Super Bowl Loser Kyle Shanahan inadvertently explains why Seahawks are team to beat

The Seahawks should have the best 3rd-year players in the NFC, if not the entire NFL: Seaside Joe 1981

With all of the massive NFL contract extensions being handed out this year—and I do not mean Julian Love, even if he did get a sweet little raise—like $53 million for an above average starting QB, $35 million for the top receiver, or $28 million for a left or sometimes right tackle, I’ve been wondering how much longer it’s going to be before the Seattle Seahawks had players they crushed on that much. In the world of “highest paid players at their position”, the Seahawks have Michael Dickson.

And then also the top-100 list came out and the Seahawks didn’t have a single player make the top-25…or the top-50…or the top-80. Even if Julian Love did get a sweet little #95.

As much as I want to rejoice at the 49ers financial complications with Trent Williams holding and Brandon Aiyuk holding in for contracts that San Francisco almost certainly cannot afford without dire consequences, the simple fact of the matter is that it is better to have too many players to pay than not enough.

So when can the Seahawks maybe look forward to making headlines for giving out $30 million chunks of salary to homegrown talents again?

Maybe Charles Cross. Maybe Boye Mafe. Maybe Riq Woolen. Maybe Kenneth Walker III. And yes, maybe even if Abe Lucas because certainly at some point, at some time, in some universe, something will go right for the Cougs.

Of course, these are all members of Seattle’s 2022 draft class courtesy of Pete Carroll, John Schneider, the Seahawks front office/scouting department, and the miraculously still-employed GM of the Denver Broncos.

READ NEXT: WHAT WOULD SEAHAWKS DO IF GENO SMITH, ABE LUCAS, or JEROME BAKER AREN’T READY FOR WEEK 1?

If these five players can have better seasons in 2024 than they had in 2023, perhaps a few great seasons, the Seahawks will be in contention for the NFC West title again. And almost all of them had bad 2023 seasons compared to their rookie campaigns:

Cross took a step back instead of forward, which probably hurt a lot due to his turf toe; Woolen was quietly benched for a game (not much speculation anymore, Woolen basically said so himself); Lucas may as well have missed the entire season; Walker wasn’t bad, but he also wasn’t “better”; and though Mafe had a breakout year in a lot of respects, he failed to record a sack in seven of his last eight games.

I think as a group, Seahawks fans should still be happy “The 2022 Five”. Their 2023 seasons shouldn’t be overblown as a “disaster” when it was really just disappointing compared to how unexpectedly good they were as rookies. This point is a little bit justified given that peers still voted Woolen into the top-100, while players like Cross, Walker, and Mafe are surely parts of Seattle’s future and to a molecule, Lucas could still be the most talented. The same couldn’t be said about L.J. Collier, Christine Michael, Lano Hill, etc. You know the names.

Compared to most of the Seahawks draft picks since 2016, the 2022 class might as well be Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, and John Elway.

In fact, the Seahawks could get inspiration from their NFC West rivals and all of San Francisco’s “problems” of trying to keep the band together by listening to what head coach Kyle Shanahan, a three-time Super Bowl loser, had to say this week about sophomore slumps and why year two is actually the worst season for a lot of players.

If year two is the “worst” season for those five (no offense Coby Bryant and Dareke Young, you’re included in this too but…well…do I have to explain?), then that guarantees that year three MUST be better, right?

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Shanahan was asked by a reporter whether or not the 49ers convey to first-year players during their exit interview what it takes to have a successful offseason following their rookie campaigns, in order to avoid a ‘sophomore slump’. Shanahan said “We do” and went on to say that players often have bad second years because they’re not working as hard as they did in their first offseason.

“You want them to make that huge leap (in year 2). Sometimes the second year is people’s worst years too. They finished college, they’re trying to make it in the league, they don’t think about much and they’re going as hard as they can. And then the first season ends and they kind of relax and go, ‘I get it now’. They don’t realize it, but they don’t go through their offseasons in the same way they did getting prepared for the NFL. Then it’s halfway through training camp and they realize, ‘Oh man, I haven’t made it yet! It’s totally different!’ That’s why a lot of guys you see a sophomore slump. It usually goes one way or the other. So you stress that as much as you can, the head coach and the position coach, but I think the strongest thing is veteran players who have been through it too.”

If Year 2 is can be “a player’s worst season sometimes”, that implies that Year 3 is often better than Year 2. And if Year 3 can be a player’s career’s best friend then…

Nobody has it better than the 2024 Seattle Seahawks.

In the 2023 offseason, NFL.com ranked the 32 classes from the 2022 draft based on their rookie seasons and the Seahawks came out in third place with an A- grade for the group.

The two teams ahead of them were the Jets (who had three first round picks and four of the first 36 picks) and the Lions (who had two of the first 12 picks), so Seattle was definitely the team that made the most with the least: Cross was the number nine pick, but the Seahawks leapfrogged over all the other teams that should have been ahead of them mostly because of Lucas in round three, then Bryant and Woolen as day three selections.

Maybe the Jets with their two top-10 picks (Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson) and another two picks shortly thereafter (Jermaine Johnson, Breece Hall) have it better than Seattle does, but at least in the NFC I wouldn’t even say that the Lions have more to pin their hopes on: Aside from the Jaguars gifting them Aidan Hutchinson, Detroit’s still waiting for ROI with WR Jameson Williams and DE Josh Paschal, while rookie standouts LB Malcolm Rodriguez and OLB James Houston are in danger of not having roles in 2024.

