Ranking the Best Seasons By Seahawks Safeties

 By John Turney 

Seattle has been the home to very good, and often great, safety play since the Seahawks became a franchise in 1976. 

But out of all of them who had the best individual season?

Taking each player's single best season and then ranking them is not an easy thing to do but using the criteria of stats, postseason honors, scouts' views when available, and the eye test, here is one take on the subject.

The list—

25. Lawyer Milloy, 2010 (strong)—At 37 he made 87 tackles and had four sacks - then a team record for safeties (since broken). Not a great year but good enough for the top 25.

Milloy

24. Deon Grant, 2007 (strong)—Seventy-eight tackles, ten passes defensed, three interceptions. He had an individual defensive passer rating of 54.5 per Stats, LLC (STATS).

23. Al Matthews, 1976 (strong)—Taken in the expansion draft the former Packer stepped in at strong safety and started all fourteen games and totaled 95 tackles, 13 passes defense, picked off three passes -  taking one to the house. 

22. Steve Preece, 1977 (free)—The Seahawks were his fifth and final NFL team in his nine-year career. He'd signed as a free agent to play free safety with the starter from the previous season, Dave Brown, moving to cornerback. 

He was a good tackler, a smart, savvy type but didn't have much speed. He played pretty well, making 96 tackles intercepting four passes, forcing a fumble and recovering one.

The only issue is he beat out Lyle Blackwood who was waived and picked up by the Colts. All Blackwood did that year was lead the NFL with 10 picks playing free safety in Charm City.

Ouch.

21. Paul Moyer, 1988 (strong)—He had to step in for Kenny Easley who showed up to camp but had to retire due to a serious kidney issue. Moyer did a credible job, intercepting six passes.

20. Jordan Babineaux, 2009 (free)—Just as he'd settled in at free safety and having a decent year (104 tackles, 1.5 sacks, two picks, and a forced fumble, a rookie named Earl Thomas arrived in 2010 to take his job.  

19. Nesby Glasgow, 1989 (strong)—One of the NFL's greatest names, the former Colts took over for Paul Moyer in 1989 at strong safety and made 97 tackles and fell on five fumbles (tied for the league lead) one was a scoop and score. 

18. Dave Brown, 1976 (free)—Brown was a highly underrated cornerback in the 1980s but few remember he started as a free safety. He'd been left unprotected by the Steelers and the 'Hawks grabbed him in the expansion draft. 

His season totals were 111 tackles to lead the team and tied for third-most by a safety in franchise history, 17 passes defensed, four interceptions and he forced two fumbles, all on a 2-12 team. 

One observer said he would have had ten interceptions if his hands were better. Apparently, he got that fixed, ending his career with 62 interceptions, tied for tenth all-time.

17. Michael Boulware, 2005 (strong)—The younger brother of Peter Boulware, a big safety (6-3, 223) he played mostly nickel linebacker as a rookie before becoming the starter at strong safety late in the year. That year he saved four games due to big plays, but since he was a hybrid player who was not on the field in all the defensive packages his sophomore year is the pick.

In his second season, his career year, he made 73 tackles (second on the team) had a couple of sacks and intercepted four passes plus two in the playoffs, including one in Super Bowl XL off Ben Roethlisberger. He also blocked a kick in 2005.

16. Ryan Neal, 2022 (strong)—Neal just became a starter in the Seattle secondary this past season at age 27. He missed three games, started ten, made 66 tackles, and had a sack, an interception and a forced fumble. He was named to Pro Football Focus All-Pro team. 

He spends most of his time on the box but when Seattle goes with a 2-high look, he's usually a boundary safety, almost always on the short side of the field with Quandre Diggs playing the field, or wide side.

15. Bradley McDougald, 2018 (strong)—Rated higher by scouts than by All-Pro voters. His stats were good enough - 78 tackles, three picks, three forces, but he was a top-five strong safety in 2018. 

He was sent to the Jets as part of the deal that brought Jamal Adams to the Seahawks in 2020. The Seahawks also got two first-round picks and change. 

14. Autry Beamon, 1978 (strong)—Beamon had ball skills. Coming over from the Vikings in a trade he had six picks in 1977 in just nine starts. 

In 1978 he had fewer picks but started all sixteen games, had 112 tackles (second-most ever by a Seattle safety), forced a fumble, recovered one and was credited with fifteen passes defensed. Though he got no postseason honors the was rated highly by one independent pro scouting service. 

Beamon

13. Reggie Tongue, 2002 (strong)—He could lay a lick, pun intended - Tongue was a good hitter. 

He was signed by Seattle as an unrestricted free agent (coming from the Chiefs and getting $13 million for five years- huge money in those days). In his second year in the Pacific Northwest, he picked off five passes, took one back for a touchdown and made 105 tackles. He had an individual defensive passer rating of 54.7 per STATS.

In week five against the Vikings, the game he had returned a interception for a score, he made six tackles, he intercepted a second pass, defensed a total of four and recovered a fumble on special teams that led to a Seahawks touchdown  

12. Jay Bellamy, 2000 (free)—In his seventh and final season with the Seahawks, a contract year, he put it all together and had a career year that the Saints noticed, giving him a four-year $4.4 million contract. 

He had four interceptions, two sacks, two forced fumbles, all tied for his career highs, to go with his 88 tackles and eight passes defensed and pick-six. 

11. Ken Hamlin, 2004 (free)—Another big-time hitter in an era when that was allowed. He played 100 percent of the defensive snaps, made 80 tackles had two sacks and stole four passes - a career-high, and his individual defensive passer rating of 57.7 (STATS) was a career-low. 

