The Seahawks’ 2021 Schedule Was Released

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As I get older, I’m less and less enthusiastic about the annual spring ritual of the NFL making it a huge fucking deal to release that season’s schedule. Why is this a thing? Why do teams have to make dumb viral videos? People are going to talk about it regardless, you don’t need the annoying fake hoopla. It’s especially pointless when we know what the opponents will be for each team well in advance; essentially it’s just a huge ado over the order and game times.

Yawn.

  • Week 1 – @ Colts (10am)
  • Week 2 – Titans
  • Week 3 – @ Vikings
  • Week 4 – @ 49ers
  • Week 5 – Rams (Thurs)
  • Week 6 – @ Steelers (SNF)
  • Week 7 – Saints (MNF)
  • Week 8 – Jaguars
  • Week 9 – BYE
  • Week 10 – @ Packers
  • Week 11 – Cardinals
  • Week 12 – @ Football Team (MNF)
  • Week 13 – 49ers (SNF)
  • Week 14 – @ Texans (10am)
  • Week 15 – @ Rams
  • Week 16 – Bears
  • Week 17 – Lions
  • Week 18 – @ Cardinals

I have no idea how tough or easy this schedule will be. The Colts and Titans look like strong opponents right out of the box. The NFC West is obviously always a fucking minefield. The Saints, Packers, and Steelers are almost always good. And, teams like the Bears, Lions, and Football Team are wild cards (lots of new players could make them better than they were a year ago).

From a construction standpoint, I like the BYE landing in the middle; I’m less-enthused by the early-ish Thursday Night Game, but maybe that’s a good thing? Maybe a Thursday game later in the year – when you’re beaten up by playing so many games already – leads to a higher incidence of injury; who’s to say?

I’m QUITE intrigued by there only being two 10am games on the schedule. Not that I’m overly concerned about them anymore, but I wonder if it’s a fluke, or if it’s a sign the NFL is trying to help out the West Coast teams a bit more. My guess is it’s a fluke; two of our road games – Steelers & Football Team – are in primetime, that would otherwise be early starts. That Packers game will almost certainly be the FOX Game Of The Week (unless Aaron Rodgers gets traded and the Packers stink), and the Vikings are a midwest team that probably don’t mind playing late once in a while.

Obviously, the Seahawks have Russell Wilson and D.K. Metcalf, so they’re fodder for as many primetime games as the NFL can schedule. You can’t complain about the Seahawks not getting respect nationally, because pretty much since 2013 or so, it’s been this way every single year. When you have superstars, you win a lot of games, and you play those games in exciting ways, you’re going to get notice nationally. That’s just the way it works.

There are fun reasons to watch most of these games! The least-interesting ones to me are the games against the Football Team, Bears, Lions, and Texans. But, it’ll be cool to see what the Jags look like this early into their rebuild, I’ll be interested in how the Saints look post-Brees, and I’ll be really interested to see if Carson Wentz can resurrect his career in Indy, that looked so promising just two years ago.

Anyway, that’s that. I’ve done my civic duty of talking about the Seahawks’ schedule. Now, we can all move on with our lives until August.

The Mariners Are Showing Their True Colors

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Based on pre-season expectations, the Mariners were playing out of their minds through approximately a month of the 2021 season. That is decidedly not the case since a 13-8 start, as the Mariners have lost 11 of their last 16 games. You can make the argument that the level of competition has been tough throughout – it makes sense, for instance, that the Mariners would get swept in a 2-game series in Los Angeles against the Dodgers – but this losing skid has been a long time coming, and cracks are starting to show against even the poor teams (2-4 in six games against Baltimore and Texas should never happen).

It doesn’t appear to get remarkably easier, as the next few weeks are littered with series against quality teams (including the Indians, starting tonight), so we’re at a bit of a crossroads here with this year’s Mariners squad. The Mariners are under .500 for the first time since April 8th; will they right the ship – with the addition of Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert, effective today – or will they continue their long slide into obscurity?

