Seattle Seahawks: 15 greatest quarterbacks in franchise history

The Seahawks are one of the NFL's younger franchises at just 43 years old but have had their share of great quarterbacks. Here are the 15 best in franchise history. rnSince entering the league in 1976, the Seattle Seahawks have been a solid NFL franchise. The team has been to three Super Bowls, winning one, with no long stretches of bad teams. The NFL is a coach and quarterback-driven league, so a team with a quality quarterback stands a better chance of being successful.rnrnSeattle has been pretty lucky. Just as they have not had years followed by other years of being terrible, the franchise has also not gone seasons and seasons without having a near-All Pro quarterback leading the offense.rnrnTo be honest, though, a list of Seattle's best quarterbacks in the history of the team is at most a three-person group with the top two being the clear best. That said, one of Seattle's 15 best quarterbacks was the quarterback in the team's inaugural season of 1976. And also on the list is the quarterback that followed him. The Seahawks have been a fairly fortunate team with the quality of their quarterbacks.rnrnOver the last 18 years, Seattle has only gone into one season without a quarterback that they thought would be the long-term starter at the position. This may be why the Seahawks have been at their most successful over that time, going to all three of their Super Bowls since 2005.rnrnSo who are the best quarterbacks in the history of the Seattle Seahawks? Here they are.rnrn[nextslide teaser="Number%2015" /]rnrn rnrn[caption id="attachment_76922" align="aligncenter" width="3200"] Credit: Andy Lyons /Allsport[/caption]rnrn[mockdraft order="15" firstname="Brock" lastname="Huard" position="2000-2001" league="6" division="31" team="36" /]rnrn Brock Huard never won a game with the Seahawks. He was 0-4. To be honest, Seattle is so top-heavy in the quality of their quarterback legacies that we can have a bit of fun with who is at the bottom of a top 15. Huard lost every game he started, sure, but Huard played on some bad Seattle teams so he can't be totally blamed for the teams' awfulness.rnrnHuard, of course, was a star at the University of Washington but was never able to do a lot in the NFL. He played just five seasons but appeared in games in just three of them. Injuries made any chance he had of being a long term starter impossible.rnrnIn six games in two seasons with the Seahawks Huard threw for 4 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. His quarterback rating was 80.1, so quite a bit less than what 12s have become accustomed to with current start Russell Wilson .rnrnMostly, Huard is number 15 on this list because he is a local guy who played college locally and then after his career came back to Seattle and has been involved. Does that alone merit him being a good Seahawks quarterback? No. But Seattle has had about five or six decent quarterbacks in their history so Huard is as valuable as several others would be.rnrn[nextslide teaser="Number%2014" /]rnrn rnrn[caption id="attachment_76923" align="aligncenter" width="3200"] (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)[/caption]rnrn[mockdraft order="14" firstname="Charlie" lastname="Whitehurst" position="2010-2011" league="6" division="31" team="36" /]rnrnNo, Clipboard Jesus did not transform the Seahawks from a mediocre team to a great one. He started four games and was simply a backup for almost all of his career, not just with Seattle. In his time in Seattle, Charlie Whitehurst threw 3 touchdowns and was picked off 4. So why is he number 14 here?rnrnWell, Whitehurst does have the 13th highest quarterback rating for any Seattle quarterback who has played more than 6 games. Whitehurst played 9! Woo-hoo! But Seattle's quarterback lineage is fairly short, but the lineage is a good one so please just wait.rnrnWhitehurst actually was decent in the two games he started for Seattle in 2010 and got the lone win he had as a starter with Seattle. Whitehurst went on, of course, to win another whole game in his career. That one was with the Titans in 2014. But in 2010, Whitehurst defeated the Rams 16-6 and completed 22 of 36 passes for 192 yards and a touchdown.rnrnIn that game, Whitehurst also ran 8 times for 30 yards and wasn't sacked. So, OK. Maybe basing a lot on one game for someone to be the number 14 Seahawks quarterback ever is asking too much, but Seattle, statistically and factually, has a top-heavy list. Plus, wasn't it fun to have Clipboard Jesus on the team for just a bit?rnrn[nextslide teaser="Number%2013" /]rnrn rnrn[caption id="attachment_76932" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] Mandatory Credit: Otto Greule Jr. /Allsport[/caption]rnrn[mockdraft