Seahawks Building Necessary Toughness Through The Draft, Finally

Posted on April 29, 2024 by curtiseastwood

After sitting through three full days of NFL draft, I had to take a breather to let it settle in. Seattle made early picks that made me jump through the metaphorical rooftop with excitement, and then they went decidedly less flashy on day three of the event. In order to avoid writing a knee jerk reaction to them taking a linebacker in round four that some experts were anticipating would go later, I needed to see Mike Macdonald talk about him in his post draft press conference. Frankly, I needed time to sit with all of their moves.

I am not one to overly question an NFL coach or general manager’s decision on a player taken in the draft, so pardon me if I am not going to be nearly as critical as some of the other super fans and bloggers might chose to be. If Sean Payton believes Bo Nix is his guy to lead Denver to a Super Bowl, more power to him.

So, in terms of Seattle, at the end of the day, I am more willing to defer to a bright young head coach who just coached the best defense in the league last year, and a dude who has been a general manager of a Super Bowl winning program than I am some other dude on Twitter X who “knows some ball” and has an exorbitant to amount to spare time to watch game tape on 250 draft eligible players. That is just me, however. You do you however you see fit.

That said, as the dust of this draft has settled upon the Seattle Seahawks, I see a clear vision for professional football in the Pacific Northwest moving forward. As I have sat back watching the first two days of this draft, anxiously anticipating what Seattle might do in year one of the Mike Macdonald regime, I kept being struck by thought after each of their two selections. It pretty much reads as follows.

“Holy shit, the Seattle Seahawks are finally drafting badass players in the trenches.”

I do not mean to use this piece as a means to trash the Pete Carroll era, but I cannot shake the undeniable feeling that the Seattle Seahawks are finally doing something fans have long been pining for. They are drafting for impact on the interior of the offensive and defensive lines. This is my biggest take away out of this draft class for Seattle.

In two days, Seattle drafted the best defensive tackle in the draft, a guy who somewhat compares to Aaron Donald, Geno Atkins, and Grady Jarrett, and then they took an All-American guard who Pro Football Focus rated as a top fifty player at Pick 81, and who many described as the best pure guard in the draft. Byron Murphy and Christian Haynes, alone, have made this draft a huge success, in my humblest opinion. These are talented, explosive big men with aggressive mindsets. When you factor in that Leonard Williams is essentially their second round pick, it becomes undeniably easy to see a sharp contrast to a Pete Carroll style draft.

This is just my take on the Pete Carroll era now looking at it in further hindsight in comparison with this new regime. It feels like perhaps the biggest difference between what the Macdonald Seahawks will prioritize to what Carroll preferred, is building a team from the inside out on the line of scrimmage.

It feels like Carroll always preferred to emphasis talent on the perimeters. If they were to go with a lineman early, Carroll preferred taking an offensive tackle, or a defensive end. Guards and defensive tackles were most often found in later rounds or bargain shopping through free agency. Carroll also seemed to place a high importance on collecting wide receivers with high picks, safeties, linebackers, and running backs while other organizations would value these players later on.

This is just year one for Macdonald, but it is clear he values top end talent at interior positions. Here is the stark contrast between Carroll’s first draft in 2010 and Macdonald’s in 2024. The first two picks for Carroll where offensive tackle Russell Okung and then free safety Earl Thomas. Macdonald’s are DT Byron Murphy, and guard Christian Haynes. Macdonald didn’t even bother with taking a safety even though it was considered by many fans as a position of need.

For many long suffering Seattle fans, this potential shift in philosophy will be seen as a gigantic blessing. After years of watching the Rams come up to Seattle and harass the Seahawks with Aaron Donald, Seattle now as a defensive tackle who loosely comps to him, and they added a guard who will take to defensive tackles instead of sitting back passively waiting for them to come to him.

Mike Macdonald doesn’t appear to be a coach willing to live with hubris up front, believing that his coaches can coach up marginal talent inside. He is looking for top end talent there. He wants punch you in the mouth football. We should all be elated.

This is the Baltimore Ravens way. This is the Harbaugh Brothers mentality. This, I believe, is going to be the biggest distinction between what a Mike Macdonald team will be to what a Pete Carroll one was. Fans, like myself, who loved Carroll’s quirky personality and Ted Lasso like demeanor might find themselves in a bit of a culture shock looking at Macdonald’s straight forward no-nonsense way, but I think most fans are going to love the results of what they will eventually see on the field on Sundays, if Macdonald’s vision is carried out. I think it will be.

The Seattle Seahawks are determined to become a bully team again. This is what Macdonald said in response to what they were looking for when taking Murphy and Haynes.

“A style of play that no one wants to play (against), that’s what we are aiming for. That’s our standard of how we play football, and if you want to play here, you’re going to have to play a certain way. Those are a type of guys we’re bringing in.”

That sure does sound a lot like those old 49er teams coached by Jim Harbaugh, and that Michigan team that just beat the crap out of the Huskies in the National Championship game. That sounds a lot like classic Baltimore Raven style football, too.

God bless all of this. In the blustery wet weather that November and December can bring into Lumen Field on Sundays, this is the style of football that I most want to see moving forward.

Collecting big men didn’t stop on Friday either. On Saturday, day three of the draft, the Seahawks took two other big offensive linemen. In the sixth round, they took massive Utah guard/tackle Sataoa Laumea (a guy I thought they might take in round four), and then they grabbed small school offensive tackle Michael Jerrell who has an athletic upside that is described as exciting by many.

Sign me up for both of these players. Give me a big mauling guard who played for the one PAC 12 program that was determined to play SEC style football for years. With their last pick, take a flyer on a guy who played at Findlay who has high athletic upside and dominated against small school programs.

I trust O line coach Scott Huff (formerly of the Washington Husky program and who coached the best offensive line in America last year) in having a good read on Laumea, who he saw play against UW on numerous occasions. Huff probably has a pretty good idea how to work with him. I also trust him in seeing some good clay to mold with Jerrell (a la George Fant), as well.

In a draft that was widely regarded as uniquely deep with offensive linemen, Seattle grabbed three of them. I had written a few times about my desire to see Seattle do something like this, and they did. In hindsight, I couldn’t be more happier. Seattle needs to build its depth here, and they appear focused on doing that.

I am not going to bother with grading this draft for them. I think draft grades are ridiculous, and in a few years, we will see how good this class actually is, but I would be willing to give them an A for effort going after the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. That effort alone means something to me. It shows me where their priorities lay.

Going after a high impact defensive tackle to pair with Leonard Williams is huge for this team. Getting a guard who is viewed as a day one starter in the third round is also an enormous success. Beyond that, you are free to nitpick it however you choose, if you had a favorite player in rounds four and five sitting there who they didn’t take.

In my view, rounds four through seven, teams are largely looking at depth players who could develop into starters. This is where they took Anthony Bradford and Olu Oluwatimi last year, and they just grabbed Laumea and Jerrell. If Seattle can unearth two quality starters out of these four offensive linemen, that’s going to be a big win for this program. They might, especially with Scott Huff now here to take over coaching up the offensive line.

This league is filled with quality guards and centers who were drafted in the later rounds. Of this group, I really like Oluwatimi’s chances a lot, and I am still really intrigued with the high upside of Bradford. I like Laumea as a player to perhaps push Bradford.

Schneider mentioned this the other day, and I think it holds true. Often times, the better offensive lines we see in the league are not loaded with high drafted players. They might have a couple high round picks, but they often filled with a bunch of guys who have been coached up well, and just have a really good want to in terms of smacking a dude in the mouth, and have a really strong chemistry with each other. This was the Seahawk offensive line in 2005 when they made their first Super Bowl. Walter Jones and Steve Hutchinson were studs, and the other three were quality working class joes.

In their Saturday afternoon press conference, it is fitting that Mike Macdonald and John Schneider wore mechanic shirts with this draft haul. By wearing these shirts, I think they sent a unifying message. They aren’t into flashy. They’re into nasty.

Even in the fourth round, when they took two non offensive or defensive linemen, they grabbed a linebacker who was a tackling demon in FBS football last year, and they grabbed a Michigan tight end who is being compared to Will Dissly. Both of these dudes are tough guys looking to lay hits either as a run stopper or a run blocker.

Tyrice Knight was a player I mocked to Seattle in the later rounds, so I was not too terribly shocked to see them take him earlier. If you want to call that a reach, that is fine. I would just say that Macdonald’s forte is developing linebackers, and Knight was obviously the guy he wanted at Pick 118 over many other linebacker prospects rated higher by the draft media.

I think we should afford Macdonald the benefit of the doubt in seeing specific qualities in Knight that leads him to believe he will become a good player for him in time. He will sit behind two quality veterans in Jerome Baker and Tyrel Dobson learning how to play ‘backer in Macdonald’s scheme like Junior Colson did for Macdonald in Michigan when he was kinda raw. In a scheme that simplifies things for linebackers, I can get behind this pick.

Drafting AJ Barner after Knight shouldn’t be seen that much as a shocker, either. I felt all along Seattle might be looking to add a third tight end. Instead of grabbing more of a pass catching one as I thought maybe they would target, they chose to grab a inline blocking one from Michigan who Macdonald is familiar with, and so is special teams coach Jay Harbaugh over other flashier tight ends with better pass catching reputations.

Barner, however, is also described as an athletic enough guy to have a good feel on route trees and is a capable receiver when called upon. Like Knight, if you want to bemoan this as another reach pick, that is fine. Will Dissly was also taken in round four and was described as a reach. What this pick tells me more than anything else is that under Macdonald, Seattle’s full intention is to run the piss out of the ball. Get ready to order your Seahawk mechanic shirts.

One thing that caught me off guard, however, was seeing Seattle take two cornerbacks on day three. I did four mock draft articles leading up to this three day event, and in none of them did I envision them going cornerback. In fact, I figured they’d go safety.

There were rumors circulating days up to Thursday that Seattle was doing their homework on corners, and might be preparing to take one during round one, but I interpreted it all as smokescreen material. Seattle seemed loaded up at corner, and I did not feel any sort of strong need at the position.

So, I was fairly stunned when Seattle chose to draft Nehemiah Pritchett at the top of the fifth round, and then take his Auburn teammate DJ James in the sixth. I get it that James carried a day two grade with a few analysts, and Pritchett was sorta regarded as a potential third round pick, as well. I can definitely see the value at taking both of these guys where they fell. Pritchett is a long bodied speed demon with decent potential as a cover guy, and James feels like a player who could be a really good nickel player, but Seattle now feels over loaded at nickel. Devon Witherspoon seems to enjoy sliding inside at nickel, and Coby Bryant has also shown to be decent there.

As the dust has settled, I think I understand these selections more. I think Bryant is probably destined to convert fully to the safety position now, and with Michael Jackson Sr and Tre Brown set to become free agents after this coming season, Seattle may have seen opportunities to get out in front of these situations now.

The coaches might also be unsure how well Riq Woolen will convert to this new scheme after a sophomore slump in 2023. That’s also possible, if not altogether worrisome.

So, in our eyes, we might have viewed this as a deep area of the team, but from a coaching standpoint (and a front office one), they might have seen it as an area they specifically wanted to attack in this draft, especially when they saw two talented corners fall further down the pike, and just provided great value. From this perspective, I can get behind these selections.

If I were to critique this draft for Seattle more, I would say it’s a bummer that they didn’t take advantage at the depth of receiver this year with Tyler Lockett getting older. There were numerous talented receivers to be had out of this class, and Seattle didn’t invest.

Maybe this is the Pete Carroll era that I am still attached to, and I am conditioned into feeling the need to draft at this position, but I also like to say go where the strengths of the draft is. Receiver was really strong this year. I would have liked Seattle to have out of this with one.

One area that I am not going to fault this team on, however, is bypassing quarterback for yet another year. I super duper wanted them to draft Michael Penix Junior. I would have been completely comfortable for them trading up for him. I even had a slight interest in them drafting Bo Nix, as well. Spencer Rattler and Michael Pratt never really moved the needle for me, however, and neither did JJ McCarthy, if I am being perfectly honest.

The team already has Sam Howell, and with that trade, he can be included in this draft haul. I am good with seeing what Ryan Grubb might be able to get out of him with two years left on his rookie contract. I believe he has some interesting upside, and now we get to see if that’s the case.

Also, with all six of the projecting first round quarterbacks going in the top twelve, I think the Sam Howell trade, overall, looks really smart for Seattle now. Go get ’em, Sam.

Lastly, in terms of the undrafted rookie free agents that were signed after the conclusion of the draft, I really love that they brought in Washington tight end Jack Westover. I thought maybe he would have been a player they drafted. I think he’s got not only a strong chance at making this team, I think he can have an impact in his rookie year. Grubb knows him, he was productive for Grubb, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they carve out a playmaking H back role for him in this offense moving forward. Last year’s fan favorite of the undrafted rookies was Jake Bobo. This year, it feels destined to become Westover. I love this move.

On the whole, I do love this draft for Seattle. Out of eight picks, they took four linemen, and three of them are interior fellas. That’s outstanding, in my view. The trenches needed to be the main focus, and they were. Bravo.