The last two days were as demoralizing as it gets. There’s an argument to be made that the M’s should’ve won on Tuesday. Even though we were going up against an elite starting pitcher, we still touched him up for 4 runs on 3 homers, and in these types of games, you need to make that limited number of runs stick.

Indeed, behind a strong Yusei Kikuchi start, we held a 4-1 lead heading into the 7th, and a 4-3 lead heading into the 8th. It’s unfair to malign the bullpen too much, since they’ve carried this team in a lot of ways, but it was disappointing all around. I’m disappointed in Scott Servais for trying to squeeze an extra inning out of Kikuchi (he had gone 6 innings, giving up just the 1 run on around 90-or-so pitches before returning to start the 7th; he got one out but traded it for 2 additional runs in the process thanks to shaky bullpenning). I’m disappointed in the choice to go to Anthony Misiewicz – our primary left-handed bullpen arm – to follow a left-handed starter in Kikuchi, especially with runners on (he has not proven himself capable of regularly getting out of these types of jams unscathed in the past). If you’re going to go with Misiewicz, give him a clean inning to start with! I’m also disappointed in Misiewicz himself, who got off to a red-hot start this season before faltering in recent outings. I’m disappointed in Rafael Montero being just a Blown Save Machine for this team (his fifth in six weeks’ worth of baseball). I’m disappointed in the overall bullpen construction – where Kendall Graveman is the only actual quality reliever we have on the roster, and he can’t go 2 innings per save ever fucking time – because there really is no bridge guy to get us to the ninth. A lot of disappointment to spread around, all adds up to a 6-4 defeat that didn’t have to be.

The finale yesterday was a 7-1 drubbing. We couldn’t really touch their starter, and Justin Dunn had another one of his … outings. If he ever puts it all together, he’ll be a Cy Young-calibre player. But, I’d say the odds of that happening are remote, because he just can’t get a handle on where his pitches end up. Once the Dodgers went up 2-0 in the fourth, the game felt over. With the way the offense has performed … all season? Dunn couldn’t even get more than one out in that fourth inning, which meant a lot of opportunity for a faltering bullpen to continue being a sieve.

I would imagine the hot streak that J.P. Crawford had been on is officially over. Mitch Haniger continues to plug away with his power numbers, but his batting average and on-base percentage are dipping considerably. Kyle Lewis hasn’t done a whole lot, Kyle Seager is giving us his usual output, and Ty France looks absolutely lost at the plate (while giving us very little in the field). Beyond that, Haggerty, Moore, Trammell (who was just today sent down to Tacoma, thank Christ), White, Marmolejos, and Murphy are all hitting under .200, with Torrens hitting a robust .208. It’s … pretty fucking bad.

That having been said, it’s SUPER FUN to see Kelenic and Gilbert get the call-up today! I can’t wait for tonight’s game. I know the team is looking forward to these guys possibly igniting things with the ballclub, but they should be more interested in how this will translate to the die hard fans like me. I would have 0.0% interest in watching tonight’s game – or any of the games this series against the Indians, who have one of the best pitching staffs in the American League – were it not for a couple of our young stars being here. This should fire up the fanbase as much as the team itself; I just hope that it translates to more wins for this team.

Because things are looking QUITE bleak otherwise.

Jarred Kelenic’s Tacoma Rainiers Career Is Complete

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Word has been trickling out this week that Jarred Kelenic is going to be called up to play for the Seattle Mariners on Thursday, May 13, 2021. Assuming this is true, if you live in/around the Tacoma area and failed to go to a Rainiers game in the last week, it looks like you missed your opportunity to see Kelenic play for cheap.

