An absolute beast at Florida State, Walter Jones was chosen by the Seahawks with the 6^th overall pick in the 1997 Draft.

A member of the Seattle Seahawks for his entire career, we were so close to placing Steve Largent at the top of this list.  In the end, we went with Walter Jones, but if you think we erred, we certainly could be talked into flip-flopping the two.

Coming out of the University of Alabama, Shaun Alexander backed up Ricky Watters in his rookie season (2000), and after Watters' retirement, he would become the lead back for the Seattle Seahawks.  Alexander went on to a five-year run in which he exceeded 1,000 Rushing Yards and, most importantly, became a touchdown factory.  In 2001, he led the NFL with 14 Rushing TDs and would never go below that in the next four seasons.

Alexander would be named to his first of three straight Pro Bowls (2003) when he had a 1,435 Rushing Yard season, and he would increase that to 1,696 in 2004 and was a Second Team All-Pro.   He followed that up with the best season of his career and one of the best offensive campaigns ever by a Seattle Seahawks player.  He rushed for a league-leading 1,880 Yards with 27 Rushing Touchdowns, and he was named a First Team All-Pro, AP Offensive Player of the Year, and the AP MVP.  

Unfortunately, injuries piled up, and he was out of football three years later and failed to reach the magic 10,000 Yard Rushing mark.  He is, however, one of the few players to rush for 100 Touchdowns, with 112 overall, and that is his key number for Hall of Fame consideration.

It is a very sad day for the National Football League and specifically the Seattle Seahawks.

Former Defensive Tackle Cortez Kennedy passed away today at the age of 48.  There is no cause of death listed at this time.

A ferocious run-stopper, Kennedy was the third overall pick out of the University of Miami.  In a professional career that was spent entirely with the Seattle Seahawks, Kennedy was a seven time Pro Bowl Selection and a three time First Team All Pro, his best season coming in 1992 where he was named the Defensive Player of the Year.  He would record 58 career Sacks.

Kennedy was inducted into the Seattle Seahawks Ring of Honor and would be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2012.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the friends and family of Cortez Kennedy at this time.

Here we are in the National Football League playoffs but for us that it means it is time to discuss the potential class of the 2017 Pro Football Hall of Fame.  The Finalists have been announced, and along with regular contributor, Spheniscus, we will go back and forth with each candidate and openly debate as to which player would be a worthy Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee.

Committee Chairman: Spheniscus, Kenny Easley is the Senior Candidate and I hate it.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame doesn’t waste a lot of time as following their recent induction ceremony last week, the first Finalist for the 2017 Class has already been named.  That man is Senior Candidate, Safety, Kenny Easley.

Easley was the fourth overall pick by the Seattle Seahawks in the 1981 draft class and was an immediate hit capturing the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award.  He would follow that with five Pro Bowl Selections over the next six seasons, which also featured three First Team All Pro nods.  His best season was 1984, where he led the NFL in Interceptions and won the Defensive Player of the Year Award.

After the ’87 season, Easley was traded to the Phoenix Cardinals but the trade was negated after a physical found him to have severe kidney problems which would force him to retire.  Easley left Seattle on bad terms following his outspokenness during the ’87 NFL Strike and his belief that the Seahawks medical teams kept his kidney problems to themselves.  To this day he has refused entry to the Seahawks Ring of Honor.

While this is not exactly a controversial choice, Easley’s career was a relatively brief one (7 Seasons) and a former player who did not crack our Notinhalloffame.com Football 100 list and we are sure that we speak for many in that we hoped that this spot would have been allocated to former Green Bay Packer Offensive Lineman, Jerry Kramer. 

As the lone Senior Finalist this year, Easley automatically is a Finalist for the Hall and will be joined by two more Contributors and fifteen players.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Kenny Easley for making it to the Finals and are very intrigued to see if he will be chosen.

It was a perfect way for Marshawn Lynch to retire wasn’t it?

The man who popularized “beast mode” and “I’m just here so I won’t get fined” put up a not so cryptic tweet with his cleats hung up.  Instant speculation that he had retired hit the Internet, and why wouldn’t it?  Lynch had told friends and family that this would be his last season and with the issues that he had with his back had rendered him on the inactive list for most of this campaign.

If it wasn’t just speculation, the Seattle Seahawks appeared to confirm it with a tweet of their own thanking Lynch for his tenure as a Seahawk, which was only an hour after Russell Wilson thanked him for the honor of playing with him.

The Running Back retires after a nine year career with the Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks.  He was a Pro Bowl selection five times, a First Team All Pro once and a Super Bowl Champion.   Lynch finishes statistically with 9,112 Rushing Yards, 1,979 Receiving Yards and 88 Touchdowns.  These are good numbers, but not on the level that other Running Backs who have entered the Hall of Fame with recently, but with his elite playoff performance and near iconic status, he might have an intangible that gets elevates him over his peers.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to thank Marshawn Lynch for the memories and know that whatever he does next it will be a success.

Although we imagine that Dave Krieg dreamed of throwing footballs in the NFL, it had to seem a million miles away when he was the backup Quarterback at the now-defunct Milton College.  Amazingly, he not only made the professional ranks, but he was also there for seventeen years.

For the bulk of his career, Dave Krieg was the starting Quarterback with the Seattle Seahawks.  He posted strong numbers at the position each year and was a big part of Seattle's success.  Three times, he was named to the Pro Bowl, and he is in the top fifteen all time in many throwing categories.  Many of his all-time rankings come from his longevity; however, at no point in Krieg’s career was he a dominant QB.  For a ten-year span, Dave Krieg was basically the tenth-best in the league.  Sure, he was thought of as good, but without that “great” label, it is hard to put him in the Hall despite his impressive career numbers.

You never had to wonder what was on Ricky Watters's mind.  He would tell you whether it was good or bad, and that brashness made him a very polarizing figure in the NFL.  This may also be why the Hall of Fame has yet to seriously consider him. 

Ricky Watters was one of the most consistent Running Backs in the National Football League.  He gained 1,000 yards on the ground seven times while catching fifty passes five times.  Watters was the player that teams went to when they wanted to move the chains.  With that said, he was far from a darling of the press, and it has been speculated that this could be a factor that could keep him out of the Hall of Fame, despite being one of the most durable dual-threat backs in NFL history.  

He posted sufficient career numbers (14,891 YFS & 91 TD) but never had that one season where he was the most dominant Running Back in the NFL.  If he had, it would have been nearly impossible for Ricky Watters to be snubbed.  Saying that, he had a similar career to Roger Craig, and now that Craig is in, Watters could get another look.

The 16th Overall Pick in the 2000 Draft, Julian Peterson carved out a good career in the National Football League.  Winning the Left Outside Linebacker job midway through his rookie year with the San Francisco 49ers, Peterson would go to the Pro Bowl in 2002 and 2003, the last season seeing him earn First Team All-Pro accolades.  He would later sign with the Seattle Seahawks in 2006 and was a Pro Bowl Selection in all three seasons playing there.  He would go to Detroit for his final two years, and he accumulated 51.5 Sacks over his career.