Are Seahawks fans 'biased'? Part II
Seaside Bonus: Do fans still believe in Pete? Do they still hate the 49ers? And what is Yes2?
My apologies. I know many of you haven’t had a chance yet to read today’s first “day-off newsletter” and now comes a second day-off newsletter while the morning post remains unread. I guess I can’t help myself because nothing complements writing about football on your day off…like more writing about football on your day off.
A group of dudes playing hot potato with an oddly shaped leather ball and somehow it’s the one thing I haven’t stopped thinking about for the last 30 years.
I opened a survey for Seahawks fans on July 31st, posted part I of the results on August 2nd, and am wrapping up this series with the second half of your answers today. More people replied to the survey than are actually subscribed to the Seaside Joe newsletter, but rest easy that over 1,000 of them self-identified as Seahawks fans.
That means that not everyone who replied has been reading the messages of this newsletter for the last six months. And it is more than fair to say that well more than half of the respondents had never heard of Seaside Joe prior to the offseason. I think that makes for a rather fair representation of Seahawks fans, not only Seasiders.
But I would love it if we convert thousands more into becoming subscribers over the course of the 2022 season.
Though this is another bonus post, I would never dare put YOUR ANSWERS to a survey behind a paywall and as you know, Seaside Joe writes hundreds of free Seahawks articles per year. I’ll quickly bump again that the more you share this newsletter with your Seahawks friends and communities, the greater our odds of making an impact in the Seahawks world at-large. Your support, in all forms, is greatly appreciated.
Check our archives and see if any Seaside Joe articles seem worthy of sharing.
In the first part of the “Are you biased?” survey results, we found out that Seahawks fans are mostly:
Happy with Seattle’s chaotic offseason
Expecting to be out of the playoffs in spite of a great offseason
Understanding that the Seahawks will likely have a mediocre starting QB
But how do Seahawks fans feel about certain individuals, the 2022 draft class, and Seattle’s NFC West opponents? The answers may not surprise you.
Pete Carroll—Not everyone is a fan
But most fans acknowledge he’s pretty dang good
I’m fascinated whenever a survey with this many votes ends up in such a close tie, but even though half of Seattle’s fanbase was split on the other two options we do find out that about 50-percent of Seahawks fans list Pete Carroll as their favorite head coach.
Of course, if we run this survey in 2015, I’m sure that the number is closer to 99-percent. If we run this survey after losing to Washington last season, maybe it’s most like 20-percent.
Fandom jerks you around in all kinds of directions.
The Seahawks made their decision in choosing to retain Pete Carroll and John Schneider in spite of a 7-10 record last season and I think that trading Russell Wilson may have only benefited the public perception of the regime since then. Going into the 2022 season with the same plan as the last few years would seem like “Why?” but re-tooling the offense and stacking draft picks for two classes gives Seattle fans optimism that maybe these resources will pay off down the line.
Schneider got a much better haul for Wilson than what the Detroit Lions got for Matthew Stafford and that was only one year earlier.
Still, not all fans believe in Pete wholeheartedly and over 36-percent said that Pete is not their favorite coach. It could be that he’s their second-favorite coach or it could be that he’s their least-favorite coach, but most fans seem to still believe he’s a good one: 63-percent gave him a 4/5 in the other poll.
That’s basically a “Good job” grade, while 18-percent were more in the “Average” range and 15-percent feel he’s still “Great.”
Only 33 Seahawks fans—out of 1,068—gave Pete Carroll a grade of 2/5 or 1/5.
It’s perfectly okay if you believe that Pete stinks, it’s just that that opinion is an extreme outlier. Much more so than thinking that Pete is great.
I wanted to add “I don’t do favorites” because I know some people don’t do favorites, and 13-percent of people identified as such. I did not give them that same option in the next survey question.
Another near 50/50 survey result—Do you have a 2nd-favorite team?
I only ever have a “traveling” second-favorite team, meaning it changes year to year. I live in Los Angeles and think it would be awesome to see the Chargers be a lot better because Justin Herbert has been one of the quarterbacks I’ve bet on since his draft day.
Now I would say that my AFC team is the New York Jets because Zach Wilson is the quarterback I’m betting on this season.
That doesn’t have to be rational and it doesn’t matter if anyone else says, “That’s irrational, you must not have known that the Jets are the Jets or that Wilson did X, Y, Z last season.” Yes, thanks, actually yes, I do follow what Wilson and the Jets have done, that’s why I have an opinion about it at all.
You’re allowed to have unpopular opinions as much as you’re allowed to follow the leaders on Twitter.
544 fans voted that they do NOT have a second team, while 522 fans voted that they do. Who is your second-favorite team and why?
Uh oh :/ Seahawks fans actually love the Ken Walker III pick
One of the things I love about Seaside Joe is that he’s not influenced by what other writers think of him. Seaside Joe writes for the readers, not for writers. That’s why I could set my personal feelings aside and at least acknowledge that when the Seahawks drafted Ken Walker III with the 41st pick, the move was going to be extremely POPULAR with fans. Not unpopular.
Twitter’s got a distorted view of the world, we know this.
In fact, I even kind of wrote about this before the draft even happened when I posted “You’re more than welcome to be excited if the Seahawks draft Breece Hall” on April 5th. And in that article, I mention Ken Walker several times, acknowledging that you could basically copy/paste that sentiment for him (but no other running back) if he was the choice.
