Over the past few days, it has been quite a news cycle for Seattle Seahawk fans. On Sunday afternoon, it was reported that the Mike Macdonald and the Seattle Seahawks finally settled upon their new offensive coordinator who will replace Ryan Grubb. Two days prior to that, it was announced to the world that 73 year old Pete Carroll would take over the Las Vegas Raiders head coaching gig. I think both news events are worth touching on here, and I also think there’s a chance that both fronts could have impact on each other in the coming months, and I will explain later.

Firstly, here are my collected thoughts on Mike Macdonald choosing former New Orleans Saints coordinator Klint Kubiak for the gig here. On the surface, I like the move a lot, and I believe it felt inevitable for a while that he would be the guy chosen here to replace Ryan Grubb.

Kubiak is an experienced play caller who has been a coach in the league for sometime now. He’s also got strong NFL bloodlines with his dad Gary being a former NFL quarterback, coordinator, and Super Bowl winning head coach, and his philosophy is strongly tied to the Mike Shanahan system that has retaken the league in recent years. It is clear that based on most of the candidates that Seattle was interviewing, they had particular interest in the Shanahan system, and by extension of it, the Sean McVay system. Arguably, they got the top available person on the market to agree to come here to incorporate it. Bravo. Of the list of known candidates who interviewed with this team, I preferred Kubiak.

Personally, I wasn’t super stoked about the prospects of Seattle hiring the Detroit Lions offensive line coach to come out here to OC. I loved what the Lions offense has turned into over the past couple years, but for this gig out here, I needed an experienced NFL play caller. Maybe Hank Fraley will blossom into a sharp offensive play caller someday, but after one year with Ryan Grubb, and two years of Shane Waldron, I kinda needed Mike Macdonald’s choice to be someone who has been around the league for a while and has experience play calling against NFL defenses. Of the persons they interviewed, I kinda needed it to be Klint Kubiak.

And I totally get it if this selection does not wow you. Seattle has toiled with being good enough to compete for the playoffs but not good enough to win in them for nearly a decade now since their back to back Super Bowls. They aren’t a bad NFL team, but they aren’t an A Lister organization currently, either. So, I get it that when any move they make, it is likely to be met with a bit of a toxic skepticism from some fans, and I anticipate that there will be sorts who will look at Kubiak and his stints in Minnesota and Nola, and not be fully embracing of the hire.

My feelings on this front, is that if there is push back on this hire from fans, it likely is reflective of folks who are tired of Seattle being middling more than anything else. At this time last year, Seattle had just hired Mike Macdonald who many thought was the brightest young head coaching candidate out there, and then it was seen that they pulled off a coup by luring popular UW offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb to pair with him. Diehard Husky fans poured over promises to Seahawk fans just how special and dynamic Grubb would make this offense become with its power trio of receivers and Geno Smith, but the reality was that he was not ready to match wits against NFL defenses on a consistent basis, and he had to be babysat by coaches working under him at times, per reports.

So, I think this is very much an important hire for Seattle, and it is perhaps their biggest move of the offseason, if they do not make major changes to their personnel. They have to get this hire right by Kubiak, or fan discontent will only grow. That is the risk they made when they decided to move on from the legend of Pete Carroll for the young upside of Mike Macdonald.

But many fans are growing more tired of Seattle being in the middle of the pack. I get that. It has been four years since they last won their division, and it has been five years since they last won a playoff game. I feel your frustrations.

You want them to be more than what they are, and you might even be a bit more frustrated that they simply don’t tear it all down to struggle at the bottom for a while in order to built themselves up with a bunch of lottery picks from the NFL Draft. I get it.

The trouble is that the teams that tend to often pick in the top five or ten of the draft, usually routinely suck as clubs. These are the Jets, the Giants, Jaguars, Browns, Titans, and Cardinals. They tend to give up on quarterbacks too early, and coaches too fast, and it is a rinse and repeat vicious cycle for them.

Seattle is not that sort of organization. They strive to be competitive every year much like the Pittsburgh Steelers. They moved on from Pete Carroll last year when everyone assumed that they would replace him with a bright young offensive minded head coach, and they took another defensive minded head coach simply because he was the guy they believed was the best overall coach out there. The result was ten wins. This feels very much like Seattle.

Now they have paired Macdonald with a coordinator who, while maybe not the flashiest, comes from a balanced run married with play action system that will be more aligned at what Macdonald wants to do. For all those who will be likely to doubt his success here, he had a fair degree of success coaching this system in Minnesota getting a bright play out of Kirk Cousins, and his first two games of 2024 down in Nola proved spectacular before the swarm of injuries hit his offensive personnel. While there is no guarantee that Kubiak is going to be a big hit here, I think it is also true that the book is not fully out on him yet as a coach. This is where I think his pedigree matters.

He is the son of Gary Kubiak who has coached highly productive offenses throughout the league in Houston, Denver, Baltimore, and Minnesota. In fact, Mike Macdonald was in Baltimore when Gary coached Joe Flacco in 2014, and the Ravens had the most explosive attack in the league, and Flacco had his best statistical year as a passer. I am positive that when Grubb was fired, Macdonald likely thought of Klint Kubiak probably right off the bat by witness to what his father had accomplished.

Klint Kubiak also comes to this staff with Super Bowl experience being Brock Purdy’s QB coach in San Fransisco the year before last when they went to the Super Bowl and Purdy looked like the second coming of Joe Montana. Personally, I think it matters that our new OC has a deep background in coaching QBs and it appears that Klint it pretty good at it.

For the sake of throwing a little spicy speculation into this hire, I think it is worth pointing out that should Seattle choose to be a surprise team in the offseason pursuing Sam Darnold, well, Darnold was QB2 for San Francisco two years ago, and thus he probably knows very well what Kubiak plans to run here, and Kubiak knows him well. If Seattle’s front office has a desire to get younger at quarterback than Geno Smith, and Kubiak has a desire to bring in a quarterback who knows his system pretty well, I wouldn’t totally brush off this idea of Darnold coming in. I have been outwardly speculating about Seattle perhaps being interested in him for a while, and this hire of Kudiak only adds to the fuel behind those thoughts I hold.