The Rainiers have gone 3-3 against the El Paso Chihuahuas over the 6-game homestand. In that time, Kelenic had 27 at bats, posting the following line:

  • .370/.414/.630/1.043, 10 hits (1 double, 2 homers), 5 RBI, 6 Runs, 2 stolen bases, 2 walks, and 5 strikeouts

The standard rhetoric from Jerry Dipoto and the rest of the Mariners brass – before and after the whole Kevin Mather hullabaloo – has been something to the effect of: we’re not straying from our plan, we want to make sure Kelenic is REALLY SUPER-DUPER READY so we’re not losing a year of team control somehow setting him back in his development, and we just really want to see how he handles the AAA level.

Well. Based on those numbers, I’d say he handled the AAA level pretty well.

The long national nightmare is over, Mariners fans! Jarred Kelenic is finally getting his opportunity (are you SURE you don’t want to see how he handles a AAA road trip? Or are six home games enough?), the Mariners control his rights through the 2027 season, and now they can begin the long road of trying to rebuild and repair the relationship.

Kelenic is a surefire stud and future MLB superstar. I have no doubt in my mind! When 2027 rolls around, he’s going to command the highest salary in Major League history, and he’s going to be worth it. So, Mariners, can we PLEASE try not to fuck things up anymore than you already have?

In the meantime, the M’s are 18-18, with one more game down in Los Angeles to go later tonight. After a 13-8 start, we’ve gone on a 5-10 skid, as luck and regression have not been our friends. We’re currently third in the A.L. West, 3.5 games behind Oakland for the lead. Would the Mariners’ record be any better with Kelenic up here from day one? Given the number of skids we’ve had to play in left field at times, I think unquestionably! Will any of these games we’ve given away come back to haunt us down the line? That remains to be seen.

From a team standpoint, playing around .500 ball in the pre-Kelenic portion of the season is probably better than our wildest dreams could’ve conjured up, especially when you factor in the vast number of pitching injuries we’ve had to sustain in such a short and unfortunate time. Kelenic won’t solve all of our ills, but sometimes a hotshot young player gets called up and lights a fire under an exciting and volatile team. I’m hoping that’s the case going forward.

2021 isn’t about contention. It’s about gaining experience and knowledge about which players are legitimate parts of the rebuild vs. which ones are trade fodder or future roster casualties. Nevertheless, 2021 isn’t NOT about contention either. We’re not tanking for draft picks. We’d LOVE to foster a culture of winning. And, above all, sports are supposed to be entertainment. There’s a lot of season left, and I, for one, would love it if the Mariners remained entertaining. Frankly, they’re only entertaining when they’re winning, so let’s get back to doing that. I know Jarred Kelenic can help in this charge.

The Mariners Blew A Series To The Rangers

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I’ll be honest, man, I was out of commission the entire weekend. I don’t know if I saw more than a few minutes of the series while at a bar or restaurant. Dates, Mother’s Day, life!

The Mariners won 5-4 on Friday and the series was off to an expected start. Chris Flexen had a very Flexenesque outing: 6.1 innings, 4 runs on 10 hits and 1 walk, with 2 strikeouts. The bullpen shut it down, and the offense did just enough. J.P. Crawford has been hot of late (and earning an improved spot in the batting order as a result), Kyle Lewis has started to come on after returning from injury. Ty France is hopefully pulling himself out of the funk he’d been in for a few weeks.

The Mariners lost 9-8 on Saturday, which was the game we NEEDED to take. Unfortunately, we lost another fucking starter to injury, thanks to Ljay Newsome going on IL after an inning of work. The Bullpen Day approach to these sixth starts clearly leaves a lot to be desired; I don’t know why the Mariners are so married to this 6-man rotation when they BARELY have five competent starters when everyone’s healthy, but I don’t see how it can continue indefinitely.

The M’s had 11 hits in this one, but still were 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position. Half our runs scored via the homer, and that appears to be a trend with this team in general. If we’re not hitting homers, we’re not scoring, and if we’re not scoring, we’re not winning.

