Where does Seahawks 2012 draft rank among the best this century? ESPN says it’s not the best

Pete Carroll and John Schneider partnered up on some legendary draft classes, particularly in their first few years together. One stands above the others, though, and will forever be remembered as a game-changer for a franchise that had been good — even great, at times — but only had one Super Bowl appearance to show for it. This would be the 2012 NFL Draft, of course, where the Seattle Seahawks selected Bruce Irvin, Bobby Wagner, and Russell Wilson with their first three picks. Not only this, but they added some guys who provided key depth and/or competition during their time with the team, like Turbo and Jeremy Lane.

This class was good enough to rank fifth best of the 21st century, according to Aaron Schatz of ESPN. His full ESPN+ article is subscription-only, so here is the assessment specifically on the Seahawks 2012 draftees.

Here’s an interesting draft where the Seahawks might have selected two Hall of Famers, but neither came in the first round. There’s an interesting debate to be had about what quarterback Russell Wilson’s late-career struggles in Denver — and what he does in Pittsburgh this year will mean for his Hall of Fame case. But that doesn’t change the fact the Seahawks got a signal-caller in the third round who made nine Pro Bowls for them in 10 years and led them to two Super Bowls, winning one. Second-round linebacker Bobby Wagner will likely make it to Canton; he has been a first-team All-Pro six times.

What about the rest of this draft? First-round pick Bruce Irvin has bounced around the league for the past few years but started at least nine games as an edge rusher in eight seasons. In the seventh round, the Seahawks got defensive tackle J.R. Sweezy. He moved to offense in his second year and was a starter at guard for three different teams for seven seasons from 2013 through 2020. In between, the Seahawks also drafted fourth-round running back Robert Turbin, who had an eight-year NFL career; fourth-round defensive tackle Jaye Howard, who eventually started two seasons in Tampa; and sixth-round nickelback Jeremy Lane, who played a key role in the 2013 and 2014 Super Bowls.

The class of 2010 may be more star-studded (Okung, Thomas, Tate, Chancellor, Thurmond), but the fact that the Seahawks landed a franchise quarterback in the third round is and always will be legendary.

In case you are curious, the teams that rank ahead of the Seahawks are the 2008 Atlanta Falcons (Matt Ryan, Sam Baker, and Curtis Lofton), Arizona Cardinals (Larry Fitzgerald, Karlos Dansby, Darnell Dockett), 2004 LA Chargers (Philip Rivers/technically Eli Manning, Nick Hardwick, Nate Kaeding), and 2006 New Orleans Saints (Reggie Bush, Jahri Evans, Roman Harper, Marques Colston), respectively. Now, I would argue that the Seahawks’ 2012 class should objectively be first overall *, as the New Orleans Saints are the only one of these four teams to have won a Super Bowl in this century/ever, but I digress. In case you are interested, here is the original Field Gulls assessment of the 2012 NFL Draft! Spoiler alert: they loved it.

*the 2010 class would be second, followed by the 2011 class