Dear Seattle Sports Fan,

I don’t know why you’re wasting energy stressing out about a couple Seattle Seahawk players.

The Seahawks have just won three games in a row without their starting offensive tackles. They beat a good Lions team on the road, a Panthers team with a talented defensive line, and the gutted through a win against the Giants on MNF when 4/5 of their offensive line were backups. After the royal butt kicking this team got in the opener against the mediocre Rams, you would think every fan would be thrilled by this win streak going into the early bye. Instead, some Seahawk fans can’t be wholly satisfied.

“What’s going on with Jaxon Smith Njigba? Why isn’t he getting any yards?”

“Oh no. Here we go again with Jamal Adams, injured again.”

I get it. Not every Hawk fan is wired like I am. Some people have to see the reasons for concern.

I’m just not one to fully give up on a uniquely gifted player who has had a lot of bad luck, and I am definitely not one to expect a rookie to hit the ground running like a potential All Pro. I take wins however they come about, and I try to move past the losses as quickly as possible.

Also, football is flipping tough, and injuries happen to every team. The good teams figure out ways to adjust.

Seattle was dealt bad luck against the Rams, losing Charles Cross and Abe Lucas to injuries, and being out indefinitely. That was one of the freakiest occurrences I have ever seen in football. I cannot recall another instance where a team lost both starting tackles in the same game.

Credit Shane Waldron for adjusting his offense afterwards heading into Detroit. Most people thought Seattle was going to get their asses kicked. Instead, they hung with a good Lions team, and snuck out a win in overtime. Waldron adjusted his scheme.

I think it is pretty certain that with the drafting of JSN, Seattle wanted to prominently feature a three receiver attack this year. They probably wanted to go back to the days where they had Doug Baldwin working the slot with Golden Tate and Sidney Rice on the outside. They wanted a move the chains guy on third downs working inside with quick separation and soft hands.

That is what JSN is. That is what he will be for this team when they get all the parts back on the offensive line again. I still think he has the talent to be one of the very best slot receivers in the league, and I would feel comfortable betting my brother’s left leg that he will be.

Right now, he is on pace to catch about 48 passes. People will point to his yards per catch average being paltry, but because Seattle is so heavily reliant on a quick game right now, Geno Smith is mostly trying to get the ball out as fast as he can when JSN is on the field without extra tight ends. Conversely, Geno’s longer shots down field have gone to DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett when he is play action passing out of the heavier multi high end formations with JSN not on the field.

That’s the rub right now, and this has been totally out of necessity. It has nothing to do with JSN’s abilities, and whether he’s going to live up to the billing of a first round pick.

But Seattle is winning games, and they are doing it with the defense starting to look like it could turn into something special this year. This leads me to Jamal Adams.

For me, I think Adams is still an exciting player. He only saw nine plays against the Giants before he was oddly knocked out. You could feel his rust missing an easy sack, and maybe he needed to go for the sure tackle against Daniel Jones instead of diving at his legs with his head bent down. I thought it was a pretty fluky occurrence, though, honestly.

The thing that cannot be denied about Adams is how dynamic he is as a player. He’s so fast on the field against the run, as a rusher, and dropping into zone coverage. There is the reason why so many for ex NFL’ers like Mark Schlereth come onto local sports radio and maintain that he is an exciting talent. Players know.

My hunch is that Adams is going to be back playing with the team in Cincinnati after this bye week. I think he is going to have a very active role in their nickel fronts, and it’s probably going to be as a linebacker a lot of the time. They might even float him out on the edge as a rusher.

Just my hunch, but I think the look that Clint Hurtt would love to get his defense into a lot is a package that has Adams and Bobby Wagner/Jordyn Brooks as linebackers, and Seahawk legend Devon Witherspoon as the nickel corner with Riq Woolen and Tre Brown as the outside guys. This is the look that can send pressures a lot of different ways with a variety of great blitzers on the field together with a bunch of guys who can win one on one battles up front.

Just because Jamal Adams got knocked out early against the Giants, it need not be gloom and doom with fans. He hasn’t played live football in over a year. His muscle memory for the fundamentals of hitting aren’t likely caught up to him yet, and it is pretty unrealistic to expect them to be.

Call me an Adams apologist, if you will. Maybe I am. I don’t care, really. I just think, in my gut, he’s going to have a great year as the season wears on, and it’s going to be fun to watch.

What may not be fun to watch, however, is what the Seattle Mariners do this offseason as they work to maintain winning “54 percent of the time.”

Warning. If you are a diehard Mariner fan, this is where you might want to stop reading if you don’t have a bottle of Mylanta in close proximity.

What the flipping crispy is going on with Mariner management?

By now, you’ve probably heard it all on local sports radio, and have read about it, but let me throw in my two cents, for whatever it is worth. I have HUGE concerns about what lies ahead for these Mariners, and I think practically all of the issues reside at the very top.