Seattle has built up their skill position players enough. They have loaded up on talent at receiver, running back, and they have a good tight end. They have a pro bowl quarterback, and a talented enough young gun behind him. They have good offensive tackles and edge rushers. They have good corners.

It was time overdue to focus more inside, and they did that. In the end, I really cannot ask for more than that.

Now, go start beating the crap out of people.

Go Hawks.

Assessing The State Of The 2024 Seattle Seahawks Prior To The NFL Draft

Posted on March 28, 2024 by curtiseastwood

Well, here we stand a few weeks after the initial wave of NFL free agency, and a month before the NFL Draft. Starting next week, I will be doing draft articles with thoughts on what the Seahawks might do to further build back towards being a Super Bowl contender.

The NFL Draft is like Christmas for me. I dork out about it annually, and I look forward each year writing these pieces, but until then, I thought it would be a great idea to examine further the current roster in order to determine how close they are towards legitimate contention, and how they might prioritize this year’s draft class.

The Seattle Seahawks made a wave of moves, mostly either short term two year contracts, or one year “prove it” deals to some proven vets to plug in holes, and a couple bigger moves to keep Leonard Big Cat Williams and Noah Fant on the roster. Curiously, they haven’t done much at the position of guard, their biggest need, and this particular lack of action has been panic inducing for many fans, but I think there is more to come here, and I will touch further on that below.

On the whole, I’m pretty good with all their activities. I love keeping Williams and Fant, I like what they did at linebacker, and I really dig the Sam Howell trade. These were all much needed moves, in my opinion. The real moves to jettison this franchise forward over the next few years is what they do in this draft, however.

In my view, it is the smart teams that remain dedicated to building through the draft, and not get too involved in the crazy money of free agency. Seattle, for the most part, has demonstrated this restraint once again this year. Here is a look of the health of the roster heading towards the draft next month.

Quarterback: Healthy

Say whatever you will about him, most metrics say Geno Smith is a top 15 quarterback in the league, and Seattle has him on an affordable deal in 2024. This is a win. Coach Mike Macdonald has described his desire of having an offense that will power up in the run game, and be explosive off of play action, and build the pocket passing off of that. Geno is a very good play action QB, and a great deep ball passer. I look for him to find success in Ryan Grubb’s offense.

In the wings is young gun Sam Howell who started for the Washington Commanders last year, and Seattle swapped some picks for. Most in the league would probably view Howell as a top backup with some upside to become a regular starter. This is how I see him. Geno is the starter, but Howell has the talent to make things interesting, and he could be the future.

With the trade of Howell, I don’t expect Seattle to draft a quarterback high this year. It was very telling that they traded for him right after offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb attended Bo Nix’s pro day. Grubb also know Michael Penix Junior better than anyone in the league.

Could have Seattle determined that there isn’t much difference between Howell and Nix and Penix? I think that is possible, but Schneider has stated his disappointment in only selecting two QBs in fourteen years. My translation to all of this is that, at some point in the draft, Seattle will select someone to develop behind Howell and Geno Smith. We shall see.

Running Back: Strong

Seattle is blessed with Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet as a one two punch, and I believe Kenny McIntosh has the talent to be a playmaking factor, as well. I think they add a player in this draft, or afterwards in free agency if they don’t make that selection, but I suspect these guys to be the big three.

Walker has all kinds of playmaking abilities as a home run hitter once he hits the open field, but for my money, I am excited to see more of the hammering elements of Charbonnet this year. He feels like a classic Baltimore Ravens back with shades of Chris Carson and Marshawn Lynch. I’m excited to see how this all fits into Grubb’s offense.

Wide Receiver: Elite

DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and Jaxon Smith Ngijba make for arguably the best receiving trio in the the league. If these three stay healthy, whether it is Geno Smith or Sam Howell throwing the rock, that quarterback is going to be blessed.

My expectation is the DK Metcalf is going to become a monster in Ryan Grubb’s offense much the same way Rome Odunze did the last two years at Washington. Pete Carroll never seemed much interested in truly featuring his weapons like other offenses do in the league. That changes this year with this staff. DK is going to become the absolute star he was always meant to be.

Tyler Lockett reworked his deal to become more affordable and will stay reliable. It will be interesting to see between him and JSN who takes on the more significant role in this Grubb offense. Seattle burnt a first round pick on JSN for a reason last year. It will be interesting to see how this evolves.

Behind these three is a reliable route running and sure handed Jake Bobo, and explosive Dee Eskridge who the team is going to give a final chance to make an impact. This is an exceptionally deep draft at receiver. I think we could see Seattle take a dip into these waters.

Tight End: Promising

I am one of the few who is pretty high on Noah Fant, and I was pleased to see Schneider make the two year commitment to him, bringing him back. Like DK, he has rare size and speed for this position, and like DK, I thought Carroll never figured out how to take nearly enough advantage of that. I am excited to see what Grubb does with him. I think he can be a star in this league with the right scheming.

Pharaoh Brown will be the primary blocking tight end, and was rated elite by Pro Football Focus that way, and he can also catch the rock. Tyler Marby and Brady Russell are slated to battle for the third spot, I wouldn’t be surprised if this a spot they use the draft for, as well.

Offensive Line: Gas Inducing

To be fair, all of these assessments are projection, and for all we know, the offensive line will become a strength of the team with the new coaching staff, but as of this date, on paper this group is scary thin. Seattle has talent at tackle with Charles Cross, George Fant, and Abe Lucas, but both guard spots and the center position all feature unknowns outside of Anthony Bradford who played okay enough as a rookie. Yikes.

Right now, I am not super stressing the incompleteness of this vital unit. The overwhelming strength of the draft this Spring appears to be the offensive line. There is little doubt that Seattle is setting themselves to take advantage of that strength and I would expect to at least make a couple selections to round this group out.

It also would not shock me if we ultimately see Abe Lucas shift to one of the guard spots to better protect his knee. It was interesting that they brought back George Fant who played really well at right tackle for the Texans last year. The playoff Texans wanted him back, but he chose to sign a 2 year $ 14 million deal with Seattle, instead. Right now, he has been called their swing tackle, but why would he come back here to be a backup when he could have stayed in Houston to start and pass block for CJ Stroud?

Something doesn’t smell right, but if envision a starting unit from left to right featuring Cross, Lucas, Olu Oluwatimi, Bradford, and Fant, all of a sudden Seattle’s offensive line feels a bit of formidable. Maybe Seattle drafts a right tackle with their first pick and another guard in the middle rounds, and by the end of the 2024 season, this is a clear area of strength of the team. We shall see.

Defensive Line And Edge Rushers: Hopeful

Big Cat Williams gives this defensive line probably the best defensive tackle it has had in the past couple decades. For a franchise that drafted Hall Of Famer Cortez Kennedy in 1990, and Sam Adams a few years afterwards, the track record for great DTs coming through here afterwards has not been stellar. Sure, John Randle made a pit stop here in the early 2000’s, and we had Brandon Mebane here from the Mike Holmgren to the Pete Carroll eras, and Jarran Reed has been decent, but Seattle has not had the disruptive force inside like Big Cat brings in a long ass time. That’s why they are paying him $21 million APY for the next three years.

Williams mixed with Reed, and Johnathan Hankins and Dre’Mont Jones give them an interesting blend of veteran experience up front. Jones disappointed last year after being a big free agent signing in 2023, but I think he fell victim of being forced to play out of position in a scheme that never felt sound under the previous coaching staff. I’m interested to see what Macdonald is able to do with him in this new scheme.

Behind the seasoned vets is Cameron Young and Mike Morris drafted last year, who both look like players that can potentially blossom into starters, and Myles Adams who has played well in the past in spots as a situational DT. Because of Young and Morris, I don’t know how likely it is that this team drafts more DT types this year. The new staff might be tasked to developing them more.

In terms of the edge rushers, Uchenna Nwosu and Boye Mafe could both shine in Macdonald’s new scheme, and I expect Derick Hall to take a big step forward after a slow rookie season. Darrell Taylor has been brought back, as well, and while fans aren’t happy with how he’s played against the run in the past, he’s always been an effective enough of a passer over the recent years to think he’s worth a roster spot for that very reason.

I like the potential of these edge rushers, but I could stand to see more added. Because they spent high round draft capital on Mafe and Hall in recent years, and invested big money into Nwosu, I actually would almost rather seem them add a short term proven vet like Kyle Van Noy (who both played for Macdonald in Baltimore) rather than draft the position high again this Spring. I want this unit to feel like a deep rave of rushers this year. Outside of Nwosu and Mafe, however, presently it feels like a wave of maybes.

Middle Linebacker: Interesting

It feels blasphemous to suggest the a couple of solid not spectacular veterans coming in on one year deals to replace Bobby Wagner and Jordyn Brooks could make this unit better, but that’s kinda what I’m feeling about Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker. I mean Wagner no disrespect, but I don’t trust him in coverage at this stage in his career in a scheme that calls for solid coverage linebackers, and I kinda feel the same way about Brooks. Dodson is described as a hit the gaps hard linebacker against the run but was highly graded coverage guy by Pro Football Focus last Fall, and Baker has been a highly regarded coverage ‘backer, as well.

There are two ways to look at the one year deals both players signed. One way is that you can look at it as the wanting to draft and develop this year behind them, and they are potentially just stop gap starters. The other way it can be seen is that the team believes in their potential and sold to them an opportunity to come out here into a very linebacker friendly system run by Macdonald that will reset their free agent for next Spring when they can really cash in on the big dollars, and the team will be more than happy to keep them around long termed.

Personally, I think the truth probably lies somewhere in between. I think Seattle is looking to draft a talented young linebacker this Spring, and they also have a serious mind towards Dodson and Baker shining in a way that at least one of them sticks around longer termed.

At any rate, I am interested in this group and what Macdonald might do with it. He has professed that his love is coaching linebackers and seeing the game from that perspective on defense. Carroll was always a defensive backs guy, and preferred the back seven. I am hopeful with Macdonald being a linebacker dude that the front seven will always be the strong point of emphasis moving forward.

Cornerback: Strong

Despite a disappointing sophomore season, I am still a big believer in Riq Woolen. His combined length, speed, and playmaking abilities on the ball can still make him an elite corner in the league. He needs to probably play in a zone press scheme and his fundamentals need to be honed in. Macdonald’s defense in Baltimore the last couple seasons predominantly played zone coverages. If he can scheme to Woolen’s strength, and if Woolen works his ass off to work out his own kinks, he can still be a star in this league.

Devon Witherspoon is already a star, in my view, and will remain Seattle’s difference maker on the backend, playing outside and nickel corner. He will be the chess piece in the secondary that Jamal Adams was expected to be when Seattle traded for him.

Mike Jackson, Tre Brown, Artie Burns, and Coby Bryant give Seattle high quality depth. Jackson, and Brown are starters in the league, but in Seattle they will be backups. Burns provides solid veteran depth, and Bryant has split time at nickel corner and safety, but was an outside corner in college. It would be nice to see Bryant finally settle on one spot and master it.

Safety: Okay-ish

I am not going to build this unit up anymore than I think it is, and I am not going to tear it down, either. Seattle has re-shifted it’s approach to the position by moving on from uber expensive starters Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams, and replaced them with Julian Love and Rayshawn Jenkins on more affordable salaries.

Neither Love or Jenkins appear to be bad players. Both seem to play the run and pass well enough, and I thought Love played pretty well at times for Seattle last year in replacement for Adams. The team has also added veteran K’Von Wallace into the mix, and has Jerrick Reed on the roster, who some believe was a promising rookie last year before he suffered a season ending knee injury.

This is a position I anticipate they will address further in the draft.

Final Thoughts

Seattle has hedged themselves up pretty well heading towards the draft with the one exception being offensive guard. Unless they plan to move Abe Lucas inside, it feels like there is one more player left to add pre-draft, and former Jets and 49er Laken Thomlison has been somewhat linked to the team, recently.

Whether they add another veteran offensive lineman or not, this is the draft of drafts to address the offensive line. I expect Seattle to add at least two more players here by the time the draft is completed. I wouldn’t be surprised if they added three. It’s projected to be that good.

I also expect them to add an off the ball linebacker, as well. Keep an eye on Michigan linebacker Junior Colson being a potential target for the team if they trade back a few times to replenish more day two picks. He’s experienced in Macdonald’s system, and was highly productive for the National Champs. It would not stun me if he ends up being their first pick after trading back.

As much as I would lose my noodle with excitement if this team drafts Michael Penix Junior next month, and I don’t expect this to happen. I think they like Sam Howell as a potential long term answer at quarterback maybe more than some realize. That said, I still anticapte, at some point in this draft, they will take a shot on a quarterback to develop. I just don’t think they want to force that pick in the early rounds if they aren’t completely sold on a guy. Therefore, I would look at the middle rounds for them to maybe take a shot at a player like Tulane’s Michael Pratt who they met with at the NFL Scouting Combine.

