Sunday, June 7, 2009

Back to Football: Taking a Knapp

by: Chris Sullivan

Hey guys, thanks for the lively comment thread in the last post. I've been in a bit of a bloggers block of late, as there is just not a whole lot of news to report. Additionally, the site seems in a bit of a stalemate. We'll be trying to figure out how to get stuff back up and running.

In the meantime, lets talk about football, shall we?

I thought we should take a look at how the QBs have performed under Greg Knapp, as most of the discussion has been surrounding the running game. The results? Well, take a looksie:

YEAR

TEAM

WIN %

QB

QB Rating

Career Rtg

Diff

2001

49ers

75%

Jeff Garcia

94.8

87.5

7.3

2002

49ers

63%

Jeff Garcia

85.6

87.5

-1.9

2003

49ers

44%

Jeff Garcia

80.1

87.5

-7.4

2004

Falcons

69%

Michael Vick

78.1

75.7

2.4

2005

Falcons

50%

Michael Vick

73.1

75.7

-2.6

2006

Falcons

44%

Michael Vick

75.7

75.7

0

2007

Raiders

25%

Squadron*

70.9

N/A

N/A

2008

Raiders

31%

JaMarcus Russell

77.1

73.9

3.2

*2007 Raiders QBs were Josh McCown, Dante Culpepper, JaMarcus Russell & Andrew Walter


While it would appear that Knapp has been on a bit of a downward slope, I think the jury is still out. The bottom line is that, looking at his quarterbacks, Knapp doesn't appear to have had much of an option outside of a running game. With Vick he (and Mora) were largely handcuffed -- mediocre QB with excellent feet. What else are you going to do? The Raiders are a walking talking joke and Russell hamstrung the team in his rookie year with a holdout. The fact that a collection of McCown, Culpepper, Russell and Walter could pull together a 70.1 rating is actually pretty impressive, heh.

I think looking at what happened in San Francisco is the best comparison for Seattle -- and that's not just wishful thinking (I hope). Garcia is a cerebral quarterback with a decent arm, a chip on his shoulder, and a ring of hair around his head. Okay, maybe not the last part, but that would really drive home the point about how he is similar to Hasselbeck. In addition to that, San Fransisco also had some aging, decent but not great running backs -- Garrison Hearst and Kevin Barlow. We've got Julius Jones and TJ Duckett. Sure, Jones is not a two-time pro-bowler like Hearst, but you get the point.

The one thing that does create a fair amount of concern in me is Knapp (and Mora)'s history of starting strong and fizzling over a three years period. We know how that went in Atlanta with the two of them, but it was the case with the San Fransisco offense in 2001-2003 as well. The Seahawks appear fit to handover a top-10 offense if the pieces can play together, but can Knapp and Mora continue to build on that offense to make it a multi-year powerhouse? Or are we about to see the Seahawks hit a crescendo before fading again? What say you, Addicts?
END