order="13" firstname="Stan" lastname="Gelbaugh" position="1992-1996" league="6" division="31" team="36" /]rnrnPoor Stan Gelbaugh. He was sacked about 8,004 times on 300 dropbacks when he was the Seahawks quarterback over four seasons. In fact, he missed the entire 1995 season and I cannot exactly remember why but maybe it was to recover from all those hits?rnrnGelbaugh was the starter for half the season in 1992 for Seattle. He didn't win a game. In fact, the Seahawks won just 2 games that season, the worst in franchise history. The team basically had Cortez Kennedy and some other players. But Gelbaugh was awful exactly. He completed 121 of 255 passes for 1,307 yards and 6 touchdowns. He also threw 11 interceptions.rnrnBut Gelbaugh was also sacked 34 times in those pass attempts. That translates to every 7.5 pass attempts Gelbaugh getting sacked. That is not good and probably puts a lot of fear into whoever is dropping back to throw.rnrnAfter 1992, Gelbaugh started just one game for Seattle and he won that one! But before we get too happy Gelbaugh only threw two passes in that game and completed zero. He was, of course, sacked once. His quarterback rating finished at 39.6, or the equivalent of someone taking an ACT test, getting all of their answers wrong but at least signing their name to the test.rnrn[nextslide teaser="Number%2012" /]rnrn rnrn[caption id="attachment_76933" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] MANDATORY CREDIT: CHRIS COVATTA/ALLSPORT[/caption]rnrn[mockdraft order="12" firstname="Kelly" lastname="Stouffer" position="1988-1992" league="6" division="31" team="36" /]rnrnFinally, we start getting some meat on our Seahawks quarterbacks bones! Not a lot mind you. Yet. But at least we get some guys winning a few games. Kelly Stouffer played all four of his NFL season with the Seahawks. He almost - almost - started more than half the game in a season in 1992. He didn't, though, as he started 7.rnrnOver his four years, Stouffer managed to find an open defensive back 19 times. Crazy good accuracy if you happen to play for the team Seattle was playing. Stouffer threw for 7 touchdowns so take that, Seahawk opponents!rnrnBut Stouffer's last year in Seattle was 1992 when he took the Gelbaugh-like style and made it his own. He was sacked 26 times in 190 pass attempts. But a quarterback is rated on how many games they win and Stouffer managed two of them in 1992 after not winning any since 1988. And you thought you were having a productive day at work.rnrnStouffer finished his Seattle career 5-11 as a starter which is almost 16 games of one regular season. If that were the case, Stouffer would have finished said year with a 54.5 quarterback rating. Still, Stouffer ranks 12th all-time in Seattle history in passing yards with 2,333.rnrn[nextslide teaser="Number%2011" /]rnrn rnrn[caption id="attachment_76934" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)[/caption]rnrn[mockdraft order="11" firstname="Trent " lastname="Dilfer" position="2001-2004" league="6" division="31" team="36" /]rnrn Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl, y'all! But maybe it wasn't as a member of the Seattle Seahawks. Dilfer won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens when Lamar Jackson was 4 years old. So maybe Dilfer isn't exactly relevant on the field now. But Dilfer still managed to have a winning record as a starter in Seattle.rnrnDilfer played four years with Seattle and went 8-4 on some not-so-great teams. In 2001, his first year in Seattle, Dilfer went 4-0 as the starter, had a quarterback rating of 92.0, threw 7 touchdown passes against 4 interceptions. He didn't show he was good enough to be a long-term starter with Seattle but he was still better than most quarterbacks Seattle has had in franchise history.rnrnDilfer has the, and statistically this is a fact, 8th most wins as a starter in Seahawks history with those 8 he won. He is 11th all-time in passing yards and the same in passing touchdowns with 13. And he is 8th in QBR for a Seattle starter with more than 5 starts.rnrnDilfer won't be remembered as a Seattle player. He likely will be better remembered as an analyst on TV than his playing career. And while Seattle doesn't have 25 great quarterbacks in their history, Dilfer was at least good enough to rank in the top 15 and that isn't bad.rnrn[nextslide teaser="Number%2010" /]rnrn rnrn[caption id="attachment_76955" align="aligncenter" width="3200"] (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)[/caption]rnrn[mockdraft order="10" firstname="Tarvaris " lastname="Jackson" position="2011-2015" league="6" division="31" team="36" /]rnrn Tarvaris Jackson , better known as Russell Wilson's backup, was still a decent quarterback when he started for the Seahawks. Jackson was never viewed as the long-term starter in Seattle, as Seattle signed Matt Flynn and then drafted