Good afternoon, 12s.

Here's a look at what's "out there" for today - Friday, August 12 - about your Seattle Seahawks:

SI ranks the NFL's top 100 players

With the start of the NFL season just around the corner, the staff at SI.com has ranked this year's Top 100 NFL players "to lend some order to the lists of the league's elite players." The SI.com staff of NFL analysts and writers took stock of every team, position, and player while curating the list, which placed eight Seahawks in the rank, a league best. 

WIth Earl Thomas (No. 9), Richard Sherman (No. 11), Bobby Wagner (No. 17), Kam Chancellor (No. 20), Russell Wilson (No. 29), Michael Bennett (No. 42), Doug Baldwin (No. 51), and K.J. Wright (No. 97) making the top 100, the Seahawks edged out the Panthers with seven players on the list, followed by the Cardinals, Cowboys and Patriots, who all had six.

Here's some of what SI.com had to say about each player:

97. K.J. Wright, LB

"Late in the 2014 season, the Seahawks handed Wright, who was 25 at the time, a four-year contract extension. The 2011 draft gem (round 4, pick No. 99) has only gotten better since then. There is without question a case to be made that Wright is just as integral to his team's linebacking corps as is the oft-hyped Bobby Wagner."

51. Doug Baldwin, WR

"Baldwin can do great things outside, but his skill set and mental approach lean perfectly to the slot position, where he can improvise openings with the best in the business. Baldwin's greatest asset is his implicit understanding of the little things that separate good from great at the position. Watch him slow-play his route past coverage and then accelerate to the throw, or foot-fake a press defender into oblivion, or sell the wrong angle to take a cornerback out of the play, and you'll understand why he's so important to his team. He's become a team leader, displaying toughness on and off the field, and he is absolutely fearless in traffic."

42. Michael Bennett, DE

"[Bennett] is a disrupter, pure and simple. Whether he is making a guard miss by jumping to the outside with his exceptional feet or quickly dipping inside a tackle, Bennett has rare athletic ability for his spot on the defensive line. According to PFF, Bennett is second to only J.J. Watt in total quarterback pressures (292) over the past four seasons. He also happens to be elite at stopping the run as well."

29. Russell Wilson, QB

"Wilson emerged as a playmaking machine in the second half of last season, doing it all for a Seattle team that needed its quarterback to carry the load without a healthy Marshawn Lynch. Wilson proved that his arm is plenty capable of NFL elite status, and when you combine that with the threat he presents with his legs—on both scripted and improvisational plays—there are only so many ways to defend him."

20. Kam Chancellor, S

"Earl Thomas handles the deep middle, with Chancellor bringing the hammer on the second level, serving as essentially an extra linebacker on many of Seattle's schematic calls. When both are out there together, it's almost foolish for quarterbacks to test the Seahawks between the hash marks...except for the fact that Richard Sherman is lurking on the outside. Obviously, all of Seattle's players in the secondary benefit from the presence of elite talent around him, but that does not diminish what Chancellor can do on his own."

17. Bobby Wagner, LB

"Entering last season, Wagner made headlines by intimating that he was the "best linebacker in the league." While he is not the top linebacker on this list, the 26-year-old proved with another Pro Bowl appearance and a second-team All-Pro nod that he belongs among the position's elite...They'll continue to rely on Wagner's speed in the middle of the field, which he uses to avoid linemen and find the ball carrier on running downs while quickly dropping into coverage to protect his part of the zone in passing situations."

11. Richard Sherman, CB

"Nobody makes top receivers disappear like Sherman does with his long arms and complete fearlessness at the line of scrimmage, setting him up to put the receiver in tighter quarters before the snap than almost anyone else. QBs have shied away from Sherman for several years, but when the ball comes his way, his hands don't show any signs of rust."

9. Earl Thomas, S

"Teams that have tried to replicate Seattle's defensive approach repeatedly have run into the same issue: players like Thomas are almost impossible to find. He has the range to disrupt offenses from sideline to sideline, backed with the instincts to step up inside the hash marks. While Richard Sherman long has been the face of Seattle's vaunted defense, Thomas is the straw that stirs the drink."

Tweet of the Day

Today's "Tweet of the Day" comes from the Pro Shop - @SeahawksProShop, as we celebrate the first Blue Friday of the 2016 season.

More From Around The Web

Here at Seahawks.com, digital media reporter John Boyle continues his position watch series with a look at the safety competition.

Here's six observations from Thursday's training camp practice. 

Here's the tracks that DJ Supa Sam played during the 11th practice of training camp.

Here's where to watch, listen to and follow the Seattle Seahawks preseason opener at Kansas City Chiefs.

WATCH PRESEASON GAMES LIVE

The Seahawks announced a $50,000 grant has been awarded to the Department of Orthopedics and Sports Medicine at Seattle Children’s and their Athletic Trainers program.

Bob Condotta at the Seattle Times talks with quarterback Jake Heaps about living out his "childhood dream" of playing for the Seahawks on Saturday.

Gregg Bell at the Tacoma News Tribune talks with Bobby Wagner to recall his first preseason game of his career.

Here's more on the Navy's visit to training camp this week.