Tag Archives: Pete Carroll

The Seahawks Are Looking To Head Into Their BYE Week On A Roll

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This is our only Monday Night Football appearance this year, so live it up!

The Seahawks are 11-2 in games immediately preceeding their BYE week in the Pete Carroll era (a loss in 2010, and a loss last year vs. the Bucs in Germany, so technically 11-1 in games immediately preceeding their BYE week that take place in America). One of those games, oddly enough, came at the Giants back in 2011, so that’s neat!

We’re in an interesting spot right here, because I think this game can teach us a lot about where the Seahawks are as a team as they compare to the rest of the NFL. I know you can argue the Lions were a pretty good test, but they’re obviously a very different team than the Giants. The Lions feature a lot of offense, a solid – if undersized – pass rush, and that’s pretty much it. The Giants, conversely, want to pound it down your throats, and use that to play up their play-action game. They’re the team, quite honestly, that the Seahawks WANT to be.

I know it hasn’t been pretty thus far for the G-Men, but I would argue they’ve played an exceedingly difficult schedule to date. They’re one awesome half of football away from being 0-3 (that was against the Cardinals, who might be better than we thought). The Cowboys are rock solid, and the 49ers might be the best team in football. Conversely, I would say the Seahawks have played a soft – if unfortunately-sequenced – schedule that featured the Rams at their healthiest (minus Kupp). I won’t dismiss the Lions victory, but I will say it’s not super encouraging how ugly our first half was against an atrocious Panthers team.

It’s hard to assess how good or bad the Giants are, because while they might not be in the same class as the Cowboys or 49ers, they haven’t really played a team on their level until now (unless the Cardinals really ARE good, which I don’t think they are). The Seahawks, I would say, are on the same level as the Giants. We just get there in different ways.

The Seahawks match up better against a team like the Lions. But, I don’t know if we’ve got the horses to hang with a tough, hard-nosed team like the Giants. Not that I don’t think it’ll be close; this has all the trappings of a 3-point game either way. But, it also has the trappings of an ugly 20-17 contest. If the Seahawks continue to play the way they’ve played on third/fourth down – on both sides of the ball – it’s going to be a long game.

At this point in the week’s progression, I’m going into this game assuming Saquon Barkley will be in there. That’s … far from ideal. Granted, the Seahawks have looked much better against the run this year, but we’ve also not faced a running back even close to Barkley’s elite level. A guy who can do it all. A guy who can beat you between the tackles, who can run around you outside, who can break tackles, who can catch the ball in space and make something out of nothing. Even at 80%, he’s better than any other back we’ve faced this year.

This one, I think, comes down to Danny Dimes. If he can play a clean, turnover-free game, I think we’re toast. If he takes his check-downs, takes advantage of our various lapses in communication on the back-end, and either gets the ball out quickly (to avoid the rush), or scrambles with his legs (to both avoid the rush and generate positive yards), I think they’ll be able to dink and dunk us to death – with just enough chunk plays on the ground and through the air – to consistently generate scoring opportunities and run time off the clock.

That’s the worst-case scenario. We get run out of the stadium, can’t do enough on offense, and lose by 20.

I’d like to sit here and tell you that’s NOT going to happen. That we’ll continue our strong showing against the run, that we’ll contain Dimes (and maybe sack him a time or three), and blanket their mediocre receivers. That’s what SHOULD happen. That’s what teams like the 49ers and Cowboys have done to them (and what the Cards did for a half).

I’d also like to point to the potential return of Jamal Adams and Riq Woolen as major boosts to this side of the ball. Seeing Woolen and Witherspoon play opposite one another for the first time – with Adams flying all over the place – really has the potential to be something special. But, we might be a week or two away from seeing that (it’d be weird if we saw it next week, since we’ll be on BYE), not knowing their specific levels of health, or willingness to throw both guys into the fire right away.

I would say I’m fairly confident we’ll manage to keep it close on defense, and at least force a few punts. But, we’ll also see some more frustrating big plays given up, to prevent us from actually doing what we SHOULD do, and that’s run away with it.

I don’t have a great handle on what the Giants do well on defense. Based on three games, I’d say NOTHING. This is a team, last year, that really relied on their defense. Tough to run against, underrated pass rush, and good enough on the back end to capitalize on mistakes. Have they taken a step back? I’ll be very interested in finding out.

The Seahawks should be impervious to any and all opposing defenses. We have enough talent at all the skill positions to move the ball against anyone. But, it’s going to come down to the O-Line. And how we help out that O-Line by chipping, leaving TEs in there to double-team, RBs picking up blitzers, and making quick, decisive throws on time.

That blitzing thing will be key. It’s my understanding their defensive coordinator loves to throw out exotic blitzes early and often. We’ve seen two kinds of Genos in those situations. Sometimes, he takes advantage for big gains; sometimes he succumbs to the pressure and we’re chock full of 3 & Outs. The Rams game was a great example of the latter. I would argue in most of our defeats last year, him falling to opposing pressure was a primary reason for those L’s.

I get the feeling the Giants aren’t quite at the level the were last year, but that can change at any moment. This is a game the Seahawks DESPERATELY want to win. If you believe the Giants are a contender for one of those precious wild card spots – and if you believe (like I do) that the Seahawks are destined for the same, given how good the 49ers are – then you’re going to want that tiebreaker over them. And, not for nothing, this is an NFC game. You want these! You NEED these! You’ve already lost one to the Rams, it would be a damn shame to go into the BYE 2-2 in conference.

Getting a leg up on the Lions and Giants would put us very much in the driver’s seat for a playoff berth. At which point, you can start to dream a little bit bigger. A lot can happen between now and Thanksgiving. Maybe the 49ers suffer some injuries to key guys. Maybe the Seahawks start to gel with this young collection of players. Maybe we close the gap not by what we did in the offseason, but how we develop over the course of the regular season.

But, you can’t realistically see that happening if you lose one of these 50/50 games to a team directly on your level, and directly in your way for a playoff spot.

You also, not for nothing, can’t keep bending over and taking it up the pooper against elite defenses. At some point, you have to figure out a way to grind these games out. We have LOTS more of these types of opponents left to come. The entire AFC North, the aforementioned Rams and 49ers, the Cowboys and Eagles, even the Titans manage to have a stout run defense every year (in spite of their offense’s inability to move the ball with any consistency). If we can’t play well on this level, how do we EVER expect to take it up to the next level, with the truly elite teams?

It would be a bad, yet predictable omen for the Seahawks to lose this game. I feel like we, as fans, would be right back to where we were after week 1: left questioning what we have with this team. Whether or not it’s a 10-7 team or a 7-10 team. I would hate to have to stew on that for the next two weeks.

On the plus side, we have our record in pre-BYE games. We also have our record on Monday Night Football, which is among the best in the NFL. Can we ride that magic to victory? We are 1.0 favorites at the time of this writing; can’t get much closer than that.

I am officially expecting the Seahawks to prevail, which is probably bad news for me. It’s going to be an obnoxious evening if I have to sit there and watch us lose for 3+ hours.

And The Seahawks Looked Like Dogshit Against The Rams

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The Seahawks aren’t the only team to lose an embarrassing game in Week 1. Dare I forget the Bengals losing 24-3 to the Browns? The Steelers losing 30-7 to the 49ers? And look no further than Sunday Night Football, where the Giants got demolished 40-0 by the Cowboys.

Here’s where we put into context the 30-13 loss to the Rams: all of those other losers I just listed were defeated by teams that actually project to be pretty good! The Browns have a lot of talent on defense, and a great running game, and they played that to perfection on Sunday. The 49ers are the 49ers: one of the most talented top-to-bottom rosters in the NFL. The Cowboys are absolutely riddled with superstars on both sides of the ball, and have filled in around them marvelously.

The Rams are a fucking joke, period. The Rams are going to lose double-digit games and oftentimes look bad doing it. They have no good receivers. Their running game is subpar. They have exactly one guy on defense, and smart, competent teams are going to know how to neutralize him.

And the Seahawks Got. They. Ass. Whooped by this terrible fucking Rams team, so what does that say about us?

Well, for starters, you can forget all that shit about winning the division, or 11-12 games for that matter. And don’t even think about this team winning in the playoffs! Because THAT shit ain’t happening! I must’ve been drunk when I wrote that. Blackout drunk. Overcome with dementia; a raving fucking lunatic.

I don’t know how we keep falling for this defense like the same fucking broken record, skipping over and over and over and over and over and over again. Clint Hurtt doesn’t know how to run a defense. Or, at least, he doesn’t know how to run THIS defense. Meanwhile, Sean Desai is over in Philly running something exceedingly dynamic. But, this is REALLY on Pete Carroll, and John Schneider. We’ve seen now – since Dan Quinn left – that NO ONE has been able to run this defense. So, it’s some combination of players and scheme, and that’s on the two men at the top.

The defense steps out onto that field for the first time in the season, and it gives up a methodical 16-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that takes up most of the first quarter. Every fucking year. Which is only a microcosm of the season, because the defense might settle down for a quarter or two, but then it falls apart at the end. We’ll see this shitty fucking defense play out over the next month or two, and fans will be calling for the chopped-off heads of everyone involved with this team. Then, they’ll play some lousy offense, and for some reason get credit for the turnaround. The soft spot of the schedule will make it look like the Seahawks know what the FUCK they’re doing, until they have to play the 49ers or Eagles or whatever, and then it’s back to major fucking blowouts.

I guess credit is due for improved run defense? 2.3 yards per carry IS an improvement. Except, they had no trouble ramming it into our asshole when they got down around the goalline; the two backs combined for 3 very easy touchdowns. Goalline defense doesn’t figure to be our specialty.

But, 2.3 yards per carry is of cold comfort when you compare it to the passing game. Matthew Stafford had all day to throw. Not that he ever needed all day, because his guys were wide fucking open all game long. Not even a whiff of press coverage. No knocking guys off of their route. Just running and chasing, and giving up both easy passes in gaping zones, or tough passes in one-on-one situations. Regardless, this game was EASY for Matthew Stafford. It also would’ve been EASY for Desmond Ridder or Baker Mayfield or even Justin Fields.

Hey, where the hell was Dre’Mont Jones? Even if I knew what stupid fucking number he chose to wear, I couldn’t fucking tell you where he was in this one, because he was a GHOST! A $17 million per year fucking ghost.

