The NFL is all about competition, including competing in practice for a starting job, and there’s nothing NFL fans love more than a quarterback controversy. Many clubs profess to have a competition for starting quarterback, but one player will typically start the season with a leg up. However, Seattle is entering training camp with the door wide open for the starting quarterback job between last year’s starter, Tavaris Jackson, and their free agent signing Matt Flynn, from the Packers.
With one day of training camp under their belts, head coach Pete Carroll was asked who was leading the competition. “Who said ‘competition’ the most?” Carroll quipped, in reference to the press interviews of Jackson and Flynn. “Whoever said that word the most when they were up here getting interviewed, he’s ahead right now.”
All jokes aside, if they are starting dead even, surely there’s a timeline to make a decision… right, Pete? “There’s no timeline,” Carroll said. “The format is really just to do everything I can to organize it and orchestrate so that they get a legit shot at showing what they can do.”
It’s an interesting competition. Jackson has always showed great athleticism and promise, but never delivered the kind of results to lock down a firm grip on the starting job. He passed for over 3,000 yards last season, and was 7-7 as a starter. But he threw 14 TDs and 13 INTs and his passer efficiency was 79.2, ranking him 21st in the NFL. While that puts him solidly in the bottom half of NFL quarterbacks, he did finish ahead of established starters like the Rams’ Sam Bradford and the Jets’ Mark Sanchez (although the Jets did bring in Tim Tebow).
Jackson recognizes that where he needs to improve the most is at crunch time. “We didn’t have any drives to win at the end of the game,” he said, “and that’s what quarterbacks are supposed to do.”
Matt Flynn is the great unknown, with only two starts in his career. He is reminiscent of what Winston Churchill once said about Russia – a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Flynn’s two starts were absolutely brilliant, including a 480-yard, 6 touchdown performance against Detroit (setting a mark that neither Brett Favre nor Aaron Rodgers ever achieved).
Flynn’s passing efficiency last year was 124.8, better than Aaron Rodgers record 122.5 (although without nearly enough passes to qualify). But with only two starts under his belt, it’s hard to tell if he is the next elite quarterback, a Tom Brady lurking in the wings waiting for his chance, or a one-hit wonder. It’s worth pointing out that Brady was taken in the sixth round of the draft, so his skills weren’t recognized until he got the chance to start. Flynn was taken in the seventh round in 2008.
But Flynn will be given his chance to compete, something he never had to worry about backing up Aaron Rodgers. “It’s different because I know I’m going to be competing and I know everything I do matters,” Flynn said. “In Green Bay, I kind of had the luxury of sitting back and learning and being able to take my time in the progression of becoming a better quarterback. Now I get to come in here and compete.”
Let the games begin.
