Before he was injured in the Minnesota game, Hasselbeck was on pace for his third straight Pro Bowl season, as he’d completed 60-percent of his passes for nine touchdowns and seven interceptions and, as a starter, he’d posted a 4-2 record without much of a running game or a line to protect him.
Now that he’s been on the shelf with a knee injury, Hasselbeck has had to figure out other ways to help the team.
“I am in every meeting, I go to all the meetings and I try to keep quiet sometimes because Jim Zorn, he knows what he is doing too,” Hasselbeck told the assembled media earlier today. “But there are things that I can interject here and there. I don’t know if it is a huge help, but I try to help out a little.”
One player who has reaped the rewards of Hasselbeck’s guidance is backup QB Seneca Wallace who will start only his third game this weekend against the St. Louis Rams.
Head coach Mike Holmgren mentioned that he expected to see Hasselbeck return to game-action next week against the San Francisco 49ers and the Seahawks’ eighth-year veteran signal-caller is “champing at the bit”.
“As a backup for the first three years in the NFL, that was a painful thing, to have to sit there and watch football, especially when you practice all week long,” Hasselbeck noted. “I think it is one thing that I won’t take for granted when I do heal up and am able to get back out there, to realize how fortunate you are to play each play. It is tough, but at the same time, it could be a lot worse.”
It couldn’t be much worse for Seattle as the injury-bug has dropped several cogs in their lineup, but none have been more devastating than the loss of Hasselbeck and reigning NFL MVP Shaun Alexander, who has missed six straight games with a broken bone in his foot.
“The guys that have been playing have been doing a really good job and that is one of the things that we did last year that hopefully we can do this year, we’ve done a good job of replacing guys when they’re injured and just playing well,” Hasselbeck said. “Seneca Wallace is playing great football right now and this is a huge, huge game with the Rams coming in here with first place at stake and we know the importance of it. Those guys that are healthy have to play great this weekend.”
And Hasselbeck expects Wallace to do his best to lead the Seahawks past their division rivals for sole possession of first place.
“He is pretty calm,” Hasselbeck said about the four-year veteran. “He is pretty cool most of the time. He’s got a little bit of fire in him and a little bit of intensity and I think it is easy to see that on the football field. But he is pretty relaxed; he does a good job with his emotions that way.”
Emotions for the rest of the Seahawks will be running high as they play host to the Rams on Sunday at Qwest Field.
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