Seahawks May Need To Add A QB
By Keith Myers
By now, we should all know not to take Pete Carroll’s press conference words at face value. He’s not dishonest, but he does play things close to the vest and refuses to speculate. The result is that he rare says anything at all leave us to interpret what’s between the lines, so to speak.
Today, the topic of Tarvaris Jackson’s injured pectoral mussel came up, and Carroll was predictably vague. He really didn’t say anything, but it was what wasn’t said that I think tells us what we need to know.
Jackson is likely out for some time. If he was close to returning, I think Pete would have said so. We can expect to see Charlie Whitehurst as the starting QB for at least a couple weeks. Pete has said that Josh Portis would be the backup if that’s the case, and there’s no reason not to believe him.
But what happens if Jackson is out for an expected period of time, like 4-6 weeks?
Should the Seahawks add another QB just in case Whitehurst goes down? It’s a question that remains unanswered. Carroll did say the Seahawks weren’t looking early last week, but at the time there was no telling if Jackson was going to be out any time at all, so if the Seahawks now have more information on the severity of the injury, I have to believe that things have changed.
There’s reasons to suspect that the Seahawks could go either way on this. They never have all 3 QBs active on Sunday, so carrying only 2 doesn’t change things on game day. Plus, the Seahawks are short at both LB and TE, so the roster spot is definitely needed elsewhere.
But on the other hand, QB is the most important position in football, and it can takes weeks (if not months) to learn an an offense well enough to be effective. Any QB added to the roster at this point would need to be brought in right away so they might have time to learn the offense.
Another problem would be which quarterback to bring in. Adding a QB to the practice squad would allow them to work on learning the offense while keeping the roster spot available to be used elsewhere, but it also guarantees that Portis would have to start should Whitehurst get injured. Conversely, adding a vet QB will allow the team the option of having them start instead of Portis should Whitehurst go down, but it would cause problems by eating up a roster much that is needed elsewhere.
Possible QB’s who might be considered:
Vets:
- David Garrard WONT be coming to Seattle. He’s about to have major back surgery
- Jake Delhomme
- Trent Edwards
- JP Losman
Practice Squad Eligable Players:
- Hunter Cantwell
- Drew Willy
- Sean Canfield
- Ryan Perrilloux