This is my good friend Ashley. Look how goofy this stoned assed motherf***er is!

We had so much fun from the berm watching training camp this weekend. I enjoyed watching tight spirals, and he enjoyed watching a couple middled aged bar hags in Daisey Dukes sitting ten feet away from us.

I got a lot of thoughts to tie into this. So, barrel down, Snowflakes. I am giving it to you straight.

Let me start this whole thing off by saying that I am not going to be delusional and proclaim that the Seattle Seahawks are going to be a top contending team this year. I think they can be a surprise team, and if they can stay healthy enough, I can see them back in the playoffs in Mike Macdonald’s first year as head coach, possibly wrecking the joy of other fanbases.

To say that the new schemes could uncork exciting potentials on this roster is an understatement. I felt all of last year that Seattle had talent on their roster that was not being maximized. What I viewed on the berm felt like a very positive step forward for a lot of those players.

I saw a lot of encouraging signs on Saturday that suggested to me they are on track to be that sort of team.

That said, there still exists a couple things that prevent me from fully buying into them becoming a truly dominant team this year. It really just boils down to two things.

For one, I believe that they play in one of the toughest divisions in the league with a ridiculously talented team in the Bay Area, a talented Rams team, and a team in Arizona that could be on the rise. While I think it is fool’s gold to buy into any hype that Kyler Murray and the Cardinals are going to finally have their shit together this year, I sense the potential of the Rams being on the upswing again, and the ridiculously talented San Francisco F*ck Faces are going to have all kinds of incentive to win it all this year before they have to pony up to make Brock Purdy the highest paid quarterback in the league in 2025.

The other issue is that, at least on paper, while I see a lot of talent spread across this Seattle roster, I see the wee potential of disaster on their offensive line, and at middle linebacker. In short, having your starting right tackle on the Physically Unable To Perform list at the start of this training camp is not the greatest omen to start things off this Summer. Additionally, Mike Macdonald needs middle linebackers Jerome Baker and Tyrel Dodson to stay healthy this, or we could see him forced to use a raw rookie fourth round pick linebacker starting in meaningful games (more on this rook later).

So, as I sit here and type out my thoughts in anticipation for real NFL football to begin, I got one thing I really need to see out these Seattle Seahawks this year.

I need to see some badass, go for the throat, toughness on both sides of the ball.

They got skill players who will make things interesting in games. I have already written about how I think Geno Smith continues to be vastly underrated as a quarterback. We all know Seattle is pretty loaded at receiver and running back. We know they have pretty good talent at corner, and there is some interesting potential on the defensive line. Barring massive amounts of injuries accruing at these spots, we should see Seattle hang with teams this year.

But I need to see a tough, aggressive, badass mentality like we haven’t seen here in a really long ass time.

Here are some of the impressions I came away with from what I saw at practice this Saturday from my seat on the berm that give me hope that Seattle can, in fact, be a pretty damn badass team this year, if they can stay relatively healthy enough.

Watching Geno Smith run this Ryan Grubb coached offense made me feel like I was watching Michael Penix Junior in the Washington Husky offense from the past two years. In fact, Geno looked just like a right handed version of Penix, and this should excite most Seahawk fans.

He was in full command of this attack, throwing perfect spirals to spots on the field where his receiver could easily catch against good coverages. Just like watching Penix in college, Geno wasn’t tossing easy gimme throws, either, but rather putting great passes downfield into windows. Everything from him was pretty damn crisp. This was a lot of fun to watch.

Barring injury, Seattle feels like they have not only their quarterback for now, but it feels possible that they got their guy for a good while, as well. I write this as a person who has been somewhat reluctant to say that Geno can be the long term fixture here, too, but after seeing it in person, I am more sold on Geno than ever. I never seen him look this sharp in Shane Waldron’s offense at this stage of training camp. I’m sold.

In terms of Sam Howell, from what I saw on Saturday, he looked much better than I was anticipating based on negative reviews through the first view days of camp when he apparently struggled. To my eye, he looked interesting, but I think we need to make important distinctions between him and Geno Smith in order to gain a realistic grasp of the Seattle QB situation.

For me, Sam and Geno are two very different styled quarterbacks and it almost isn’t fair to compare them. In fact, they are so different that I think each requires their own specific offense tailored to each of them.

Geno is a classic, tall, drop back passer who works well inside a pocket, but has enough athleticism to make plays outside the pocket, as well. He seems tailor made for the play-calling Grubb used at Washington that took the Huskies to the national title game. Penix was often compared to Geno and now I see why.

