After the 2012 season, the Seahawks decided that they needed a playmaking receiver in order to get to the next level. And while Percy Harvin didn’t do much to get Seattle to the Super Bowl, his impact on the 43-8 win over Denver was obvious.
After a loss to the Patriots in the next Super Bowl, the Seahawks decided that they need a big target to whom a fade pass could be thrown when, for example, the offense has moved to the doorstep of the end zone for a potential Lombardi-deciding score and a trio of 300-pound linemen have been dispatched to clog the running lanes.
That’s the point that comes through the loudest and most clearly in an excellent item from Peter King of TheMMQB.com regarding the decision that flipped momentum like it never had flipped before in crunch time of a Super Bowl. The crossing route that was blown up both by former Patriots cornerback Brandon Browner preventing a pick/rub/whatever and current Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler pouncing on the throw became the choice because the Seahawks didn’t have a big target who could go to the back of the end zone for a touchdown-or-incomplete proposition.
They now do, via the arrival of Jimmy Graham.
“He’s added a new dimension to our offense,” offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell told King. “He’s been amazing. Awesome. He’ll help on third down, help in the red zone. In some of those areas you feel like he will be able to be a big factor. I think he will have the effect that you imagine a tight end would, pulling some coverage, and maybe changing some stuff for guys outside and guys other places as well.”
Baldwin and other receivers may not like that very much, in the same way they supposedly didn’t like the arrival of Harvin. But if they’d gotten the job done with the season on the line, the Seahawks wouldn’t have targeted Graham.
To Bevell’s credit, he has abandoned the notion that receiver Ricardo Lockette could have done more to get to the ball, calling it simply a great play by Butler. Still, if Lockette had gotten to the ball (or if receiver Jermaine Kearse had gotten past Browner to apply the pick/rub/whatever to Butler), the reaction possibly wouldn’t have been to bring in Graham.
