Is Shaun Alexander appreciated enough?

Answers to that question and many more!

Seaside Joe closes out the week by addressing more of your questions and comments posted in the “floor is open” newsletter. I like to say “address” instead of “answer” because while there are some questions I can answer (but mostly I just serve the community as a committed researcher for answers), I don’t feel like I’m going to be the authority on everything.

In fact, some of the best answers this week came from Seaside Joe subscribers, and everyday you can learn more about football and the Seahawks from our community than from me, so take advantage of that opportunity by checking out our daily comments section! It’s always free to read the comments:

zezinhom400: Shaun Alexander: Is he a HOF player?

In the most literal sense, no. Shaun Alexander will almost certainly not be voted into the Hall of Fame.

Alexander ranks 37th all time in rushing and of the 14 players directly above him, the only Hall of Famer is Joe Perry, a running back back for the San Francisco 49ers from 1948 to 1960. Not only was Perry the first Black player to win MVP, he led the league in rushing three times and was inducted into the Hall in 1969, almost immediately as he was eligible.

So Alexander and other players with similar rushing totals (like Ezekiel Elliott, Ahman Green, Chris Johnson, and Matt Forte) can’t exactly point to Perry and say, “Well, what about him?”

Other players with more rushing yards than Alexander who aren’t in the Hall of Fame:

• Clinton Portis

• Ricky Williams

• Eddie George

• Thomas Jones

• Ricky Watters

• Warrick Dunn

• Corey Dillon

• Marshawn Lynch

The NFL is only going to put so many running backs into Canton and Alexander is definitely behind players like Fred Taylor, Frank Gore (third all-time in rushing yards), and Lynch, who made a much greater mark on football’s culture and the sport than Alexander.

Still, it’s always been a question in Seattle of whether or not Seahawks fans even appreciated what they had in the backfield.

With two Hall of Famers playing on the left side of Seattle’s offensive line, Alexander was sometimes criticized for the yards he didn’t get rather than praised for the ones he did. Rather than ask the Hall of Fame question, I’m going to push this in a slightly different direction:

Do you think Seahawks fans appreciate Alexander enough or is he overrated?

Mostly Lurking: Kenneth Walker vs Zach Charbonnet, what happens this year? Walker still doesn't seem like a downhill runner, he's gotten better at it but it seems like that's still an area Charb has him beat.

As soon as I allow myself to get hopeful for Walker to have a breakout season, my heart skipped a beat when I read this tweet from Brady Henderson that he “didn’t see Walker do a whole lot”.

But from most accounts, this doesn’t sound like it could be anything other than a precautionary measure. What does Walker really need to do right now other than be healthy for the season?

Here’s what Jacob Gibbs wrote on Twitter about Walker’s ideal fit in Klint Kubiak’s offense:

“The real winner here would appear to be Kenneth Walker. Alvin Kamara was ripping off explosives in this run design early in the (2024) season. His explosive rush rate under Kubiak was the highest since 2020.

For his career, Walker has averaged 4.4 yards per zone rush, compared to 3.8 yards on non-zone rushes. He’s been at his best on outside zone runs, averaging 4.7 YPC. In 2024, Kubiak’s Saints ranked third with a 46% outside zone rate. Zach Charbonnet has averged 3.7 YPC on outside zone runs and 4.4 YPC on non-zone runs. His collegiate data is similar: Charbonnet is better as a man/gap runner and he won’t likely see many of those under Kubiak.”

In other words, not only is Walker the more talented player of the two (and make no mistake that he is), he’s a better fit for Kubiak’s offense. I can’t tell you that Walker is going to stay healthy with any more certainty than telling you that he’s guaranteed to get hurt; he’s not guaranteed to get hurt, contrary to popular fears.

Make your bets on Kenneth Walker, but here’s the actual twist: I’m possibly more inclined to expect Damien Martinez to wow us next season than Charbonnet.

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Bill Lord: I think Cooper Kupp will really help our passing game because he just seems able to always get open. Better than Metcalf. You agree?