Hey, where the hell was this awesome secondary we’ve heard so much about? Because, spoiler alert, Tutu Fucking Atwell and Puka Fucking Nacua torched us all damn day, and it would’ve been worse if not for some drops early on. Each had 119 yards receiving, on 6 catches for Atwell and 10 for Nacua. Umm, those guys are trash. And they dominated. Let’s revisit in 6 weeks and see where they are.

Hey, where the hell was the pass rush? Or, as Cris Collinsworth says, “Pash Rsh”. Not even CLOSE to a sack. A whopping 2 QB hits. I’m tired of the fucking excuse that the quarterback affects that stat by getting rid of the ball quickly. You know what you can do? You can blitz, like ever. Or, you can press the fucking line of scrimmage and force him to think for more than a fucking micro-second! What did the Seahawks do? The same thing, all fucking game. React, instead of dictate. This fucking namby-pamby way of playing defense that they’ve played since Dan Quinn left.

Don’t think I’ve forgotten about the offense. Geno Smith sure was a mess out there! 16/26 for 112 yards and a TD isn’t going to earn him that raise next year! I thought Kenneth Walker looked like he picked up right where he left off last season, except you can’t really take advantage of his 5.3 yards per carry when you can’t ever convert a fucking third down (2 for 9 on the day, including 0 for their last 7). There were some drops, there were some poorly-thrown balls, and Geno flat-out missed a wide open Jake Bobo running down the seam on the trick play they called (Bobo would’ve been the primary receiver on that play, so how you miss him is FUCKING baffling to me).

This team scored 13 points on their first three drives. Then, they missed an easy field goal before halftime, then that was it. Nothing but punts in the second half. Punts and Rams points.

I thought Charbonnet looked ineffectual in his 3 carries; I guess that’s good news for people who have Walker in Fantasy. I thought JSN looked tentative and VERY coverable (maybe a byproduct of his hand/wrist injury). It’s funny how the Rams don’t have NEARLY as talented of a defense, and yet they managed to cover us tight near the line of scrimmage.

Bobby Wagner had 19 tackles, but what impact did he have? I saw Matthew Stafford juke right around him on a scramble; how does THAT happen?! Jordyn Brooks had 12 tackles, so that’s neat. They looked exactly like they did 2 years ago when they were teammates: zero big plays whatsoever.

Everyone but the punter stunk up the joint. Even on Special Teams, we let two balls squib into the endzone, and Myers missed a very easy field goal.

And if you were worried about injuries, this was the game for you, because we had them in spades! Both offensive tackles left the game, not to return. Their replacements – as we’ve seen before – were God awful. This team won’t win a game if it has Stone Forsythe and Jake Curhan starting. That’s just it. Put us down for 0-17 if that’s the case, because those useless fucking turds couldn’t block a cold.

Let’s see, Tyler Lockett had a head injury, and was sucking on oxygen all game. Cardio not up to snuff? What’s going on? And, of course, we didn’t even get to see our #5 overall pick, Devon Witherspoon, or Jamal Adams – two of our most dynamic defensive playmakers – because they weren’t even healthy enough to suit up. Not that it would’ve mattered tremendously, since they’re sure to flounder in this scheme that does nothing to showcase actual talent, or put players in a position to succeed.

Every year, we start slow. Every year, we lose games early that we shouldn’t lose. Every year, it looks like this is the worst fucking team we’ve ever seen. And then every year they get incrementally better. They string together wins against bad teams, and an occasional okay team. They sneak into the playoffs as a wild card team, only to lose in the first round. How is it we’re being sucked into the same fucking script year after year?

I’m fucking BORED of this Seahawks team! It’s the same one we’ve watched since 2016! Just fast-forward to fucking January already and get it over with!

2023 Seahawks Preview Extravaganza!

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I see one of two things happening with this Seahawks season. Either the Seahawks rule, or the Seahawks are just okay.

There are, of course, a myriad of other options. The Seahawks could be bad, for instance! But, I feel like for that to happen, this team would have to be decimated by injuries, to the offensive line, to key skill position players, and to the quarterback. You can’t rule it out! Luck is always a factor in the NFL. The thing is, you can make that case every single year, but you’re just speculating out of thin air at that point. As with every team, depending on injuries, the floor is a number one overall pick, and the ceiling is whatever that team is capable of if it manages to stay fully healthy. For the Seahawks, I would say that range is a Top 5 pick all the way up to competing for a spot in the Super Bowl.

Last year, I had the Seahawks projected for a top 5 pick; I just assumed it would be their own and not the Broncos’. Now that we have the knowledge of what happened in 2022, combined with the moves they’ve made in 2023, I obviously believe this team is poised for greater things.

Let’s start with Geno Smith. I don’t think it’s out of line to bring his durability into question, for the simple reason that he didn’t miss a game last year. But, maybe he has the secret sauce to avoiding back-breaking hits or twisted ankles or bent-backward thumbs. Given what we discovered about his ability to play at this level, an improvement in the weapons around him, and hopefully some more-consistent O-Line play, I believe we can get his 2022 numbers as a baseline. I also think, if the O-Line is considerably better, HE can be considerably better. A little more effective on third down. Turning some of those close losses into close victories. He alone – with everyone else being the same – can add or subtract two wins from last year’s total.

Now, let’s flip over to the defense. The good news is: we can’t be any worse. If we run it back, we’re 30th against the run and considerably better against the pass, with a good chunk of sacks to keep teams honest. BUT, if we can push that run defense up to just 20th, then I think we’re in business. We should be poised for better linebacker play. We should have more interior pressure with Dre’Mont Jones. And the sky is the limit for our secondary.

Bump the run defense up to 15th? Then, we’re talking about a team that not only contends for the division, but the whole damn conference.

There are so many variables with this team, which is what makes it both fun and nerve-wracking. The defensive front seven, the offensive line, the quarterback, the rookies and second-year players. We could be entering the next great period of Seahawks dominance, or it could be yet another year of post-L.O.B. tire-spinning.

What I’m excited about is the potential. If everything goes right, our offensive tackles are masters at their craft, and the rest of the line is full of bullies shoving dudes around. If everything goes right, the pass rush pressure is coming from a variety of sources (Jones, Nwosu, Taylor, Mafe, Hall, Reed, Adams, Love, Witherspoon). If everything goes right, Jones is a monster in the backfield against the run, Jarran Reed picks up where he left off with us in 2020, Morris and Young are legitimate contributors as rookies, and Bobby Wagner is the glue that holds everything together. If everything goes right, as soon as Jamal Adams returns, he doesn’t miss another game and gets back to what he does best: wreaking havoc all around the line of scrimmage. If everything goes right, Woolen and Witherspoon are lockdown corners funnelling passes to spots where Diggs, Love, and even Brooks are able to make plays. If everything goes right, JSN catches 80 balls and converts countless third downs, while opening up Metcalf and Lockett for monster years. If everything goes right, Kenneth Walker resumes his dominance, and Charbonnet is another Rashaad Penny (minus the injuries). If everything goes right, Geno Smith throws for 4,500+ yards, 35+ touchdowns, and never misses a down.

If everything goes right, the Seahawks overtake the 49ers and earn a top two seed as the NFC East bashes itself into smithereens.

Now, you read that and you can’t help but think that’s A LOT you need to go right. But, here’s the fun part: do you need ALL of that to happen to overtake the 49ers? Or can we get some percentage of that and still get the job done? I think it’s definitely possible. It won’t be easy, but it’s never been easy with this Seahawks team, even when they were going to Super Bowls.

Taking out injuries, the worst case scenario is that the O-line is as wishy-washy as it was last year, with none of our young guys stepping up and dominating. Mafe and Hall aren’t legitimate NFL pass rushers. Adams gets hurt on his first play back (because you can’t “take out injuries” when you talk about Adams; it’s his primary flaw). Wagner and Reed are washed up. Jones suffers under the weight of constant double-teams. Diggs loses a step, Love isn’t as great as he’s cracked up to be, and Witherspoon – having lost so much of his training camp and pre-season to injuries – takes a full year to get up to NFL speed. JSN is under-utilized (or worse, poorly-utilized by way of bubble screens and whatnot), our running backs are stuffed behind a line that can’t block, and Geno Smith regresses back to his old ways of taking too many sacks and turning the ball over too much. In that scenario, we’re probably a 7-8 win team and not making the playoffs.

The baseline for this team is 7-8 wins, because there’s simply too much talent for it ALL to go tits up.

The zenith for this team is 12-13 wins, because that talent reaches its full potential.

When I think of the great Seahawks teams – as well as the great teams we’ve seen in the NFC recently – I think of savage lines. The L.O.B. had it, the 49ers, Eagles, and Cowboys have them, and usually it’s those teams you see succeeding in January. But, there’s other ways to succeed. The Seahawks need to tap into that. Tap into its secondary. Tap into an elite passing attack. Tap into a pass rush that might be criminally underrated. Kill teams with speed, rather than simply bash them with brute force. It’s that speed, I think, if administered properly, that could start a new wave of dominance in the NFL. Pete Carroll is always changing, always adapting, and always forging new ways to win. I have every reason to believe this team could be on the cutting edge. Fly to the ball on defense, and utilize a mix of run and pass on offense that most teams can only dream of. We’re not pass-wacky like the Chiefs and Bills; we’re not overly run-dependant like the Ravens and Eagles. We’re equal parts awesome, and that could very well take us a long way.

This takes us back to our schedule. If injury luck is of utmost importance in the NFL, schedule luck is a close second. The Eagles last year were fortunate to have one of the easiest schedules in the league; they cruised to a number one seed and a spot in the Super Bowl. How is our schedule shaking out?

Well, the Rams and Cardinals look to be awful, so that’s a nice 4-game start. The Lions just got done looking great against the Chiefs last night – and their fans will surely be fired up for their home opener in week 2 – but that’s not a team that’s unbeatable. The Panthers look legitimately terrible (and we’re catching them early, before they have a chance to gel behind their number one overall draft pick), and I think the Giants are ripe for regression after a similar-to-the-Seahawks unexpected run of competence in 2022. The Browns, Ravens, and Guardians are all very suspect, and I like the Titans, but they could very well be toast. That’s 11 games where the Seahawks should at the very least be in it. Add the Steelers to that list, because we don’t know if they’re going to be competent on offense.

The tough-looking games are against the 49ers, Bengals, Cowboys, and Eagles. I mean, as I see it now. Anything could happen with any of these teams. If we can go 10-2 against the beatable teams, and 2-3 against the very good teams, that’s 12-5, and that’s probably good enough for a top 2 seed in the NFC. Even if we go 8-4 against the beatable teams, but find a way to go 3-2 against the good ones, that’s an impressive 11-6. That’s a team you can take into the playoffs and probably play in a home game.