The finale was a 10-2 drubbing where Justus Sheffield shit the bed over 5 innings (7 runs, 5 earned). Between the three Mariners errors in this one, and the mistakes in the Saturday game, there was a lot of boneheadedness going on in this series that ultimately lost it for us. That’s not a super concern, but it’s unfortunate. If we miss the playoffs by a game or two, it’s a series like this one where we’ll look back and go: there’s one we should’ve had.

Yesterday’s off-day was well-earned. Now, we wrap up the road trip with two games in L.A. against the Dodgers, before returning home. Spoiler alert: Jarred Kelenic will get the call-up and first Major League start on Thursday, May 13th against the Cleveland Indians at T-Mobile Park. Will the Mariners have a losing record in the pre-Kelenic portion of their season? I can absolutely wait to find out!

I Saw Jarred Kelenic’s First Game With The Tacoma Rainiers

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Also the Mariners recently lost 2 of 3 to the Orioles, including getting no-hit on Wednesday, because their offense fucking sucks.

UNRELATED (note: not unrelated at all), Jarred Kelenic – the uber-prospect who has been Major League-ready for two years now, allegedly – hit two homers in his AAA-debut. If you could bet legal tender on a player hitting a home run in his AAA-debut, I would be a rich man right now. Because who couldn’t see him hitting a homer in this game coming a mile away?

The fact that he hit two homers? And almost single-handedly won this game for the Rainiers? Well, that doesn’t surprise me either.

Kelenic batted leadoff and played left field. He definitely strikes me as a guy who will hit anywhere from 2-4 in the Major Leagues, but it makes sense to bat him leadoff for Tacoma. You want to maximize the number of AB’s he gets, as quickly as you can. Because I guarantee he will be playing in Seattle inside of the next 2-3 weeks. He will not make it into June in a Rainiers uniform (barring injury), I can say that much.

Kelenic finished 2 for 6 with two homers and three runs scored. The game itself was pretty enjoyable! It was a glorified bullpen day for both teams, and both bullpens looked pretty solid between the Rainiers and the El Paso Chihuahuas. Kelenic’s first homer in the fifth inning gave the Rainiers a 1-0 lead, which stood until the top of the 7th, when the Chihuahuas scratched two runs across. But, Kelenic’s second homer tied it at 2-2 in the bottom half of the inning.

It was all set up: Kelenic, with two outs, bottom of the ninth, coming to the plate with a chance to win it in regulation. He gave some MIGHTY swings, but ended up striking out against a dude throwing absolute smoke.

With those funky extra innings rules – where a runner starts on second base – El Paso was able to score two more runs in the 10th, and that looked like the end. My two friends left at some point not long after the bottom of the 7th, but my dad and I stayed until this point. So, unfortunately, we missed Cal Raleigh’s 2-run homer in the 10th to re-tie the game. We missed both teams scoring a run apiece in the 11th, and we missed the 2-1 12th inning to seal it for the Chihuahuas. A 2-2 game in regulation ended up a 7-6 defeat for the Rainiers.

Nevertheless, a mighty fun night at the ballpark! You can see some mediocre pictures from my phone here, including shots from Kelenic’s and Raleigh’s first official at-bats in a Rainiers uniform. And, if you follow me on Snapchat (and why wouldn’t you?!), you can see both Kelenic homers in all their shaky-cam glory … for a few more hours, anyway.

If you haven’t been to a Rainiers game, it’s a GREAT night at the minor league ballpark. I can’t recommend it enough. Tickets are super cheap, seats are fucking amazing, lots of great food options. There’s even a cool bar in left field where you can drink and watch the game. Get your ass down here sometime! Tacoma isn’t all aromas and criminals!

The Mariners Took The Weekend Series Against The Angels

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The Mariners continue to surprise in delightful ways. No one really knows how they’re doing it, but they’re getting it done and keeping things interesting, against pretty solid-looking competition.

Last Friday’s game against the Angels was a perfect example. Our starter managed to go only 4 innings, our hitters were 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position, with 10 left on base, and yet the Mariners somehow managed to win the game 7-4. How does that happen? In this case, 3 solo homers and taking advantage of other hitting opportunities as they come about (and a whole lotta bullpen dominance).

