As upset as I was about the Percy Harvin trade, I think I can breathe easy now that the Seattle Seahawks are in the Super Bowl and they don’t have his sizable paycheck to manage. But I still have the painful memory of Harvin hung up deep in the bowels of my closet. Perhaps it will become a vintage jersey in twenty years? It reminded me of why I typically never buy jerseys, there’s just no guarantee of longevity in professional sports.
Pete Carroll and John Schneider have the uncanny ability to scout players the way no other coach/GM team can in the NFL. They know how to develop young minds and mold them into productive football players with independent composure. And they let them be themselves. But for some reason this method did not pan out with Harvin and so they made the tough decision to cut ties and move on. John Schneider talked about the challenging process.
“We have to do what’s best for the organization, first and foremost. We had the support of our owner, which was huge. We had discussed it for a long time with our owner. For one reason or another, it didn’t work out so we had to be able to move forward.”
Apparently it was brewing for some time and came to a head after the loss to the Dallas Cowboys in week 6. That move left the Seahawks in a pickle at wide receiver. Or did it? Maybe it just opened up the offense and gave them less forcing and more improvisation. After all, that’s how the Seahawks offense typically works. They do things very simply, but they do those things really well. Run with Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson. Play defense. The passing is fun when it’s clicking, but that’s not what ultimately got them into the playoffs. They got back to smash mouth football!
In the game against the Cowboys, Lynch only had 10 carries. The following week against the St. Louis Rams, he totaled 18 touches behind the line of scrimmage. Things didn’t quite take off, but we all know what happened after they were 6-4. They dominated on the ground and continued to roll with Wilson outside of the pocket making backyard football throws.
The wide receivers on this squad still deserve credit. They stepped up big and never let the shadows of Harvin and Golden Tate linger. The outspoken Doug Baldwin has had fun with it this Super Bowl week, defending himself and his fellow pedestrian receivers.
“Saying we miss Percy or we miss Golden or the no-names who are out here at receiver. We enjoy that. It adds some motivation. It adds some flare to it. We embrace it. I have a shirt underneath my sweatshirt that says, Pedestrians With Attitude. We enjoy the label because we embrace it.”
In all fairness the Seahawks still need that prototypical number one receiver with length and a vertical jump to run the occasional fade route, even if they are still a run first team. I’d expect them to look for one in the coming draft, maybe someone similar to that of Carolina’s Kelvin Benjamin.
But John Schneider and Pete Carroll can do no wrong. They have all the right moves.
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