Blackmon Fulfills His Potential Seattle’s Standout Strong Safety Cuts Down On Costly Mistakes

Robert Blackmon has seen more highs and lows this football season than a stunt pilot.

The Seahawks strong safety currently is cruising in rarefied air - he has won the AFC defensive player of the week award twice in the past four weeks and is playing the best football of his sixyear pro career.

Production is matching potential.

“Right now, he’s playing as well as anybody in the league at that particular position,” coach Dennis Erickson said. “He’s playing like we thought he would play.”

Blackmon threw a scare into everyone Thursday at practice when he suffered a sprained left ankle. He didn’t finish the workout but was walking better late in the afternoon and said he will be ready to play Sunday in the game against Oakland.

Erickson said Blackmon has been the most improved Seahawk in the second half of the season.

His fumble-causing sack of John Elway on Sunday launched Antonio Edwards on the 83-yard touchdown journey that was the turning point in the game.

It also was the high point of Blackmon’s season, although his five interceptions merit mention.

The low point came in Game 6 in Buffalo, where he was benched after allowing a touchdown by biting on a play-action fake by quarterback Jim Kelly. He had made the same costly mistake in the opener against Kansas City.

Not only was the first half of the season marred by those two critical mistakes, he gambled too often, missed tackles and suffered a nagging hamstring injury that sidelined him for three games.

“I was pressing too hard at the beginning of the year but I wouldn’t use that as an excuse,” Blackmon said. “I just wasn’t playing well.”

Blackmon is more comfortable now and it shows. He is exhibiting what secondary coach Willy Robinson calls the desired “controlled meanness” the staff wants from him. Blackmon also is more assertive on and off the field.

“He’s being more vocal and he seems to be having a lot more fun playing this game than he’s had in the past,” Robinson said.

The coaching staff’s goal is to get Blackmon to see himself as they see him - as an All-Pro talent.

“We all think Robert has the ability to be an All-Pro player,” Robinson said. “But if Robert doesn’t see himself that way, then he isn’t going to achieve that goal.”

At 6 feet, 198 pounds, Blackmon has the speed and power to play any position in the secondary. “He’s everything we’re looking for in a football player,” Robinson said.

Blackmon’s Seahawks history, though, has been checkered. He’s been good but hasn’t met all expectations. He has had stretches of undistinguished play and hot streaks, such as late last season when he was AFC player of the week after recovering two fumbles and forcing another in the 10-9 victory over Kansas City.

Paul Moyer, secondary coach under Tom Flores, commented after that game, “Robert Blackmon is finally where we thought he’d be when we drafted him five years ago. He finally believes in himself. He’s physical. He’s hitting some people, which is something we want from him. He’s making plays. This game is so mental. It’s so much about confidence.”

Hmmmm. That sounds a lot like what Robinson is saying.

Blackmon was a second-round pick from Baylor in the golden 1990 draft class that included Cortez Kennedy, Chris Warren and Terry Wooden. Blackmon entered with plenty of confidence; he boasted on draft day that he was probably the hardest hitter in the entire draft. He ranked himself 10 on a scale of 10-1/2, a rating Elway might agree with this week.

The remark sounded cockier than Blackmon actually is. He is a former high-school quarterback from a small town in Texas who is a family man (two daughters) and can be one of the most cooperative players on the team.

In 1993, the Seahawks matched Philadelphia’s three-year, $3 million offer to Blackmon, who was a restricted free agent. The decision has been second-guessed during Blackmon’s stretches of ho-hum play.

Blackmon has been a tough self-critic, admitting he has gone home in off-seasons mad at himself for under-achievement.

His contract expires at the end of this season. Blackmon said he likes the atmosphere Erickson has created and is interested in remaining a Seahawk.

“He’s made the point to us that he definitely is going to get us to the playoffs,” Blackmon said. “His attitude, the way he’s handled us, really makes me want to stay here.”

But Blackmon has been around long enough to know what will transpire in the off-season.

“We have to wait and see what happens,” he said.

What’s happening on the field recently, though, is encouraging to coaches. The safety previously known for ups and downs finally may be locked into a high-performance orbit.