NFL

Unheralded Seattle wideouts: We’re as good as anyone

RENTON, Wash. — They don’t have a catchy nickname or much of a reputation outside of their own team.
They also know they will be completely overshadowed in the run-up to Super Bowl XLVIII by their Broncos counterparts, three of whom caught at least 10 touchdowns this year in Peyton Manning’s video-game offense.

But just try telling the Seahawks’ makeshift corps of wide receivers they don’t belong on the big stage, because you’ll get an earful in return.

“I feel like we’re just as good as any other receiver corps in this league,” Golden Tate said Thursday. “I feel like the people who say these things don’t really know what they’re talking about and don’t understand what type of offense we have. It just fuels our fire and makes us work harder, and we just find a way to make the plays.”

Despite Tate’s protests, a group of wideouts that includes just one first-round pick — Percy Harvin, who has played just 1 ¹/₂ games all season because of injuries — and not a single 1,000-yard receiver does indeed look out of place in today’s pass-happy NFL.

Aside from Tate, a second-round pick out of Notre Dame in 2010 who led Seattle with 64 catches for 898 yards, people who aren’t Seahawks fans would have a tough time picking Jermaine Kearse, Doug Baldwin or Bryan Walters out of a lineup.

For the Seahawks to make it to the Super Bowl with Russell Wilson throwing to this collection of misfit toys (three of the six active wideouts were undrafted) is even more remarkable, but they refuse to accept any disparaging labels.
Baldwin, a former undrafted free agent who had a key, 51-yard catch in last week’s NFC title-game victory over the 49ers, is so touchy about criticism of the Seattle receivers his nickname with teammates is “Angry Doug.”

“To me, I think that’s a ridiculous statement [to say the Seattle receivers are lacking], because you can go down the list of all the guys who have been undrafted or picked up in later rounds,” Baldwin said. “Let’s be honest, everyone has their opinion. It doesn’t mean that their opinion is an intelligent one.”

One thing is certain: The Seahawks’ receivers won’t be getting the headlines during Super Bowl Week with the Broncos’ celebrated trio of Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker and Wes Welker headed to New Jersey, too.

The statistical disparity between the groups is Grand Canyon-esque. Denver’s top three wideouts combined for 252 receptions for 3,496 yards and 25 TDs this season, while the Seahawks’ trio of Tate, Baldwin and Kearse totaled 136 receptions for 2,022 yards and 14 TDs.

But that’s more a function of the Seahawks being a run-first team with Marshawn Lynch than lacking talent at receiver, in Tate’s opinion.

“I honestly feel our four or five guys could go to any other team and do well,” Tate said. “If we were in an offense that slung it 30-40 times a game, I feel we’d all be over 1,000 yards with 10 touchdowns. But that’s not the case.

“This is a run-heavy offense, and if you want to be a starting receiver on this team, you also have to know how to block and you’ve got to play special teams.”

The Seahawks are a rarity in that all of their receivers also play on special teams, with some of them seeing duty on three different units within those special teams.

That’s resulted in Seattle ranking among the NFL’s best in a host of special-teams categories, although it doesn’t do much to boost the image of its receivers — another sore spot with Tate.

“Does Dez Bryant play any special teams?” Tate asked. “Does Calvin Johnson play any special teams? Does Brandon Marshall play any special teams? Does Victor Cruz really play special teams? I don’t think so. This team is just different like that.”

Sounding a little bit like brash defensive teammate Richard Sherman, Tate vowed to make the skeptics think twice on Feb. 2.

“People too often judge your skill level based on where you were drafted, and that’s not the case at all,” Tate said. “We’re used to it at this point, but we came up big last week and we expect to come up big again [in the Super Bowl] and change those opinions.”