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.

Seattle Seahawks linebacker Bruce Irvin

How can a former first-round pick be underrated, you ask? It's true that Bruce Irvin was a first-round pick for the Seahawks in 2012, but then he simply seemed to be forgotten a bit. His name got buried under the names of other players like Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, and Michael Bennett. All those guys were a huge part of what was arguably the greatest defense in the history of the NFL.

But Irvin was a big part of that as well. Between 2013 and 2015, Irvin started every game but five that he was available for. He was solid in run support but he never truly got enough credit for how well he could rush the passer, at least not in his early Seattle seasons. In 2012, for instance, Irvin didn't start a game but got 8 sacks and 19 quarterback hits. The Seahawks would have loved to have had a guy with 8 sacks in some recent years.

In 2014, Irvin had 6.5 sacks, 12 quarterback hits, 9 tackles for loss, and intercepted 2 passes and ran them both back for touchdowns. The next season, his last for a while in Seattle, he had 5.5 sacks and 14 quarterback hits. He was a consistent pass-rushing presence that Seattle would miss to a degree beginning in 2016 when Irvin signed with the Oakland Raiders where he had 7 sacks and 25 quarterback hits.

Irvin returned for a time in 2022 when Seattle absolutely needed any kind of pass-rush help they could get. While the defense underwhelmed for most of the season, Irvin at least made the unit somewhat better as he had 3.5 sacks and 5 tackles for loss. Pretty good for a 34-year-old linebacker who was just sitting on his couch before Seattle called. Oh, and in 11 postseason games for the Seahawks, Irvin had 4.5 sacks, 10 quarterback hits, and 5 tackles for loss.

Seattle Seahawks safety Bradley McDougald

Bradley McDougald signed with Seattle in 2017, and although he had started the previous two seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in Seattle he was only really expected to be a backup to Earl Thomas or Kam Chancellor. But that was the part of McDougald's game that excited the Seahawks coaching staff; McDougald had the versatility to be a solid backup at either free safety or strong safety.

But in McDougald's first season with the Seahawks, injuries began hitting Thomas and Chancellor. After playing free safety for Thomas in two games, Chancellor was lost for the year and McDougald just shifted over to Chancellor's spot. McDougald proved he could cover and play against the run. He did this so well that beginning in 2018, he became a full-time starter for Seattle in 2018 and 2019.

McDougald, in fact, was surprisingly fantastic in coverage. In 2018, McDougald had 3 interceptions and 9 passes defended. IN 2019, McDougald picked off 2 more, but he allowed only a 58.8 passer rating when targeted. Only 54.4 percent of the 57 passes thrown his way were completed, and he allowed just 6.2 yards per target.

Unfortunately for the current version of the Seahawks, McDougald might best be remembered for being a part of the trade that brought Jamal Adams to Seattle in 2020. McDougald was shipped to the New York Jets in the trade. Adams was good in 2020 but hasn't played as well or very much since. Adams might still come back to play at a high level, but there's also a good chance that he doesn't and sending McDougald to New York for Adams was a mistake.

Seattle Seahawks left guard Damien Lewis

Many people just assume the interior of the Seattle Seahawks offensive line was bad in 2022. It wasn't. Not all of it anyway. Center and right guard were a bit of a problem. Austin Blythe was not strong enough to hold up in a Seattle scheme against more powerful defensive linemen. Gabe Jackson was pretty bad more often than not.

But Damien Lewis was likely the most consistently good offensive lineman the Seahawks had last year. He was also really good at right guard in 2020 (his rookie season) before being flipped to left guard in 2021. One might wonder why Seattle decided to move Lewis, but it could just be that he could further help protect whichever right-handed quarterback was taking snaps.

As a right guard in 2020, Pro Football Focus (subscription required) gave Lewis a relatively poor pass protection grade of 48.4 but he was beastly in run blocking at 81.5. Lewis wasn't much better after being moved to left guard in 2021 in pass blocking and digressed a bit in the running game. But in 2022, Lewis excelled in pass protection and was solid against an opposing team's run defense. He ranked 11th overall for guards last year.

Lewis is now entering his walk year in 2023 and will be an unrestricted free agent next offseason. The Seahawks already extended edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu for another three years, and now they need to focus on Lewis. It seems that the Seattle coaching staff is happy with being young and talented on the offensive line and Lewus is only going to make the group better for the next several seasons and be a veteran voice that the rest of the line can rely on.

Seattle Seahawks safety Quandre Diggs

This final underrated player has nothing to do with how 12s and his Seahawks teammates view him. I assume most Seahawks fans appreciate Quandre Diggs for all he does. Who was the guy that helped spring Seattle to an unexpected postseason run when he clearly bated Los Angeles Rams quarterback Baker Mayfield into a deep pass to what he thought was a wide open receiver until Diggs easily intercepted the pass? Of course, that would be Diggs.

That's the kind of the thing Diggs has done since he's been in Seattle since he was traded to the team midway through the 2019 season. In 55 games for the Seahawks, Diggs has 17 picks and 27 passes defended. He has made the Pro Bowl in each of the last three seasons. He's also the unquestioned leader of the backend of the secondary.

This is partly why it is so frustrating that when NFL.com releases its top 100 players in the league before a season begins that Diggs is not on it. Sure, NFL.com likes to point out that the players vote on the rankings, but it is still difficult that so many fellow players wouldn't appreciate the hard-working Diggs for the player he has become. He ranked in the top 100 in 2022, but not 2023? What?

But that's OK because Quandre Diggs finds any hint of disrespect to motivate him. He won't be beaten down and he won't back down from any challenge. He has proven this over his three-plus seasons with the Seahawks and he will prove it again in 2023.

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