Chris Flexen didn’t totally have it in this one, and was smartly pulled before the Angels could inflict any more damage. He went 4 innings, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits and a walk, with 0 strikeouts. There’s a lot of really good hitters – especially in the upper half of the lineup – so exercising caution is always the prudent way to go.

This was one of those rare games where we got contributions throughout, and particularly by the bottom of the lineup. Sure, Haniger had two hits (including one of the homers), but Moore, Crawford, and Murphy also had two hits apiece (those four players combining for all five extra-base hits).

The bullpen went five innings, giving up just one run in the process, as the Mariners hitters took the lead and played add-on late. I mean, don’t look now, but this is the best bullpen in baseball through a month and change! That won’t last, but it’s fun to watch so far.

Ljay Newsome REALLY didn’t have it on Saturday, giving up 8 runs over two innings. He’s not a starter, but he’s clearly better than this. I just think the Angels pose a tricky matchup for him (on top of him just having a bad day). I was fully expecting the Mariners to have to use a position player or two to get through all nine innings, but the bullpen (with fresh reinforcements coming up to replace injured pitchers on our team) held the Angels to just 2 more runs over the final 7 innings. That afforded the Mariners an opportunity to pull the game to 10-5 over the final couple innings, but clearly the damage was done at the beginning.

The rubber-match was a thrilling 2-0 victory – the first shutout of the Angels this season – where Justus Sheffield battled his way through 6 innings. The bullpen was even more dominant, giving up just 3 hits across the final three innings (I was a particular fan of Kendall Graveman’s work through the heart of the lineup in the 8th; if he was locked into an exclusive 9th inning closer role, a lesser pitcher might’ve been in there gagging the game away).

The hitting remains an issue, but in this one the Mariners were able to scratch across just enough runs to do the job. I won’t be happy until Jarred Kelenic gets the call-up, but in the meantime I hope to see him play in person for the Tacoma Rainiers sometime very soon.

The Seahawks Drafted Three Guys

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So, this should be an easy one to write:

  • D’Wayne Eskridge (WR) – 2nd Round
  • Tre Brown (CB) – 4th Round
  • Stone Forsythe (OT) – 6th Round

The usual line of thinking is: you like having more options to choose from in any given NFL Draft, because the bust rate is so high. So, out of 10 picks, if you can find three quality starters and a couple of role players, you’re doing pretty good. But, when you pick just three times, the odds of you finding contributors goes way down.

Then, compound it by the fact that a lot of quality college players decided to return to school – in an unprecedented trend thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and the NCAA allowing everyone to have an extra year of eligibility – and we’re talking about real chaos for teams like the Seahawks. You need to be smarter than normal – and smarter than other teams – and probably play things a bit safer. Go after guys who are more proven college athletes – and fewer guys who are projects at the next level – while leaning on the Senior Bowl to gauge prospect readiness.

The Seahawks are a pretty veteran team at their top positions. They need guys who will step in immediately to compete for spots. We’re looking to get back to the Super Bowl; we’re not utilizing this draft to fill the team in seasons 2022 and beyond necessarily.

D’Wayne Eskridge is a guy who can step in immediately and be this team’s #3 wide receiver behind Tyler Lockett and D.K. Metcalf. It’s interesting to see what the Seahawks opted to do at this position thus far this offseason. With David Moore and Phillip Dorsett moving on, and with Josh Gordon taking his talents to an inferior football league due to ongoing suspensions, there was an obvious need to fill the #3 spot. On our roster, the best of the bunch was Freddie Swain, a late-round draft pick from a year ago; while he was fine as a rookie, he wasn’t inspiring a ton of confidence to fill that role.

