Analysis: 10 Candidates to Enter Seahawks' Ring of Honor in 2022

As teased by team president Chuck Arnold, the Seahawks are expected to add a 15th member to their Ring of Honor in 2022. Who could it be? Ty Dane Gonzalez goes over 10 possibilities.

After hitting a bit of a dry spell from the late 2000s to the early 2010s, the Seahawks have started to add more organizational legends to their Ring of Honor. Over the past three years, owner Paul Allen, head coach Mike Holmgren and quarterback Matt Hasselbeck have been inducted, thus bringing the list to 14 names in total. 

That number may grow even further in 2022. Joining Dave "Softy" Mahler of 950 KJR on Monday, team president Chuck Arnold hinted at the possibility of adding a 15th member to the Ring.

"It was awesome seeing Coach Holmgren and Hasselbeck go in last year," Arnold noted (h/t John Boyle of Seahawks.com for transcript). "… I think you're likely to see another one this upcoming season. There's a lot of worthy candidates, and I think we're going to go for another one this year."

So who could be the mysterious figure Arnold is teasing? Let's go over 10 possibilities. 

RB Shaun Alexander

Alexander is one of the last prominent figures of the Holmgren-era Seahawks not in the Ring of Honor. But after seeing his former head coach and quarterback inducted a year ago, the nine-year veteran's time may finally come in 2022. His résumé speaks for itself, headlined by three trips to the Pro Bowl, two All-Pro selections, a pair of scoring titles and an MVP-winning 2005 campaign that helped take the franchise to its first-ever Super Bowl. Rushing for 9,453 yards and exactly 100 touchdowns in his career—along with another 1,520 yards and 12 touchdowns receiving—Alexander cemented himself as one of the greatest players to ever grace Seattle's backfield. While he may never wind up in Canton, there should be no question of whether or not he deserves to be further immortalized in the annals of Seahawks lore. 

DL Joe Nash

Going undrafted out of Boston College in 1982, Nash was extended an opportunity to pursue his NFL aspirations with the Seahawks. Little did the organization know at the time that the flyer it was taking would blossom into a 15-year working relationship with one of its most underappreciated greats. By his third year in the league, Nash earned first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors after posting 7.0 sacks and 82 tackles and helping lead Seattle to the divisional round of the 1984 AFC playoffs. Playing alongside the likes of fellow defensive linemen Jacob Green, Cortez Kennedy and Jeff Bryant at various points in time, he recorded 47.5 sacks and 779 tackles before calling it a career following the 1996 season. 

G Steve Hutchinson

Hutchinson's time in Seattle came to a rocky end when he departed for Minnesota in 2006, but the relationship between he and the organization appears to have since been mended. In 2021, he assisted current general manager John Schneider and company as a draft consultant and was instrumental in the sixth-round selection of Florida offensive tackle Stone Forsythe. Later that year, during halftime of a Week 5 matchup against the Rams, the team honored him with a ring ceremony to commemorate his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Though he played just five seasons with the Seahawks, Hutchinson was undeniably one of the greatest offensive linemen to ever don their colors. He helped pave the way for some of the franchise's best rushing seasons, including Alexander's historic 2005 campaign, and earned a trio of Pro Bowl and All-Pro selections each in that time. Whether it's this year or sometime in the near future, his name deserves to be prominently displayed above the Lumen Field bowl. 

LB Lofa Tatupu

Before Pete Carroll became a Seattle icon, one of his pupils at USC went on to have a great professional career with the Seahawks. Taken in the second round of the 2005 NFL Draft, Tatupu recorded a whopping 105 tackles, 4.0 sacks and three interceptions—including a pick-six—as a rookie. As a result, he finished second in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting and earned a trip to the Pro Bowl—all while helming the franchise's first-ever Super Bowl defense. From there, he went on to post 100 or more tackles again in each of his next two seasons, making two more trips to the Pro Bowl and notching a first-team All-Pro selection in 2007. After the team suffered through two dreadful seasons in 2008 and 2009, Tatupu reunited with Carroll and was a part of Seattle's improbable run to the divisional round of the 2010 NFC playoffs. But that would be his final season in the NFL, as injuries cut off his career just six years in. Nevertheless, as he bridged the gap from one memorable era of Seahawks football to another, Tatupu put together a stellar career deserving of more recognition. 