In case you have been living under a rock, Mariner GM Jerry Dipoto staged a rather gutless press conference several days ago when neither Seattle market sports radio station could carry it live. With a whole lot of baseball analytic arrogance, he GM-‘splained to a bunch of baseball writers that Seattle’s actual goal over a ten year span is to “win 54 percent of the time” and in that time frame maybe they get to a World Series or what have you.

To put a cherry on top of all of this, he said that Seattle fans should be thanking the Mariner brass having this sort of “patient” approach.

What the actual fudge?

Okay, anyone who knows me well, or reads this blog knows that I am much more of a Seahawk guy than a Seattle Mariner one. I can sense that maybe this piece is going to inspire some folks to come at me a bit on this. Fine. Bring it on.

What Jerry Dipoto said in that fateful post season presser is every reason why I am a diehard Twelve, and a very tentative Mariner fan, at best. I know an abusive codependent relationship whenever I see one.

Been there. Done did that. No need to take another one on. Happy to remain in the shadows lurking and rooting for the Mariners 54 percent of the time moving forward.

After the Mariners got eliminated from playoff contention last weekend, I posted on my Facebook page that I rejected the notion of “same old Seattle Mariners.” After hearing Dipoto’s words in this gawd awful presser (and his half hearted apology on sports radio on Thursday), I’m squarely back in the Same Old Mariners Camp, and I really want to fully believe in this team again, but I can’t.

I cannot. Not with Dipoto in the front office, and quite possibly moreover, not with John Stanton as the majority owner.

People have called Dipoto’s words this week a lot of things. They have been described as tone deaf, arrogant, and unearned arrogance.

I call it as I see it. The Mariner GM got in front of the media, and he tried to gaslight everyone.

Mariner fans who are outraged by Dipoto have every single reason to feel that way. This team has done very little in the past twenty two years. Just one playoff appearance while the Seattle Seahawks have largely been playoff regulars and Super Bowl champs, and the Sounders and Storm have been champs, as well. Shoot, in their second season in the NHL, the Seattle Kraken have as many playoff appearances as the Mariners have had since 2001.

Seattle Mariner history gets worse. In 47 seasons, the Mariners have made the playoffs 5 fives. That’s it.

So for Dipoto to weirdly ‘splain away all these pseudo baseball analytics saying that the goal of this organization is to win 54 percent of the time over the span of a decade and teams that do that stand a shot at a World Series doesn’t sit well with the majority of baseball fans in this market, I get it. I feel that frustration.

And while I am sure some fans will support Jerry’s words and say that he’s right, my sense is that they are in the vast minority. I feel many more fans are fearing the following writing on the wall.

The Seattle Mariners aren’t likely going to be aggressive contenders in free agency this offseason, or in future years.

Shohei Ohtani most likely will not be a Mariner in 2024, even though Seattle could definitely use his bat.

In order to get the bats to field a better offense, the Mariners are going to have to surrender a talented young arm, or two. People can point to Bryce Miller or Brian Woo, but George Kirby would be the guy to offer up that would land the best haul in return.

Either way, Dipoto’s front office feels destined to weaken a solid pitching rotation in order to build a better offensive. For many, I’m sure that kinda feels like winning 54% of the time.

In my gut, I don’t think this is all really on Jerry Dipoto, either. I think he’s a direct extension of owner John Stanton, and while Stanton might say he’s a huge baseball fan, and wants to win titles, I think the deeper truth could very well be that, bottomline, Mariner ownership for Stanton is a status thing, and he needs to see profits to maintain that status.

In 2023, the Seattle Mariners were tenth in the league in ticket sales, and yet eighteenth in payroll. Read into that what you will, but when I look at those numbers, I cannot help but hear Whitesnake’s “Hear I Go Again” song in my head.

Ultimately, I cannot fault Jerry Dipoto for following Stanton’s marching orders with how to run the front office. I thought he chose his words incredibly poorly in front of the press, and I think that reflects his personality flaws.

Personally, I don’t think Dipoto is the most personable guy. I think he can come across as smug and arrogant, and his track record in thirteen years of being a GM doesn’t warrant such arrogance.

In that, I think he tends to rub some players and agents wrong (word on the streets, anyway), but my greater sense is that all of this building a sustainable winner by winning 54% of the time garbage is really coming from ownership, and that should alarm every single Mariner fan. After that crap fest of a presser, I felt sick to my stomach all night long.

Things won’t change until ownership, or at least ownership agendas change. Shit rolls down hill, and if it shit at the top, then everyone underneath is covered in it.

The goal every single year should be to win a title. You can be damn sure that is the thinking in Houston and Toronto.

Shoot for the stars, and maybe you hit the moon. Shoot for the moon, and you might be damn fortunate if you even make it out of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Stringing along a hungry, long suffering, fanbase for profits over titles deserves a special ring in Hades to suffer in for all eternity. There. I said it.

Go Hawks.