Marshawn Lynch re-lives Beastquake with Peyton Manning

What YOU said about Russell Wilson, trading for Chris Jones, and Quentin Tarantino: Seaside Joe 1615

I can’t imagine that Marshawn Lynch, of all people, loves to re-tell the same backstories about Skittles, the cart, and Beastquake, but I think that getting away with hack questions is something you can only did if you’re Peyton Manning. Especially since Marshawn knows he beat you in the Super Bowl.

Maybe not all of the same privileges would be afforded to Tom Brady.

At least Peyton didn’t ask him about the one-yard line.

There was no Seasider Remarks column last week, so I’ll try and hit as many comments as possible from the past two weeks.

“How do I support?? How do I support??? Please please tell me Seaside Joe, how do I support?!” Hit It:

Most Liked: What it's cost the Broncos to find out that Russell Wilson had help in Seattle

Almost as many people hit “like” on this post as anything I’ve ever written, which is comforting because it’s articles like this one that make me the most nervous about reading the comments. I don’t intend to bring up old wounds or even to gloat, but it is remarkable what the Broncos have had to pay to try and get a Peyton Manning replacement that they’re happy with.

Reminder: John Elway played from 1983-1998. Then four years of Brian Griese, four years of Jake Plummer, two of Jay Cutler, two of Kyle Orton, and one for Tim Tebow before getting lucky that Manning hit free agency in 2012. So Denver got lucky that Elway didn’t want to play for the Colts, lucky that the Colts chose to pick Andrew Luck over keeping Manning, and if not for those two fortunate circumstances might not have ever won a Super Bowl.

Basically every other move by the Broncos to get a franchise quarterback has gone poorly.

Seasider Grant:

It's a tough and humbling situation for Wilson. He's getting paid, so priority number one is taken care of, but his championship aspirations and personal legacy have taken a solid slap to the face. The Broncos don't have a championship roster or the capitol to quickly build one, and Russ is 34 with a sizable cap hit. He struggled so much last season that any future success will be largely attributed to Sean Payton. If he continues to play poorly, he will be blamed rather than Payton. I think credit for success is something that was/is important to Wilson, and at best he'll be now be playing second fiddle to Payton for the foreseeable future.

That’s a great point. If Russ rebounds, he won’t get the credit. If Russ gets benched, he will get blamed. Since this article was written, Denver has lost receiver Tim Patrick, but with all due respect the offense shouldn’t have been hinging on his availability. Another note that I think gets lost in all the Payton/Russ talk: Is this one of the worst defenses in the NFL? The Broncos gave up the third-most points in the league in the last five games, lost a good defensive coordinator, and I don’t see many stars there.

We know Payton isn’t getting fired for any reason. I could see Denver ending up as the worst team in the AFC.

Most Comments: Geno Smith could sit out the whole year and still be a bargain quarterback

I know why this one had the most comments: It’s the Quentin Tarantino question article.

“Pulp fiction is my favorite, then kill bill.”

“Reservoir Dogs is my favorite, I think haha.”

“From Dusk till Dawn seemed to be awesome until Salma Hayek got weird.”

“I think Django was my favorite, but only because of the performances by the actors.”

“And really liked the first half of Dusk til Dawn, until vampires showed up.”

“Were you watching Pulp Fiction last night on HBO, too?”

As a matter of fact, I was watching Pulp Fiction on HBO a couple nights before writing the article.

There were a lot of replies with Kill Bill, which I haven’t seen in a while and will need to re-visit.

Don't Panic!

Remember way, way, way back in the day when the Seahawks arrived at training camp and Devon Witherspoon was holding out? It was so long ago that The Righteous Gemstones was still on TV!

Seasider Doug, who has been coming with the music links each week:

In the summer it is rare to be cold, and we just want Witherspoon to get on the field to play.

We live in a beautiful world.

So, here it is--Don't Panic

Jaxon Smith-Njigba becomes college football’s best receiver (Super Joes)

Last month’s Super Joes article is mostly still free, but includes some clips and added context/discussion around JSN’s historic game log and history through high school and college. But apparently Substack (the place that hosts us) has a glitch, which isn’t totally surprising. Here’s an exchange from the comments, I hope that it helps if you run into the same issue:

“Joe, I didn't get any of the video links that you were referring to.”