I anticipate that safety, and tight end will also be areas that they will look to continually shore up. For myself, I would like them to add one more edge rusher, and I wouldn’t turn my nose on adding another defensive tackle, either, if the dude can rush.

At any rate, overall I like how this roster is rounding out. There is elite talents sprinkled through the skill positions of this team. Adding more beef inside feels like the final stage of overall completion of this roster construction, and this is the draft to do this that. I dig it.

Go Hawks

A Very Excellent Offseason Wish List For The 2024 Seattle Seahawks

Posted on March 6, 2024 by curtiseastwood

By now, most people have heard the news that the Seattle Seahawks have released strong safety Jamal Adams, free safety Quandre Diggs, and tight end Will Dissly. While shocking moves to some, more tempered fans who may have been studying Seattle’s roster, salary cap situation, and pending free agents probably saw these actions coming. There could be more on the way before free agency begins next week.

With all respect to Diggs and Dissly being players for Seattle that I really liked over the years, these moves should pave the way for a fun, and active offseason. In this piece, I kinda blend my hopes for what this franchise does with what I think are also kinda likely moves.

With the NFL Scouting Combine now at its conclusion, a neat little picture is forming for how the offseason might go for our beloved Seattle Seahawks. This draft appears rich at interior defensive line, offensive line, wide receiver, quarterback, tight end, and possibly safety. Not so much for linebacker.

This informs us what to expect the free agent market to be. The areas of the draft that appear weak will drive up those same areas in free agency, and conversely, the areas that are deep should make those same positions more affordable on the free agent market.

How this effects Seattle is pretty simple. I feel they should be able to reach a deal with defensive tackle Leonard Williams, but given the fact that both of their starting middle linebackers are currently without contracts, Seattle is likely going to have to pay the piper one way or the other in free agency to settle a position who new head coach Mike Macdonald says he has a special affinity towards.

Seattle has a lot of work to do this offseason. They need to find two quality starting middle linebackers, they have apparent holes at guard, center, and tight end, and, in my opinion, they need to be thinking about a long term plan at quarterback.

The draft can offer some solutions, but they must nail free agency first. Now up to general manager John Schneider to make all the right calls.

The good news is that everything the Seahawks have done, so far, this offseason has been highly encouraging. In short, they made the bold move away from long standing head coach Pete Carroll in favor of bright young defensive mastermind Macdonald, and they paired the new coach with former Washington Husky offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb. They filled out the coaching staff with numerous promising coaches including a dude who looks like he might become a star offensive line coach in the league.

In my last piece, I wrote all my reasons why I am excited about the Macdonald/Grubb partnership moving forward and you can read it here. It is clear that the Seahawks want to become the Baltimore Ravens. They want to play dominant on defense, and they want to be explosive on offense. While this can be said about virtually every NFL team, I believe with these coaching changes paired with the talent already existing on this roster, Seattle is poised to be this team right out of the gates this Fall with a proper offseason of free agency, trades, and the draft.

The Seahawks are committed to Geno Smith this year by restructuring his deal, and that is a good thing. Fans are very polarized about him with some viewing him as a top ten-ish quarterback, and other feeling like he is bottom half. My view of Geno is that he is a solid second tier quarterback. There are only four quarterbacks in the league who I would describe as elite, and then there are everyone else.

For me, I will take a good vet like Geno and partner him with DK Metcalf and others in a Ryan Grubb offense that will lean further into the run and play action. Smart football minds can see the fit with Geno in that style of offense, as he is one of the best deep ball passers in the game. Physically and tools-wise, he is similar enough to Michael Penix Junior.

Offensively, I think Seattle is close to being some special in this league, but it is defensively where I see the most work being needed. Personally, I think there is talent on that side of the ball, but currently, neither middle linebacker is signed to a contract, nor is DT Leonard Big Cat Williams who the team sent a second round pick to the Giants for mid season last year. Personnel wise, there is a lot of work to do on that side of the ball.

Thus, this is what most fuels my wish list for this team moving forward. Here it is.

Commit to the front seven of this defense through free agency and the draft

Enough is enough with sinking nearly $50 million dollars into the safety positions. Seattle needs to start paying for boys that play much closer to the ball and around the line of scrimmage.

The need to work a deal out with Big Cat Williams feels like a given. Seattle sent a 2024 second round pick and a 2025 fifth round pick for him, and those are valuable assets. He is a very good defensive tackle, and losing him to free agency would seem like a bitter blow considering what Seattle gave up to bring him in for half of a season.

However, this free agency cycle appears to be a very good one for the DT position, and I think this is an intriguing draft class for the position, as well. I would think that the hiring of Macdonald is going to be appealing to Williams, who can be a star up front in that defensive scheme, but should he decide to sign elsewhere, Seattle could find a player of similar value out there one way, or another. For me, the goal should be Big Cat, or one of these other talented dudes out there in free agency. Just get one.

The more daunting issue for the defense might be middle linebacker with starters Jordyn Brooks and Bobby Wagner both being free agents. For me, I think Seattle will probably move on from Wagner at this stage, but might make an effort to bring back Brooks at the right cost.

I don’t think Brooks coming back is a given, though, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Macdonald chooses to sign a couple middle linebackers from outside who he feels might be better suited for his scheme. Currently, I am leaning more towards this idea.

Instead of seeing this team drop a huge amount of money on a big name free agent like Patrick Queen, I would rather see them add two very good veteran coverage linebackers who would fit Macdonald’s scheme well, and then see whatever the draft brings. Maybe they add former Washington State Cougar Frankie Luvu who has played well in Carolina with 123 tackles, 6 sacks, 11 QB hits, let him have his homecoming, and then pair him with promising Bills linebacker Tyrel Dobson who earned high honors from Pro Football focus as being one of the top coverage linebackers in the league last year. That could be a dream scenario, and it would give Seattle a solid and affordable one two punch at middle linebacker.

In the draft, just keep depth adding pieces to the linebacker room and the D line. You can never have enough defensive linemen.

Find the Quarterback Of The Future

I need this team to start an honest search for the Quarterback Of The Future. Geno will turn 34 this October, and his salary in 2025 inflates to a whopping $38.5 million. I don’t see Seattle bringing him back next year at that cost, and their choices will be either to move on or sign him to another extension that will bring that 2025 salary number down.

There are many reasons why Seattle should be actively looking for its next franchise quarterback. Geno, while good, is probably at his ceiling, and is only going to get older, but even if he keeps playing well enough, he will continue to be an expensive good not great quarterback. Therein lays the problem.

In the rough economics of the NFL, there are huge benefits to having a quality franchise quarterback playing on a rookie contract for a while, but even if he plays into an expensive deal, time and youth will still be on his side. Continually extending a good not great Geno Smith until he is near 40 is not a great path towards getting another Super Bowl ring, in my humble opinion. How well has that worked out for the Minnesota Vikings and Kirk Cousins?

What I would like to see this team do this offseason is either take a shot on one of the seven or eight quarterbacks in this draft who look like they could become promising NFL starters, or trade for a young talent already in the league. If they walk back Drew Lock to be QB2 again on a one year deal behind Geno, and don’t address the position again, it will feel like a let down.

Next year’s quarterback class doesn’t feel nearly as promising as this year’s does, and Seattle will likely be too competitive in 2024 to earn a top ten pick to draft a quarterback worth it this year. Because this year’s QB class feels unusually deep, it feels like this is the year to take a swing at one. I hope they do.

Anyone who has regularly reads my writing knows how strongly I feel about the Seahawks drafting Michael Penix Junior. I think his arm talent is A+, and he’s a lot more athletic than people are making him out to be. He can extend plays, but he does his best work from inside the pocket, and if you are to run a committed play action offensive such as Mike Macdonald has said he wants to see in Seattle, well then, Penix was the best play action passing quarterback in college last year. He just ticks so many boxes for what it appears Seattle wants to be moving forward. If Macdonald wants an explosive offense, Penix has the arm talent to deliver that exact threat, make no mistake about it.

There are others in this draft I fancy, as well, and I don’t have a great preference over any of them, to be honest. I would just love to see Seattle take a shot at one.

Some people are freaked out about the idea of Seattle trading up for one of these guys. If Seattle did that, I would be flipping out with excitement. I trust John Schneider to find his guy, and if he sees one in this class that he really loves and doesn’t want to wait around to see if he falls to 16, I say just go get that dude.

Alternatively, if they felt inspired to trade a page out of the Mike Holmgren book and trade for a young QB who might have some upside, I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing them take a shot on Sam Howell, if Washington drafts a QB second overall. There was a rumor a couple years ago that Howell was the quarterback Seattle was considering drafting after they traded Russell Wilson. Howell is a good deep ball passer and has some fun duo threat abilities as a runner. Maybe it is just me, but I feel like there could be something there with him, and he has two years left on his rookie deal to find out. I think it would be worth a shot, if they choose to go another direction in the draft. Just a thought.

Be aggressive fixing the offensive line

Listening to Ryan Grubb discuss how much he values his offensive line play the other day got me ridiculously pumped. He wants an aggressive offensive line that will dictate the tone of his offense. This was the Washington Huskies for the past two years with him running the offense.

Seattle has some pieces in place on the line that can probably play to that style. I think they need possibly two more on the interior at guard and center. This is looking like an insanely good draft to add a guard and a center, and it doesn’t even have to happen in the first rounds.

My ideal approach would be to solve one spot with a quality veteran and use the draft for the other. I won’t lie, I think it would be perfectly fine to bring back left guard Damien Lewis, or center Evan Brown, and use the draft to fill the other spot.

I think you want to give Anthony Bradford (drafted last year) legit shot at the other guard spot. He is a massive athletic freak of a player who offensive line coach Scott Huff should be tasked to develop into a monstrous starter. I think his upside is pretty special, to be honest.

It would be incredibly tempting to sit at pick 16 and take the best guard or center prospect, but I think 16 is way too rich for those positions. Rounds 2 and 3 tend to be the prime spots unless there is a true blue chip Steve Hutchinson type player sitting there (Wasington’s Troy Fautanu might be that guy, if they don’t go quarterback).

This is why I feel the best move for Seattle might be to find a trade partner who is picking in the twenties and willing to move up by adding a second round pick to the deal, and they make that deal. It may not happen, but it opens the possibility of Seattle being in position to draft QB of the Future and a talented offensive linemen with their first couple picks. Then in round three with two picks there, they can take shots at safety to replace Quandre Diggs, or a tight end to replace Dissly.

At any rate, Seattle needs to dip into the offensive line in this draft, and preferably double dip. Even if they wait it out into the middle rounds, it looks like the value will be there. Just seize it.

Bring back Noah Fant at tight end

At first thought when thinking about this offseason, I felt Seattle could probably let Noah Fant walk in free agency, rework Will Disney’s expensive 2024 salary to get the cost down, and then draft a tight end. Upon further reflection, I have shifted to thinking the opposite.

As much as I love Uncle Will, I think Seattle was right to release him, and now maybe use those dollars on Fant who is a superior athlete and receiver. Ryan Grubb loves to feature tight ends in his offense and Fant has the speed and pass catching ability to stress a defense. He also has a built in chemistry with Geno Smith. In Grubb’s offense, I think Fant has a real chance to become the star he was meant to be when Denver drafted him in the first round.

The Seattle front office appears to think highly of him, as they themselves considered drafting him in the first round of the 2020 draft, and demanded that he be part of the Russell Wilson trade to Denver. So, why not commit to him long term? It makes perfect sense to do this.

Sign Fant, and use then draft for depth. This appears to also be a good draft for tight ends.

Or how about this wild idea? Have Jake Bobo add weight and convert him into a tight end. Bobo is a natural route runner with great hands, and good size, but will never have the speed to truly work the perimeters. Converting big receivers into tight ends isn’t foreign in the league as Vegas did this very successfully with Darren Waller a few years back. Just a thought.

Find a way to keep Tyler Lockett

Tyler Lockett is the name that some folks are locked onto these days as either a cap casualty or a trade candidate. His 2024 cap hit is $27 million, and Seattle would be able to save about $8 million by moving on from him pre June 1st, and considerably more afterwards. With DK Metcalf and the emergence of Jaxon Smith Njigba, Lockett does feel like the eventual odd man out, especially considering how easy it is to draft and develop receivers these days, and this draft is crazy deep at receiver.

For me, Tyler Lockett feels too much like a Mr Seahawk to just cut bait with him, though. Instead, I would rather this team work out a short extension that will free up 2024 dollars, and give him an opportunity to retire here. He has a great chemistry with Geno, and is still very productive. He is also a supremely awesome teammate. My feeling is that Lockett would be receptive to this idea, and a deal can get done.

If the goal is for Seattle to win games early with this new coaching staff, and be a playoff contender in year one of this new regime, I think keeping Lockett makes tons of sense. I want it to be the case. We shall see.

Continue developing this roster from within

John Schneider has done a great job of drafting the last couple years, finding immediate starters in the 2022 and 2023 classes. For Seattle to truly take the next step into building a contender, it’s probably not so much as what they do in free agency and this draft as it is for this new coaching staff does developing and uncorking these current youngsters on the roster.

