The hard truth is the Seattle Seahawks haven't been a true Super Bowl contender since the end of the 2015 season. You can argue the pieces were still there, but the comeback that fell just short at Carolina in the Divisional Round of the Playoffs was the last time any legitimate NFL contender truly had something to fear from this team.
Ever since, their reputation has been steadily diminishing. Former head coach Pete Carroll couldn't manage to replace the awesome talents that he had during the Legion of Boom years and failed to change with the times. Eventually his defenses started ranking near the bottom of the league. At the end of this past campaign, team chair Jody Allen decided that she had seen enough. Carroll was dismissed and has been replaced by Mike Macdonald, regarded as one of the top defensive minds in the league today, as opposed to 10 years ago.
While we expect big things from Macdonald, it's likely going to take a while for him to turn this team around and get them back to competing with playoff teams. This offseason has been a great example of how far the estimation of the Seahawks has fallen in the eyes of those around the league and those whose job it is to evaluate it. All year Geno Smith and the rest of the team have been consistently underrated and underranked by the media.
The latest slight comes from Pro Football Network, where analyst Dallas Robinson just came out with a ranking of the top 100 players currently in the NFL today. If you scroll all the way down the list you'll notice that not a single Seahawks player made the cut.
While it's true that Seattle's roster is not nearly as loaded as Santa Clara's, or other powerhouse teams around the NFC, this feels like a snub. At the very least, second-year cornerback Devon Witherspoon should have made the list. If we need to replace one guy on it, we'd take out Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, who came in at No. 83. Barkley is undeniably talented and Philly's run game should be must-see TV this year. However, there are a lot of other players around the league who are making a bigger impact on the game than Barkley is at this point in his career.
The good news is Witherspoon thrives on this kind of disrespect. Here's how he reacted when he only finished in fourth place in last year's Defensive Rookie of the Year voting.
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— Devon Witherspoon (@DevonWitherspo1) February 9, 2024
If the Seahawks can collectively commit to using these kinds of insults as motivation, they will very soon earn back the respect that they deserve.
