San Francisco 49er beat reporter Michael Silver recently came out with an interesting little article detailing what 49er head coach Kyle Shanahan had planned for the Seahawks last Sunday. Essentially, he placed a bounty out to get DK Metcalf tossed from the game. He showed his defense a highlights of all the times DK had lost his shit, and he said there would be a nice present from Santa for any player who got under his skin enough for him get ejected.

It doesn’t take a genius mind to imagine 49er defenders had spent most of the game trying to incite DK Metcalf into a meltdown. So, I kinda credit DK for keeping his cool up until the last few minutes of the fourth quarter when after an interception, he used a relatively harmless suplex move to tackle Fred Warner, only to see Warner lateral the ball to a teammate, and then shove with his body weight on the back of his neck, the same neck he had broken in college. After that inciting incident, DK lost it, grabbed Warner’s face mask, and was ejected out of the game after it was clear that the 49ers were going to runaway with their decisive victory.

I hope Shanahan got Warner a really dope jet ski on Monday. I am sure the entire collective of the 49er Faithful shared the same euphoric joy watching all that go down. I wouldn’t be surprised if Silver had a big old shit eating grin spread across his face when he submitted his article.

You are free to react to this news however you want to as a Seahawk fan. You can be like me, and call Shanahan a chump coach, or you can be like others, and think that Shanahan is genius for doing it.

Personally, I don’t think he’s a genius at all for this. He didn’t need his defense to get DK Metcalf ejected in order to beat the Seattle Seahawks, not with the way Seattle’s defense has been matching up with his offense, nor the way his defense owned Seattle’s offense.

Nope. In my mind, this was a punk move by the coach. He didn’t just want his team to beat Seattle, he wanted them to have extra fun doing it, and they did.

As a Seattle Seahawk fan, how does that make you feel?

The head coach of your main division rival does not respect your team on any sort of level, at all. He has no fear matching his team up against them.

In fact, in order to make any contest fun, he’s now got to rub it in extra during the win. He’s got to make it a super fun spectacle for the 49er Faithful to bathe in kinda like the mean girl in Season Four of Stranger Things.

I am not a psychologist, but I have been around the block enough times to recognize certain things. When I look at these 49ers and their head coach, I see a smug arrogance that thinks they are way ahead of everyone else. That’s fine. They are playing on fire right now, and have kinda earned the right to be arrogant. That’s not what really bothers me, though.

What really gets under my skin is that they do not fear the Seattle Seahawks in any way, shape or form. If Kyle Shanahan did, I do not think he would have shown his team the DK meltdown highlights in order to create a bounty. If his present day team was facing the 2013 Seattle Seahawk squad on Sunday, he wouldn’t have thought to poke that bear. I guarantee that.

The Seattle Seahawks won Super Bowl XLVIII because Pete Carroll and John Schneider constructed a roster that was so mean, and nasty, and dominating, that Kirk Cousins could have been the quarterback they took 75th overall in 2012 instead of Russell Wilson, and he would have led Seattle to that Super Bowl victory. This is the undeniable truth of our Seattle Seahawk history.

Seattle’s entire identity was built around pissed off and hungry pit bulls and grizzly bears littered all throughout that roster a decade ago. They terrified opponents.

Defensive backs didn’t want to tackle Marshawn Lynch because he was intentionally looking to harm any dude who dared to do it. Receivers and tight ends didn’t want to catch balls thrown over the middle of this defense because Seattle had a strong safety built like a defensive end, and they had a freakishly fast free safety who shot out of his position like a canon ball towards anyone attempting a catch. Quarterbacks got nervous because defensive coordinator Dan Quinn devised a pass rush that made Michael Bennett almost unblockable inside and Cliff Avril too quick to handle outside, and they didn’t want to throw to their right because of Richard Sherman at cornerback. Tacklers got tired of tackling because Seattle had a huge and physical offensive line that wore their bodies down over time. Defensive backs and linebackers got stressed out because they weren’t sure when a play would break down for Seattle’s offense and Russell Wilson would use his legs to make a huge play.

A decade ago, the NFL had a Seattle Seahawk problem. They almost didn’t have an answer for it. This is sadly not the case anymore. It’s the opposite.

The undeniably hard truth about these Seattle Seahawks today is that there is not a team in this league that fears them. That upsets me way more any chump move the 49ers decided to do against a hot tempered DK Metcalf last Sunday.

Kyle Shanahan thought it would be fun to punk this team. He knew that his team wasn’t facing a defense with a fierce front seven that might try to put a little something extra on Brock Purdy if DK got ejected. He wasn’t at all concerned about how the Seattle secondary would hit his receivers. He saw these Seahawks as ducks in a barrel, and he just wanted some extra fun.

He allowed the information of what he was planning for DK Metcalf to reach Michael Silver for publication. He was more than happy to let the world in on his joke. That’s how much respect that he has for the Seattle Seahawks. That’s how much he fears any matchup against them in the future.

I am sure that not only does he believe he is winning the physical battle against Seattle, he now believes he is setting himself up to win the psychological one, as well. I think that is the true motivation behind all of this, why he planned it, and why he let it be known to a 49er beat reporter.

Pete Carroll has lost his way. I believe this now. For whatever reason, he has deviated too far away from the recipe that allowed him to win a Super Bowl in Seattle.

Perhaps it started in 2015 when he allowed for the trade of Jimmy Graham to perhaps appease Russell Wilson and his agent, and the team dealt away the leader of its offensive line in Max Unger as a part of that deal. Unger was a beloved member of Seattle’s locker room, and the stabilizing presence of their offensive line. Graham was an opponent Seattle defenders never respected because he played with a large ego and was soft.

It is perfectly natural to imagine the resentment that built up not only after that fateful transaction. Not only did Pete seemingly try to make Russ the hero at the one yard line during the Super Bowl against New England only to watch it fail in the worst way possible, now he was rewarding Russ with a tight end that did not match the mentality of the team that led them to back to back Super Bowls in the first place.

Pete Carroll chose to placate the quarterback over his core philosophy of how this team was built and operated. He weakened a clear strength of the roster, and he didn’t adjust his offense to play to the strength of its new shiny toy. The rest is history.

Seattle became a team good enough to make post season appearances, but not good enough to advance to the highest points. They never sucked enough to be in positions to draft players like Vita Vea, and to add insult to injury, they reached on players like LJ Collier. Eventually, their legacy driven quarterback had enough, and forced his way to Denver, and now here we have it.

Pete Carroll now has a team that does not feature any feared run game, and his defense is a sad dysfunctional shadow of itself that does not even know what it wants to be. They aren’t physical enough to compete with San Francisco, and they aren’t smart enough to be a good finesse team, either.

In the end, I think he is, in fact, the one to blame for all of this. I have been a Stan of his for many years, but even I cannot shake away this reality.

After all, he is not just the head coach, but he is also the Vice President with overriding powers over general manager John Schneider. Ultimately, the buck stops with him, not Schneider, and that is why I believe these next four games might be do or die for him.

In short, Pete Carroll has four games left in this season to find his way again. I hope he does it. Carroll could absolutely get his team up for a late season rally. I am just kinda pumping the breaks on that.

Presently, I see a Seattle team that is playing with too much dysfunction, and it is drawing up memories of Jim Mora Junior’s lone year as the head coach of this team in 2009. I see safeties and linebackers on defense perhaps now making business decisions on the field. I see a lack of adjusting schemes to better fit the talents that Seattle has to play with. I see players acting out in frustration.

I see a team that looks like it is on the verge of a dramatic free fall, and until Seattle starts to mount wins again, I have no reason to see it in any other way. Therefore, what I need more than anything else is that I need big time changes moving forward after this season has concluded.

As dire as this situation feels to me now, I actually do not necessarily need a change from Pete Carroll, per se. What I need most is actually a return to Seattle being a feared organization again, but if Pete Carroll cannot deliver that, for whatever reason, I need whoever it is out there who will.

I need Seattle to be the team who will get under the skin of Kyle Shanahan again. Even when Seattle was struggling to maintain dominance in the division in recent history, they always proved a tough out for San Francisco. They are not that anymore.

I need the 49er Faithful to feel anxiety and frustration again just like they have for most of the past two decades. If Carroll cannot commit to whatever it takes to bring that back, I need a new head coach who will.

Over the past year or more, I have seen fans cry out for a more innovative younger offensive minded head coach, and I totally get that. Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan and now Mike McDaniels have made former offensive coordinator to HC storylines the new sexy thing, and many now firmly believe that you need an offensive minded head coach to succeed this day and age in this league.

