And while the success of this year’s and last year’s rookie classes might have Seahawks fans looking to the future, the young players themselves can’t help but also look to the past. It was just over a decade ago that a three-year run of drafts from 2010-2012 brought to Seattle players like Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, Russell Okung and Golden Tate in 2010, K.J. Wright, Richard Sherman, Byron Maxwell and Malcom Smith in 2011, and Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner, Bruce Irvin, Jeremy Lane and J.R. Sweezy in 2012. Those draft hauls were crucial in setting the team up for the most successful run in franchise history, a stretch that included two trips to the Super Bowl, a Super Bowl XLVIII victory over Denver, and win 10 or more games for five straight seasons while winning the NFC West three times from 2012-2016.
“I like it because, it gives me flashbacks of the old Seahawks teams,” said Woolen, who made the Pro Bowl as a rookie after tying for the league lead with six interceptions. “They had a class with Russ, and they had other classes around that time, and they went on and make a legacy for themselves. I feel like we can reach that level or go beyond that level. We just continue to work, continue to play as a team, continue to play off each other, and get closer as a family. Having that extra class coming here, it shows that the culture throughout that building, it works. Whatever the coaches are teaching us, we just buy into it and do our thing.”
Whether the current crop of young talent can help the Seahawks match or exceed that level of success maintains to be seen, but what was on display Sunday, and has been evident over the last two seasons, is that the Seahawks once again have a foundation of young talent that can be the nucleus of something special.
