Bet you never thought you’d hear that (see title)…
As the free agency period begins to wind down (or wind up) and rosters begin to take shape, the Seahawks’ acquisition of Tarvaris Jackson is looking smarter and smarter.
Glancing around the NFC West, Seattle appears to be the only team who’s assumed starting QB enters camp with a thorough knowledge of his playbook and several years of experience playing in the teams current offensive system.
San Francisco brought back Alex Smith, but Jim Harbaugh has yet another new offense for the former No. 1 overall pick to learn. That’s seven different offensive systems to start each of Alex’s seven years in the league. Unfortunately for San Francisco, Smith’s track record when it comes to picking up new systems quickly isn’t the greatest.
St. Louis brought Josh McDaniels in to switch up the Rams’s offensive scheme, so Sam Bradford will be absorbing all new content in his 2nd year. Granted, Bradford is an extremely quick learner and should have it under control by mid-season.
And finally, Arizona acquired Kevin Kolb yesterday. He’ll most certainly have coach Ken Wisenhunt and newly promoted OC Mike Miller in his face shoving unfamiliar playbook pages down his throat.
Considering the starting QB’s weight of responsibility in leading an offense, Jackson’s knowledge of Darrell Bevell’s system could give the Seahawks a strong advantage out of the gate within the division. If the QB knows his system and is on the same page with his coordinator/coach, it’s much easier for the rest of the offense to pick it up. Not to mention the challenges of personality, communication and coaching style conflict that often arise when a QB is working with an entirely new coaching staff, should be, for the most part, side-stepped in this instance.
Now, there are still obvious questions surrounding Jackson’s ability to play QB as there were when he played under Bevell before, so one shouldn’t assume that his knowledge of a playbook today will enable him to perform any better than he did in Minnesota. However, he may be able to keep Seattle in the running for a division title, by simply matching his play as a Viking which, I guess, is as sad as it is cool for ‘Hawk fans. Having two rookies on the front line (Carpenter and Moffitt) who will certainly face their share of challenges and blow their share of assignments adds some volatility to the mix as well, so the ‘Hawks are by no means a shoe-in to take the division.
There’s just something to be said for having a QB with knowledge of his playbook coming into camp, when no other team in the division can say the same thing. Particularly in a year with no OTAs or, for that matter, verbal contact allowed between players and coaches until the end of July.
The moves to sign Sidney Rice and Robert Gallery should have the same impact on their units, as both come in having played as recently as last year under under their current position coach or coordinator.
The strategy of signing free agents with scheme and coach familiarity makes perfect sense, and in particular, the Jackson signing is looking a lot better that it initially did when considering the impending learning curves of the other NFC West quarterbacks.
Where this is all leading to, I don’t know. I do know that Seattle is intrigued by Jackson as more than just a stop-gap solution, and they feel he still has the upside and potential to become a good NFL starting QB.
It’s hard to imagine what it would take to unlock more potential with Jackson. After all, his O-line and running back didn’t exactly suck in Minnesota and he had Sidney Rice there too. He began to show some improvement just prior to Brett Favre joining the team though, so there could be some hope that he can pick up where he left off and continue to develop.
Time will tell.