I believe Derick Hall has a chance to be a very good edge rusher in this league mixing in with Boye Mafe, and Uchenna Nwosu. They have to get him ready to take the same step forward in 2024 as Mafe took in 2023.

Cameron Young and Mike Morris need to be developed as starter types on the defensive line mixing in with Jarran Reed and hopefully Leonard Williams. If Morris can take a big step forward, he has the traits to become a really effective pass rusher.

Coby Bryant is too talented to be lost in the depth chart of this secondary. This coaching staff needs to decide what his position is and have him own it. Perhaps he is a reason why the coaches felt they could move on from Quandre Diggs, and they will lock him down at free safety.

Anthony Bradford has too much size, and physical talent not to be a mauling force of nature guard on the offensive line. He must be made a starter this season.

Kenny McIntosh has too much playmaking potential to be buried in the depth charts of the running back group. He should be developed as a legitimate third down back at the very least.

Riq Woolen needs to be developed and used in ways that complement his unique blend of size and speed at corner. Have him play to his strengths or move on from him.

We can talk about what Seattle should do at quarterback, free agency, and the draft, but the number one task of this new coaching staff under Mike Macdonald must be developing this roster from within. This is the Baltimore way, and in the early years of Pete Carroll, it used to be the Seattle way, too. Time to get back to exactly that.

Final thoughts

I don’t think the recipe for building this team up into a proper contender is that daunting of a task. Having the right young coaching staff prepared to be bold in their schemes, and having an ability to coach young players up is the biggest key, and it feels like Seattle is on the right track there (even though it is probably too early to really call it).

I have faith in this new staff, though. So much faith that I feel Seattle can afford to be bold at going after a young quarterback, if they so choose. It is nothing against Geno Smith. He is a fine quarterback to ride with right now. I just have a very particular feeling that Seattle should make the move on a quarterback this offseason, if they can.

That said, quarterback is not the end all be all of needs and wants. I want better coverage linebackers, and that is why I am not totally sold the absolute need to bring back Jordyn Brooks or whether there are other players in free agency who would suit the Mike Macdonald defense better.

I love my idea of adding Frankie Luvu and Tyrel Dobson to be the new starting linebackers. After all, this is no longer Pete Carroll’s team, so why not have Mike Macdonald put his own stamp on it now by adding new blood with players who will be “His Guys” moving forward?

The one player who I do believe suites his defense is Leonard Big Cat Williams, though, and I hope Seattle works out a deal with him, or lands another DT with similar traits. Something tells me that Seattle and Big Cat will get a deal done. I can see him wanting to play for Macdonald, and feeling like this team is close to really competing.

I need Seattle to add to the offensive line. I need a quality veteran player added and I need them to draft there. I wouldn’t mind seeing a couple picks in the draft go to the offensive line.

Finally, onto the more sensitive topic of what to do with Tyler Lockett. This is tough. I would like to see them figure out a way to bring back Noah Fant as the starting tight end, and keep Tyler Lockett. I just don’t know if that is going to happen. As much as I want Tyler back, I can see John Schneider making a tougher call to save dollars with the belief he can draft his replacement in this class.

With new regimes, often surprising moves are made with players. It wasn’t surprising to see the team cut Jamal Adams, Quandre Diggs, and Will Dissly. These were all bad contracts given out to good not great players playing non premium positions.

I won’t lie and say that there isn’t some small part of me who thinks the true stunner around the corner might being Lockett, though. A lot of money can be freed up if this team trades or releases him.

What if they want to go really aggressively into free agency signing top tier players to the offensive and defensive lines? Those guys would prove quite expensive and the $36.5 million opened up by releasing the two safeties and Will Dissly won’t cut it if they also want to find a couple starting linebackers and possibly a safety, as well.

Therefore, something tells me that Lockett might be the surprising odd man out of this equation with the offense moving forward. Receivers are easier to draft these days based on what is happening in college, and Seattle might simply see Lockett’s replacement in this draft easier than it sees other veterans they want to keep.

My hope remains that they can rework his deal to drop the 2024 costs down, but we shall see. Right now, I can’t call it either way.

At any rate, I’m excited. Are agency begins next week, and I am ready to get this offseason going. Let’s do it.

Go Hawks!

With Mike Macdonald And Ryan Grubb, The Seahawks Are Set For Greatness

Posted on February 10, 2024 by curtiseastwood

The only thing that would make me happier is if the Seahawks permanently rough back this old look

I have not been this excited about the Seattle Seahawks in a long ass time. The last time I felt myself doing fist pumps in the air over this team is when they drafted Russell Wilson in the third round of the 2012 draft well over a decade ago.

Over the past week and a half, Seattle landed the best head coaching prospect in the league with Mike Macdonald, a guy thought to be an absolute defensive mastermind, and then they followed that up by pairing him with Ryan Grubb, the best offensive play caller in college football last year. Make no mistake, these are home run hires for this program after parting ways with the legend of Pete Carroll.

The plan for this program is clear and it is undeniable. They want to be dominant on defense, and they want to be explosive, offensively. Shattered is the image that hiring a defensive minded head coach will lead to conservative offensive play calling. No way. They plan to dominate on both sides of the ball.

Seattle wants to be the Baltimore Ravens. I wrote months ago that the way to pry this division away from the 49ers is for Seattle to adopt the Baltimore model. I’m not going to say that John Schneider reads this little blog, but I will say that the blue print is obvious, and I saw it back in December as bright as daylight.

Kyle Shanahan’s offense is too well oiled to match it with a simplified defensive scheme. You need to punch it in the mouth with talent in the front seven, and you need to send pressures and disguise coverage in ways that limit the gimme plays that make Brock Purdy way too comfortable as a passer. As a defensive play caller, Macdonald has shown this ability, and he did that in Baltimore with a defense that lacks true superstar talent.

Conversely, San Francisco’s defense is too talented to play it safe against. You need an offense that is loaded up with explosive potential. The 49ers want you to play it safe against them with quick out patterns that they can jump. They want you to abandon the run for the pass as the game wears on.

Ryan Grubb’s offensive scheme is all about creative explosive plays with the run and pass, and it was evident as throughout the Washington Husky season last year. When opponents starting doing everything to take the deep pass away from Michael Penix Junior, Grubb leaned further into setting up explosive runs with Dillion Johnson. Even when Penix slumped a bit, it was hard to make this offense one dimensional. Penix always had outlets to dump off, and he tested defenses enough to keep the run game viable to lean into. Explosives eventually would happen, one way or another.

I get it if some fans will be skeptical as to whether Grubb can translate to the NFL. I just trust more the voices of Mike Holmgren and Hugh Millen, who are former long term NFLers that have closely observed Grubb’s offense at Washington, when they say Grubb is more than ready for the league with all of his motions and creativity to get big runs and passes going.

In my very humble opinion, I think pairing Grubb with Macdonald is a Hollywood styled fairytale story concocted by John Schneider. The cherry on the top of it would be drafting Penix this Spring, and while you might feel compelled to brush that idea off, I sorta feel the table is perhaps being set up for exactly that.

I also totally get it if readers wince at this idea, and believe that I am just a locked in homer who isn’t a serious footballer mind. I just beg to differ. I think Penix has the natural arm talent to be an elite passer in the NFL, but is clouded with just enough questions about his durability and the scheme he played in at Washington for him to slide into Seattle’s loving arms in the draft this Spring.

Penix has the arm talent that John Schneider craves, the high level starting experience that makes his floor fairly safe, and above all, he has a solid history with Grubb. If Seattle does draft him, he will be stepping into a situation perfectly set up for him to succeed with the weapons he will have in this offense along his former play caller. The fact the Grubb is bringing along with him former Washington OL coach Scott Huff is yet another reason to be optimistic about this pipe dream scenario.

So, forgive me if I dare to dream of all of this becoming a reality in a few short months. I think it is worth dreaming about, and will continue this process.

As for now, I am supremely excited for these Seahawks. I love the boldness of these coaching hires. With Macdonald, Grubb, Huff, Leslie Frazier as the assistant HC, Aden Durde from the Cowboys elevated to the DC working with Macdonald, I see a fascinating staff emerging.

A lot of stuff still needs to happen. I am plenty aware of this. More coaches need to be hired. Decisions need to be made about some expensive older players, the team needs to figure out a way to keep Leonard Big Cat Williams, and Jordyn Brooks, and perhaps Damien Lewis, and improve the offensive line.

I’m excited to see how it all shakes out. So far, this is a great beginning to a promising offseason for the team I love most.

If Cougar fans and Duck fans hate the idea of Grubb as the new OC, they can suck it, and root for a mediocre Mariners ball club instead, for all I care. If they will cash in their Seahawk fandom if this team does draft Penix, I say that they probably weren’t the biggest Seahawk fans to begin with.

For me, I say bravo on Grubb, and I hope Penix is the next franchise quarterback, and I got nothing against Geno Smith. I’m just willing to dare to dream a little bit more about the longer termed outlook with this team moving forward.

And if the rumors are true that they will be going back to their old color scheme with the uniforms this Fall, I think I will have reached my football Xanadu. My fingers are very crossed for that, as well.

Go Hawks.

Seahawks Land Mike Macdonald As Their Head Coach And This Is Freaking Awesome

Posted on February 1, 2024 by curtiseastwood

Let the Doobie Brother jokes begin. The Seattle Seahawks drafted my guy, and I don’t care if he looks like a gym rat version of Doogie Howser, either.

Over a month ago, I wrote about my deep desire to see the Seattle Seahawks become the Baltimore Ravens. It was on the heels of that embarrassing debacle at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In that game, Seattle got thoroughly pushed around by a mediocre Steelers team, players looked disinterested in tackling with playoffs on the line, and I had enough. I typed a long, rambling, semi deranged, and toxically fueled piece about needing sweeping change, and needing to see Seattle become an organization comprised of blood thirsty orcs and Tyrannosaurs.

The only team model out there that I saw as a beacon of hope, that if Seattle could just commit to emulating, was the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens had recently dismantled the San Francisco 49ers on their home turf, harassing and picking off Brock Purdy five times, and physically matching them toe to toe in the trenches. Weeks prior to that game, Seattle ventured into Baltimore and they put a thorough ass whooping on the Hawks.

With the Ravens, I saw a team comprised of strength in the trenches, speed on the outside, speed at linebacker, a dynamic playmaker at quarterback, but ultimately, I saw a team that played smart, fundamentally sound, and disciplined football. In short, I saw a team very opposite of Seattle.

So, you can image my delight when this news broke that the Seattle Seahawks have made sprite 36 year old Baltimore defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald the ninth head coach in their franchise history. Bravo!

I had been keeping a very open mind though this coaching search, but he was the guy I really wanted, and not just because he was the guy Mina Kimes was banging the drums for (although I respect the hell out of everything she says). In my gut, I felt he was the best candidate, and if Seattle chose someone else, we would likely regret it for years.

Deep down, I needed a clean break from Pete Carroll, and while I wasn’t as down on the idea of Dan Quinn potentially returning as many others were, I feared a return to Quinn would have him unfairly judged by fans as being Pete Carroll-lite, and he would just never fully get out of Carroll’s shadow in his return here. I appreciate that former Legion Of Boom players were lobbying for Quinn, but if John Schneider allowed players to influence his decision making, that would frankly be pretty flawed decision making.

I will admit that I liked the idea of Mike Vrabel, but I wasn’t nearly as convinced of the greatness of Detroit OC Ben Johnson as many other fans were. I was sorta interested in Bobby Slowick for five minutes. I was also open to Mike Kafka, but the guy I kept circling back to was always Mike Macdonald. I just didn’t know if he would be interested, or if the team would seriously pursue him.

Turns out that he might have been their top choice all along based on some reports, and it was just a matter of John Schneider staying patient and waiting him out. Sometimes, things work out pretty well in the end.

I AM SO DAMN EXICTED!

I need this team to have a fresh break from Pete Carroll, and I am not completely sold on the narrative that to be successful in today’s NFL, your organization needs an offensive mind coach at the helm. Call me crazy, but I think you just need the best coach available. In my view, I felt Macdonald was most likely that guy.

You need a dude who’s vision is strong, who communicates clearly, is good with players, and it helps greatly if his Xs and Os are Grade A level stuff. In recent days, Macdonald has been described in the NFL media as a “defensive minded Sean McVay” – a guy who will adjust his scheme to attack his opponents weaknesses, week by week, and through the duration of game.

Yeah, sign me up for that.

Want to get excited about what Macdonald can bring to Seattle? In 2023, without any major investments on defensive personnel, the Baltimore Ravens had the top NFL defense in points allowed, sacks, and turnovers. First time that has ever been done, I believe.

I fully believe that Seattle is getting a bright young coach, and the cream of this coaching crop. Given the fact that they signed him to a six year contract, that tells me that they believe they have the guy who can win us titles. That should excite every fan.

