Seahawks can soar to greater heights with Percy Harvin

Finally, after seven long months of constantly being on the wrong end of Denver Broncos’ jokes following their Super Bowl drubbing, the wait is over. The NFL is back.

Despite the seven month wait, you could easily be forgiven to think that the 2013 season never ended after watching Seattle’s dominant win over the Green Bay Packers on Friday.

But with the past nine Super Bowl champions having failed to win a single playoff game the following season, Seattle will have to build upon last year in order to defend their title.

Luckily for them, they have one player who can almost singlehandedly lift the team to greater heights in attack, if he stays healthy. That player is former Florida star Percy Harvin.

Having played just one regular game, and missing the NFC Championship match, the Seahawks’ success last season was largely devoid of Harvin’s input. The Russell Wilson era has now spanned two years and defences are sure to be figuring out the Wilson-led offense, making Harvin the perfect addition to add some versatility to the attack.

With Golden Tate now suiting up for the Detroit Lions, Harvin’s ability to return kickoffs, catch passes and act as a runner will be valuable.

Throughout his career Percy Harvin has had the ability to break a game open, be it with a bubble screen, a jet sweep or a kickoff return for a touchdown, as many Denver fans know all too well. His versatility was on show for all to see against the Packers as he was used in so many different sets.

He ran multiple jet sweeps and even lined up as a running back on one occasion, eventually picking up 41 yards on four runs. He also made seven catches from seven targets for a total of 59 yards, with the Seahawks continually mixing up his position pre-snap.

What makes Harvin so hard to stop is his speed and uncanny ability to make the first tackler miss. Once he gets to the edge there’s virtually no stopping him, and give him a number of blocks and you know he’s picking up a big gain.

Additionally, the Seahawks know that if they can get the ball in his hands in open field in a one-on-one situation, more often than not he will beat that man. This happened on multiple occasions on Friday and the only way to combat Harvin in this play is to make your one-on-one tackles.

The Packers simply weren’t good enough at making their tackles. It wasn’t only tackling Harvin for that matter either, their tackling of Marshawn Lynch in the backfield was extremely poor.

Quick digression, but NFL players in general, not just the Packers, need to learn how to tackle effectively with their shoulders. The Seahawks are pioneering this ‘new’ style of tackling, but there is much work to do. It is not possible to make a solid shoulder tackle without effective footwork, yet almost all NFL defenders lack the necessary defensive footwork.

Instead we see players launching themselves at the ball carrier, hoping to make strong enough contact to knock him down. When Marshawn Lynch or Adrian Peterson are running the football, you’re not going to knock him down, you need to keep the feet moving, sight the target, ‘eyes through thighs’ as the Seahawks say, get the feet close to the ball carrier, make shoulder contact and wrap him up.

Yes, this is far easier said than done, but it is much easier when a defender has excellent footwork.

Okay, back to Percy Harvin and the Seahawks’ offense. I’ve outlined his effectiveness with the ball in hand but his presence on the field stretches far beyond receiving and ball running, he also opens up holes for his teammates.

When he lines up in the slot, opposing defences immediately think of the wide receiver screen. If he has been torching the opposition on this play for much of the match, the safeties will creep closer to the line and the defence knows they need to get numbers to Harvin before he has a chance to break that first tackle.

This opens up deep throwing lanes for the other wide receivers, who will now find themselves in one-on-one situations with the opposing cornerback and no safety help. Russell Wilson is a good enough quarterback to pick apart defences when he finds wide receivers in one-on-one coverage.

Not only does Harvin open up throwing lanes for the Seahawks’ passing game, but he also opens up running lanes for Lynch and the rest of the rushing attack. This was extremely noticeable in the fourth quarter when Wilson took the snap and Harvin came running around on the jet sweep and everybody on the defence followed him. The only problem was that he didn’t get the football. Wilson faked it to him and handed it off to Lynch who saw the Red Sea open up in front of him.

The one caveat to Harvin’s input into the Seahawk’s offense is his health. Only once in his career has he played the full 16 games, in 2011, his third season with the Vikings. He appears to be fully healthy at the moment and he claims to be over the migraine issues that plagued the first few seasons of his NFL career, having not had a migraine in over two years. His hip also appears to be healthy.

Unfortunately injuries are very difficult to predict, let’s just hope for Seattle’s sake that he remains healthy for the entire season.

The Seattle Seahawks are a team full of superstars all over the roster, but Percy Harvin is one star who has the potential to play a major role in their Super Bowl defence. If he remains healthy, he can spark the Seattle offense and lead them to another win.

Twitter: @fromthesheds