Doug Baldwin is stepping up for the Seahawks

If you asked me four weeks into the season if the Seahawks would have a receiver racking up stats comparable to Jerry Rice, Cris Carter, or Calvin Johnson, I would’ve said you were crazy. But, for some strange reason, Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson have worked their magic to make Doug Baldwin a star in Seattle.

In the last four games the Seahawks have played, Baldwin has caught 10 touchdowns and has 366 receiving yards on 21 catches. One out of every seven of his catches has been a touchdown, which is crazy to think about. He’s only the second receiver to have 10 receiving touchdowns in four games, and Rice is the only other person to complete the feat. How crazy is that?

To make things even crazier, Baldwin is breaking other records with his touchdowns. He’s the third player to have four straight games with two or more receiving touchdowns, with Carter and Johnson taking the other two spots. He also has already broken the Seahawks’ franchise record for receiving touchdowns, previously held by Daryl Turner’s 13 in 1985.

I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that Doug Baldwin has put himself in the conversation with legendary wideouts and studs like Calvin Johnson. He’s making a real name for himself, and is helping the previously-struggling Seattle offense tremendously. The team has been riddled with injuries, and has been looking like the Patriots with their ability to move on from one person to another and make the most of the situation. They’ve lost Marshawn Lynch, then Jimmy Graham and Thomas Rawls, all huge offensive targets to lose. Somehow, Baldwin makes you forget those guys ever played on the same offense.

Baldwin will be key for this offense to succeed in the playoffs this year. The past two years, Seattle has had all their targets healthy and playing consistently well throughout the regular season and postseason, giving them two straight Super Bowl appearances. This year, they started out slow and picked things up immediately. The Seahawks’ success these past four games has been solely based off of Wilson and Baldwin being able to stay on the same wavelength and make some big plays together. If a team figures out how to stop Baldwin from reaching the endzone, they’re aren’t many other talented targets for Wilson to get the ball to at this point.

It’s baffling to think that Baldwin has been one of the only good parts about the Seahawks offense recently, and it’s even weirder to think he could make or break a playoff run. Only time will tell how the Wilson-Baldwin connection will perform under the bright lights of the postseason.