Hopefully everyone agrees that regardless of the two players being almost as unalike as any two receivers could be in terms of size, speed, style, demeanor, and everything else, that Cooper Kupp has had the better career than DK Metcalf. That should just be a fact and if that was hard to admit six months ago, it should be easier with Kupp back in Washington again.

As far as whether or not Kupp is better for the 2025 Seahawks offense than Metcalf would have been, I agree that there are a lot of qualities he brings to the team that would seem to fit Seattle better right now. On top of what’s within his control, the fact that he’s so much cheaper in terms of cap AND cash also gives the Seahawks more opportunities to be a better team overall.

If Kupp plays more than 12 games, I think the swap will be well worth it. He’ll get open (which never required him to be a great athlete, so aging shouldn’t matter as much to him as to other players) and he’ll be a great mentor to Jaxon Smith-Njigba at this stage of their respective careers.

Andrew: Building on this question my feel is that Metcalf / Lockett’s games were generally best with air yards before catch. However I feel that JSN/ kupp will be more likely to blow the top off with the ball in their hands. Is that born out statistically? How does that line up with Kubiak’s offense?

I thought this would be a good time to bring up Marquez Valdes-Scantling’s role in the Saints offense again:

• MVS led the Saints with 22.6 yards per catch

• MVS led the Saints with 17.8 average depth of target

• MVS led the Saints with 14.6 yards before catch per catch

• MVS led the Saints with 8.1 yards AFTER the catch per catch

With as much attention as Rashid Shaheed has gotten for being this unreal deep threat wizard, the numbers back MVS as Kubiak’s (very slightly) better threat in that area.

Of course, the 2024 Saints were a very unusual offense in that not one single receiver was healthy enough to start more than eight games, and not one receiver on the team had more than 400 yards, but when they were out there MVS had a clear role and he was good at it…

His numbers should have been even better, but then Derek Carr got hurt:

• MVS caught 12-of-17 passes from Carr (70.6%) and 4 TDs

• MVS caught 5-of-14 passes from Spencer Rattler (35%) and 0 TDs

Like Tyler Lockett and Metcalf, JSN is many good things but so far he’s not a YAC guy. His 4.8 YAC per catch was only a little better than Metcalf (4.0) and Lockett (2.7). Perhaps that will change under Kubiak, but I might put my money on Tory Horton or MVS to be the “big play” threats.

JIMMY JOHNSON: I expect Kubiak's offense will combine a strong run game along with utilizing JSN and Kupp over the middle, with his faster young WRs stretching the field as Metcalf was doing. My hope is to see Bobo's size and tenacity to be much like Kupp's, making him ideal to stand in when Kupp takes a break. I bet we'll see Jake's special skills in YAC. Darnold won't have to deal with a change in the designed rhythm/pace of his attacks. Get us down to the red zone and 'Roe in TDs. If the Run Game gets established and the Defense finds a new level, we may own the Super Bowl.

Grant Alden: Maybe this reflects my draft fascination, but I'd be interested in a realistic projection of the contributions we might expect next season from our 11 draft choices. A ceiling/floor kinda thing? Maybe even with all of our substantive additions: Darnold, Kupp, MVS, DeMarcus Lawrence...It's spring, and so hope is eternal. But they're not all going to pan out, no matter how new and shiny they are just now, alas.

Apologies if I speed through this, but I’m attempting to rapid fire these answers (and so far not doing a good job of it).

As noted in the Robbie Ouzts article, I would expect Gray Zabel to play every snap and then maybe Ouzts is relatively high on the list as a fullback.

If we just assumed no injuries on the team, Zabel and Ouzts are the only rookies in line to start.