I am not suggesting that Sam Darnold to Seattle is anything close to a given, nor am I actively trying to push Geno Smith out the door on my humble blog. I am just saying that certain aspects of Darnold sorta align with what Seattle could realistically do at quarterback given the likelihood that they will not be picking in the top five of the draft annually where bright young college quarterbacks typically now get selected. Do they want to pay 34 year old Geno Smith a big three year extension this offseason, or will they be more willing to take an educated guess on the upside of 27 year old Sam Darnold instead, and pivot towards his availability?

Many would see this as a lateral move at quarterback, and I get that. Personally, I think Darnold falls into a similar category of quarterback as Geno Smith. With Darnold, however, Seattle could conceivably have about a seven year window of steady play with a definite possibility that his ceiling of a player has not been met, yet. With Geno, however, I think even his strongest supporters would say that his window of playing quality QB1 ball is probably about two more years.

So, I am just going to leave my thoughts on the potential of Darnold to Seattle at that. On the surface, I think it is interesting, and with this new hire, I think it only adds fuel to the notion.

I will say that whomever Seattle does have quarterbacking here over the next few years, this hire feels more promising for that player whether it is Geno Smith or someone else. When the Mike Shanahan system clicks, it is incredibly quarterback friendly. Many quarterbacks have found success running it, and often times, they have not been premiere physical talents, either. Kirk Cousins, Matt Schaub, Joe Flacco, Jimmy Garoppolo, and Brock Purdy are not who you think about when you think of big rocket armed quarterbacks who have tilted the fields on Sundays like a Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes, or even a Joe Burrow.

You don’t need a freak of nature to run the Shanahan machine. You just need a dude who has good enough accuracy and athleticism to handle bootleg roll outs, smarts to know the playbook and where to go with the ball, and probably enough size to see where to go with the ball over the middle of the field. If he’s got a big arm, great, but really, this is a system tailor made for a dude willing to be a good game manager.

There are a lot of quarterbacks in this league who could find success in this scheme with the right parts in place. Sam Howell, as bad as he looked against Green Bay when he was forced into the game, could conceivably find success should Seattle turn to him down the road. I can imagine a middling guy like Mac Jones having some success, or even Spencer Rattler if Seattle wanted to now work out a trade for him.

Or they could just as easily choose to hang onto Geno Smith a few more years, and he could most likely run it to pretty good effect. I feel like with this hire, many possibilities open up for Seattle at QB, and that includes taking a day two or mid round flyer on a quarterback in the draft this Spring.

At any rate, I am glad they settled for Kubiak. I got worried about some of the unknowns with Fraley, Adam Stenavich (never called plays in Green Bay despite his OC title), and Grant Udinski. I know there is some speculation out there that Fraley might have been their top choice, but Ian Rapoport’s tweet suggests that Kubiak was their guy all along. Either way, I am glad that it is settled, and we can move onto an offseason that will surely focus largely on fixing the offensive line.

When Seattle closed their season out almost a month ago now, I stated my desires to see a change at offensive coordinator, a major focus of improvement to the offensive line, and for them to keep an open mind at quarterback. They have now accomplished the first task.

Let us now see how they approach the offensive line, and I hope it is with aggression, and let us see how they handle what they have at quarterback. This feels like a pivotal offseason for John Schneider on both of these fronts. We shall soon enough see.

Onto thoughts about Pete Carroll with the Raiders

I was happy news brought Friday morning that Pete Carroll got back into the league by agreeing to coach the Vegas Raiders. I don’t particularly like the Raiders, but I am pretty long over the old AFC rivalry we used to have with them a quarter century ago.

I think that a lot of Raiders fans are pretty obnoxious people, and I was at Lumen Field last year when we blew that overtime game to them, and lost. I was followed, and heckled by a couple thuggish young Raiders fans as I was walking to my bus stop on Alaska. I am sure other Seahawk fans were being harassed, as well. Raider Nation walked out of Lumen Field as if they had just won a championship game, and they wanted Seattle fans to feel it.

The Raider faithful are not the only fans to behave this way. I suspect fans from many other markets come into Seattle sensing that Seatteites aren’t very aggressive people by nature, there is not a lot of edginess in the PNW, in general, and when their visiting team wins, they love to stir up shit with disappointed Seahawk fans. I have seen it amplified with New York fans, San Francisco fans, and Philly fans, especially.

But Raider fans are a whole different level of toxicity. For that reason, I have always particularly enjoyed their long suffering.

Therefore, I will say that because I am still very staunchly a Pete Carroll fan, I will be perfectly willing to pause my Raider schadenfreude for the next however many years Carroll coaches down there. When they aren’t playing against, Seattle, I will root for them.

And they need Pete Carroll desperately there. They need a total culture reset, and Pete Carroll is a hall of fame culture builder. I suspect he will get them going the right direction straight out of the gates.

I also anticipate we will see former Seahawks down there fairly soon. Bobby Wagner and Russell Wilson will be free agents, and Wagner in particular I can see heading down there. Jarran Reed could be on his way, as well, and should Seattle sever ties with Tyler Lockett, or Geno Smith, I think Vegas would be the prime landing spot for both.

It wouldn’t shock me if Vegas calls Seattle about DK Metcalf’s availability via trade, or even Riq Woolen. With Kubiak bringing in his Shanahan offense, I don’t know how much DK is a fit for that, and Woolen seems maybe more of a Carroll style outside corner than maybe perhaps Macdonald’s, but I am projecting here on both accounts.

I see a lot of speculation out there that the Raiders could show interest in Geno Smith given how much Pete Carroll favored him, and that there remains a lot of mutual respect between the QB and coach. In that, I have seen it suggested that perhaps John Schneider has never been as warm about Geno as Pete was, and would be fine to move on if negotiations proved too difficult.

