Dear Seattle Seahawk Fan,

This is the fourth and final installment in my series that has made different cases for what the Seahawks organization should do in this off-season that many view as one that could see dramatic changes to this team we love. I’ve made my case for Pete Carroll, I made a strong case for Russell Wilson, and I think I made a very nuanced case in favor of GM John Schneider.

Here is my argument for bringing them all back in 2022.

Let’s bring them all back.

Pete is a good football coach, one of the best culture builders in professional sports, and despite the down year, these Seahawk players have continued to play hard for him. Many of his former players such as Marshawn Lynch, Cliff Avril, and Matt Hasselbeck have all voiced their support of him returning. My hunch is that they know more about football and the dealings of Pete Carroll than any hardcore keyboard jockey fan does, and for all he has done for this club, one would think he deserves at least one mulligan season.

Russell Wilson, despite a down year, is still regarded as a top quarterback in this league by those who make a lot of money running NFL front offices. If he is placed on the trade market this off-season, it is expected that there will be a pretty significant bidding war for his services. I ask you to pump your breaks on salivating about the first round picks Seattle could get for him, and the unproven talent they could draft to fill the roster. If there is a bidding war for Russ, it means he’s still really, really good, and teams believe that he will stay good for a very long time. Let’s bring him back, and just draft better with the picks we have.

John Schneider is viewed as a top general manager in this league. Both Michael Silver and Peter King have said so much in recent days and weeks. Both writers aren’t hack jobs looking to generate click bait material, either. They have long standing connections through out the league, and they hear that Schneider is highly regarded. If anything, Schneider should stay and be granted full autonomy from what is likely an overbearing input from Pete Carroll with is VP status. Jody Allen should take the VP duties away from Pete and give them to John. That, in my opinion, would solve a lot of issues with this club.

At the end of the day, for all this civil war on Seahawks Twitter as to who should go and how should stay with this power trio in Seattle, as far as I can tell, all three of these dudes are pretty good at their jobs, so why not just run it all back with them in 2022?

In my very humble opinion, Jody Allen should hold a lengthy sit down meeting with Pete, Russ, and John in short order after this Arizona game. Don’t even waste a minute waiting. Just get all three figureheads in the same room and lay it out for each of them in front of the other, just like my hard nosed Korean War veteran dad would have done.

Jody should point to Pete first and say “I’ve been watching this bull hockey for a few years now after my brother has passed, and you have no idea how to build an offensive line, and your front office impulses aren’t much better than a preschoolers.. I could make a preschooler vice president of this club and pay ’em in apple slices to do the same job you’ve done, and I would likely get the same results.. I pay you a fortune in to be the coach and vice president, but I am taking the VP title away and giving it to John.. I just want you to coach and I am going to pay you handsomely to do it.. don’t do anything else.. just coach, coach.”

She should then turn to Russ and say “If you want your legacy goals to happen, we are going to build up that offensive line and commit to a run game that your can play action off of all day long and you are going lead the NFL in efficiency again, and lead us back into the playoffs.. what you are going to do is tell your agent to stop leaking all the bull crap to Colin Cowherd about how we don’t do enough for you.. we gave you Jimmy Graham, Duane Brown, Percy Harvin, and DK Metcalf.. now that Pete’s staying out of the front office, John’s going to go get you a smashingly good offensive line, finally.. trust that process.”

Final, she must turn to John and say “with my beloved brother’s fortune, you go get the best offensive linemen available on the market and bring them in here.. do not go cheap.. do not give us quantity, I want quality.. and while your at it, go get an interior pass rusher and one more rusher on the edge.. do not go cheap.. and bring Quandre Diggs back and DJ Reed.. and please shave.”

Jody Allen needs to square this situation up. It’s that simple.

Don’t let Pete and John mess around with trading Russ and bringing in Baker Mayfield and thinking somehow the team will be better, because it likely won’t be.

Don’t replace Pete with some thirty three year old analytic dork who’s going to go for it more on fourth downs because that’s what Russ wants. Russ’s impulses should not rule anything. This is the dude who wanted to team to bring in Antonio Brown, and thinks sleeping for only four hours a night is a great idea to give him a competitive edge. All of Russ’s needs and wants aren’t likely what’s best for this team, and I think even his most ardent supporters should agree with that.

What this team needs more than anything else is a reasoned mind to steer the ship in the right way, and I think part of that is managing both Pete and Russ.

Pete needs to be managed because his eternal optimism on players leads to a very natural hubris, and that’s a huge problem when it comes to front office decisions. I know there’s people that want to blame John there, but because of Pete’s veto power over John, we can’t be certain much if any of it actually lands on John. We know Pete has final say though. Just take that final say away from him, and pay him the same. Simple solution.

I love Russ. He’s been my favorite Seahawk since Cortez Kennedy, and I strongly support not trading him. But Russ needs to check his ego at the door some, and come to terms that the best offensive strategy for him is one that features a strong enough run game that defenses have to account for, and he throws off of in play action. This is how is led the nation in efficiency play in college at Wisconsin, and this is how he’s put up all the pretty efficiency stats in the pros that everyone loves to point to and say he’s an eventual Hall Of Famer. Give him a strong ground game with a physical offensive line and this dude is going to quarterback for a high level in this league for a long time. Give him a little up tempo here and there, give him more motion stuff, but build it all off of the run. That’s the only offense he should be clamoring for.

Finally, let’s let John cook without Pete’s influence in the front office side of the organization first before judging if he’s the guy at fault. He’s never been offered that opportunity. We know he has a sharp eye for picking quarterbacks, and legend has it that in 2011, he went on a hard campaign to bring in Doug Baldwin as an un-drafted free agent, and wrote letters to Doug to convince him to sign, even though the team was fairly stacked at receiver and Doug was reluctant. This is what I think a good GM does, they keep going after hidden gems. People want to knock John for the first round misses like LJ Collier and Germaine Ifedi, and that’s fine, but then they should give him mad props for unearthing Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Kearse, Poona Ford, and Jake Curhan as un-drafted starter talents. Letting John finally cook by himself makes sense. This should happen.

This is the reasonable path for running all three back. This is what should be considered before blowing it all up.

If Pete won’t relinquish his front office power to John, and/or Russ won’t see that light that his unique talents require him to be in a very specific style of offense that doesn’t involve peppering the ball all over the place instead of establishing the run, then decide to act differently, if need be.

But have this meeting first. Try to make this scenario happen first.

If they can’t all agree to come to these places, that’s fine. Then move on and make the necessary changes

It would be weirdly ironic that Seattle’s offensive line is finally good with Derek Carr under center, and/or they hit more with their higher draft picks suddenly with Dan Quinn as their head coach, but weird ironic shit happens in life.

But let’s try it first with Pete, and Russ, and John, if we can.. even if that’s a lot of ifs.

Also, Book of Bobo Fett is a cool watch. Don’t let anyone else tell you, otherwise.

Go Hawks!