Seahawks Player Rankings: Nos. 6-10
The heart of the best defense in the NFL and the most underrated tackle in the league
As ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler wrapped up this month’s “top 10” position rankings by asking supposedly important people within the NFL, he noted the teams that had at least five players across every list. The Detroit Lions led the way with nine such players, and eight other teams had at least five.
The Seattle Seahawks didn’t make the top 10 list’s top 10 list.
If the league is going to underestimate the Seahawks again, I say…let ‘em.
While Leonard Williams, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Devon Witherspoon, and Nick Emmanwori made a top 10 list, consider what that means for the players who were snubbed. We’ll talk about some of them today, we’ll talk about some of them when we get to the top five, but A.J. Barner (#11 on this list) didn’t even get a single vote.
Grey Zabel (#14) was an honorable mention. Julian Love (#12) appeared to get maybe one vote. And like virtually all others, Fowler’s exercise ignores special teams and treats those ~30 snaps per game per team as if they’re not that important.
What’s more valuable?
If Myles Garrett gets 2 sacks in a game
If Rashid Shaheed returns a punt for a touchdown?
Cam Jordan himself called pass rushers overrated and just this week former Mike Macdonald player Marlon Humphrey tweeted that it was the easiest position to play.
So, by ignoring special teams, Fowler’s exercise omits Shaheed, Michael Dickson, and Jason Myers, to say the least.
What Fowler is doing is fine. Flawed, but useful, and certainly helped us pass time between OTAs and training camp. Bulletin board material, if nothing else.
Now, if you want a real top 10 list…
Previous: Seahawks players ranked 11-15 (and links to the rest)
10. OLB DeMarcus Lawrence
Not to harp on this, but Lawrence didn’t get a single vote in Fowler’s list, which I’m not pointing out because anyone should take offense. It’s to point out that apparently not even people in the NFL are aware that defensive ends and outside linebackers are also supposed to play RUN defense.
It’s an issue with Fowler’s list that Cam Jordan has been vocal about for years, starting in 2023 and highlighting Lawrence as one of the best DEFENSIVE ENDS in the league:
Notice he did not say Myles Garrett.
Lawrence has consistently been a 5-6 sack type player throughout his career, with only a couple of exceptions a long time ago, but even last season at age 33 he was PFF’s top-graded run stopper at his position. #1.
Jordan also went on Julian Edelman’s podcast last year and called sacks an “overrated stat”, adding that what actually matters is “winning the game”, and mocked people for praising pass rush productivity while ignoring if “he’s a liability in outside zone” and that “the linebackers hate him but you’ll never know”.
(Again, he’s talking about Myles Garrett.)
DeMarcus Lawrence will never do well on a survey like Fowler’s because Lawrence doesn’t chase sacks. If he chased more sacks, he would get more sacks…but he would also allow more big plays. He’d be abandoning his true assignment and potentially leaving a gap for a big play to happen behind him.
And yet, Lawrence wasn’t lacking in big plays in 2025:
Lawrence did have eight sacks, if you include the playoffs, 25 QB hits, 14 tackles for a loss, 2 fumbles recovered for touchdowns, three forced fumbles, and number one ranked run defense.
And consider how many sacks Lawrence still got despite playing 626 snaps and many of those being obvious running situations.
Con(verse)ly, Jared Verse was a top-ranked honorable mention, with no regard for being ranked 63rd against the run. Why does Verse take Lawrence’s spot? Because according to “smart football people” it matters more than Verse is a recent first-round pick who had 1.5 more sacks than Lawrence on 230 more snaps.
Half of the job is not taken into account at all.
Nik Bonitto (ranked 10th) has proven to be great at getting sacks. He had 14 of them last year and 27 over the last two. But why then does he only play 60 percent of the snaps? Bonitto is a liability against the run. Lawrence has a somewhat better excuse, in that he’s 33.
Am I pointing all of this out just because Lawrence is a Seahawk and he was snubbed? No. I could say the same thing about Gregory Rousseau. Where is Gregory Rousseau?
Rousseau had seven sacks and he was one of the NFL’s top-ranked run defenders at the position last season. Rousseau doesn’t miss tackles and he’s probably very good at sticking to his assignment, but he was also without mention. Should he be there instead of Trey Hendrickson and Josh Hines-Allen?
There will never be a perfect top 10 list. But this one with Lawrence at #10 is pretty good.
9. CB Devon Witherspoon
Witherspoon actually didn’t do as well in the Tournament of THE Champions as I expected, essentially not ranking in the top 10 as he kept running into the wall that is Nick Emmanwori. However, I believe that was more of a bracket issue and that most Seahawks fans would put Witherspoon in their top 10.
And this is one Seahawk where the league did agree, ranking Witherspoon fourth among all corners. What are his strengths, his weaknesses, and his chances of being extended within the next week?
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