Eskridge is a short (5’8 and 3/4), speedy, tough receiver. Combining him with the likes of Lockett and Metcalf will make our WR room among the fastest in the league! I love this pick by the Seahawks! I love it even more knowing Lockett is locked in for his extension, and knowing that Metcalf will be a priority contract extension as soon as he’s eligible.

If Eskridge is as good as advertised, the Seahawks will be stacked once again on offense. He is particularly exciting knowing that we’re going to be watching some sort of modified version of the offense that the Rams have been running to great success in recent years. Eskridge figures to be the recipient of a lot of screens and end-arounds as well as his fair share of deep shots. He’s great getting off the snap with quick separation from defenders, his top-line speed is upper echelon, and his toughness should hopefully ensure he’s not constantly battling injuries that many undersized receivers have to deal with.

The knock is that he might not be great at top-pointing a ball in traffic, but with his speed and body control – as well as Wilson’s propensity to drop those moon shots on a dime – I don’t think this will be a big issue. I think this is a HUGE addition to our offense, and a marked upgrade over David Moore at that receiver spot. Everyone will say he’s a natural to go in the slot, but he’s just as capable playing one of the outside receiver positions as well, making him essentially interchangable with Lockett. That gives the Seahawks a ton of flexibility in what they can do in 3-receiver sets.

For as excited as I am about Eskridge, I might be even more intrigued by what Tre Brown has to offer. Again, this is a pick we could see coming, as Shaquill Griffin and Quinton Dunbar both left in free agency. The Seahawks made some low-level additions to try to fill the void, but no one who really has any firm grasp on any of the open jobs on this team. With holdovers Tre Flowers and Ugo Amadi being … fine, it was clear that the Seahawks would look to the draft to further bolster our secondary depth.

Tre Brown is another undersized guy (5’9 and 3/4) that many are projecting to be a slot cornerback for this team. He has the mentality to be a fierce competitor – just the type of Seahawks mentality that has thrived in Seattle for years – but not the usual length numbers (height, wingspan) that we usually covet around these parts. D.J. Reed is another one of these types of cornerbacks – a little on the shorter side – that has thrown a wrench into our usual mode of team-building, as he has proven to be quite effective in his time here. If Tre Brown is another D.J. Reed-type, then this is a home run of a pick.

He’s quick, he has great recovery, and he has attitude. If his ball-skills are on point, there’s no stopping him. Plus, he doesn’t necessarily HAVE to be a slot corner, in spite of his size. If the Seahawks truly go with their best three cornerbacks, we might be looking at Reed and Brown on the outside, with Amadi in the slot and Flowers or whoever else as the #4. So, I’ll be rooting for Brown quite a bit to win the job out of camp, because that could change the outlook of this defense entirely!

If there is a “project” in this draft class, it’s probably Stone Forsythe. He’s either 6’8 or 6’9 and around 307 pounds. He was a left tackle at Florida, much better at pass protection than run blocking (thank Christ), and could be a swing tackle in the NFL. Obviously, Duane Brown is the entrenched starter on the left side, with a couple of veterans vying for the starting spot on the right side. But, the Seahawks have been in desperate need of drafting a legitimate heir apparent to the left tackle position for YEARS now. If Forsythe already has the skills to be a competent pass protector on that side, I’m beyond fine with him, because I think you can teach him run blocking to be good-enough at this level. So often, we get the great run blockers in here who are suspect at pass protection, and as a result Russell Wilson has been the most-sacked quarterback in football since 2012. So … you know … trying a different tactic might be just the thing to create a different set of results!

As expected, the Seahawks also hit the undrafted free agent class pretty hard. I don’t know who those people are, but what tidbits I’ve gleaned from Twitter tell me that we did pretty good here. Obviously, we won’t know more until we see them in practice/games, but reports are promising at this early stage, and that makes me happy.

Overall, as always, we won’t know how this draft class looks for a while. So, cross your fingers and hope for the best, Seahawks fans! I think we have great reason to like 1/3 of this class, with a good chance to like 2/3 of it. If we make it 3/3 in a few years, won’t that be something?