I won’t argue against the merits of transitioning from Carroll to an offensive minded head coach, but for me, that should not be the driving reasoning behind a new hire. Nay, more over, I just need that next guy to be a total bad ass who his players will love and bite off knees for.

If I can’t have Dan Campbell, I want a dude who will revel in coaching up a hard hitting, tough blocking, fierce fighting team that nobody will enjoy playing against on Sundays. I don’t care if that is an offensive minded coach, or a defensive minded one.

I want someone who will look at San Francisco with Kyle Shanahan, and will be willing to dig deep for ways in which he will his squad will piss off, annoy, and fluster them. It could be Ben Johnson, the hotshot OC at Detroit who a lot of people seem to love, or with fun irony, it could be Jim Harbaugh. It could even be the current OC of the Eagles.

In my mind, it could also be Dan Quinn or Robert Saleh who have coached with Shanahan and know his tendencies well. People can scoff at both defensive minded coaches, but I won’t write them off. Saleh is stuck in a shit situation with the highly dysfunctional Jets and yet his team still fights hard for him. With Quinn, I see a coach entirely worthy of a second chance and he is a guy who players will absolutely run through walls for.

Everywhere Quinn goes, players play hard for him, and love him. Some believe that the true demise of the Legion Of Boom wasn’t that the league caught up to them, but that Dan Quinn left them. That says something to me.

It could also be Dan Lanning down at Oregon who is as fiery and bad assed as it comes as a coach. If you have any doubts, go surf the web on some of his pregame speeches. He’s a foaming at the mouth pit bull who gets his guys playing hard, fast, and furious. I like that dude a lot.

And yes, it could absolutely be Kalen DeBoer at Washington with the way he coaches up the details and the resiliency his teams exude on the field.

I could even make a strong case for Kevin Stefanski in Cleveland with the way he continues to have the Browns fighting despite their shit quarterback situation.

Ultimately, though, at least in my mind, it could still be Carroll. Maybe he’s now grown tired of being a nice guy with his underperforming roster, and is ready to shake things up. Again, he has four games left to turn this around, and make it a season.

All I know is that I want a feared NFL team playing in Seattle again. That’s what I want from these Seahawks more than anything else.

I want a team that is going to give Kyle Shanahan a hand full when he’s preparing against it, and he isn’t going to have time to think about chump moves again. I want a team that will force him lose his own gasket in the late stages of a game.

This is what I want for these Seattle Seahawks. This is what I need.

Go Hawks.

What a wild game to watch.

All day, as I went about my work, I completely envisioned Seattle getting smoked by the Dallas Cowboys. I thought the Cowboys would be sharks smelling blood in the water, and I was positive that a Pete Carroll coached team was about to get steam rolled two weeks in a row.

I was wrong. Dead wrong.

Then, by the third quarter, I started believing that Seattle was going to win this game handily in Dallas, and our season was going to be salvaged.

I was wrong. Dead wrong.

The refs came in to make sure that would not happen. It would appear that Seattle cannot have nice things because there is a conspiracy against them.

I don’t know how much money Jerry Jones paid these refs, but that show they put on was absolutely comical. At one point in the second half when Dallas had the ball, it actually became shocking whenever an official didn’t throw a flag against a Seahawk defender.

Now, I know what you are probably thinking as you read this. You’re thinking I’m delusional to think the NFL was actually trying to prevent Seattle from winning this game, or Jerry offered the refs a night out with the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders and free drinks at Jerry World for life.

I’m just going to say that is was really fucking weird seeing those flags flying out like that at a machine gun clip against the Seahawk defense right after Seattle jumped comfortably ahead in the game and only occasionally against the Dallas one. You are free to draw whatever conclusion you would like in result. I, however, smell something rotten in Dallas.

Whatev’s.

Seattle put up a great fight on the road. Not a perfect fight. There was still points of bad tackling on the defense, and spotty coverage. The defense still found ways to get gashed by the run, too. Shane Waldron finally started to cook as a play caller only to crap his bed in the end.

But they fought hard. You could feel that fight.

Offensively, it was nice to see blocking finally, and it was a pleasure to see Shane Waldron actually call a functional game plan, and utilize all the nice pieces on offense that Geno Smith gets to play with. DK Metcalf proved once again that he is the most dynamic player on offense when you can scheme the ball into his hands. Ditto for Jaxon Smith Njigba and Zach Charbonett, and how about that spectacular catch by Noah Fant on a deep play action crosser?

Wasn’t it also nice to see the run game going enough so that Geno could play action off of it? Where was this play calling over the past month and a half?! Is it just because we finally have Abe Lucas back at right tackle?

Is Abe Lucas the key to unlocking this offense? A right tackle Abe Lucas??!!

It was exciting to think that Seattle now maybe has a functional offensive coordinator again, but then that weird fourth and one play happened where Charbonnet got stuffed on a decidedly uncreative attempt at a first down, but that wasn’t the real killer for Seattle’s offense. Nay. Waldron saved his best stinker for the end of the game on fourth and short when he decided to not to have anyone block the best pass rusher in football while calling for a dump off to a backup running back who was tasked to get to the other side of this monster speed rusher for a catch, and decidedly didn’t.

For all the creativity that Waldron finally showed us in the game, he called a play that had next to no chance of working against Micah Parsons who’s forty yard dash is as fast as DK Metcalf’s. What. The. Fudge.

As you can probably tell, I’m still not so high on Waldron, but he has five games left to maybe win me over. We shall see.

As for Geno Smith, I think he had a decent rebound game. Not perfect. A few throws got away from him, and he threw yet another bad pick. I forgive him for those though. He battled hard, and played well enough that had Tyler Lockett would have caught a deep seam pass from him, we may have easily went on to win the game.

This was a weird game for Tyler Lockett. He felt third fiddle to JSN and DK. I thought Quandre Diggs and Bobby Wagner and Jamal Adams had weird moments as well.

I think the reason why I am bringing these older veterans up like this is because even though Seattle is still in a fight for the playoffs, at 6-6 now, I also feel like Seattle is officially entering an evaluation phase for this franchise moving forward. How much should these high paid guys be considered the future of the franchise at this point if Seattle is to ultimately have a down year?

Right now, this doesn’t feel like a 6-6 team that will end up 9-8 and in the playoffs again this year like they were last year. If I am to be honest, I think this feels like a 6-6 team on a path to finish an annoying 8-9, not good enough to be in the playoffs, but not sucking enough to have a super high draft pick, either.

This feels like a mediocre team who will now put up good fights because they are in a corner, and Pete Carroll tends to motivate his teams to fight hard whenever the world is against them. He’s a really good coach that way.

I feel like, through twelve games now, we know who they are. They have talent, but they maybe aren’t schemed up to the level their talent needs, and they lack discipline and fundamentals to take the next step. This game against Dallas is a microcosm of all of that.

So, I kinda think that through these last five remaining games, everything and everyone should be scrutinized. Players, coaches, and front office should all be under Jody Allen’s microscope.

Is Geno Smith worth over $30 million APY to stick around? Or should the team move on and perhaps pursue a different quarterback perhaps through the draft (cough cough Michael Penix Junior and or Bo Nix)?

Is Shane Waldron an offensive coordinator who can maximize the talents on this offense consistently? I have severe doubts.

Is Clint Hurtt a good enough defensive coordinator who has a scheme that everyone understands and will play disciplined ball in? I have questions.

Who are the young players who can be the building blocks of a championship? This is perhaps the most important question.

Right now, I feel great about Devon Witherspoon, JSN, K9, Woolen, Boye Mafe, Abe Lucas, Charles Cross, Zach Charbonnet, Tre Brown, and Anthony Bradford. My jury is out on Derick Hall, Coby Bryant, Cameron Young, Dee Eskridge, and Oli Oluwatimi, and maybe it is these younger guys we should start seeing more of moving forward.

As for the older vets, I don’t know how much longer Bobby Wagner can/will go. I’m not really digging on Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams with their big contracts at safety, and I think Adams should just be a linebacker, anyways. I feel good about Tyler Lockett, but I am unsure how much longer he’s planning to play.

I’m not sure how much Seattle needs to pay big dollars towards Noah Fant, Jordyn Brooks, Evan Brown, and Damien Lewis coming back. I think if I had my druthers, I would spend big in free agency on high quality guard over Lewis, and I would look to the draft for tight end and linebacker and I would start playing Oluwatimi more to see if he can be the starting center.