Now they just need to pair him with a sharp offensive coordinator. We will see where that goes, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they are able to lure Mike Kafka out of New York with the toxic work environment of the Brian Daboll, and the Giants. Kafka was actually my dark horse candidate to win this Seahawk HC job, and it is rumored that he is so unhappy in NY under Daboll that he would be willing to make a rare lateral move.

Once I started reading up more about him, I actually grew to like Kafka a lot through this process. He’s an Andy Reid disciple who Reid and Patrick Mahomes think very highly about. I thought in 2022, he did a very serviceable job fixing Daniel Jones in New York, but things fell apart in 2023 due to the huge rash of injuries. Personally, I would love a potential pairing of him and Macdonald in Seattle, but we will see if that’s the direction they go.

What I am most excited about is Seattle pulling a guy brought up in the strong Baltimore culture to come out here. I need this team to become Baltimore Ravens West. Even more, I love the idea of pairing him with general manager John Schneider who now has full control of this team, and the freedom to lean further into his Ron Wolf Green Bay Packer background. I’m a believer in these two joined together.

I believe with John in charge for football operations, we are going to see a much strong investment in the trenches on both sides of the ball. Under Wolf, Green Bay valued the line of scrimmage players highly. In Seattle, it’s long been my hunch that Pete Carroll had always felt they could get away with going cheaper there, and John has just had to deal with that.

I also suspect that John is also itching to draft a quarterback soon, but we can get more into that another time. For now, I am just really curious and excited to see how the Green Bay philosophy melds with the Baltimore one out here.

Both organizations value offensive and defensive linemen, and both are primarily draft and develop teams. So, I don’t know if we now see Seattle slash a bunch of salaries in order to be big spenders in free agency. They might make a splash on the offensive line just because it badly needs it, but I can see them shopping for value on the other side of the ball.

The true beauty of what Macdonald has done in Baltimore is taking the 28th ranked defense a couple of years ago, and turning it into a top one, immediately, without the team spending big on talent. There are players on this Seahawk defense who would very much fit into what Macdonald did in Baltimore.

They have promising young edge rushers in Boye Mafe, Uchenna Nwosu, and Derrick Hall, and they have good young corners in Devon Witherspoon, Riq Woolen, and Tre Brown. If they can sign Big Cat Williams back at DT, their interior defensive line would be pretty similar to Baltimore’s. If they can bring back Jordyn Brooks and pair him with another fast young linebacker, I don’t think this defense would necessarily be that far off.

We will see how this coaching staff now fills out, who the OC is, if there will now be any QB change, and how free agency and the draft goes, but I have supreme optimism that with Macdonald, they can now be a true threat within the division against San Francisco and Los Angeles. Macdonald seems to match up very well against Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay.

He makes things confusing in coverage and how he sends pressures. In that MNF game in San Francisco, Brock Purdy looked genuinely unsure what to do.. like he was anticipating one thing and then seeing stuff that was surprising him. I think that shows the quality of Xs and Os from Macdonald.

We don’t know tons about him because he has only been a coordinator for a few years, but he is said to be a man of high intelligence, and a clear communicator. Players praise his ability to coach up the small details and explain why it’s done the way it is. It was said somewhere recently that he’s so sharp that there was a future for him in high finance on Wall Street that he actually turned down for coaching.

While he is said to be a players’ coach, in many ways, I think we are also going to find Macdonald an antithesis of Pete Carroll in terms of personality. He’s more reserved, and buttoned down, and he’s a bit of an introverted personality. That doesn’t scare me. Abraham Lincoln was a famous introvert.

I’m introverted, damn it!

Macdonald does not need to get up in front of 53 players and give fiery speeches. Don James wasn’t that type, and he did alright. He just needs to show his players that he knows football inside and out, that he’s a strong communicator, and he’s got a great plan. He can let a top lieutenant on his staff give hype speeches.

He just needs to be himself, stay true to himself, and everything that got him here.

I am absolutely stoked beyond my mind about this hire. At the very least, I can dare to dream big again.

I want this team to become the thorn in the side of the San Francisco 49ers again. I don’t ever want to see Shanahan smirky smile again whenever we play them. I want that dude stressed out the whole freaking time.

Mike Macdonald wasn’t the hire to get this team more competitive against San Francisco and Los Angeles. He was the hire to eventually bury both franchises back into the cellar of the NFC West.

I’m here for that.

Go Hawks.

The Seattle Seahawks Are John Schneider’s Ship Now And What It Means Moving Forward

Posted on January 17, 2024 by curtiseastwood

For the first time in his 14 year career as a Seattle Seahawk, General Manager sat by himself yesterday to talk with reports about his search for the next head coach. I listened to the press conference in traffic and watched it later in the evening. Some have nitpicked his emotions when discussing Pete Carroll, and called his opening statement “rehearsed” because he read from a script, but I found his presser both fascinating, and highly encouraging.

First off, John is no Pete when it comes to charisma with the media. He’s likable in sort of a midwest Chris Farley-light sorta way, in moments, but I don’t think he should be criticized for bumbling a bit reading what he wrote down in his opening statement, nor should he be made fun of getting caught up in emotions when talking about his co-worker and friend for the last 14 years after he was let go last week.

It is safe to say that John and Pete probably did not see eye to eye on a lot of things over the years, but I believe it when both have said how tight they are with each other. I don’t think John did any Game Of Thrones or Succession styled back stabbing of Pete to get him fired and gain further power over the team. When ownership asked him what he saw as the issues holding this team back, I think John most likely gave a very honest and candid answer that was probably very different than Pete’s. That is how I would read all of these tea leaves.

When fielding questions, John made a big point about this team becoming stagnant over the years, and not really moving forward. This has been the same complaint most Seahawk fans have had for many years now.

He also talked about the need to keep up with the current landscape of the league, which has become more offensive and analytic driven with the top winning teams. Many of the cool kid fans of Seahawks Twitter X, for years now, have implored this team to move off of Pete Carroll’s old school-ness in favor of a coaching staff who would embrace such trends. Well, listening to John, it feels as though they are about to get their wish.

Having gone through this presser a couple times now, I believe, in his ideal world, John Schneider would love to find a bright offensive minded coach to lead this team into the future. Schneider comes from the Green Bay model, his biggest mentor is the legendary Packer GM Ron Wolf (who he spent a lengthy amount of time with on Friday chatting with), and steeped in the model is the tradition of having offensive minded head coaches who develop young quarterbacks.

There are enough tea leaves out of this press conference to conclude that Schneider wants to draft a bright young quarterback around the corner, and pair him with a Green Bay style coach. People will read into his comments of Mike McCarthy, and draw a conclusion that Schneider wants him here in Seattle should Jerry Jones cut him loose, but wouldn’t read too much into that, just as I am not reading into the idea that Dan Quinn is his top candidate.

John talked at lengths about following the current trends, analytics, and sports science. He said his one directive from Jody Allen was to find a coach who will maintain the built in positive culture of this team, but the rest of the time, he talked about keeping up with the Joneses within the division. I think it would be an INCREDIBLY hard sell on this fanbase to replace the legend of Pete Carroll with Mike McCarthy or Dan Quinn after that playoff debacle in Dallas. John is probably smart enough to see that.

Therefore, I suspect that, of the long list of candidates who Seattle has formally requested interviews with, Detroit OC Ben Johnson, Houston OC Bobby Slowick, and Miami OC Frank Smith are probably sitting top on his list to this date. I bet John would love to meet with one of these guys and be wowed with their plan for this team, and their plan to put together a great staff.

Right now, Ben Johnson feels like the hottest name with Seahawk fans, but for my money, I would circle the name of Bobby Slowick perhaps being the dude for this gig. It has been widely rumored that Johnson has a back channeled handshake deal with the new GM for the Washington Commanders to follow him there, and I am going to buy those rumors. Slowick, however, doesn’t have such rumors swirling around him.

What Slowick does have is a history that sorta ties him to the Green Bay Packers when John Schneider was the assistant GM there, and Slowick’s dad was on the staff in the early 2000’s. It is safe to assume that Schneider knew of a teen age Bobby Slowick then, and tracked his coaching career over the years. Last year, Slowick left his position of pass game coordinator on Kyle Shanahan’s staff in San Francisco to follow DeMeco Ryans to Houston, and be the guy running his offense. In the past, Shanahan has raved about Slowick, and their connection started in Washington when Kyle’s dad Mike ran that team.

Slowick’s career is very interesting as it connects to Schneider’s likely needs and wants. He started out in 2010 with Washington as a film analyst, and eventually a defensive assistant (what his dad was in Green Bay), but then after the older Shanahan was fired, he went to work at Pro Football Focus, the leading football analytic company as a Senior Analyst. When Kyle got the job in San Francisco in 2017, Slowick followed him, and has worked for Kyle as a defensive assistant, an offensive assistant, and eventually Kyle’s pass game coordinator.

Never mind the fact that, last season, Bobby Slowick took over the sad sack Houston Texan offense, made it an explosive unit, and coached rookie quarterback CJ Stroud into a star. That’s all dandy on the surface, but looking deeper into his career, it is clear that Slowick knows offensive AND defensive football, well, and he is steeped in football analytics.

I am not writing this piece to predict that Bobby Slowick is going to be the next Seattle Seahawk head coach in the next week or two. What I will say, however, is that Slowick ticks A LOT of John Schneider’s boxes, especially if Schneider wants to draft a QB this Spring (I think he does). Therefore, he is the guy that I am willing to put pretty decent odds on. If he interviews for this gig, and truly impresses with his vision on what staff he would put together, and he feels like a good culture guy, I think this gig might be his.

The other guy who I think might have a bigger shot at this job than people are expecting his none other than Mike Vrabel. A lot of the top NFL insiders are connecting the former Patriot legend to Seattle, and it has been noted, repeatedly, that he is friends with Schneider. It has been so much so lately, that I am starting to believe the idea of “where there is smoke there is fire” just as I bought into it about Carroll maybe moving on, and Russell Wilson being traded a few years ago.

People will scoff at the idea of Vrabel taking over for Pete Carroll in Seattle, but a deeper dive into him kinda shows that he is much more than a defensive minded head coach. Over the years, Vrabel has been one of the leagues more forward thinking analytic driven head coaches in the league, and he put together one of the best offensive staffs when he got to Tennessee. Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur was his initial offensive coordinator and that immediately landed him the Packer gig. Arthur Smith then took over, and guided Tennessee’s offense into a top five DVOA unit, and that landed him the Atlanta job.

It is not too far out of the realm of possibility to image that, if given the opportunity in Seattle, Vrabel would bring Arthur Smith along with him, and because things didn’t go great for Smith in Atlanta, Smith could have an extensive stay in Seattle bringing along a young quarterback.

Arthur Smith might be thought of as a great coordinator who just really isn’t head coaching material. The league is full of these coaches, and while most fans probably prefer Schneider to land Ben Johnson, or Bobby Slowick, who is to say that both guys won’t end up more on the side of Arthur Smith’s fate than that of Matt LaFleur’s storyline?

If we really spend enough thinking about Vrabel as the next Seahawk coach, I don’t think he can be as simply written off as a Dan Quinn (who will be interviewed) or a Mike McCarthy (if he gets fired). Vrabel is highly respected across the league, and his firing came as a genuine shock across the NFL landscape. Personally, I think he is a strong CEO type of coach like Dan Campbell in Detroit and Dan Lanning in Oregon, as much as anything, and he is young enough, with enough pelts on his wall as both a player and coach, that my hunch is good people would follow him here, and players would buy in quickly.

If Mike Vrabel interviews for this job, all I think he would have to do is convince his friend John that he will have no problem with John calling all the shots with personnel, and he would have no issue with bringing along a young quarterback. I get that people believe that a rookie QB needs to be paired with an offensive head coach, but look where Vrabel came from. It was defensive minded head coach Bill Belichick who embraced a young Tom Brady over veteran Drew Bledsoe, and then embarked upon a long historic campaign of Super Bowls with the young gun.

I am saying it now, I think Mike Vrabel in Seattle is a real possibility, at the very least, and I would not be shocked at all if he ends up the dude. If John isn’t a hundred percent sure on any of these younger offensive coordinators, or Baltimore DC Mike McDonald (who I like, by the way), or Dan Quinn, I think that opens that door for Vrabel to bust through it.

And no, I do not think Jim Harbaugh will be a candidate. Not that I don’t think he is a great coach or a good culture guy. It is more so that I think he would want more control over personnel than Seattle would be willing to give. It is iron clad in Schneider’s contract with the team that he now has full control over all personnel decision making, and he has full control over coaching hiring and firing. Harbaugh isn’t going to want to work under those parameters.

In the end, given what John Schneider revealed in his presser, I am highly encouraged about this team moving forward. I think his search for the new coach will be broad, and that is right to do. I love that he is willing to look at all these bright young assistant coaches instead of going for whatever previous head coaches are and might end up on the market. I dig that he used terms like “evolving” and “current trends” frequently in his press conference.

I thought he might have dropped a few interesting nuggets in this press conference that made me believe drafting a quarterback this Spring is a very real possibility, and it should be. This year’s draft class appears quite loaded with them with as many as eight being discussed has potential franchise starters.

I am not going to predict who this guy will be. I have strong hunches on Slowick and Vrabel, but I am also very prepared to be surprised.

I just feel like Seattle is now on a path to get more modern with this this league, and I am excited for that. I believe that this team had gotten too stagnant over the years, and now I am looking forward to them breaking out of it.

John is right. This roster has bright young talent. Seattle is a great destination. The facilities are world class, and the fan base is super built in.

He has every reason to believe that he will attract a really good coach. I am looking forward to this process.

Go Hawks.

The Greatness Of Pete Carroll Deserves A Statue

Posted on January 11, 2024 by curtiseastwood

Pete Carroll was My Guy. I don’t know any other way I can characterize him for myself.

I vividly remember the day when it was announced that he was taking over as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. I was so excited, that almost created a wreck in traffic. I listening to Sports Radio KJR, heard the news, screamed, and swerved, and course corrected. Then once I heard all the horse crap out of the station’s blowhards complaining about the hire, that is when I decided I was going to be a KIRO 710 listener from then on.

It all happened just like that, and the minute they started talking shit about Carroll, I was done as a regular listener. They couldn’t even give the hire a single benefit of doubt. Why should I give them another listen?

You see, to further set up context, back in the Mike Holmgren era, I was a film believer that the next head coach should be Pete Carroll. I once said that to my brother, and he looked at me as he so often did when I was a kid eating crayons and dog food, and he thought I was an absolute knucklehead for even entertaining the idea.

“Pom Pom Pete?!”

“That shit will never fly in this league.. fuck, I don’t ever want to see that here.”

My rational was simple. The Seahawks were a fun little kick ass team for a while in the 1980s with a defensive minded head coach who was all about great defense and running the football. I was tired of the more finesse pass happy approach of Holmgren, and I wanted more smash mouth to go along with the cold wet blustery Sundays in Seattle in the Fall and Winter.

“Dude, look what he’s going in USC.. they are running the shit out of the ball, throwing darts off play action, running up scores, and they are killing it on defense.. that is what I want up here.”

Pete Carroll was my guy long before Pete Carroll became my coach, so you can imagine my excitement that almost forced my Ford Ranger into a ditch over the news of his hiring. I wasn’t certain about much in life, but I was pretty certain we were going back to a Super Bowl, and actually winning the motherfucker this time.

Pete Carroll is the greatest thing that has ever happened to Seattle Sports. He is by far the greatest coach this region has ever seen, and I say that in complete respect to Don James, and Lenny Wilkins.

This is not my opinion. It is a statement of fact, and I will not have any debate on it.

In 14 years, Pete Carroll has guided the Seahawks into the playoffs 71 percent of the time. This team went to back to back Super Bowls, winning one, and almost winning another. They won five division titles, and were a wild card team five other times.

Without Pete Carroll, we never would has experienced the Beast Quake that galvanized us as a fanbase. Marshawn Lynch was a troubled third string running back in Buffalo, and Carroll took a chance on him. Lynch would not have likely been a fit on a Mike Holmgren coached team.

Without Pete Carroll, I highly doubt Russell Wilson would have become a long term starter in this league. Philly might have drafted him, and he would have played for Andy Reid, but I doubt they would stayed with him long term in Reid’s high volume passing system that requires a taller quarterback. He would have more likely been a bridge to the next guy, and then likely would have had a Gardner Minshew type impact on the league, but Carroll gave him a shot, grew to love him, and tried to make it work as long as he could.

Without Pete Carroll, Geno Smith would probably still be a second or third string backup, or out of the league.

Without Pete Carroll, Richard Sherman may have not ever gotten a fair shot as a starter.

Without Pete Carroll, Red Bryant may have been out of the league by his fourth year.

Without Pete Carroll, I don’t know if Kam Chancellor would have been a starter in this league when everyone was playing Tampa two stuff.

Haters are always going to hate on this dude, but Pete Carroll gave us so damn much, and I think a lot of us got really spoiled in the process. When your team goes to back to back Super Bowls, just making the playoffs is no longer enough. That’s the expectation before the first kick of the season happens.

Nah, these kids who were eight years old when Pete first got here are in their twenties now, and they don’t know football life without him. Well, get ready for it.

A lot of them want the next 33 year old Sean McVay type, but they might find themselves missing Pete a lot over the next few years. I’m not saying this to be cryptic about the future. I am just saying that Hall of Fame level coaches typically do not grow on trees, and Carroll is most definitely a Hall of Famer.

The team could hire Jim Harbaugh, or Kalen DeBoer and either one of those guys isn’t likely to have the sustained success as Pete. That’s just the nature of the league.

Pete Carroll’s greatest attribute as a head coach was not his Xs and Os, or his schemes. Pete Carroll’s strength was and always will be his heart, and his willingness to believe in others, to give opportunities, and to stay steadfast in his belief in others. That is a thing easier said than done, and this is what gave the breeding ground to his culture being the best in the NFL for nearly a decade in a half.

Pete Carroll is a great leader of men because he leads with his heart. You could feel that in his very raw and authentic way he allowed himself to be in his final press conference to announce with the team. Leaders who are willing to lay it on the line, to be real, and present, and caring, can inspire a collective to move mountains. That is what he did here in Seattle.

My dad was a combat war veteran, and he was as badass as badass could be. Like, old school Lee Marvin badass. He always used to rave about General Omar Bradley, and he hated high ranking officers because of his experience dealing with them as a squad leader in Korea.

In his booming voice, Dad would say that the only person to wear stars who was ever worth a damn was Bradley. He loved Bradley because the general always insisted on marching with his troops and carrying a rifle. If he was going to ask a man to lay down his life, he wanted that dude to know that he was willing to lay his own life on the line with him. The US troops fucking loved Omar Nelson Bradley.

I think Pete Carroll is a lot like Bradley. He’s thoughtful. He cares. He wants others to care. He is very much a servant leader.

That’s what Pete Carroll was at USC for many years, and that is how he rolled up here in Seattle. I wanted him to be the head coach of my team because I thought his style of ball was kick ass, but once I grew to know of him more after he got here, I pretty much wanted him to coach here for life.

Football is a funny fluid thing, though. In recent years, I grew tired of the dramas that crept up like the Jamal Adams stuff this year, and the odd coaching hires that led to the offenses and defenses getting worse instead of better, and I started to entertain more the idea of Carroll moving on. He had been here much longer than Holmgren or Chuck Knox ever were, I felt that maybe hubris filtered in more, and I just thought maybe it was time.

This season, I really started to feel it, and I found it creeping into my writings in ways that made me feel very Get Off My Lawn Dude. I didn’t particularly enjoy writing with that type of energy, but I couldn’t ignore my frustrations as a fan, either.

I actually started this blog as an attempt to create a space for Seahawk fans to visit that wouldn’t be so hypercritical over every little spending decision, or coaching decision, or bad play that happened in a game. I wanted my writing to have some fun, and celebrate all the highs, and joke around with the lows, and maybe share an insight or two, if ever I felt one.

I think subconsciously, I wanted my writing to reflect the goofy nutball nature of my favorite coach. That is how much Pete Carroll has impacted me as a fan, and person. I will always deeply appreciate him, and hold him in the highest regard.

I won’t deny that it’s a bit weird that I wrote about my ideas of moving on from him, and then seeing the team actually do it. I find myself in a very strange, split place with this whole thing, now.

Emotionally, I am very attached to Carroll the person, and I am really going to miss this dude as my team’s head coach. Logically, though, I believe this was the right time to move on, and give another coach a shot.

As stated, chances are significant that the next head coach won’t be nearly as good. That’s not saying this next dude is going to suck, and they won’t have success. This is just acknowledging that Pete Carroll is a Hall Of Fame head coach, and those coaches do not grow on trees.

That said, Carroll is 72 years old and was heading into his final year. I suspect ownership wanted significant changes on his staff. I wouldn’t be surprised if they also wanted a bit more of a roster overhaul with some of the older players. It is entirely possible that they do want to draft a quarterback this Spring, and Carroll isn’t super down.

In any case, I think Carroll is very attached to his guys, and I am just guessing here, but I think he maybe didn’t want to fire a bunch of dudes, or cut a few players that he is very close with and still believes in. This is where being in your seventies might impact proper decisions. You might feel less likely to want to overhaul things once again even if it is clearly needed.

Coaching at this level has got to be an exhausting practice. Mike Holmgren was a superb coach for many years, and he knew he was done much younger than Carroll is today. I think it is incredibly difficult to find sustained success such as Pete has had along with Belichick, Tomlin, and the sane Harbaugh brother. These dudes are coaching rarities.

This team has been underachieving, though, and it has been this way for many years now. They have become perpetually mediocre to good but not great. Something needed to give.

I think Jody Allen wants greatness again, and I think she probably wants a good younger coach to come in who will probably not be as attached to players on this roster. It is very possible she wants someone who will be more of a disciplinarian that maybe Pete has it in him to be at this juncture, and will push his coaches and players more in the details of the game.

Frankly, I think this is what this team needs. It kinda needs a fresh new kick in the pants, and this is what I have been feeling greatly this year.

That does not take anything away from who Pete Carroll is as a coach and leader. In my mind, this just means that all things come to their natural ends, and this was the time for the Carroll era to close, and as I wrote the other day after the win against the Cardinals, if his final game as coach of this team is a nail biting victory, it would be very fitting.

I will never forget this era, though, and all the wild ass shit that went down on the football fields. I will never forget Beast Quake, the Richard Sherman tip in the NFC Championship game against San Fran, the insanity that took place in the come from behind win against the Packers in the following NFC Championship, Michael Bennett riding the cop bike, the Kam Chancellor hits, all the Russell Wilson ridiculous Jedi shit, Geno beating Russ as a Bronco, the insane Jermaine Kearse catch against the Pats in the Super Bowl, all the wild Doug Baldwin grabs, and the Tyler Lockett ones, and that crazy touchdown pass Jon Ryan threw to a backup offensive tackle in that wild championship game against the Pack. This list could go on, and on, and on again.

Pete Carroll gave us all this stuff. He gave us a decade and a half of crazy ass adventure. It was fun. It was stressful. It was annoying at times, and exhilarating.

There is absolutely no debate in my mind who the greatest Seattle Sports icon is. It is Pete Carroll, and it is not even close.

And my brother was dead fucking wrong about him, and so were all of those loud blowhard radio personalities on KJR. I am not right about a lot of things, but I was spot on correct about Pete Carroll.

So please, Jody Allen. Build the Pete Carroll statue in front of Lumen Field. Hire us a good new coach, but build us that statue.

Seattle owes Pete Carroll everything. Period.

Go Hawks.

Seahawks Finish Season 9-8, Miss Playoffs, And Change Is Needed

Posted on January 8, 2024 by curtiseastwood

Watching this game against the Seahawks and Cardinals, I found myself caught up in bi polar emotional states. While this is true for many Seahawk games I view, this one felt very different. I felt hope that the Seahawks and Bears would pull off wins that would make Seattle playoff bound, but then I also felt a comfortable acceptance in losing when it looked like that was going to happen.

I cannot remember watching a season ending game with playoff implications on the line for the Seattle Seahawks, and ever feeling a smidgen of indifference to it in the waning moments. Last year, I needed them to be in the playoffs as the fended off the beaten up Rams, and had to wait to if the Lions would be the Packers. I had stakes then. This Sunday, my stakes were much smaller.

If Seattle had handled business against the Steelers last week, my mood probably would be been different, but having watched this Seattle getting hammered by the Steelers took too much of the wind out of my sail. I just didn’t have much left for this bitter interdivisional matchup against a bad Arizona Cardinals team.

Honestly, I didn’t think Seattle was going to win this one, and if Matt Prater had made two routine field goals, they would have lost. So, color me unimpressed Seattle avoided a losing record, too. It is a nice feather in the cap for the players who fought hard to say that they avoided a losing record, and it provides a better winning record to the legacy of Pete Carroll, but this has to be one of the worst nine win Seahawk teams I have ever watched.

I still see them as mediocre as mediocre can be, and the fact that a bunch of players were smoking cigars in the locker room afterwards, after missing the playoffs, leaves me questioning how strong the leadership is on this team. I mean, seriously. Why?

This leads me to the Pete Carroll question that everyone is asking about with reports that he is set to meet with Jody Allen in the next few days to discuss his future with this team. It was noted in these reports that Carroll will be entering the final year of his contract this year instead of 2025, as previously believed.

I am not in a predicting mood, but I would just say that if Jody Allen has felt the same frustration that I have felt this year with the defense, and inconsistencies with the offense, I wouldn’t be so sure that Carroll coming back in a lame duck year is going to be a given. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the next 72 hours.

In my opinion, Carroll needs to get himself a significantly better defensive coordinator, but if he is going to continue into a lame duck year with no guarantees of continuing in 2025, is that going to entice a solid DC to sign on here? I have big doubts about that.

Coaches want stability. It is an incredible grind, they spend hours away from family, and I think a big payoff is knowing they won’t be moving in twelve months across the country and uprooting family, again. A high in demand defensive coach is going to want to go where he thinks he will have a decent tenure. He will want stability for himself and his love ones who endure his absence.

That’s the rub with continuing with Carroll in 2024 with nothing guaranteed beyond it. We are could be stuck with Clint Hurtt again coaching a defense that is now 30th worst at stopping the run for two seasons in a row.

How does that make you feel? I wanted to puke as I wrote that.

Maybe he does move on from Hurtt, but who is he going to find to replace him in what could be his final year of coaching in 2024? A move away from Hurtt could ultimately be just a very lateral move, and then we would just have to keep our fingers crossed that the new guy is better.

Truthfully, if Carroll returns this year, I want new coordinators on both sides of the ball. The defense has been putrid with Hurtt running that ship, and is probably 90 percent the reason why this team did not make it into the playoffs, but I would also say that an offense that has Tyler Lockett, DK Metcalf, Jaxon Smith Ngijba, Ken Walker, Zach Charbonnet, Noah Fant, and Geno Smith should be more dynamic than it was in 2023. In fact, it should be significantly more dynamic.

Clint Hurtt’s run at DC as been maybe the worst I have ever seen in Seattle and I have religiously followed this team since 1983, but Shane Waldron hasn’t exactly lit my world on fire as an offensive play caller, either. Some will say that Geno isn’t dynamic enough, and if they want to make that argument, I will let them have their moment, but I just don’t think this offense had a Geno problem this year.

Offensively, I think they had a clear lack of identity problem. They were in the bottom in the league in rush attempts with a big offensive line, three quality tight ends, and two high quality running backs. They were bad on third downs often. They were sloppy way too often. When certain things would start to work, Waldron would abandon them for something else in the bag.

While this defense was gut wrenchingly bad, this offense was far too often hair pulling out frustrating. I think this team eeked out 9 wins with a lot of luck and by having just enough talent to not be truly god awful.

I think the problem with this team is mainly coaching. While I don’t think this roster is oozing in talent, this team had three pro bowlers on defense and eight pro bowl alternatives. In short, the league sees talent on this roster.

In fact, I think they had enough talent to get to eleven wins. I think they should have split the series with the LA Rams, and they should have been able to beat the very mediocre Steelers.

Geno Smith just set an NFL record for most come from behind wins in a season with this win in Phoenix. While his numbers are down from 2022 (he did miss two games), he still showed enough efficiency to be a more than capable veteran starter moving forward. Give him an offensive play caller who will make life easier for him with a stronger run game, and there is no reason why I would think he couldn’t have sustained success here for a while, if they continue to run with him. He’s got great options to work with in this offense, he’s smart, he’s accurate, and he’s a decent leader.

That’s not to say that I wouldn’t prefer this team to draft a quarterback high (I do), but it just means that they don’t need to throw a rookie into the fire right away. With Geno, they can ease the young gun into this offense, and make the transition happen when he is more ready.. if they get the scheme better hammered out.

With Waldron, after three seasons now, it still feels like a work in progress. This is why I am ready to move on. Year three with Waldron should have gone way better than it did.

So, I guess with that, I would say that if this team continues with Pete Carroll in a lame duck year, I don’t all together think it’s a great idea to spend pick 16 this Spring on a quarterback even should a guy like Michael Penix Junior be there. It pains me to write that because I have been all aboard the Michael Penix Junior to Seattle Bandwagon for months now, but I fear not having a longer termed answer at head coach and maybe a lame duck coordinator would just hamper his development.

Don’t get me wrong, if the team does draft Penix this Spring with Carroll, I would lose my noodle with excitement, but realistically, I kinda think taking the best available offensive or defensive lineman might be the better play, and then wait for the later rounds on a more developmental quarterback prospect. If Seattle moves away from Carroll, however, that changes this equation for me, significantly.

The guy who is set to be the next long term head coach should be the guy to ultimately pick the next franchise quarterback. That feels more proper. I don’t personally think it’s great when a new guy inherits a quarterback that he didn’t chose himself.

Look in Cleveland. Kevin Stefanski was hired to “fix” Baker Mayfield, and in his first year as head coach, they both did pretty well together, and led the Browns to the playoffs for the first time in over two decades. Then the next year, Baker gets injured, struggles to play through his injury, regresses, whines, and then is replaced by creepozoid Deshaun Watson. This year in Tampa, Baker has proven to be pretty good again, but he wasn’t Stefanski’s guy (I don’t know if Watson is either, but I digress, and you get my point, anyways).

Now look at Houston with newly hired DeMeco Ryans as their head coach, and them aggressively maneuvering in the draft to take CJ Stroud. They are playoff bound, and defensive minded Ryans and Stroud feel joined together for years to come. Houston, as big of a league wide laughing stock as they were, did it absolutely right with the bright young coach and quarterback coming in together. I think that sort of partnership matters for a franchise.

That kinda circles back to this meeting with Jody Allen that Pete is set to have. If she has fallen smitten with a few of these quarterbacks set to enter the draft, and so has General Manager John Schneider, maybe they sense it is time to move on from Pete. She might feel that way regardless, but if she feels like having a young bright talent at QB will up the price on an eventual sale of the team, that could really put Pete Carroll in the corner, especially if he’s not super down for that. There are reasons to think he wouldn’t be.

Carroll is unapologetic in his belief in Geno Smith, and Seattle frankly, could have drafted Will Levis twice last Spring, and no analyst would have batted an eye about it, if they did. Carroll chose not to even though Levis had all the physical traits you would think Seattle would crave for a young quarterback in this offense. Why would anyone think it would be different this Spring under Carroll should Penix or Bo Nix be available at pick 16?

It is going to be an interesting few days. I’m not totally certain how things will shake up, but however it goes, I think it is going to tell us a lot about the direction they move in free agency and the draft.

At either rate, I just know that change on this staff is deeply needed. Yes, they need to get stouter up front on defense and the offensive line, some upgrades at linebacker, but this staff did not get the job done on any level with this team this year. I think they coached this team into an underperforming season, and I am not the only one who likely feels this way.

Bobby Wagner watched these young fellas in the locker smoking stogies and celebrating, and he wasn’t into it. In fact, he said so much in his press conference, and then added that these younger players need to learn how to win. He also sounded like a player who is not necessarily going to be back with this team next Fall even though he said he intends to keep playing. Can he be blamed?

Dudes are allowed to act like clowns on this team too often. Jamal Adams behaved like a buffoon on multiple occasions. Players on defense looked like they quit last week against the Steelers with their entire season on the line. Perhaps things are just too much fun and games.

If the Legion Of Boom players missed the playoffs, I guarantee they wouldn’t be smoking cigars after their season finale closer just because they avoided a losing record. I don’t see Kam Chancellor or Richard Sherman doing that at all. Ditto for Michael Bennett and KJ Wright. Those were proud veteran pro bowlers and Super Bowl champs who knew what it took to win.

This young roster doesn’t know it yet, and I don’t know if they have the coaching staff to help them figure it out. If Chuck Knox or Mike Holmgren had see them lighting up cigars, I think both legendary Seahawk coaches would have blown their tops. In fact, I don’t think the players would have had the space to entertain such a notion in their minds. Carroll gives them such loose license.

Therefore, I think it is entirely reasonable to assume that with Pete Carroll, at age 72 now, has just spent so much time here, and is so close to the situation that he just cannot step far enough away to see it for what it has become. Seattle is a soft cultured club right now. They lack fire, and hunger, and toughness, and it shows. Smoking victory cigars after a meaningless win is proof of that.

Maybe it is just a reflection on Pete Carroll. He has been at this for a LONG TIME. He has had a ton of success and has made boat loads of money for himself. Maybe his hunger, and fight isn’t what it once was, and this is why things are what they now are, and I say this being one of his biggest supporters over the years.

Maybe it is time to just finally move on, just rip the bandaids off, and start fresh. Maybe this is what Jody Allen and her right hand man Bert Kolde are feeling.

If so, then I really am glad they got this win to close out the season. If Carroll has coached his last game in Seattle (big if), then it is proper that they win a nail biter at the end. That feels right.

Go Hawks.

I Need The Seattle Seahawks To Become The Baltimore Ravens

Posted on January 3, 2024 by curtiseastwood

As you might have guessed by my reactions to the Seahawks getting bullied by the mediocre Pittsburgh Steelers last Sunday, I am about done with this club, and how Pete Carroll and John Schneider have put it together. They lack toughness. I can’t handle that.

Football, at its core, is a game about toughness. Fundamentally, it is the teams that block better, and tackle better that make the playoffs, and advance. Even the pass happy attacks we have seen get Super Bowl rings have generally gotten them because of great offensive lines and good to great defenses.

The Seattle Seahawks have a defense that sucks. Some will argue that it is the players while others will say it is the scheme. I think it is both. Schematically, I think it is stuck somewhere between a 4-3 and a 3-4, and many players are tasked to be jacks of all trades and masters of none. Personnel wise, I think they too often struggle to defeat blocks, set edges, fill gabs, and play decent coverage in the middle of the field. I don’t think these fellas are coached up enough to be fundamentally sound football players, either.

It is as bad of a look as it gets for a defensive minded coach such as Pete Carroll, and the fact that his offense no longer dictates any sort of run game also doesn’t help his image, either. Fans have grown exhausted over his team’s mediocrity. You see it all over social media, you hear it all over the airwaves, and where you really feel it is in the stands where season ticket holders now prefer to sell their tix to opposing team fans instead of attending games themselves.

If Jody Allen allows Pete Carroll to walk everything back next year with his current coordinators, and high priced underwhelming players on this club like Jamal Adams, I fear she will alienate the Twelves to such a point that Lumen Field will become an advantage for visiting clubs next Fall. That is not hyperbole.

Therefore, I need this team to take a radical shift in coarse this offseason that is perhaps starting next week. Some will say that Seattle needs a young bright offensive minded head coach to lead them to some new age hipster brand of football. I respectfully say “fuck that shit.”

I need Seattle to become the biggest baddest bully team in America. I need them to become a mixture of Cobra Kai, and Orc Berserkers on Sundays. I need whatever coach is out there and GM who is willing to make that happen above anything else.

I need them to be the Baltimore Ravens. I don’t care what actions are taken to get there, either. Pete Carroll can stay if he is willing to do whatever it takes to get this team to that goal, but if he’s not, he needs to leave. Either way, I need aggressive actions taken towards achieving it this offseason.

Any expensive player who is not dynamic enough, or does not play on the line of scrimmage can be cut, or dealt for all I care. Seattle doesn’t need $48 million dollars tied up into their safeties. They need that money going to their offensive and defensive lines.

They don’t need the expensive salary of Will Dissly. This will read as blasphemy to many, but I am not so sure they need Tyler Lockett when they have JSN and DK Metcalf, either.

It’s debatable whether they should continue on with Geno Smith and his salary, or if they should bring in a cheaper bridge quarterback and draft a quarterback in the Spring. Either way, I firmly believe they need to draft a quarterback next Spring, and I would prefer them to select one of the six that are most often thought to be first round material. Of the bowl games I watched on New Year’s, I salivated all over my TV set watching Bo Nix, JJ McCarthy, and of course, Michael Penix Junior.

I appreciate Geno as much as the next fan, but the move that makes most sense to me is to cut Geno lose and let him go play for another team that can contend for the playoffs elsewhere while they bring in a cheaper bridge QB, and they draft one of these guys. Ultimately, that frees up the most money to go sign some badasses in free agency. I perfectly willing to trade decent veteran QB for more big, nasty, bruising badasses, and take my lumps with a rookie passer.

My youngster is really super into dinosaurs these days. Specifically, he loves the big meat eaters, T Rex, Giganotosaurus, Spinosaurus, etc.. and he could give two squats about the gigantic sauropods like Brachiosaurus. He is also really deep into Godzilla.

Little dude is attracted to all things that kick mother fucking ass, if I am being perfectly honest.

I get it. So, am I. I think that is what has attracted me so much to football in the first place. It is not a contact sport. It is a game built on violence, a blood sport like boxing and martial arts, and I think it speaks to our hard wiring.

Yes, it is joyous to watch Michael Penix Junior throw perfect rainbow bombs in the Sugar Bowl, but on many levels, it is more satisfying for sorts like myself to watch Bralen Trice absolutely dump the Texas quarterback hard on his ass bone. The latter speaks more closely to my soul, if I am being perfectly honest.

That is football for me. It is Tyrannosaurus Fucking Rex when it is working at its best. I will take Penix (or Bo Nix) in a heartbeat to be a part of that equation, but I want that rookie quarterback surrounded by absolute monsters. In my mind, the surest way to get as many monsters as possible is to have a talented quarterback on a cheap rookie deal. That is the golden ticket in this league.

So, yeah. Count me in on the Gimme Penix To The Seahawks Bandwagon Club. I have been on that ride for months now. However, what I truly appreciate, what most speaks to my twisted mind, and warped soul, is all the dudes who can walk into a phone booth with any other dude and duke it out until the other guy has lost the ability to continue and collapses in near death until medics arrive.

That may sound graphic, and unpleasant, and you might think I am boiling over in toxic masculinity while reading this, but fuck it, that is how I am hard wired. Maybe it comes from somewhere deeply embedded into my DNA where ancestors hundreds of years ago fought in close quarters constantly, and there was value in those skills, or maybe it is just simply because I am total asshole, but that is the way it is, and I am perfectly willing to own it.

In that wiring, nothing annoys me more than watching my favorite football team get kicked around like it did against the Steelers last Sunday. I can stomach my quarterback throwing five interceptions in a game as long as the rest of the team is battling like warriors like they did in that NFC championship game against Green Bay almost a decade ago.

I cannot handle my team being physically owned by another. I cannot have that any longer.

The Seahawks need to get back to the team they once were when they physically bullied others with defense, an intensely tough ground attack, and playmaking quarterback on a rookie contract. I need dudes who are horses and elephants and grizzly bears up front. I need Dan Campbell knee biters.

I also need coaches who will mandate physical dominance. I need that staff to demand excellence at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, and a physical style from all the skill position players equally, as well. I need fundamentally sound football drilled into these dudes so much that they dream about tackling grannies at grocery stores just for sickly dark humor.

I do not feel that from this coaching staff on any level. Maybe it starts and stops with Carroll, and it is time for him to walk away, or maybe he just hasn’t surrounded himself with the right coordinators. Either way, something has got to give. Realistically, I don’t know if Jody Allen fires Carroll after year two of the post Russell Wilson rebuild, but perhaps I underestimate that.

Watching this defense lose its will to fight against an average Steeler team last Sunday was beyond damning, in my mind. It looked like they plainly stopped fighting for Carroll, and it was an absolute embarrassment. If they bring the same flat performance to Phoenix against the Cardinals, then perhaps it is time for Jody to act in a sweeping manner.

On one hand, it feels unfair to fire Carroll during an injury plagued year with a tough schedule, but on the other hand, teams like the Bengals and Browns have lost all kinds of starters (including their quarterbacks), and are competing better for the playoffs. These Seahawks have lost games due to inept coaching, bad scheming, and embarrassing fundamentals more than lack of talent on the field, in my opinion. Now it feels like perhaps players aren’t even playing hard.

If players aren’t fighting for their coach, then something has to give. Either change the players or change the coach. This is what Jody Allen needs to decide if Seattle lays another egg this Sunday. For me, I think it’s easier to change the coaching.

I could go on and on about the things I want for this team. I want better coaching and I am actually fantasying about nutcase Jim Harbaugh taking over, if Carroll can no longer cut it. I want a bright young playmaking quarterback to build around. I need a powerful offensive line. I need an intimidating defense. What I really circle back to is that I just need this team to be exactly like the Ravens.

The Ravens had Joe Flacco at QB, and decided to spend a late first round pick on the raw but talented Lamar Jackson, anyways. The Ravens constantly draft offensive and defensive linemen in abundance. The Ravens pay good money for top free agents offensive and defensive linemen, as well. The Ravens also do not spend second round picks on running backs in back to back years. The Ravens change coordinators when they are stuck in ruts to where the team just isn’t advancing far enough with the talent it has.

This is what I crave. I don’t just want greatness. I need greatness born out of total physical domination. I want to break the wills of players, not watch the will of my defense fly out the window because Mike Tomlin simply decides to stay with his run game.

Yeah. How could you not want this for the Seahawks?

Why not just do whatever to be the biggest and baddest ever? Is this not what football is about????

Or are we just going to give out orange slices every time Tyler Lockett catches a pretty pass from Geno Smith that temporarily elevates our hopes. If this is what we have become as a fanbase, then yeah, sell your tickets off to 49er fans when their team comes up to play because we have all totally lost our edge, and the Seahawks have clearly become a joke again.

For my part, I want the edge back. I need nasty. I need to feel a team that I can be really proud to root for.

This year, I have really struggled to find that sort of pride for the Hawks. Deep down, I punted on this season the moment we got swept by the mediocre Rams and had to then face the dominating 49ers twice. I am positive many other fans did, as well.

If these Seahawks were more like the Ravens, however, I would deeply feel pride. I think most other fans would, as well, and perhaps Lumen Field would be better packed with Seahawk fans instead of traveling ones. This whole enchilada would be fun again, instead of an exercise of constant, unrelenting frustration of bad football fundamentals, bad clock management, and bad schematics.

It is just a thought, anyways.

Go Hawks.

Russell Wilson And The Denver Bronco Clown Show

Posted on December 28, 2023 by curtiseastwood

As I am sure it is with a lot of Seattle fans, I have a fairly complex view on Russell Wilson. Throughout most of his tenure in Seattle, he was my favorite Seahawk player since Cortez Kennedy. In fact, he and Kennedy are the only Seahawks who’s jerseys I have ever purchased and worn.

I became a huge fan of Russell Wilson in his rookie year when sports radio sorts laughed about him, and fans wanted Pete Carroll fired for starting him over Matt Flynn. When I watched him throw a go ahead game winning bomb to Sidney Rice against the Patriots, I decided, come hell or high water, Russ was going to be my guy.

The last two years of him in Seattle were rough on me as a fan, though. I felt myself in a weird place of defending his diminished play, and then sort of gutted with disappointment that he wanted Pete Carroll and John Schneider fired in order to stay in Seattle. When I got wind of that, my thought was simply “trade his ass.” I was ready to move on.

I just don’t want any player on the team I root for to have that kind of power and control. I don’t think that works in football like it can work in the smaller rostered teams of the NBA. In fact, I think that’s pretty poisonous, and look what it did for Denver in Russ’s first year.

Players on that team started tuning him out and quit on him. They saw through the ego and the weird entourage. It became a total laughing stock situation across the league.

I don’t believe Sean Payton was hired to “fix” Russell Wilson. I think he was hired to push back on him and his agent. I think the new ownership group in Denver that wasn’t involved with the trade probably decided last offseason that they needed to move on from Russell Wilson, and they needed a forceful proven head coach who would put him in his place, and set a new standard for the team.

You can love that, or hate it, be impressed with it, or disgusted with it, but I believe that was everything going on there. I also think that organizationally, they have no fucking idea what they are doing in this process.

Why on Earth would they go to Russell Wilson to attempt to get him to rescind his injury guarantees in his contract weeks ago, and then still have him play meaningful games risking injury? It doesn’t make sense, and what were they expecting his response was going to be?

If this is all true about what they asked him to do last month, then they have no idea how to run a professional football team, and if they had any sense of how Russ’s agent operates, they had to know all of this was going to get leaked after his benching, and then turn into an absolute PR shit show for them to deal with. So, yeah, I think the Denver Broncos are the perfect clown show organization of the league right now.

But I also understand why they want to move away from Russell Wilson. They should have never have traded for him and gave away that sort of haul to Seattle in the first place. They should have never granted him and his agent that sort of initial control. They never asked the question as to why Seattle would ever be willing to deal him in the first place, and that was their fatal flaw from their previous ownership.

The new ownership just decided to crap all over themselves asking him to rescind the details of his current contract. That’s their fatal flaw and it is going to take them a long time to publicly live that down. They better draft a great quarterback next Spring.

Seattle fans may not want to hear this, but I honestly think Michael Penix Junior would be an ideal fit for what Sean Payton wants to do. He might be their QB1, and they will be in better position to draft him than Seattle will.

From a Seattle point of view, benching Russ likely helps us get a higher third round pick from Denver next Spring that could turn into a starting guard or linebacker, and that’s a nice plus. It also unanimously shows the World which team ultimately won the blockbuster trade. The Seahawks destroyed the Broncos in that deal. It was stealing candy from a special needs child.

Moving forward, Russ will be released in March and will be a free agent. I don’t suspect he will have a big market. This is a deep quarterback draft class coming up, and teams are finding ways to win with guys who have been largely backup quarterbacks, and or marginal starters.

Why pay over $30 Million annually for a 35 year old short quarterback who is going to force your offense into a run first approach in order to maximize his abilities?

Yes, he absolutely has had a bounce back year in 2023, but that only occurred once Sean Payton accepted the fact that he had to adopt the old Pete Carroll Seahawk run on first and second down offense in order to get efficient production out of him. Pete Carroll now runs a more opened up offense in Seattle than he ever did with Russ. He actually trusts Geno Smith more than he did Russell Wilson.

What this all tells the league is that Russ is a very good play action quarterback in a run heavy offense, and that is it. A lot of quarterbacks in this league are good at play action in run heavy attacks. Geno Smith is very good at it. Derek Carr can be good at it. So can Baker Mayfield, and so forth, and so on. This is the group that Russell Wilson falls under, nice 2023 stats not withstanding.

I know some fans are going to wonder about whether a return to Seattle could happen for him. I do not see a future where Russell Wilson comes back to Seattle to play again. I know former players have returned to this organization to play for Pete Carroll again, but I don’t think this one will. I think too much damage was done.

I think that his future with the team ended after he stepped into Jody Allen’s office and requested that she either fire Pete Carroll and John Schneider or trade him away. Even if Carroll and Schneider move on, I think that act of Russ and his agent has probably left an extremely soured taste in Jody’s mouth. As acting owner, I don’t suspect that she would want to work with them again, and if she should sell to Jeff Bezos, I don’t suspect he would want to entertain that, either.

That is the truly sad thing about Russ that stays with me all through this. His willingness to back stab his bosses because of the entitlement that bore out of his lofty status as Seattle’s franchise quarterback. He wanted so much to be Tom Brady and Lebron James that he lost sight of the plucky Dudley Do Right he was when he first got here and just wanted to do everything right.

With Super Bowls came celebrity and a celebrity wife and crazy ambitions on and off the field, and then a hyper unrealistic view of who and what he is as a player. That’s his story in Seattle. That’s his legacy along with Super Bowls and playoffs and pro bowls. It is all wrapped up into one incredibly complicated package, and I am not so sure I would want this team to entertain a reunion with him if they even did (they won’t).

What I expect is that after getting cut in March, he will have some teams probably sniff around. His stats were good again this year, and he proved he can play in a very run centric approach.

Atlanta with their spendy owner might sniff around. The Raiders could show interest. Maybe Carolina to help groom Bryce Young, or maybe Tampa, but I suspect they would rather stay with Baker Mayfield. Maybe Minnesota if they move on from Cousins, but why wouldn’t they just stay with Cousins?

I also see a lot of things potentially working against him on the market. A lot of teams are going to be interested in one of the many talented quarterbacks who could be in this draft. Other teams will have their own middling starter or a franchise guy in place. Why make a lateral move for Russell Wilson?

It’s possible that Russ could sit a long time on the open market before he signs somewhere like it was for Cam Newton a few years back when he was released by Carolina. We might get into training camp and when it is clear a team doesn’t have a good starter then he gets an offer he will accept.

I think either a team gets desperate in free agency early with him and offers him a short term deal with a decent amount of money up front, or the market is cold, and he will be forced to wait it out into training camp and accept a low ball deal to come in and compete in a bad quarterback situation. I don’t think there will be middle ground. Either way, I don’t think he will see another big time contract again. Those days are over, and recent history is too damning.

Whenever he ends up, I wish the best for him. I would like to see him have some success again. As someone who used to be one of his biggest fans, I don’t want to see his storyline falter further.

However, also as a Seattle Seahawk fan, I don’t really want to see him back here. I would rather hang with Geno Smith a bit longer, and see this team draft the next franchise quarterback to take over.

For me the gold ticket is to get a young talented passer on a salary cap friendly contract to beef the roster up around. Russell Wilson gave me this model, after all.

Go Hawks.

12th Life

Intuitive takes on the Seattle Seahawks, Seattle area sports, and other cool stuff, with no analytics involved.

Tag Archives: seattle-seahawks

Seahawks Building Necessary Toughness Through The Draft, Finally

Assessing The State Of The 2024 Seattle Seahawks Prior To The NFL Draft

Quarterback: Healthy

Running Back: Strong

Wide Receiver: Elite

Tight End: Promising

Offensive Line: Gas Inducing

Defensive Line And Edge Rushers: Hopeful

Middle Linebacker: Interesting

Cornerback: Strong

Safety: Okay-ish

Final Thoughts

A Very Excellent Offseason Wish List For The 2024 Seattle Seahawks

Commit to the front seven of this defense through free agency and the draft

Find the Quarterback Of The Future

Be aggressive fixing the offensive line

Bring back Noah Fant at tight end

Find a way to keep Tyler Lockett

Continue developing this roster from within

Final thoughts

With Mike Macdonald And Ryan Grubb, The Seahawks Are Set For Greatness

Seahawks Land Mike Macdonald As Their Head Coach And This Is Freaking Awesome

The Seattle Seahawks Are John Schneider’s Ship Now And What It Means Moving Forward

The Greatness Of Pete Carroll Deserves A Statue

Seahawks Finish Season 9-8, Miss Playoffs, And Change Is Needed

I Need The Seattle Seahawks To Become The Baltimore Ravens

Russell Wilson And The Denver Bronco Clown Show