I would just say to that, if Pete Carroll knows how John truly feels about Geno, instead of calling him and asking what it would take to deal him to Vegas, Pete Carroll could simply tell the Vegas GM to hold tight and not do anything, and see if Seattle just cuts Geno outright if a team friendly extension cannot be had. If Pete can sorta detect that scenario, why would he encourage his GM to hand Seattle a valuable draft pick?

So, I would just encourage that maybe breaks be pumped a bit on the idea that suddenly Vegas will trade one of their third round picks to Seattle for an older quarterback that Seattle might be reluctant to sign to a big extension. I am very skeptical of that probability when there will be other quarterbacks on the market they could just as easily pursue.

Here is what I would say about what Pete likely wants to do in Vegas. I think he sees about a three or four year window to finally right their ship and have them contending. I don’t think he will likely want to babysit a rookie quarterback in that stretch of time. He will want to be paired with a veteran, and certainly Geno Smith or Russell Wilson could be prime candidates. I could also see them wanting to aggressively pursue Sam Darnold and perhaps pay him top market value. It could be a situation as to whether that is where Darnold wants to be, though, or does he want to go to a team that is, in his mind, a closer contender in a division that does not feature Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert.

Oddly, I could see scenarios where Vegas trades for Geno (or signs him in free agency if he is cut), brings in Russell Wilson to reunite with the guy who drafted him, and perhaps even battles against Seattle for the likes of Darnold. In any of these scenarios, it is likely going to have a pull on Seahawk fans, but at any rate, I think it if for almost certain that Pete will want to pair with a veteran quarterback who he really likes and trusts a lot.

It is going to be really interesting down there with how they handle the QB spot. If I had to guess anything, I am now starting to think that a Russ and Pete reunion in Sin City now maybe has greater legs than I would have thought a couple days ago. There is a lot buzz building around that. The two personalities are wired very similarly on the holistic positively thinking stuff, and I think it is now possible that Russ has been humbled enough to now see that for him to exist as a starting NFL quarterback, it is probably best to not be cooking to the extent that he felt he needed to a few years back. I think it is also still very possible that Russ holds enough positive belief in himself that he would not shy away from signing with a team that has to play against Mahomes twice a year.

At any rate, I am happy for Pete, and I will be rooting for his success with the Silver and Black. With what he built up in Seattle with the Legion of Boom defense, I have always thought that Carroll had an affinity for the Raider way. Now he gets to close out his coaching career building it back up. I am interested in seeing where it now goes.

I am also very excited to see what Seattle can do this year with Kubiak paired with Macdonald. I feel like they are close to upper tier contention, and they have personnel who will fit what Kubiak will want to do at running back, receiver, and tight end, and quarterback even with all of my Geno speculations. They just need to fix that offensive line.

So, just bloody well fix the thing.

Go Hawks.

In his first year with the Seattle Seahawks, Mike Macdonald coached his team to a 10-7 finish, just missing out on the playoffs. That is a best first season win total for a new head coach in franchise history, better than Chuck Knox’s 9-7 finish in 1983, and better than Mike Holmgren’s 9-7 season in 1999. I suspect any long time Seahawk fan over the age of 40 would probably agree that joining the ranks of Holmgren and Knox is pretty good company. Therefore, I think this is pretty cool.

On the flip side, the Seattle Seahawks also achieved being the first team in NFL history to go 7-1 on the road, and not make the playoffs. That kinda sucks and home losses to the Giants, Rams, and Vikings sting more now knowing that each of these matches were very winnable for Seattle. Thus we have the highs and lows of this season pretty much summed up.

These 2024-25 Seattle Seahawks officially concluded their season by winning a game played in Los Angeles against the division winning Rams who started a backup quarterback nicknamed Pornstar Jimmy by Stephen A Smith, and a bunch of other backups because Sean McVay was too chicken shit to play Matt Stafford and other key starters. Even if this win wasn’t a decisive as I would have preferred, it felt nice that Seattle was able to get the W, and thus finish their season tied with the Rams at 10-7. I will take that.

It is good to see Seattle finish first year head coach Mike Macdonald on a positive two game win streak, and to feel momentum heading into the offseason where change will be inevitable. I am a big believer positive momentum carrying forth into a new offseason. The taste of narrowly missing out on the playoffs should sting, but the idea that they are building up towards something special should also be sensed. 10-7 is the best regular season finish that this team has had since 2020. That should mean something.

On a personable level, it also felt good to watch Geno Smith end his season on a high note, playing a statistically great game, and making a bunch of key incentives that has made him $6 million richer. Geno wasn’t perfect this season, but watching him getting beaten to a pulp on Sundays while playing behind a subpar offensive line and extremely suspect play calling made me more empathic to his cause.

Instead of recapping this game, I am more inclined to kick things forward into the new year focusing on what I feel this team needs to do in 2025 in order to get closer towards being a true contender. It is a very simple list of three things I would like to see happen.

I am not really interested in rehashing all of what transpired in 2024, as I think their season can be summed up in two easy sentences. They started off hot in September, but chilled very quickly by October. As the season wore on, their defense improved dramatically, but their offense fell off in a lackluster manner.

Heading into the 2025 Season, I think the Seattle Seahawks have a roster with enough talent to compete for the playoffs. Some will debate that, but I am actually very bullish on the talent that John Schneider has built up over the past three years. I think they are one more productive offseason away from taking the next step, but if you want to disagree with that, you are welcome to it.

I also firmly believe that this team has a head coach in Mike Macdonald who is, indeed, a pretty sharp defensive mind fully capable of out-scheming opponents. In that, however, I also firmly believe he needs to be paired with a sharp offensive coordinator who will better carry out a scheme that compliments his defense. For this organization to truly take it to the next level, finding this offensive coach is an absolute must this offseason.