Leonard Williams is a tricky one. On one had because Seattle dealt a second and fifth round pick to acquire him mid season, I think he should be the top priority to bring back. On the other hand, should John Schneider be scrutinized more now for making that bold move when it is clear that Seattle is probably another draft away from building into a true contender? Was it even his call or was it a directive from Pete Carroll?

Then of course, there is the big elephant in the room with Geno Smith and how smart it is for Seattle to pay him next year like he’s a pro bowl quarterback when maybe he is just kind of a middling one. These last five games will loom incredibly large for Geno Smith now. In a way I feel bad about that, but football is very much a what have you done for me lately.

Lastly, at 6-6, with games against San Francisco, Philly, and Pittsburgh, how much should Jody Allen now be evaluating Pete Carroll as the head coach moving forward into next year?

If they lose out or only win one more game, will she feel the sting of maybe a fanbase growing more frustrated and apathetic and disinterested?

After all, it took Pete Carroll twelve games into the season to get Shane Waldron to kick it in the ass with better play calling. It feels to me that this should have happened a month ago.

This is perhaps the most frustrating thing about this season. It took twelve games for this offense to feel like a Pete Carroll style offense with some sort of identity.

I am hoping that through these last five games, Carroll can work his magic on this young team and they win at least three out of the five. However, I fear is that we are going to see a lot of the same as we have seen over the past week, and that is losing in ugly ways against the 49ers and Eagles, and losing in a frustratingly close way against the Steelers.

However these games shake out, I hope that ownership is taking a good long look at it all, and everything is under evaluation.

I don’t want these Seahawks to dip into becoming the perpetually middling franchise. I want them to be great. I want Jody Allen to do whatever she thinks Paul would do to make sure it’s great again.

This is where I am at as a fan. Losing a close game on the round against a really good Dallas team doesn’t change this needle for me. I love this team, but I need them to be better.

Go Hawks.

I will be perfectly honest with you. I have a deep love for Michael Penix Junior. In fact, I haven’t been this attached to a football player in the PNW since Russell Wilson’s rookie year in Seattle. I think he’s special.

I think he has enough physical traits to transition well into the NFL. I believe his arm is elite, and with massive hands, he can absolutely spin it, and he throws one of the prettiest deep passes you will ever see, but I think it is what is inside him that makes him truly special.

His teammates refer to him as the Quiet Assassin. He’s not a demonstrative personality, and maybe sorta prefers to allow his calmness and his actions on the field to do the talking, but make no mistake, he is regarded as the unanimous leader of the UW locker room. He is the alpha dawg. For me, I think there is a greater reason for this particular Penix calm and reserve, and it is that very thing that fascinates me most about him as a player, and person.

People can say whatever they want about how Washington got to their lofty 12-0 status. They can say they haven’t won as dominantly as Oregon, and Penix struggled more in the second half of the season than in the extremely high clip he was playing at during the first half, and, of course, they can say UW should have blown out the pesky Washington State Cougars, and whatever else whatnots.

For me, when I look at Washington, I see a ton of resiliency, and it starts with their quarterback. It’s a fool’s errand to walk away in dismissal of the awesome intangibles of high resiliency.

You want to talk about what it takes to play quarterback in the highest level, how about talking about the inner strength needed to fight through extreme adversity. There is not a single quarterback on this planet who has fought through more adversity than Michael Penix Junior has right now. Penix is a resilient mother fucker, and I would absolutely take him as QB1 for the Seattle Seahawks.

His injury history while he was at Indiana is famous. In four seasons, he tore his ACL in his right knee twice, had his left shoulder separated, and he had a dislocated the sternoclavicular joint in his right arm. There was a point in which he almost walked away from the game. Instead, he entered the transfer portal and joined his old coach Kalen DeBoer in Washington, and the rest is history.

What DeBoer and Penix have done together in leading a Washington football program that two short years ago was an absolute dumpster fire into instant prominence is nothing short of remarkable. This year, Penix leads the nation in passing yards in a system that asks him to make a lot of difficult sideline throws. They trust him that much. If they go on into the playoffs, I think a strong case can be made for Penix to be the GOAT Husky quarterback, and there have been some good ones over the years long before him.

Anyone who says that Penix can no longer run is full of horse crap. He’s plenty athletic, and can easily extend plays whenever needed. I think because of his prior injuries, he much prefers to beat you by throwing instead of running much like CJ Stroud did recently at Ohio State. In fact, Stroud is my exact NFL comp for Penix. I think he’s left handed CJ Stroud, and as a Seattle Seahawk fan, yes, please sign me up for that.

If Michael Penix Junior clears medicals during the draft process (as I suspect he ultimately will), I would wind sprint to the podium for him next Spring if he were sitting at my pick. His story arc in college football has shown me everything I need to know about him as a player and person.

On the other side of this writing, I have grown to become a HUGE Bo Nix fan. Given the fact that my wife is a Duck, I watch more Oregon football than probably most casual Husky fans, and I have sorta grown to adopt this program (don’t judge me, my wife is awesome). Bo Nix is the most impressive quarterback I have seen at Oregon in a long time.

I’ve been more impressed by him than I was with Justin Herbert, and I kinda might like him more than even Marcus Mariota who I thought was awesome in that old Chip Kelly system. Box Nix is leading the nation in quarterback efficiency for a reason.

Some might be dismissive about him and his extremely high completion percentage, and say it’s the system that he plays in which calls for the easy short completions. I say that is lazy thinking, and I don’t think that should be used as a deterrent towards thinking that he can’t have great success in the NFL.

Bo Nix makes every throw needed for Oregon. He can throw deep outs, he can throw intermediate, and he can throw short. He can fit it over defenders and between defenders, and he has wheels that him a genuine threat to take off and run. He throws with great anticipation and awareness. Bo Nix has a lot of fun playmaker in his game.

Of all these exciting draft eligible college quarterbacks this year, in a long list that includes Caleb Williams, Penix, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, JJ McCarthy, Jordan Travis, and Cameron Ward, I think Bo Nix might be the safest pick for a NFL GM out of any of them. With over fifty starts in college football, I think he has, by far, the surest floor. In short, that absurd amount of playing experience is going to have some NFL organizations drooling.

I firmly suspect that Seattle is quite high on Bo Nix because of this experience along with his maturity, productivity, and above all, his crazy good efficiency numbers. The last time Seattle drafted a quarterback they thought could be their franchise guy it was the nation’s leader in efficiency in one Russell Wilson out of Wisconsin in 2012. So yeah, I can completely see Seattle being deeply into Nix.

The truth is for me, as a Seahawks fan, I would do cartwheels down my sidewalk if Seattle drafts either one of these two quarterbacks next Spring. The one silver lining I see to them having an unexpected down season is for them to be in position to do just that.

Some might think that I am being Anti Geno Smith by writing this, but that is not true. I have been a staunch Geno Smith supporter, and remain so. I just see certain writings on the wall for this team moving forward beyond this year.

They are going to be super tight against the salary cap in 2024, and here is the list of players who’s contracts are about to expire; starting defensive tackle Leonard Williams, starting linebackers Jordyn Brooks and Bobby Wagner, starting tight end Noah Fant, starting left guard Damien Lewis, and starting center Evan Brown. Three starters on defense and three starters on offense and Seattle currently does not have the cap space available to even sign back two of these players.

Bringing back Leonard Williams is an absolute must considering what Seattle gave up to acquire him and the level of which he still plays at as an interior pass rusher. Jordyn Brooks is a near must as I suspect this is maybe Wagner’s last year playing in the league, and I think, at the very least, Seattle needs to bring back one of Damien Lewis or Evan Brown in order help the continuity of their offensive line.

The easiest and simplest way for Seattle to keep the veterans they want to retain, and to also make another much needed splash signing in free agency next year would to move off of Geno’s contract. They could sign a journeyman vet like Gardner Minshew or Jacoby Brissett, and then take advantage of this deep quarterback class in 2024. This is the conclusion I have reached watching this season unfold the way it now has.

If Seattle hangs onto an expensive Geno Smith, and allows most of these guys to walk, and tries to fill holes cheaply through free agency and the draft, I think Seattle will most likely remain San Francisco’s punching bag for years to come. That is the sobering reality that I see under this scenario.

If Seattle had more younger bright talent on rookie contracts filling out this roster, I would feel much better about continuing to pay and play Geno. They do not have this, even with two pretty good back to back draft classes. The cupboard was that bare when they traded off Russell Wilson.

