By Kshell
The Seahawks surprised the experts once again with their third round selection. The Seahawks despite signing Tarvaris Jackson last year and Matt Flynn this offseason drafted a quarterback in the third round. Pete Carroll knows how important the quarterback position is and doesn't want what happened last season to happen again. The Seahawks took former Wisconsin Badger and NC State Wolfpack quarterback Russell Wilson in the third round. The Seahawks tomorrow will have two fourth round picks, one fifth round pick, two sixth round picks and two seventh round picks. The Seahawks who aren't financially tied into Matt Flynn are simply keeping their options open. Wilson won't threaten Flynn's job this season but someday down the line he might. If you have good healthy quarterback competition that can't be a bad thing.
Wilson began his career at NC State where all he did there was the all-time passing leader in school history. Wilson threw for 8,545 yards at NC State with 76 touchdowns to just 26 interceptions. Then he switch to Wisconsin where all he did there was lead the Badgers to the Rose Bowl. Last year Wilson completed 72.8% of his passes for 3,175 yards(10.3 YPA) with 33 touchdowns to just four interceptions. He played well in big games as well. In the Big 10 championship game rematch against Michigan State Wilson was 17-24(70.8%) for 187 yards with three touchdowns and zero interceptions. Then in the Rose Bowl loss to the Oregon Ducks 45-38 Wilson was 19-25(76.0%) for 296 yards with two touchdowns to just one interception. He also ran for a touchdown in that game as well. The Seahawks like his leadership quality and the fact he is very accurate. He may only be 5'11" 201 lbs but he is a gamer who hopefully someday can lead the Seahawks places. If Matt Flynn ends up being the real deal then the Seahawks can trade Wilson like teams have done in the past.
With the Seahawks signing Matt Flynn and now drafted Russell Wilson I think the Tarvaris Jackson one year experiment in Seattle is going to end. Most fans knew last year that Jackson was simply a placeholder for this franchise. Now he may not be as bad as a Charlie Whitehurst he also isn't very good either. Last season with the Seahawks Jackson passed for 3,091 yards(15 games, 14 starts) completing 60.2% of his passes with 14 touchdowns to 13 interceptions on the season. His quarterback rating was 79.2 which looking at these numbers aren't bad. The problem is those numbers aren't good. Jackson is the defination of average to below average. In his career his rating is 77.7, has a completion percentage of 59.4%, touchdown to interception ratio of 38-35 and a starting record that sits at 17-17. I wouldn't mind keeping Jackson as the experienced backup and just releasing Josh Portis or put him on the practice squad. Wilson is an interesting pick that is for sure and so far the offensive issues for next season has yet to be addressed in the NFL draft so far.
Schneider comes from the Green Bay Packers who draft a quarterback every season. You can never have too many quarterbacks as we have witnessed the last four seasons with poor quarterback play. Wilson was a good college quarterback and the Seahawks are hoping his skills can transfer to the NFL. With Flynn and Wilson at quarterback and for now Jackson the position appears to be much improved over last year. I doubt Wilson takes a snap this year unless Flynn is a disaster which we all hope he isn't. Wilson was a winner in college, highly successful and very accurate. The Seahawks may have found their gem in this years draft which so far has confused all of the ESPN draft pundits.
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