Seahawks backup quarterback battle between two very different players

Seahawks newcomer Austin Davis has all the experience

Pros: Davis does not fit the Seahawks offensive scheme. I mean, he’s a quarterback, yeah, but he isn’t particularly mobile. He’s much more of a classic dropback passer in the Dan Marino mold. If he had Marino’s arm and release, there wouldn’t be a clipboard competition either.

Since we gave you Boykin’s college stats, we’ll do the same for Davis. Like his counterpart, Davis was a four year starter, in his case at Southern Mississippi. In his final two seasons, Davis connected on fifty touchdowns and was picked off 17 times. Davis threw for about 6500 yards in those two seasons. His completion percentage was 61.1 percent.

As a pro, Davis has had a lot more opportunities than Boykin. Like Boykin, he was signed as an undrafted free agent, in his case by the Rams in 2012. He bumped around on practice squads a bit that season and the next. He got his opportunity with the Rams as their third-string quarterback.

Davis threw 12 touchdowns and 9 interceptions with the Rams. He completed just over 63 percent of his passes for 2001 yards. His passer rating of 85.1 wasn’t the best in the league, but it was actually better than Shaun Hill’s. In fact, Davis wasn’t too far off Sam Bradford’s production. Was he as good as Bradford? Of course not. Then again, he didn’t cost the Rams $65 million, either.

Cons: Ignore Davis’s stats with the Browns in 2015. Give him some credit back though, as that was a classic Browns dumpster fire year. Ignore the fact the Rams didn’t keep him. Ignore that in 13 games, and that’s 636 snaps, Davis has 23 carries for 69 yards. Boykin ran the ball eight times in his 50 touches.

So who’s it going to be?

At the end, the Seahawks have to balance Boykin’s excellent fit with the system versus Davis’s proven track record. During minicamp, offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said of Boykin:

"“Trevone is doing a nice job. He’s running around making plays like you would think he would. He’s got to continue to be conscious of the ball, make sure he protects the football. I think that would be one thing he needs to continue to work on. But I like where he’s going, I like his athleticism. I like his arm, and I like that he has been in the book.”"

As for Davis, Pete Carroll had this to say:

"“Austin did really well, amazingly bright football player. He blew us away with how fast he could pick stuff up. He’s been there. He’s played games and all that. Trevone hasn’t had that and can’t have that yet. It’s been a good mix so far. So we brought him in and we’ll make these evaluations as we get back but I think Austin showed very well for himself. He’s got his own style. He’s a different style player than Trevone or Russell of course, but I kind of like what he brought us.”"

There’s a huge contrast in the style and skill set of these two players. I think the final decision won’t be made until after the whistle blows in Oakland at the end of the last preseason game. You can place your own ‘very particular set of skills’ joke here.