I think, given the way this roster is set up with contracts about to expire, the team likely thought this was going to be their year to truly take a much bigger step forward competing for the division. So far, that doesn’t look like the case at all, and that is why I think they structured Geno’s contract as they did last Spring by giving themselves a clear financial out at the end of this season. In short, if they don’t achieve what they hoped for with Geno as QB1, they don’t have to stay trapped in that deal, and they can move on.

That was a smart clause they placed in Geno’s contract. Cold blooded for sure, but smart.

As for Geno, if they do move on from him, I think he can be a quality starter on a decent team with less holes on their roster than Seattle. He could move onto Cleveland if they move on from Deshaun Watson in the offseason (I think they might). He could go to Tampa, or Minnesota, or Atlanta, or even Pittsburgh who all have nice rosters and just need a stable starter at QB.

This is sorta what I think is going on for Seattle right now. I think we are fully entering an evaluation phase as we head further into the toughest part of their season.

These tough games coming up will tell us a lot about the team and Geno Smith. If he can turn it on against tougher competition, and get some quality wins through this tough stretch of games, then I think that tells the club he’s worth continuing to build around. If it’s all really rough and Geno basically continues to look like he did against San Francisco and LA even with better play calling (that’s another topic for another piece), then I think fans of this team should really start looking at some of these young bright quarterbacks in college because one of them could more likely be coming here.

As it stands now, I think the Seahawks are probably looking very hard at both Bo Nix and Michael Penix Junior as possible long term solutions to their quarterback position. I think they rightly should be doing this regardless of how Geno plays.

With Penix, I think he’s a player who likely fits what a coach such as Sean McVay loves to do in attacking the deep middle of the field behind the linebackers and in front of safeties through play action. Penix can launch a ball with ease downfield on a boot leg, and he has the special arm talent to drop it into tight windows. My fear as a Seahawks fan is that McVay is also very keen on him.

Bo Nix feels like he could work wonderfully in a Kyle Shanahan offense getting out on boot legs, getting the ball out quickly and accurately and into the hands of playmakers, and just commanding the whole offense like a point guard. I think Bo Nix is very much a Brock Purdy type player but quicker and with better overall athleticism. I see a little Dak Prescott in his game, as well. Just like Prudy and Prescott, I wouldn’t be shocked if he got drafted and found quick success as a rookie.

So, given all of this, it’s going to be this really interesting bittersweet watching of this last and final PAC 12 Championship Game. On one hand, I am still super bummed out over the PAC 12 dissolvement, but on this whole other hand, holy shit is this conference ever going out with the bang!

It is beyond fascinating to see these two bitter rivalry schools battling each other for a chance to go the college playoffs with each school being quarterbacked by a dude who could win the Heisman Trophy next month. Hollywood could not script this scenario any better.

For me, I won’t lie about it. I am as fair weathered of a Husky fan as any alum could possibly be. I have always been more of a Seahawks fan than a Husky one, but because of Michael Penix Junior, I badly want the Huskies to win this game. I want his unique story about overcoming adversity to end with him winning the Heisman, and leading his team into the college playoffs.

As I said in the beginning of this piece, Penix is my guy. In his two years here in Seattle, I have come to appreciate him in ways I have only appreciated a few other athletes in this town. I have appreciated Steve Largent this way, and Sue Bird this way, and for a while, Russell Wilson. For me, Penix is that type of special. If that makes me more of a homer, then so be it. Homer me up.

I also really truly dig on Bo Nix a lot, too, and if the Huskies were to lose this historic game against Oregon, the sting of it would be taken away a tad by knowing that Bo Nix won. I think Nix is a pretty solid dude who had battled his own sets of adversity at Auburn, and found his rebirth here in the PNW. His story is a pretty cool one, and he’s a worthy guy to root for, and I enjoy watching him play.

In the end, if I can’t get the UW victory for Penix, I want an epically fantastic game for both of these special quarterbacks. I want this to be a game remembered for its greatness and not any sort of lopsidedness. It’s exciting to think about it in that way.

For all the back and forth pettiness that Duck fans and Husky fans probably have about these two quarterbacks, I think it is pretty silly for a fan of either program to dismiss the talents of the quarterback of the other. I think if Michael Penix Junior was QB1 for the Ducks, the entire state of Oregon would be absolutely gaga over him, and if Bo Nix was the Husky quarterback, almost everyone in the 206 would be talking about how much the Seahawks need to draft him.

But this is the dumb stupid petty nature of college football rivalries. Neither side wants to admit that the other is pretty even though both of them very much are.

This is where I will be more than happy to say that, in my own fandom, I am better than that. I despise the San Francisco 49ers with my whole entire being, but I fully recognize the specialness in Brock Purdy, and his likability. It’s fully possible to hate on a program and organization and think to yourself ‘but that player is pretty fucking cool.”

On my end, I just here for both of these quarterbacks. I am into them, and I want one of them on the Seahawks roster next year. Either one of them, or Jayden Daniels from LSU who looks like the second coming of Randall Cunningham, and his story is another pretty damn good one.

Go Hawks.

Congratulations, San Francisco 49er Fans. Your team is finally, regularly, kicking the snot out of the Seattle Seahawks. It took your team long enough!

Even when Pete Carroll’s Seahawks were showing signs of decline with Russell Wilson, and your team was on the rise to become the prize of the conference, the Seahawks were at least good for laying a big old frustrating bucket disappointment on your Sunday afternoon. Now, it appears the tide has finally turned, and I think with it, maybe Seattle ownership needs to consider the bigger picture more after the season if these Seahawks end up with a losing record. After all, this is what San Francisco decided to do years ago when it was clear that Pete Carroll was making Jim Harbaugh his personal pool boy.

I love Pete Carroll as much as the next fan, and, emotionally, I don’t want him gone, but I also don’t want to continue watching these Seahawks looking more and more like the clueless clown of the division whenever playing the Rams and 49ers. This team spent over $130 dollars in this past year to better compete with these power house 49ers, and to be honest, they look worse than they did last year playing them. That’s not a good thing

Seattle added to it’s defense Leonard Williams, Dre’Mont Jones, brought back Bobby Wagner, added Julian Love, and drafted Devon Witherspoon, and they have Jamal Adams back, and still this defense has no real answer for Kyle Shanahan’s offense. That’s a bad look.

Personally, I think Seattle’s usage of a 3-4 defense against the Shanahan scheme is a dumb idea, especially considering how well Carroll’s old 4-3 front played against it even in the Ken Norton Junior years. Why Carroll has been persuaded into shifting away from his 4-3, I will never understand, but on the replays of Christian McCaffery banging it up inside for big gains, it clearly shows each time how there’s not enough big bodies in gaps up front and it puts more stress on the linebackers.

I officially hate the 3-4 defense. I think this whole idea of how much more “exotic” defenses can be with it is vastly overrated. There’s a few teams in the league that run it well, but the great defenses of San Fransisco, Dallas, Philly all operate more out of 4-3.

I was writing about this stuff a lot last year at this time, and after last night’s game, emotions have boiled over. I hate that Carroll has shifted away from his 4-3 stuff that he knows inside and out. Sure, there’s some nice pieces in place, but I think think they would work better in the older scheme.

I don’t even know what to call this defensive scheme, either. It’s not even a true 3-4, and it certainly isn’t a 4-3. It’s like they are being multiple in their fronts just for the sake of it.

As an actor, if I were to go into an audition for a national Ford commercial with the intent of doing a lower class Brooklyn accent one minute, and then shifting into a British accent the next just to be multiple, the well paid casting director would most likely never call me in again.. ever. That’s how I feel about this Clint Hurtt defense for Seattle.

As for the offense, I don’t know where to even start. I think everything going on right now sucks, and I will take a very unhip position of believing that Geno Smith is not the problem of it.

I think Shane Waldron is really struggling to come up with anything that they can hang their hat on, and I don’t think he’s nearly as creative as others in the league as coordinators. I also think he has been doing a really lousy job adjusting to how defenses adjust to his play calling, and too many times he’s calling long developing patterns against a strong pass rush with no outlets for the quarterback to go towards.

The best two things Seattle did on offense last night were stretching the defense on an incredible one handed catch by Jaxon Smith Njigba that was all about the player and not the play caller, and then a nifty jet sweep by Dee Eskridge. That jet sweep reminded me how much of a staple that play is in a Sean McVay offense, and isn’t that the offense we are supposed to now have here?

