I pushed doing something like this for years. It was just way too painful. Now that we have been made whole, and frankly avenged for, by the recent SB victory, I finally had to strength to spend hours and hours looking at the Pete Carroll era drafts. Which I arbitrarily divided into five period of three years each, just cause the math worked out and I wantws to see trends over time.
**THE METHOD**
What I did is that I grouped players into five categories, namely:
i) the extremely rare SUPERSTAR (four years or a full rookie deal term's worth of Pro Bowls);
ii) the more common STAR player (makes Pro Bowl at least once and has some name recognition league wide, some of whom still burn out very fast);
iii) the STARTER player (who starts at least one full or almost full season in terms of snap counts for the role, _e.g._ lower for edge and higher for OL. Note that this doesn't mean that the player was a good starter or even should have started, but he did in that era);
iv) the BACKUP player (who remains around for at least a substantial part of his rookie deal and is active in a lot of games, but never cracks the path to being a starter other than very temporarily due to injuries); and
v) the BUST player (who never plays a down for us or then just a handful never making any meaningful contribution before leaving).
**BEFORE YOU GET MAD ...**
In the end, I focused most on snap counts over the years, a good measure for contribution - good or bad. This makes Ifedi a four year starter non-stop, as much as we may hate him. But he was. I ignored achievements for other teams and contributions in second stints with the Seahawks. There were guys who later became backups or even starters for other other teams, which I ignored. I also ignored draft position meaning that someone like Marquise Blair, whom I'd say objectively was a second round bust, become a backup. Cause he was that at least in his rookie year. This then means that, if anything, my scale is overly positive and optimistic when it comes to starters and backups. No qualitative subjective noise added. Here's what came out.
**THE GOLDEN ERA OF TEAM BUILDING 2010 - 2012**
The team came with limited talent pool to the PC/JS era. Yes, there were some earlier solid picks still around like Max Unger, Red Bryant and Brandon Mebane. But the team was nowhere close to Super Bowl contender until this era. This era's drafting was magical, an amazing almost 1/5 of the draft picks became NFL superstars and almost 1/3 were Pro Bowlers at some point. The number of busts was normal. This was amazing as picks were used also for many trades. More talent was added through trades for players like M. Lynch, C. Clemons and B. Mebane. Great FAs like M. Bennett and C. Arvril were also added. And even some UDFAs like D. Baldwin and J. Kearse popped up. First round picks hit, with B. Irvin being the only one never making it to the Super Bowl. Even a late 7th round LB, M. Smith, drafted in this era ended up shining later in the 2014 SB becoming its MVP.
SUPERSTARS: 2 + 1 + 2 = 5/28 = 18%
Being E. Thomas, K. Chancellor, R. Sherman, R. Wilson and B. Wagner.
STARS: 4 + 2 + 2 = 8/28 = 29%
The above plus Golden Tate, KJ Wright and Russell Okung
STARTERS: 1 + 2 + 2 = 5/28 = 18%
BACKUPS: 1 + 1 + 2 = 4/28 = 14%
BUSTS: 3 + 4 + 4 = 11/28 = 39%
**THE SUPER BOWL ERA DISASTERS, ALSO IN DRAFTING 2013 - 2015**
It the SB years, the drafting went downhill. The year we won the SB against Broncos, the draft was a full disaster. Of the 2013 draft class, only Luke Willson saw lots of snaps as a backup in the his rookie season, but was limited to two catches in the playoffs. Jordan Hill did really nothing in his rookie season, but in 2014 he played 64 snaps late in the season, when Mebane was out, and made some key sacks, but missed the playoffs due to injury. An eye popping 7 out of 11 players, or just over 60%, were flat out busts in 2013. The second SB season 2014 had an almost as bad draft. Though J. Britt contributed by playing OT for all the snaps in 2014, which was great. P. Richardson made one catch in the first playoff game in 2014 and went down with injury for the year. That's it in terms of the 2014 draft class contributing to the 2014 SB run. The draft in 2014 after the SB loss was far better, as it gave us two Pro Bowlers in T. Lockett and F. Clark, but the amount of outright busts remained excessive through this era. Yet, the team remained strong due to earlier drafting, trade and FA successes.