His interception in week three broke the 49ers' streak of 420 straight games of not being shut out, dating back to 1977. He also had seven tackles and an interception in the playoffs.

His 2006 season was also very good. He'd recovered from a head injury he'd received in a nightclub brawl the year before but in the end, he was at his best pre-injury so we went with that.

10. Robert Blackmon, 1996 (strong)—He was a second-team All-AFC selection in 1995 and had a career-high in interceptions that season and was even an AFC Defensive Player of the Week twice, in Week 12 and Week 15. 

But he missed some games that season and the next year stepped it up with 102 tackles, three picks and forced four fumbles. 

It was a close call but in this case, the season without the postseason honors was the better one.

9. Keith Simpson, 1979 (strong)—A first-round draft pick the previous year, he filled in at strong safety for two seasons though he had always been a cornerback. When Kenny Easley was drafted in 1981 Simpson got to play the position he preferred.

As a strong safety, his 1979 season was his best. he had four interceptions, forced four fumbles, totaled 85 tackles and fifteen passes defensed and had a pair of sacks. He was also graded as a top safety by one professional scouting firm.

Pretty good for a cornerback playing out of position.

Simpson

8. Quandre Diggs, 2021 (free)—He's been a Pro Bowler the last three years but this past year was not his best, the year before was. Not as tall as you'd like as a safety (he played a lot of cornerback early in his career, when he was a Lion) but he makes big plays in big games. 

Even though he missed four games he had five picks and 94 tackles and gave up just one touchdown according to both Sports Information Solutions (SIS) and Sports Radar, two of the leading sports analytics organizations.

7. Darryl Williams, 1997 (FS)—A former first-round pick of the Bengals, Williams signed with his college coach Dennis Erickson in 1996 as a free agent and paid immediate dividends picking off five passes and returning one for a score. 

His second year in blue, silver and green was even better - he was an AP second-team All-Pro (first-team by NFL Films) and was the AFC Player of the Week for Week 4. 

He pilfered eight passes, again taking one to the house, and totaled 93 tackles and he had a 47.9 individual defensive passer rating (STATS). 

His year is good enough for seventh on our list.

Williams

6. Jamal Adams, 2020 (strong)—Love him or hate him, think he was worth what Seattle gave up for him or not, his 2020 season was rare for a strong safety/linebacker hybrid.

His specialty was lining up in the box making plays in the run game and pressuring quarterbacks. His 9.5 sacks set a record for the most ever by a defensive back. 

Even though he missed a month of the season he still had  41 pressures (SIS) - four fewer than Joey Bosa (who also missed four games) and the same number as Matt Judon (who missed two games) and Frank Clark (missed one game).  

He was second-team All-Pro, All-NFC and a Pro Bowler. 

It was a great year in everything except coverage which was never his strong suit.

5. Kam Chancellor, 2013 (strong)—One of the NFL's last dominant hitting safeties. Chancellor had several years that could qualify as his career year. We chose 2013. He was second-team All-Pro, made 99 tackles (four were stuffs), picked off three and was his usual intimidating self.

Chancellor

4. John Harris, 1981 (right)—A seventh-round draft pick in 1978, Harris took over for Steve Preece as a rookie, lost it midway through his sophomore season regained it his third and kept it after that.

In 1981, as a right safety, (not free safety, they played left- and right under new defensive coordinator Jackie Simpson) and was surrounded in the secondary by Ken Easley, Dave Brown and Keith Simpson. He ballhawked his way to ten interceptions and took a pair of them to the end zone. He also recovered three fumbles, forced two and defensed 17 passes while making 91 tackles.

Even with all that the only postseason honor he got was All-AFC by the New York Daily News. 

3. Eugene Robinson, 1993 (free)—Any of a half-dozen seasons could have been his career year, Robinson was steady and as underrated as they come. 

But 1993 was special. he tied for the NFL lead in interceptions with nine, made 111 tackles (four short of his team mark for tackles by a safety), recorded two sacks, forced three fumbles, recovered two fumbles and was credited with fifteen passes defensed.

He was the AFC Defensive Player of the Week in Week 11, first-team All-Pro and went to the Pro Bowl.

2. Earl Thomas, 2013 (free)—The second safety from the Legion on Boom to have his best season in 2013, though like Chancellor and Robinson, he had more than one year that qualifies.

In 2013 Thomas had a career-high in tackles (105), tied his career high in interceptions (five), was third in the AP Defensive Player of the Year voting and was a consensus All-Pro and was a Pro Bowler as well.

Add in the 'Hawks thumping the Broncos in the Super Bowl which just adds icing to the cake of the former Longhorn's career year.

1. Kenny Easley, 1984 (strong)—"Oh, I'm vicious. I'm definitely vicious", said Easley when he was asked about his style by NFL Films. he was every bit as intimidating a safety as younger fans may think Kam Chancellor was. It was just different then, big hits were celebrated and Easley was always on any list of the hardest-hitting safeties

His 1984 season being first on this list is no surprise. The 1981 first-round pick of the Seahawks went off that year. He was the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year, and was the Defensive Player of the Week twice, one by the NFL and another by Pro Football Weekly.

Statistically, he led the NFL in interceptions with ten, setting the franchise record, took two back for touchdowns, tying the team record, made 75 tackles, forced three fumbles and defensed 24 passes, including the ten picks. 

He also picked off a pass in the 13-7 upset win over the defending Super Bowl champion Raiders in the playoffs.

Easley

. 

His career year of 1984 was the best in Seahawks' history and one of the best all-time by any safety on any team.