FanPost

Where does Tarvaris Jackson REALLY rate?

First let me start by telling you a little about me. I have been a Field Gulls reader for over two years, and have been a life long Seahawks fan. My first memories were of Steve Largent catching touchdowns, Jacob Green and Joe Nash getting sacks and JLwilliams catching passes in the flat.

Now my point of view, I want the Seahawks to win it all every year, I'm painfully optimistic, especially during the Stouffer, McGwire, and Mirer ages. I also do believe that your QB needs to work within the offense and with the Coach, but I dont think he needs to win games. He does need to control the offense and make some plays.

This off season was a big one for the Seahawks. We signed in my belief a true #1 WR, something I dont think we have had since Galloway and Blades. We signed an all around TE who is paying dividends in the blocking schemes, but who we all thought would bring us a lot of ability in the passing game. we signed a nasty big man in Robert Gallery. We drafted two young offensive linemen, and resigned our two top threats from last year in BMW and Washington. But the biggest splash was Tavaris Jackson, but not in the normal sense where everyone is excited, almost universally the fans and pundits alike called it a bad move. That the seahawks couldnt win with TJ.

Is this really the case? lets look at some numbers and see.

The first number is the most important Wins, if people said TJ would be, at week 4, on par with Vick, Cassel, Orton, McNabb, Kolb and Bradford. I think we all would have been happy, but that is the thing about the NFL, crazy stuff happens.

The next number is QB rating. I dont put too much stock in any of the current QB rating systems, there are just so many variables that go into everything. The QB is the center point of the whole offense, but QB rating has a general way of saying how good a qb is. TJ right now is at 80.0. This isn't a great QB rating but still better than Flacco, Henne, McCoy, Grossman, Cutler, Dalton, Sanchez, Cassel, and Bradford.

How about TDs and INTs. TJ has 5 TD, not a great number, but is still higher than Cambell, Mcnabb, Dalton, A.Smith, Cassel, Bradford, Rothlesburger, and Freeman. He has 4 INT, and though I think that 2 were caused by scheme(two hail marry passes at end of the half) and one by drop(Zach Miller) im still gonna credit him with all four for this to be impartial. He still has less INTs that Rivers, Orton, Brady, Romo, Grossman, Sanchez, Rothslesburger, Newton and Cassel. Altogether his TD to Int ratio is better than Rivers, Grossman, Sanchez, Rothlisburger, Newton, Cassel, Freeman, Dalton, Henne, and Gabbert.

His Y/A is pretty bad at 6.3 near the bottom of starting QBs really, so that is a big negative. The average QB is at about 7.0 Y/A. His sacks, 14, are tied for third most in the league. He also has a completion percentage that ties him for 14th in the NFL.

We have an extremely young Oline that is struggling in the run game to the tune of 67.5 yards per game. TJ accounts for about 15 y/g in rushing so that means the rest of the team is sitting at a paultry 52.5 yards per game rushing. Miserably pathetic. The same Oline had given up a lot of pressure in the first two games, but has been really pulling it together the last two, and I think with a lot of room to improve.

Struggling with no run game, with an extremely young oline TJ has better stats than a lot of QBs out there that are making a lot more than he is. To put his numbers in a better context we are all a little more familiar with TJ makes about 4 million a year that is cheaper than Sanchez(14.75mil/ 17.75 mil cap value) Ryan(11.25mil /12.75 cap value), Romo(9 mil/ 10.9 mil cap value), Cutler(7.6 mil /9.5 cap value). Last year Matt Hasslebeck 6.25 million had a 59.9% completion ratio, a 12/17 td to int ratio, Y/A 6.8, 2.0 sack/g and lost 5 fumbles in what i think is a slightly better line that we have today(though in the future i think the current line will be much better).

Sure TJ holds the ball an increadable amount of time. Part of that is that we have a brand new offensive system. Sure he knows it, but Sidney was the only WR who knew the system before, and you can see their chemistry. We also have a lot of yong recievers. Tate, Baldwin, Durham. These guys need time not just to learn this system buta lot of WR take around three years to really grasp the game.

I could say all this is an excuss for TJ to perform badly, but really I dont think he needs any excusses. He may not be playing lights out, but he isnt bottom of the barrel either. There is a lot of upside on this team. The Oline, the Wr corp, TJ just getting chemestry in general(remember he didnt get to play with any of these WR, TE, or RB in the off season or in OTAs). Once thoseclick we just might have the game manager QB that Pete needs to turn this into a Jets/Ravens type model. Is he out QBotF? probably not but could you imagine paying Sanchez 14 million for less production. On top of that did we really have any other options in free agency?

Maybe, just maybe Pete was on to something, maybe time will tell.

*steps off soap box*