First impressions from the Seattle Seahawks pocket

Published on May 11, 2010 by     

I saw that unequivocally. I say that unequivocally after watching him in six days of minicamp over the past month.

He has a strong arm, a nice touch on his passes and at 6 feet 4, he’s got the physical tools for the position.

But we already kind of knew that. It’s why he was drafted in the third round in 2006, and it’s also why the Arizona Cardinals pursued him in free agency.

Watching him perform during two three-day minicamps, the question will be his decision-making in the pocket. Now, there’s not much sillier than any drawing conclusions from practices in shorts, no pads. It’s especially silly with quarterbacks because so much of their success depends on how they handle pressure. Scrutinizing a quarterback’s performance while he’s wearing a red jersey that denotes immunity from contact is hardly the best way to project how a quarterback is going to respond with a 240-pound carnivore of a linebacker bearing down on him.

But watching the two minicamps, it was very clear there was a difference in the way starter Matt Hasselbeck went through his progressions, came off his first read, and the way Whitehurst did. Whitehurst had many more instances in which he ended up throwing the ball away, neither finding nor forcing a spot to throw the ball.

Hasselbeck is getting the majority of the repetitions during the practices, but Whitehurst is getting a healthy chunk, too. Mike Teel isn’t seeing much time at all during the 11-on-11 team drills.

Tags: Carnivore, Chunk, Contact, Drawing Conclusions, First Impressions, Immunity, Instances, Linebacker, Matt Hasselbeck, Mike Teel, Minicamp, Physical Tools, Progressions, Repetitions, SEATTLE SEAHAWKS, Six Days, Strong Arm, Team Drills