With JSN and Eskridge on this roster, the jet sweep should be ran at least four to five times a game in order to keep defenses thinking. Right now, defenses don’t have to think when playing against Seattle. It’s like they know everything Waldron is going to throw at them. That’s not a Geno Smith problem. Drew Lock isn’t going to fix that. Neither will Michael Penix Junior or Bo Nix.

I hate it all so much that I officially don’t want Waldron back next year. Unless he miraculously turns this offense around during the toughest portion of this season, nothing is going to move this needle for me.

This offense has way too much talent to be playing this poorly. My one shiny silver lining to Seattle now having a down year is for them to have a high enough draft pick next Spring to potentially draft one of the many talented quarterbacks in college right now, but if they did that, I wouldn’t want that rookie walking into this situation with Shane Waldron as his OC.

Seattle clearly needs a new OC, and if they continue a long stretch of losing games badly like this, I think it’s entirely fair for Jody Allen to consider how much longer Pete Carroll should be running the show, as well. After all, it was Pete Carroll who decided to bring in Waldron when he had no coordinating experience at any level, and it was also Pete Carroll who promoted Clint Hurtt to defensive coordinator over bringing in a proven coach at the position.

If Carroll was persuaded to change to a Vic Fangio 3-4 defense, why didn’t he just go after Fangio who was available? And while we are at it, why didn’t he pursue Dan Quinn after he was fired from the Falcons and bring him back home?

If Pete Carroll’s mantra is “to always compete,” don’t you think part of that should be going out and getting the best coaches out there for his staff? I would think that would absolutely be essential to that.

I don’t know if there’s a lot of good coaches on this staff anymore. I’m sure that there are a few. Andy Dickerson seems to be a fine OL coach. Greg Olson is a well respected quarterback coach and a former coordinator. They hired a fancy pass rush coach this offseason and Boye Mafe has developed nicely. I just look at this situation and feel like Carroll could have done a LOT better putting together the best staff possible.

This makes me literally start to question how much longer Carroll should be going at this. He is in this fourteenth year as the HC and VP. Only legendary Husky coach Don James has coached longer in this market than Carroll has, and not by much.

Pete Carroll is 72 years old and has been coaching for 50 years of his life. Coaching is an incredible grind, and he’s been grinding at it for almost as long as I have been alive.

Mike Holmgren went about ten seasons here and was exhausted at the end, and needed to step aside as a much younger man than Carroll is right now. His team had quickly gotten old and injured and it was clear that they needed a reset. He was too tired to do it, and he knew it.

When I watched how this team gave away the game last week in LA, got blown out a few weeks back in Baltimore, and blown out at home against a dreaded 49er team, I see a young Seattle team with enough talent to be playing better than they have. Ultimately, the buck should stop with Carroll.

I don’t think Seattle is a juggernaut contender, either, but they should be playing better than this. They should be smarter, and more disciplined on both sides of the ball. That is a coaching issue, plain and simple.

So, we will see when this goes in the next month and a half. They have a ridiculously tough stretch that they are in the midst of right now, but so what. Life is not fair, and as Chuck Knox used to say as the Seahawks coach, you have to play the hand you’re dealt.

If they get blown out like this in each of the next three games, I think Jody Allen needs to consider moving on from this entire staff, or maybe Pete Carroll should consider doing what Holmgren did, and just step aside. Maybe take a year off and go grab one of the So Cal coaching gigs, and bring his career full circle.

I say this all being a huge Pete Carroll fan, but first and foremost, I’m a Seahawk fan, and if what this team needs most moving forward now is fresh eyes on the program, then I’m for it. Having said that, if Carroll is able to clean it up, and get this ship sailing right again, I fully support him finishing this out right.

Time will tell us soon enough how this 2023 Seahawk ship sails, and damnit all towards the high heaven if these waters aren’t about to get crazy ass stormy over the next month. Hang onto your butts.

Go Hawks.

Also, fuck George Kittle.

Drew Lock might be a really cool person, and he seems like a likable enough guy. He might even have some talent that could make one believe that he could be a quality NFL quarterback someday, maybe.

He’s tall, he moves quickly, he’s got a big arm that can easily fling the ball downfield. He’s the person that you look at with all the ideal measurables where you could convince yourself that “this is what an NFL quarterback should look like.”

Here is something that I feel very certain about Drew Lock as it stands right now. Drew Lock is not a good quarterback. He’s bad. I’m not sure he’s even he’s a decent backup, and I was sorta surprised when Seattle brought him back on a one year $4 million deal to backup Geno Smith again this year. I kinda thought, if he came back again, it would be for a lot less, and kinda in the $1 million dollar range Seattle paid Geno yearly when he was the backup for Russell Wilson.

But Seattle must really like Drew Lock to be paying him this exorbitant amount to enter into the second half of the game to take the place of injured Geno Smith, and throw two completions on six attempts for a grand total of three yards and a dumb interception. They must really believe the sun shines brightly out of his buttocks ripe with potential.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing personal against Drew Lock, and if he has to take over for Geno for a few games, I will root hard for him. I just do not believe he’s very good, and I will never, for the life of me, understand the demographic of Seattle fans who believe he’s more talented and has more upside that Geno Smith does. He does not.

You know how I know this?

Two years ago, when the Seahawks were playing the Rams in LA, and Aaron Donald knocked a struggling Russell Wilson out of the game, one lowly regarded amongst fans Geno Smith stepped in and almost guided Seattle to a win. He played better than Russ that day, in fact.

Two years later, this time around, when Aaron Donald knocks out Geno Smith, Drew Lock came in and threw ridiculous hero balls deep downfield, and looked clownish doing it. No sense of down and distance, and it was so bad, Geno Smith had to enter the game at the end to give Seattle a chance to win, and gosh dang it, if Geno Smith didn’t almost pull it off like he did last week against Washington, and last month against Cleveland.

Geno Smith might not be the greatest quarterback on the planet. A lot of people want to call him mediocre, and that’s fine, if they want. I think this league is full of mediocre mid tier-ish quarterbacks, and Geno is no worse than any of them. Geno Smith is not a bad quarterback, though, and he’s not a backup, either. He’s a starter.

Drew Lock might well have proven in this game that he’s not even be a good backup. If Seattle honestly thought his upside was higher than Geno’s, he would have been made the starter last year. They do not, and he didn’t.

The people who’s mantra has been “Geno Smith has always been a backup for a reason” while clamoring for Drew Lock must be one step removed from being flat earthers. How else can their lack of logic be explained?

I got news for them. If Geno Smith had not gotten knocked out of this game midway through the second half, I think Seattle most likely would have won this game. Yes, he wasn’t perfect, and yes, there were some shitty penalties called against Seattle that benefitted LA, but I think Seattle would have overcome those, and got it together more in the fourth quarter just like they did last week.

You know why I kinda feel this way? Because that is how Seattle has been playing a lot lately with Geno Smith. He’s been a fourth quarter guy.

Drew Lock? Please. I’m honestly kinda glad this whole thing happened so everyone got a good old dose of Drew before Geno game back in to almost save the day.. yet again.

And while I am on this peppery tangent, how annoying is Shane Waldron’s play-calling still, and all these dumb procedural penalties and lack of proper execution? Who the fuck knows if Waldron was calling those down field YOLO balls for Lock when he went in, or if Lock took it upon himself to throw at guys who weren’t the primary receivers that the plays were drawn up for, but there were plenty of other times earlier where I was scratching my head when Geno was in the game.

Seattle is now ten games into their season, and they are still playing way too sloppy on offense, and this offense is still tough to figure out what they want to be. There is not nearly as much commitment to the run as there should be, and there is way too much sloppiness, and lack of awareness of down and distance at times is almost comical.

Geno takes a dumb delay of game in the red zone, doesn’t spike the ball in the final moments of the game to preserve more time for another play or two, someone isn’t lined up right another time, Will Dissly drops a ridiculously catchable ball, someone false starts, who the fuck even knows what Lock was doing. It’s nice to see the screen game actually working for once in a Pete Carroll offense, but there is still way too much slop going on.

As I watched this game unfold, it dawned on me that we never see this type of slop from a McVay coached offense, or from Shanahan’s, or even a Kevin Stefanski one. When Seattle gets blown out by the Ravens, I feel like it’s just one of those days, and I can easily move on, but when they lose a winnable game like this one, I look at the slop, and all the inconsistencies, and I just start to really wonder how much of this is on just the coaching.