Wilson before the 2012 season. But Jackson was decent in 2011 and was the best backup Wilson has ever had because he could run the same kind of offense Wilson can run.rnrnBut for Jackson's sake, let us focus on what he did on his own merit. Jackson started 14 games for Seattle in 2011 and went 7-7. He threw for 3,091 yards and 14 touchdowns. That isn't terrible. He was sacked 42 times which goes to show how bad of an offensive line he was playing behind. And going 7-7 with a young, yet talented defense and a not-great offense says a lot.rnrnAfter 2011, Jackson threw just 20 passes for Seattle as Wilson became firmly entrenched as the starter. Jackson wasn't just a decent backup and OK starter, though. He helped groom Wilson be the quarterback that he became and that should say something.rnrnWas Jackson among the best quarterbacks in the NFL during his time as a starter? No. But he did help Seattle become a franchise that would eventually win a Super Bowl.rnrn[nextslide teaser="Number%209" /]rnrn rnrn rnrn[caption id="attachment_76956" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] 6 Oct 1996: Quarterback John Friesz #17 of the Seattle Seahawks stares into the backfield as he turns to hand off to his running back during a play in the Seahawks 22-15 victory over the Miami Dolphins at Pro Player Stadium in Miami, Florida.[/caption]rnrn[mockdraft order="9" firstname="John" lastname="Friesz" position="1995-1998" league="6" division="31" team="36" /]rnrnI promise, 12s, we are getting closer to the really good quarterbacks in Seahawks lore. The ones you will tell your grandchildren you saw take the ring out of the shire and bury it deep in Mount Doom. But we are not there yet. And please no disrespect to Mr. John Friesz of Homeleigh, the Burrows, Oswestry who as much as he might like can still be seen on the Seattle playing field.rnrnOr at least he could between the years of 1995 and 1998 when Friesz threw 416 passes for Seattle and had a record of 6-5. Friesz also threw for 16 touchdowns against just 12 interceptions which is a pretty decent ratio during that era of professional football.rnrnThe most Friesz ever started was 6 games which were in 1996 and he led Seattle to a 4-2 record in that season. He also threw for 8 touchdowns and just 4 interceptions. How did he not make the Pro Bowl, y'all? He even had a quarterback rating of 86.4. Don't sneeze at that. In 1996, had Friesz played a full season with that QBR, he would have finished 6th in the NFL.rnrnAgain, Friesz wasn't among the best quarterbacks in Seahawks history, but he was at least among the better ones.rnrn[nextslide teaser="Number%208" /]rnrn rnrn[caption id="attachment_76957" align="aligncenter" width="3200"] (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)[/caption]rnrn[mockdraft order="8" firstname="Seneca" lastname="Wallace" position="2005-2009" league="6" division="31" team="36" /]rnrn Seneca Wallace will be the last of Seahawks quarterbacks who did not win double-digit games. In fact, Wallace was just 5-9 in his Seattle career. But he was a spot starter on several not-good Seattle teams in the late 2000s. Had Wallace been on many other NFL teams, though, he might have started.rnrnWallace played Matt Hasselbeck and never really had a chance to start. More on Hasselbeck in a bit, but Wallace might have been a Seattle starter full-time for many years had he not played when he did.rnrnStill, even though playing in limited time, Wallace has the 8th-most passing yards in Seattle history with 3,547. Wallace started 14 games which are almost an NFL season. Take his combined years with Seattle and make them into a year he would have thrown for all those yards and for 25 touchdowns against 14 interceptions with a quarterback rating of 83.1. Not bad stuff.rnrnWallace left Seattle after the 2009 season and played three more years. He started just 8 more games in his career, two with the Browns and one with Green Bay. Wallace was 1-7 in those combined starts. Wallace was a quarterback who deserved better and had more talent than what his statistics show. That is why he is number 8 on this list.rnrn[nextslide teaser="Number%207" /]rnrn rnrn[caption id="attachment_73981" align="aligncenter" width="3200"] (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)[/caption]rnrn[mockdraft order="7" firstname="Rick" lastname="Mirer" position="1993-1996" league="6" division="31" team="36" /]rnrnTo be fair, putting Rick Mirer on this list of 15 best Seahawks quarterbacks at all might be an offense to some 12s. But his statistics alone are better than most people who have been a quarterback for Seattle. Did Mirer's lack of ability set the franchise back for some years? Yes. But his numbers still put him in the top-10 of Seattle quarterbacks.rnrnIn 1993, Seattle chose Mirer with the second overall