2023 NFL Scouting Combine: Thoughts on QBs, other positions, Seahawks draft

Seattle has a huge decision to make, did they make up their minds over the weekend? 3/6/2023

Which actor from Scream has had the most successful career since the release of the first movie in 1996? The answer would have been impossible to guess 27 years ago.

Drew Barrymore was and is the most famous person involved with the movie, but Scream wasn’t a stepping stone for her. If anything, the movie merely used her massive fame to catapult itself into the American lexicon with one of the most well-known on-screen deaths in history and recently she’s done more work hosting daytime TV than working in Hollywood.

If you want to make the argument for Barrymore, that’s fine, but stick with me—I promise I’m going somewhere “football” with this.

Courteney Cox was already “Courteney Cox” at the time and her only significant film roles continue to be as “Gale Weathers” in the Scream franchise. Neve Campbell suffered the same fate as many other “scream queens” and failed to take another step into the mainstream despite opportunities in Wild Things and 54. The names Jamie Kennedy, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich, and Matthew Lillard kind of speak for themselves.

Rose McGowan went on a different path in life.

No, I don’t think any of the stars of Scream had the most success after Scream. If you want to make an argument for one of the actresses, fine, I’ll conceded for the sake of not arguing. But Kennedy, Aquette, Lillard and … Ulrich? The most successful male actor from Scream was one who didn’t have a single line and was only seen for a split second on a TV in the movie.

He’s also the voice of Hard Knocks and he’s “Ray Donovan”.

I’ve always found it fascinating that Liev Schrieber was a glorified extra in Scream, and not just because he went onto become relatively famous. That would be like how Lady Gaga played one of Meadow’s friends on The Sopranos when she was young and (I believe) didn’t say a word. He’s an actor, it happens, actors always take parts as extras before they become actors.

It’s more the fact that Schrieber played kind of a critical role in Scream—Cotton Weary, the man accused of murdering the heroine’s mother a year before the movie takes place—despite how little the part required and nobody had any idea at the time that the movie would be successful enough for a sequel. Let alone a sequel that would write in a much bigger part for Cotton Weary, meaning that Schrieber would go from non-speaking part to one of Scream’s most prominent characters.

"It was an auspicious beginning for me," he told us. "Bob Weinstein, who was a theatre fan, called me into his office. He said he wanted to me do this thing for him. I’m $70,000 in debt from student loans, and I’m looking for a job wherever I can get it. He says all he wants me to do is walk down some stairs and get into a police car. Twenty seconds. Twenty grand. I was like, “I’m yours.”

Liev Schreiber may not be as famous as Wolverine co-star Hugh Jackman, but you know you’ve “made it” when you can give nepotism advantages to Pablo Schreiber.

I think about this movie fun fact and similar stories a lot, not only because of what it says about the perception of ourselves (I put myself in Skeet Ulrich’s 1996 shoes and try to imagine how I would have compared myself to everyone in the movie who had a smaller role, how I must be so much more “talented” than them with a brighter future, and consequently am reminded not to compare myself to others) but also what it says about Bob Weinstein’s eye for talent.

Or dumb luck.

Sure, they could have re-cast Cotton Weary for Scream 2 and few people would have noticed or cared. But that wasn’t necessary because Schreiber, in spite of a lack of major film roles, turned out to be a great actor who was perfectly creepy-yet-sympathetic as Cotton in Scream 2 and Scream 3. If someone else was Cotton in the original and they had to re-cast the role for part two, they would have chosen Liev Schrieber.

On the casting side, it makes me think about how sometimes movies get lucky, sometimes they did the right homework, but in any case the reason never matters: If it works, it works.

The same rules apply to the NFL Draft.

On the acting side, it makes me think about how we can’t predict the future based on probabilities of success that is assumed today. The same rule applies to the NFL Draft.

Scream made overnight stars out of a bunch of young actors and none of them were Liev Schrieber. And I was a massive Scream fan who was rooting for all of those actors, so consider me endlessly disappointed in following the careers of Ulrich (Chill Factor), Lillard (Wing Commander), Kennedy (Malibu’s Most Wanted) and being forced to watch those movies and the TV show Jericho.

