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?
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