Seahawks don't need to "suck for Luck" to find their quarterback for the future

The local sports media, not surprisingly is looking past the current Seattle Seahawks stock of quarterbacks forward to the 2012 draft. My question is why should the team limit its options so? What about Matt Flynn, who is being listed among the top free agent quarterbacks available in 2012? Sure, he has just one notable performance on his resume—last year’s near upset of the mighty New England Patriots—but so did Aaron Rodgers before he replaced Brett Favre. Russ Lande of Sporting News had this to say about Flynn last May:

“Bottom line: Flynn came into the NFL as a seventh-round pick in the 2008 draft and faced long odds considering the Packers drafted QB Brian Brohm in the second round that year. Flynn quickly leapfrogged Brohm and ended up becoming the backup QB to Aaron Rodgers. He is a fundamentally-sound player who has a quick release. Flynn shows poise, patience and good decision-making that NFL teams look for, and combined with his intermediate accuracy, he has many of the tools to be a productive starting QB in the NFL.

Overall, I believe Flynn has what it takes to develop into a quality starter. He’ll be most effective in offenses that emphasize a short passing attack. Teams must be willing to work around his lack of top arm strength.” Of course, he could mix in a 66-yard TD pass, like he did against the Patriots.

This past preseason, Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel wrote "Maybe the coaches have scored it differently, but from a sideline view, backup quarterback Matt Flynn has had a better camp than starter Aaron Rodgers. Flynn usually plays with the backups and often runs the scout team, which are factors that weigh against him. Yet practice after practice, he's fearless in the pocket, on target with his throws and always calm and collected. If scouts from other teams were allowed to attend practice, they would be making calls back home as fast as possible. Film of Flynn leading a long second-quarter drive later in the half against Cleveland has undoubtedly circulated among teams looking for a quarterback. It would be nice to see what Flynn could do playing behind the starters."

Yeah, I know John Clayton poo-pooed him, saying that he’s a back-up for a “reason.” Well, duh, because Aaron Rodgers is the starter and everyone is gaga over him (but I will give Rodgers his due—he was just three yards short against the Bears of setting an NFL record with seven consecutive 300-yard games). But Flynn proved that he can step into the fire against what was supposedly the elite team in the NFL last year on their home turf and come within botched clock management at the end from winning the game.

My bottom line is that the Seahawks are not going to get Andrew Luck, and Landry Jones and Matt Barkley can hardly be called “can’t miss.” GM John Schneider drafted Flynn when he was with Green Bay; it’s hard to believe that he isn’t strongly considering Flynn’s potential.