was extremely effective.

For a lot of his career, “Boogey” was overshadowed by his peers along his own defensive front. In the 1980s, the Seahawks played a 3-4 defense and had one of the best defensive lines in the NFL.

Bryant was mostly a defensive tackle next to left defensive end Jacob Green (more on him later) and nose tackle Joe Nash. The trio played together for all of Bryant’s career up until 1991.

A lot of Bryant’s numbers are lost, as the NFL did not keep tackles or tackles for loss as official statistics for nearly all of his career. Sacks, however, were a stat. By the end of Bryant’s career, he had 63 of them. This number ranks third all-time in Seattle history.

How good was the line that Bryant helped form? While Bryant is third in Seahawks history in sacks, Green is first with 97.5 and Nash is sixth with 47.5. Now, that is impressive.

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