Seahawks not trading for Bryce Young: Re-visited

Should Seahawks have more seriously considered trade up for a QB in the 2023 NFL Draft?

When the Seattle Seahawks host the Carolina Panthers in Week 3, it will be Pete Carroll’s first opportunity since before the draft to get a close look at a quarterback prospect that he 100-percent could have had if the franchise had chosen to be more first round aggressive than at any other point in his tenure. It doesn’t mean that he should have, it also doesn’t hurt to be reminded that he could have and then to evaluate how both sides of the sliding door compare to one another.

If we’re just going off of Young’s first two starts, then the Seahawks certainly made the right choice to pass on the draft’s best passer.

My Panthers fan friend texted me this morning to say, “I’m worried about Bryce Young.” My natural instinct is to push back, to console and comfort, to give reasons for optimism. I decided not to do that this time. What I wanted to say was, “Relax. It’s only been two games and Carolina doesn’t do very much to help him.” That all feels rational to me. But instead I decided to let my friend feel worried and to explore what’s got him so concerned, so I asked him “Why?” even though I already know why.

“He missed some throws last night pretty bad, when the whole selling point is that he’s crazy accurate. Also he’s too small to QB sneak and he got hit from behind and fumbled when it’s like, how do you not know that guy is there? He had another fumble that got saved by defensive holding.”

The rational side of me as a football fan would say that nothing much really matters in a quarterback’s first two starts, especially since we no longer live in an era where teams are patient enough to sit their franchise picks for at least a year.

But then again, not being a Panthers fan, I can’t say that I would be as patient if I was the one having to sit through an 0-2 start with the worst passing offense in the NFL (32nd in NY/A, 32nd in yards, 30th in scoring) and knowing that the team traded a future first round pick to get this quarterback. Based on how the first two weeks have gone, including the surprising 2-0 records for every other team in the NFC South, the 2024 first round pick going from the Panthers to the Chicago Bears could be much higher than Carolina was anticipating.

Evaluating Bryce Young’s performances thus far gives me two reasons to tie it back to a Seahawks newsletter:

1) The Seahawks host the Panthers in five days

2) The Seahawks could have had Bryce Young if they really wanted him

This isn’t me saying that Seattle should have traded up for Young or one of the other two quarterbacks picked ahead of Devon Witherspoon. It’s just a fact and one that we have rarely had the opportunity to talk about in the Seahawks community over the course of franchise history: Seattle has only ever selected one QB prospect at the caliber of Young, C.J. Stroud, and Anthony Richardson, that being Rick Mirer.

What should we expect of the Seahawks defense against Young in Week 3 and how could the team look differently now if Seattle had made a dramatic move to usurp the Carolina Panthers in their quest to get a franchise QB? That’s what I’ll cover in today’s bonus Seaside Joe…

First, the easy part: How would the Seahawks look today if they had satisfied Chicago’s demands for the number one pick?