Kenny Easley or Kam Chancellor?

[HomerJHawk]

At this point, I'm going Easley. Call me nostalgic. He was with us for something like 6 or 7 years and a force from day one. I don't remember all of his cast members, so that might be something said for him. For a while there he WAS our defense.

We now have the LOB. Kinda hard to compare man for man.

Those who can do stats might be able to shed some light.

 

[HomerJHawk]

Before this season I would have said Easley in a heartbeat, even with as dominant as Kam was last season and during our Super Bowl run. Now... let's just say Kam is making that call somewhat interesting. Can't argue the hitting; both hit like Mack trucks doing 85 haulin' hogs on I-one-oh to Shaky Town. And as far as instincts and coverage and being in the right place at the right time go, the argument can be made that Kam's all that too. If he weren't, those quake-hits wouldn't happen and Vernon Davis would still have his balls, tonsils, and wisdom teeth intact. And Wes Welker wouldn't micturate himself in heavy traffic when somebody sounds the horn when he tries to cut them off.

Give it another year and get back to me on this discussion. Things may be a bit more sorted out by then.

I've changed my mind and decided on Easley, hands down. I think we're swayed (sorry Sailor for using your post as an example) a bit on the subject.

Time heals all wounds, and makes memories foggy (specially mine).

Kenny Easley was the highlight reel for many, many of the Seahawks games. He was the enforcer before the term existed. Heart and soul of the defense hands down .

I love me some Kam, don't get me wrong. Kam also has a pretty damn good supporting cast. But for now, I'm going Easley. Oh yeah, and Easley returned punts too, for a while.

Give it another year, though, and I might be swayed back. :lol:

[youtube]quxbCQ4m8Ww[/youtube]


Yours, Dave Brown and Normal Norm.

 

[HomerJHawk]

Easley, easily, IMO. If he had played longer he would be thought if as the best safety ever.

I have to agree. Having watched Easley play extensively growing up, I can tell you that in his prime he was perhaps the best safety that I ever saw. Unbelievable athleticism, hitting power, nastiness, and a nose for the football. Imagine if you will taking Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, and Richard Sherman and somehow combining them all in to one ultra powerful Uber-Defensive Back. That was Kenny Easley.

Those who are too young to have seen him play, in a word he truly was a wonder to behold ...


I LOVE Kam Chancellor. But make no mistake -- he is the 2nd Best Strong Safety in team history. Those who saw him play will tell you there is no debate. Ronnie Lott said this past week that Easley was the best safety he ever saw. If not for his kidney issues, he would be in the Hall of Fame and would legitimately be in the conversation as the best safety in the history of the NFL.

Holy crap. Sorry for double posting the video. I should read the thread more thoroughly first. Great minds think alike.

 

[Pandion Haliaetus]

Not going to say anything about Easley because I don't want to ruffle any feathers.

But you put Kam in a time machine and take him into the 80's @ 6'3, 235 pounds.

Nobody would let him play S at that size... Easley, Ronnie Lott, and Joey Browner off the top of my head were considered to be three of the bigger, physical presences during that time: Easley was 6'3, 205-210, Lott was 6'0, 200-205 and Browner was 6'2, 200-205.

Chancellor would be pigeon-holed into being a LBer (hell Chancellor would be an LB on most teams in todays NFL) and it wouldn't surprise me if in this scenario if his name ends up alongside Singletary and Taylor as one of the greatest LBers of that ERA.

However, if some team gave Chancellor the opportunity play SS in the 80's, with their rules, against smaller WRs, TEs, and OL...Kam probably ends up the greatest safety to ever play the game.

 

[scutterhawk]

Easley was a UNIQUE player back then, and fun as hell to watch, he didn't have players around him in the Secondary like Kam does.
Loved me some Easley THEN :thfight7:
Love me some Kam NOW. :thfight7:

 

[themunn]

Easley was so far ahead of his peers it's unreal.

Kam's not quite as far as his peers - but if we transported him back to 1984 he would be even further ahead than Kenny IMO.

The only thing to say is we should be grateful that both of them are in our hearts forevermore.

 

[RiverDog]

Kenny Easley. No doubt about it.

Kam is a great safety but he's best known for his run stopping ability and intimidating presence. Easley didn't nearly as hard, but he was just as solid against the run as Kam. Easley was a better in coverage and did what I don't see Kam doing a lot of, ie blitzing the quarterback. Easley had uncanny instincts and a great nose for the ball, perhaps a little better than what Kam does. Easley also did a commendable job returning punts. The ONLY thing keeping Easley out of the HOF is the longevity of his career. Too much Ibuprofen destroyed his kidney.

One comment that has always stuck with me about Easley is that opposing quarterbacks said that when they broke the huddle, the first thing they did was check to see where Easley was lining up. Receivers worry about going into Kam's territory, but I don't hear of quarterbacks and OC's avoiding him like they did with Easley.

Kam's a great player and I don't want to take anything away from him, but he doesn't hold a candle to Kenny Easley.

 

[Vetamur]

I have watched them both extensively.

Easley was a transcendental player. What I mean by that is that he was one of the first of his kind. Outstanding in coverage, great ball skills, but could move up and play like a linebacker. This is why he took the league by storm. He was unique. There was no other strong safety like him. Jack Tatum of Raiders fame could hit like a truck, but wasn't as good in coverage. Tatum more or less separated receivers from the ball and installed fear. Easley took the ball away and gave the offense field position. Since then we have seen the likes of Lott, Polamalu and various others. They were all patterned after the original Kenny Easley. He was the prototype.

