Seattle Seahawks: 15 greatest quarterbacks in franchise history
By Lee Vowell
2001-2010. Seattle Seahawks. Matt Hasselbeck. 2. player. 36.
Matt Hasselbeck was the first Seahawks quarterback to lead the team to a Super Bowl. Sure, Seattle lost on a bunch of bad calls and fell short of winning a championship 21-10 to the Pittsburgh Steelers. But Hasselbeck did his part and was almost always a solid playoff performer.
The last three Seattle teams Hasselbeck played on were not that good, even though the Seattle team in 2010 made the playoffs. Other than those last three seasons, Hasselbeck’s Seahawks teams went 57-39 and made the playoffs in five straight years between 2003 and 2007. Seattle’s first Super Bowl year was in 2005.
Hasselbeck was a three-time Pro Bowler. He is still the franchise leader in passing yards with 29,434. (He will probably be eclipsed by Russell Wilson before the end of the season, though.) He is the all-time franchise leader in pass attempts (4,250) and completions (2,559) and third in wins (69) and third in touchdown passes (174).
Hasselbeck led his teams to four straight NFC West titles. Three of his teams won at least 10 games. Was he among the elite quarterbacks in the NFL? No. But he was a better leader than most quarterbacks who ever played in the league. That is a big reason that Hasselbeck is the second-best quarterback in Seattle’s history.