Seattle Seahawks Quarterback Competition Revisited

Am I the only one who thinks that the way that the Seahawks are handling their quarterback competition is a little bit weird? I understand their logic with regards to not playing Tavaris in the exhibitions; I don’t agree with it but I understand it. I get that the Seahawks believe they know everything they need to know about Tavaris but isn’t there a chance that he’ll be a very different quarterback this year? This time around, he’s had a real offseason and he’s competing against quarterbacks who aren’t Charlie Whitehurst. He should be more comfortable in Seattle this year and be feeling more pressure to play well. It would be nice to see him get some live game reps prior to the regular season, just to see if he’s going to be able to handle that pressure.

The way they are handling the game time distribution between the two quarterbacks is also a little strange. The choice to give Matt Flynn the starting reps in both of the first two makes sense only if you’re sure he will be the starter come week one. It could also make sense if the coaching staff is feeling pressure from management to start Flynn. Otherwise they need to get Russell Wilson some reps against first teamers. If there is a chance that the rookie Wilson could begin the season as the Seahawks starter, the coaching staff needs to see how he fares against a starting NFL defense. Wilson looked solid in the Seahawks’ first preseason game, other than one bad decision that led to an interception. He completed seventy-five percent of his passes and had two touchdowns: one rushing, one passing. The problem with those numbers is that they came in the second half, when defenses reach deep into the depth chart to put players on the field. The good news for Wilson is that he put up those numbers playing with the back end of the Seahawks depth chart but it would be nice to see how he would handle playing against a starting team.

The Seahawks will play their second preseason game Saturday. I’m hoping that they will know who their starting quarterback will be after this game. They’ll have two more preseason games to play, after Saturday, and they don’t actually have to make a decision until the day of their first regular season game. That being said, most teams use the third game of the preseason as a chance to get their first teams a lot of reps and it would be good if the Seahawks had a starting quarterback to lead their first team in that game. I expect that the Seahawks are leaning towards Matt Flynn as their starter. Flynn will most likely play most of the third preseason game if that is the case. The fourth game of the preseason is used normally to determine who is going to make the team; players on the borderline get the majority of the reps. I’d expect Josh Portis to play during most of the fourth game with either Russell Wilson or Tavaris Jackson getting the start. It would be good for Tavaris to get reps in that game, assuming that he is not named the regular season starter. Live reps in a preseason game are much different from reps during practice, where the quarterbacks cannot be touched. In a game the quarterback’s internal clock has to be that much faster.