pick. Even then some pundits were saying that Mirer was an overreach and they proved to be correct. Mirer started 51 games for Seattle. He was 20-31 in those contests. The problem was that he threw 41 touchdown passes but also completed 56 passes to the opposing team. That is terrible.rnrnMirer actually stands fifth in Seahawks history in passing yards with 9,094 and fifth in touchdown passes thrown. When it comes to QBR, however, he is 12th among anyone with four or more starts. Mirer did play behind a terrible line as he has one of the highest sack percentages (8.3 percent of the time he dropped back he was tackled with the ball) in Seattle lineage. But he was also a statue without much ability to escape the rush.rnrn[nextslide teaser="Number%206" /]rnrn rnrn[caption id="attachment_76962" align="aligncenter" width="3200"] Mandatory Credit: Stephen Dunn /Allsport[/caption]rnrn[mockdraft order="6" firstname="Jon" lastname="Kitna" position="1997-2000" league="6" division="31" team="36" /]rnrnHello, 12s. We have two more quarterbacks on this list who were decent but not truly among the really good quarterbacks in Seahawks lore. The first of those two is Jon Kitna . Kitna immediately followed Mirer's time in Seattle. Kitna did not start until his third year in the league, though.rnrnKitna was signed as an undrafted free agent by then-Seattle coach Dennis Erickson in 1996. For the next season, he was on Seattle's practice squad and then played in NFL Europe. But he returned to be Warren Moon 's backup for the 1997 season and a lot of 1998 as well. Kitna, however, started the last five games of 1998 and did enough to have Seattle make him the full-time starter in 1999 and a lot of 2000.rnrnIn 1998, Kitna went 3-2 for a Seattle team that finished 8-8. When Kitna became the starter in 1999, he led the team to an 8-7 record and missed one game. He threw for 3,346 yards and 23 touchdowns that season. His average yard per catch to his receivers was what would be a career-high for him at 12.4.rnrnKitna went on to play for three more teams after leaving Seattle, including starting 46 games for the Bengals. But Kitna would have never had an NFL career had Seattle not taken a chance on him.rnrn[nextslide teaser="Number%205" /]rnrn rnrn[caption id="attachment_76963" align="aligncenter" width="3200"] (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Leigh Steinberg)[/caption]rnrn[mockdraft order="5" firstname="Warren" lastname="Moon" position="1997-1998" league="6" division="31" team="36" /]rnrnWe all know that Warren Moon did not make his NFL bones as a member of the Seahawks. For the first 10 years of his NFL career, he played for the Houston Astros or Texans or something. Oh, the Oilers, that's what it was. And not Edmonton either.rnrnThat last bit is a bit of a travesty because Moon wrongly had to start his career in Edmonton in the Canadian Football League after playing college football at the University of Washington. For five seasons, Moon played in the CFL. This meant he lost five years that he could have been in the NFL. That is a bit of a travesty.rnrnIt could be that Moon's skin color turned some teams off as African-American quarterbacks were a lot less common than they are in the NFL of 2019. The league has come to the correct realization that people of all skin colors can be really good players at any position. Houston learned that when Moon became a perennial Pro Bowler and eventual Hall of Famer in 2006.rnrnMoon only played two years in Seattle but he was still good even in his late 30s. He played 24 games with the Seahawks but is still 7th in touchdowns thrown (36) and in yards (5,310).rnrn[nextslide teaser="Number%204" /]rnrn rnrn[caption id="attachment_69156" align="aligncenter" width="3200"] Photo by Suzi Pratt/Getty Images for McDonald's[/caption]rnrn[mockdraft order="4" firstname="Jim" lastname="Zorn" position="1976-1984" league="6" division="31" team="36" /]rnrnJim Zorn was the most important player for the early years on the Seahawks franchise. He was the starting quarterback when the team incepted and he would have been better served had he been the starter at nearly any other time in Seattle history. Zorn was a smart player, if not overly physically gifted as a passer.rnrnWhat he could do, though, was moving around a bit and this saved his own skin and the Seattle team quite a bit. Zorn went 40-60 in his 9 seasons as a Seattle starter, which isn't too bad considering Seattle was a young team with no real talent or depth. At least until a few years into their existence when they added players like Kenny Easley .rnrnZorn was eventually superseded by a better quarterback (see number three in just a minute!), but Zorn's numbers are leagues better than anyone else other than the top three quarterbacks in Seattle history. Zorn finished with 20,122 