Dear Pete Carroll and John Schneider,

Well, you stray cats did it, didn’t ya?

Okay, fine. What’s done is done.

I can hang with trading Russ, even though I didn’t totally want you to do that, and I’m fine with cutting Bobby. I’m good with it because I’ve been sensing the need for a rebuild for well over a year, and the only reason why I didn’t want this guys to leave was my own emotional attachments, plain and simple. But I am able and willing to rip those band-aids off.

However, I just need to say these few quick other things about it all.

I didn’t super love how Bobby tweeted out that y’all didn’t bother to talk to him before he found out that he was being cut. At some point, I’d like to hear your angle on that because that, my friends, is an awful look.

And I’m not super duper thrilled about the idea that maybe you two are into trading for Deshaun Watson, even though now he won’t face criminal charges in whatever went down between him and a bunch of massage therapists. I hope that is this is just a massive smoke screen on your ends.

Even if Watson is somehow found not guilty in his pending civil suits, do not trade for this guy. Don’t surrender that draft capital haul from Denver to Houston to grab this guy, and I don’t care how gifted and special he is at quarterback.

Even if, from this day forth, he becomes a pillar of his community again, and plays the most important position in all of sports at the highest levels, and leads his new team to multiple Super Bowls victories, let that happen in another market for another fan base. Let it be Minnesota’s story, or Carolina’s.

In fact, let’s take a healthy break from the whole franchise quarterback unicorn thing altogether. I think your team can use it, and I think, whether they know it of not, so could the Twelves.

Look, let’s be very real about this whole situation that we are in as fans of a team that just traded away the most iconic quarterback that has ever played for it. Whoever you trade for, or draft with a high pick is going to come into this situation, and instantly be compared to Russ.

I don’t care if it is Watson, Derek Carr, Kirk Cousins, Malik Willis, or Matt Corral, that quarterback is walking into a situation with fans who will be pissed beyond belief if this team isn’t improved enough to take this thing farther than what Russ has been doing for the last seven years after the Super Bowls. They will forever be compared to the one you let get away, and still continued to dog paddle swim towards championship contention.

Therefore, I think it is smarter to just take a very methodical systematic approach to building this whole thing up again right. If you build back a top five defense, and a strong offensive line, the quarterback will eventually come to you because that is what the trends are in this modern game now.

Quarterbacks are willing to jump ship to other teams, and teams seem more willing to deal. This feels like the new NFL. Just embrace it.

So, here’s what I say. Use every single one of those high picks you’ve acquired to properly rebuild this roster over the next two years. Build this thing up with young core talent in the trenches, and in a few other spots, and worry about the quarterback later.

This is my guide to help you get that done.

Get The Hulk

Don’t get cute in this 2022 NFL Draft. Get one of these two guys; Defensive Tackle Jordan Davis of Georgia, or Defensive Tackle Travis Jones of Connecticut.

Bring The Hulk to Seattle.

Jordan Davis is an absolute FREAK OF NATURE, standing at 6-6, and weighing 341 lbs, while being able to run a forty yard dash at linebacker speed, and showing crazy explosive power. If he is there at 9, you take him. I don’t care who else is there. A human being that big should not be able to move like he does, and if you put him between a guard and center, that is going to be a nightmare scenario for quarterbacks throughout the league for years to come. He might not become the annual double digit sack guy Aaron Donald is, but he would make the other guys on the defensive line job’s a heck of a lot easier. Offenses might have to throw three blockers at him ever play. Get him, if you can.

If he is not there at pick 9, get Travis Jones. Take him either there, or with a slight trade back. Jones is Hulk 1B to Davis’s 1A. Standing at 6-4 and weighing 325 lbs, if it wasn’t for Davis’s INSANE combine performance, Jones probably would have grabbed a much of headlines running the forty in the low 4.9s, and showing decent explosion himself for a man that size. What makes him an even more interesting prospect is how he routinely freight trained guards and centers at the Senior Bowl. While he isn’t the total size and athletic profile freak Davis is, he might actually be a more advanced interior rusher. He should be your solid Plan B to Davis.

I don’t care how you go about getting one of these guys, but get one of them. If Davis isn’t there at 9, and you want to go edge rusher, great; figure a way to trade back into round one later to grab Jones, if he slides.

Getting The Hulk is going to make your defense’s job easier in games. Captain America and Thor look great because they have The Hulk. Every comic book fan and MCU nut knows this.

Having Red Bryant on the left side of your defensive line in 2011-2013 literally took half of the field away for offenses to run the ball. He was your Hulk back then, and while he never individually manufactured big sack numbers for himself, he opened up opportunities for others to make the splash play after splash play.

Tattoo this on your foreheads and stare into the mirror every day with this right up to the draft. Your defense was never as good as it was when it featured Red Bryant up front.