• Nick Emmanwori, Tory Horton feel like important rotational players

• Jalen Milroe might play 5% of the snaps, which is still 5% more than most QB3 rookies, and they’ll be highly-entertaining plays

• Elijah Arroyo and Damien Martinez should be active players on game day, but without injury or release, seem a little buried on the depth chart

• Ricky White (not including if he wins a role as a returner), Bryce Cabeldue, and Mason Richman would basically need a miracle to have roles on offense this season

• Rylie Mills could miss the first half of the season, if not every game, on IR

Which rookies do I think fans will notice the most by the time the season is over? Definitely Zabel, probably Emmanwori and Horton, then Milroe, Arroyo, Ouzts, and Martinez.

MJDarby15: What type of season would the Seahawks need to have to warrant a notable mid-season trade addition (excluding injury crisis), and are there any particular quality players you envisage being available?

John Schneider’s always open for business. Without looking up the history right now, I would actually say that NFL trades — unlike MLB and NBA midseason trades — are usually more about a long-term vision than getting an immediate upgrade for a weakness.

The NFL season is just too short and fitting a new system is just too hard to expect trades (which are often also too expensive) to help teams immediately like they do in other sports. Not that it never happens (Von Miller to the Rams in 2021, for example), but a lot of times the trades are more like Montez Sweat going to the Bears in 2023:

Chicago traded a second round pick for Sweat when they were arguably the worst team in the NFL.

So what would have to happen? I think it’s more like, “Who would have to be available?”

For example, let’s say that the Jets decide to trade Garrett Wilson and the cost isn’t too high because New York doesn’t have any leverage, maybe that’s the type of situation that would lead to the Seahawks making a trade: A young player with tremendous upside who Seattle wouldn’t be afraid to extend.

Andrew: I want some trademark SSJ breakdown of how many times second year head coaches have playoff breakthroughs after missing in year 1.

It’s really hard to think that the Seahawks 2025 situation would compare favorably to any other “second-year head coach” situation and be valuable information just because there are too many variables at play.

• The Seahawks might have a better or worse roster than those teams

• The Seahawks might have an easier or tougher schedule than those teams

• The Seahawks might have a greater or worse chance of navigating their conference for a playoff seed than those teams

• The Seahawks might have better or worse injury luck than those teams

• The Seahawks might have better or worse turnover luck than those teams

• The Seahawks might win more or lose more one-possession games than those teams

In general, the Seahawks will meet, exceed, or fail expectations for so many reasons beyond just Mike Macdonald and what year of his career he’s in…however, a more satisfying answer to your question might be a single example that sounds favorable to us:

Dan Campbell went 3-13-1 in his first season as the Lions head coach.

Then the Lions went 9-8 and barely missed the playoffs in year two.

Then the Lions went 12-5 in year three, not an easy task for a team that has Jared Goff at quarterback and a fairly average defense.

Then the Lions went 15-2 last season.

So in terms of “What does a successful transition from year-to-year look like?” that’s what it looks like. If the Seahawks started off with a one-year headstart when they hired Macdonald, maybe they could be that team that looks great in 2025 and unstoppable in 2026.

C.J. Watson: I have a question about the salaries of coaches. Is there a salary cap that limits the amount of money teams can pay the full of array of coaches? It seems there could be a competitive advantage to those teams that have a full complement of staff who can "coach up" players versus teams who are too cheap to pay not only a decent salary to the head coach but perhaps may operate at a disadvantage by paying poorly and carrying fewer assistant coaches. Has there been data of recent top teams compared to bottom of the barrel teams when it comes to spending on coaching? Thanks.

This question was answered in the comments by Randall Murray. Thanks, Randall!

Randall: No there isn’t a cap per se for coaches. But, they are employees. You want a team to be “profitable” to have money when money is needed. You could pay every coach upteen millions but then you’re damaging the whole of the organization, unless those coaches get you that SB. It’s why certain guys that do well get paid or leave. Many want that big job. Others like our new OLine coach doing the same job as long as Coach Mac’s been alive, do it well and make a fabulous living doing what they love with limited angst when things don’t go well (ie media or fan hate).

I’ll address more of your questions in the future. Subscribe to SSJ if you like it around here and tell other Seahawks fans if they might like it too!

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