Top 5 most underrated Seattle Seahawks players of the last 10 years

The Seattle Seahawks have had their longest run of being relatively successful since head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider took over the running of on-field activities in 2010. In the last decade, the franchise has won its first Super Bowl and been to another one. But the teams weren't just built on top-end talent without depth.

Every successful team needs glue players. Those are the guys who aren't afraid to do the dirty work, but that also show up unexpectedly in important moments and make a play that wins or loses a game. Moreover, they go relatively mentioned in helping the team consistently win.

But this article is in part an overview of how general NFL fans and national pundits might view some players. Maybe because the Seahawks play in the Pacific Northwest and far away from many other large cities with lots of media, many players don't get their due. But the following five players should have.

Seattle Seahawks receiver Jermaine Kearse

Jermaine Kearse was never going to be a Pro Bowler. He didn't get the number of targets needed to be so. He was at best the Seahawks number two receiver, a shadow of what Doug Baldwin was doing, at least later in his time with Seattle. Kearse played with Seattle from 2012 through 2016, and in his best season (2015), he caught 49 passes for 685 yards and 5 touchdowns. Those numbers aren't going to cause anyone to give pause.

But Jermaine Kearse was unquestionably part of some of the biggest moments in the mid-2010s for Seattle. The NFC Championship game for the 2014 was a microcosm of Kearse's Seattle career. In the game against the Green Bay Packers, quarterback Russell Wilson threw 4 interceptions and Kearse caused at least 3 of them. All 3 were passes that Kearse should have caught and the ball bounced off his hands into the hands of a Packer.

And yet, just when the Seahawks absolutely had to have a score to win the game in overtime, who does Wilson throw a post route to? Kearse, of course, after he had just run the perfect route and shielded the defender from being able to get to the ball. Kearse wasn't a perfect player, obviously, but he simply showed up many times when the games mattered most.