So, that’s where I’m leaning. 11-12 wins and either the 2-seed, or a very dangerous 5-seed.

What’s fun is that the Seahawks have always been interesting, dating back to Russell Wilson’s first year. But, they were less fun in his last years here. Every time, we had to talk ourselves into a wild card team that hopefully could go on a deep playoff run on the back of our superstar QB. This time, I don’t think anyone’s putting that kind of pressure on Geno, so this could be one of those rare Seahawks teams that doesn’t NEED to have home field advantage throughout to go all the way. They’re totally balanced. They can get input from a myriad of sources. And that makes us the most dangerous team of all, because you can’t focus (and stop) any one thing and expect to beat us. Cut off one head, and others will pop up in its place.

We’re the fucking Hydra of the NFL, and we’re here to infiltrate your puny democracy!

No One’s Really Talking About The Seahawks’ Offensive Line

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The consensus biggest cause for concern when it comes to the Seahawks is the rush defense. For good reason. We were terrible at stopping the run last year. It cost us at least three very winnable games last year (vs. Tampa in Germany, vs. Vegas in an overtime shootout, and mystifyingly at home against a mediocre Panthers team). You also can’t help but wonder how we lost to the likes of the Falcons and Saints, but the rush defense deficiencies really presented itself as the season wore on, and the Bucs exposed us as a team entirely ill-equipped to prevent yards on the ground.

Rush defense is also the biggest cause for concern because I think a lot of fans question whether the Seahawks did enough to address this area of need. That remains to be seen, but I feel like it’ll be better than we expect, even if it’s far from ideal.

A lowkey potential problem lies in the offensive line though, and I don’t think anyone is giving it the attention it deserves.

I think, for the most part, people were happy with the Seahawks’ offense in general last year. We got to be pleasantly surprised; that’s always fun. Geno Smith rose from the ashes to become a competent starting quarterback in this league. The top receivers both had 1,000-yard seasons. The running backs – led by Kenneth Walker – were electric and impactful. And, the play-calling was better than we’ve seen in ages.

But, there were still a number of games where the offense really struggled. Not just against the 49ers, though those three games definitely stand out (including our first round exit in the playoffs). And I think Geno largely gets a pass even though his numbers declined as the season wore on.

The O-Line gets a pass too, though I would argue a lot of his challenges were a direct result of protection problems.

If you had to critique Geno’s performance as a whole in 2022, what would you say were his biggest areas in need of improvement? Third downs, and late game production. Even though he eventually did lead us to a few come-from-behind victories, or otherwise winning us games late, it seems like in most of our losses we had opportunities to snatch a victory, but fell short.

Shockingly, I don’t have the numbers, but what I saw indicated a team that was really lacking in protection on third downs in obvious passing situations. How many times did we see Geno take a back-breaking sack on third and long? Some of that might be on him, holding the ball too long, or not finding the open man (if there was a man open), but a good chunk of that was a total failure by the line to give him any time whatsoever. I never felt confident that we’d convert a third & long, in any situation, but especially late in games. They just crumbled under the increased pressure, and as a result too many drives ended in a whimper.

Now, obviously, the Seahawks have certain advantages with their O-Line that many teams don’t get to enjoy. On the whole, the line is fine. To me, it’s middle-of-the-road. It’s not like some of those offensive lines during the lesser Russell Wilson years. Sure, both were relatively inexpensive, but this one is actually seeing results, whereas those older ones were legitimate liabilities (and deserved to be considered among this team’s chief problem areas). We’re getting by with bookend tackles on rookie contracts. Our guards are home-grown. And the center carousel keeps turning, but at least this year we have a viable rookie to push the retread free agent we signed in the offseason. To get middle-of-the-road production from a unit so underpaid is a blessing! It allows us to field a competent offense while bolstering other areas of the team into real strengths.

But, now we’re talking about a team that wants to play with the big dogs. We’re talking about a team coming off of a surprising playoff run, that’s looking to take the next step into potentially winning the division and contending for the conference title. I don’t know if any reasonable fan or pundit would rank the Seahawks as highly as the Eagles or 49ers, but A LOT of them are picking the Seahawks as either a dark horse or a frisky contender (largely based on the perceived weakness of the NFC, but still).

I am of the belief that the Seahawks can’t simply replicate their 2022 offense and all of a sudden win 2-3 more games. I think most of us are of the opinion that the 2023 defense will be improved over their 2022 counterparts. But, we’re going to need the offense to take a similar step forward if we really want to compete with the likes of the 49ers. Since the skill guys are largely the same, that means we’re going to need a boost from the O-Line, and that’s what has me worried here today.

There’s a lot of talk about a sophomore slump vs. a sophomore boost (or whatever, I don’t remember the exact phrasing Pete Carroll used) when it comes to the likes of Charles Cross and Abe Lucas. Again, we’re thrilled they were rookies last year and played a full season, but they WILL need to step it up if we’re going to be better. I don’t 100% buy into those PFF grades, as I’ve heard they’re inherently flawed, but I’m still not encouraged by their regular low grades in both pass and run blocking. The PFF grades aren’t good for nothing, and I’d like to see them start to show out for the nerds.

I don’t get the sense that Damien Lewis is a problem, necessarily, but I also don’t know that he’s a huge benefit either. He’s never mentioned among the top guards in football. It’s nice that he’s a gamer, and he’s on a rookie deal as a third rounder who’s started since his first year. But, he kinda feels like Just A Guy. On the other side, there’s no question that Phil Haynes outplayed Gabe Jackson last year in a time-share situation; with Jackson gone, you’d think that’s an upgrade. But, there’s a reason why Haynes has largely been a fringe player in this league. He was a fourth round rookie and a backup in 2019 (after being injured for most of that season), on the IR in 2020, waived and on our practice squad for most of 2021, until finally last year he got an opportunity. Any team could’ve had him, and chose to let him remain a Seahawk. He’s on a cheap 1-year deal this year, because again, no one else wanted him. And now you figure he’s going to be pushed by Anthony Bradford, another fourth round rookie. Was Haynes as good as he was last year because he only played about half the time? Can he sustain for a full season as the starter at right guard?

Then, there’s the center. Evan Brown, in a long line of journeymen centers we’ve brought over here in the wake of the mistake that was trading Max Unger for Jimmy Graham way back in the day. He’s a guy who played guard and center for the Lions last year, and to his credit was much better as a center. That being said, you’re talking about a guy making less than $3 million on a 1-year deal. A guy, like Haynes, who it appears nobody else wanted. Someone who – like the rest of our interior line – is a JAG who may be better than some of the previous centers we’ve employed here, but that’s not saying much.

And then there’s our depth. Ye gods!

I’ve been killing these backups all month for the pisspoor performances we’ve seen from them in the first two preseason games. Again, for good reason! They’ve stunk! The running game can’t get going, the quarterback can’t get into a rhythm, and for whatever reason (maybe because we’ve won both games) people have just ignored this unit entirely! Sure, they’re backups, but they’re also going up against backups, and I can’t help but be alarmed by how inept our guys have been.

You could replace Stone Forsythe with a statue and get comparable results; he’s terrible. Granted, he’s a sixth round pick in our nadir draft of 2021 (where we only had three picks), but I can’t even say he’s a decent backup. He’s a liability! And if either of our tackles goes down, we’re super fucked!

I really liked Jake Curhan as an undrafted rookie; I thought he showed real potential and was going to be a steal for us. But, he’s had some injury issues, and we’ve tried to cross-train him at guard as well as right tackle, and I don’t know if that’s as successful as the team thinks it is. He’s looked a little rough out there, though I don’t think he’s as dire as Forsythe.

I will say that I am encouraged by the rookies Olu Oluwatimi and Anthony Bradford. But, Olu has been dealing with a nagging elbow injury that held him out of the most recent preseason game, and figures to be his undoing in this center battle (until he’s fully healthy again). All things being equal, I’d rather have Olu over Evan Brown, but not an injured Olu. As for Bradford, it’s pretty clear he’s behind Haynes. Seems like he’s more of a project, though a very promising one from what I’ve seen from him in the two preseason games. He might not be a finished product, but I can’t wait to see what that ultimately looks like, because I feel like – if he can stay healthy – he might be a monster.

Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine as far as backups go. I think the Seahawks usually only keep 9 on the 53-man roster, so that might be it.

In the early going of this season, it’s going to hinge on the improvement (or lack thereof) of Cross and Lucas. If they’re better, that’s an immediate boost. I think, with the interior, those guys are who they are, and we’re unlikely to see ANY improvement this season.

BUT, if Olu and/or Bradford ultimately work to steal jobs, we could be looking at a situation where this unit is playing better by season’s end than it is at the beginning. That doesn’t give me a lot of hope for winning the division, because a slow start is sure to torpedo us in that area; but, if we can go on a nice little run to close out the season, then who knows?

We’ll see though. For the most part, I think the Seahawks’ defense will be fine. It won’t be close to top 10, but it shouldn’t be bottom 10 either. No, this season is going to come down to the offensive line. If they can take a step foward, we’re looking at a top 5 offense.

But, if they tread water, we could be in for another .500-ish finish.

I Am Conflictedly Excited About The Huskies Joining The Big Ten Conference

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There are a lot of feelings going around right now. A lot of takes. This is such a crazy time to be a fan of college football, especially of the erstwhile Pac-12, it’s gonna take a lot of space to wade through it.

I feel a little bit like I’m on an island among the thoughtful folks out there, when it comes to being excited about the Huskies joining the Big Ten. A lot of people I know and follow on Twitter are bummed, and rightfully so, I might add. I wouldn’t say it’s fun to see what’s happening here. But, it is what it is, and starting in 2024, we’re going to have a whole new league to play around in.

Death Of A Conference

It would help to start with a little bit of a breakdown. Last year, we found out that USC and UCLA were jumping ship to the Big Ten starting in 2024. This came from out of nowhere, but as we move along in this blog post, maybe we should’ve seen it coming. This came on the heels (well, a year later) of Larry Scott being ousted as Pac-12 commissioner, with George Kliavkoff replacing him. There was a modest amount of hope behind Kliavkoff when he was first hired (if for no other reason than he wasn’t Larry Fucking Scott), but apparently this thing was a snowball turning into an avalanche down the side of a mountain, and there was nothing the new commish could do to hold this bundle of loose yarn together.

