Today was... eventful.

Ok well today was probably one of the most exciting and eventful days for the Seahawks organization since Russell Wilson showed himself to be the second coming of Jesus. Aka last Friday. I'll organize this into sections to make it more "readable".


TO Released

First news of the day, at 10:57am Terrell Owens announced via Twitter that he is "no longer a Seahawk" and that he would like to "THANK the organization 4 the opportunity". Since Owens has about 1.5 billion followers on Twitter, the news didn't go unnoticed for more than a few seconds before the Twittersphere ignited and within minutes, both "Terrell Owens" and "Seahawks" were trending. As per the norm the organization waited a few hours to make the news official, confirming that TO hadn't been hacked and was not playing another prank on the team. Lets dive into why TO was released and what the implications (if any) are.

It's not an understatement to say that Owen's performance this preseason has been, well, underwhelming. He did have a tremendous workout for the team before any games began, but athleticism doesn't always translate to the field (see; Lockette, Ricardo). But that is nothing new; TO has always been plagued by drops, but he has always been targeted enough that it doesn't seem to matter as much. Though he, as far as I know, had never been targeted 7 times in a row without a reception until this year. We know that TO is a world class athlete. He, at 38, runs like a receiver at age 28. He knows the game (or should by now), and knows how to beat CBs to the ball. So why is it that a freak athlete with all the mental parts of the game down, who has all that experience, couldn't seem to catch a ball in the PRESEASON? Call it ring rust, call it nerves, I call it a one-way ticket back to wherever he was living before he checked into the Marriott in Seattle.

What is the effect on the team? Virtually nothing. As far as I know, his contract does not hurt the Seahawks this year since he was cut before Monday. Had he stayed on the team, they'd have had to pay him $950,000 with only $640,000 counting against the salary cap. Not too bad, even if he had made the roster. TO was an expendable piece, even though our WR core is not looking terribly great. There are other guys vying to make the roster, who are younger, hungrier, and more easily molded to the team attitude. Speaking of, there were several reports of TO being a malcontent even though he'd only been with the team 21 days. Not that this is surprising, but unfortunate to hear that at 38 he still hasn't gotten over those issues. It was obvious judging by the reaction on the sidelines after TO's 40 yard catch against the Chiefs that a lot of the guys on this team were pulling for him, especially Earl Thomas. I'm guessing that this was due in part to it being an underdog story, and partly because these players likely watched TO play when they were growing up.

So in summary, the Seahawks chose to part ways with an over the hill receiver who had maybe 2 good years left in the tank, if that. And hopefully because of this decision they will retain a much younger receiver with good upside that they can keep around for cheap, such as Charly Martin, Jermaine Kearse, Lavasier Tuniei, you get the idea. This younger receiver will be less of a "locker room cancer" and as Martin showed with this TD grab against KC, will work harder to make plays, even if it gets us on ESPN a little less often. I don't think cutting TO hurts or helps Deon Butler as they played different spots, but it could help Ben Obomanu or Lockette.

Tarvaris Jackson traded to the Buffalo Bills

Man, did THIS one come right out of left field or WHAT??

Uhh not...

Rumors had been swirling about the 'hawks trying to trade good ole T-Jack ever since it became apparent that either Flynn or Wilson would be serviceable backups (more on that in a minute). Reported teams with interest included the Packers and the Eagles, both very common sense landing spots based on need, but Buffalo? Thinking about their QB situation now it does make sense, but I'd heard zero about interest from the Bills, and I check Twitter like, every day. The Packers would be logical... they definitely have a starter in Aaron Rodgers, but beyond that, they got nada if he were to go down. The Eagles have Vick of course, and Tarvaris would be an upgrade from last years backup of Vince Young. Plus, Vick seems to get injured every time there are heavy winds or when an opposing defender actually manages to touch him, so theres that.

