Percy Harvin's Hip Injury Won't Doom the Seahawks' Playoff Hopes in 2013

Percy Harvin's announcement on Tuesday that he'd be going under the knife to repair his injured hip sent shockwaves through the Internet, talk radio and television shows.

He made the announcement on Twitter:

Opinions varied as to exactly what kind of impact his absence will have on the Seattle Seahawks in 2013.

Many bandwagoners instantly wrote the Seahawks off at the news, but those knee-jerk reactions aren't based on anything other than ignorance.

Everybody needs to take a few deep breaths and settle down. 

Seattle featured one of the most dynamic offenses in the second half of the 2012 season without Harvin. 

Losing the talented playmaker will certainly curtail the team's ability to stretch the field, but this team won 11 games last year without him. 

With a rookie quarterback, no less. 

Utilizing a winning formula that featured a punishing running game, an equally punishing defense and timely plays by rookie quarterback Russell Wilson, the 'Hawks were one of the NFL's elite squads by the end of the year. 

Nobody wanted to face this team in the playoffs, and it took a last-second field goal by the Atlanta Falcons—in Atlanta—to knock the Seahawks out of the postseason. 

Harvin wasn't even a twinkle in Pete Carroll's eye at that point. 

When Seahawks general manager John Schneider engineered the trade that brought the talented receiver to the Northwest, Harvin was a "luxury addition" for the Seahawks this season, as Albert Breer of NFL Network astutely noted:

It remains to be seen if landing Harvin will be worth the three draft picks it took to bring him over or the $67 million contract he signed when he arrived, but the team isn't going to suddenly fall into the abyss now that he's gone. 

And he's likely not done for the year. Harvin could potentially be healthy in time for a few games late in the season and into the playoffs, as noted by Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports:

So, if the Seahawks can continue to do what has brought the franchise success the past few years—run the ball with Marshawn "Beast Mode" Lynch, play stifling defense and sprinkle in effective play-action passes—then it's not crazy to expect the team to make the playoffs.

Once in the postseason, anything can happen. Harvin could potentially be the lightning rod Schneider and Carroll envisioned when making the trade in the first place.

Until that time, however, the Seahawks will still have the players on both sides of the ball to field a winning, playoff-caliber team. 

Follow me on Twitter @JesseReed78