It was just as easy to predict that Seahawks fans would love the pick as it was that some Twitter users would chastise those fans for doing so. When Walker was announced, those Twitter accounts felt the ratio.
So I’m not surprised that in this survey, 38.8-percent of Seahawks fans gave the pick a 4/5, 32.1-percent gave it a 5/5, and 21.3-percent gave it a 3/5.
You would think that an “F” grade would be a 1/5 and a “D” would be a 2/5, and that was the most common grade on Twitter for picking Walker. However, only 7.8-percent Seahawks fans gave the Ken Walker pick a 1 or 2 out of 5 in this survey.
Over 90-percent of Seahawks fans are at least happy with the pick and that was something that was EASY to predict. Whether it’s 1965, 1995, or 2025, I promise you that fans love running backs. And that they matter.
Seahawks fans have reasonable answer to how many starters were drafted in 2022
Full disclosure: I messed up this survey initially and for a short time it went out there without a ‘6’ as an answer.
Eventually, 6 got 10-percent of the vote.
When asked how many starters the Seahawks drafted in 2022—out of nine draft choices—I was curious if fans would overrate the possibility of Seattle coming away with almost a full starting unit or not. It’s easy to dream big when a player is only a prospect and your team just drafted him.
So would fans answer 9 out of 9 or 7 out of 9? Not really.
I felt that if the Seahawks found four starters in this draft, that would be a HUGE haul. We already know that a couple are basically already there, as Charles Cross is going to be the left tackle and Walker is a de facto starter as the complement to Rashaad Penny.
Meanwhile, Coby Bryant is starring in camp and looks headed to a starting role eventually, Abe Lucas is certainly the long-term plan at right tackle, and Boye Mafe might be a regular in the pass rushing rotation immediately.
That would be five starters.
But 4 was the most popular answer at 31%, followed by 5 at 30%, and 3 and 19%. Fans actually trended more to the cautious and safe side than to the wildly-successful side. If fans were looking for the best bet at reaching 6 starters, there’s no better person to ‘reach’ in the class than the 6’4 Tariq Woolen with 33.5” arms.
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This is a very reasonable response. Only eight people voted 9 out of 9 would become starters.
NFC West feelings - Yes you hate them, Yes2 the Cards are a shitshow
Over 60-percent of Seahawks fans hate ALL NFC West opponents, whereas 20% were probably willing to forgive the Cardinals, if not to merely take pity upon them. That leaves only 10-percent of “chillers” who have no ill will towards any team.
Seahawks fans were mostly willing to admit that the defending Super Bowl champions could indeed be a great team in 2022. L.A. has had the upper hand on Seattle since drafting Aaron Donald in 2014, and especially since hiring Sean McVay in 2017, so will Shane Waldron and Andy Dickerson be able to change the tide against their old boss?
Matthew Stafford is dealing with “bad elbow tendonitis” in camp and not throwing with the starters at the moment. I would expect him to still play most, if not all of the 2022 season.
Fans were not so quick to credit the other team that reached the NFC Championship last year though.
Almost three-quarters of Seahawks fans said that the 49ers are not a great team and this probably has a lot to do with Trey Lance’s inexperience and the lack of knowledge on what exactly San Francisco has at quarterback. Otherwise, I think the 49ers have the best supporting cast on offense and defense in the entire division.
Brandon Aiyuk looks like he’s developing into the third star weapon on the Niners offense, Trent Williams remains the left tackle, and the defense has great players at all three levels.
But Kyle Shanahan has also shit the bed in two of the last four seasons. If the 49ers release Jimmy Garoppolo, it could leave them open to a quarterback injury tanking their season for the third time in five years. If they don’t, they might have a $25 million backup who isn’t even good.
That’s not great.
Cardinals-Yes2
I initially wrote “Yes” and “Yes” in this poll but didn’t realize until after a few votes were cast that google doesn’t let you put the same answer in a poll twice. So it filled it in with “option 2” which got 19 votes before I noticed my error.
Hence…Yes2.
We know the Cardinals are a shitshow. Now we know that over 98-percent of Seahawks fans agree, while the rest feel that at best Arizona is “option 2.”
Don’t forget that for Seahawks coverage during the season and into the 2023 NFL Draft, Seaside Joe will always be the only option worth your time or money:
Week 1 prediction is a near-even split
Re-posting this from Part I, but again, I love a near-even poll result. Only eight more people voted that the Seahawks would lose in Week 1 than those who voted that the Seahawks would start 1-0.
What’s your case? Make your argument in the comments! Unless it’s your day off—then make your argument in the comments!
I believe/believed in Pete but I think Mike Holmgren brought respect to this organization in the early years of Paul Allen (post Bering debacle). Also liked Chuck Knox who brought no nonsense hard nose football to the Northwest, even though during those years our superbowl was when we beat the OAKLAND Raiders! No illusions here, Pete is getting up there in age. I admire John Schneider and hope he gets an opportunity to control the team and select his own coaching staff (post Pete) to see if he can go down as our greatest GM
I am "ride or die" with Pete, who brought the Seahawks to TWO SBs and won one, which is one more appearance and SB title than anyone else who has coached the team. I have actually read "Win Forever" and loved it.
As for 2nd best team... I grew up not far from Detroit and, sad to say, the Lions are my 2nd team. They have been so bad for soooo long that it gives great perspective on how the last decade has been for the Seahawks (and more reason why I appreciate Pete).