There was chatter of replacing the L.A. schools with the likes of San Diego State, SMU, Fresno State, and/or Boise State, but I don’t know that any of those programs would’ve moved the needle. Substituting two of your top six programs for a couple of potential bottom-dwellers is never ideal, when you’re talking about generating fan and media excitement. On top of which, Kliavkoff was responsible for getting a new media rights deal together, with the full transparency of not having the L.A. market involved in any way, shape, or form.

As the weeks turned into months turned into years (seemingly, maybe even actually), it was becoming clear – the longer we had no deal – that this thing was going to be a nightmare for us all. I don’t know how much information the schools had during this negotiating process with various outlets, but at some point the writing was on the wall that we’d be losing Colorado to the Big-12. That indeed came to fruition recently, and so a Pac-10 became a Pac-9.

Then, not long after, word started trickling out about a deal with Apple+. More on that in a bit.

For most of the past year, we were told that the Big Ten wasn’t interested in Oregon or Washington, at least not yet. They were done expanding for now with the L.A. schools. Also, the L.A. schools didn’t want any competition on the west coast, and the rest of the Big Ten didn’t want to divide any more of their money to new interlopers. We were also told – even after Colorado jumped ship – that no one wanted to be responsible for the demise of the Pac-12. And, as recently as last Friday morning, reports were trickling out that the remaining Pac-12 teams were committed to whatever it took to keeping the conference in place.

In the end, that was a lot of posturing on both sides. Washington and Oregon joined the Big Ten. Later on, Utah and the Arizona schools joined the Big-12. That left the Pac-12 with only Stanford, Cal, Oregon State, and Washington State; a Pac-4 of leftovers nobody wants to eat.

Blame

As always, you have to return to Larry Scott as the impetus for all of this. He practically single-handedly brought down an entire conference with over a century of history!

His blunders were many, but I think you have to start with expansion. If things had gone differently with our original expansion plan, the Pac-12 (or Pac-16, rather) would still be around to this day.

It all hinged on the Texas Longhorns. There was a potential deal in place to add six teams from the Big-12 (there’s a universe out there where the Big-12 – and not the Pac-12 – would be the conference to have folded by now): Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Colorado. Can you imagine? The Pac-12 with a significant footprint in the hotbed of American football? And Colorado? If we had just knocked down the domino that was Texas, the rest of those programs would’ve followed, and things would be looking a lot different today.

The apparent sticking point was about money, of course. I believe Texas wanted a bigger slice of the media rights money pie, as well as to be allowed their own network. Since Larry Scott wasn’t a football guy, and really had no business running a college conference, he couldn’t see where this thing was headed. He balked at Texas’ demands, and in turn, Texas decided to stay put. Only Colorado made the jump, and we had to scramble to add Utah to give us an even number of teams.

Now, we know that A&M is in the SEC, and Texas & Oklahoma are headed there. Maybe that would’ve happened anyway. But, I can’t help but wonder what might’ve been if the Pac-12 asserted their leverage at that pivotal moment. Even if Texas had a bigger piece of the pie, the rising tide of all those programs would’ve lifted all boats. Instead of settling for some bullshit streaming deal contingent on adding new subscribers, we would’ve had all the big dogs barking down our door to sign the conference to huge gobs of money.

One of the other major SNAFUs was Scott’s handling of the Pac-12 Network. He fucked around with DirecTV and found out (mostly that Pac-12 fans weren’t going to switch providers, or otherwise complain enough to get them to add the network). That left a significant portion of the football-viewing public without an option to see a good number of our games.

Then, there’s just the casual mismanagement of the conference. Overpaying to have their offices in San Francisco. Scott’s extravagant spending sprees in Las Vegas. His refusal to become a significant partner with FOX early on, who opted to partner with the Big Ten instead; a partnership that lasts to this day.

Of course, you can’t absolve the school’s presidents and athletic directors, who let Larry Scott do all the things he did to run this conference into the ground. It’s insane, honestly. Scott was doing NOTHING that was in the best interests of the schools, and yet they blindly followed him into the night like he was fucking Moses or some shit. Were they hypnotized by his charisma? Were they asleep at the switch? Were they totally lied to and hoodwinked? Regardless, it was their jobs to be informed and put the conference ahead of one egomaniac’s dreams of being, I dunno, emperor of the NCAA or whatever. They dropped the ball, plain and simple.

And I don’t know if they did a whole lot better by hiring George Kliavkoff. Again, literally anyone would be better than Larry Scott, but that clearly wasn’t enough to save us.

Maybe putting blame on Kliavkoff is too harsh. It kinda feels like, by the time he was hired, this thing was beyond salvaging. But, I’m hearing there was a deal on the table with ESPN and maybe one or two others on linear television – even after USC and UCLA jumped ship – that wasn’t an ideal amount of money, but would’ve kept everyone relevant and off of streaming. And I’m hearing once he rejected it, the cable companies turned their backs on us. At that point, it was pitting streamers against each other, and with the way streaming has been going lately, that wasn’t going to end well. Maybe five years earlier, when streamers were being inundated with investment dollars to try to build up their brands. But, we’re at where we’re at with streaming, and now it’s a matter of seeing which ones manage to hang on.

That brings us to ultimately one of the biggest sources of blame: the media conglomerates themselves.

No one’s really talking about them; they kind of get a pass because “this is the world we live in.” But, they created this world, and our politicians let it happen. We also – the public at large – let it happen by voting for those rich old fucks in office, so you can’t forget about us.

I mean, at this point, you could also say we let the Pac-12 down by not giving it enough attention. By not giving those media conglomerates enough of a reason to lavish our teams with money. They go where the eyeballs go, and the Pac-12 schools didn’t have enough of them, compared to the SEC and Big Ten and even the Big-12. In spite of the fact that – at our peak – we had some of the biggest and highest rising markets in America. We’re just not rabid enough, I guess.

Ultimately, it’s a collective failure, from everyone even tangentially involved.

Money

The Apple+ deal was what we were confronted with. It ended up being around $23-$25 million per school, with incentives based on new subscribers.

That’s less than what the Big-12 ended up signing, and considerably below what the Big Ten and SEC had already wrapped up. If we had managed to add nearly 2 million subscribers specifically geared towards a Pac-12 add-on to Apple+, that might’ve put us in range of what the Big-12 has, but who in their right mind would’ve expected that to come to fruition? We couldn’t even get that many people to abandon DirecTV for a cable entity with the Pac-12 Network, what would lead anyone to believe that would change now? Kliavkoff referenced getting to 5 million subscribers, which is what it would’ve taken to get us to that Big Ten/SEC range, and that’s just Looney Tunes.

On top of which, there was no option for us to have our games shown on linear television. That lack of visibility among the rest of the country would’ve only served to worsen our standing in the college football landscape over time. People keep talking about how all of this is headed toward streaming eventually, but I don’t believe that getting in on this ground floor was ever going to put us in a better position. If anything, we wouldl’ve just been eclipsed, whenever the streamers turned their gaze towards the bigger conferences.

The best part of the deal – as Washington’s president pointed out – was that there was a potential opt-out after three years, if and when we failed to reach those new subscription goals.

So, this was never a deal that was tenable, financially. Speaking of just Washington, we’re under a tremendous amount of debt following all the stadium and facility improvements we instituted during the Larry Scott regime. While those improvements were absolutely necessary if we wanted to compete on a national landscape, they hinged on better future television deals to help pay those off. In the absence of those deals, Washington really had no choice but to jump to another conference. And I think a lot of other schools felt the same way, no matter how much they may have wanted to keep the conference together.

Opportunity Lost

I was just starting to talk myself into what Washington might have to look forward to when it came to staying in the Pac-whatever. We were going to be the Big Fish in a Small Pond, along with Oregon and Utah, when it came to football.

Of course, that hinged on the Pac being considered among the other four major conferences. As long as we had a guaranteed spot in the new College Football Playoffs, all we needed to do was take care of business and we’d at least get a seat at the table every year. With the added advantage of just waiting everything out until a more formal league was built from the embers of this one, where you had to figure we’d be one of the 30-40 programs invited to join.

But, I don’t know how realistic it would’ve been to see the Pac-9 (plus whatever newcomers we might’ve added) as a legitimate Power Five conference. Not with the inferior Apple deal. Not with our programs being overlooked every year, through the simple notion that no one east of the Rockies would ever see our games outside of bowl season. We would’ve been decisively the fifth-best conference going forward, and why would the rest of the NCAA want to cede a guaranteed spot in the College Football Playoffs every year to a team they deem to be inherently inferior?

Opportunity Gained

What’s gained is exposure. What’s gained is guaranteed money (some $30+ million per year, with a massive increase the next time the Big Ten signs a media deal). What’s gained is a level of opponents that will keep us in the national conversation, even if we’re not totally perfect. We aren’t limited to one or zero losses. We just have to hang with the big boys and win when it matters most at the end. The way it should be.

What excites me about all of this is what would excite anyone: it’s something new. Starting next year, we’ll have a whole new slate of rivals. Teams among the most talked about in all of college sports. Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan State. With enough middling programs – Purdue, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Northwestern, Illinois, Maryland, Indiana, and Rutgers – to pad out some needed victories. On top of which, three of the top Pac-12 programs that all slot within the upper half of the new mega-conference.

Before, when Washington was good, we were still an afterthought. Usually, it meant the rest of the Pac-12 was down. But, now there’s no excuse. If we beat what’s perceived as a legitimate powerhouse in the regular season – like Ohio State or Michigan – that’s going to be big news! That’s a game that should get national recognition, in a prime Saturday timeslot! Even in the biggest Pac-12 matchups before this, if we played Oregon or USC, even if we had a good timeslot, it was still a regional match, largely ignored by the rest of the country. But, they’ll have to sit and watch if we’re playing Ohio State or Michigan! That’s HUGE for us!

Those times when we’re a big fish in the Big Ten will mean so much more than when we’re a big fish in the Pac-12. That’s just the way it is.

The Bummer Of It All

I don’t think you can talk enough about how much this sucks for the leftovers. Specifically Washington State and Oregon State.

I firmly believe that the Apple Cup will live on in some capacity. It won’t be the last game of the year like it’s been for most of its run, but we’ll still have 3-4 non-conference games to play around with, so we’ll just have to accept it happening when the weather is nicer.

