2014 Super Bowl: Seahawks Feature Plenty of Home-Grown Talent

Jan 19, 2014; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks strong safety Kam Chancellor (31) celebrates with his teammates after making an interception against the San Francisco 49ers during the second half of the 2013 NFC Championship football game at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

As the Super Bowl continues to be picked apart matchup by matchup, player by player, I become more impressed with the jobs these two front offices have done putting together their teams.

We already took a look at the Broncos’ roster during the week, a team that has been put together by way of an ideal mix of draft picks, free agent pickups, and undrafted gems.

The Seahawks’ roster is built very similar, except they are a lot younger than some of the Broncos’ franchise cornerstones.

The most notable difference in age comes at the most critical position, where Russell Wilson is still a kid, nearly a decade and a half younger than Peyton Manning at 25 years of age. Wilson was picked in the third round of the 2012 NFL Draft, and is one of just a handful of draft day steals the Seahawks have on their roster.

To give you a bit of a clue, can any non-Seahawks fans tell me what college Kam Chancellor, K.J. Wright, Bobby Wagner, Red Bryant, and Byron Maxwell went to?

The Seahawks are built with a bunch of big, fast, strong, tough dudes. That extends all the way to the defensive backfield. Richard Sherman is a 6’3″ former wide receiver at Stanford, playing in the same division as his former college coach. How did Jim Harbaugh not see the potential there?

Sherman has quickly become one of the league’s top cover corners, and one of its loudest mouths as well, but he backs it up with his play on the field.

The best player on the Seattle roster, in my opinion, is a guy that was actually a highly touted prospect who came into the league with pretty big expectations. Safety Earl Thomas is arguably the best in the game at his position, and he provides one of the league’s best defensive backfields with an extremely dynamic athlete that can do everything.

Offensively, the Seahawks have hit on a number of guys at skill positions in both free agency and trades. When you look at the Seahawk offense, it is completely built around the running game and Marshawn Lynch, one of the toughest backs in the league to bring down on first contact.

Lynch was acquired from the Buffalo Bills for a sack of peanuts (kidding) and has been one of the biggest bargains we’ve seen in recent years. The Seahawks have also built their offense with guys like Zach Miller at the tight end position, a player picked up from Oakland who had five touchdowns and 18 first down catches this season.

Seattle also made a trade for Percy Harvin, who has barely played at all this season but is getting healthy at the perfect time. They gave up a lot in terms of draft pick value to get Harvin, and they are hoping he can show up big on the biggest stage as one of their biggest investments.

Defensively, the Seahawks picked up two bargain pass rushers in Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett, two guys that were on the market far too long and accepted greatly reduced deals to play with the Seahawks. Those two players combined for 16.5 sacks this past season.

This is a well-constructed Seattle roster with one of the best young, athletic, and intelligent defenses I have seen in recent years. They will be NFC contenders for many years to come.