I do not believe that Ryan Grubb proved to be a good match for Mike Macdonald, at all, and it would be in the best interest of this team (and probably Grubb himself) for them to move in a different direction. I actually put this as a higher matter of importance above the state of the offensive line, but more on that in a minute.

For now, I think that any talk of Macdonald being a questionable hire and John Schneider perhaps needing to be on the hot seat is impulsive noise from factions of the fanbase and media that are perhaps a bit too spoiled in the PNW with a decade and a half of Seattle football being meaningful in December. John Schneider is one of the most respected general managers in the league who routinely hits in the draft and finds value through trades and waiver wires. As already mentioned, Mike Macdonald is just the third head coach in Seahawks history to start his career here with a winning record in year one.

Bad organizations make bad decisions by listening to overreacting fans. Good organizations do a good job at seeing the bigger picture clearly, know when to be patient caring forth, and when to move on when something clearly is not working. I don’t suspect that Jody Allen is ready to move on from John Schneider when it appears that he got the head coaching hire right, and this coming draft looks like a good one to address the issues with the offensive line.

Could I be wrong on this? Sure, but I am pretty confident that I won’t be. We shall see.

What I do see, however, is three very simple aspects of the offense that I feel this team should address in order of importance. If this organization can nail these the right way, I think Seattle can be well positioned to win the NFC West in 2025. They are as follows.

Pair Mike Macdonald With A Bright Offensive Coach Who Fits His Vision

After getting hired in the Winter of 2024, Mike Macdonald stated that his vision for the Seattle Seahawks was to be a tough, physical team that played great defense, ran the ball well, and was a team that nobody wanted to play. His words made me think of the Baltimore Ravens, and the Michigan Wolverines, two football programs where his roots stem from. It was an exciting thought in my mind to envision something similar being built in Seattle, and it still is.

The biggest problem of the 2024 season was that Ryan Grubb really could not bring that offensive part of Macdonald’s vision together. Try as he might have, I think his instincts as a play caller was to abandon the run too easily whenever the defense showed faint signs of struggle, and then when he did lean into the run, and it would start working, his impulse was to often abandon it for his favored passing attack. The result of this often felt very disjointed as a product.

Honestly speaking, his play calling might have the worst that I have seen out of a Seahawk offense since the 1990’s. It teased with the passing attack, at times, but it never found consistency. He play called as if he had peak Payton Manning and the best offensive line in football, and he had neither of that.

I don’t really want to get down into the muck of the offensive line, either. Run blocking is much easier for offensive linemen to do together than pass blocking and Seattle had, for the most part, guys in the interiors of their offensive line who were more apt to be better run blockers in this league than pass protectors. Grubb just failed to device a scheme to suit them as an offensive line. It is that simple.

Grubb was more inclined to lean into a veteran quarterback, and that was what he put his trust into. The result was as big of a mixed bag from Geno Smith as you could find in a quarterback. Sure, his passing yardage went up, and so did his completion percentage, but his interceptions went dramatically up, as well.

Geno’s red zone interceptions lost us games this year that were winnable. That said, I am significantly more willing to place greater blame on Grubb for riding with this impulsive pass happy approach than I will for Geno throwing the amount of picks that he did, even these critical ones (although Geno isn’t totally absolved, more on that later).

Had Grubb adopted a more committed approach to running the ball, the offensive line could have stabilized better and we could have seem more games like they had in Arizona than what we got against the Bills, Packers, and 49ers at home. I truly believe this.

Even worse, as the season wore on, Grubb’s offense displayed tells to defenses that he simply did not do a good enough of a job altering and adjusting. He would substitute running backs where it became obvious that it was a pass play. Eventually, defenses stopped playing single high safeties because they knew Grubb would stay passing out of two high looks instead of challenging with the run. There were times in games where cameras caught Mike Macdonald looking dumbfounded when Seattle was on offense, and there were times where key offensive players displayed meltdowns on the sidelines.

Grubb also never committed enough to a play action approach to help keep defenders honest, and his compulsion to primarily play call out of shotgun made it harder to run the ball effectively. Simply put, he made life harder for his cheaply put together offensive line instead of easier, and he put undo pressure on Geno Smith to play perfect football practically all of the time. This is not good coaching.

So, I do not want to hear bringing up the state of the offensive line being a prime excuse for Ryan Grubb who was hired late in the hiring process of coaches last Winter because Seattle waited out Macdonald’s hire until after the AFC Championship game. Seattle took a shot on a college coordinator from the PNW who fans would recognize the name, and they gave it a shot. It did not work out, and it is that simple.

But do not use the offensive line as a reason to defend what Grubb was in Seattle this year.

This league is filled with subpar offensive lines. Minnesota does not have a great line, but they found ways to be wonderfully balanced with Sam Darnold at the helm. Seattle failed to find this was Grubb leading the offense. There is nothing in this season with Grubb that warrants his return. For me, it would be a stunner if he is given another go at it in 2025.

Instead, it is my biggest hope that Seattle goes a very different direction, and they bring in a guy who actually understands NFL defenses really well, and will know how to attack them on every level with the talent this team has on its roster. Who that person is, I don’t know. I am open to options, but I just need him to partner well with Macdonald and be in sync with the head coach’s vision of seeing this team being a tough, hard-nosed team that nobody wants to play.

The guy could even come in house with passing coordinator Jake Peetz, who the Seahawks pried away from Sean McVay with the Rams, and is said to be a bit of a hot commodity. Peetz has bounced around the league and has a track record out of getting career years out of Dereck Carr with the Raiders as QB coach, and Christian McCaffrey as a running back coach with the Panthers. He was a guy that McVay valued in Los Angeles, and was sorta sore to see leave for Seattle. He might be the top choice here to replace Grubb, should they move on, if his relationship is good with Macdonald.

