Seahawks 2009 offensive MVP: TE John Carlson
With the Seahawks 2009 season officially over I decided to take a look back and see who stepped up on offense and defense. More importantly who were the MVP’s on offense and defense this past season. I had a short list consisting of TJ Houshmandzadeh, Nate Burleson, Justin Forsett, Matt Hasselbeck and John Carlson.
In the end it came down to Forsett and Carlson with John Carlson receiving my vote as the 2009 Seattle Seahawks offensive MVP.
Now some people might question right off the bat, why John Carlson? He was irrelevant for the first eight games of the season. Well there is a reason why his stats were down for the first eight games,outside of week one and that was because due to the inconsistency of the offensive line Carlson had to stay home and be an additional blocker instead of a route running tight end like he’s built for.
Now overall when the offensive line situation was resolved with Mike Gibson at right guard and Max Unger at center Carlson was able to get back to his normal form as a pass catching tight end.
In 2009 Carlson played all 16 games while recording 51 receptions for 571 yards and seven touchdowns, a team high in 2009. Carlson average yards per catch was 11.3 with 271 yards after catch. Carlson was only targeted 83 times this season.
When you compare Carlson’s 2009 numbers to those of TJ Houshmandzadeh, Nate Burleson and even Deion Branch he stands out as being the best overall receiving option for Hasselbeck.
Here’s a breakdown of Carlson’s 2009 stats vs TJ, Nate and Deion
TJ Houshmandzadeh: 79 receptions, 911 yards, three touchdowns, 11.5 average, 237 yards after catch and 135 targets.TJ’s difference for targets and receptions is 56.
Nate Burleson 63 receptions, 812 yards, three touchdowns, 12.9 average, 290 yards after catch and 103 targets.Nate’s difference for targets and receptions is 40.
Deion Branch: 45 receptions, 437 yards, two touchdowns, 9.7 average, 150 yards after catch and 79 targets. Deion’s difference for targets and receptions is 34.
Now compare that to John Carlson’s numbers overall and it’s clear that Carlson is the best. Carlson’s difference between targets and receptions is 32, even lower than Deion Branch.
So with that being said my vote for the 2009 Seattle Seahawks offensive MVP goes to tight end John Carlson.
Sound off.
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Lars: I can agree with this… My top 2 would’ve been Forsett and Carlson as well. Had Justin played the remainder of the season and Julius Jones not come back in, I’d probably have given it to him. With some help from the draft/FA our O-line will be much better and I think Carlson will put some MONSTER stats up this coming year!!!
Well put Lars i agree that it is Carlson all the way. It was probably tough for him to have to stay in and block all the time. But he did it and didn’t get frustrated with it. He’s a true team player and will do whatever a coach asks him to do. They better lock this kid up for long term because i think we have a perennial pro bowler on our team.
patrick: yea my question would be if forsett started all 16 games would he have been the mvp over carlson. And the same for carlson, if the oline was great and if he would have been in his normal assingment of a pass catching TE would his stats be even higher. I think they would be.
kelly: they hav him under a good contract for 2 more years so i see him going long term next off season
I thought Scotty Kimberly despised you? Must not have a very strong circle of friends if you refer to him as one…
No that was auger
Andy Auger, I would like it if you would not comment on my articles please. You have been using other B/R writers names as a cover up and continued attacks when using others names.
Scott, SK and many others you have used as well as Nathan Ness? So please stop using anyones name including your own to comment on my articles thank you.
Out of 108 TEs in the NFL, Pro Football Focus, after reviewing every play rated Carlson at 102. As he did beat out Jeramy Stevens at 108, I assume that is why you were so high on him. Or rather Lars, were you high on something else? Even as a fantasy player, which seems to be your total assessment of a TE, he was below average according to PFF. In fact, his scores were even lower than Morraw’s and Owen’s.
Forsett, on the other hand, had a really impressive rating by PFF.
I’m not suggesting that PFF’s ratings should be dispositive, but, the delta between what their eyes saw and yours is a chasm.
“Bigmaq” talk about dropping the ball major. I havnt even heard of this Pro Football Focus site, major reason why the point is invalid because the site is a downer.
However I think if you want to inslut me being high and picking John Carlson, at least get the facts right.
http://profootballfocus.com/by_position.php?tab=by_position&season=2009&pos=TE&stype=r&runpass=&teamid=-1&numsnaps=25&numgames=1
55 John Carlson SEA 970 -18.7 -5.3 -2.6 -5.8 -5.0 5-2 79 50 63.3 532 10.6 242 4.8 38 7 2 4 1 0
Carlson ranked 55th in the NFL according to this PFF site, not 108 so that’s wayyyy off.
Also if you look at this pathetic sites list of Tight End’s it’s completly off. It doesnt grade the player by GAMES, or EFFECT ON TEAM or WHAT ELSE THEY HAD TO DO.
