As I was reading down the ESPN ranking of the best safeties in the NFL, I was getting myself fully prepared to write another article about how the Seattle Seahawks get little respect outside the northwest corner of the country. There were the usual suspects. Kyle Hamilton was number one. No argument there.
Detroit’s dynamic duo of Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph came in at two and five. Hard to complain about that. Moving into the second half of the top ten, the choices became a little bit more questionable. Older players who may have lost a step but still get by on savvy. Players like Derwin James and Arizona’s venerable Budda Baker.
Antoine Winfield earned a spot despite missing much of last season. OK, he’s still clearly among the best. As for the recently-traded Minkah Fitzpatrick, I’m not so sure. We’ll see how he does in his return to South Florida.
Then, just as I was preparing for the worst, I got to number ten. The Seahawks actually got some love.
Seahawks’ safety Julian Love has established himself as one of the NFL's best
When they moved on from Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams a few years ago, one of the reasons was the emergence of Julian Love. After playing cornerback at Notre Dame, it took Love a few years to settle in at safety with the Giants. By 2022, he had emerged as a potential rising star, and John Schneider snapped him up in the free agent market.
That faith has paid off in a major way. Love has continued to improve as both a run defender and in pass coverage. By the end of his first season as a Seahawk, he had supplanted Adams as the starting strong safety. He was selected to the Pro Bowl for his efforts.
Last year, he backed up that 2023 season with another 100+ tackles and three interceptions. He also forced a couple of fumbles and made three tackles-for-loss. Once Coby Bryant locked down the opposite safety position, Seattle’s back end became one of the more reliable units in the league.
Love opened the 2024 season with a dozen tackles in a win over Denver and he closed the year with three pass defenses and a pick in a win over the Rams. In between, he began to grow into the role Kyle Hamilton played for Mike Macdonald in Baltimore. Love may never equal Hamilton’s level. The Raven has a unique skill set that makes him the best in the league.
But at just 27 and now getting the chance to learn from Macdonald’s, Love is still an ascending player. Number ten on the best safeties list is just a jumping off point. He could go higher over the next few years.
It would have been great to see Coby Bryant sneak into the “others receiving votes” category, but I’ll take what I can get with Love. Bryant can also improve over the next few seasons.
And besides, don’t be surprised if a couple of years from now Nick Emmanwori’s name isn’t showing up on these types of lists. That is, assuming the supremely athletic Swiss army knife sticks to safety. There’s no telling where he might line up.
Fortunately, with a top ten safety in Julian Love already patrolling the secondary and stepping into running lanes, Macdonald will be free to experiment with his rookie.