But perhaps what Macdonald most needs is a proven coordinator with pelts on his wall who will truly act as a second head coach on the team. The guy who really runs the offense much like Steve Spagnuolo runs the defense for Andy Reid in Kansas City. Spagnuolo was a failed head coach but his defenses have always been stellar whenever he’s been a coordinator.

Perhaps Seattle reaches out to Frank Reich who didn’t really cut it as a head coach in Carolina or Indianapolis, but was a good offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl winning Eagles in 2018. During that year, the Eagles were an exciting dynamic running team that offered an explosive passing attack downfield. Reich was the one that Eagles fans most gave credit towards, and were bemoaning his departure to Indy, afterwards. Their offense fell off quickly in the seasons to follow, and there was regime change sorta after winning the title.

Perhaps Reich is someone who could come in and be content with essentially being given full control of the offense, and partnering up with Macdonald long term in order to win titles together. He has a demeanor that is players like, and I can imagine meshing well with Macdonald.

Personality is also an important thing to consider. I have seen Josh McDaniels as a suggested name, and he has been a way better play caller than head coach, but I don’t know if he is a good culture guy. Seattle, under the ownership of Jody Allen, still feels like a destination that values positive culture in the building, and I don’t think there was much positives that ever came out of McDaniels as a culture guy.

There will be other names to consider. I won’t go through the list of potential candidates, although Doug Pederson just got let go in Jacksonville and grew up in Ferndale. Would he be enticed to return to the PNW as a high paid coordinator? My hunch is that he will take a year off and wait out an opportunity to be a head coach again. Winning a Super Bowl as a head coach probably equates to not wanting to suck it up and retreat towards a coordinator role, but we shall see.

The important thing to find the right guy who is smart enough to properly go after NFL defenses, and meshes well with the head coach and players. Ultimately, this has got to be the goal, and Seattle must nail this hire this offseason if they do not believe Grubb is up for it.

Invest Properly With Fixing The Offensive Line

I have said this a few times, but it bares repeating. The NFL has offensive line problems league wide. Building great offensive lines is increasingly more difficult to do. The talents in college are more apt to be on defensive lines than offensive lines, as sacks lead to more dollars than pancake blocks do.

Also, all you bleeding hearts who have complained about Seattle’s offensive line for years can thank the last collective bargaining agreement that the player’s union forged for fucking up the ability of teams to physically practice in ways they had in the past that better build cohesion with linemen playing together. Nowadays it is paddy cakes on the field in August, and the early portion of the regular NFL season is a routine clown show for offenses to figure out their units. It literally is what it is, so we all have to deal with it in degrees.

That said, in 2024, Seattle had the cheapest offensive line in football, and it showed. Personally, I don’t blame the front office for pulling most of their resources on the defensive side to fix what had truly became an awful defense in the last three years of Pete Carroll’s time here, but now they need to buck up and do the same for the offense with their offensive line.

If I were the general manager of this team, I would most likely spend big on one quality veteran guard or center on the free agent market, and I would be open to trading for a player should one be available by that means. I would then look to the draft for a couple more. The draft next Spring appears to be promising for guards and tackles who could convert to a guard. Getting two of them feels necessary.

This won’t be a wildly exciting take for many fans, but I would also be willing to leave open the possibility that there exists a young player (or players) already on this roster that by simply moving onto another offensive coach, could be developed into a decent starter in 2025. Perhaps Christian Haynes is better served converting to a center and becomes an upgrade there over Olu Oluwatimi. Perhaps Anthony Bradford or Sataoa Laumea takes a big step forward as a player with a new approach on offense towards being run heavier. While it is easy to look at the Seattle’s line and proclaim that they need at least three new starters there, perhaps there is more potential there now than most fans are seeing, but they just haven’t been coached properly enough, or the scheme hasn’t committed enough towards what they do best. Honestly, I think this could be as big of a case as any for why this line was this bad in 2024.

At any rate, if John Schneider goes into this offseason shopping cheap again in free agency and then waiting to the third or fourth round before taking another guard, the public outcry for his job will almost certainly be at the highest point it has ever been, and it was pretty high with some through the course of this last season. Therefore, for the sake of sanity throughout the fanbase, I think it is very important that he hit this offseason hard with ways to improve this offensive line. It is an absolute must.

Be Open Minded About The Quarterback Position In 2025 And Beyond

This is going to sound like I am ready to move off of Geno Smith. That isn’t necessarily the case, but I do feel like it is time for John Schneider to think more long term about this situation at quarterback in Seattle.

For my money, based on his 2024 play on the field, Geno Smith has not earned another big contract extension in Seattle. I know he wasn’t helped by Grubb’s play calling and the offensive line, but he still felt too reckless with the football for my tastes, and what I feel like a franchise quarterback should be. I was at four games at home in this last year, they lost all four, and in each game, Geno turned the ball over in ways that cost them.

Personally, I really dig Geno a lot, and I think he is a very easy guy to root for with him wearing swank KISS t-shirts post game, and routinely taking accountability, but I also feel like age is now working against him, and he has just never really built off of his surprising 2022 season enough.

My gut kinda tells me that he is what he is. He is a mid tier starting quarterback who can win a decent team 9 or 10 games if they have enough talent (which Seattle does), but he’s also going to do things on occasion that will cost you some games (two red zone interceptions at home against the Rams in early November will forever be burned into my mind).

Because of all of this, I don’t want that signed to another big-ish three year extension. If they want to do a shorter termed extension this offseason, I am fine with it, but I think if they sign him to a three year $120 million extension just because they are afraid of the unknown, it is going to alienate a growing portion of the fanbase, I am afraid. I sense this growing online, in the stands, and on the airwaves.

2024 brought us a storyline in Seattle of opposing fans filling out seats at Lumen Field. I am no longer into shaming season ticket holders from selling their seats online in a region where the cost of living is high. The Seattle Seahawks need to do better putting a product on the field that is better than being a mid tier team. They got off to a decent start in 2024 by hiring a coach that would ultimately fix their once vaunted defense. Now, they need to center 2025 on the offense, and for causal fans who do not spend every waking hour pouring over analytics, Geno Smith probably does not get them wildly excited. He just does not. So, I think something needs to give in 2025.