SUPERSTARS: None
STARS: 0 + 0 + 2 = 2/28= 7% ( T. Lockett and F. Clark)
STARTERS: 0 + 1 + 1 = 2/28 =7%
BACKUPS: 4 + 3 + 0 = 7/28 = 25%
BUSTS : 7 + 5 + 5 = 17/28 = 61%
**BECOMING STALE AND MEDIOCRE, 2016 - 2018**
Now the team was too far removed from drafting success and you see it in weak, or even downright bad players, becoming starters and backups. The likes of G. Ifedi, T. Flowers, T. Thompson, R. Green and many others see the field way more than they would have in the SB era. In this era, we miss the playoffs once, make it twice as a wildcard, while dropping out both playoffs runs early. The Seahaws are no longer close to being a SB contender and the drafting in 2013 - 2015 and then in 2016 - 2018 is a major reason for that. Two Pro Bowlers are drafted in this era, S. Griffin who burns out his stardom fast and the punter M. Dickson. It's now been since 2012, when the drafting of superstars and true stars stopped at scale. The team is now so bad that players, who would have been busts earlier become backups and those who would have only been backups earlier are now starting for many seasons in row.
SUPERSTARS: None
STARS:: 0 + 1 + 1 = 2/30 = 7% (S. Griffin and M. Dickson)
STARTERS: 4 + 4 + 3 = 11/30 = 37%
BACKUPS: 3 + 2 + 3 = 8/30 = 27%
BUSTS: 3 + 4 + 2 = 9/30 = 30%
**BRIEF HOPE THAT FADES OUT 2019 - 2021**
In this era, the team is not really relevant. Though in 2019 and 2020, we remain a wildcard playoff. In 2019. we become nationally interesting by trading back to round two to take D. Metcalf, who helps us win one playoff game in 2020 after winning the division 12-4. But otherwise the 2019 draft is very stale. In 2020, our draft luck seems to have changed and we land many quality starters and most of the rest are at least solid backups. But this turns out to be shortlived, as the 2021 is the utter three pick disaster that marks a true low point for the team's draft history. We also finish last in the NFC West that year and miss the playoffs by a wide margin. After 2021 season, it's obvious that the PC magic has ran out, and seemingly the JS magic too.
SUPERSTARS: None
STARS: 1 + 0 + 0 = 1/22 = 5% (D. Metcalf)
STARTERS: 1 + 2 + 0 = 3/22 = 14%
BACKUPS: 5 + 5 + 3 = 13/22 = 60%
BUSTS: 4 + 1 + 0 = 5/22 = 23%
**THE TIDE TURNS AS BOTH WILSON AND CARROLL LEAVE 2022 - 2024**
The first remedial solution is to trade R. Wilson, which marks a clear turning point. Suddenly there are early draft picks and new veterans filling in slots that might have required draft picks for need. The healing starts. Riq Woolen is found in 2022 and impresses in his rookie year. Beyond him another five players become starters at some point: C. Cross, A. Lucas, K. Walker III, B. Mafe and C. Bryant. This is the strongest class since 2012, but it isn't enough as we lose in the Wild Card playoff game in 2022 and miss the playoffs entirely in both 2023 and 2024, after which PC is, frankly, fired. Yet, the draft class of 2023 is even better with D. Witherspoon and JSN as destined to become superstars, if they aren't already using 4 Pro Bowls as an arbitrary cutoff. Rest of the 2023 draft yields us the likes of D. Hall, Z. Charbonnet, A. Bradford, M. Morris and OluOlu. The 2024 draft, in the very first days of the McD era, is so recent that it requires some projection still, but all of B. Murphy, T. Knight and A. Barner have made good contributions. Even, then this draft looks a tad bit weaker after the great drafts of 2022 and 2023, but then the most recent ones in 2025 and 2026 again look stronger.
Beyond 2024, it's still just too early to really fully project the career paths of even great players like G. Zabel and N. Emmanwori, as injuries etc. are sadly a risk too. In any case, 2022 to 2024 is when JS rebuilds a SB team, largely but not solely through the draft, and looks to extend to it in both the 2025 and 2026 drafts. But to be honest, it looked a little dicey briefly with the relatively weak 2022 draft and JS brining in a full new defensive backbone with 2 safety and 2 iLB trades and FA signings - every single one of which failed. But that wasn't enough to turn the emerging tide.
SUPERSTARS: None yet, but several soon using 4 Pro Bowls as the arbitrary cut-off
STARS: 1 + 2 + 0 = 3/27 = 11% (R. Woolen, D. Witherspoon and JSN)
STARTERS: 5 + 3 + 2 = 10/27 = 37%
BACKUPS: 1 + 2 + 3 = 6/27 = 22%
BUSTS: 2 + 3 + 3 = 8/27 = 30%