Simply put, nobody wants to add the Cougs or Beaves. There’s no demand for those teams outside of their respective (very small) markets. You can’t deny the fact that they’ve been along for the ride. You also can’t deny the fact that they’re far from the only ones. Who’s clamoring for Indiana games? Or Rutgers? Or the football teams of Kansas, Vanderbilt, or Syracuse? Yet, those are also all Power Five schools, simply because they got in early in their respective conferences, and now get to enjoy the spoils of this new college football landscape.

The game of college football is a lot more fun when teams like Oregon State and Washington State are good. Usually, it means high scoring, tight games to the bitter end, with heroic victories and students storming the field. But, those instances happen few and far between; not enough to build up a significant national audience, no matter how many times the Cougar flag shows up on ESPN Gameday.

Those programs are too good for the Mountain West. Yeah, I said it! But, now that it looks like they’ll have to settle for such a demotion, it’s going to come with a drastic reduction in annual compensation. Which means two teams with real potential are going to languish. And, more importantly, the rest of their sports programs are going to suffer as a result. Many of which are probably going to disappear, which is an absolute travesty of justice.

I’m less concerned about Stanford and Cal, mostly because I don’t like those schools. Also, it sounds like they wouldn’t have very much trouble going independent, especially Stanford, which has always been its own thing. Stanford has the potential to be very good or very bad, but they’re always going to be sought after based on academics alone. Cal is a lesser version of Stanford, but they still have academics going for them as well.

The ultimate tragedy of this whole thing is the history.

We’re losing over a hundred years of history. The Pac-12 (or whatever it was before) has always been one of the most important and prominent conferences in all of college football. But, in this new age – over the last two decades – its luster has softened considerably.

Since Washington’s championship in 1991, there’s been two USC championships under Pete Carroll (2003 was only an AP championship; 2004 was both AP and BCS, though the latter was later vacated), and that’s it. The closest the Pac-12 came since then was a championship game loss by the Ducks to Ohio State in 2014 by 22 points.

What’s even sadder is that a generation from now, the Pac-12 will be but a footnote in the history of college athletics. Players in the game today aren’t even old enough to remember the last time the Pac-12 was relevant. In 20 years? They’re not even going to know this was a thing that existed. That’s how quick it goes. Until whatever the next Tik Tok is comes along and some talking head tells them about the time when there were five major conferences in a thing called “college football”.

Getting older sucks, for all the reasons literally any old person will unsolicitedly tell you. It also sucks because change is hard. That’s why everyone always talks about the Good Ol’ Days. Things were always better before. How is that possible? Don’t ask, you just had to be there.

But, change is also necessary, especially when you have no control over it. The last thing anyone in sports is ever going to think about when they make their decisions is how it’ll affect the fans. Even though, ostensibly, it’s the fans that pay for the whole fucking thing. We pay by showing up to games. We pay by going to the schools we love. We pay by signing on for cable entities and streaming entitites. We pay with our eyeballs, watching those games on whatever platform they show up on. We pay with our need for memorabilia and team-affiliated merchandise. We pay with our gambling dollars. This ALL gets funnelled to the powers-that-be whose jobs aren’t to cater to us, but to shareholders and school presidents and other powerful entities who get to dictate terms. We have the money, but we have no power. And, what’s more, it’s not like we’re all going to band together and demand better. If you’re lucky enough to root for a program that’s in one of the now Power Four conferences, then tough-titty to whoever’s on the outside looking in.

I have no choice in the matter. At this point (or, at whatever point last week), it boils down to: do I want Washington to stay in a dying conference, struggling to keep its athletic programs afloat, all the while missing out on games because I don’t want to fucking sign up for God damn Apple+? Or, do I want to join a thriving conference, where we’ll get more money now, and maybe even a windfall of cash the next time the Big Ten’s media deal comes up for renewal? Do I want my team on regular television, in better timeslots, with a legitimate chance at competing for national championships?

As disappointing as it is to lose what we had, I’m sorry, but I’m firmly in the camp of Option B.

I’ll always be a Pac-12 lifer, even when it blinks out of existence. But, at some point, it’s not about the conference. I’m not going to turn into Joe Big Ten just because they’ve deigned to accept us. Fuck the Big Ten. Fuck them for poaching the L.A. Schools. Fuck them for aggravating an already decimated situation. They had a hand in this as well, and they can never be forgiven. Just like Larry Scott and George Kliavkoff and the Pac-12 presidents and the media conglomerates and everyone else sharing a slice of this blame pie.

I’ve gotta side with the best interests of Washington.

What we get, if it’s any solace at all, is one last year with the Pac-12 conference intact. Ironically, it’s probably the most relevant the Pac-12 has been in the last 20 years, not even factoring in how it’s going to dissolve at the end of the season. We have three of the top Heisman Trophy candidates in Caleb Williams, Michael Penix Jr., and Bo Nix. USC, Washington, Oregon, and Utah are all Top 10 calibre programs. Oregon State is also up there after a phenomenal 2022, with most of their studs returning. Deion Sanders is coaching a revamped Colorado team. Wazzu, I’m sure, will make some noise. You can’t discount UCLA, even though they appear to be in a bit of a rebuild. And, I’m sure there will be a surprise school out of what remains.

I’m going to cherish this year like you would not believe. Because starting this time next year, it all changes. Never to be the same again.

I’m Having A Hard Time Getting Excited For Football Right Now

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This SHOULD be the perfect scenario to get me super pumped for football. We had another down college basketball season; hockey was fun, but in a Just Glad To Be There sort of way when it came to a middling playoff run; and the Mariners are obviously in the midst of yet another in a long line of disappointing seasons (save one) over the last couple decades.

When it’s late-July and baseball is going nowhere, downtrodden Seattle sports fans turn their sights to the impending football season, and all the possibilities therein. But, not me.

I don’t know what it is. Maybe the Mariners play a part in that, in how far below expectations they’ve landed, sucking all of our collective wills to live. There’s a case to be made to have high expectations for both the Seahawks and Huskies. The Seahawks are coming off of an unlikely playoff appearance, they’re coming off of back-to-back potentially-elite draft classes, the dark cloud of the previous era of Seahawks football came to a close with Russell Wilson playing in Denver now. Vibes are high! Now, take the Huskies; they’re coming off of an unlikely bowl game victory, and an even unlikelier double digit-win season. That came on the heels of the team totally falling apart, and the death knell of the Chris Petersen-to-Jimmy Lake Era that had once achieved soaring heights. With most of our important players returning, vibes are even higher on Montlake!

It’s not hard to remember when our expectations were as mammoth; see: the 2023 Mariners.

Now remember that we’re Seattle sports fans, and Seattle is Sports Hell. It’s not Sports Hell because all our teams are miserable all the damn time. It’s so much more than that! We’re in Sports Hell because of this very scenaro. Because our teams do – occasionally – see expectations raised. And THAT’S when our teams choose to fall on their fucking faces.

We have decades upon decades full of experience in this arena. And exactly three championships for our efforts, between the Supersonics, Seahawks, Mariners, and Husky basketball & football teams. In my 42 years of existence – since I’ve been rooting for these respective teams – I’ve only gotten to witness the one (Super Bowl XLVIII), since I wasn’t a Husky fan in the early 90’s. That’s a lotta heartbreak.

I’ve seen a lot of good-not-great teams in my lifetime. The Sonics of the entire 1990’s, the Mariners of the mid 90’s, the turn-of-the-century Mariners (who were a very different beast entirely), the Holmgren Era Seahawks, the Romar Era Huskies, the Legion Of Boom, the Chris Peterson Huskies, the Post-LOB Seahawks, and this current era of Mariners baseball. There’s a lot of great memories sprinkled throughout, but one main throughline: they all fell short of ultimate glory, save one.

I’ve discussed this topic quite a bit on my blog throughout the years. It’s all a matter of perspective. If I was able to just enjoy the journey, take these teams for what they are, and accept the fact that we can’t always win it all, then I’m sure I’d be a lot happier. But, how do you enjoy the 2023 Mariners, when you know this team is underachieving, and we all expected them to be better than they are? This team was supposed to win 90+ games in the regular season and really make a dent in the playoffs; instead, they’re struggling to get to 81 wins, and will almost certainly not reach the post-season. And, as such, now we go into 2024 with more questions than answers. We go into 2024 with more holes than we thought we’d have, and an apparent lack of opportunities and willingness to do what it takes to fill those holes.

I guess the answer to that question is: don’t have expectations going in. If I had zero expectations for the 2023 Mariners, then maybe I could appreciate a .500 team that’s still kinda/sorta in it, and hold out hope that they’ll figure something out in the next two months to eke their way into the playoffs.

But, that’s not how I’m wired. That’s how a fairweather fan thinks, or a complete non-fan. My fiancé could do that, because she isn’t saddled with the burden of following these teams, and has zero interest in them outside of the fact that I have interest, and she enjoys my company enough to care about what I care about.

I can’t go into this football season with no expectations. I see the 2023 Seahawks and I see a team on the rise. I see a lot of talented youths with potential for greatness. I see a division and an NFC that’s up for grabs, and I see us as a potential dark horse.

Then, I see the 2023 Huskies and I see a team that’s there! That’s a legitimate contender for the Pac-12 crown, and if they play their cards right, maybe even a berth in the college football playoffs.

In total, I see two football teams where you don’t necessarily have to squint very hard to see them going pretty far. Just as I saw a certain Mariners team, in the very same light.

So, how could my favorite football teams Mariners things up this season?

Well, the Huskies might just be God-awful on defense, particularly in the secondary and linebacker units. They might need to score a ton on offense every single week, which means they’d have to be damn near perfect on an efficiency standpoint. What if Michael Penix doesn’t even remotely resemble a Heisman Trophy candidate? What if the O-Line doesn’t hold up? What if we get bitten by the injury bug or bad fumble luck? What if we simply lose two fucking conference games and it knocks us out of the conference race entirely? It doesn’t take a whole helluva lot to ruin a college football team with high expectations. Two Pac-12 defeats, that’d do it. We always lose at least one dumb bullshit game against some fucking annoyingly shitty Arizona or Bay Area school with an 8pm start time. Do that, and lose to a legitimately good team, and there you have it: season ruined.

It’s a lot easier to see how the Seahawks could fuck up.

