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First Posted: 1/23/2014
RENTON, Wash. — Percy Harvin has played in two games and caught four passes this season. He missed most of the season after hip surgery in July and had to sit out last week’s NFC title game with a concussion.
For one of the Seahawks’ big off-season acquisitions — he came from the Vikings in exchange for a first-rounder and two other picks and then signed a new six-year, $67-million contract — it’s been a disappointing first year in Seattle.
But there is still time to make it all worthwhile.
There is still one game, the most important game, for Harvin to provide the kind of impact the Seahawks envisioned when they brought him in. Harvin will be ready to play in the Super Bowl against the Broncos. His hip is fine, he said. His concussion cleared.
All that’s left to recover from is the frustration of the season. And that could come with a single play next Sunday.
Harvin is looking at the bigger picture, though.
“I’m trying to go out there and win a Super Bowl,” he said. “I’m not trying to save (my season) or be a hero or do anything. I’m going out there to prepare to play a game the way I know how to play it.”
If he can, it would add a new dimension to the Seahawks, both on special teams if he returns kicks and punts and on offense.
“Last year when we prepared for Percy, there are just so many things you have to look for from a guy like him,” Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor said of the 2012 game against the Vikings. “He’s a guy who can be in the backfield, he can be split out at receiver, there are a lot of different ways you can use him.”
The Seahawks have hardly gotten to use him at all.
“This whole year watching every single game was frustrating,” Harvin said. “But having great teammates and great coaches, it was good to be on the sideline and watch those guys perform. Guys like Doug (Baldwin) and (Jermaine) Kearse, to watch those guys perform, it was good.”
Those players have managed to keep the receiving group afloat without Harvin and Sidney Rice, another star target who was put on injured reserve with a torn ACL. Both Baldwin and Kearse made key plays in the NFC Championship Game even though some analysts look down upon them because they were both undrafted players.
“To me, I think that’s a ridiculous statement because you can go down the list of all the guys who have been undrafted or picked up in later rounds,” Baldwin said. “For instance, (fourth-round pick) Richard Sherman. Or at the same position (as me), Victor Cruz going undrafted and now being one of the most dominant receivers in the game.”
The lack of pedigree among the Broncos receivers is sure to remain a topic all week. Having Harvin, a former first-round pick and star player available, should diffuse some of those questions and criticisms.
Harvin caught three passes against the saints before he was knocked out of the NFC divisional game with a concussion.
“I really don’t know if I was the exact same as I was in Minnesota,” he said of his physical level in that game. “I felt pretty good, good enough to play in a football game. I’ll leave it at that.”
If he’s good enough to play in this upcoming one, too, he might just be able to overshadow the previous 18.