I love Pete Carroll. I remain one of his biggest fans, I love that he’s a master motivator, and culture builder, but I think sloppiness kinda follows his teams a bit. This team, however, I think is especially sloppy, and particularly on offense. Shane Waldron has been a punching bag for me a lot lately, but shouldn’t it ultimately be up to the head coach to make sure things get better ironed out?

I watch the Cleveland Browns this year, and I am truly impressed with the job Kevin Stefanski is doing as their head coach. They have an extremely unsettling quarterback situation, and yet they are still finding ways to win.

I think Stefanski runs a very well defined offense that doesn’t try to out scheme you so much as they try to out execute you. I think that helps his players play better together as a unit, and it becomes more plug and play when injuries happen.

I also think he’s hired a very strong coaching staff full of quality proven coordinators. Jim Schwartz has been a quality defensive coordinator for years and was a head coach for a while. Bill Callahan has been a top offensive line coach for decades and was a former head coach. Alex Van Pelt has been a well regarded quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator.

Stefanski has surrounded himself with quality proven coaches, and he is maximizing the talent on his roster. Now, I don’t think that Cleveland is a true Super Bowl contender, but damn it if they aren’t impressing the shit out of me with the adversity that they have been fighting through.

Why hasn’t Pete Carroll done this in Seattle lately?

He plucked Waldron from the Rams, who had never coordinated before, and it was an assumption that he hired him because he was Russell Wilson’s preference after Brian Schottenhiemer was fired. I gotta be honest, though, we are two and a half years into the Waldron offense, and I think Schotty did a better job in Seattle. I think his offense had a much stronger identity, and while more predictable, played with better consistency. I think Darrel Bevell has been the best OC under Carroll.

Here’s the rub in this though. Schotty and Bevell both came into Seattle with coordinator experiences. I don’t want this piece about yet another annoying loss to the Rams be about how much Waldron sucks, but it’s kinda getting harder for me not to do this.

I know Waldron is a smart coach, but something is preventing him from taking the next step as a coordinator, and it is starting to cost Seattle games. What is it?

And why hasn’t Carroll stepped in more with demands for establishing the run more when it is clear that Waldron isn’t doing it enough?

I don’t know what this offense wants to be. I have no idea what the identity of it is. They are neither a great pass team or run team. They lack balance, and I have an overwhelming sense that the root of it is that Waldron wants them to do too much, and therefore, they master nothing.

It’s not just Waldron, either. Pete Carroll could have brought back Gus Bradley or some other experienced defensive coordinator out there a couple years ago, but he decided to promote Clint Hurtt who also had never coordinated before, and I still can’t totally tell what kind of defense it is that I am looking at.

I appreciate that Hurtt has made decent strides in his second year as DC, but they are starting to show signs of not being able to contain outside runs again, and that should be a fairly basic thing to stop, and too often linebackers look absolutely lost in coverage.

I kinda sense the chinks in the armor this defense more with each game. There are nice pieces on it right now, but I don’t know if they are being schemed the right way, and like Waldron, I fear Hurtt has them doing too much in their various looks and fronts.

On one hand, I think it’s commendable that Carroll wants to use his platform to give young coaches opportunities to advance, but on the other hand, I think it would also be awesome to see Carroll just bring in as much good experienced coaching talent as possible like Stefanski has in Cleveland. As it stands now, I look at this team, and I don’t feel as bought into these coaches as I would like to be at this juncture.

I also have this sinking feeling like the coordinators here have gotten progressively worse over the years. At some point, isn’t Carroll to blame for this?

Now before you start accusing of me trying to usher out Carroll for a Kevin Stefanki type, just know that I don’t want Pete Carroll fired. I just want this team clicking better. I need to see things cleaned up, and I think the coach should be subject to blame as much as the players, if not more in some ways.

Even if Drew Lock has to start a few games in place of Geno Smith, I just need to see better execution from those around him to make his job easier, and hopefully he can play within himself better than whatever it was he was trying to do against the Rams. I need to see players getting it, and executing it on both sides of the ball. Ten games into this season, and things should not be this sloppy still.

If this is not to be a playoff team this year, so be it. I just need to feel like this team as the right coaches in place to move forward next year. I know the quality of coaches in San Francisco and in LA with the Rams.

This game brought me back down to Earth with this team. All is not lost, and there are still a lot of games left to play to get it right, but damn it if we don’t need to see better, and better best come sooner than later with this tough stretch of games.

At least some more of us now know that Drew Lock is not the answer over Geno Smith. So, there’s that.

Something tell me that there will be still some Drew Lockers dug in, though. When someone vehemently believes the Earth is flat and science is lying to us, don’t hold your breath arguing with them. Just have a chuckle and move on.

Go Hawks.

The NFL now has a 17 game season. It’s stupid.

If these money grabbing owners need to make more cheddar, have two preseason games, make the season 18 games, give the teams two bye weeks, and play the damn Super Bowl in the middle of February. This Get Off My Lawn moment of mine is brought to you be Stihl; the maker of quality German engineered backpack blowers to annoy white privileged urbanites every Autumn during leaf season.

At any rate, as it stands now, it’s weird to determine what the mid point of the season is so that a middle aged blogger such as myself can issue grades out to his favorite team. I was going to do this last week, but I decided to write about why it’s dumb to bench Geno Smith right now, instead.

At any rate again, here are my grades for the 6-3 Seattle Seahawks. Read them and weep.

Quarterback: B-

Last year, at the time, I probably had Geno Smith down for an A-. He surprised everyone with his high efficiency play, and was throwing one of the very best deep balls in the game before his play fell back down to Earth more in the second half of the season. I love me some Geno Smith, but I gotta keep it real.

This season hasn’t gone nearly as well. Thus far, his touchdown numbers are down, and his interceptions are up. While I don’t believe he’s been helped by the play calling, I think he’s pressed a lot more, forced the ball into bad situations, been more skittish, and hopefully this cleaner game against Washington is a sign of better things to come.

His completion percentage is still pretty good, though, and out of three of these six wins on the season, he has guided this offense to come from behind wins against the Lions, Browns, and Commanders. In short, I think he’s doing his job good enough for this team to be solidly in playoff contention, but he can be a lot more consistent.

Running Back: B

Seattle has the potential to have an outstanding running back situation with the one two punch of Ken Walker and Zach Charbonnet, but I don’t think they are taking enough advantage of what they have with these two. Finally, they got them more involved against Washington, and it paid off in a big way. This grade, in my opinion, should be a solid A, but because they haven’t been the focus enough, I can’t grade them this way, yet. Hopefully, that changes by the season’s end.

Wide Receiver: B-

Kinda like the quarterback situation, I think Seattle’s receivers have underwhelmed from where they were at this point last year. People want to trash on Geno, but I think it is up to these receivers to be more consistently on the same page with him, so I am giving them the same grade.

This is a highly talented group led by the consistently great Tyler Lockett, but I want to see better chemistry with the quarterback from others. If they can do this, they have the ceiling to be an A+ unit at the end of the season.

Jaxon Smith Njigba is starting to become more of a factor now, DK Metcalf has been calming himself down more, and Jake Bobo is a fun folk hero. So, at the very least, there are signs of this unit treading upwards. I got my fingers crossed for them.

Tight End: B-

Kinda like the running backs, I don’t think the tight ends are being used enough as they should be used. They were very active in September, but play caller Shane Waldron went away from using the multi TE looks in October, and they have since been less involved. When they are more of a focus, they are a talented group who can deliver as pass catchers and run blockers.

Offensive Line: C+

The offensive line has been pretty banged up throughout most of this season, and has seen so many different lineups that it has been tough for them to gain consistency and continuity. For far, they are gutting through it, and hopefully with promising right tackle Abe Lucas coming back, they can start rolling better during this tough second half of the season.

Defensive Line And Edge: B

Seattle lists their personnel as if they run a 3-4 defense, but I don’t think that is what they really are. I think they are mostly a modified 4-2-5 scheme that uses two defensive tackles, two stand up ends who will drop into coverage on occasion, and two off ball linebackers with three safeties on the field. Therefore, I am including their listed outside linebackers in this group with the interior defensive linemen.

Boye Mafe is the breakout star of the defensive front, breaking a franchise record for seven sacks in seven consecutive games. He is an ascending talent who have HUGE upside to his game. The edge rushers behind him are hanging in there after the season ending injury to Uchenna Nwosu. Rookie Derick Hall is strong against the run, Darrell Taylor provides a decent pass rush, and Frank Clark provides good depth.

