Field Gulls
It finally happened. In his fifth game with the Seattle Seahawks, Rashid Shaheed had a sizable impact on the game from start to finish. He was active in the passing game, he continues to have an effect on the run game, and then of course the play that everyone will remember.
Coming out of halftime, Percy Harvin returned the kick against the Denver Broncos Shaheed took the ball 100 yards for the longest play in the NFL this season. And really, he just made one guy miss and simply outran the stadium.
Anyone else want to see him and Riq Woolen race?
I stand with those that believe Shaheed has already been a positive influence on Seattle’s offense. It is nice for him, and us, and the box score, that he was able to put in his first statistically meaningful game in a Seahawks uniform.
On five targets, Shaheed had four receptions for 67 yards, for a higher yards per catch average actually than Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
He also had the longest reception of the day as well, for either team. 33 yards came to Shaheed on this play, in which you can see once again the difference-making speed.
That’s 5’10” Mike Hughes in what’s technically called coverage, though you can see the middle portion there where the separation grows rapidly. Hughes is a former 4.53s 40-time runner at his combine a few years back. Point being, as JSN will nearly always draw a team’s best corner, Shaheed is just too fast if the backfield speed falls off from there.
Smith-Njigba got 92 yards and 2 TD of his own, back to being the best receiver in the NFL this season. But while a more complete player, he doesn’t have the speed that Shaheed does.
Against the Atlanta Falcons, Seattle had 129 yards, again increasing their per-game average on the season. In fact, since Shaheed arrived the team has averaged 140.5 rush yards per game. In the eight games before the trade, the Seahawks average 103.8 rush yards per game.
Massive difference. That’s accounted for by the personnel teams must use to account for Shaheed, and the impact he has on play action concepts and safeties. It’s balanced the offensive threat quite a bit, even if people didn’t see the immediate impact on caught balls.
Finally, Shaheed now has 456 punt and kick return yards this season. Excuse me, Shaheed has 456 punt and kick return yards since the trade to Seattle. That’s more than every other season of his career except one – in which he was an All-Pro for special teams – and he’s only 10 yards behind that mark. In five games.
That also goes to show that Jay Harbaugh really does have something special cooking on special teams, but this is a Rashid Shaheed appreciate post and this dude is blazing fast. Looking forward to how this progresses.