Sam, on the other hand, being shorter, I feel needs to be more on the move to find his groove (a la Russell Wilson). He threw on the run well on Saturday, at times, but the times he stayed in the pocket, it felt like he was a bit more hesitant. If Seattle were to operate out of a run heavy play action offense that used a bunch roll outs, I think Sam would be a natural fit for that style of attack. That’s not the Ryan Grubb offense we saw at Washington, however, and I think that if Geno were to get injured to the point of missing a view games, it would be up to Grubb to adjust his attack to better fit Howell.

I still like Howell as a developmental player, but I don’t see this as any contest between him and Geno Smith right now, and now I actually wonder if he would be better served in a different offense, elsewhere. I also wonder whether Seattle should look to the draft to find someone more with Geno’s attributes to groom behind him, eventually, if the Grubb Attack is something they want to ride with as their offensive identity, long term.

These are just my initial thoughts on the QB front for Seattle. Onto some other cool things.

Seattle is loaded with ridiculous levels of talent at receiver, Grubb appears ready to maximize it, and teams with iffy pass defenses are totally going to get royally hosed when they have to play them this year. Jaxon Smith Njigba feels extra in this offense, and DK Metcalf is about to do things that I don’t even want to spoil on this blog. Tyler Lockett had the day off, but depth players like Jake Bobo, Easop Winston, and Dareke Young stepped up and looked sharp. There are good players on this unit who will not make this team, and should probably end up on other rosters.

Ken Walker, Zach Charbonnet, and Kenny McIntosh should show big as runners, and receivers. K9 will probably be the star, but he will be complimented with rock solid talents mixing in behind him. Expect Seattle to use these backs in ways very foreign to what we have been used to in the fourteen years under Pete Carroll. Just wait for it.

Defensively, it felt like players got some good pressures on a few occasions, and I enjoyed seeing that. I think Jarran Reed, Uchenna Nwosu, and rookie Byron Murphy all got pressures for would be sacks (can’t hit QBs in practice), along with undrafted rookie Nelson Ceasar (badass name, by the way), but it was interesting to hear Coach Macdonald say after practice that the pass rush isn’t where they would like it to be at this point.

I wasn’t as alarmed by this as much as I was excited. Macdonald is going to run this side of the ball with very high standards, and I am more than here for seeing the defensive line continually coached up.

They will be coached harder than they likely ever were before in their lives. In that process, they will uncork their chemistry. I have no doubt about that. There is a lot of potential within the defensive tackles and edge rushers to be really, really good this year.

To the naked eye, I expect second year edge rusher Derrick Hall, in particular, to take a big step forward. His bend around the corner seems noticeably evolved from last year, and it stood out at practice.

I thought rookie linebacker Tyrice Knight looked surprising good in coverages, at times. I recall when he was drafted in the fourth round, a few folks labeled that a painful reach. He looks like he belongs in this defense, however, and perhaps this is the biggest reason why we haven’t seen the team make a move to add an addition veteran middle linebacker. Fingers crossed he continues to trend well through training camp and preseason games.

I thought cornerback Lance Boykin looked like he belonged, as well. Boykin was a bottom of the roster player last year who might make things interesting as camp progresses. He is a longer player who found himself well in position at times to make things harder on the quarterback. Make a mental note on him as you watch preseason games.

I really liked how cornerback Tre Brown looked in practice. Seattle feels like it has enough quality depth at corner where I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a trade happen in a few weeks time.

In terms of negatives, I can’t think of a lot. Training camp felt very crisp for the most part.

It was very interesting that they brought talented free agent center Connor Williams in for a workout earlier this week, and are reportedly discussing a contract with him. Given the way the offensive line gave up a few inside pressures, it scans more now. They might see a genuine opportunity to further fortify themselves on the interior of the offensive line.

I would love to see this deal get done. If they cannot rely on Abe Lucas to play a full season, and George Fant is likely going to see a lot of time at right tackle, and McClendon Curtis (massive f’ing dude) is going to be looked at more as a backup tackle than guard, the trickle down effect from this is going to impact the interior depth of the offensive line. That’s not great for an attack that probably wants to beat defenses from the pocket more now than at any point since the Mike Holmgren era.

Getting Williams to lock down center would allow Olu Oluwatimi to serve as a valuable swing interior player who can play center, and potentially kick over to guard. He has enough size to do both.

If they can add a healthy Connor Williams to this offensive line, I am going to go from cautiously optimistic about this team towards being all in on the expectations that they should be a pretty kick-ass this year. This is why I need this deal to get done.

So, just get this motherf***ing deal done, and let’s f’ing go.

Go Hawks!