RENTON — One of the most memorable plays made by a Seattle Seahawks receiver in 2014 involved blocking, which in a way is both fitting and misleading.
On one hand, the impressive effort made by Ricardo Lockette on Marshawn Lynch’s 79-yard touchdown run in Arizona demonstrated so much of what the Seahawks look for in receivers — unselfishness, toughness, the willingness to do the dirty work in a run-first offense.
But on the other hand, to say Seattle’s receivers are just gritty or scrappy or whatever you want to call them is a bit demeaning.
Because while no one in Seattle’s passing game, quarterback Russell Wilson included, puts up big individual numbers, the Seahawks are a much better passing team — and much more productive at receiver — than most give them credit for.
While the Seahawks attempted the fewest passes in the NFL this season, marking the third straight year they’ve been 31st or 32nd in that category, they still managed to be one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL. Of Seattle’s 454 pass attempts this season, 54 went for 20 or more yards. That rate of 11.9 percent ranked first in the NFL, just ahead of Indianapolis, a team that, oddly enough, attempted the most passes in the league this season.
Wilson deservedly gets a lot of the credit for those big plays, but Seattle’s receivers, led by Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Kearse and rookie Paul Richardson, are an underrated part of Seattle’s offense. And considering that the Carolina Panthers held Marshawn Lynch to 62 yards earlier this season, and just 43 in last year’s meeting, the Seahawks very well could need more big plays out of their underappreciated receivers this weekend.
“You’ve got to be mentally tough to be a receiver here, because you’re not going to get as many balls, you’re not going to get as many targets, but you’ve got to stay ready at all points of the ballgame,” said Kearse, who has had a knack for big catches in big moments, from the game winner in Carolina last year to his fourth-down touchdown in the NFC championship game to his touchdown in Super Bowl that saw him pinball off multiple Denver defenders.
“You might get three balls in the first quarter and might not see another one until the fourth quarter. You’ve just got to be ready, and when your opportunity comes, you’ve just got to make the most of it.”
Over the past two seasons, beginning when Sidney Rice went down with an injury, the Seahawks’ receivers have been one of the most disparaged position groups on a first-place team you’ll ever see. They’ve been called pedestrian, appetizers (Get it? Because there’s no main course) and not talented enough to get the job done. Yet time and time again they’ve done enough to help the Seahawks win a Super Bowl and return to the playoffs this year as the No. 1 seed, even without big stats on their resumes.
“There’s obviously a lot that’s been said about our receiving corps — it’s mediocre, average, pedestrian, or whatever you want to call it — but we just don’t get the opportunities that other passing teams do,” Baldwin said. “You have to have the mentality of knowing that when you come here as a receiver in Seattle — a lot of guys that come here and they don’t get it or they don’t understand it — that you’re going to do more blocking than you do receiving, and that’s just our job.
“So yeah, you have to have a strong mindset, a tough mentality in order to play receiver here because you’re going to be doing that [blocking] more so here than anything else. So yeah, mentally tough is definitely a prerequisite for a receiver in Seattle.”
That mindset is almost as big a part of Seattle’s talent evaluation at receiver — and really at any position — as is physical ability. Nobody in Seattle’s receiving room is going to claim he’s Calvin Johnson or Dez Bryant, but at a position where Seattle starts two undrafted players in Baldwin and Kearse, the right mindset is hugely important for a team that isn’t going to feed a receiver like most teams do their top targets.
“Everything counts when we’re making evaluations on guys,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. … The makeup of the guy, the attitude that he brings, the toughness that he brings, the grit the guy brings, that has a lot to do with the guys that we like. We’ve got a very feisty, competitive bunch of guys. They complement one another, but they’re all unique in their way.”
Told that Carroll called Seattle’s receiver feisty, cornerback Richard Sherman joked, “He’s talking about Doug,” and even though Sherman was mostly having fun at the expense of a close friend, Baldwin does in many ways epitomize what Seattle wants from its receivers. From the enormous chip on his shoulder to his willingness to do the dirty work, to his ability to come through in the clutch time and time again.
While few would consider Baldwin or any other Seahawks receiver elite NFL talent, it’s worth noting that Baldwin’s 2014 numbers as Seattle’s top target — 66 catches, 825 yards, 3 touchdowns — are very similar to the numbers Golden Tate put up a year ago when he had 64 catches for 898 yards and five scores. After leaving in free agency and going to Detroit, a much more pass-happy offense, Tate had 99 catches, for 1,331 yards and 4 touchdowns as his team’s No. 2 receiver.
“The thing I don’t think people understand is that if we wanted to throw it around, we could,” receivers coach Kippy Brown said. “I’m convinced that we could. We prepare that in case we had to open it up — we’re prepared for that. Our guys, they could go any place. I’ve coached a lot of places in this league, and they could go any place and play.”
Seattle’s receivers aren’t going to consistently post 100-yard games in the postseason, and they certainly won’t be listed by pundits as a reason why the Seahawks can repeat, but odds are someone, whether it’s Baldwin or Kearse or Richardson or Kevin Norwood, will make a big play when the Seahawks need one.
“They’re feisty, they’re underrated, they’re dynamic, they’re clutch, they’re veterans, and they’re champions,” Sherman said. “A lot of people from last year — this is the same group of receivers that went to the Super Bowl, and a lot of people were calling them appetizers, pedestrians; they called them a lot of things… you can call whoever you want whatever you want, but on game day it really means nothing.
“I think our guys show up when we need them. Jermaine Kearse caught a clutch touchdown in the NFC Championship game last year — these are guys who’ve played big time in big games. There are a lot of people who play big time in the regular season, but what did that do for you in the playoffs?”
Herald Columnist John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
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