Following the Seattle Seahawks win in Super Bowl XLVIII, we took a look at their defense and how it was mostly constructed of third-round or later draft picks. If that’s not impressive enough, 21 of the 53 players on their roster for that game came into the NFL as undrafted free agents, according to a Saturday tweet by ESPN.
According to my research, the Seahawks only had 19 undrafted players on their 53 man roster for the Super Bowl and that doesn’t include Brandon Browner, who was on the suspended list. Regardless, that’s an amazing amount of former undrafted free agents just the same.
You also might be surprised to know that the Seahawks also had 20 different former undrafted players that saw snaps on either offense or defense over the course of the 2013 season and that number does not include kicker Steven Hauschka, punter Jon Ryan and long snapper Clint Gresham. In total, those 20 players combined to play 5,229 snaps, which is roughly 19% of the total plays run by both the offense and defense times 11 players.
To put that into perspective, the Pittsburgh Steelers had 15 former undrafted players that played on either offense or defense in 2013 to the tune of 3,531 total snaps. That equates to roughly 14.9% of the total plays run by both the offense and defense times 11 players.
Former Undrafted Players Used By The Seahawks During 2013 Season
POS | PLAYER | SNAPS | YEAR | TEAM |
---|---|---|---|---|
WR | Doug Baldwin | 916 | 2011 | SEA |
DE | Michael Bennett | 759 | 2009 | SEA |
DE | Chris Clemons | 726 | 2003 | WAS |
DT | Tony McDaniel | 622 | 2006 | JAC |
WR | Jermaine Kearse | 581 | 2012 | SEA |
CB | Brandon Browner | 462 | 2005 | DEN |
G | Lemuel Jeanpierre | 291 | 2010 | SEA |
FB | Derrick Coleman | 147 | 2012 | MIN |
G | Alvin Bailey | 117 | 2013 | SEA |
LB | John Lotulelei | 109 | 2013 | SEA |
WR | Ricardo Lockette | 99 | 2011 | SEA |
LB | Michael Morgan | 90 | 2011 | SEA |
WR | Stephen Williams | 64 | 2010 | ARI |
WR | Bryan Walters | 60 | 2010 | SD |
S | Chris Maragos | 53 | 2010 | SF |
LB | Heath Farwell | 49 | 2005 | MIN |
S | Jeron Johnson | 29 | 2011 | SEA |
DE | Benson Mayowa | 24 | 2013 | SEA |
S | DeShawn Shead | 16 | 2012 | SEA |
T | Michael Brooks | 15 | 2013 | DET |
T | Caylin Hauptmann | 0 | 2013 | CLE |
K | Steven Hauschka | ST | 2008 | MIN |
P | Jon Ryan | ST | 2004 | CFL |
LS | Clint Gresham | ST | 2010 | NO |