Hawks’ quarterback woes have been a longstanding problem

By TODD FREDRICKSON

Herald Writer

SEATTLE — The search will go on.

Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren has politely, but clearly, indicated that Jon Kitna is not his quarterback for the long run.

And by lasting all of 12 plays before being injured for the second time in four career starts Brock Huard might have indicated on Sunday that he doesn’t have the durability for the job.

So the Seahawks will hit the quarterback trail this off-season — again — and their track record over the last decade or so is, um, abysmal.

Kelly Stouffer, Dan McGwire and Rick Mirer all cost the team first-round draft choices in the last 12 years, and only Mirer is still in the NFL, as a backup in San Francisco.

Warren Moon was a glitzy acquisition three years ago, and he had a tolerable two years in Seattle, but he was clearly on the down side of his spectacular career and was never viewed as the future.

Now add Kitna and Huard, and the list of those who didn’t take Seattle to the promised land is getting rather lengthy.

You have to go back to Dave Krieg in 1989 to find a Seattle quarterback in the Pro Bowl. Not coincidentally, you also have to go back to Krieg and the 1987 and ‘88 seasons to find the Seahawks in the playoffs two years in a row.

And as gutsy and heroic as Krieg was, that had as much to do with the rest of the team as it did the scrappy free agent from Milton College.

Coach Chuck Knox didn’t need a golden boy with a golden arm to run his team the way he wanted.

Subsequent Seahawks coaches Tom Flores, Dennis Erickson and Mike Holmgren do, and their inability to acquire and/or develop one has hurt the team badly.

Moon and Kitna were free agents who didn’t cost anything in terms of draft choices or trade bait.

But throw away three first-round draft choices in 12 years and change quarterbacks six times in a decade and see how close you get to the Super Bowl.

Just ask the Seahawks. They’re not there yet, and after Sunday’s game the Super Bowl is as far off as it ever was.