Seattle’s DT types have played pretty solidly. Jarran Reed has been a real force at nose tackle, and Mario Edwards and Dre’Mont Jones have flashed at times. Leonard Williams as the new primary three technique played fierce against Washington, and should be a huge boost to this interior unit for the final stretch of the season.

Middle Linebacker: B-

Bobby Wagner has been outstanding versus the run, but I fear he’s becoming a bit more of a liability in coverage, although Pro Football Focus appears to love his play. Jordyn Brooks has been the more explosive player of the two. I think they are both fierce run defenders who are hanging in there in coverage.

Devin Bush has been a bit of a disappoint as a hyped up free agent signing, and I think Jon Rhattigan is just a dude. The depth of this squad has me nervous and I feel like this is an area of need heading into next offseason.

Cornerback: A

I think Seattle has one of the top cornerback situations in the league again, and they are the clear strength of the team. They are four deep in quality starters.

I think Devon Witherspoon is a superstar cornerback in the league right now, and should win Defensive Rookie Of The Year, but probably won’t because the league hates Seattle. In all my years, I have never seen a cornerback like him. He’s a mixture of Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman.

Riq Woolen is surprisingly overshadowed by Spoon, but is still a top end young corner in the league, and nobody else playing the position is built like him and has his type of world class speed. Tre Brown has provided scrappy good play as an outside corner in the nickel, and Mike Jackson is a quality depth player who probably starts somewhere else.

Safety: B

I think Seattle’s safeties are really good and are overshadowed by the corners. Jullian Love has been a really solid addition to the team, and Quandre Diggs has remained reliable enough.

Jamal Adams remains the team’s chosen X factor chess piece, playing a lot of safety, and linebacker, and even edge rusher. I think his play has been more up and down, but he is tasked to do a lot more than others. He will make splashy plays against the run, but he will also miss a tackle going for the knockout instead of slowing down to wrap up. My guess is that he is still working himself through the serious leg injury he’s coming back from. I would still take an up and down Jamal Adams on this defense, though.

Special Teams: A-

Jason Myers is a great kicker. Michael Dickson is a solid punter. I really like DeeJay Dallas returning kicks and punts now.

Coaching: B-

I am a HUGE Pete Carroll fan, and because of him, I want to grade this area higher than I have, but I can’t. I think Pete is still a tremendous leader and Seattle is lucky to have him still here, but I haven’t loved a lot of the play calling on offense this year, and this have been the big sticking point for me.

If feels like Shane Waldron really wants his three receiver passing attack to be the bread and butter of this offense with the addition of rookie Jaxon Smith Njigba to his squad. Don’t get me wrong, I love the potential of JSN, and I think he’s going to be special in this league, but with all the injuries that have occurred to the offensive line, I think tight end heavier formations along with more run plays, and play action, has probably been the better recipe for this offense with Geno Smith at quarterback. I think Geno is a much better play action QB than a straight drop back passer, and Waldron has taken that away from him for whatever reason.

I think Clint Hurtt has done a solid job modifying his defense to better fit the principles that have worked well for Seattle over the years. I think he’s steered away from some of the stuff he was trying to get do last year, and it’s been a return of tilted even front for the defense where defenders are better able to defend the A and B gaps. All this football jargon just means is that he has simplified his front seven, and has made their jobs a lot easier. Bravo.

Thoughts Moving Forward

At this point in the season, I would say that the defense is ahead of the offense, and.. well, that sorta does feel like maybe this team is, in fact, returning back to Legion Of Boom form. I wouldn’t say that this defense today is at that level yet, but I think they have the youthful upside to be close down the line, perhaps by next year.

Offensively, this team has been much more of a disappointment. Heading into the season, I expected the additions of Jaxon Smith Njigba and Zach Charbonnet to really open things up for Geno Smith.

Instead, the Seahawks have been dealing with a tattered offensive line right out of the gates, and with all the constant shuffling mixed with suspect playing calling, and inconsistent quarterback play, this entire side of the ball has been kinda just been hanging in there.

They haven’t been bad, but they haven’t been great, either. They have the talent to be great, and they are going to need to really get it together in this second half of the season when the schedule gets a lot tougher.

I would love for this team to really take it to the Rams this weekend down in LA and beat the snot out of them, but I think that’s going to be yet another tough matchup. The Rams are rested out of their bye week, and are getting Matt Stafford back. We will see how well Stafford is healed up, but Sean McVay as a head coach absolutely has Pete Carroll’s number. So, Seattle is going to have to play very disciplined ball to get this W. I think they can, but it’s up to them.

I think this is how the second half will go. Seattle is far enough into their season where the expectation is for them to be more disciplined and consistent.

Geno Smith needs to be a good distributor and not get caught up in hero ball. Jamal Adams needs to go for the proper tackle and not the knock out blow. DK Metcalf needs to keep his cool while maintaining his physical edge. The defense cannot afford to blow coverages much.

If this team stays fierce on defense, and plays more consistent on offense, they should be able to get through the remaining schedule and earn double digit wins, if they stay healthy enough. Pro Football Focus projects them to have a 83% chance at the playoffs with these tough remaining games.

In short, despite the inconsistencies on offense, this team is pretty much where we want them to be. Of their six wins on the season, I think they beat three quality opponents in Detroit, Cleveland, and Washington, and they took care of business against three other lesser opponents.

The Seattle Seahawks have the fifth youngest roster in the league and out of the five youngest teams, they are the only ones with a winning record. I think we should be pretty damn excited about that as fans, but way too many folks seems dead set on trashing on Geno Smith. That’s a shame, in my view.

Therefore, what I am really rooting for is for Geno to flip the narrative about him in this second half of the season. There’s a lot of anticipation from the fans that Seattle could be drafting a quarterback next Spring to be the future starter, and that could prove true.

Having said that, though, I think Geno Smith controls the narrative here. If we see more consistently good Geno during this final stretch when the games get tougher, and he leads us to the playoffs again, I think he more than earns the right to be QB1 again next year, even if they take a QB high in the draft.

My prediction for this team is that they finish this season at 10-7, and they are a wildcard playoff birth. Of these remaining games, I think it’s likely that they beat an opponent that few are expecting them to beat, and they drop a game that many will probably think that they should have won because that is just the nature of NFL football.

I think we do see more consistent and better play out of Geno Smith and the offense. The team is getting right tackle Abe Lucas back soon and I think that’s going to be a boost for the unit. I think we see start to see better play calling from Shane Waldron, and I like what he’s starting to do with the screens to JSN and getting the quick passes going.

I think it’s possible that we could see the defense taper off a bit, and that is just because of the daunting matchups that they will face against the explosive offenses of 49ers, Dallas, and Philly. I think the loss of Uchenna Nwosu is significant and maybe preventative of this side of the ball from truly reaching elite status this year, but we will see.

I don’t see this team going far into the playoffs. Not unless they really start to whoop up on some really quality in late November and in through December.

I think it’s fine if their post season is short lived again. I know a lot of other fans won’t like that, but I’m going to be more patient with these young cats. It is more important for me that they build this young new nucleus right, and in that, they take whatever lumps come their way so that they feel it together and learn together.

The Legion of Boom did not happen over night, or even through the course of a season, or two. It was a three year process for them to grow into what they became. I think it’s reasonable to be patient with this franchise to expect a similar three year process of building back up to a true contender again post Russell Wilson.

And if by chance the wheels come off this cart during this final stretch, if injuries to key players mount, and they miss the playoffs, well, that just means higher picks in next year’s draft to further fortify this rebuild. In that sense, I see little scenarios where Seattle isn’t winning out in the bigger picture.

I think the future is bright for this club, either way.

Go Hawks.

I woke up Sunday morning with perfect clarity in anticipation of the game between the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Commanders. I wanted the Seahawks to win, and I wanted Geno Smith to have a really good bounce back game.

Washington, I feared was going to be tougher than many the casual fan would anticipate. They hung tight with Philadelphia, and it felt like they were on a bit of a roll, but these were my two big asks for the day; a Seahawks win, and Geno playing well. I am happy to write that I got them both.

Fans are kinda funny, and handle wins and losses differently. After all, we are all our own individuals, and we each handle failure and success in different ways.

For myself, I just want the job to get done, and I don’t need style points on how to accomplish the task at hand. During the Seahawks road to the Super Bowl in 2013, the Seahawks won a number of games ugly, and I was good with it. “Just get the W” is sorta my mantra.