What will we eventually have to stomach with the 2023 quarterback class?

I don’t know. What I do know is that I’m long past trying to predict the future success of players before they’ve reached the NFL, especially given how Geno Smith has proven that not even the teams can assess the value of quarterbacks who have been in the league for nine years.

Over the weekend, quarterbacks were the talk of the NFL Scouting Combine and I will get to them in a moment. I have thoughts to share, but if you’re looking for yet another person to tell you who the “right” and “wrong” choices will be, you will be left disappointed. That’s not what I do anymore.

I don’t know why I ever tried and why anyone does or why anyone tries to convince you who the Seahawks should draft. ARE YOU PETE CARROLL? DOES JOHN SCHNEIDER READ THIS? If not, then I don’t see the point.

Before I get there, I watched the first ten picks of the 2018 NFL Draft on Sunday night and it was amazing to see the parallels in language between how the ESPN broadcast talked about those four quarterbacks and the narratives surrounding the top-four quarterbacks in 2023.

Of course, you could apply certain language to a wide swath of quarterbacks and you could argue that there’s crossover between different comparisons, but there were too many parallels for me to not share what I heard:

Baker Mayfield is Bryce Young: Size concerns, most accurate quarterback, creativity, variance of arm angles, good inside and outside the pocket, the most college football success of the group—but the only heated “debate” is if he’s tall enough

Sam Darnold is Will Levis: Two seasons prior to the draft was all set to be a high pick but stock dropped after he lost his supporting cast and suffered injuries, “highest ceiling” type of talk, needs development time, loads of turnovers

Josh Allen is Anthony Richardson: Biggest star at the combine, once-every-five-years athlete at quarterback, major accuracy concerns, inexperienced and in need of patience and great coaching

Josh Rosen is C.J. Stroud: Best QB in the class in the pocket and on schedule, worst of the four outside of the pocket and off schedule, superstar recruit

Two things to avoid saying in response to this is: “Oh, that QB is nothing like that QB because they’re different in this way” (I’m not making comps) and “So you’re saying that Richardson is going to be a success and Stroud is going to be a bust?” (I’m not making comps)

Mayfield and Young will never be confused for one another in terms of personality and classiness. Levis is much older than Darnold was at the time of the draft. Allen had more experience and probably better film, but against a different level of competition, than Richardson. Stroud doesn’t have the attitude concerns of Rosen.

If you think I’m making comps that turn into predictions…you skipped the intro! I’m not making any predictions.

But between now and the first round of the draft, these appear to be certain narratives that will follow each of them in the debates that will percolate and circulate on other blogs, other shows, and with other people who feel more confident in their ability to predict the future. I’m no longer that bold.

Nor do I think it is a valuable use of time on a Seahawks newsletter to write endlessly about three—maybe even four—quarterbacks who won’t end up on the Seahawks. When that day gets here and gets past us, Seaside Joe will begin the deeper dive into homework on the rookie class and unlike others we won’t take a summer break.

Instead, I believe there will be plenty of room for content and discussion on current members of the team, general thoughts on the draft, how the media is covering Seattle’s draft process, and what the Seahawks could be planning for April 27-29 without me necessarily telling you outright what they’ll do, what they should do, and what they shouldn’t do.

Because who am I to think that I can tell you which of these quarterbacks will be nominated for nine Primetime Emmy awards one day…and which one of them will go onto host The Jamie Kennedy Experiment?

Now who’s being “X”d?

Believe it or not, even though we’re over 1,500 words already—this is a bonus post. Regular episode of Seaside Joe coming later on Monday.

Subscribe to Regular Joes to read this and tons more Seahawks bonus content this year!

How could Anthony Richardson’s stock have changed much?

Whatever you thought of Richardson prior to the weekend, it’s hard to believe that your opinion was changed from his combine performance regardless of how impressive he is as an athlete in comparison to other QBs.

The only reason any of us have even heard of Anthony Richardson is because he’s the most insane athlete at the position in college football.