“Sometimes you have to reload Substack to get the videos.”

Join or upgrade to Super Joes if you feel inclined.

What it would take to trade for Chris Jones

Another article that had a LOT of engagement. People love to dream! I do it every night.

Seasider Ian:

I'd do that trade if I were the Hawks in a heartbeat. However, I don't think the player part of the compensation would work for the Chiefs. Forget Eskridge. Completely unproven. Forget Coby. Not much more proven. If I were the Chiefs, I'd demand a known quantity who would make a clear difference. Tyler Lockett. And if they did that, and I were the Hawks, I'd say...

Just in this sense, consider the Russell Wilson trade again: two firsts, two seconds, three fine/okay players, and a huge contract.

So the trade offer for Chris Jones was: one first, one second, three fine/okay players, and a big contract but not a “QB big” contract. I think the players that Kansas City would be getting from Seattle are better and more valuable than the players that the Seahawks got from the Broncos. But I do agree that Eskridge and Coby are still unproven. The other player offered in this hypothetical was Noah Fant, who is Noah Fant already.

I’ll say one more thing about acquiring blockbuster players in trade, which is often frowned upon for some reason: The Rams did it before winning a Super Bowl. The Chiefs did it with Frank Clark before winning two Super Bowls and they also traded for Orlando Brown. The Bucs didn’t trade for Tom Brady but sort of similar circumstances and they did technically trade for Rob Gronkowski. The Eagles traded for A.J. Brown, the 49ers traded for Christian McCaffrey and Trent Williams.

I don’t see blockbuster trades as gimmicks. They could fail—as you and I were just talking about a minute ago, they could fail MISERABLY—but I think the rapid increase in huge NFL trades has more to do with winning than making headlines.

Should Walter Jones have won MVP in 2005?

For the record, the vote ended in a 45/45 TIE. I love it when polls do that.

That article was actually about “3 surprises we might see at training camp” and was written a few days before Seattle reported. Well, I think two might have already come true: ‘Olu Oluwatimi wins starting center’ and ‘A DB forces his way into a key role’.

Well, Olu Olu hasn’t won the job yet, but through 10 days of training camp it seems a little bit more possible than it did after the draft.

And the “DB” could either be Tre Brown or Mike Jackson. I actually never expected Devon Witherspoon to start ahead of Jackson on the outside. Maybe it still goes down that way, but just consider the Seahawks first two games: Cooper Kupp plays in the slot for the Rams and Amon-Ra St. Brown plays in the slot for the Lions.

Assuming Kupp returns from a hamstring injury by then, Witherspoon could end up with the two toughest assignments to open the season.

The real surprise is Brown, a player who had fewer snaps than Dee Eskridge in their two seasons since the 2021 draft. It seems like the Seahawks may have four corners who they’re comfortable starting.

The only surprise we haven’t seen yet is “the next Poona Ford emerging on the defensive line.” Even if I extended that to draftees Mike Morris and Cameron Young, I don’t think a rookie has established himself as a key player for the 2023 season yet. Instead the surprises are Jarran Reed starting at nose tackle and Mario Edwards being a first team defensive end.

With all the attention on Bobby Wagner’s return, it could be Reed who has the bigger impact.

That’s just a sample of the Seaside Joe newsletters to be e-mailed in the last two weeks. Some other popular ones were:

6 reasons that the Seahawks could be better than the national expectations

Will Jaxon Smith-Njigba's dominance at training camp ever quit?

A 53-man roster projection before the pads come on

Always popular are the training camp notes, observations, and updates and the Seahawks will be practicing later on Thursday so expect a bonus article this evening. Don’t miss it:

There are many great comments in all of those as well as in the DEEP Seaside archives, so review it all if you haven’t gotten enough Seahawks today. Join the bonus Regular Joes club for bonus content, post-game discussions, and so we can beat those suckers. Your support has been HUGE.