In my ideal scenario, I would be very okay with Seattle pursuing Sam Darnold should he be available on the free agent market or by a franchise tag and trade scenario by Minnesota. I don’t know how likely this is because if I were the GM of the Vikings, I would be more inclined to sign him to a sizable extension and slowly develop JJ McCarthy behind him, but I have always been a Darnold fan, and you can search this blog as far back as 2021 when all the Trade Russ noise started to happen. I was super into Seattle trading for Darnold four years ago.

Color me Colin Cowherd, but Sam Darnold was my favorite quarterback coming out of college in the 2018 draft, and in this season, when he finally had a chance to be in a good situation in the league to be a starter, look what he was able to do with it. I don’t think it was all because of Kevin O’Connell, either. Darnold showed glimpses of this style of play on the bad teams of Carolina and the Jets. Neither organization could commit enough to uncorking his potential and it is no surprise the both teams remain basement dwellers in their divisions, respectively.

So laugh this one up, if you like, but Darnold is seven years younger than Geno, has better arm talent, he’s athletic enough, and is just hitting now his prime years. For all the silly talk of the Vikings giving up on JJ McCarthy, if they really wanted to replenish their 2025 draft stock that they lost moving up to draft the Wolverine quarterback, they could just as easily tag Darnold and work out a trade to probably numerous teams who would likely be willing to offer packages of picks and maybe players for him. Seattle, in particular, could offer Geno as a hedge for McCarthy coming back from his knee injury, and another player from an area of depth on their team along with draft picks.

Be honest. If you knew you could get the 2024 version of Sam Darnold for the next six years of Seattle Seahawk football, and you got him by sending your 2025 first round pick to Minnesota along with Geno Smith and Ken Walker, would you do it? I would sign up for that, especially if paired with an offensive play caller who comes from the McVay coaching tree, or the Andy Reid one.

Six years of this level of quarterback play from a more youthful Sam Darnold would probably be the shot in the arm that this fanbase could use in order to fill up the stands again with Seahawk jerseys. Seattle would still hold their second and third round picks in 2025 to address their offensive line, and perhaps that could lean further in free agency to address the line, as well.

At the very least, it is an interesting thought. How realistic it truly is would be another matter to discuss, but this would probably be my ideal scenario for this team if the front office does actually rate Darnold highly (I think they might) and the coaches dig him enough.

But as it stands, ideal scenarios do not come along often. Therefore, in that event, I wouldn’t mind seeing Seattle either take another flyer on a young quarterback with talent that another team has moved away from, or somebody in this coming draft class.

Maybe Will Levis is a guy who will be available via trade if Tennessee wants to draft another quarterback high. If I had to pick one young quarterback out there who might be on the trade market that has anything close to Darnold-ish potential in terms or stature and arm, it would be probably be Levis.

Maybe they take a shot on Daniel Jones, Mac Jones, or Zach Wilson to come in and compete with Geno. None of these guys get me excited but Daniel Jones had a fairly decent year in 2022 playing in a run heavy offense for the G Men, Mac Jones showed some promise as a rookie, and Zach Wilson had crazy hype around his arm talent coming out of BYU.

Maybe they really like a guy in this draft like Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart who has some fun moxie to his game, or maybe Shedeur Sanders slides in the draft like some think that he might. For my money, I am drawn to Dart with his maturity and play making skills. He gives off Bo Nix vibes with a smidgen of Jalen Hurts, and I would absolutely take that in Seattle.

Ohio State QB Will Howard is another guy who intrigues a lot. He is tall mature dude with good athleticism and arm traits that feel translatable to the NFL. He’s also played a lot of college football for Kansas State and the Buckeyes, and has his current team rolling in the college football playoffs. If he is there in the second round and the Seahawks select him, I think I would get behind that.

This coming draft class with quarterbacks is getting a bit of a bad rap, in my view. A lot of people are making blanket statements that it is a bad class, but I am not so sure. While I don’t think there are guys in this class who are going to comp to Andrew Luck or Josh Allen, I think there are guys who do comp closer towards Dak Prescott, Bo Nix, Geno Smith, Andy Dalton, Derick Carr, Jalen Hurts, Tua Tagovailoa, and Brock Purdy. Those sorts on cheap rookie contracts are worth taking shots on, in my view.

Getting a guy who is talented enough to be a decent NFL starter on a cheap rookie contract is an absolute golden ticket in this league. Ask 49er fans over the past couple years before injuries finally caught up to their aging team. Think about Russell Wilson in 2012-2015.

At any rate, these are probably the most realistic scenarios that I think Seattle, at this point now, should consider exploring at quarterback. Pursuing Darnold over retaining Geno makes sense, if it is possible. Adding a young QB via trade or free agency makes sense. Drafting a guy in 2025 should now be a very real possibility, and perhaps the ultimate goal.

We can forget any wild pipe dreams that Mike Florio will dream up about trading for Jalen Hurts or Trevor Lawrence. None of this is happening, and I highly doubt that the Vikings will be willing to part with JJ McCarthy who they traded up for last Spring, and was generating all kinds of positive hype during the preseason in their system before his knee injury. If anything, they will try to sign Darnold to a short extension and see how things play out between the two quarterbacks over the next few years. If Darnold balks at that notion, and they decide to tag and trade him during the Spring, then perhaps Seattle will try to make themselves a trade partner. We shall see.

I also don’t think the team likely views Sam Howell as a potential future starter. Just my vibes on that. There was no competition between him and Geno in camp, and the gulf of talent between them felt vast at practices that I watched. If anything, they might be more inclined to bring Drew Lock back to compete with Geno than open things up for Howell, but that is just my hunch.

