Thomas or Chancellor?

[vin.couve12]

Both players are freak athletes. I wouldn't say that one is more important than the other. I would say that Earl's role in the defense as the key to it is overstated, however. He's not a single high safety, as most say. He's a deep 3rd/deep middle. That's not to take away from what he does though. While he doesn't really need to worry about the sideline, the cover 3 only has two guys in short zones, which are usually Wagner and Kam or Wagner and Wright, depending on which version is called.

How those two short zones relate to Earl is that Earl needs to know when he needs to stay deep or watch for whether or not he needs to stay more shallow. Kam is the communicator as to which he needs to watch for and he'll set that depending on whether he wants to try and undercut/cut off a route and release it Earl, stay on top of it, or camp for the potential hit. That can't happen without Earl's acceleration from A to Z. That also can't happen without Kam's ability to use his QB skills and call all of the on field adjustments while also getting to where he needs to be. AND, if they so choose, they can go robber and swap deep for short/middle and really throw them off and not lose anything.

I really don't think you can "play swords" with this one.

 

[vin.couve12]

Neither will be around for all that long in relative terms so....

[youtube]5SKpOW_o8Do[/youtube]

 

[two dog]

Kam Chancellor's jersey is the only one that I own. That should tell you
how much respect and admiration I have for Kam.

If you went into the draft, free agency or trade, I think Earl Thomas would
be the more difficult player to replace.

 

[Seahwkgal]

Thomas is important because of his athletic ability where Cam it may be leadership, calls and setting the tone, this defense is a lot like a car with 4 tires, take away one and it doesn't roll as good, put the mini spare on and it will drive but you better get a replacement soon because going full speed is a risk.

Ahem...Pet peeve but KAM not CAM(he plays for Carolina). Sorry but the C and K thing just gets on my nerves. :141847_bnono:

 

[chris98251]

Thomas is important because of his athletic ability where Cam it may be leadership, calls and setting the tone, this defense is a lot like a car with 4 tires, take away one and it doesn't roll as good, put the mini spare on and it will drive but you better get a replacement soon because going full speed is a risk.

Ahem...Pet peeve but KAM not CAM(he plays for Carolina). Sorry but the C and K thing just gets on my nerves. :141847_bnono:

Fixed it, God knows we don't want any more frayed nerves around here

I had just read a QB ranking article so I probably just typed it out with my thoughts and didn't even notice the miss spelling.

 

[CANHawk]

Earl Thomas is the single best and most important player on this team bar none. I think long term, if he stays on his current trajectory, people will come to know him as the best Hawk of all time.

I like Kam, big fan, but he's not on the same level as Earl.

Sent from Zac Morris's cell phone using Tapatalk.

 

[Jville]

I can make little sense out of choosing one over the other. One does not exist without the other.

Chancellor and Thomas are a dynamic duel. Like Batman and Robin.

One is the cerebral field leader and the other the exceptionally athletic partner.

Seattle fans have been blessed by a unique trio of dynamic duels in each of it's three defensive position groups.

Chancellor and Thomas.

Wright and Wagner.

Bennett and Avril.

Life has been exceptionally good to Seahawk fans.

 

[scutterhawk]

I can make little sense out of choosing one over the other. One does not exist without the other.

Chancellor and Thomas are a dynamic duel. Like Batman and Robin.

One is the cerebral field leader and the other the exceptionally athletic partner.

Seattle fans have been blessed by a unique trio of dynamic duels in each of it's three defensive position groups.

Chancellor and Thomas.

Wright and Wagner.

Bennett and Avril.

Life has been exceptionally good to Seahawk fans.

Oh my god...Please stop...In the first place it's not "duel"..It's "DUO"
Yes; they most certainly do/did enhance the play of each other, but dude, even when Chancellor came back from his holdout, he wasn't anywhere near as effective as when he was 100% healthy, but then, neither was Thomas, as he too was trying to cover for Chancellor's replacement while nursing his own injury.
Now, I love the physicality that Chancellor brings, but McCreary didn't do too bad a job filling in while Kam was out, which tells me, that Thomas was making it work....Maybe not to the same level as when everyone was healthy as before, but still good enough to make it into the top 100.

 

[Sac]

^
They were dual safeties though. But that wouldn't make sense either so, yeah.

 

[Anonymous]

Thomas is important because of his athletic ability where Cam it may be leadership, calls and setting the tone, this defense is a lot like a car with 4 tires, take away one and it doesn't roll as good, put the mini spare on and it will drive but you better get a replacement soon because going full speed is a risk.

