Doug Baldwin is amazing

Doug Baldwin proved again on Sunday night what makes him so special and valuable to the Seattle Seahawks.

The veteran receiver in his eighth year caught seven passes for 126 yards and a touchdown (and a yard shy of his second) as the Seahawks beat the Chiefs 38-31 to secure a playoff berth. Baldwin made several highlight plays and came up huge in moments when offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer took surprising, if not out of character shots downfield at critical times.

It was Baldwin’s first 100-yard game since he had 108 in a loss to Washington last November 5. It was his most yards in a game since a December 24 loss to the Arizona Cardinals in which he had 171. In fact, it’s the first time the Seahawks won a regular season game in which Baldwin had 100 yards since November 5 of that year. Seattle did beat the Detroit Lions in the 2016 playoffs with Baldwin having 11 catches for 105 yards.

Not that that is an indictment of Baldwin or his value to the team in any way.

Clearly Russell Wilson was “off” earlier this season as Baldwin played through and eventually missed some games due to injury. Baldwin said going into the season that he would probably not be at “100%” at any point this year but he looked as good as new vs the Chiefs.

Baldwin passed Darrell Jackson for third-most receiving yards in franchise history.

Some have wondered if the Seahawks might part ways with Baldwin after the season to save money. His cap hit is $13 million, while Seattle would save about half of that by releasing him without a post-June 1 designation. Not only do they not seem to need that money desperately, but Baldwin is clearly still very important to Wilson and this offense.

So I doubt it.