

Percy Harvin runs for 30 yards during last season’s Super Bowl against the Broncos. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

As they brace for a potent Seattle Seahawks team, the members of Washington’s defense know they’ll have their hands full as they try to account for quarterback Russell Wilson and running back Marshawn Lynch, with whom they have good familiarity having faced them in the teams’ playoff meeting in January 2013.

Seattle’s offense remains the same for the most part, but wide receiver Percy Harvin (a free agent addition last offseason) presents another element.

“Percy is a great football player. He has got a dynamic to him that’s very unique for a receiver because he’s so fast, so explosive and so tough,” Seattle Coach Pete Carroll said of Harvin, who was hurt for most of last season before making his presence felt in the Super Bowl and is now having an impact once again. “We just try to add him in complementary form to the rest of the guys that play for us. He has some things he brings that are special, so we try to utilize them if they fit into our game plans.”

Through three games this season, Harvin has accumulated 333 all-purpose yards and a touchdown. He leads the team both in receptions (15 on 17 targets) and receiving yards (106). He also has rushed for 86 yards and a touchdown on six carries, and he leads the team with seven kickoff returns for 141 yards.

“He’s one of the most dynamic players in the game,” cornerback E.J. Biggers said. “Does a little bit of everything. He’s tough as heck. He’s a great player. Watching him – we came out [of college] together – so watching him in college, playing him a couple times in the league so far, he’s just a tough guy, has the will and the drive to be the best, so when you go against a guy like that, you have to be on your technique and execute the game plan.”

There’s no shortage of ways the Seahawks use Harvin, a Chesapeake, Va., native. They’ll line him out wide or use him as a slot receiver. They use him as a ball carrier out of the backfield, and many times they will line him up as a receiver and run him on jet sweeps where his speed can prove deadly on the edge.

“I think they do a good job of using Percy all over the place,” safety Ryan Clark said. “Obviously, Percy Harvin’s best when he has the ball in his hands, and not necessarily do [they] have to get him in a route deep down the field. [They] want him to touch the ball with as much space, as many times as [they] possibly can, and I think they do an extremely good job of using him, scheme-wise, to get him the ball.”

Harvin poses a big enough challenge because of his speed (he ran a 4.39-second 40-yard dash coming out of Florida). But the 5-foot-11, 184-pound Harvin also plays bigger than his size and runs with power.

“Some guys are just fast; some guys just physical. But he’s a little bit of both,” Biggers said. “He’s strong, powerful when he runs, and when he gets the ball, his goal is to get in that end zone and you can see that when he runs and how he runs.”

Biggers and Clark agree it will take a collective effort to contain Harvin.

“For us, it’d about corralling the ball, getting more than one hat to the ball,” Clark said. “One guy in the open field is not good enough to bring down Percy Harvin, and we have to understand that as a defense. Running to the ball, defensive linemen getting out of their rushes, getting out of their lanes, coming to the ball is gonna be huge for us this week.”

Said Biggers: “Somebody’s got to set the edge and don’t let him get outside, because when he gets downhill, man, he gets going real fast. So we have to fly to the ball. Like I said, he’s one of the most dynamic players in this league.”

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