Ahem...Pet peeve but KAM not CAM(he plays for Carolina). Sorry but the C and K thing just gets on my nerves. :141847_bnono:

Fixed it, God knows we don't want any more frayed nerves around here

I had just read a QB ranking article so I probably just typed it out with my thoughts and didn't even notice the miss spelling.

Gueze, tuff roughm, huh Khris?

 

[TwistedHusky]

The moment the Kam leaves, and eventually he will have to, Earl is going to experience a massive drop in effectiveness.

And then a whole bunch of you waiting to show Kam the door are going to be pining for him to come back.

Remember the people that were up in arms about Browner and just happy to show him the door? How did that work out? Well it cost us 1 SB win for certain. And we now have a thread that is a virtual lovefest full of people just happy to have Browner back.

Sure he cost us some penalties and he smoked some weed + got suspended, but it turns out we were better with him than without him. People were up in arms and sick of his crap or his penalties, but compared to being sick after a SuperBowl loss? It was probably worth keeping him around.

Same thing. This team is not just better with Kam, it depends on him. Some of you got your feelings hurt and I think it is cute you are so upset, as if your feelings mattered. (Hint: They don't. If you are upset, as long as this team wins someone else is going to buy those tickets or that jersey if you don't.)

What matters are whether this team is better with him and wins with him vs what we have without him.

As others have covered, you need BOTH Earl and Kam. They complement each other and cannot play their style of ball without the other.

Eventually you will see what we look like with just one, so enjoy the time we have where both are there.

 

[scutterhawk]

The moment the Kam leaves, and eventually he will have to, Earl is going to experience a massive drop in effectiveness.

And then a whole bunch of you waiting to show Kam the door are going to be pining for him to come back.

Remember the people that were up in arms about Browner and just happy to show him the door? How did that work out? Well it cost us 1 SB win for certain

Not true ^.....Chancellor, & Sherman were playing with injuries, which allowed for Tom Brady & the Patriots to mount a 14 point comeback......A HEALTHY Sherman, Chancellor and Thomas would have been the DIFFERENCE, but NO, Browner was manhandling Kearse on that final play, it was NOT Browner that broke on that ill-fated pass, it was an outstanding play by a Rookie.
IF Marshawn Lynch would have been given the chance to punch the ball in for the win, What then?
So NO, Browner was not the difference of why we lost.

As others have covered, you need BOTH Earl and Kam. They complement each other and cannot play their style of ball without the other.

^ The reason that Thomas would/will have a drop of "Effectiveness", if Chancellor is no longer there, it will be because he will again have to try and be in two places at the same time...Kelcie McCray was starting to meld, and Thomas was finally getting his health back.
One question for ya, when Chancellor was out, & McCray was playing a fairly solid, was it he or was it Thomas that was calling the coverage's, that was positioning him to make some pretty heads up plays?
A break in continuity will have consequences, it always does, and always will, but if Chancellor, Sherman, or Thomas gets injured again, there's going to be a drop off in "Effectiveness"

I wasn't pining for Chancellor when he was holding out, I was pissed that he was letting his brothers down by not being there to carry his share of the load.

 

[Popeyejones]

Both are good players.

The difference between them is that the Hawks defense is less effective without Chancellor playing well over the intermediate middle, and the Hawks defense simply doesn't work without Thomas playing well in the deep third.

Chancellor is an excellent match between scheme and ability, but the NFL is increasingly flush with tweener guys who can do what he does. Thomas is an all around better, more rare, and less scheme dependent player. Thomas isn't a perfect player, but he's a HoF player IMO. Chancellor is just a really good one.

Put another way, Chancellor is a good player who at the same time is lifted by the rising tide of those around him (Thomas, Sherman, Bennett, Wagner). Thomas on the other hand, does more to raise the tide than anyone else on the Seahawks' defense.

 

[Jville]

I can make little sense out of choosing one over the other. One does not exist without the other.

Chancellor and Thomas are a dynamic duel. Like Batman and Robin.

One is the cerebral field leader and the other the exceptionally athletic partner.

Seattle fans have been blessed by a unique trio of dynamic duels in each of it's three defensive position groups.

Chancellor and Thomas.

Wright and Wagner.

Bennett and Avril.

Life has been exceptionally good to Seahawk fans.

