Ranking The Teams Within The Team: #5 – Coverage+Return

Defensive backs take part of their traditional pregame huddle before taking the field for warmups.

Just for kicks, I decided to take a look at the various units on the Seahawks team and attempt to project how good, or bad, they may be in the upcoming season. I ranked the units based on their top-end potential as well as their low-end potential, and also how much confidence there was in predicting their performance. Here are the units that I ranked (in no particular order):

Kickers
Coverage
Offensive line
Quarterbacks
Running backs
Wide receivers
Tight ends
Defensive line
Linebackers
Secondary

#5 – The Coverage & Return Teams

Potential Stars in 2010: Justin Forsett, Leon Washington, Kam Chancellor, Josh Wilson, Golden Tate, Walter Thurmond, Earl Thomas
Washington has been a Pro Bowl player at least in part due to his return abilities. Forsett has been a solid returner, as has Wilson. Chancellor seems like a special teams beast if he’s mentally ready to shine on special teams. Thomas has potential as a gunner, and possibly a return man. Thurmond was an elite returner in college before his injury.

Potential Disasters: Brian Schneider
I know nothing about the new special teams coach, and we’ve seen some bad coaching lead to bad special teams play.

Easiest Players To Project: Forsett, Wilson
We’ve seen enough of these two to know their floor and their ceiling.

SUMMARY:
This group could actually impact wins and losses in ways we have not seen since Nate Burleson won some games for us a couple years ago. We have some promising young and athletic players for coverage and returns. The only thing that keeps me from ranking this unit higher is the amount of unknowns. Lots of new faces and a new coach, but the potential is certainly there.