KIRKLAND — The plan that Seattle Seahawks team president Tim Ruskell had cooked up did not appear to be a recipe for success.
On the second day of the 2007 NFL draft, Ruskell finalized a deal to send go-to wide receiver Darrell Jackson out of town. Not only did Ruskell receive a lowly fourth-round pick in return, he consummated the trade with division rival San Francisco. The general consensus was that Ruskell had crippled his own team’s high-octane passing attack while giving another NFC West contender the missing piece to a division title puzzle.
Eight months later, the collective response out of Seattle can be summed up in two words:
Darrell who? One of the most productive receivers in franchise history has hardly been missed this season, due in part to the play of those left behind.
Veteran Bobby Engram became the first Seahawks receiver to catch 90 passes in a season. Deion Branch made a seamless transition into Jackson’s flanker position. Nate Burleson has emerged as a playmaker who’s caught a team-high seven touchdown passes, and D.J. Hackett has been productive when healthy.
“The production’s been there,” quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. “Nate’s caught a bunch of touchdowns. Bobby’s had a career year. Hack’s done a great job when he’s been in there. Deion’s solid all the time. We’ve got a great group.”
Hasselbeck has relied on Engram more than ever before, but he’s also spreading the ball around to plenty of others. In an offense that depends heavily on a balanced receiving corps, the 2007 Seahawks are finding success in numbers.
“If you’re a good receiver,” offensive coordinator Gil Haskell said, “you can have a lot of success in this offense.”
Head coach Mike Holmgren admitted that he was “concerned” when Jackson was dealt to the 49ers in April. After all, the then-28-year-old wideout was the fourth-leading receiver in Seahawks history and had caught more passes (262) than anyone else in Seattle during the four-year playoff run that began in 2003.
And yet it has worked out for the best as far as the Seahawks are concerned.
While Jackson’s receiving total has dropped from a team-high 63 catches with the Seahawks last season to 43 with the 5-10 49ers this year, Seattle’s leftovers have more than picked up the slack.
Engram rebounded from his 2006 health problems to catch a franchise-best 90 passes, or 66 more than he had last season. Burleson has more than doubled his receiving total — from 18 to 43 — and leads the team in touchdowns. Hackett has been productive when healthy, catching six or more passes and one touchdown in each of the three full games in which he’s been healthy.
And Branch, despite some early injury problems, is on pace to match his 2006 totals.
“People kind of have their roles,” Burleson said. “But more importantly, week to week, it kind of rotates. One guy will have 100 yards, but then the next week that same guy might have 20 yards.
“Hasselbeck spreads it around. We don’t necessarily know who it’s going to be. We just take whatever we’re given.”
Haskell, the offensive coordinator, said that part of the key to Seattle’s post-Jackson success has been practice repetitions.
“The game is so fine, and the rhythm between the passer and the receiver is so fine, that you’ve got to be in there,” Haskell said. “When we run certain passes every day, Bobby’s got to be in there, or Deion’s got to be in there. If they’re not in there, and there’s a young guy running it, in my mind that’s a wasted play.
“… If you’re going to miss Wednesday and Thursday of every week, there’s no rhythm. No matter how good you are, there is no rhythm.”
This season, the Seahawks’ passing game has had plenty of rhythm, and Holmgren said that’s because of the receivers’ ability to hang on to the football. While wide receivers have accounted for just eight of the team’s 20 dropped passes this season, the 2006 wideouts were responsible for 22 of the 36 drops.
“They are catching the ball, for the most part,” Holmgren said. “That’s something that in the past few years — and it wasn’t just Darrell — kind of got us a few times.”
The wide receivers have been so dependable this season that the loss of Jackson has been a non-issue.
“It’s worked out great,” Hasselbeck said. “For me, (the absence of Jackson) was really a challenge. Not only did we lose Darrell, but we lost (tight end) Jerramy Stevens. And the year before that, we lost (receiver Joe) Jurevicius. And the year before that, we lost Koren (Robinson).
“It takes a while to get that chemistry going again.”
This year’s chemistry has made for a successful experiment. And now Ruskell’s plan doesn’t look so half-baked.
“We felt very good about the receiving corps,” Ruskell said of his reasons for making the April deal. “If we didn’t feel good, we probably wouldn’t have been able to do what we did in terms of Darrell. That was the last push that we needed in terms of being able to make that trade.
“We felt like, ‘OK, Darrell’s gone, are we going to be able to make up for that lack of production?’ And I think that question’s been answered.”
Notes: Branch (calf) sat out practice Thursday, and it’s unlikely the Seahawks will put him at risk in Sunday’s game at Atlanta. Walter Jones (shoulder) and defensive tackle Rocky Bernard (groin) also have been resting injuries this week. … Backup safety Mike Green (knee) returned to practice, while linebacker Niko Koutouvides (knee) sat out the final hour of Thursday’s session.
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