Shore Things: A 330-lb DT who Seahawks could look to as offseason addition

Plus the dangers of dual threat QBs and a poor decision by Seahawks Twitter account: Seaside Joe 1538

With little else to go off at this time of year, the next important stage of the offseason is potential post-June 1st cap casualties who could soon be available on the free agent market. As Tyler Alsin wrote for FieldGulls on Thursday, the Seattle Seahawks have rarely added players in the middle of summer but did acquire Marquise Goodwin last May 23rd.

NFL teams do sometimes find key players around this time of year, as the Kansas City Chiefs signed weapon Jerick McKinnon for the first time on April 30th, 2021, then re-signed him last June 14th. McKinnon caught 56 passes for 512 yards and nine touchdowns for the Super Bowl champions last season and anyone could have had him.

Same was the case this year and again McKinnon signed with the Chiefs in May.

What Seahawks fans are probably most curious about though is not the team’s running back position but whether there could be any wagyu hitting the market in the coming months as the team looks to add beef to the defensive line. Fourth round pick Cameron Young has reportedly added 16 lbs to his frame since the combine and is up to 320, but he has yet to even participate in his first OTAs.

The Seahawks also signed 322 lb defensive tackle Forrest Merrill (that was at least his reported weight in 2021, who knows where it is today), but to put his career into perspective: Imagine an older Myles Adams before 2022. Adams had 33 snaps going into last season and even now, we don’t know whether he will make the team. Merrill, turning 27 soon, has 36 career snaps and they came two years ago.

Bryan Mone is repairing a torn ACL and Seattle’s other options, most notably Robert Cooper, are undrafted free agent rookies. Could door number 330 open after cap casualties or training camp final cuts?

The first notable name that’s been brought up is Neville Gallimore of the Dallas Cowboys. A third round pick in 2020, Gallimore played in 403 snaps last season but has been heavily criticized for his run defense.

Gallimore isn’t near the 320 lbs mark, as far as we know, and not playing run defense is essentially the opposite of what the Seahawks are asking for; but after Dallas picked Mazi Smith in the first round, there is speculation that the Cowboys are ready to move on.

Perhaps instead the Seahawks will look not to Dallas blue but Detroit blue for an “odd man out” who could “fit right in” with Seattle’s defensive line.

25-year-old Benito Jones is listed on the Lions website at 6’1, 329 lbs, and he went undrafted out of Ole Miss in 2020. Jones signed with the Dolphins after the draft and spent most of his first two seasons on Miami’s practice squad. Cut again in 2022, the Lions claimed Jones off waives and gave him 311 snaps over 17 games.

Jones, at 6-foot-1, 329 pounds, was part of the reason Detroit was able to get their run defense under control. Playing almost exclusively between the guards, Jones’ primary goal was to not give up any ground over the middle. He was inconsistent in his success, earning just a 46.3 run defense PFF grade.

The Lions drafted nose tackle Brodric Martin in the third round, so Jones could find himself on the waiver wire again and I feel like given his age, size, and availability, he kind of does fit right into the Pete Carroll “diamond in the rough” mold. But will the Seahawks be a team that adds a player who isn’t even available right now? It’s just a shot in the dark.

This is Shore Things, where I cover a variety of topics on my mind today. Subscribe to Seaside Joe to not miss an episode!

Love is Blythe

But….why?

(Twitter no longer allows Substack writers to post their links, so click here to watch the video.)

Season 4 of Love is Blind was set in Seattle, so first and foremost I have to say that if you know anybody who is in the cast—or even know a guy who knows a guy—PLEASE share Seaside Joe with them. That’s a connection I really want to make.

Second and legitimately-most, I can’t wrap my head around why this crossover between the Seahawks and a cringe reality dating show exists. I don’t mean that as in, “Oh my God, watching that show is so cringe!” because…I watch it. How dare I insult me.

What I mean is that I think the only purpose of watching Love is Blind is to cringe, similar to the humor you would get from The Office or Nathan For You. It’s just one awkward moment after another. On the latest season, those uncomfortable situations—and season 4 probably set a record for them—were based in Seattle. Is that enough justification to use a couple from the show to make a free ad to sell tickets?

The overwhelming reaction from fans was, “No.”

My favorite is “I advocate on behalf of this organization with my communities…” Me too, Petewins48. I do that too.

I’m not going to harp on the Seahawks social media team for this, but I want to reach out to the Seaside Joe community to ask for reasons why you think this even exists. Seattle already released their schedule and I can’t imagine that getting Zach and Bliss from Love is Blind — “Hey, we want you to make another schedule release announcement, so just improvise something — ANYTHING — and we’ll post it to social media. Oh, and please don’t use mics or lights or anything to improve the quality” — is going to move the needle for selling tickets. Which…do the Seahawks have any trouble selling tickets? No, right?

