Is Seaside Joe CANCELED for Jarran Reed gaffe?!

The Mistake Of The Year; Geno Smith QB School; Should Seahawks draft a RT? Seaside Joe 1691

On October 18, 2023, I (Seaside Joe) wrote a post about which members of the Seattle Seahawks defense were guaranteed or not guaranteed to be back in 2024. In that article, I wrote that Jarran Reed, a defensive tackle who is 6’3 and 306 lbs, had signed a one-year contract with the Seattle Seahawks in 2023.

It is with heavy heart, and great joy, that I must announce that Reed actually signed a two-year contract with the Seahawks.

Seaside Joe prides himself on being perfect and without errors or flaws, so it is without explanation that such a mistake could have possibly been made. Will another mistake ever happen in the future at Seaside Joe? No. That is impossible. Seaside Joe has greater accuracy that ChatGPT…although that is not a very high bar.

The best explanation I can come up with is that someone else, probably Ben Baldwin or Rob Staton, is at fault.

I must in good conscience blame one of them.

However, there is good to come out of this: I am able to announce that Jarran Reed is signed through 2024 with a base salary of $3.96 million and a salary cap hit of $5.97 million, making him one of the best DT bargains in the NFL at this rate. Therefore, we can add Reed to the list of Seahawks defensive players who are all but guaranteed to return next season and we can blame this grevious mistake on somebody else.

If you choose to cancel me for this mistake, I understand. I admit my error, but do not accept blame and it’s not my fault.

Geno Smith full game analysis on QB School Patreon

In lieu of doing my own All-22 breakdown of Seahawks-Bengals this week, I will create a post going over some notes I have from watching J.T. O’Sullivan’s full-game watch over at his The QB School patreon page. You can watch it by clicking here and joining J.T.’s Patreon page…far be it from me, a content creator hoping you will subscribe to Seaside Joe’s premium section for only $5, to give away another creator’s content for free without permission.

This is not an advertisement for The QB School, we do no ads here, so take it or leave it if you want to join his page to watch this video. That being said, I will always support a person with $5 if I’m consuming a ton of their free content and I watch The QB School’s free YouTube videos almost every day. I have no problem giving an endorsement and J.T. rarely does anything on Geno Smith because, in his words, he doesn’t find him to be that interesting.

I’m just sharing this because later this week I’ll post my thoughts on his thoughts and so I’m giving you a heads up in case you want to watch his video before I do that and then you and I can discuss it in the comments. I will certainly say that it’s a look at a Seahawks game unlike any I’ve ever seen anywhere else—not only from a QB angle, but also commenting on Shane Waldron’s play designs, the offensive line, the skill position players—and I believe with absolute certainty that it comes from an objective observer who knows football.

Those are two qualities—”objective” and “knows football”—potentially missing from Geno analysis in the Seattle mainstream media.

I’m very excited to finish this video and talk about it with you.

Should Seahawks draft a right tackle with their first pick in 2024?

There was speculation before the last draft that the Seahawks could target an offensive tackle and Seattle did meet with at least one of the top prospects at that position, Ohio State’s Dawand Jones. (Jones ended up going in the fourth round but before the draft there was some speculation he could go early in the second.)

That move would have been a little stunning given the contributions of Charles Cross and Abe Lucas in 2022, but it doesn’t seem so crazy now, does it?

If there’s a headline story to be written about the Seahawks through the first six weeks of the season, it’s probably the amount of snaps played by Stone Forsythe and Jake Curhan so far: 292 by Curhan (third-most on the entire offense) and 216 by Forsythe (sixth-most). Seattle has also only gotten 63% of snaps out of Damien Lewis, 61% out of Phil Haynes, and the only offensive linemen to play almost every snap is Evan Brown. Even he’s had to exit games with injury or move to guard mid-game.

Anthony Bradford has only played in eight fewer snaps than Lewis and three fewer than Haynes.

One potential solution to these problems would not be to draft a guard, but to draft a tackle, and I heard about some of these names in the latest episode of Prospect to Pros from The Athletic in an interview with offensive line expert Brandon Thorn. There are two names that will likely be out of the Seahawks range and probably more suited for left tackle, which Cross is not going to move from, and those would be Olu Fashanu and Joe Alt.

Fashanu and Alt could both be top-10 picks and left tackles of the future for whoever drafts them.

However, I wonder if the Seahawks would be intrigued by the possibility of using one of their first picks on someone like Alabama’s J.C. Lathan (6’6, 326), Oklahoma’s Tyler Guyton (6’7, 327), or BYU’s Kingsley Suamataia (6’6, 315).

“What’s the big deal? The Seahawks clearly need more defensive players and already have Lucas, one of the top young right tackles in the NFL! This would be such a waste.”

Again, would it have been such a waste to have done something to improve the depth at offensive tackle before this season? I know that we couldn’t have predicted that Lucas would miss 90% of the season already, and that most teams do not have “good” backups at tackle because there’s a dearth of quality starters as is, but it is possible to draft another ‘right tackle of the future’ and to not cost Lucas any reps.

Because he could end up being a guard of the future.

There’s a common belief among coaches that you can always move offensive linemen from outside to inside (tackle to guard, guard to center) but you can’t move them from inside to outside. The Seahawks could look at their potential issues on the interior of the offensive line (Lewis, Haynes, and Brown are all 2024 free agents) and think, “We must draft the top-ranked guard or center!” in the next draft, but if they are willing to use an early pick, then Seattle could choose a right tackle and maybe get 2-for-1:

Either Lucas or the rookie could end up being a guard.

“What about Anthony Bradford?”

If Anthony Bradford is a starting-quality player, he could end up at left or right guard. Seattle may need to move on from Haynes after this season. He’s never been able to be a full-time player and his performances are inconsistent.

“What about Olu Oluwatimi?”

If Olu Olu is a starting-quality center, the Seahawks might want to re-sign Brown and move him to guard. It’s a possibility!

But the Seahawks could be most prepared to avoid offensive line issues if they end up using one of their first picks on an offensive tackle. These players are difficult to find in free agency, trade, or on the waiver wire, and often the best ones get drafted earlier than later. In 2022, the Cowboys drafted Tyler Smith with the 24th overall pick and he’s been a very valuable and versatile player for them. It wasn’t Dallas’s biggest need, but inevitable offensive line injuries have made Smith one of the most important moving pieces on the roster and with a ceiling to replace Tyron Smith at left tackle for the next 10 years.

A year before that, the Vikings picked Christian Darrisaw with the 23rd overall pick and when healthy he’s been one of the best left tackles in the league recently. Thorn and Dane Brugler see the 2024 class as having the same type of potential as the deep 2021 class.

Like any other position, offensive tackle has been hit or miss in the draft. Consider 2019, when Andre Dillard (miss) and Tytus Howard (hit) went back to back at 22 and 23. But what’s clear is that you don’t have to a draft an offensive tackle when you know you have a need; the good offensive line teams draft those players early and often because they know you should assume there’s always a need.