Seattle skyline mount Rainier plane blue sky north west city center downtown architecture corporations business working places outdoors modern landmarks Space needle tower trees colorful metropolitan cosmopolitan living skyscrapers USA picturesque post card d
Brian Nemhauser·
General Analysis
··5 min read

Analysis: Shaun is already much better than last year

People seem to be very concerned about Shaun and the running game. As I’ve said before, I understand why people jump on Shaun. His style and demeanor don’t match what folks want to see in a football player. Steve Kelley wrote a great column on that today. I care more about production than anything else, and Shaun has definitely produced. It will be a shame if a Seahawks player who chose to return to Seattle during free agency goes into the Hall of Fame without ever being embraced during his career.

I wanted to see how Shaun was producing so far this year, so I took a look at his first three games through the last three seasons.

.nobrtable br { display: none }

2005
WEEK OPP RESULT ATT YDS AVG LNG TD REC YDS AVG LNG TD FUM LST
Week 1 @JAC L 26-14 14 73 5.2 36 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Week 2 ATL W 21-18 28 144 5.1 17 1 2 11 5.5 7 0 0 0
Week 3 ARI W 37-12 22 140 6.4 45 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TOTALS

64 357 5.58 45 5 2 11 5.5 7 0 0 0
2006
WEEK
 OPP RESULT ATT YDS AVG LNG TD REC YDS AVG LNG TD FUM LST
Week 1 @DET W 9-6 19 51 2.7 14 0 2 1 0.5 4 0 2 1
Week 2 ARI W 21-10 26 89 3.4 14 1 1 9 9 9 0 0 0
Week 3 NYG W 42-30 20 47 2.4 12 1 2 12 6 8 0 0 0
TOTALS

65 187 2.88 14 2 5 22 4.4 9 0 2 1
2007
WEEK OPP RESULT ATT YDS AVG LNG TD REC YDS AVG LNG TD FUM LST
Week 1 TB W 20-6 27 105 3.9 22 1 2 12 6 12 0 1 0
Week 2 @ARI L 23-20 18 70 3.9 16 1 2 5 2.5 4 0 0 0
Week 3 CIN W 24-21 21 100 4.8 22 0 2 8 4 7 0 0 0
TOTALS

66 275 4.17 22 2 6 25 4.17 12 0 1 0

A few things stand out:

  • Shaun’s YPC in 2005 were outstanding right from the start. They were equally dismal last season. He’s right about where he should be for this year, as you’d expect this young line to gel more as the season progresses.
  • It’s remarkable how even he’s been in total carries over the first three games of each season.
  • He went over 100 yards in two of the three games in both 2005 and 2007, but in none of the first three in 2006. We’re not seeing anything approaching 150 yards in a game or 4 TDs out of him yet.

Otherwise, there are no red flags for me here. Shaun seems on his way to a good season. I don’t expect another 2005, but I think we’ll be closer to that than to what we saw last year, and that’s fine by me.