RB Marshawn Lynch

Given some of the players who came before him and still haven't received a Ring of Honor nod, it may be too early for Lynch to be inducted. But now that he's two seasons removed from his last snap on an NFL gridiron, it's time to start thinking about honoring arguably the most iconic player to ever wear a Seahawks uniform. In 2010, after the Bills shipped him to the Pacific Northwest in a midseason trade, Lynch changed the entire makeup of Seattle's franchise. His relentless, unforgiving play style was, in a way, adopted by the team as a whole as it rose to NFL prominence in the early-to-mid 2010s, exuding a level of physicality few teams dared to try and emulate. They simply could not, and Lynch made his opponents pay dearly for it, racking up 6,381 yards and 58 touchdowns as a member of the Seahawks. It's unlikely to happen this year, but "Beast Mode" will surely see his name added to the Ring of Honor in due time.

RB Chris Warren

Picked up by the Seahawks with pick No. 89 in the 1990 NFL Draft, Warren started his professional career as a punt and kick return specialist. But in 1992, after running back Derrick Fenner departed for Cincinnati, Seattle gave Warren the keys to the lead back role and he ran with it. Although it was his first time getting any substantial action out of the backfield, he exploded for 1,017 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. He went over the 1,000-yard mark in each of his next three seasons as well, putting up a career-high 1,545 yards in 1994 and an equally impressive 15 touchdowns in 1995. For each of those two years, he was rewarded with second-team All-Pro honors and a pair of Pro Bowl selections. And even during his last two seasons in Seattle—in which he fell short of the 1,000-yard threshold—he still eclipsed 800 yards rushing. Not to mention he was a quality pass catcher as well, putting up more than 200 yards receiving in all but one of his six years as a starter. Due to him being more or less sandwiched between the eras of Curt Warner and Alexander, the do-it-all back has often been overlooked in Seahawks history. But he was a consistent producer who even flirted with elite status for a pair of seasons, making him a strong candidate to join the Ring of Honor. 

S Kam Chancellor

Now four-and-a-half seasons removed from seeing his career ended abruptly in Arizona, Chancellor is undoubtedly going to be a member of Seattle's Ring of Honor one day. The Virginia native's body of work is something truly special to reflect on—and not just from a statistical standpoint. Chancellor played with a level of intensity and physicality rarely seen from the safety position, striking fear into the hearts of those who dared step foot in his vicinity. But even if we're purely talking numbers, only more weight is given to a legendary career. The 2010 fifth-round draft choice appeared in 109 games over the course of eight seasons, notching 607 tackles, 12 interceptions, 2.0 sacks, two All-Pro selections, four trips to the Pro Bowl and an epic performance in a dominant win over Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning and the Broncos' top-ranked offense in Super Bowl XLVIII. Like Lynch, he may have to wait a little while longer before he enters the Ring of Honor, but his time is fast approaching. 

WR Doug Baldwin

It may not feel like it, but Baldwin is already three years removed from the game of football. As an undrafted rookie free agent out of Stanford in 2011, he burst onto the scene as a reliable target for quarterback Tarvaris Jackson and a core special teamer. Then, when Russell Wilson arrived a year later, he and the Wisconsin product developed a rapport that blossomed into one of the greatest quarterback-receiver tandems in franchise history. Baldwin and Wilson won a lot of games and put up a ton of points together, connecting 442 times for 5,775 yards and 45 touchdowns before the former called it a career in 2019. For his leadership and production on the field, there should absolutely be a place for Baldwin in the Ring of Honor someday. 

CB Marcus Trufant

Drafted out of Washington State in 2003, Trufant carved out an impressive career and did it all in the Pacific Northwest. The local product played 10 seasons with the Seahawks, reeling in 21 interceptions and breaking up 112 pass attempts in 136 games played. With a career-high seven picks in 2007—including his first-ever pick-six in a 42-21 win over the Cardinals—he earned his only trip to the Pro Bowl. Playing under three separate regimes, Trufant maintained his starting job in Carroll's first season as head coach in 2010. But after landing on injured reserve with a back injury the following year—along with the emergence of Richard Sherman and Brandon Browner—he was relegated to being a nickel corner in 2012 and struggled in his newfound role. That said, despite the unideal end to his career, the Tacoma native did something many professional athletes only dream of accomplishing: he got to live out the majority of his football life in his home state, and made quite an impact while doing so.

DL Jeff Bryant

Often overshadowed by the duo of Nash and Green, Bryant played 12 strong seasons with the Seahawks. He never truly lived up to his status as the No. 6 pick in the 1982 NFL Draft, but he still had a knack for getting to the quarterback, posting an impressive 63.0 sacks in his career. His best year came in 1984 when he recorded a career-high 14.5 sacks, though he didn't earn any accolades for his efforts. In fact, Bryant was never honored with a single Pro Bowl or All-Pro selection in his career, and he failed to post a single-season sack total better than 8.5 from 1985 onward. Still, his career numbers are better than some may realize and he played in Seattle for a very long time, making him an intriguing dark horse for the Ring of Honor.