At any rate, I feel like now is the time to truly take bites at the quarterback apple in order to find their next long term starter. Personally, if it is not a big move for a guy like Darnold, I would prefer them to look towards the draft, and I don’t care if they draft a guy like Dart or Howard higher than Mel Kiper would have. Draft pundits weren’t wild when Schneider took Russell Wilson in round three in 2012, either, but it would be really good for this organization if they at least begun this process.

Dak Prescott was a fourth round pick, and so was Kirk Cousins. Jalen Hurts was taken late in round two, Russell Wilson in the mid third round pick, and Brock Purdy was famously the last player taken in 2022. I don’t need them to take a quarterback in round one, but I kinda need them to take a quarterback at some point this Spring, pretty please.

Start taking shots at this thing. It’s time.

In Summary

If you have made it this far through this piece, you can see that I am not really stressing about Seattle’s defense much at all these days, and almost all of my needs and wants are centered about the offense. This is what 2024 has shown me about this team.

In Mike Macdonald, I very much trust the direction of this defense. I wouldn’t even be wildly upset if during the draft this Spring that their first round pick went towards another defender, if that was truly the best player available. Adding one more dynamic player to this side of the ball is just going to make a good thing better, and I will not deny my excitement in that notion.

But I need more on offense. I need a better offensive coordinator first and foremost, and I need better results on the offensive line, however they can get it. These two things are musts, in my mind.

Closely behind those is my deepening desire for Seattle to further start the process of getting younger and perhaps more talented at quarterback. I get it that it is an easier said than done sorta request, but I need this process to start this offseason, earnestly.

I also don’t think that sticking longer termed with Geno Smith should be a decision based out of fear of the unknown. He is going to be 35 years old next October, and on a roster filled with decent talent, he has shown the ability to win 9 or 10 games a year and flirt with the playoffs. If we are being truthful, he has been pretty up and down as a starter over the past three years. He can make tight windowed gorgeous throws downfield, for certain, and he is generally pretty accurate with the football, but he can also make boneheaded turnover plays that frustrate. After three years of watching him, rooting for him, I kinda think this is who he is. He is decent, but not great, and he is only going to get older, and possibly more injury prone.

Is that worthy of a $40 million dollar a year deal, or is that money better spent keeping a young nucleus together, adding to it in free agency, and waiting it out for a truly top end quarterback to come around who merits those kind of dollars, or better, is found through the draft?

This is the ultimate question to ask about Seattle and what they have with Geno Smith. You don’t need to be labeled a hater to ask this question. I truly like Geno. If they continue to roll with him, I will continue to root for him, and hope that with a better coordinator, we see better results.

But this is an important question that they have to ask.

In terms of 2025 predictions, I don’t have a ton, but here are a few.

I predict that the Seattle Seahawks will move in a different direction at offensive coordinator and Jake Peetz will be the guy to assumes the position. It will not wow a lot of fans, but I think the organization clearly appreciates the Sean McVay system, and they will take a shot at another McVay guy hoping for much better results than what they got out of Shane Waldren.

I don’t believe we will see a DK Metcalf trade despite the speculation and hype for that to happen. I believe DK likes being a Seattle Seahawk enough, and the front office values his elite athletic traits enough that an extension gets done this offseason with the hope is that better offensive play calling will make the combination of him and Jaxson Smith Njigba even more potent in 2025, and beyond.

I believe they will sign a significant piece to their offseason line in free agency, and they will use this draft that is rich enough with offensive linemen to draft a couple more players. The result will yield at least two new starters on the offensive line in 2025, and my best guess is two new guards with Olu Oluwatimi and possibly Christian Haynes battling for the center spot.

I predict that inevitably some big named players on this team will be cut in order for John Schneider to be active in free agency to improve the offensive line. The most likely players getting cut will be Tyler Lockett, Dre’Mont Jones, George Fant, and probably Roy Robertson Harris. I think there is a chance they value Uchenna Nwosu’s leadership enough along with his pass rush to keep him around on an expensive cap hit for another season, but we will see. I could also see them move off of Noah Fant’s big contract, and possibly Rayshawn Jenkins.

I believe that they will get a big multi year deal done with linebacker Ernest Jones right before the start of free agency similar to the deal they got done at the time with Big Cat Williams last year. Both the player and the team want to see this deal get done, and it will get consummated.

I don’t believe the Vikings will be willing to trade Sam Darnold or JJ McCarthy, and therefore, I think Seattle re-signs Geno Smith to a short extension, and they will continue the process of going year to year with him until they find a younger solution ready to take over. This feels inevitable. Macdonald feels like he truly digs Geno, and I don’t think he is going to be interested in gambling that they can flip Zach Wilson into a serviceable starter.

That said, I also think it is more likely that this is the year they look to the draft to find a quarterback to groom behind Geno. Jaxson Dart could be a player that they like a lot more than maybe some realize. They had a long look at Bo Nix during his pro day in Eugene, and he was an invite to their facilities days before the draft transpired. It is possible that they had a desire to draft him at 16 had he been available there, but we will never know because of Denver. As mentioned, I kinda think Dart has some Nix traits.

Finally, I predict that with a new offensive play caller, we see the offense catch up closer to the defense and Seattle becomes a playoff team in 2025. I think we see better results from Geno, and I predict that Ken Walker will have a career year in his contract year with all the debate around the Seahawks as to whether they should sign him to a big fat juicy contract extension that will surely divide the fanbase.

What is the Seahawk fanbase if they are not sharply divided on something, anyways?

Isn’t the internet fun?

Go Hawks.

Let me guess.

The Seattle Seahawks beating the Chicago Bears on the road on Thursday Night Football by a final score of 6-3 probably doesn’t have you wildly excited as you sip your coffee and read this piece. Well, let me go through the box scores to see if you be aroused.

Geno Smith was 17/23 for 160 yards, 0 TDs, and 0 INTs.

Zach Charbonnet ran 15 times for 57 yards with a 3.8 per carry average.

Little used Kenny McIntosh ran 7 times for 46 yards with a 6.6 per carry average!