The Seahawks might just be God-awful on defense, particularly in the D-Line and linebacker units. There’s also a decent chance Geno Smith doesn’t survive the entire 17-game season, meaning we’ll have to endure Drew Lock in games that count. But, even if Geno manages to stay healthy, is he really the guy who’s going to lead us to a division title and a deep playoff run? Behind an extremely inexperienced O-Line? The 49ers are still pretty fucking good, even with their injury question marks at quarterback. The Eagles should still make some noise. The rest of the NFC East is nothing to sneeze at, and the Vikings figure to win a lot of games again. Then, you have to factor in how the Seahawks continually get off to slow starts to the regular season under Pete Carroll. It’s a lot to overcome.

I’ll admit, my expectations for the Seahawks aren’t nearly as high as they are for the Huskies. But, I can already feel the homer in me yearning to believe big. He knows that if we can keep this team mostly healthy, they’ll really surprise the rest of the league! Homer Steven is a simpleton like that. He’ll believe anything! So, I’m bound to be disappointed when the Seahawks are just another wild card team losing in the first round again. Or, God forbid, another Seahawks team that failed to make the playoffs entirely (but also wasn’t bad enough to get a Top 10 pick out of the deal).

So, yeah, I figure to have a lot of disappointing moments this fall. And, when I’m not disappointed, I’ll just be dreading the impending disappointment I know is right around the corner. This is the year where my regular football fandom meets my fantasy football fandom.

Speaking of which, I’m coming off of one league championship in my Splinter League, so anything short of a repeat performance is bound to be a letdown. And, in my Dynasty League, so much has gone right for me this offseason, I don’t even know where to begin.

For starters, the Cowboys finally cut Ezekiel Elliott. I have Tony Pollard as the unquestioned lead back. Then, the Vikings cut Dalvin Cook; I have Alexander Mattison. And, the coup de grace, since my Dynasty team has struggled with shabby quarterback play for the last decade, I’m actually not dreading my two guys. Justin Fields – when healthy – gobbles up points with his legs; his experience last year should hopefully propel him into better results through the air. Then, with Rodgers being traded to the Jets, I get to hang onto Jordan Love and see what he’s made of. If they both pan out, I’ve got two QBs locked and loaded for the next half decade. With the way the rest of my team shakes out, I’m not desperate to fill any particular need; I can truly take the Best Player Available in the draft to fill out my bench, and my team should be all the better for it.

Except, of course, we know that’s not how it actually works. My quarterbacks will probably stink and/or get hurt. The rest of my roster will underperform. I’ll play against a lot of fantasy teams going on their best weeks. And, even the weeks I’m victorious, I’ll just dread the following week all the more, because that’s how fantasy football works. It’s a neverending hellscape of frustration.

If I wasn’t getting married and going on a honeymoon this fall, I don’t know WHAT I would be looking forward to! But, it sure as shit isn’t this football season. That I’ll be watching with my hands covering my face, one eye peeking in between a set of fingers, ready for the next nut punch to come my way.

Is Geno Smith A Top 10 Quarterback In 2023?

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There’s a lot of Top 10 lists being thrown around nowadays when it comes to the NFL. You know, it’s still pre pre-season, most of the important free agents have signed with teams, and there just isn’t much going on. The calm before the storm, if you will.

So, to get everyone all riled up, media outlets create fake outrage (in the absence of legitimate outrage, which will surely be coming, if it isn’t already here – NFL running backs being underpaid and whatnot) to get everyone talking about football. It’s how we keep the NFL on the front of everyone’s mind 24/7/365.

They’ve been doing this series of Top 10 lists by position group, and save D.K. Metcalf (I think), the Seahawks can’t seem to buy any representation. Hell, even Pete Carroll can’t get a Top 10 nod, being ranked behind the likes of Brian Daboll, Kyle Shanahan, among other coaches who don’t have the resume Pete has. Other than PFF being responsible for that head coach list, I don’t really know where these are coming from. Is it ESPN? NFL.com? Other? I don’t really care.

Other than the head coaching thing, I kind of understand why the Seahawks aren’t among the Top 10 in anything. Outside of D.K., who is our biggest star? I would argue our very best players are so young, they haven’t had a chance to really prove themselves. There’s a variety of rookies from the last couple drafts (including 2023) who I believe will turn into studs, if they aren’t there already. So, you know what? Disrespect them now! Put another chip on their shoulders! I read on Twitter that the Seahawks were iced out of the top 32 in NFL offensive tackles; great! Stupendous! Charles Cross and Abe Lucas see that, and they’re coming for you!

But, if anyone might have a gripe, I think it’s Geno Smith. I think he might be a Top 10 quarterback, and he’s being summarily dismissed once again in the eyes of the know-it-all pundits.

Not all of them. There are always contrarians out there willing to go to bat for Geno. But, it’s weird just the same.

We’re not making a case for All Time Top 10. We’re just talking about the Top 10 quarterbacks heading into 2023. It’s a prediction, based on last year’s production, and what you think is possible for this year.

The usual suspects round out the very top of this list: Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Justin Herbert. On the next tier down, I think you can make an argument for Lamar Jackson, Kirk Cousins, Tua Tagovailoa, Trevor Lawrence, Jared Goff, Dak Prescott, Matthew Stafford, and even Aaron Rodgers; they all have flaws, but I think they have to be in the conversation just the same.

And I would put Geno Smith squarely in that group in the second tier.

So, we’re locking in the Top 5, in some order: Mahomes, Burrow, Allen, Hurts, Herbert. What about the next five?

Well, I think you have to consider the very real injury risks coming with the likes of Tua, Dak, Lamar, and Stafford. Stafford’s arm is about to fall off, plus the talent around him is depleted. Even if he plays in 2023, I don’t think he’ll be better than Geno. When you take away the Dak injury, he was still wildly inconsistent, and good for at least a mistake a game that might cost ’em. At this point, the bloom is off the rose and I don’t think I would rank him over Geno. Lamar, as a running quarterback, is taking a massive amount of hits over the average pocket passer or scrambler. He isn’t the smartest about avoiding contact, and frankly he’s not the passer that Geno is. Other than Mark Andrews, who is he throwing to? Now that he’s been given the massive contract he was looking for, will he be as motivated? I have a lot of doubts about Lamar, most of all: is he a winner? In the regular season, sure, but I think I’d rather have Geno in a playoff game, all things considered. And, we all know what’s going on with Tua. He’s legit elite in that offense, and could be a Top 5 QB when healthy. But, one more big hit to the head might end his career. No thanks.

Aaron Rodgers is an interesting case here. He definitely wasn’t a Top 10 quarterback in 2022; he was legitimately bad! A lot of that, I’m sure, had to do with the loss of Davante Adams, though it’s concerning because great QBs are supposed to elevate the talent around them. I just think A-Rod was done with Green Bay prior to last season, but they couldn’t move him for a variety of reasons, so they had to eat a sub-par year out of him before sending him on his way. Rodgers has elite receivers in New York. Presumably, the O-Line will be fine, though they might also be terrible (which would worry me). More than anything, I wonder if his heart is in it anymore. He’s getting up there. He’s got a world of interests outside of football. He spent a significant portion of this offseason contemplating whether or not he would play again. And, everyone is already crowning the Jets as the next Super Team, which is always cause for concern. BUT, on the flipside, everyone is already counting Rodgers out. There’s a significant portion of the talking heads out there who are dismissing the Jets for all the reasons I just mentioned. And people are taking every opportunity to clown on Rodgers for his … everything (personality, beliefs, political leanings, etc.). In that respect, part of me wonders if he goes Scorched Earth on the NFL for one more year. I mean, he was just the MVP back-to-back years in 2021 and 2022, so you can’t entirely rule him out.

As for Cousins and Goff, I think there’s enough of a sample for both of them to see where they’re lacking. They play up against the bad teams, but don’t always show up against the good ones. There’s enough mistakes in their game to make them total wild cards on any given week. And, with Trevor Lawrence, last year was really his first with any sort of coaching competence around him. And, in spite of that, Geno still out-performed him in most every major category.

This isn’t to say I think Geno Smith is perfect, or even the best option of all of these Tier 2 guys. He has his own mistake issues. He’ll throw a back-breaking interception, drop a killer fumble, or allow defensive pressure to get the best of him. And he also only has the one season of quality play.

But, Geno was Top 10 in total yards (8th, with 4,282), was 4th in passer rating among quarterbacks who played in at least 13 games, he led the league in completion percentage among qualified passers, he averaged 7.5 yards per attempt (7th in football among QBs who played in at least 13 games), and was one of only 8 quarterbacks who played in all 17 games. He also had the 4th most touchdown passes with 30.

I think in aggregate – based on all of the above – you have to put Geno in the Top 10. That doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed to be there at season’s end. But, knowing what we know now, about him and the rest of the league, when you factor in his ability, the talent and coaching around him, I would put him in the Top 10, and I’m as much of a doubter as anyone.

The Most Wrong I’ve Been About A Seahawks Player

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Obviously, I have to shout out Field Gulls for inspiring this post. I mean, basically I’m just stealing their idea and answering it in my own forum. But, I linked to them, so what more do you want from me?! A cut of the profits! Good luck! This site is hemorrhaging money hand over fist!

It’s hard for me to feel satisfied with picking a player who I had zero expectations about, who went on to greatness. Like, I’m not – and have never been – a draftnik. So, I didn’t see Richard Sherman coming, for instance. Or Doug Baldwin. Or Kam Chancellor. I’m pretty sure I had equally as low expectations for a lot of those guys drafted in the later rounds, so the fact that I was so “wrong” about them doesn’t really say a whole lot. I mean, who saw Tom Brady, 6th Round quarterback turning into the Greatest Of All Time? That specific element, I’m throwing away.

The flipside, however, probably has my answer: someone drafted high, whose career totally took a shit.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of highly-drafted busts in Seahawks history. But, by and large, these were players we could’ve seen coming. Lawrence Jackson, Lamar King, L.J. Collier, Germain Ifedi, whathaveyou. Even Koren Robinson had his off-field issues that dogged him into his NFL playing days.

I would say the answer for me is Aaron Curry. Unfortunately, that was in my pre-blogging days, so I don’t have a record of my thoughts at the time, but I do remember very distinctly thinking he was a sure thing linebacker for this team. What I didn’t realize was his lack of pass rushing ability. Why a team would draft an off-ball linebacker – and not even a middle linebacker at that – with the 4th overall pick, is beyond me. But, that’s how great of a prospect he was at the time. He was the consensus “safest pick of the draft”. Plug & play. No worries here!

And then we just got nothing in return. Two and a half years of dud-ery, then somehow we traded him to the Raiders for a couple low-end draft picks.

