For every Drew Lock TD throw this season, I will run 5 miles

Seaside Joe 1234: The Laps 4 Lock pledge

I spent a couple of hours this morning working on a different post for Seaside Joe today, but then was pulled away to go see Nope and now I’m saving that article for another day. In its place will have to be something quicker, a pledge that I hope will make this Seahawks season a little more exciting and a lot more exhausting.

Even though Pete Carroll hasn’t named a starter yet, I continue to believe that more roads than not lead to Drew Lock. Seattle spent weeks finalizing the Russell Wilson trade and that means that the Seahawks scouting department had at least a couple of fortnights to study Lock’s 21 professional starts with the Broncos, eventually coming to the conclusion that “Yeah, we want this guy.” This decision not coming that long after I’m sure Seattle’s college scouts had studied Lock for the 2019 NFL Draft.

It’s not as though that’s my entire argument for Lock (you can read that here) and I’m sure Carroll kind of means it when he says that Geno Smith enters training camp with a lead. But it is only logical that Carroll means in the way that, “He’s behind, but by golly we want him to win it.”

Forget about looking for a franchise quarterback in training camp. Even forget about who gives the Seahawks the best chance to win. Instead, I’d focus on the fact that Drew Lock is the only guy in camp who might actually be able to replicate a fraction of the explosive downfield passing plays that Wilson used to complete on a regular basis.

This has not necessarily meant that Lock’s proven to be a good passer in the NFL—to any level. As written at MileHighReport a year ago, Lock struggled to nearly every part of the field during his one season with more than five starts:

For comparison Drew Lock was average on screen passes, average on short throws and below average on both intermediate and deep passes in 2020. His heat map from next gen stats is here.

Lock was below average on deep passes, but unlike Geno Smith, at least the attempts were there.

I do not know if Drew Lock will be the starter for the Seahawks in Week 1, but I do think it is more likely that Lock would eventually take over for Smith than Smith eventually taking over for Lock. So if Smith is named the starter out of preseason and training camp, it might only be a trial period that lasts a couple of months, if even a few weeks.

Barring Geno Smith being one of the best stories in NFL history, it is likely that at worst, the Seahawks will find themselves in a position this year that giving Lock a shot makes more sense than not. And when they do, I’m prepared to go the distance with them on that decision.

For every Seahawks touchdown pass by Drew Lock this season, I will run five miles.

Example: Lock throws one touchdown, I do a five-mile run that week.

Example: Lock throws two touchdowns, I do a 10-mile run that week.

Example: Lock throws four touchdowns, I devise a plan to get out of it or spread it out somehow because the longest I’ve ever gone in a single run before is 11.5 miles.

I will setup a GoPro to wear on my runs as proof of completion of the Laps 4 Lock challenge each week and upload it to the Seaside Joe YouTube channel.

Prior to turning 37, I don’t think I had run a total of 11.5 miles in my entire life. My lack of athletic motivation and desire goes back to my middle school days, to the moment when everyone in class was timed in the mile and I finished in dead last. Out of all students. They had to wait to watch me cross the finish line. I’ll never forget what the P.E. teacher said while announcing the times to the class.

“Let’s give a round of applause to the person who at least got faster with each successive lap: Seaside Joe.”

Except she didn’t say Seaside Joe.

I did feel proud of that fact. But I don’t know if I fully comprehended at the time just how slow my first three laps must have been in order for that to be true.

But for the last two years I’ve been running 3-5 times a week and I’m trying to work my way up to a half-marathon and then a marathon. Now thanks to the Laps 4 Lock challenge, I can see myself being pushed to new distances and proving to myself that it is possible while also simultaneously having some skin in the game for the quarterback competition and extra reasons to root for (or against?) Drew Lock during his tenure in Seattle. However long that lasts.

He could really push me towards a marathon attempt though.

Lock only threw two touchdowns during the 2021 season, only one of which came during his three starts at the end of the year. Starting 13 games in 2020, Lock threw 16 touchdowns—a manageable tally—but he did have a three-touchdown game against the Chargers and a four-touchdown game against the Panthers.

The Seahawks host the Panthers on December 11.

As a rookie in 2019, Lock threw seven touchdowns, three of which came in a game against the Houston Texans.

I hope Lock wins the quarterback competition because that will mean I was right. I hope that he does well, because I could use the motivation to keep running. I just don’t know if I hope that he does…great.

Go Drew Lock. Go be…Pretty okay.

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