Seahawks improve the team and the entertainment with Luke Willson
It took a day, but the Seahawks finally signed their prodigal son, Luke Willson. He brings as much to the game off the field as on it.
The Seahawks completed their own deal that allowed them to trade Nick Vannett to the Steelers yesterday. Yes, Luke Willson is back in the fold after a year in the wilderness of the Lions (and a summer in the purgatory of the Raiders).
Some may question how much he has left in the tank. After all, he had his worst season ever in Detroit. He caught the least passes for the lowest average of his career. For the first time in six seasons, he failed to find the endzone. Things were even worse in Oakland, as he didn’t make the final cut to the 53-man roster. Then again, Chucky’s Raiders traded away one of the league’s best defensive players of the decade for a crapshoot of draft picks. I’m not too keen on their judgment.
As for his time in Detroit, Willson was only targeted 19 times, and never once in the red zone. It’s kind of hard to score when you only get four targets on your opponent’s side of the field. Compare this to his Seahawks career, when he had 11 percent of his targets in the red zone, and 45 percent of his targets on the opponent’s turf overall. Opportunities matter. Because of this and the blatant stupidity of the “football minds” in Oakland, I’m not concerned about Willson’s ability on the field.
In the two seasons that Willson and Vannett were teammates on the Seahawks, Willson was clearly the preferred target. In 2016 Willson got six starts and was targeted 21 times. Vannett started twice and was targeted four times. Willson got 351 snaps, Vannett 84. Granted, it was Vannett’s rookie year, but he was a third-round pick out of THE Ohio State University. The “THE” is sarcastic, trust me.
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In 2017, Willson was still the man. He had seven starts, 22 targets and four touchdowns. Vannett countered with four starts, 15 targets and one score. Willson led in offensive snaps 378 to 278. It wasn’t until Willson moved on in free agency and both Will Dissly and Ed Dickson were hurt that Vannett got his chance last year. He played well, scoring three times on six red zone targets. Still, Willson has shown more over his career than Vannett.
Now we come to the other aspect Willson brings to the Seahawks. Let’s be real, shall we? Sports aren’t played to settle territorial disputes or raid other city’s treasuries. Although it wouldn’t be a bad idea at that. Sports are played for entertainment. And there are few practitioners of sport more entertaining than Luke Michael Willson. Just watch his press conference appearance, if you’ve forgotten.
Next. Seahawks cut Gary Jennings, add safety depth. dark
To no one’s surprise, the second question regarded Techno Thursday. Actually, I’m surprised it wasn’t the first question. I love that he refers to it as a “movement”. Willson revealed that when he first heard the Seahawks were interested, he was on his way to work out for another team. In his words, “that was a quick pivot right there”. Okay, no more spoilers. Just watch and enjoy, as we all will enjoy seeing him for the rest of the season with the Seahawks.