Top Ten Best Draft Picks In Seahawks' History: #3 - Shaun Alexander

But one of the best, no doubt. Like Green and Easley, I don’t think he’s HoF material, but the next two are, obviously.

Fantastic.

I get alot of shit for it, trust me. But he is my favorite Seahawks running back and I take pride in wearing it. I will be getting a Beast Jersey this season! He had the best run I have ever seen and it caused an earthquake.

IMO, that’s essentially the day Alexander’s career ended. Happened on an un-called horsecollar tackle and looked relatively harmless, but his foot caught the turf and buckled under. Major bone bruise. He looked especially slow the next week vs. ARZ, and IIRC, had the first of what would soon become his signature “80 yards on an ass-load of carries” games. Next week vs. the Giants, the foot finally fractured all the way and Alexander was out half the season. Then came the average fan and sports radio jock confusing correlation with causation. Hutch had left, and Alexander was just a scrub made by his OL – and he just signed an extension, so he was also a softy happy to get paid. But IMO it was always the foot. He never looked the same, and never had another signature game.

I had a lot of mixed emotions about Alexander. Biggest gripe was how he suddenly just stopped caring about the passing game. Early Shaun was a legitimate weapon out of the backfield and owned the screen game. Old Shaun wore wooden gloves and ran routes so lazily even Randy Moss cringed.

But the Shaun of ‘01-’05 was an amazingly special RB, and one of the lone bright spots of what was at that point an underwhelming Holmgren-era. He had signature moments on the big stage and was a SportsCenter fixture. He was the first Seahawk to break out as a legitimate national star. And he did this when Hutch missed an entire season with a broken leg and the right side of the OL was a revolving door of suck with Pork Chop, McIntosh, and stiffs like Wayne Hunter and Matt Hill – so the “product of the OL” excuse just doesn’t fly.

What a polarizing player.

Impossible to get any face time in Cheney two years in a row from 05-06. He’s the only signature my Mom doesn’t have on the NFC champions Collage she has.(Big Play Babs signed right on his face instead) He gave zero access to us. I loved his style of play and the absolute nuts production he had over that five year span, but the articles about his charity, and simply some of the other things posted in the thread, it’s like a bittersweet taste in the mouth. Polarizing Indeed.

I don’t remember him holding out of camp or whining about his pay up to that point either.