So, when Seattle sputtered a bit, offensively, in the first half of this game, I had this feeling like they were going to get it together more in the second half. I saw receivers coming open in coverage where the passes from Geno looked off, but also maybe the receivers didn’t adjust their patterns the way he was anticipating. Seattle runs an offense that is a bit more dependent on timing, and receivers making adjustments to coverages. To the naked eye of the casual fan, it can look like the quarterback made a bad throw, but in reality, it was up to the receiver to break to that spot.

This is what I think many inside the anti Geno Smith portion of the Seahawk fanbase don’t understand. For them, Geno Smith has next to no margin of error, either.

In this game, he threw for a career best 369 yards, 2 touchdowns, no picks, and he completed over 65% of his passes. That is a good day for any NFL quarterback, and on the team’s social media post, I commented that is was a superb bounce back game for Geno. Here is how one gentleman chose to respond this Geno Smith affirming comment of mine.

“.. are you high or drunk? Both? Nice stats maybe, but that doesn’t tell the truth of how he played. He’s a terrible QB and if you think he gives this team a chance to win against the 49ers or any team vying for a championship, this team will have a repeat of last weekends game. He was s backup for a decade for a reason. We are seeing why. But hey, he didn’t have a turnover today.”

So, first off; no, I was not high or drunk. I actually haven’t had a drop of alcohol since 2010, thank you very much.

Secondly, those are actually pretty darn good stats.

Thirdly, this guy’s typos are every bit as bad as mine.

Lastly, wow. I don’t know the mental or emotional state of this dude, but I hope he’s not the type to backhand a young child across the face for spilling milk at the breakfast table because the vitriol he chose to go after me and dump on Geno Smith makes him come across as a total dickhead in life.

But this is the type of vitriol that I think Geno Smith kinda has to deal with as QB1 of the Seattle Seahawks with a loud, angry minority portion of the Seahawks fanbase on social media, online team fan-pages, forums, and on sports radio. For them, I think it pains them to pay him any sort of compliment, and when someone else does it, they must be a moron. They want to over inflate any mistake he makes, and deemphasize anything positive he does. He cannot possibly be the long term starter for Seattle. That guy is either Drew Lock (?!), or someone playing in college right now.

Geno Smith may or may not be a long term answer at quarterback for the Seahawks. I am not here to say that he is, or isn’t. I’m here to say that he is the guy they have now, so why beat him down?

He’s not a terrible quarterback. I think he’s a decent mid tier starting quarterback in the league, a solid Alex Smith, if you will. He’s a quarterback who guided Seattle to the playoffs last year, and was voted into the Pro Bowl by his peers in the league who probably know a lot more about quarterback play than some angry dude who needed to come at me on the internet.

Presently, Geno Smith has quarterbacked Seattle to a 6-3 record, and has led them to two come from behind victories in the past month. Excuse me, if I choose to have his back as the starting quarterback of my favorite team, and decide to heap some positive praise on the fella whenever he does good.

On the whole, I think Geno played pretty well in this one. He was clutch when they needed him to be, he didn’t turn the ball over, he threw the ball away when he needed to do it, and he was generally pretty accurate when the timing was right with his receivers. He managed the game as Pete Carroll would have him, and Pete said as much as that in his post game presser.

The only blemish on his day was the intentional grounding penalty he took towards the end of the first half that took a field goal opportunity away from the team to potentially put them in the lead. Outside of that mishap, I thought he delivered the game I wanted to see from him. Bravo.

The other offensive guy much maligned by fans who had himself a big game was DK Metcalf. When this team desperately needed someone at the end to come up with big time catches, it was this guy.

DK Metcalf is a force of nature. There are not a lot of living breathing human beings on the planet built like this guy playing wide receiver in the NFL. His catch and run at the end of the game, barreling over defenders was one of the most beastmode things I have seen out of a Seattle Seahawk player since Beastmode himself circa 2014. Seattle had mere seconds left on the clock at the midpoint of the field, no timeouts left, and they needed someone to haul in a pass and get it close to the thirty yard line for a chance at a game winning field goal. DK caught the pass at around the Washington 37 yard line, and barreled people over for superhuman YAC to the Washington 23 yard line for a much easier game winning kick by Jason Myers. Tyler Lockett, and Jaxon Smith Njigba, as good as they are, do not make this play.

If it wasn’t for Geno Smith, who some fans need to trash on, and DK Metcalf, who some fans want to deal away, the Seattle Seahawks probably do not win this game against the Commanders. Sam Howell started finding success against the Seahawks defense late, and with that, Washington felt like the team with the momentum to win. In many ways, as I watched in the stands, it felt like it was going to go down like that annoying game against the Raiders last year when Seattle blew a lead late, and gave the game up in overtime. Geno Smith and DK said “fuck that” though, and took this game over at the end for the win.

In the spirit of Bill Maher, I have two new rules I would like to put forth to Seahawk fans. One is to stop talking about benching Geno Smith for Drew Lock, and the other is to stop the trade DK Metcalf rubbish. The Seahawks have a decent starting quarterback, and they have a freak of nature receiver. Teams do not bench decent quarterbacks when they have a winning record, and good teams generally don’t trade away rare offensive weapons and get better. How is that trading away of AJ Brown working out for the Tennessee Titans these days?

Onto other great bright spots in this game.

Seattle has two super cool young running backs, and Shane Waldron chose to finally get them both involved more than in recent weeks, and I think that paid off pretty well. K9 had the flashiest play of the day with a big time NFL catch and touchdown run for 64 yards, and Zach Charbonnet provided explosive inside running for 44 yards and a 7.3 yard average. Getting these two more involved makes life easier for Geno, so keep doing this Shane Waldron.

Boye Mafe collected another sack and now has set a franchise record for seven sacks in seven consecutive games. Much of the fanfare around this defense is directed towards rookie corner Devon Witherspoon and rightly so, but Mafe looks like he’s on the verge of stardom. This is a huge deal for the future of this franchise of this proves the case.

Speaking of Spoon, the dude was a playmaking machine in the secondary against Washington. He kept Terry McLaurin fairly quiet, had multiple passes defensed, created pressures on blitzes and forced a fumble. Spoon plays football like Adam Sandler’s Water Boy character. He’s a 6-0 180 pound holy terror on the football field, and he’s just getting started. I’ve never seen a cornerback like him, and I find that the so damn exciting.

It was also cool to see newly acquired Leonard Big Cat Williams get his first sack as a Seahawk. It was also really cool to see Dre’Mont Jones get a sack, as well. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love it when defensive tackles get sacks. It just makes my heart go pitter patter extra.

Also, also, Jason Myers is a football kicking Jesse!

What I didn’t love seeing was the long gains up the sidelines that the Seahawk defense gave up to Brian Robinson catching in the flats. Whatever the defense was doing on those plays, don’t have them do it again, Clint Hurtt! Fix this issue!

How good are these Seattle Seahawks for real, though? Is this the question you are asking?

I think they are a really promising young team. I think they have a lot of young talent who are showing signs of being really quality players in this league, and that is exciting. I don’t think they are built up like San Francisco is, or Philly, or Baltimore, or even Dallas. Those are strong veteran teams with great players in their primes. I think Seattle is probably another year or two away from that, if all continues to trend well through draft and development.

The agro keyboard warrior who responded to me about Geno pointed out his grave doubts about how Seattle (with Geno) will match up against some of these teams on the remainder of the season. I think the truth is, if you put Brock Purdy or Dak Prescott on this Seahawk team, they would probably still be sitting at 6-3 today, and folks would be saying how Seattle doesn’t have a great quarterback situation, and the schedule looks daunting. If think if you put Geno on the 49ers squad, they would still be torching through the league.

But I am more patient about these Seahawks than some others. That is how I deal as a fan. I am seeing young promising talent develop, and that is a good thing for me. I see Geno doing enough of what he needs to do to run this offense right enough for them to win games, and I am good with that.

Before the season started, I saw a potential 10-7 team. I still see them as such. Of the eight remaining games they have left, I feel like they have a really good shot at getting four more wins, and if all break well for them, maybe more Ws.

I don’t care how those wins happen, either. I don’t need style points. Finding ways to win is how to develop a strong winning mindset for a promising young collective. That’s what is more important to me at this stage of the team’s post Russell Wilson rebuild. Anything more would be bonus.

Win or lose, though, I am here for them, either way.

I got your back, Geno Smith. You, too, DK.

Go Hawks.