Seattle Seahawks star Leonard Williams earns special honor from CBS Sports

Pete Carroll pulled off a lot of questionable trades during his time running the Seattle Seahawks. Ill-advised deals for Percy Harvin, Jimmy Graham and Jamal Adams all aged terribly and contributed to Seattle falling behind the competition in th NFC. That said, on his way out the door he did deliver one last golden egg for the organization via trade.

That would be star defensive end Leonard Williams, who the Seahawks gave up two draft picks for at the trade deadline in 2023 to the New York Giants. At the time it seemed like a bad trade - especially after Seattle bombed the rest of the regular season and missed the playoffs.

However, Williams performed quite well down the stretch for the Seahawks that year, and he played positively out of his mind in 2024 - arguably at an All-Pro level. That's why Williams has been named to CBS Sports' ultimate 53-man roster, made up of the best players money can buy.

"Leonard Williams had the best season of his career in 2024, leading interior defensive linemen with 11 sacks. Selecting Lawrence eliminated Chris Jones (Kansas City Chiefs), whose $23.6 million cap number would have made two defensive tackles over $20 million unfeasible."

Williams finished the 2024 campaign with 11 sacks - a remarkable number for an interior defensive lineman. He also totaled 28 quarterback hits, 16 tackles for a loss and a pick-six.

There are a lot of great iDL playing in the league right now, but for our money the only one you can definitely say is playing better than Williams is Giants superstar Dexter Lawrence, who also made the cut for CBS Sports' ultimate 53-man team.

Looking ahead, Seattle has a lot of great young talent on its roster to stay competitive in the long run. However, it's very easy to see that the best player on this roster right now is WIlliams, and whoever is second best isn't particularly close.

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