Oh my god...Please stop...In the first place it's not "duel"..It's "DUO"
Yes; they most certainly do/did enhance the play of each other, but dude, even when Chancellor came back from his holdout, he wasn't anywhere near as effective as when he was 100% healthy, but then, neither was Thomas, as he too was trying to cover for Chancellor's replacement while nursing his own injury.
Now, I love the physicality that Chancellor brings, but McCreary didn't do too bad a job filling in while Kam was out, which tells me, that Thomas was making it work....Maybe not to the same level as when everyone was healthy as before, but still good enough to make it into the top 100.

LOL ...... McCreary? ...... It's McCray ...... as in ...... Kelcie McCray.

 

[mort]

Chancellor always gets a a handful of huge highlights and I love his presence, but when ET3 is on point he's in on damn near every play, I have to go Earl on this one.

 

[scutterhawk]

I can make little sense out of choosing one over the other. One does not exist without the other.

Chancellor and Thomas are a dynamic duel. Like Batman and Robin.

One is the cerebral field leader and the other the exceptionally athletic partner.

Seattle fans have been blessed by a unique trio of dynamic duels in each of it's three defensive position groups.

Chancellor and Thomas.

Wright and Wagner.

Bennett and Avril.

Life has been exceptionally good to Seahawk fans.

Oh my god...Please stop...In the first place it's not "duel"..It's "DUO"
Yes; they most certainly do/did enhance the play of each other, but dude, even when Chancellor came back from his holdout, he wasn't anywhere near as effective as when he was 100% healthy, but then, neither was Thomas, as he too was trying to cover for Chancellor's replacement while nursing his own injury.
Now, I love the physicality that Chancellor brings, but McCreary didn't do too bad a job filling in while Kam was out, which tells me, that Thomas was making it work....Maybe not to the same level as when everyone was healthy as before, but still good enough to make it into the top 100.

LOL ...... McCreary? ...... It's McCray ...... as in ...... Kelcie McCray.

LOLOL, You are right....., I'm glad that you cleared that up, just as I'm glad that I was able to point out that McC--RAY was able to do a pretty decent job of backing up for 'Batman' er, Chancellor.
My point is/was, we are a lot better off with having some quality backup players, should we have another meltdown.
Thomas' play is going to be a lot harder duplicate, because there's not many Safeties that have his outstanding skillset.

 

[Hasselbeck]

This is really tough. I tend to think Earl's struggles last year were because he had a hard time trusting Dion Bailey at first.. then Cary Williams for the duration. Also recovering from his injury, every athlete is going to be a little hesitant to test out a healed body part. When Earl is on though, there are no safeties in the game better. And he can compensate for a weak link at corner oppo Sherman that we may have to deal with again in 2016. Though probably not to the volume that we did with Cary Williams having his confidence completely unravel game after game before he flat could not see the field in any capacity.

Kam on the other hand, I think he too was shaking off rust because of the holdout and the injury prior to SB49. And like Earl, when Kam is on.. he's a game changer. He's intimidating to guys going over the middle.. he helps stuff the run.. and he just brings this energy that the entire defense seems to feed off of.

Gun to my head, I say Earl is what makes the LOB so formidable, but I wouldn't have a problem with someone saying Kam bouncing back is as/more important.

I expect great years from both guys to be honest. I think Kam is going to be especially motivated with a capable backup now and a virtual contract year in one way or the other.

 

[Hasselbeck]

Remember the people that were up in arms about Browner and just happy to show him the door? How did that work out? Well it cost us 1 SB win for certain. And we now have a thread that is a virtual lovefest full of people just happy to have Browner back.

Hardly. A bad play call and a terrible rash of injuries at the worst time cost us the win. We go back-to-back pretty easily without the fluke (*cough* thanks Madden cover *cough*) injuries in the secondary.

 

[RichNhansom]

Remember the people that were up in arms about Browner and just happy to show him the door? How did that work out? Well it cost us 1 SB win for certain. And we now have a thread that is a virtual lovefest full of people just happy to have Browner back.

Hardly. A bad play call and a terrible rash of injuries at the worst time cost us the win. We go back-to-back pretty easily without the fluke (*cough* thanks Madden cover *cough*) injuries in the secondary.

Agreed and even if concussion protocal is administered equally for both teams it is highly unlikely they score without thier best receiver.

If we could only keep one for me the choice is easily Earl but we fortunately don't have to.

 

[BuZzB28]

Thomas is better player than Chancellor. Chancellor Kams is suck and bad play against at Carolina Panthers that lost games for two times. Chancellor Kams should trade to Redskins! :thirishdrinkers: