It’s hard to put into words just how much this past decade of Seahawks football has meant to their fans as well as to the city of Seattle as a whole. It’s been an unimaginable prize for the fans who toughed it out through decades of mediocrity and for the newer sports fans alike, but more than that, Seahawks football is a pervasive and inescapable part of Seattle culture.
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You can see ‘12’ flags outside houses, classrooms, and businesses anywhere in the state. Likely a majority of the greater Seattle area wears Seahawks gear or team colors every ‘Blue Friday’ before a game. The games themselves are perhaps the most powerful community bonding event in the Pacific Northwest. Even for those who don’t follow football, it’s a welcome excitement whenever the weekend rolls around.
For these reasons, it’s equally hard to put into words how heartbreaking Tuesday, March 9 was to the team’s faithful. In the darkest day in Seahawks history since that play, two of the last remnants of an entire decade of brilliance departed from the team, plunging the franchise into a worryingly murky future the likes of which have not been experienced for almost a whole generation of Seattle football fans.
Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner were more than just two of the greatest athletes to grace Seattle, they were pillars of the community and culture-setters on either side of the ball. It’s almost impossible to imagine an identity for the team without these two.
And yet, here we are.
Image From: ESPN
While the dust has settled on these two massive moves, the doom and gloom continues in Seattle -- and I’m not referring to doom and gloom that is their weather for nine months of the year. Takes have been spewed left and right, and only time will tell which ones are freezing cold and which are right on the money. The important thing now is, where in the hell do the Seahawks go from here?
That’s not to say that every move they’ve made outside of the Wilson and Wagner transactions have been stellar. Re-signing the oft-injured and otherwise unspectacular tight end Will Dissly to 3 years/$24 million to back up Noah Fant is puzzling, even if he is a good blocker. Releasing Carlos Dunlap was disappointing considering he performed admirably despite being out of position for much of last year and that Seattle sorely lacks pass rushers. And bringing back center Kyle Fuller and his 46.5 PFF grade, even in a backup role, doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence.
Furthermore, failing to sign tackle Trent Brown after extended talks seems like a missed opportunity, opting not to bring back perhaps the only consistent corner they had all season in D.J. Reed is unfortunate considering he signed a deal with the Jets (who have a history of overpaying one-year standouts) for less money than William Jackson III, Charvarius Ward, and Adoree’ Jackson make at the same position.
Add in the fact that Rasheem Green, a young pass rusher with lots of promise, hasn’t seemed to have had any communication with Seattle on a deal, and I’m not sure the offseason outside of the two aforementioned landmark moves is even a significant net positive so far, though the draft is still yet to come.
Even if this year’s free agency period went as swimmingly as it realistically can be with historically frugal GM John Schneider at the helm, it likely would not stand to improve the team in such a dramatic fashion that they will perform better upon downgrading from Russell Wilson to… Drew Lock.
Look, I don’t want to disrespect Drew Lock too much. He seems like a nice guy. I like how he has carried himself in his press conferences so far and that he endeared himself to Seattle fans by saying he would not take Wilson’s #3, despite him having worn that number during his tenure in Denver and while at college in Missouri.
An elite quarterback, however, he is not.
Image From: Justin Edmonds/Getty Images
In truth, I was never personally a fan of Drew Lock’s game in college. I’ve gotten my fair share of quarterback evaluations wrong in my time, but I’ve really never been sold on Lock for reasons which still hold up despite the lessons I learned from recent whiffs. He struggled with inconsistency throughout college, often rushed his mechanics (an issue I have with Zach Wilson, currently), had messy footwork (see: Jimmy Garoppolo), and didn’t quite show “otherworldly” traits that make such a flawed prospect worth taking a big bet on, as, say, Josh Allen did. He also hasn’t yet shown quick processing of his progressions while in the NFL, often a death knell for young, talented quarterbacks at this stage in their careers.
The roster holes present in Seattle aren’t ones that you can fix overnight, especially the one having to do with the starting quarterback-- you know, the most important position in football? That leaves the Seahawks in a confusing situation.
Seattle’s collection of draft picks accrued from the Wilson trade was impressive, but their selection over the next two years, when you factor in the much-maligned Jamal Adams trade from 2020, don’t quite seem like the “war chest” you should have when trading away a future Hall of Fame QB in his prime to a hopeful contender.
This leaves less wiggle room than desired for Schneider, who, to put it kindly, has bungled many a draft over the past half-decade. Though he has hit on some quality mid-round picks here and there over the past four drafts, most notably D.K. Metcalf, there’s just been far too many wasted picks, talented sparkplugs who they don’t seem to have a plan for, and reaches on good players at positions with questionable value. Let’s go through the past five drafts one-by-one.
In 2017, Seattle traded out of the first round and grabbed Malik McDowell in the second round (ouch), hit somewhat on Ethan Pocic, who no longer is on the team, and found a good cornerback in Shaquille Griffin, who they promptly let walk to Jacksonville after his contract expired.
From 2018, players who remain with the team and see significant snaps are Rashaad Penny, a first-round pick at running back with three full seasons of wear-and-tear on his body from college, Rasheem Green (an admittedly solid pick), Dissly, and Michael Dickson, a punter drafted in the fifth round. In 2019, their first-round pick was spent on L.J. Collier, who was on many occasions a healthy scratch this season (yikes). They hit a home run with Metcalf after trading up back into the second round, but whiffed on most of the other picks.
In 2021 Seattle only had three picks, spent on D’Wayne Eskridge (see: “talented sparkplugs who they don’t seem to have a plan for” and add “has struggled with injuries”), Tre Brown, who has been passable at corner, and Stone Forsythe, a project who has not yet shown much progress.
Image From: Seattle Seahawks
Of these past five drafts, 2020 was the only true success, in my opinion. They hit on Jordyn Brooks, who now has Wagner’s big shoes to fill at middle linebacker, hit on Darrell Taylor at DE, and hit on Damien Lewis at guard, addressing three important positions with promising players. A fantastic draft, but still not quite on the level of, for instance, New Orleans’ instantly-franchise-changing draft in 2017 where they hit on Marshon Lattimore, Ryan Ramczyk, Marcus Williams, Alvin Kamara, and Trey Hendrickson, a feat which still blows my mind to this day. Thus, I’m not sure if this draft alone absolves four other years in the past five of underwhelming selections.
For those keeping track at home, this leaves the Seahawks with a middle-of-the-road roster, a massive question mark at QB, a prudent GM with a spotty recent draft record, and a head coach whose philosophies on offense and defense seem more and more outdated by the week. That’s not to say Pete Carroll is a bad coach -- he’s a tremendous leader of men who simply finds ways to win, but given the team’s steady decline, lack of playoff runs, and far-too-common reliance on sheer dumb luck to eke out games since around 2016, I don’t see him sniffing a Super Bowl with this roster.
So then what? Carroll is still good enough that he finds a way to win enough games such that the Seahawks won’t be in contention for either Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud next year, unless they trade both of next year’s firsts and some more to move up to such a position, which would be a ridiculously uncharacteristic move. Do you roll with Lock for the foreseeable future? Do you trade for Baker Mayfield, who in my mind is a worse passer than early-career “game manager” Russell Wilson with less mobility and more ego?
I’ve thought about this a lot over the past couple weeks, and the answer I keep going back to is… that there’s no simple answer.
I love Malik Willis in this year’s draft, who, while still raw, actually does portray some of those “otherworldly” characteristics a la Josh Allen or Trey Lance, and I think he could pair nicely with vertical receivers such as Metcalf, Fant, and Tyler Lockett. But will he even be available at the 9th overall pick, with Detroit reportedly showing interest in him? It likely wouldn’t be worth trading up that far for him, but you’d likely have the same issue next year of being just out of range for a blue-chip QB except with a higher price tag on a trade-up, due to the hype surrounding Young and Stroud.
Image From: USA Today Sports
If Willis isn’t available, I’d love for Seattle to look at Kayvon Thibodeaux, George Karlaftis (two true blue-chip pass rushers), or Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner, a stingy cornerback with an astonishing track record. Offensive tackles Ikem Ekwonu or Evan Neal, though highly unlikely to be on the board at #9, wouldn’t be a bad idea either. Barring the availability of any of those guys, a trade-down, while wholly unsexy, could actually be rather beneficial in a deep-but-not-top-heavy draft such as this one.
Even in the best-case scenario that Willis is available, do the old-school offensive principles of the Pete Carroll regime yield a good situation for him to blossom in? And if he’s not, how long will the Seahawks stay in quarterback purgatory? Finally, in the off chance that Seattle smashes this draft out of the park, would it hurt even more to have Lock, Mayfield, or Geno Smith at QB holding back a roster on the up-and-up?
The rift between Russell Wilson and the Seahawks, and the ensuing mega-trade with Denver, seemed to provide some immediate clarity on the directions that the concerned parties intend to go, but upon further inspection nothing is all that clear in the case of Seattle. They’re likely just too good to be in position to draft an elite QB, and not nearly good enough to compete with a limited game-manager as the signal-caller.
One thing, however, is quite certain. Losing Wilson and Wagner is equivalent to losing key members of the culture of both the football team and the city of Seattle. That kind of heartbreak isn’t easy to get over -- it’s now up to Pete Carroll, John Schneider, and team owner Jody Allen to pick up the pieces.
Do you trust them to do that?
Image Source
You can see ‘12’ flags outside houses, classrooms, and businesses anywhere in the state. Likely a majority of the greater Seattle area wears Seahawks gear or team colors every ‘Blue Friday’ before a game. The games themselves are perhaps the most powerful community bonding event in the Pacific Northwest. Even for those who don’t follow football, it’s a welcome excitement whenever the weekend rolls around.
For these reasons, it’s equally hard to put into words how heartbreaking Tuesday, March 9 was to the team’s faithful. In the darkest day in Seahawks history since that play, two of the last remnants of an entire decade of brilliance departed from the team, plunging the franchise into a worryingly murky future the likes of which have not been experienced for almost a whole generation of Seattle football fans.
Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner were more than just two of the greatest athletes to grace Seattle, they were pillars of the community and culture-setters on either side of the ball. It’s almost impossible to imagine an identity for the team without these two.
And yet, here we are.
Image From: ESPN
While the dust has settled on these two massive moves, the doom and gloom continues in Seattle -- and I’m not referring to doom and gloom that is their weather for nine months of the year. Takes have been spewed left and right, and only time will tell which ones are freezing cold and which are right on the money. The important thing now is, where in the hell do the Seahawks go from here?
The current roster, as it stands, is not a Super Bowl contender. Factor in that Seattle competes in a packed NFC West and it’s not a sure bet that this team will make the playoffs at all, even in a weak NFC.
That’s not to say the team is a dumpster fire; it is indeed still hyperbolic to compare the Seahawks’ roster to that of the Texans’, for instance. Some improvements have been made to the team in earnest during the course of the off-season: Noah Fant and Shelby Harris, two players acquired in the Wilson trade with Denver, immediately project as starters in their respective positions, Austin Blythe was a good pickup to improve the offensive line, and Uchenna Nwosu is a good scheme fit at outside linebacker. Also, former first-round pick Artie Burns is an intriguing high-floor pickup who is already familiar with new associate head coach Sean Desai’s defensive system.
As for keeping things in-house, the team brought back DT Quinton Jefferson after stints with the Bills and the Raiders, re-signed Quandre Diggs to a win-win deal, and hashed out a savvy one-year prove-it contract for Rashaad Penny, who excelled down the stretch last season albeit in a very small sample size.
Image From: Getty Images
That’s not to say the team is a dumpster fire; it is indeed still hyperbolic to compare the Seahawks’ roster to that of the Texans’, for instance. Some improvements have been made to the team in earnest during the course of the off-season: Noah Fant and Shelby Harris, two players acquired in the Wilson trade with Denver, immediately project as starters in their respective positions, Austin Blythe was a good pickup to improve the offensive line, and Uchenna Nwosu is a good scheme fit at outside linebacker. Also, former first-round pick Artie Burns is an intriguing high-floor pickup who is already familiar with new associate head coach Sean Desai’s defensive system.
As for keeping things in-house, the team brought back DT Quinton Jefferson after stints with the Bills and the Raiders, re-signed Quandre Diggs to a win-win deal, and hashed out a savvy one-year prove-it contract for Rashaad Penny, who excelled down the stretch last season albeit in a very small sample size.
Image From: Getty Images
That’s not to say that every move they’ve made outside of the Wilson and Wagner transactions have been stellar. Re-signing the oft-injured and otherwise unspectacular tight end Will Dissly to 3 years/$24 million to back up Noah Fant is puzzling, even if he is a good blocker. Releasing Carlos Dunlap was disappointing considering he performed admirably despite being out of position for much of last year and that Seattle sorely lacks pass rushers. And bringing back center Kyle Fuller and his 46.5 PFF grade, even in a backup role, doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence.
Furthermore, failing to sign tackle Trent Brown after extended talks seems like a missed opportunity, opting not to bring back perhaps the only consistent corner they had all season in D.J. Reed is unfortunate considering he signed a deal with the Jets (who have a history of overpaying one-year standouts) for less money than William Jackson III, Charvarius Ward, and Adoree’ Jackson make at the same position.
Add in the fact that Rasheem Green, a young pass rusher with lots of promise, hasn’t seemed to have had any communication with Seattle on a deal, and I’m not sure the offseason outside of the two aforementioned landmark moves is even a significant net positive so far, though the draft is still yet to come.
Even if this year’s free agency period went as swimmingly as it realistically can be with historically frugal GM John Schneider at the helm, it likely would not stand to improve the team in such a dramatic fashion that they will perform better upon downgrading from Russell Wilson to… Drew Lock.
Look, I don’t want to disrespect Drew Lock too much. He seems like a nice guy. I like how he has carried himself in his press conferences so far and that he endeared himself to Seattle fans by saying he would not take Wilson’s #3, despite him having worn that number during his tenure in Denver and while at college in Missouri.
An elite quarterback, however, he is not.
Image From: Justin Edmonds/Getty Images
In truth, I was never personally a fan of Drew Lock’s game in college. I’ve gotten my fair share of quarterback evaluations wrong in my time, but I’ve really never been sold on Lock for reasons which still hold up despite the lessons I learned from recent whiffs. He struggled with inconsistency throughout college, often rushed his mechanics (an issue I have with Zach Wilson, currently), had messy footwork (see: Jimmy Garoppolo), and didn’t quite show “otherworldly” traits that make such a flawed prospect worth taking a big bet on, as, say, Josh Allen did. He also hasn’t yet shown quick processing of his progressions while in the NFL, often a death knell for young, talented quarterbacks at this stage in their careers.
The roster holes present in Seattle aren’t ones that you can fix overnight, especially the one having to do with the starting quarterback-- you know, the most important position in football? That leaves the Seahawks in a confusing situation.
Seattle’s collection of draft picks accrued from the Wilson trade was impressive, but their selection over the next two years, when you factor in the much-maligned Jamal Adams trade from 2020, don’t quite seem like the “war chest” you should have when trading away a future Hall of Fame QB in his prime to a hopeful contender.
This leaves less wiggle room than desired for Schneider, who, to put it kindly, has bungled many a draft over the past half-decade. Though he has hit on some quality mid-round picks here and there over the past four drafts, most notably D.K. Metcalf, there’s just been far too many wasted picks, talented sparkplugs who they don’t seem to have a plan for, and reaches on good players at positions with questionable value. Let’s go through the past five drafts one-by-one.
In 2017, Seattle traded out of the first round and grabbed Malik McDowell in the second round (ouch), hit somewhat on Ethan Pocic, who no longer is on the team, and found a good cornerback in Shaquille Griffin, who they promptly let walk to Jacksonville after his contract expired.
From 2018, players who remain with the team and see significant snaps are Rashaad Penny, a first-round pick at running back with three full seasons of wear-and-tear on his body from college, Rasheem Green (an admittedly solid pick), Dissly, and Michael Dickson, a punter drafted in the fifth round. In 2019, their first-round pick was spent on L.J. Collier, who was on many occasions a healthy scratch this season (yikes). They hit a home run with Metcalf after trading up back into the second round, but whiffed on most of the other picks.
In 2021 Seattle only had three picks, spent on D’Wayne Eskridge (see: “talented sparkplugs who they don’t seem to have a plan for” and add “has struggled with injuries”), Tre Brown, who has been passable at corner, and Stone Forsythe, a project who has not yet shown much progress.
Image From: Seattle Seahawks
Of these past five drafts, 2020 was the only true success, in my opinion. They hit on Jordyn Brooks, who now has Wagner’s big shoes to fill at middle linebacker, hit on Darrell Taylor at DE, and hit on Damien Lewis at guard, addressing three important positions with promising players. A fantastic draft, but still not quite on the level of, for instance, New Orleans’ instantly-franchise-changing draft in 2017 where they hit on Marshon Lattimore, Ryan Ramczyk, Marcus Williams, Alvin Kamara, and Trey Hendrickson, a feat which still blows my mind to this day. Thus, I’m not sure if this draft alone absolves four other years in the past five of underwhelming selections.
For those keeping track at home, this leaves the Seahawks with a middle-of-the-road roster, a massive question mark at QB, a prudent GM with a spotty recent draft record, and a head coach whose philosophies on offense and defense seem more and more outdated by the week. That’s not to say Pete Carroll is a bad coach -- he’s a tremendous leader of men who simply finds ways to win, but given the team’s steady decline, lack of playoff runs, and far-too-common reliance on sheer dumb luck to eke out games since around 2016, I don’t see him sniffing a Super Bowl with this roster.
I’ve thought about this a lot over the past couple weeks, and the answer I keep going back to is… that there’s no simple answer.
I love Malik Willis in this year’s draft, who, while still raw, actually does portray some of those “otherworldly” characteristics a la Josh Allen or Trey Lance, and I think he could pair nicely with vertical receivers such as Metcalf, Fant, and Tyler Lockett. But will he even be available at the 9th overall pick, with Detroit reportedly showing interest in him? It likely wouldn’t be worth trading up that far for him, but you’d likely have the same issue next year of being just out of range for a blue-chip QB except with a higher price tag on a trade-up, due to the hype surrounding Young and Stroud.
Image From: USA Today Sports
If Willis isn’t available, I’d love for Seattle to look at Kayvon Thibodeaux, George Karlaftis (two true blue-chip pass rushers), or Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner, a stingy cornerback with an astonishing track record. Offensive tackles Ikem Ekwonu or Evan Neal, though highly unlikely to be on the board at #9, wouldn’t be a bad idea either. Barring the availability of any of those guys, a trade-down, while wholly unsexy, could actually be rather beneficial in a deep-but-not-top-heavy draft such as this one.
Even in the best-case scenario that Willis is available, do the old-school offensive principles of the Pete Carroll regime yield a good situation for him to blossom in? And if he’s not, how long will the Seahawks stay in quarterback purgatory? Finally, in the off chance that Seattle smashes this draft out of the park, would it hurt even more to have Lock, Mayfield, or Geno Smith at QB holding back a roster on the up-and-up?
The rift between Russell Wilson and the Seahawks, and the ensuing mega-trade with Denver, seemed to provide some immediate clarity on the directions that the concerned parties intend to go, but upon further inspection nothing is all that clear in the case of Seattle. They’re likely just too good to be in position to draft an elite QB, and not nearly good enough to compete with a limited game-manager as the signal-caller.
One thing, however, is quite certain. Losing Wilson and Wagner is equivalent to losing key members of the culture of both the football team and the city of Seattle. That kind of heartbreak isn’t easy to get over -- it’s now up to Pete Carroll, John Schneider, and team owner Jody Allen to pick up the pieces.
Do you trust them to do that?
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