The Seattle Seahawks finished the 2024 season with one of the better defensive units in the league. Under one year of Mike Macdonald as the head coach, the Seahawks defense improved rapidly. Part of the turnaround was the contributions from one of Seattle’s top defenders, safety Julian Love.

For the last two years, Love has been an outstanding player and even better leader on the Seahawks defense. Finally, he is starting to get some recognition from around the national media landscape. ESPN recently published a ranking of the Top 10 safeties in the league, which was voted upon by executives, coaches and scouts. Seattle’s very own Julian Love cracked the list at No. 10 overall.

Love has used his two-year stint in Seattle to catapult his career, racking up 7 interceptions, 22 pass deflections and 232 total tackles. His 21.8% ball-hawking rate topped all safeties with at least 50 targets this past season. “Range, dart, combo of physicality and ball production. Has developed into a high-end player,” an NFC executive said. “Remarkable for a guy that was primarily a corner in college.”

The article concludes by bringing up the fact Love originally signed a two-year deal in Seattle, but after his first season (which resulted in a Pro Bowl trip) he was immediately given a three-year extension. The Seahawks sent a message loud and clear for all to hear that they consider Love to be a legitimate leader on this team, and rewarded him accordingly.

Interestingly enough, the top safety listed in this article is Baltimore’s Kyle Hamilton… another safety Mike Macdonald famously worked with. Hamilton is a player many have used as the player comp for rookie Nick Emmanwori.

This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks safety Julian Love ranked No. 10 at his position by ESPN