The Mariners Salvaged One Against The Astros

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Which means, of course, they lost three.

I hate the fucking Astros, so we’re just going to breeze through this 4-game series, so we can get to another team – the Angels – that I absolutely despise.

The Mariners lost 5-2 on Monday. Justus Sheffield wasn’t all that good, the bullpen kept the score as is, but the offense didn’t do much of anything.

The Mariners lost 2-0 on Tuesday. This one about broke me. Marco Gonzales was pretty great, giving up 2 runs in 6 innings, but clearly the offense totally shit the bed (two hits, both by Kyle Seager).

You’d THINK the game where the Mariners blew a 5-2 lead, losing 7-5, would have been the one to break me. But, by Wednesday, I was already broken, and so I was fully expecting this result. That’s a whopping 4 blown saves by Rafael Montero in the first month of the season, so I think it’s safe to say he’s not really our closer anymore. Great game by Luis Torrens in this one (2 for 4 with 2 runs and 3 RBI), but the offense as a whole is still underwhelming. Against a team like the Astros, you can’t just STOP scoring runs after the fifth inning and not expect to have the victory stolen from you once in a while.

The 1-0 victory on Thursday was pretty exciting! Yusei Kikuchi had a no-hitter going for a while, ultimately finishing with 7 shutout innings, giving up 1 hit and 2 walks, while striking out 7. Easily the best game of his Major League career. Taylor Trammell had the lone run – a solo homer – and the bullpen was able to put the game away (with Graveman getting his third save of the season).

The offense: IT’S A PROBLEM! It’s fucking hard to watch, for starters. I like a good pitcher’s duel as much as the next guy, but I don’t have a ton of confidence in our pitchers either, so those low-scoring games for both sides feel more flukey when the Mariners are holding the other team down.

And, on top of it all, Marco Gonzales went on the IL with forearm pain. Great. That’s three of our starters down. Why couldn’t these injuries have happened in May or June? Ostensibly when reinforcements from the minors are better prepared to make the jump!

That’s all I got. I’m happy to not see the Astros again for a while, after seven games in the first month. July 26th is the next time we have to see them again. God, what a wonderful respite! Maybe some of our guys will fucking learn how to fucking hit by then.

In The First Round Of The 2021 NFL Draft, The Seattle Seahawks Selected Veteran Jamal Adams (*Jerking Off Motion*)

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There are a lot of tired draft day cliches out there, but the hard sell of teams to their fans about why they don’t have whatever draft picks they happen to be lacking is one I’m getting particularly sick of in recent years. They always justify it the same way: we never would’ve found anyone this good at that spot in the draft.

By this logic, shouldn’t you just trade all of your draft picks for quality veterans every year? Or, at the very least, suffer some disappointment in the fact that you weren’t able to trade them for veterans, and got stuck with these Not Nearly As Good college players? That just happen to be significantly cheaper, younger, and less influenced by other coaches and schemes. That could also, not for nothing, develop INTO quality veterans if everything breaks right.

The point is, we don’t need the hard sell. Most of us are adults, and we understand the Seahawks are in a situation where they’re desperately trying to win another championship. That means taking calculated risks to try to significantly bolster your roster, and sometimes those risks come at the expense of the NFL Draft. It happens.

Also, it would be nice if the Seahawks got off their asses and completed this Jamal Adams extension, because it’s really not something I want to have to worry about all summer, especially when there are other potential moves to be made to fill in around the fringes. For as happy as I am with how well we were able to incorporate Adams into our defense, and with his massive impact in helping us win the NFC West, I’m NOT going to be happy if we only have him for one or two years, because he holds out or forces another trade or something.

As I think I said earlier in the week, I have no interest in watching the NFL Draft tonight. I’m treating it like a lot of other things that have little-to-no bearing on my happiness: wake me up when it’s over and just give me the Cliff’s Notes.