In just the NFC, the 2022 draft classes of the Lions and Seahawks were both way ahead of their conference counterparts, as NFL.com ranked the 49ers next at 7th on the list and that was 99% because of Brock Purdy. (Although a late comer to the party could be the Cowboys with G Tyler Smith, TE Jake Ferguson, and CB DaRon Bland.)

Shanahan, who you will need a flashlight to find in the darkness of his father’s shadow, may have actually orchestrated one of the worst 2022 drafts because the team had traded its first rounder the previous year to move up for Trey Lance, then picked DE Drake Jackson in round two (injuries will keep him out of training camp and maybe the season), then the Niners took RB Tyrion Davis-Price (120 career yards) and WR Danny Gray (10 career yards) in the third.

Keeping it local, the Rams 2022 draft class was even worse because L.A.’s six player class (none taken in the top-100 picks) didn’t have a Purdy. Though RB Kyren Williams had a great season last year, and sixth rounder Quentin Lake could have a de facto starting role in the secondary (but not a huge one), there may not be another contributor on the team from the 2022 class.

And the Cardinals traded their first round pick for a receiver who gave back very little (Marquise Brown) when they could have just drafted Tyler Smith or Jermaine Johnson or George Karlaftis, and aside from one steal in the second round (TE Trey McBride), didn’t pick any other players expected to have a significant role in 2024.

The Seahawks drafted more good players in 2022 than the rest of the NFC West combined.

Bill Barnpoor’s 2022 “worst offseason ever”

And in case you forgot, ESPN’s universally-praised Bill Barnwell said the Seahawks had the worst offseason of any team in 2022 and said:

“Well, they could have kept Russell Wilson and fired Pete Carroll…Seattle made the wrong choice…It’s tough to imagine that we’ll look back in five years and feel like the Seahawks made the right choice between their head coach and quarterback.”

I know what NFL’s never-against-analytics-Twitter would say about this: “Well, Barnwell wasn’t wrong! The Seahawks should have and did fire Pete!”

Yeah that argument MIGHT work if not for the fact that by Barnwell’s plan, the Seahawks would have fired Pete, then extended Russ, and then by all accounts would have run into the exact same franchise-building congestion that the Broncos are still trying to escape from! The Seahawks would just be a team without Pete and Russ right now, instead of a team without Pete and Russ but WITH Charles Cross, WITH Ken Walker or Boye Mafe (I don’t care which player they picked exactly with Denver’s pick because we’ll never know for sure who the Seahawks would have picked if they only had one option), WITH Devon Witherspoon, WITH Derick Hall, WITH Noah Fant, and WITH the $150 million-ish dollars they didn’t spend on Wilson.

By their words, this “it couldn’t be wrong” evaluation of Seattle’s 2022 offseason would be explained away by, “But they DID fire Pete eventually”, which completely ignores how much worse off the Seahawks would be right now if they didn’t trade Wilson for two first, two seconds, and a tight end who is going to be starting for them in Week 1 and who could still be getting better.

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Is the dam about to burst on Seattle’s 2022 class?

It is starting to feel like the point of no return on Abe Lucas’s shot to be ready for Week 1, if he even comes back from PUP during camp how many practices will he need to be ready? Maybe in a best case scenario that certainly all of us would accept as more than good enough if it happens, Lucas will rejoin the 53-man roster in October or November. Aside from that though, almost everything is looking UP for the Seahawks other 2022 picks.

For some reason, SI’s Albert Breer shouted out Charles Cross and Kenneth Walker III as the two players to watch this season. That could be his opinion or the opinion he heard from coaches, staff members, and teammates during his visit to Seattle’s training camp. Breer didn’t say, “Cross looks nice” or anything either…he said “All-Pro ceiling”. That’s…That’s the top ceiling. There’s no an “All-er Pro” or anything.

Boye Mafe, Riq Woolen, and Coby Bryant were gifted an incredible opportunity to be planted into Mike Macdonald’s defense, a scheme, a strategy, a design that worked wonders for the Ravens previously-unheralded edges and corners, some of whom were having a hard time proving their value until Macdonald was named defensive coordinator in 2022. Even Bryant could be the Seahawks version of Brandon Stephens or Geno Stone (last season’s interception leader), while I have little doubt that Mafe and Woolen should be elated to be moving from Pete’s defense to Mike’s defense.

And Dareke Young, well, you’re cool too, dude.

Finally, and while I’m being so optimistic, maybe the Seahawks will also benefit from the 2023 draft class not having as much success as their predecessors. Whereas those five could have suffered from what Shanahan, who lost a 30-point lead as you were reading this, basically referred to as “liking the smell of their own farts”, Jaxon Smith-Njigba has to come back with something to prove after failing to do what he knows he’s capable of doing as a rookie; Olu Oluwatimi has to officially earn the starting center position; Zach Charbonnet has been slotted as the backup since his career started; Mike Morris and Kenny McIntosh essentially missed the entire season; Cameron Young, Anthony Bradford, and Derick Hall all played, but didn’t play a lot or very well. Jerrick Reed too.

And I would NEVER worry about Devon Witherspoon not giving it “100% Devon Witherspoon”.

Does this mean the Seattle Seahawks are going to win the division, beat the 49ers in the playoffs, and win the Super Bowl by a larger margin of victory than what they did to the Broncos 10.5 years ago?

Yeah.

READ NEXT: WHAT WOULD SEAHAWKS DO IF GENO SMITH, ABE LUCAS, or JEROME BAKER AREN’T READY FOR WEEK 1?

Today is the 1,981st day in a row that I’ve sent out at least one article about the Seattle Seahawks. We’re celebrating our birth years when we get to it, so if you were born in 1981, today’s your day.