With the first two picks of the 2011 NFL Draft the Seattle Seahawks have chosen offensive linemen. This in itself isn't much of a story, but taken from a wider view it says quite a lot. The Hawks have decided, as Brandon Adams at 17Power so eloquently put it in his reaction article tonight, to take a road less traveled in today's NFL - one occupied by a run-first offense. The major trend in NFL Champion teams is one characterized by pass-happy, gun slinging quarterbacks putting their respective teams on their backs and leading them to victory. If you looked at it in a statistical fashion you'd conclude that passing a lot is the best way to win a championship. Teams that pass more, win more.
Now let's look at it from a different angle. The NFL has a lot of parity so you see a lot of turnover in the playoffs, but the teams that stay in the playoffs year in and year out have elite talent at QB. What do you do if you have an elite talent at QB? You put the ball in his hands and tell him to win the game. So what happens if you don't have an elite quarterback, like probably 90% of the NFL? You certainly don't try and just pass more despite your obvious disadvantage in the realm of passing, you'd lose the turnover battle badly and get blown out in many games. This may or may not have happened with the Seahawks in 2010.
Here's my point: it's very difficult to find an elite, top tier quarterback. Teams struggle for decades to find that elite talent and putting that piece in place can change the entire landscape of a franchise. Instead, the Seahawks are building a team predicated on running the ball. I pointed out Kansas City's scheme and strategy and it got them to the playoffs last year where they lost to a very, very good team called the Ravens. They got there behind the QB play of Matt Cassel, the most boring Pro-Bowl QB ever. KC isn't done either, they'll be back next year after having a very decent draft so far these last two days. On the other hand, look at Denver. They had an extremely effective and exciting passing game centered around Kyle Orton but lacked anything resembling a rushing attack, and they just so happened to pick 2nd in the draft yesterday.......................
Now let's look at it from a different angle. The NFL has a lot of parity so you see a lot of turnover in the playoffs, but the teams that stay in the playoffs year in and year out have elite talent at QB. What do you do if you have an elite talent at QB? You put the ball in his hands and tell him to win the game. So what happens if you don't have an elite quarterback, like probably 90% of the NFL? You certainly don't try and just pass more despite your obvious disadvantage in the realm of passing, you'd lose the turnover battle badly and get blown out in many games. This may or may not have happened with the Seahawks in 2010.
Here's my point: it's very difficult to find an elite, top tier quarterback. Teams struggle for decades to find that elite talent and putting that piece in place can change the entire landscape of a franchise. Instead, the Seahawks are building a team predicated on running the ball. I pointed out Kansas City's scheme and strategy and it got them to the playoffs last year where they lost to a very, very good team called the Ravens. They got there behind the QB play of Matt Cassel, the most boring Pro-Bowl QB ever. KC isn't done either, they'll be back next year after having a very decent draft so far these last two days. On the other hand, look at Denver. They had an extremely effective and exciting passing game centered around Kyle Orton but lacked anything resembling a rushing attack, and they just so happened to pick 2nd in the draft yesterday.......................
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