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No, not the Ring of Honor, which is going to be awfully crowded in a decade. But the Canton Hall of Football Pro Fame place. How many Seattle Seahawks stars from this incarnation of the team, this 2012-17 window, are going to make it?
Maybe Richard Sherman isn’t a shoo-in at this moment in history, but he’s the next best thing. Earl Thomas — same. For ease of polling, let’s enshrine them both in the Hall, give them both automatic bids even though safeties have historically had a harder time than most gaining entrance.
(Tangent! There have been eight career safeties inducted. In all of NFL history. Two in the last 26 years. One is Paul Krause, and all he ever did was retire as the league’s all-time leader in interceptions. The other is Kenny Easley, who you might recognize from his career in blue and green. He had to wait for the senior committee to vote him in.)
End tangent. The next tier of Seahawk defenders’ chances range from “pretty good” to “not pretty good.” If Cliff Avril retires in a year he’ll be easy to pass over, but if he puts together three more great seasons he’ll be harder to ignore. If Bobby Wagner continues on his current path he seems like a fairly obvious choice, but first he probably has to... continue on his current path.
Then, what of Kam Chancellor, Michael Bennett, or K.J. Wright? There are seven authentic, fearsome, bona fide stars on this defense. Safe bet is that between two and seven will end up in Canton. Riskier bet is picking a number between those extremities.
For reference:
- of the 1985 Bears, only three defenders have been inducted: Richard Dent, Dan Hampton and Mike Singletary;
- of the Purple People Eaters, just two are in the Hall: Carl Eller and Alan Page;
- of the 2002 Bucs, we count a total of two defensive HoFers: Derrick Brooks and Warren Sapp.
It’s not easy to get in.
Statistical context: Avril has 73 career sacks. He’s 31 years old. Only one defensive end with less than 100 sacks is in the Hall of Fame: Howie Long. The magic number is 122. Get there and you’re in; fall short and it’s probably not happening.
Bobby Wagner has 410 career tackles, a ring, 66 AV in five seasons (188th among linebackers in league history), plus two First-Team All-Pro nods. Sounds nice, but Mike Singletary, for example, has 159 AV and seven first teams.
20 linebackers have made the first team three times, and nine of them are in Canton. Wagner will need to do it again, at least once. Preferably twice more.
Chancellor and Bennett and Wright don’t show up on leaderboards for any interesting statistics. Kam has four Pro Bowl appearances but beyond that, it’s his reputation, not his numbers, that speaks for him.
The poll below will assume that Bennett and Avril are long shots, and Wright the longest, so the questions will be phrased accordingly. Don’t like it? Write some fanposts, make ‘em good, get noticed, get hired at FG, invent your own column, and do something about it. Easy-sweezy.
Poll
Besides Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas, how many 2015-16-17 Seahawks defenders will eventually be elected to the Hall of Fame?
This poll is closed
-
13%
None
(236 votes) -
37%
One: Bobby Wagner
(632 votes) -
3%
One: Kam Chancellor
(55 votes) -
1%
One: Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril or K.J. Wright
(19 votes) -
20%
Two: Wagner and Chancellor
(351 votes) -
6%
Two: Wagner and Bennett
(113 votes) -
1%
Two: Wagner and Avril
(18 votes) -
1%
Two: Chancellor and Bennett
(28 votes) -
0%
Two: Chancellor and Avril
(3 votes) -
0%
Two: Bennett and Avril
(3 votes) -
0%
Two: a combination with Wright
(5 votes) -
7%
Three: Wagner, Chancellor, Bennett
(128 votes) -
0%
Three: Wagner, Chancellor, Avril
(16 votes) -
0%
Three: Wagner, Bennett, Avril
(13 votes) -
0%
Three: Chancellor, Bennett and Avril
(6 votes) -
0%
Three: a combination with Wright
(9 votes) -
1%
Four
(26 votes) -
2%
Five
(35 votes)
Not included in the poll: any of the less-established players such as Frank Clark or Jarran Reed, or any of the incoming rookies. Let’s give them a chance to play a snap in the league before we start fitting them for gold jackets.