One more point that goes beyond the stats.
In 2010, Hawk was the glue that held the organized chaos together. Amid all the jet rushes, psycho sets, route jumping, Woodson-freelancing and Bishop selling out on the smash mouth (I do miss that), Hawk was the guy holding it together. There's a reason he was given that big contract.
Lesser talent around him in 2011 and 2012 was more than he could handle. Now, while the talent is still not up to 2010's, the defense is more normalized...Woodson's gone, the route jumping has mostly stopped (it was ugly in 2011...the INT's didn't make up for the too frequent bad guesses and unacceptable field position surrendered), the jet rushes are a thing of the past, psycho has grown ineffective and less frequently used, Jones is a more rounded player than Bishop if not the physical presence. Hawk can settle in now, which is one reason his play has improved this season.
He's not an impact player and he's not a guy who can carry a team. But he can be a very good complimentary player with less than stellar talent so long as scheme-sanity reins.