Jermaine Kearse has been pretty ordinary in the regular season – bad, most would say – but he has a pretty lengthy history of turning up his game a notch in the postseason. Might make him worth a low-priced roll of the dice in playoff competition.
The regular-season numbers are pretty ugly. In regular season the last three years, he’s averaged only 37 yards, with 7 TDs in 47 games. In two of those seasons (including the most recent) he caught only one touchdown all year.
But turn on the playoff lights, and Kearse starts making plays. He’s caught game-winning touchdowns in two NFC Championship games. He scored in one Super Bowl, and made an unlikely juggling catch to set up the team to possibly win another. In his last playoff game, he caught 11 passes for 110 yards and 2 TDs.
The same guy who’s scored only 7 times in 47 regular-season games somehow has scored 6 TDs in his last seven postseason games.
| KEARSE IN PLAYOFF GAMES | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Opponent | No | Yards | TD |
| 2013 | New Orleans | 1 | 25 | 0 |
| 2013 | San Francisco | 2 | 44 | 1 |
| 2013 | Denver | 4 | 65 | 1 |
| 2014 | Carolina | 3 | 129 | 1 |
| 2014 | Green Bay | 1 | 35 | 1 |
| 2014 | New England | 3 | 45 | 0 |
| 2015 | Minnesota | 3 | 18 | 0 |
| 2015 | Carolina | 11 | 110 | 2 |
We can’t guarantee this will happen again. Getting lucky in the past doesn’t necessarily mean somebody will get lucky in the future. But a guy to keep in mind in the late rounds of competitions. With Tyler Lockett out, the Seahawks will probably be looking for Kearse to do more.
—Ian Allan