If I had to give an honorable mention, I’d say I was pretty high on the Percy Harvin trade. That just felt like another one where there was no way to screw it up. Harvin was a superstar talent. We were in a position where the team was already built up considerably, so we had the excess salary cap room and draft capital to spend. It felt like the rich getting richer; instead, it was the beginning of the end.

What absolutely doesn’t belong is the Jimmy Graham deal. I didn’t like that one nearly as much as the Harvin deal. Mostly because we lost Max Unger, but also because Graham wasn’t a blocker whatsoever, and we’ve never thrown it enough to make him a viable weapon.

I probably should’ve been more wary of the Jamal Adams deal, but he seemed like another no-brainer sort of talent. No way I saw his injury issues coming. And no way I saw us falling as flat as we did in 2021.

And for good measure, I was pretty high on both Sheldon Richardson and Jadeveon Clowney when they were brought in. Seemed pretty low-risk/high-reward. Get a couple of motivated pass rushers on one-year deals, and either we sign them to an extension, or we let them walk and get a big, fat compensatory pick. Except, surprise! They were both already on the downside of their careers, they did nothing much in Seattle, and they never got those big money deals with other teams. In other words, they walked for nothing, and we were no better for having had them.

I should probably have pointed out by now that the ACTUAL answer to this question is unquestionably Geno Smith. If you told me before 2021 that Geno Smith would eventually replace Russell Wilson, and go on to have a better season than him – at ANY point in their respective careers – I would’ve thought you were a fucking psychopath drug addict. Even if you told me – this time last year – that Geno Smith would not only win the starting quarterback job, but would go on to play at a Pro Bowl level, and earn a potential big-money extension in 2023 and beyond (even with the incentives at work), I would’ve thought you were nuts. There’s no world where I would’ve envisioned a successful Geno Smith.

Now, granted, what has he done? Led a team to a 9-8 record and a first round exit in the playoffs. There are LOTS of quarterbacks who could’ve done that. Hell, Matt Schaub and Andy Dalton made entire careers out of that kind of “success”. But, my opinion of Geno Smith was so low prior to last season, that I legitimately believed Drew Lock was destined to be our starter last year. That’s a thing I not only believed, but was convinced about!

I legitimately don’t know who would be #2 on the list of players I had absolutely zero faith in whatsoever, who went on to greatness. Jarred Kelenic is somewhere in the ballpark, but he’s still young enough that his 2023 improvement isn’t a total shock. I mean, with Geno, it’s not just a matter of having no belief in him, but his presence was met with utter contempt! I couldn’t stand the thought of him taking snaps on this team. I only begrudgingly accepted him as Russell Wilson’s backup because Russ never took any plays off.

And therein lies the rub. Usually, I develop contempt for players only after they’ve sucked for my team. I don’t often have contempt for a player that then subsequently joins my team. And, by and large, any player who has stunk, comes to Seattle and continues to stink. This type of turnaround in my opinion doesn’t happen easily with me. Which is why Geno is such a rare case.

If we’re taking Geno off the table as too obvious, I’m sticking with Aaron Curry as my pick. Honorable mention for someone who isn’t a player at all: Pete Carroll.

As soon as the Seahawks introduced Pete Carroll as their head coach and really the head honcho alongside John Schneider (in other words, not under the GM like most coaches, and having final say over personnel), I thought this was a panic move of desperation by an organization that gave up on Mike Holmgren too early, and clearly reserved the franchise for the wrong coach in Jim Mora Jr. There’s no way in a million years that I expected Pete Carroll to be worth a damn in the NFL. Not after the way he flamed out in the 90’s. Not after the bevy of college coaches who have made the jump and failed miserably (perhaps no one more miserably than Nick Saban, who went on to supersonic success after going to Alabama from the Dolphins).

You could argue – if we included coaches – I was most wrong about Pete Carroll as the Seahawks’ head coach. What’s funny is that a lot of fans were right there with me at the time, and a lot of fans continue to doubt his abilities to this day. I don’t know how smart that is.

At this point, the 2023 Seahawks might have the biggest collection of Nobody Believed In Us personnel of any team in the NFL. Nobody believes in this defense. Nobody believes in the coaching staff (ehh, some might believe in Shane Waldron, but certainly no one believes in Hurtt or Carroll). People stopped believing in John Schneider for a while there. Geno Smith obviously overcame a mountain of haters. Lockett and Metcalf were overlooked by a lot of teams in their respective drafts. Even JSN fell to 20, when he might be a Top 10 talent. If the power of nobody believing in you was something that translated into the win/loss column, I’d say the Seahawks are Super Bowl contenders on that alone!

Of course, that’s not really a thing, and I don’t actually think the Seahawks are Super Bowl contenders. But, I’m more than happy to be proven wrong!

Have The Seahawks Done Enough To Overtake The 49ers?

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That’s the question we’re asking ourselves all offseason. It’s really the only relevant question to the 2023 season from a Seahawks perspective.

The 49ers were 13-4 last year, and very clearly the second-best team in the NFC. They were the #2 seed in the playoffs, they met Philly in the NFC Championship Game (the #1 seed, naturally), and they got pounded into submission.

The 49ers had one of the best and deepest rosters in the NFL, on both sides of the ball. They’re well-coached, and they have a quality offensive system that allows them to plug & play literally any quarterback (including Brock Purdy, a rookie last year who was taken with the literal final pick in the NFL Draft), and they’re STACKED where it counts. They have one of the best running backs (when healthy) in Christian McCaffrey. They have one of the best wide receivers (when healthy) in Deebo Samuel. They have one of the best tight ends (when healthy) in George Kittle. They have one of the best defensive linemen (when healthy) in Nick Bosa. They have one of the best middle linebackers (who’s always healthy) in Fred Warner. Now, the fact that almost all of these guys have had major injuries recently – yet were all healthy in 2022 – tells me the 49ers were exceedingly lucky last year. One has to wonder if that’s going to carry over; perhaps that’s a feather in our cap.

Where the 49ers are most in flux is at quarterback. Jimmy G is gone. Brock Purdy got injured at season’s end and is no sure thing to return by the start of this regular season. Trey Lance got hurt early on and was lost for most of 2022; he’ll be back, but now there are questions about his viability as a starter going forward. And their big hedge in all this is Sam Darnold, I guess?

Here’s the deal: talking about injuries, or pontificating on who the quarterback is going to be, leaves a lot of variables in play. I’m not interested in “What Ifs” when it comes to the 49ers. I think Brock Purdy will come back and play again; I believe he’ll be in the majority of the games this season. I also believe – as noted up top – they can roll with anyone (including Sam Darnold) and be fine on offense. They have enough talent at the skill spots to move the chains, and they have a deep enough defense to not need a lot of points to win games. Now, they didn’t have much of an opportunity to fill things out in the draft – and eventually the chickens will come home to roost for this franchise – but I’m going into 2023 believing the 49ers will be pretty much as good as they were in 2022. Without even looking at their schedule, I’ll pencil them in for 11-13 wins right now.

I want to focus on the Seahawks more than the 49ers, for obvious reasons. I follow the Seahawks more closely. This is a Seattle-centric blog. And the onus is on the Seahawks to have done enough to bridge the gap.

The 2022 Seahawks were also in the playoffs, as a wild card team, with a 9-8 record. For our hard work, we were rewarded by playing the 49ers in the first round. We got obliterated. Indeed, we lost three games to the 49ers last year, and none of them were particularly close. We couldn’t move the ball! That’s the long and the short of it; we couldn’t move the ball until we were already getting killed, and by that point it didn’t matter. None of the games were competitive, and that’s hard to do when both teams are playoff teams, who are in the same division. We know the 49ers! There were no surprises. They just beat our fucking asses, mano a mano.

This post isn’t just about beating the 49ers this year. It’s about overtaking them for the NFC West title. Any team on any given Sunday and all that; we could fuck around and luck into a win. But, I’m more interested in going toe-to-toe with the 49ers over the long haul. So, what have the Seahawks done?

  • We signed Jason Myers to an extension. He’s great every other year, so I’m a little worried about what 2023 has in store. That being said, the 49ers just drafted a kicker, so I’d be more concerned if I were them.
  • We signed Geno Smith to an extension. Obviously, this is much bigger news than a kicker. His contract is pretty well tied up with his performance; if he does even a fraction of a percent better than he did last year, he’ll get PAID. If he fails to live up to what he did last year, he’ll still get paid, but considerably less.
  • We signed Dre’Mont Jones and Jarran Reed to plug the middle of our defensive line. They both feature vast improvements in pass rush ability, with moderate improvements in run stuffing.
  • We filled out our offensive line with trusted veterans (on short-term deals) and exciting rookies (on long-term deals). Gabe Jackson is no more, but Phil Haynes returns (and figures to get first crack at one of the guard spots opposite Damien Lewis). Evan Brown was brought in to compete at center; he replaces Austin Blythe (who was a detriment for us last year) and figures to be much more competent. We also drafted a couple of thrilling prospects in Anthony Bradford (humongous guard taken in the 4th round) and Olu Oluwatimi (a savvy 5th round pick who many project to become our starting center as early as game 1).
  • We signed Devin Bush and Julian Love at inside linebacker and safety, respectively. Bush is a potential reclamation project who – at the very least – should be a slight improvement over Cody Barton. Love is much more interesting, as he figures to be a major hedge against the inevitable Jamal Adams injury. Love essentially cost us Ryan Neal, but it still feels like a solid upgrade at the position.
  • We brought back Bobby Wagner, which was vitally important, considering how mediocre we were at linebacker last year (again, see: Cody Barton), as well as factoring in the Jordyn Brooks injury (who figures to start this year on the PUP list, and might not be back to normal again until 2024). This improves our run defense, our communication on defense, and gives us another brilliant mind on this side of the ball to ensure players are in the right spots and doing what they’re supposed to be doing.
  • Then, we went out and drafted the best cornerback and wide receiver in the class. We also brought in a couple of very promising running backs (to replace Penny and Homer), a few defensive linemen to fill out our depth, and even another safety who is getting all kinds of kudos (Jerrick Reed won’t be a starter – or even much of a defensive participant – in year one, but he figures to cut his teeth on Special Teams, and could eventually develop into a Quandre Diggs replacement down the road). It appears to be the second consecutive elite draft class by the Seahawks – with a major emphasis on Best Player Available – and as we all know, there’s no better way to quickly turn around your franchise than to draft the way we did from 2010-2012.

