A Flawed Seattle Seahawks Offense Didn't Miss Percy Harvin

There was no Percy Harvin era for the Seattle Seahawks. Instead, he’ll be remembered for a few plays and fleeting moments of game-breaking speed.

Pick your reason for why he was jettisoned to the New York Jets so abruptly.

According to the Seattle Times and NFL.com, he has a disruptive personality that went beyond verbal confrontations to the even more unacceptable territory of throwing punches at teammates.

He wasn’t producing outside of sporadic bursts, with an average of only 45 total yards from scrimmage per game this season, and 11 of his 22 receptions came behind the line of scrimmage. The dollars attached to his name—a $67 million contract, $25.5 million of which is guaranteed—are drastically bloated and not at all aligned with his production.

Perhaps most importantly, creative trickery was often required to manufacture his touches, an effort Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell approached halfheartedly.

Harvin appeared on the field for only 60.1 percent (subscription required) of the Seahawks’ offensive snaps.

All of those reasons are correct, and they were all happening at the same time.

What we saw Sunday—and what we’ll keep seeing going forward—is that having or not having Harvin on the roster isn’t the primary concern for the Seahawks offensively. He was a luxury item, and his contributions were minimal.

There’s more than enough firepower to compensate for his loss, and the same leaky offensive line problem remains in his absence.

The Seahawks have now lost two straight games for the first time since the middle of the 2012 season. They’ve lost those games by a combined nine points, with the latest a 28-26 disappointment on the road Sunday against the St. Louis Rams.

That game serves as a case study for what their offense will become without Harvin—or rather, how little it will change.

Let’s start with the usage of other quite capable offensive weapons who were minimized at times while the ball was forced into Harvin’s hands, courtesy of Rotoworld's Adam Levitan:

That’s a slight uptick for wide receiver Doug Baldwin, who was averaging 56.4 snaps per game prior to Harvin’s departure. Wide receiver Jermaine Kearse’s increased involvement was more significant after he was getting 54 snaps each game.

Rookie wideout Paul Richardson saw a swift spike. His previous single-game high was 10 snaps.

When we go a layer further and look at productivity, we see that although Harvin’s explosiveness may be nearly unmatched, the Seahawks still have plenty of speed to both stretch secondaries deep and gain yards after the catch.

Much of it belongs to Baldwin, who looked quite Harvin-like on Wilson’s second pass attempt of the game Sunday. He was targeted in an area of the field Harvin is quite familiar with: short up the middle, with an opportunity for more.

On third down, Baldwin caught the pass seven yards downfield, just shy of the first-down marker. With enough speed to gain an angle on Rams linebacker Alec Ogletree, he was able to break a tackle and burst ahead for 42 more yards.

Credit: NFL.com

Should Ogletree have made that tackle? Absolutely. But it was the sort of whiff forced by a receiver who runs with unexpected acceleration and power after the catch, words used once to describe Harvin in Seattle.

Baldwin and Kearse have plenty of both and don’t need to have an offense tailored specifically to fit their skill sets.

Baldwin’s quick jump in production showed the ease of the transition to an offense without Harvin.

	Catches	Yards	Yds/catch	Longest catch
Week 7	7	123	17.6	49
First five games	16	187	11.7	20

Russell Wilson completed four passes for 20-plus yards. One went to Kearse, who also did a Harvin impression when 38 of his 50 receiving yards on the day came after the catch (subscription required). Harvin wasn’t missed, and he wasn’t the reason for the loss.

No, the real source of Seahawks' offensive despair and blame lies with the five men in front of Wilson.

The Rams sacked Wilson three times. That came from a defense that had one mere sack over five games prior to Week 7, a record low to start a season. In total, Wilson was either sacked, hit while throwing or under pressure on 32.6 percent of his dropbacks, according to ESPN Stats & Information (h/t ESPN.com's Terry Blount).

Overall, he’s faced pressure on a league-high 37.3 percent of his dropbacks.

Although Wilson often makes us spit various fluids at televisions with the plays he’s able to execute on the run—he finished with 106 rushing yards Sunday—there’s a reason why he’s leaving the pocket so often outside of read-option plays. He doesn’t have a choice.

The time to get comfortable and scan the field simply isn’t there. Of the Rams’ three sacks, two of them came on the same drive. The first showed just how easy it is to penetrate into the Seahawks’ backfield.

On 1st-and-10 at the Rams’ 38-yard line, Wilson lined up in shotgun and faced a blitz. Before the snap, the Rams were showing up to seven pass-rushers. All seven came, but they didn’t need nearly that many.

Just over a second had ticked by since Wilson received the snap, and already defensive tackle Aaron Donald had muscled through into what should have been the pocket. Donald was on his way past left guard James Carpenter and center Steve Schilling:

Credit: NFL.com

Another split second later, and Schilling was overpowered. Wilson’s time was up before it even began:

Credit: NFL.com

The offensive line also did little for Seahawks running backs Sunday. Marshawn Lynch, Robert Turbin and Christine Michael combined to average only 3.0 yards per carry against a Rams run defense that’s been gashed repeatedly on the ground, giving up 145.0 rushing yards each week.

Protection and blocking issues will be the Seahawks’ offensive demise.

Not the absence of a hybrid receiver and running back who wasn’t utilized enough at either position and can be replaced by other options who don’t need a highly specific role to be successful.

 Advanced statistics courtesy of Pro Football Focus (subscription required). Contract information courtesy of Spotrac.