The Seahawks Don’t Seem To Give A Shit About The 2021 NFL Draft

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Get ready, in the coming days – if it hasn’t been written about ad nauseam already – to read about how the Seahawks used their first and third round picks to bring in Jamal Adams, and about how their fifth rounder was used to bring in highly-touted offensive guard Gabe Jackson, and how their sixth rounder was used to move back into the 2020 draft to select Stephen Sullivan (who is no longer with the team … oops!), and I guess one of their seventh round picks was used to help bring in Carlos Dunlap (forgetting that he was mostly a money dump for the Bengals who wasn’t going to play much for them anyway).

If you look at all of THAAAAAT, then the 2021 Seahawks draft looks pretty good, right gang?! Anyone who’s anyone would gladly take three high-quality starters out of any draft, and that doesn’t even factor in the potential of the guys the Seahawks, you know, actually draft!

Yawn.

Snort.

Spit.

The Seahawks currently sit with three draft picks as a result: 2nd round (56), 4th round (129), and 7th round (250). It’s a good thing we don’t have any long-term holes we need to fill, right?! Oh, wait.

You can’t talk about a Seahawks draft without mentioning that we’re most likely destined to trade back to acquire more picks. Even in a normal year, that’s always the modus operandi; six picks magically become 11, without any rhyme or reason. Of course, usually we have a low first rounder to dangle to teams in the upper second round (being able to control a player for a fifth year is a pretty nice carrot to offer), and this time we don’t, so we’ll see how it goes.

You also can’t talk about a Seahawks draft without mentioning that they usually select someone you wouldn’t suspect, at least with their first choice. I liked this blog post about how reading Seahawks mock drafts by national experts are a waste of time. It’s so fucking true. I mean, I would argue (and that post astutely points out) that mock drafts are a waste of time period, but this is the Internet; what is it if not a giant time-suck?

What’s great about this year is that I get to skip Thursday night entirely, so I don’t have to pretend I give a shit about a bunch of college players I don’t remember and hardly ever watched. I might tune in to watch the first hour or so, to stay informed on where some of the quarterbacks go. But, my point is, it’s not necessarily appointment viewing, and not necessarily something I have to endure to the bitter end.

That brings us to Friday, where I … can easily skip the first hour or so! The Seahawks don’t pick until close to the END of the second round. So, I can take an afternoon nap, make an involved dinner, finish my newspaper, and still have time to see the Seahawks trade down.

I mean, if the Seahawks don’t care about the NFL Draft, why should I?

What do we need? I have no idea. An offensive lineman, probably. Center? That might not be a bad idea; see if one of the better centers is available? Cornerback depth is probably a good idea. Maybe a strong-side linebacker. Maybe another running back to throw on the pile. Maybe a tight end. I dunno, there are lots of ways the Seahawks could go. They could draft a huge, run-stuffing defensive tackle for all I know!

Someone on the Mitch Unfiltered podcast said that while it’s almost a given that the Seahawks trade down with their second round pick, they shouldn’t trade down too far. I wholeheartedly agree. The lower you go, the less likely you’re going to find an impact guy who can contribute right away. 56, or thereabouts, feels like the limit to me. Honestly, I wouldn’t even care if we didn’t trade down EVER in this draft. And I CERTAINLY don’t want to see them continue to rob from future drafts to select guys in the current draft (especially if they’re only going to waive these players anyway).

This needs to be the year where everyone puts on their Big Boy Recruiting Pants and campaigns like hell for all the undrafted guys that are out there. Since no one attended games, and since there wasn’t a real combine, there are probably a lot of quality players that are going to fall through the cracks. That’s where our front office needs to do what they do best, and find those diamonds in the rough. Take advantage of a weird time in league history and discover undervalued assets.

I don’t have a gameplan or a wishlist for the Seahawks. I suppose what I said above: a center, a cornerback, and maybe a tight end would be appropriate. But, they’re going to take whoever they want to take, and it’s our job to find a way to get on board.