All signs point to Buffalo. They have Ryan Fitzpatrick, yes. He is an ok starter, not Super Bowl winning caliber but he is a gamer. Beyond that the depth chart gets muddier than Julius Pepper's transcript record. They have Brad Smith, someone I pretend to know nothing about. They have Tyler Thigpen, who I pretend to know nothing about. And they have.... Vince Young! For now. All the signs point to Young being released after an unimpressive preseason and now having a more talented QB in town. I may have forgotten to take my medication today, but I can see TJ competing for the starting job in Buffalo. I'm not sure he really wants to be involved in any more QB competitions, and who could blame him, but I think he adds a new dimension to their offense.

And what did we get for him? Well, thats the thing, we don't know. All we know is that is a draft pick... and we all know by now how much PC and JS love to build through the draft, especially later rounds. I'm assuming it's not a 1st round pick, nor a 7th round pick. If I had to guess I'd say it's a conditional 5th or 6th round pick with an option to be a 4th/5th depending on his performance. The front office should be able to get good value if this is the case.

Rookie 3rd round midget QB named starter

Russell Wilson is taller than the average man. But in football, he stands out for coming up short. Most analysts dropped Wilson from a first round grade in this year's draft down to 3rd or lower based on the fact that he is shorter than 6 feet tall, and only one QB that short in the history of the NFL has been successul. And even that guy never passed for over 3,500 yards in a season. Mel Kiper expressed doubts during draft night about Wilson and his height, while Jon Gruden defended him and declared that he will be a quality starter in the NFL. It's looking more and more like Gruden is a prophet, as the Seahawks formally announced today that Wilson will start week one of the regular season.

This is not necessarily surprising news for anyone who follows the team and local sportswriters closely. Many of them were predicting that for the team to name anyone else the starter to beging the season would be a moral killer and downright foolish. Flynn performed decently in his two starts this preseason, but he was nowhere near the QB that Wilson was, in my opinion. For starters, Flynn was playing against defenses that only slightly resembled the starting sides we'll see in the regular season. Denver and Tennessee played "vanilla" defense, as most teams do to start the exhibition games. Flynn was either reluctant or instructed to not throw the ball deep very often, though we know he can as we saw on that long bomb (dropped) to Terrell Owens. He looked poised in the pocket, went through his reads, and didn't make mistakes. He looked like a game manager, he looked like.... Alex Smith.

Through week three, Flynn's stat line reads: 17/26 (65.4%), 102 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT, QBR 56.9. Wilson's stats are: 35/52 (67.3%), 464 yards, 5 TD, 1 INT, QBR 119.4. It doesn't take a genius to see that Wilson has performed much better, even though he started against the Chiefs starting defense for the regular season. Also, Russell has 150 rushing yards on 10 attempts, with a TD to show for it. Flynn? 2 rushes, 6 yards, 0 TDs. This isn't surprising, Flynn is not as athletic or dynamic as Russell is. That's just another reason to add to the list of why Russell is the starter. When the play breaks down and no receivers are open #3 is able to diagnose where the front 7 defenders are, find a lane, and run for yardage. Flynn can escape a pocket, but he can't outrun a linebacker. Oh by the way, Russell is 1 yard shy of tying the team lead for rushing yards.

The whole time Pete Carroll has been the coach of the Seahawks he has preached about competition, and this is when he proves that it's not all just a bunch of motivational drivel. He really means it when he says that the best man will win the job, which is why we saw "no-namers" like Brandon Browner, Kam Chancellor, and KJ Wright start on defense. Pete gave Russell a shot to prove that he deserves to be our starting QB, and damnit if that adorable little munchkin didn't carpe diem. Matt Flynn played well, and now we know that we have a good backup so that if something happens to Russell be it performance or injury we have someone that can step in for us. But #3 adds another dynamic to this offense. We are still a ground and pound run based game but we keep the defense honest by having a QB that can toss the pigskin around if he gets that special itch that only PC can scratch. We have a guy that was put on the wayside by so many "knowledgable" analysts because he was 2 inches to short to play the position. We have a guy that has continually proven the doubters wrong with his play, then thanked them in the post game interviews. We have a guy, that gives us a story to tell, more interesting that whether or not Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin will be good (of course they will).

We have RussellMania. We are the RussellManiacs.