Player Sketches from Seahawks-Titans: Matt Hasselbeck

This is the high point of his game. It’s all downhill from here.

I thought maybe the offense had been dumbed down for Charlie, but upon second (and third, and fourth) looks, Matt wasn’t making any reads after the snap either. Most plays looked specifically designed to target a particular receiver, whether that receiver was making a read himself is a different scenario.

Matt’s arm strength is noticeably weaker than it used to be, and substantially weaker than Charlie’s. In an offense that features what looks (to me) be a focus on quick passes to designated targets, that’s deadly. Charlie can force a ball in there while Matt cannot.

The play that stood out to me, comparing Whitehurst with Hasselbeck, was the one where Whitehurst was in the midst of a rapidly collapsing pocket and got the ball out for a shortish pass over the middle. I think it was to Forsett, who ran for a good gain.

It actually startled me, because I’m so used to Hasselbeck tucking and taking the sack in those situations. Whitehurst stood in there and threw a dart. It’s understandable for Hasselbeck to be a bit skittish in the pocket, what with the poor protection and his injury history. But if Whitehurst can have even a half second more of effective throwing time before he succumbs to pressure, that’s an enormous benefit as long as he doesn’t take it too far and cause fumbles.

Jeremy Bates will tailor his offense to what Hasselbeck can do.

Given what we have seen, based on his arm strength, that right there tells me that there’s a good portion left of Bates’ playbook that will be ‘prohibited’ based on throws Hass cannot consistently make. If that’s the case, isn’t Charlie Christ the better QB to run this system?

goes something like this: Hass starts as he is the incumbent starter and obvious fan-favorite. With little pressure on the coaching staff to “win now” this is the safe decision for a few reasons.
1) If Hass does well and we win games, thats great- Carroll and Bates look great and show they could do what Mora and Knapp could not.
2) In the event Hass gets hurt they can now insert Whitehurst into the starting lineup without dealing with any sort of controversy or any kind of benching of a “Seahawks Great.”
- If Whitehurt struggles then Hass takes back over when he gets healthy, and if Whitehurst shines then he continues to start using the reasoning that you dont mess with a good thing (similar “situation” to Brady/Bledsoe. Again, im not comparing the players just possible situation.
3) If Hass does struggle badly, and Seattle does not win many games early on- they “go in a different direction” and allow Whitehurst to “compete” for the job.
*Again, this is all with the idea that Seattle is not supposed to or expected to win this season anyway and the coaches have the luxury of giving Hass a parting shot at keeping his job and expecting that an opportunity for Whitehurst will come early this season as well.

That being said, I would like to see Whitehurst start the season as our starting QB- I think Hass has shown that he has progressively gotten weaker, more inconsistent and more fragile and it is time for a change, and this is a perfect year to make that change. However, I would not be suprised to see Seattle start the season with Hass as the starting QB and like I mentioned above stay in that role if he is successful or find his way to the bench by week 3 or 4 if he struggles and the Hawks lose 2 of their first 3 games. But I do believe Hass will start week 1 vs the 49ers- right or wrong, earned or unearned PC will make that move and I think we could see a change early on if he does poorly. I can only hope that if Matt does struggle, that Charlie will come in right away and do well and not put Seattle in a position of possibly making another QB change either to Losman or back to Hasselbeck….inconsistency at the QB position would be a season-killer for a team without a dominating running game or dominating defense.