Seahawks 2023 draft: Teams that picked top-10 QBs after winning 8 games
Seattle could join a short list of franchises that added a franchise QB to a decent record: Seaside Joe 1402
The Seattle Seahawks are in a unique position thanks to Russell Wilson. Both the best versions and the worst version we’ve ever seen. The Seahawks are 8-8 headed into the NFL’s “bonus game” and no matter how you feel about that record, whether it adequately reflects Pete Carroll’s 13th season as Seattle’s head coach or if it is inflated based on the league’s fourth-easiest “strength of schedule”, the team is no less competing for a wild card berth on Sunday.
In spite of Carroll winning at least eight games for the 10th time in his Seahawks career and Geno Smith making the Pro Bowl for the first time in his NFL career, many fans are speculating, even praying for Seattle to draft a quarterback with the pick that they’ve received from the Denver Broncos. Notable Seahawks influencer Rob Staton is urgently attempting to sway fan opinion away from front-seven options Jalen Carter and Will Anderson and towards Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud.
I’ve seen people compare Jalen Carter to Aaron Donald and Will Anderson to Nick Bosa. I’ve seen people refer to them as ‘sure things’ and ‘safe picks’ — a no-brainer that the Seahawks should draft one of them if possible.
I don’t think any of these points are accurate.
And later…
This year, I think we might see four quarterbacks go in the top-10. There is legit talent, potential and star quality within the quarterbacks who will go early in 2023. We shouldn’t dismiss this group.
With Geno Smith entering what will be the most active free agent market of his 10-year NFL career, it may be difficult for the Seahawks to re-sign him before he can talk to other teams without either overpaying him or applying the franchise or transition tag on him. The franchise tag would immediately eat up the majority of Seattle’s 2023 cap space and limit Pete Carroll’s ability to re-sign his other free agents, something that Carroll has always placed the utmost value on at this time of year.
That’s something you do for a franchise quarterback. The debate that fans will have barring a clear definining moment or game from Geno Smith between now and then, is whether or not Geno qualifies as a franchise quarterback.
Today’s post will not attempt to answer that question. Or any question. It is merely the results of my research into a thought I had, “How many teams have drafted a quarterback in the top-10 after winning at least eight games?”
Next: The Seahawks-Broncos trade proposal that will SHOCK YOU because of how much sense it makes
For now, we know that the Seahawks are going to be in play for a quarterback with the top-five pick that they receive from the Denver Broncos. They’ve already won eight games. They’ve undoubtedly been heavily scouting the 2023 quarterback class for several years and surely John Schneider’s team has been working overtime on these players since trading Wilson for two first round and two second round picks. That’s what you do when you trade your franchise quarterback for that much draft capital.
Going back to 1980, these are the teams that I found had won at least eight games and then managed to land a draft pick that they used on a quarterback. Full disclosure, some of these quarterbacks were drafted ELEVENTH overall and I’m sorry for misleading you but "Top-10” is so much prettier in a headline.
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1990 - Jeff George, 2nd overall, Colts
You don’t have to go back that far to a time when the NFL Draft was run and treated in a completely different manner than it is today. Remember, you need only go back to 1997 to find a time when the Seahawks were able to trade massive bust Rick Mirer, the number two pick in 1993, to the Chicago Bears for the ELEVENTH OVERALL PICK. Imagine if the Jets could trade Zach Wilson to the Texans right now for the first overall pick, that’s how little teams would value their first rounders as compared to today.
So in 1990, the Cowboys would have had the number one pick after going 1-15, but they had already used it by selecting quarterback Steve Walsh in the 1989 supplemental draft. Similarly, the Cardinals sacrificed their top-five pick by selecting Timm Rosenbach in the supplemental draft. Different times.
That gave the Falcons the number one pick in 1990 but they were satisfied with quarterback Chris Miller, the 13th overall pick in 1987, so Atlanta was open to trading down for someone who wanted Jeff George. The Colts came up with the offer of pick 13, Pro Bowl offensive tackle Chris Hinton, receiver Andre Rison (Indy’s first round pick in 1989), and a fifth rounder in exchange for the number one pick, a fourth rounder, and a conditional first rounder.
The Colts had gone 8-8 in 1989 but didn’t feel satisfied with quarterbacks Jack Trudeau or Chris Chandler, the latter of whom somewhat ironically led the Falcons to the Super Bowl in 1998 although he wasn’t a part of the trade. As is often the case when Indianapolis makes trades, the result was a disaster for the Colts.
Rison was one of the best receivers of the ‘90s, Hinton had several more good years left in him, and George was a bust for all intents and purposes. The Colts picked him over the likes of Cortez Kennedy and Junior Seau, while they could have stood pat at 13 and had the opportunity to draft Emmitt Smith, all Hall of Famers.
The Colts went 7-9 in 1990, then had the NFL’s worst record at 1-15 in 1991. Even with the top TWO picks in the 1992 draft, the Colts still landed two busts, Washington’s Steve Emtman (many of you recall) and linebacker Quentin Coryatt. In 1994, Indianapolis traded George, fittingly to the Falcons, in exchange for two first round picks and a third. Make sense of that.
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