Enviable depth sets Seahawks apart from rest of NFL

Jarrett Bell | USA TODAY Sports

RENTON, Wash. — Pete Carroll seemed fresh and upbeat as he bounced down a hallway at the Seattle Seahawks headquarters Wednesday. Having the NFL's best record helps, But Carroll is probably also inspired by the knowledge that his red-hot team is not derailed by its biggest problems.

His biggest offseason acquisition, Percy Harvin, has barely played this season due to a hip injury. And the other big-name wideout, Sidney Rice, was lost for the season in Week 8, with a torn ACL.

Yet the Seahawks — with low-profile types such as Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse supplementing Golden Tate — are hardly lacking an impact receiver.

Seattle is second in the league in scoring.

The top-ranked defense, meanwhile, heads into Sunday's NFC West showdown at San Francisco with a patched-up secondary that helped limit Drew Brees and the Saints to the lowest yardage output in the Sean Payton era.

The story is depth. It is at the heart of Seattle's NFL-best 11-1 record, and at least one reason Carroll comes off as so mellow.

"The difference from a couple of years ago is so striking," Carroll told USA TODAY Sports. "It's been a benefit that has helped us win games. The tackles being able to step up (earlier this season), those guys were a seventh-rounder and a free agent. The corners playing. The receivers. The story just keeps on going."

It provided a huge undercurrent to the big win on Monday night. While Baldwin and Kearse made clutch catches, the defense came through when cornerback Byron Maxwell and nickel back Jeremy Lane replaced the injured Brandon Browner and suspended Walter Thurmond.

"We played with them last year," All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman told USA TODAY Sports. "The last four games last year, Brandon got suspended and Walter tore his hamstring. So Walter was on IR and BB wasn't going to be back until the playoffs.

"And we beat Arizona, 58-0. We beat Buffalo, 55-13. We beat Frisco, 42-13. So these guys show up in big games. They don't let the moment get too big. They played like we expect them to play. They would be starters, if we didn't have such good starters in front of them."

ESPN analyst Louis Riddick, a former NFL personnel executive, maintains that the Seahawks are the deepest team in the league.

"Easily," Riddick said. "It's not even close when comparing the rest of the league."

When the season began, Riddick said excluding specialists, he rated six players on the roster that were not of starting caliber.

"They are so deep defensively, they have to deactivate people on game days that would start for other teams," Riddick said.

The D-line is so deep that defensive end Cliff Avril, a free agent signee, has tallied a team-high 7 1/2 sacks and doesn't even start. He's part of a second wave that includes Michael Bennett.

On Monday night, they combined for the first touchdown when Bennett's snagged the pop-up fumble that Avril forced and rumbled for a 22-yard TD return.

"It took me a while to embrace the idea of playing 80 percent of the snaps to 40 percent or 50 percent," Avril told USA TODAY Sports. "But Mike Bennett, Clem (defensive end Chris Clemons), myself, all our playing time has gone down. So you have to put your ego aside.

"But we're winning, I'm having fun and in the long run, health-wise, it's good for me, too."

Said Sherman, "Avril, coming off the bench? Bennett, off the bench? Really, it's an embarrassment of riches."

It's not that the Seahawks' depth hasn't been severely tested. Without left tackle Russell Okung and right tackle Breno Giacomini for several games earlier this season, Russell Wilson was under immense pressure with seventh-round rookie Michael Bowie and Paul McQuistan manning the tackle posts.

They survived, although Wilson was sacked seven times during a Week 8 victory at St. Louis and five times during a Week 4 victory at Houston.

What did that do for the Seahawks?

"Build character?" center Max Unger said to USA TODAY Sports.

Allowing that they survived and backups gained experience, Unger added, "It allows us to be that much deeper and more confident in those guys when they're called upon. But our standards don't really change, regardless of who's in the game."

Carroll see one key as the hits with latter-round picks, and his desire to play younger players -- which gets them ready for larger roles and keeps the front-line players fresher, as Avril noted.

It's also evident that the Seahawks have benefited from the salary cap dollars saved with a star quarterback, Wilson, playing on a rookie-pool contract that averages $749,000 per year. Without a mega-million type of deal that would match Wilson's impact, GM John Schneider had the flexibility to obtain Harvin and sign him to a 6-year, $67 million deal, although it has yet to pay off as envisioned.

NFL Power Rankings for Week 14 See which team made the biggest jump in this week.

Another indicator of the depth: Other NFL teams have claimed 15 players this season who were released by the Seahawks.

"John said it in our early meetings," Carroll said. "There would come a time when everybody would want our players. He was right on it. It has happened as he imagined it."

Riddick said it would be wrong to conclude that the Seahawks' depth is merely reflective of scouting department outperforming the competition.

"It's not just about scouting expertise," Riddick said. "That's what the scouts would want you to believe, but that's just the start of it. After you get the players with the physical and mental makeup that you want, then it's a matter of so many other things.

"How do you train them? How do you rehab them? How do you counsel them off the field? How does the team chemistry jell? All of that matters when developing depth. Overall, their entire program is very strong. Right now, they are in a sweet spot. Everything is clicking."

Now if it can only click all the way to a championship.