I'm surprising myself by saying this, but I agree with Ronnie Lott. Before it is all said and done, Chancellor will be regarded as the best strong safety in league history. He is huge, athletic, quick, and very smart. He would be a dominant player in any era. If you were to ask me who I think the best single player on this Seahawk team is, I would say Kam Chancellor. If you were to change the identity of this team, if you wanted to severely cripple this team, you would remove Kam Chancellor.

There will be a few players from this team that will make the Hall of Fame. It would be a crime if Chancellor is not one of them.

This is well written. But lacks perspective in my opinion.

Easley could have played FS or CB if he wanted. Kam could not. Easley famously took over punt return duties at one point. And excelled at it. Kam could not. Easley played CB in a PRO BOWL..and shut out the NFC WRs. IN A PRO BOWL.

Kam is good at what he does. But his game is different. He has the edge in power. Its probably a tie in intimidation factor. Easley has the edge in just about every other aspect you look for. Easley had better range, better ball skills.

Maybe Kam will eventually get better, hes still young. And he is great right now. But Kenny was perhaps the best of all time.

 

[volsunghawk]

It's a testament to how far Kam has come since his rookie year that he makes this an interesting discussion/debate rather than a "Pfft, are you kidding?" kind of dismissal. I love Kam. My daughter loves Kam. I hope he spends his entire career a Seahawk, and that career is long and healthy. But I'll still take Easley, who was otherworldly.

 

[Largent80]

The more Kam plays, the closer he gets to Easley.

 

[Trenchbroom]

It's one of those things that I think of occasionally and it just makes me go "WOW"!

If you would have told me in 2010 that in the next five years our secondary would have the second coming of Ken Easley I would have cried, bawled like a baby I would have been so excited. And then in the next sentence you said that with Ken Easley we would also have Ed Reed and Night Train Lane in the same secondary?

Dial 911.

 

[Anonymous]

Easley was a UNIQUE player back then, and fun as hell to watch, he didn't have players around him in the Secondary like Kam does.
Loved me some Easley THEN :thfight7:
Love me some Kam NOW. :thfight7:

Exactly.

8)

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Easley, easily, IMO. If he had played longer he would be thought if as the best safety ever.

This.

There was no learning curve, sitting and watching or growing into the position with Easley. He was a god on the grid iron from the moment he stepped onto the field..........and as JHawk said above would be right up there with Lott as the greatest safety of all time had he been able to play another 4-5 years.

Now ask this question in another 5 years and hopefully there won't be any doubt it's Kam.

 

[ManBunts]

I think this is a generational question. I never watched Easley, but seeing his highlights, I can easily understand why he's in the conversation. Really they might be the same guy in a different time. That said, the emotion of the LOB, the Super Bowl victory (and there was a VERY good argument for Kam as MVP), the pickup this season, without having watched Kenny in person, and not having those emotions tied to it, I gotta still say Kam.

 

[Slick]

Anybody have a link to the interview Kenny Easley did with KIRO recently? I've searched the podcast section but I'm not finding it?

 

[Donk70]

I'm surprised no one's pointed out the horrendous spelling in the title

Chill out. I was drunk when I posted this.

 

[hawkfannj]

Easley, easily, IMO. If he had played longer he would be thought if as the best safety ever.

As much as I love Kam I'd have to pick Easley guy was on another level . And I agree if he played longer he would have been the greatest safety of all time .

 

[olyfan63]

In the CURRENT SEAHAWKS SYSTEM, Pete's way, I'll go with Kam over Easley.

I don't remember Easley ever knocking over a 300 lb Offensive Lineman and then tackling a running back. I saw Kam do that against the Cardinals this season. And it wasn't even that unique a play for him.

Easley would hit Vernon Davis, but would be about 30 lbs lighter than Kam and Easley would just "hurt" Davis rather than leave Davis "...as God is my witness...HE IS BROKEN IN HALF!!" the way Kam did.

Easley would have instilled mortal fear in the Wes Welker's of the world, but not so much in the Demaryus Thomases of the world. They both piss their britches when they think Kam is around.

So, in the current Seahawks system, Kam is clearly the choice.

In every other, more conventional system, with more cover responsibilities, Easley would be the clear choice. In a pure cover situation against a WR, Easley was a better cover guy. Kam's good at it; Easley was great, and had terrific ball skills and closing speed. It's more like Easley is a perfect blend of Earl Thomas melded with Kam Chancellor, except with superior ball skills over that hybrid. Range, speed, power, hitting, turnover-creating, smarts, QB reading.

Both are game-altering talents. Easley in his prime would be the starter and play at an all-pro level at SS and/or FS for just about any current NFL team. Gotta think though, that he might add 10 lbs of muscle today, without losing speed, just in overall training method improvements.

 

[Anonymous]

Easley played within an entirely different defensive system than is played today, as has been mentioned. Back then, the strong safety position was very much as it's name implies, and the position's responsibilities in coverage were such that he found himself having to make a lot more tackles. The field was divided horizontally between the free and strong safeties.

In today's system, the safety's responsibilities are divided north and south (most of the time) and thus Kam cannot just take off in the direction of the ball until it is either in the air already, or until it crosses the line of scrimmage in the area to which he is responsible. Yes, Kam is fearless and handles players larger than him with the ferocity of a rabid Jack Russell Terrier, but only if they happen to be holding the ball within his area of responsibility.

The biggest difference between the two eras and systems, is that Kenny basically diagnosed run or pass and headed for the ball knowing he had coverage deep. Because the athletes around him were not as fast and as fearless, he was counted on to BE our defense. Kam is a man among men, and the responsibilities are divided much more evenly between he and the other tenacious, fast, smart and athletically superior defensive players around him. Not so with Easley, there was no "next man up" in his day.

No knock on Kam at all, but Easley had more responsibilities back then and satisfied all of them well, and therefore gets my nod.