Solvers are excellent people (8)
I believe the answer is:
crackers
'solvers' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'excellent people' is the wordplay.
'excellent' becomes 'cracker' (I've seen this before).
'people' becomes 's' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cracker'+'s'='CRACKERS'
'are' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for crackers that I've seen before include "and some others touched" , "Crazy (colloq.); biscuits" , "Mad - fireworks" , "one may find them on the table tomorrow" , "Not being sensible" .)