NFL Offseason: Seahawks QB Search

There has been a lot of worrying in Seattle over who the next franchise QB will be for the Seahawks, and rightfully so. The isn’t a more important position on an NFL team, and the Seahawks have been without a franchise QB for some time now. The point at which Matt Hasselbeck ceased to be that franchise player, and became a league average player is up for debate, but even he is gone now and the Seahawks need so fill that void.

Looking around the blogosphere and at the .net forums, it seems pretty clear that most Seahawks fans want to see Matt Barkley in a Seahawk uniform. You can count me among the small minority that doesn’t want to see that. While this is partially because Barkley doesn’t fit Seattle offense, it is also because the Seahawks will have to give up most of their draft, and possibly even next year’s first round pick as well, in order to move up and get him.  Because of those two things, I just don’t see Barkley ever coming to Seattle. I really hope that most Seahawks fans realize this too, and stop obsessing over him.

I also don’t think that Robert Griffin III is going to be an option. Not only will he be gone before the Seahawks pick in the draft, but he simply isn’t good enough to be worth giving up multiple picks to move up for. Remember, this is a guy who will be average to slightly above average. You don’t give up multiple picks to draft Jake Plummer or Jake Delhomme, and that is what Griffin appears to be.

Instead, I want to focus on a couple other scenarios that I believe are much more likely to happen. The first is that Seahawks either move down to the end of the first round, or even take a non-QB with their first round pick, and then select a player like Ryan Tannehill. I’ve profiled him a couple times, so if you read this blog regularly you already know that he’s a major project and wont be ready to play for at least 1 full season, and that sitting and learning for 2 full years would be better.

This scenario works for the Seahawks because it will allow them to pick up a solid player (either with their first round pick, or with whatever pick they get as part of trading down) and still get their QB. On top of that, Tarvaris Jackson is going to be the starter in 2012 regardless of who is drafted, so stashing Tannehill on the bench so he can learn isn’t a problem.

Another possible scenario is that the Seahawks skip the position completely on draft day. As difficult as it might be to believe, it is possible. Instead, there are 2 FA QBs who quite possibly come in and get given the keys to the franchise. I’m referring to Matt Flynn and Matt Cassel.

Cassel would be a bit of a disappointment I think. He hasn’t been great in Kansas City, but he also hasn’t had much to work with. He showed a lot of promise when he led the Patriots to that 11-5 record when Tom Brady was lost to that knee injury, but he hasn’t developed into a top QB the way the Chief’s thought he would when they traded for him. For the Seahawks, signing Cassel would be a lot like signing a slightly better version of Tarvaris Jackson. While it would make the team better, I don’t think most fans would applaud the signing.

Matt Flynn, on the other hand, would be a much more interesting signing. Flynn is a player that is known very well by Seahawk GM John Schneider. If the Seahawks do sign Flynn, it’ll be because Schneider thinks that Flynn is someone that can lead this team to a superbowl.

While Flynn doesn’t have the name recognition and “wow” value of a guy like Barkley, he’s also been in the league and in a similar offense. Flynn would be able to step in an win right away. He also wouldn’t require the use of a draft pick, meaning that he’d have more talent around him than if a QB is drafted.