Norah Fant had 4 receptions for 43 yards.

DK Metcalf had 3 receptions for 42 yards.

Jaxson Smith Njigba had 3 catches for 32 yards.

Not a lot of offense in this game for the Seattle Seahawks. Turns out that they didn’t need it.

The Seahawk defenders took this game over and held onto it all throughout the game. They sacked Caleb Williams 7 times, stuffed the run, limited passes, and the game ended with a poetic Riq Woolen interception that killed off Chicago’s last chance to pull of the win. They played championship worthy ball even if the offense decided to not show up.

Many fans will look at this game and will probably not be wildly excited about Seattle’s chances against the Rams next week, much less their chances in the playoffs should they get there. I get it. This teams feels incomplete, in many ways, and I don’t need to rehash what I have already said about with the offensive coordinator, the offensive line, and, at times, the erratic quarterback play.

I will just say that I think it is important for Seattle to finish with a winning record in year one of Mike Macdonald’s regime, and with this win in Chicago, we now have that. Good. Finishing strong matters in this league no matter whether a team makes the post season or falls short.

I imagine there will be other Seahawk bloggers and writers who will be less glowing about this win in Chicago than I am. Some will bemoan being 9-7 yet and again and firmly kinda middle of the pack as an NFL franchise.

Personally, I think there are different sorts of middle of the pack teams. There are middle of the pack teams that slide by having a good quarterback and not much less (Chargers). There middle of the pack teams that aren’t bad enough on either side of the ball but nor are they good enough either.

Then there are middle of the pack teams that are good on one side of the ball but not enough on the other. This is where I think Seattle lays in the mid tier of the league. They have what seems to be a very promising defense, but they are a hot mess on offense. I will take being this type of mid level team right now with the hopes that the defense continues to carry into next season with improvement from the offense to follow.

Trends matter in football, and Seattle’s defense has trended very well over the coarse of the season half of the season. They were the sole reason why they managed to win this one.

In all honesty, this uneventful game against the lowly Chicago Bears might be as big of a signature win for Macondald and his team as any all year. This was a game that felt like the Bears could pull off a win, but Seattle’s bad ass defense said NOPE. This matters moving forward. Seattle needs to hang its hat on something, and I think they absolutely can with this defense more and more.

Let us remember that there was a time just two months ago where it felt like Seattle would be lucky to find six wins. Neither their offense nor defense were playing well, and fans began questioning replacing Pete Carroll with Macdonald. People all over the internet were calling Seattle a bad football team, devoid of enough talent to win, and the widespread projections of them were to be the basement dweller of the NFC West.

Then during the second half of the season, Macdonald turned their defense around from being bad to being solid and exciting. If you love good defensive football, you should feel excitement in the direction of this team as we head into 2025, no matter what happens against the Rams next week.

Yes, there will probably be many changes to this team this offseason. I would expect an aggressive upgrading of the offensive line. I think we could see a new offensive coordinator. We will pour over all these needs and wants after their season concludes. Right now, I think it is worth celebrating them getting to 9 wins this year with perhaps a chance to win the division next week.

Instead of lamenting the lackluster nature of Seattle’s offense against Chicago, I would rather celebrate the stellar offensive play of Seattle’s defensive line, linebackers, and secondary. Their best players on Defense took this game over. Devon Witherspoon, Big Cat Williams, Derick Hall, Riq Woolen, and Jarran Reed all played dominant against an inferior opponent.

In fact, the defenders played so elite in this game, that I have to imagine a scenario inside the VMAC earlier in the week where Mike Macdonald asked Ryan Grubb to call a more conservative game plan on offense. Like, he looked at the Chicago tape with Caleb Williams and he knew what his defense was going be dial up in this one.

This is why I am not personally all that stressed out about how Seattle’s offense played. It was a weird Thursday night game on a short week with the numbers down at running back, a gimpy quarterback, and banged up receivers. It was rare that Seattle pushed the ball down field in this one. It felt like they weren’t interested in it, and were hoping short gains would lead to favorable conversions.

While I am sure the team isn’t thrilled to win a boring 6-3 slug fest on Thursday Night Football, I wouldn’t be surprised if they would have looked at a 13-3 win scenario in more glowing terms. This game had that sort of conservative offensive vibe to it, and had Pharoah Brown not gotten the ball stripped out of his hands in the third quarter, it is possible that we would have had a final score more similar to that.

So, take that for what it is worth. It is fair to question if Macdonald has lost faith in Grubb with in this sort of dialed back approach as we witnessed. Maybe he was concerned about whether Geno would put the ball unnecessarily in harms way again.

Or maybe he just looked at the Chicago Bears and felt “yeah, I think we can win this one 9-3.. fuck it, let’s just do that.”

They won’t be able to play this way against the Rams. They will have to open up the offense again. I think they will and that this version of their offense is a mirage. They suddenly didn’t forget how to pass the football. They just chose to be close vested about it in this slop vest.

The good news is that they will have ten days of rest and the Rams will be less rested. If the Cardinals beat the Rams on Saturday night, this one in LA next week will be for all the NFC West marbles and the division title. This is exactly what football is all about.

So, while folks can point to Seattle having a losing record at home this year, their road record has been stellar thus far. While we can bemoan the inconsistencies of the Seahawk offense, it feels like their defense is building towards a style that can be championship worthy around the corner.

Generally speaking, I am happy with what is trending with this team. I know a lot of work needs to be done, but it feels mostly isolated with the offense. One aggressive offseason fixing this offense line could be enough to make this team a contender next year. I fully believe that.

Am I crazy?

Sure! I might be.

But this is what being a fan is all about. You have to be made of thick layers of fan fiber to watch your team play a good old fashioned slobberknocker like this on Thursday night and feel good about them afterwards, and I feel kinda great about them, honestly.

Now, I just need to be the biggest Kyler Murray fan on the planet on Saturday Night.

Go Cards!