Ranking Seahawks ten best draft picks of John Schneider era

Earl Thomas (2010-1st round)

I wanted to put Chancellor ahead of Earl Thomas because of the way Thomas left the field as a Seahawk. Plus, Chancellor was a better teammate than Thomas. Thomas was athletically gifted and played as well as any free safety in the history of the NFL for the first six years of his career. Thomas should be a likely Hall of Famer.

Thomas covered so much ground as a free safety that quarterbacks were afraid to throw it too deep which shortened the field for Seattle. This meant Chancellor could play closer to the line of scrimmage to help with the run and allowed the cornerbacks to play press-man as they knew even if they did get beat Thomas had their backs.

Thomas was a first-team All-Pro between 2012 and 2014 and a Pro Bowler in six out of sevens seasons between 2011 and 2017. As a Seahawk, Thomas had 28 interceptions in 9 seasons with 67 passes defended. But Thomas wasn’t only a guy who defended passes. He could hit hard as well, like the time he broke Rob Gronkowski’s rib against the Patriots.

Sadly, Thomas’s legacy will forever be stained with the Seahawks as he flipped off the Seattle sideline while being carted off the field due to an injury in week four of the 2018 season. Seattle’s owner, Paul Allen, passed away a couple of weeks later from an illness. Thomas never played with Seattle again.