Seahawks 2009 offensive MVP: TE John Carlson

With my friend Scotty Kimberly wanting peoples opinion on the 2009 Seattle Seahawks offensive MVP I decided to give my take. I had a short list consisting of TJ Houshmandzadeh, Nate Burleson, Justin Forsett, Matt Hasselbeck and John Carlson.

In the end it came down to Forsett and Carlson with John Carlson receiving my vote as the 2009 Seattle Seahawks offensive MVP.

Now some people might question right off the bat, why John Carlson? He was irrelevant for the first eight games of the season. Well there is a reason why his stats were down for the first eight games,outside of week one and that was because due to the inconsistency of the offensive line Carlson had to stay home and be an additional blocker instead of a route running tight end like he’s built for.

Now overall when the offensive line situation was resolved with Mike Gibson at right guard and Max Unger at center Carlson was able to get back to his normal form as a pass catching tight end.

In 2009 Carlson played all 16 games while recording 51 receptions for 571 yards and seven touchdowns, a team high in 2009. Carlson average yards per catch was 11.3 with 271 yards after catch. Carlson was only targeted 83 times this season.

When you compare Carlson’s 2009 numbers to those of TJ Houshmandzadeh, Nate Burleson and even Deion Branch he stands out as being the best overall receiving option for Hasselbeck.

Here’s a breakdown of Carlson’s 2009 stats vs TJ, Nate and Deion

TJ Houshmandzadeh: 79 receptions, 911 yards, three touchdowns, 11.5 average, 237 yards after catch and 135 targets.TJ’s difference for targets and receptions is 56.

Nate Burleson 63 receptions, 812 yards, three touchdowns, 12.9 average, 290 yards after catch and 103 targets.Nate’s difference for targets and receptions is 40.

Deion Branch: 45 receptions, 437 yards, two touchdowns, 9.7 average, 150 yards after catch and 79 targets. Deion’s difference for targets and receptions is 34.

Now compare that to John Carlson’s numbers overall and it’s clear that Carlson is the best. Carlson’s difference between targets and receptions is 32, even lower than Deion Branch.

So with that being said my vote for the 2009 Seattle Seahawks offensive MVP goes to tight end John Carlson.

Sound off.

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Check out Lars’ sports blog: http://hansonsportsblog.blogspot.com/

Seahawks player review: WR TJ Houshmandzadeh

This is the first in a long series of articles reviewing the Seahawks players of 2009. Did they under perform, over perform or just be average? We kick off the series with the Seahawks biggest free agent acquisition from last off season, wide receiver TJ Houshmandzadeh.

The Seahawks rewarded the NFL's most consistent wide receiver with a five year $40 million dollar contract with $15 million guaranteed.

With the Seahawks finishing 5-11 in TJ's first season with the team, needless to say it wasn't happy times in Houshmandzadeh-ville. Houshmnadzadeh looked to some fans and reporters like a smaller in scale version of T.O. Running in with offensive coordinator Greg Knapp and questionable actions on the sideline with former head coach Jim Mora Jr.

However from a statsical stand point Houshmandzadeh did about avgerage for what he's done in his career. He didn't have a good quarterback or a great offense in general for many reasons, some of which have been fixed. The firing of offensive coordinator Greg Knapp will help fix those problems. In at offensive coordinator is Jeremy Bates who was in Denver with Jay Cutler when he lit up the NFL through the air.

TJ couldn't be more happy to have Bates as the offensive coordinator. Now for Houshmandzadeh's stats from 2009.

TJ fininshed 2009 playing in all 16 games and recording 79 receptions (team high), 911 yards receiving (team high) and three receiving touchdowns. Houshmandzadeh also had 11.5 YPC (yards per catch).

Houshmandzadeh never was really apart of the Seahawks offense, which was almost nonexistent this season. Housh, along with Nate Burleson, Deion Branch and tight end John Carlson all never became apart of what was suppose to be an explosive offense for the Seahawks.