Bigmaq obviously this site didnt watch the first 10 games of the season because Carlson ALWAYS had to stay in and block because of the offensive line.
So that would be strick 1-2-3. Thanks’ but there is a thing called real research and that’s what I did. Not this PFF site you picked which has Jonathan Stupar and Ben Hartsock who combined for 12 targets last season so if you want to try and make me look bad at least get a real site that is respectable.
You weren’t even able to review PFF properly. You only looked at 25% of the snaps. I was referencing “All” of the snaps. PFF is respectable and cited by most NFL FO’s as it’s staff are alums of BLESTO as opposed to some “not wet behind the ear” blogger. Why can’t you just admit your “man crush” for Carlson has overwhelmed your judgment. How was that KoolAid from the Hawks PR dept.? Did you catch the flavor?
Here is the correct reference:
http://profootballfocus.com/by_position.php?tab=by_position&season=2009&pos=TE&stype=r&runpass=&teamid=-1&numsnaps=0&numgames=1
And here is a chart which tracked his weekly performance.
http://profootballfocus.com/by_player.php?tab=by_player&season=2009&lastname=Carlson&surn=Carlson&playerid=4352
Bgmaq: You fall yet again. I reviwed the site through and through. You picked horrendous links from that site, which is a good site but you lack even par research skills for a debate.
Carlson, with picking the right links ranks 7th on PFF’s site of tight ends. And even with your snaps claim it makes my pick of Carlson that much better.
7 John Carlson SEA 970 -18.7 -5.3 -2.6 -5.8 -5.0 5-2 79 50 63.3 532 10.6 242 4.8 38 7 2 4 1 0
http://profootballfocus.com/by_position.php?tab=by_position&season=2009&pos=TE&stype=r&runpass=&teamid=-1&numsnaps=0&numgames=1
Your link doesnt go by total snap count, because Cameron Morrah, only recorded 4 snaps. SO your making yourself look worse than the 2008 mariners (101 loses).
So your claim of “correct reference” is pathetic and non usable.
Even when you go to PFF’s site and click on tight ends Carlson ranks 55th overall not 102 like you said.
http://profootballfocus.com/by_position.php?tab=by_position&season=2009&pos=TE&stype=r&runpass=&teamid=-1&numsnaps=25&numgames=1
So I now have two strike outs on you. Keep trying kid. And the KoolAid under Carroll is very good.
Idiot, the link works just fine for me. You just refuse to admit you might have made a mistake. Again, your link is for 25% of the snaps. Just go up to the drop down menu of your link and select all of the snaps. Again JC is ranked as 102 of all the NFL TEs. And what say you about the weekly performance chart? If you want to post you have to learn to: 1) take criticism and more importantly 2) tell the truth.
Bigmaq: I made no mistake, take a look at your list, it’s completly messed up. My list(s) are correct ranking the players playing ALL snaps going by the amount of snaps played. Carlson ranked No. 7 on that list.
The major problem with your list it’s completly false. Cameron Morrah, who recorded FOUR SNAPS the entire season is ranked in the top 30? Any “fan” who says that’s a credible link for debate shouldn’t even be allowed to have a computer.
I have no problem with taking criticism, and I know how to and I tell the complete truth. However you do not create criticism, more like hypicricy and untrue stats.
Go use ESPN instead. JC is ranked No. 7 in the NFL for tight ends. Flat out truth.
And plus you can’t say who posts and who doesn’t you comment, thats all.
For the record it is rumored the Hawks are entertaining Ben Watson. Given all of the team needs, it is next to impossible to conclude that they would be doing that if their opinion of JC came even remotely close to yours. Again, we are talking about a complete football playing TE and not a FF league pick up.
Again, check out the link to PFF again that I provided. If you would like I would be happy to correspond directly to help you.
Again, sorry I offended you, no hard feelings and keep plugging away.
Bigmaq: How would you have found that out? I’m 16 not 15. And it doesnt matter the comments you made were not even close to harsh, I provided all the right links so if anyone was harsh it was me being to hard on you.
Yes Watson will be visiting Seattle on Monday, as the teams second string tight end. And you are completely off on that base, which is why I said I was too hard on you because I have the sources and indepth knowledge that you, and many other people don’t have but that is understandable.
Pete Carroll has strived to bring in players to create competiton, that’s exactly what Watson would be brought in to do, be a backup to John Carlson.
JC is the teams offensive MVP, all moves and stats I have used back that up, idk why you would fight that but sports debate is good, however the winner wins, the loser doesnt keep fighting.
Don’t talk like I’m 5, I put people in their places as well as inform them of the correct stats as well as information they sometimes lack so that’s pretty much what I did with you.
If you would like I can break it down for you, why Carlson is the MVP for the Seahawks on offense in football terms not FFB.
Again my apologies for being hard on you.