yards passing for Seattle in his nine seasons. The next best is Mirer who is over 10,000 yards less.rnrnZorn is also fourth in touchdowns thrown (107) and passes thrown (2,990) and completions (1,593). Zorn also has the fourth most wins with Seattle, 20 ahead of Mirer who is fifth. Maybe the most important bit is that was sacked just 6.3 percent of the time on his dropbacks, which is even less than Russell Wilson. Behind a bad offensive line, Zorn managed to stay alive and keep Seattle fairly relevant.rnrn[nextslide teaser="Number%203" /]rnrn rnrn[caption id="attachment_77069" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] 25 Oct 1987: Quarterback Dave Krieg of the Seattle Seahawks looks to pass the ball during a game against the Los Angeles Raiders at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. The Seahawks won the game, 35-13.[/caption]rnrn rnrn rnrn[mockdraft order="3" firstname="Dave" lastname="Krieg" position="1980-1991" league="6" division="31" team="36" /]rnrn Dave Krieg led the Seahawks to a lot of firsts. He was the first quarterback to lead Seattle to the playoffs (1983), the first to have a playoff win (again, 1983), the first Seattle quarterback to make the Pro Bowl (1984) and he led the NFL in touchdown percentage thrown per attempt three times. Krieg also threw 32 touchdown passes in 1984 which was the Seattle record for touchdowns in a season until Russell Wilson broke that in 2015.rnrnKrieg's Seattle teams went to the playoffs four times. Behind Wilson, Krieg has the second-best QBR of any Seattle quarterback with more than 14 career starts (82.3). And besides the best two quarterbacks in Seahawks history, Krieg is far above anyone else.rnrnKrieg's winning percentage trails just Wilson as Krieg went 70-49. He is third all-time in passing yards thrown (26,132) and until recently led the franchise in career touchdown passes thrown (195).rnrnOne of the problems for Krieg was that he let himself get sacked far too often. His sack percentage of 8.7 percent is much higher than Zorn's or Hasselbeck's and is less great than Wilson's too. This even though Krieg arguably had better offensive lines than Wilson has had.rnrnThere is no doubt, however, that Dave Krieg is Seattle's third-best quarterback in franchise lore and without him, Seattle would have struggled much more in the early years of the team's past.rnrn[nextslide teaser="Number%202" /]rnrn rnrn[caption id="attachment_76966" align="aligncenter" width="3200"] (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)[/caption]rnrn[mockdraft order="2" firstname="Matt" lastname="Hasselbeck" position="2001-2010" league="6" division="31" team="36" /]rnrnMatt 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.rnrnThe 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.rnrnHasselbeck 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).rnrnHasselbeck 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.rnrn[nextslide teaser="Number%201" /]rnrn rnrn[caption id="attachment_72398" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] (Photo by Otto Greule Jr /Getty Images)[/caption]rnrn[mockdraft order="1" firstname="Russell" lastname="Wilson" position="2012-current" league="6" division="31" team="36" /]rnrnRussell Wilson is the best quarterback in Seahawks lore and the numbers back this fact up. Plus, think of the last few seasons and then think of where Seattle would be without Wilson. 12s should be happy with all of the victories Wilson brings them.rnrnSince Wilson entered the league in 2012, Seattle has missed the playoffs just once and that was in 2017. Wilson has led Seattle to two Super Bowls and got Seattle its first championship in 2013. Did he do it on his own? No. But a big reason Seattle has won as much as it has over the 2010s decade is because of Wilson.rnrnBy the end of the 2019 season, Wilson will rank first in passing yards thrown by a Seahawk. He already is first in touchdown passes, wins, QBR (no one else is even close here), completion percentage, yards per pass, yards per game and game-winning drives (again, no one is a close second in this category).rnrn[story_link_next description="15%20best%20Seahawks%20free-agent%20acquisitions%20ever" url="https://12thmanrising.com/2019/03/11/seattle-seahawks-15-best-free-agent-acquisitions/" /]rnrnWilson became the focus of the Seattle offense in 2015 and has made the Seahawks offense one of the best in the NFL ever since. Seattle's defense has digressed in quality but Seattle continues to make the playoffs. Why? It is pretty simple. They are currently led by the best quarterback in Seahawks history: Russell Wilson.rnrn rnrn rnrn rnrn

12th Man Rising

Seattle Seahawks: 15 greatest quarterbacks in franchise history

Brock Huard

2000-2001, Seattle Seahawks

Newsletter

Your Seattle Seahawks.
Your Inbox. Every Day.