TJ, Nate and Deion caught national headlines when Nate and Deion hosted their weakly talk radio show in Seattle on 950 KJR Seattle. The Branch and Burleson Show went from being a fun an interactive talk session with the passionate 12th man to a show that had the trio of receivers (TJ, Deion and Nate) calling out Matt Hasselbeck, Jim Mora Jr, offensive coordinator Greg Knapp as well as local TV analyst Hugh Millen, who TJ took personal exception to.

However TJ's first season in Seattle can not be taken as a bust or a desaster because he let the team in receptions and receiving yards. The letdown came on the offensive line and at quarterback and running back with the exception of Justin Forsett.

So we will list TJ Houshmanzadeh's first season in Seattle as average.

Hopefully with a new head coach in Pete Carroll and a new offensive coordinator in Jeremy Bates the Seattle Seahawks offense, including TJ Houshmanzadeh will be alive and firing on all cylinders in 2010.

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Seahawks lose 24-7 To Bucs: The Matt Hasselbeck Show

The title fits perfectly with the play of the Seattle Seahawks today. Seahawks lose 24/7 all day long, and it's headlined by the "Matt Hasselbeck Show".

Over the last few weeks, Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck has looked worse than any quarterback in Seahawks history with his inaccuracy, inconsistency and just downright horrendous play.

In the last three weeks including today's game against the Tampa Bay Bucs Hasselbeck is 101/115 for 701 yards, 4 TD's and 5 Int's (four today).

Now overall, other than the five interceptions you might think those stats look pretty good. Think again, with Hasselbeck overthrowing wide open receivers, not making smart decisions with the football and being very unstable throughout this entire season.

Today Hasselbeck accounted for all five of the Seattle Seahawks turnovers, that's completely unacceptable for any veteran quarterback, which includes Hasselbeck.

Hasselbeck threw four interceptions and lose one fumble.

However the offensive line does not get the blame for the lose. It's all on
Hasselbeck. The offensive line did not allow hurry, sack or hit until midway through the third quarter. Hasselbeck had at least five seconds on each throw he made and still airmailed the ball at least 10+ times.

For a "franchise quarterback" that's just unacceptable.

The Seahawks are in an obvious rebuilding process that is looking to take longer and longer with each passing week.

Let's take a look and see how the Seahawks lose to a 1-12 Tampa Bay Bucs team.

First quarter:

Second quarter:

SEA- 29 yard touchdown pass from Hasselbeck to Carlson (8 plays, 85 yards and 4:09 TOP)

TB- Barth 25 yard FG (5 plays, 15 yards and: 37 TOP)

Third quarter:

TB-Barth 45 yard FG (10 plays, 50 yards and 6:16 TOP)

TB- 22 yard touchdown pass from Freeman to Williams (1 play, 22 yards)

TB- 6 yard touchdown pass from Freeman to Ward (9 plays, 37 yards and 4:30 TOP)
Fourth quarter:

TB-Barth 39 yard FG

Final Score: Tampa Bay 24 Seahawks 7

Final Stats for both teams:

SEA- Matt Hasselbeck: 27/46 for 256 yards, 1 TD and 4 Int's

TB- Josh Freeman: 16/26 for 205 yards, 2 TD's and 1 Int.

SEA- Julius Jones+Justin Forsett: 21 carries for 125 yards

TB- Derrick Ward+Cadillac Williams: 31 carries for 133 yards

SEA- John Carlson: 7 receptions for 86 yards and a TD reception

SEA- TJ Houshmandzadeh: 7 receptions for 73 yards

TB- Kellen Winslow: 6 receptions for 93 yards

TB- Sammie Stroughter: 4 receptions for 46 yards

SEA- David Hawthorne: 10 tackles

TB- Barrett Ruud: 8 tackles

The Seattle Seahawks will be at Green Bay next week in what is sure to be another blow out. A major note for the Seahawks is their head coach calling out the entire team this past week and the entire team toned him out which is not a good sign for the man who has a choke hold on this franchise, CEO Tod Leiwke.

Mora will make more changes this week for sure. Hopefully benching Matt Hasselbeck for rookie Mike Teel will be one of those moves. Teel can open up the offense and really spread it around.

You can follow Lars at Twitter http://twitter.com/larshanson

Check out Lars’ sports blog: http://hansonsportsblog.blogspot.com/