And that’s the rub, isn’t it? The previous iteration of a championship-level Seahawks squad took three drafts to reach. So far, this one has only had (MAYBE) the two. Granted, finding even ONE elite draft class is a stretch, for any organization. But, if we want to keep up with the Joneses, we gotta be on the ball. I will say – in comparison to the L.O.B. squad – that we are starting from a MUCH better spot compared to what the Seahawks were from 2009 to 2010 (when Pete Carroll and John Schneider took over). So, an optimist might say that we only NEED the two elite draft classes.

What do I like? Let’s start there.

I’m absolutely enamored with the non-quarterback skill guys on offense. D.K., Tyler, and JSN are all incredible; here’s hoping JSN gets healthy and stays there (it’s disconcerting that he’s still dealing with an injury he suffered in college). Kenneth Walker returns (along with DeeJay Dallas, I guess), and gets paired with a couple of rookies who look tremendous. The tight ends are fine Seahawks tight ends.

I like the potential of this offensive line. Our two hotshot tackles had a full (healthy) year to experience everything the NFL had to offer; the hope is they take a big step forward in year two. The interior should be solid, if not improved over the dead weight we jettisoned this offseason. Any amount of extra time we can give Geno Smith is only going to help him when it comes to finding all his weapons.

Speaking of, I don’t hate the Geno signing, but I especially love how incentivized it is. He’s hungry, he proved he’s at least a capable starter in this league, now we’ll see if – with all this talent around him – he can take his game to another level.

And, how do you not like the secondary? Tariq Woolen as a rookie showed he’s capable of being a top cover guy. Coby Bryant as a rookie showed he’s capable of being a quality nickel guy. We still have Quandre Diggs playing at a high level (as another veteran leader to keep guys in line). We still have Jamal Adams (who is dynamic when he’s on the field). We still have promising depth in Tre Brown and Mike Jackson. Then, you add the consensus best cornerback in this draft class, to go opposite Woolen. That makes the whole room CONSIDERABLY better. Then, you add one of the top free agent safety acquisitions in Love. Then, you add another rookie safety to the mix who looks like a valuable depth piece. The secondary is fucking LOADED. It might eventually be better than it ever was, and that’s saying something.

What don’t I like?

I’m going to single out the linebackers here, but specifically I’m talking about the inside linebackers. We were already one of the worst units last year; we might be worse this year. Bobby Wagner gets a lot of credit for what he did with the Rams last year, especially with everything crumbling around him thanks to injuries and the team losing. But, how good was he really? I think a lot of Seahawks fans saw what he did in those two games against Seattle – where he was hyper-motivated to rub it in our faces – but are ignoring the rest. And are ignoring how he’s looked the last few seasons, when he’s been in unquestionable decline compared to his prime. Eventually, it’s going to come crashing down for Bobby; maybe that’s 2023. But, for the sake of argument, let’s pretend we get his exact 2022 production; is that better than what a healthy Jordyn Brooks gave us? I dunno. There’s also a lot of doubt about Bush, and some second thoughts about Cody Barton (especially with Barton getting a multi-year deal with the erstwhile Washington Football Team). If Bobby’s worse than Brooks, and Bush is worse than Barton, YE GODS! That’s a nightmare scenario.

Then, there’s just the blanket Defensive Line, but it’s really broken down into Pass Rush and Run Defense.

I thought the pass rush last year was good, not great. It took a while before the team understood how to properly utilize Darrell Taylor (he’s not an every-down outside linebacker/defensive end; he’s more strictly a guy you want to save for obvious pass rushing situations). Uchenna Nwosu was our best performer all year. Boye Mafe was just okay as a rookie, but I’m not expecting much from him ever. Derick Hall gets the honor of being this year’s Boye Mafe – and he’s getting rave reviews so far in OTAs – but I’m not expecting anything here either. Mario Edwards was just signed as a low-priced veteran defensive end, but he’s never done much in pass rush in his career.

What should we expect from our pass rush? At best, probably what we saw last year. Dre’Mont Jones is a wild card here; if he can consistently blow things up in the middle, that’s going to make everyone’s jobs on the outside a lot easier. But, I wouldn’t hold my breath. At worst, the pass rush takes a step back, and this is still our #1 priority next offseason (just like it was this offseason).

I thought – as does literally everyone – the run defense last year was total and complete shit. We lopped off a lot of dead weight: gone are Al Woods, Poona Ford, Shelby Harris, Quinton Jefferson, and L.J. Collier, among others. And we brought in Jones, Reed, Edwards, and rookies Cameron Young and Mike Morris. We retained Bryan Mone, but he’s injured and it’s not clear when he’s going to be ready to play again. We could’ve had Jalen Carter, so that’ll forever be a major What If. We also could’ve held onto Al Woods for not much more money than what his dead cap figure amounts to, but we’re up against the salary cap and already had to convert some Tyler Lockett money into signing bonus proration, just to sign our rookies.

Could the run defense be worse this year? It was so bad last year, I find that hard to believe, but I guess I have to admit it’s possible. I’m hoping that continuity among the coaching staff will lead to a better understanding of the scheme by the players, as well as a better understanding by the personnel people as to who needs to be on this roster, to fit in with that scheme. Is there a run-plugging diamond in the rough, either among the rookies or the back-of-the-roster holdovers from last year? Poona Ford and Bryan Mone both came from out of nowhere to be major contributors for this team, so anything’s possible.

All told, where does that put us compared to last year?

If we get modest improvements out of the run defense and pass rush, we should see tremendous value from our secondary and enough explosiveness from our offense to be improved over last year. I could see the Seahawks winning anywhere from 9-12 games, as long as we don’t suffer too many major injuries. I’ve got the 49ers at 11-13 wins, so what I’ll say is I think the Seahawks have given themselves a chance. I think we’ve done enough to compete on their level. That doesn’t mean I’m expecting us to blow them out ever; I think we can eke out one victory in the regular season, and be within a game of them by season’s end.

Gun to my head, if I have to make a definitive prediction, I would say the Seahawks finish a game back. Or, maybe tied in record, but losing to them via tiebreakers. Bottom line, I’m still predicting the 49ers win the NFC West; but I do think we’ll have a better wild card spot than we did a year ago, and hopefully that means we won’t have to play them in the first round again.

So, no, I don’t think the Seahawks have done enough to overtake the 49ers in 2023. But, at this rate, 2024 is ON THE TABLE.

Time To Complain: The 2023 Seahawks Have A Schedule

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I don’t want to say we got a raw deal, but we did end up drawing what looks like a particularly difficult schedule. The AFC North is top-heavy with Cincinnati and Baltimore (both on the road, of course), but Pittsburgh looks up-and-coming, and the Browns are poised for a bounce-back now that Deshaun Watson doesn’t have his legal issues hanging over him.

Then, to add insult to injury, we get saddled with the NFC East? The Giants and Cowboys are elite, and of course the Eagles are reigning Super Bowl losers. And, to wrap it up, we get the Lions and Panthers (both teams on the rise), and go on the road to face a Titans team looking to rebound from an injury-riddled 2022 (they’re still well-coached and veteran in all the right places; far from an easy victory).

I would try to be thankful that the NFC West isn’t its usual gauntlet, but the 49ers are still – top-to-bottom – one of the best and deepest rosters in the NFL, the Rams still have elite players at important positions (and have been known to take us out with far less talent), and the Cards always seem to find a way to beat us when they absolutely shouldn’t.

  • Week 1 – L.A. Rams
  • Week 2 – @ Detroit (10am)
  • Week 3 – Carolina
  • Week 4 – @ N.Y. Giants (MNF)
  • Week 5 – BYE
  • Week 6 – @ Cincinnati (10am)
  • Week 7 – Arizona
  • Week 8 – Cleveland
  • Week 9 – @ Baltimore (10am)
  • Week 10 – Washington
  • Week 11 – @ L.A. Rams
  • Week 12 – San Francisco (Thanksgiving)
  • Week 13 – @ Dallas (TNF)
  • Week 14 – @ San Francisco
  • Week 15 – Philadelphia
  • Week 16 – @ Tennessee (10am)
  • Week 17 – Pittsburgh
  • Week 18 – @ Arizona

Right off that bat, an annual gripe: every single team should be lumped into one of two BYE weeks, in the middle of the season. Either that, or start giving teams two BYEs apiece. It’s ridiculous that we get our BYE in early October! Fuck the NFL, figure it the fuck out!

We’re looking at four 10am games, which I don’t even put on my radar as things to complain about anymore, ever since Pete Carroll came here and gave us the secret sauce for winning on the road in the early morning. At this point, it’s just a good excuse to wake up early, go to my dad’s, and have some breakfast while watching some football.

Only three primetime games, two of which land on Thursdays. And, a big bummer in that I think this is the second year in a row where we’re left off of the Sunday Night Football lineup. That’s the best game! Honestly, I don’t even like Monday Night Football. It’s better now that Troy and Buck are calling them, but I think their talents are wasted on that timeslot. This isn’t the 70’s, no one cares about MNF anymore.

I do think it’s incredibly cool that we get to play on Thanksgiving. I freaking LOVE playing that day! Even if it’s only the night game, I don’t care. It’s always special to be one of the teams going on the biggest football day of the year (outside of the Super Bowl).

I also kinda get a kick out of being on back-to-back Thursdays.

I don’t hate how balanced it is from a road/home standpoint. The only back-to-back road situations are split up by a BYE week, or a Thursday-related quasi-BYE week. It’s still INCREDIBLY stupid that seasons are an odd number of games, and so this year we’re saddled with one less home contest. Just make it 18 games already and cut the fucking bullshit!

The only thing left to do is predict the outcome of all the games, right? Okay, let’s get it over with.

I think we start the season 2-2, with wins over the Panthers and Giants. I think we lose in an annoying fashion to the Rams in week 1, followed by a high-scoring defeat to the Lions in week 2.

Then, I think we go 2-2 in the next four games, losing to both the Bengals and Ravens, while beating the Cards and Browns. Then, I think we rip off a 3-game winning streak over the Commanders, Rams, and 49ers on Thanksgiving, before losing to Dallas and San Fran the following two weeks. That brings us to 7-6.

Then, I think we finish the season 3-1, with an upset over the Eagles, a win over the Titans, an upset loss to the Steelers, and a bounce-back victory over the Cardinals to close it out. 10-7. A slight improvement over last year, but not the towering achievement we were all hoping for.