Go get The Hulk.

Bring Home Gardner Minshew

Repeat after me:

We will not trade for Deshaun Watson.

We will not trade high draft capital for Derek Carr or Kirk Cousins.

We will not draft a quarterback in the first round.

As to that last part, let’s just avoid drafting for the position at all this Spring, if we can. I want to see you turn picks 9, 40, and 41 into quality starters on your offensive and defensive lines. At pick 72, I’d like to see some playmaker at whatever other position.

Send whatever mid round pick (and maybe LJ Collier as well) to Philadelphia for PNW fan favorite and cultural icon Gardner Minshew, and let him compete with Drew Lock to become the starter. If he wins the job, the fans will get behind him, and this will be an instant PR hit, which you desperately need right now, if you aren’t totally aware yet.

If he pushes Lock into finally uncorking his potential as a passer, great. Then you look like geniuses for getting Lock here, and doing with him what Denver couldn’t do.

If he wins the job, and plays reasonably well (as I suspect he probably would), fans will be behind this guy, and therefore, behind you and this rebuild. Again, you will look like geniuses.

If he struggles, and Lock struggles, fans will accept that this is a full rebuild, and they will see the high draft pick you get next year as another foundational piece to the ultimate pie of eventual success down the road.

There is no way that you two come out of this looking bad by bringing in Minshew, and giving him a shot at this thing. So, do it.

Plus, there are some NFL film studying dorks who think he fits the scheme that Shane Waldron is trying to run as a rhythm throwing quarterback who understands routes, possesses good mobility, and throws an accurate ball in the short to intermediate areas of the field, and has just enough arm strong to threaten down field.

Yes, he’s not the dynamic athlete others are trending towards in this league. He’s not super twitched up, and he doesn’t have a canon arm, he doesn’t have great size, but neither did Drew Brees, or even Joe Montana, for that matter. What both of those quarterbacks had was natural leadership and a good understanding of the pass game, and just enough tools to just get it done.

It seems to me that Gardner Minshew ticks those boxes enough that it’s worth it to find out what he can be with DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and now Noah Fant at tight end.

And he has personality shining out of his butt-hole like something invented out of a Hollywood studio.

So, my God, just go out and bring him here.

There is nothing but wins by doing this. Trading for Deshaun Watson is a toxic level risk that just isn’t worth taking, no matter how talented he is. Let him be another franchise’s success story, if he is to be one.

Give us Gardner. It’s what the vast majority of us probably want at this point.

Do this.

Use free agency to bring back the few younger core players you covet to keep and then look for others on the market.

If you feel free safety Quandre Diggs is the vital leader of your new look defense moving forward, pay him as such, and have him be that guy for the next four years. Just bring him back.

If you feel DJ Reed is your ideal corner now in a more Vic Fangio style scheme, pay him the top dollars to return. He’s really good, and don’t let him get away.

If you think Rashaad Penny is finally ready to break out as a superstar running back, and has now clicked with this new scheme like Marshawn did with your old one back in the day, bring him back. Just do it.

If Duane Brown wants to stick around and see a rebuild through at age 37, God bless him for wanting that, and bring him back to be the new veteran leader of the offensive. He’s a good guy to have around, and probably won’t break the piggy bank at is age.

If you see good young players in free agency looking for their big pay days with second contracts who are attracted to Carroll’s culture, and want to be a part of this thing, don’t skimp and miss an opportunity to bring some of these guys in. Be willing to pay for them to be foundational members of this thing.

You need more edge rush, interior rush, a quality center (finally), and you big time need corner help. You can also use more at receiver, linebacker now that Bobby isn’t here, and obvious if Brown isn’t coming back, you got at big gigantic hole at left tackle.

Try to fill some of these needs with talented younger free agents who will be a part of this thing for the next four to five years. Make this the third big time goal of this off-season, and NAIL IT.

Closing Thoughts

Commit to a full rebuild. Don’t spend high capital on another expensive starting quarterback in this league and trick yourselves into thinking this is just a quick reset and reload.

Finally get bigger, younger, stronger, faster, and more talented in your trenches, and build off of that.

Go get Gardner Minshew, and if he (or Drew Lock) pops, and we win more games than expected, and it’s looking like the new franchise quarterback is here, then that’s a big time bonus. You hit the Lotto, and congrats to looking like geniuses again.

If is this fails to deliver, all is forgiven. Most fans will probably have accepted that this is a rebuild.

Trading Russell Wilson away for what would be Deshaun Watson, even if found not guilty, would be a GIGANTIC slap in the face of any sexual assault victim that roots for your team. Judging by the percentages of people that this has happened to, that number is probably a high percentage of fans. Do not do this to these people.

Are we clear on all this?

I really hope so.

Go Hawks!