Someday Seahawks: Week 1 college football suggested draft prospects thread
Seaside Bonus: When do Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, Grayson McCall, and other 2023 prospects begin play on Saturday?
The collective knowledge of everyone who reads Seaside Joe will always be so much more than what just Joes knows. That’s why the secret weapon to this blog/newsletter/website is not Seaside Joe, it’s the Seaside Joe community and this morning’s bonus post is my attempt to fire that sucker directly at the Seahawks’ all-important 2023 NFL Draft.
Please note: This is not today’s regular episode of Seaside Joe because I just don’t feel like that would be fair to the people who expected a Seahawks newsletter everyday. Stay tuned for something else later today and it will be more heavily NFL-related.
Whether or not this thing pops off a couple harmless rounds or if it blows the intercontinental championship belt off of John Schneider’s waist is yet to be seen. Maybe I’ll post this and by tonight it doesn’t have any comments and then I’ll seriously consider never doing this again. The last thing I want to do is have subscribers feel ripped off because they get an e-mail every Saturday morning for a college football thread when all they asked for was a daily article about the Seahawks—and I would totally get that.
I’m not one of these writers who thinks that every idea I have must be a great one.
Again, the most important thing that goes on at Seaside Joe is not the guy who writes it, it is the people who read it. Seaside Joe NEEDS you in order to be a functional success, and Seaside Joe also wants you to be happy with the newsletter that you signed up for, the mission statement of which has always revolved around one idea: Keeping you better informed about the Seattle Seahawks than anywhere else on the internet.
Some people not only think that should include the draft, they believe that the draft will be the heart and soul of the future of the team. Especially as it relates to the quarterback position and the 2023 class.
Others do not want to talk about the draft at all and if they do, leave it for February, March, and April. These fans are just as right as the ones who want to talk about the draft all year long.
I personally love the draft, but that doesn’t mean that you have to and you shouldn’t be forced to read a Seahawks newsletter that periodically dips into areas that feel unrelated to the team. Most NFL writers will do that to their followers on Twitter, I don’t want to mimic that behavior and waste your valuable time on Seaside Joe.
That’s why this is NOT the episode 1277 of the newsletter, so if you just don’t care at all what happens in college football this week, you can move onto the next article. If you either want to read about what’s happening in college football or you want to comment about what’s happening in college football today, continue with me and let’s talk about how to do that.
Not only will the Seaside Joe newsletter have more articles about the Seattle Seahawks than just about any other single-writer blog on the team, it has also been a consistent resource for how the team will approach the draft every year. It was my dream with this Substack to become more prepared for upcoming draft classes than I ever had been before and here’s what we know about the 2023 edition:
With two firsts and two seconds, the Seahawks are in prime position to have the most draft capital of any team in the NFL next year.
We know that the quarterback position is the one that will get the most attention, generally speaking and in the case of Seattle’s intentions with at least one of their top picks, but there are still plenty of other needs to fill with those four picks and the rest of the draft class.
Though Week 0 transpired seven days ago without much to write about on a short schedule with few NFL prospects, today marks the first full day of college football this year. On Friday, we saw Ken Walker III’s alma mater, Michigan State, get off to a 1-0 start by beating Western Michigan 35-13; Walker’s replacement Jalen Berger did have 16 carries for 120 yards.
But Berger also lost a fumble…Walker was the most sure-handed running back in college football, setting the longest active streak without a fumble during his career at Wake Forest and Michigan State.
On Thursday, Oklahoma State QB Spencer Sanders scored six touchdowns. But for the senior quarterback to turn up the dials on his draft value, he will need to continue that through a schedule that won’t include Central Michigan every week and he will need to do a lot more than score touchdowns and have a decent highlight reel.
Being an NFL starting quarterback is extremely rare and I would even say that there have been weeks of college football where basically no future starters were playing anywhere in the country. That should not be the case this year as there are many intriguing prospects. It’s just that through his first three seasons as a starter, Sanders has not consistently played like one of them.
Also on Thursday, two transfer QBs—Pitt’s Kedon Slovis and West Virginia’s J.T. Daniels—faced off in a 38-31 win for Slovis’s team. These are players I would call “recruiting famous” (both were originally at USC) and that label has often led many analysts astray when evaluating NFL talent. I would rather just have a quarterback who didn’t have to transfer than one who maybe found a better fit elsewhere to highlight his strengths.
One of the most important attributes for all great quarterbacks is that their game always translates. They just know how to make those around them better. I think of Justin Herbert, who didn’t always have the best coaching fits at Oregon, or even in the NFL, but has consistently been the best player on the field because he makes his teammates better.
Finally as far as top-25 action that’s already happened goes, Wake Forest had to replace (very good) starter Sam Hartman due to a medical condition discovered in the offseason and his replacement Mitch Griffis was efficient and extremely likable in a 44-10 win over VMI on Thursday. Said Griffis to the media after going 21-of-29 for 288 yards and three touchdowns: “Those whole day I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m starting a college football game. This is nuts.”
THAT’S WHAT I WOULD THINK TOO!
Also, he kinda ain’t no joke as a thrower.
I definitely want to keep tabs on Griffis for the time being, especially since Hartman is expected to return during the season.
But now I need to turn to YOU. Who do YOU want to keep tabs on? Is there anything you’ve seen, anyone you’ve watched in the first week so far who deserves closer inspection? I’m not just speaking of quarterbacks, but of prospects at any position.
For those of you keenly aware of draft prospects and college football players, have you noticed anyone so far that piques your interest?
That continues on Saturday with a full slate of games: SCHEDULE
Some important games to monitor for the QB prospects:
NC State at East Carolina, 9 AM PT - Devin Leary
Rutgers at Boston College, 9 AM - Phil Jurkovec
Bethune-Cookman at Miami, 12:30 PM - Tyler Van Dyke
Cincinnati at Arkansas, 12:30 PM - K.J. Jefferson
BYU at South Florida, 1 PM - Jaren Hall
Rice at USC, 3 PM - Caleb Williams (2024 class)
Utah at Florida, 4 PM - Cam Rising vs Anthony Richardson
Miami (OH) at Kentucky, 4 PM - Will Levis
Army at Coastal Carolina, 4 PM - Grayson McCall
Utah State at Alabama, 4:30 PM - Bryce Young
Notre Dame at Ohio State, 4:30 PM - C.J. Stroud
Georgia State at South Carolina, 4:30 PM - Spencer Rattler
Colgate at Stanford, 5 PM - Tanner McKee
UL Monroe at Texas, 5 PM - Quinn Ewers (2024 class)
Idaho at Washington State, 6:30 PM - Cam Ward
Some other QBs who already played who I want to just mention: Fresno State’s Jake Haener, Penn State’s Sean Clifford, Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker.
What are you watching on Saturday? What prospects should we start keeping an eye on for the Seattle Seahawks? They don’t have to be quarterbacks. They can play any position—Seattle is going to need receivers, interior offensive linemen, edge rushers, cornerbacks, a tight end, linebackers…there will be a lot to see on Saturday and I know that I won’t see it all.
If you want to share what you’re watching, please jump in the comments. If you like this post, hit like. If you think this is a bad idea, don’t hit like! You can tell me, I can handle it.
But this is a thread so you’ll need to maybe come back throughout the day to see if this post has collected information on what’s happening on Saturday or not, in which case, maybe you won’t see Someday Seahawks ever gain.
If you had asked me before this post, I would have been a hard pass on draft prospects. But your enthusiasm, analysis, and general wordsmithing have me hooked. Write what you want to write and I will continue to read it all.
Grayson McCall is so accurate.