KIRKLAND, Wash. — Almost all the Seahawks were inside their locker room after practice. They were talking on cell phones, joking with teammates.

Not Matt Hasselbeck. The Pro Bowl quarterback was on the otherwise deserted practice field with position coach Jim Zorn. He was throwing passes to Deion Branch and Nate Burleson, his two newest receivers.

He looked like one of the last men on the roster, not the formerly battered and booed quarterback who will be Seattle's most valuable player today. That's when his Seahawks (3-0) play at fellow NFC contender Chicago (3-0) — without league MVP Shaun Alexander or any current semblance of the running game that led Seattle to its first Super Bowl appearance last season.

"I think we're better equipped than most teams to handle a loss like that," Hasselbeck said of Alexander's broken foot that has sidelined him indefinitely.

If so, then why was Zorn critiquing Hasselbeck as he fired darts for about 20 minutes to Branch and Burleson?

Wasn't this the same Hasselbeck who had just thrown a franchise record-tying five touchdown passes last Sunday against the New York Giants? Those were more than Zorn ever had in a game while throwing for more than 21,000 yards as Seattle's original quarterback, from 1976-84.

Zorn wants Hasselbeck to throw six TDs. He also sees the three interceptions Hasselbeck threw against New York. So Zorn continues to push.

Two Pro Bowls? How about those two interceptions in the fourth quarter last week?

"I don't know if there's any other way I could do it — let him slack because he's really, really good?" Zorn said after his on-field session with the eight-year veteran. "The reason he is good is because he works hard. He sacrifices to be good."

To Zorn, Hasselbeck has been good since coach Mike Holmgren traded in 2001 for the former Green Bay Packers understudy to Brett Favre. But Hasselbeck, who turned 31 on Sept. 25, hasn't always worked hard — at least not in the direction the Seahawks required.

"He has some headstrong ideas," said Zorn, whose first season as Seattle's quarterbacks coach coincided with Hasselbeck's Seahawks debut. "And he thought that his ideas were much better. I still think he thinks that, but I think he's much more willing to comply and do the things we are asking him to do."

Holmgren swapped first-round draft choices and threw in a third-round pick to get a quarterback he had coached for one season. Hasselbeck was on Holmgren's practice squad with Green Bay in 1998.

The Seahawks got Hasselbeck and All-Pro left guard Steve Hutchinson, now with five Pro Bowls between them. The Packers got defenders Jamal Reynolds and Torrance Marshall. Neither lasted more than three seasons with Green Bay.

But in 2001, many Seattle critics wanted to know why a Green Bay practice squad refugee and sixth-round draft choice from Boston College, with zero career starts, was now the Seahawks' starter.

"Trust me," Holmgren said before that season.

Hasselbeck's first home game was a brutal test of that trust. Teammates repeatedly peeled their new quarterback off the Husky Stadium turf as he spun into one Eagles blitz after another during a 27-3 loss. The fans mercilessly booed both Hasselbeck and Holmgren.

"Instead of people saying, 'Hey, I feel bad for you,' it felt more like people were applauding. ... No, it didn't feel that way, it WAS that way," Hasselbeck said.

The following week, he strained a groin muscle. Hasselbeck eventually returned for nine more starts — five were losses — before he hurt his passing shoulder.

Then Trent Dilfer began 2002 as the starter.

"He really did lose the position," Zorn said of Hasselbeck. "It wasn't just given away."

But Dilfer got hurt in the opener. Hasselbeck replaced him — and struggled again. Dilfer was back starting in Week 2. Then, on Oct. 27, 2002, at Dallas, Dilfer tore an Achilles' tendon. Hasselbeck entered and led the Seahawks to a 17-14 win.

He started the final nine games, passing for 300 yards four times and over 400 yards twice, both Seahawks season records.

Then came a revelation in 2003, the third year in Holmgren's intricate offense. Hasselbeck had 313 completions for 3,841 yards and 26 touchdowns, still career highs. He went to his first Pro Bowl.

Holmgren knew then that Hasselbeck had become a Seattle fixture.

"If you have played in this scheme, your third year ... things should start to slow down for you and you should start to get it — if you're ever going to get it," Holmgren said.

"Now, the first two years? You live through it."

Holmgren is quick to stop any comparisons between Hasselbeck and Favre or Steve Young, whom Holmgren had while a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for the 49ers from 1986-91. But he will describe one similarity between Hasselbeck and Favre.

"I remember it well, Brett coming up to the airplane after we played a playoff game or something, sitting down next to me and going, 'You know, the light went on.' ... things started slowing down and he got it.

"That's happened to Matt here."

Zorn said the key to that emergence has been Hasselbeck, whose father Don played tight end in the NFL, shedding some of his stubbornness and ego.

"He's got tremendous ability, but I think he believes in what we do now," Zorn said. "He still gets frustrated on some of the things we don't get to do. But he doesn't let that impact him the way he used to."

Today, Hasselbeck will be believing in something new: an emphasis of four-wide receiver formations with Branch, Burleson, Darrell Jackson and Bobby Engram.

"If you look at the four wide receivers that we put on the field, we have a mismatch somewhere, sometimes everywhere," Hasselbeck said.

"I'm spoiled," Hasselbeck said. "I feel a little guilty at times because I know that other guys are looking at me and looking at our offense thinking, 'That is not fair, if I would have played with those guys, I would have gone to the Pro Bowl, too.'

"I don't take them for granted. I have a great group ... Honestly, it makes my job very easy compared to what it could be."

Or what it once was.