Let me know what you think the reason is and again PLEASE let me know if anyone out there knows a Love is Blind contestant real person.

Do zone read quarterbacks have long enough careers?

I recently gave a shout out to the Pure Football YouTube account, which only posted 12 videos five years ago and nothing since. The latest one I watched was about zone read offenses and he uses Cam Newton’s Panthers as an example of what makes them so dangerous.

This video was posted at the end of the 2017 season, so at the time Newton was 28 and seemingly in the middle of his career. Newton had a full 16-game season, rushed for 754 yards and six touchdowns, and Carolina went 11-5.

Cam Newton had kind of a similar year in 2018, but since turning 30 he’s made 22 starts, thrown 583 passes, 12 touchdowns, 16 interceptions, and he was out of football in 2022. Newton has made overtures and pleas this offseason to rejoin the NFL, first claiming he was still one of the top-32 quarterbacks in the league and then releasing a list of quarterbacks who he would be willing to backup.

Newton remains a free agent and he’s clearly bored because he’s making a lot of YouTube videos. Like, a lot.

He just turned 34, so Newton is obviously much younger than Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady, but also he’s younger than Kirk Cousins, Russell Wilson, Andy Dalton, Ryan Tannehill, and Matthew Stafford. Not only is he younger than them, but he aged more like a running back or a wide receiver than like a quarterback and something that stood out to me in that Pure Football video is the analyst saying that the risk associated with zone read offenses is that you leave your QB open to take massive hits.

The defense isn’t typically allowed to crush a defenseless quarterback in most passing situations, but in the zone read he can pitch or handoff the ball and still get creamed—which is typically what the defensive players are coached to do. “Level that quarterback.”

The Seahawks often succeeded in the zone read offense with a young Russell Wilson and he was playing quality—and healthy—football up until 2022. But Wilson had several advantages over Newton, including the fact that he was a much better/more accurate pocket passer, better at avoiding big hits and sliding out of contact, and he wasn’t asked to run nearly as much as Newton. In fact, Newton’s advantages over Wilson as a runner (big like a linebacker, not afraid of contact) are probably also Wilson’s advantages over Newton as a quarterback.

Newton may have an MVP, but Wilson has made A LOT more money in his career than Cam: Per Overthecap.com, Cam Newton made $131 million in his career, while Wilson has already earned $237 million and I believe he’s due at least $25 million more.

This brings me back to the pre-draft Anthony Richardson debate and the comparisons to Cam Newton. Even in Richardson’s best case scenario we know that the type of football he will most likely excel at is a zone read style offense that demands him to take some of those hits because he is so talented as a runner, same as Justin Fields, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, and Josh Allen.

These players run the ball at least 100 times per season.

Allen has 546 rushing attempts over five years, including 100+ in each of the past four. Lamar has 727 attempts in five years, at least 112 in all five. Fields has 232 attempts in two years, including 160 last season in only 15 games. Hurts has 304 rushing attempts in the last two seasons despite missing four starts.

The list of quarterbacks in NFL history to carry the ball at least 100 times in a season after turning 28:

• Cam Newton

• Michael Vick

That’s the entire list. Vick had 100 rushing attempts in 12 games for the Eagles at age 30, which was his breakout “comeback” season in 2010. He essentially was never good again after that.

Newton had 139 attempts at 28, 101 attempts at 29, and 137 attempts with the Patriots when he was 31. He was all but out of the NFL by 32.

We are on the verge of this great big “test” with Allen and Lamar in the coming seasons. Josh Allen is entering his age-27 season but will be expected to still carry the ball 100+ times and only six quarterbacks have done that before, including Russell Wilson. In 2015, Wilson had 103 carries for 553 yards, but Seattle cut down his usage as a runner the following year (72 carries) and he’s basically not a rushing threat at all since turning 33. I know that a lot of people believe that Allen has “fixed” his accuracy issues coming out of college, but I think it’s more accurate to say that he’s gone from “abysmal accuracy” to being slightly below average.

Okay, he’s got a cannon and he’s rushed for over 750 yards the past two years. But is he going to age well and how will his body hold up to the hits taken? Tom Brady was never close to being asked to take a zone read hit, let alone hundreds of them.

Lamar is entering his age-26 season and he’s carried the ball more times in the last five years (despite missing 10 games in the past two years) than Kareem Hunt and ranks 20th overall in most rushing attempts since 2018. As a runner, he’s utilized about as often as Austin Ekeler.

So I think it’s interesting that if a team drafts Bijan Robinson or Jahmyr Gibbs it’s “so stupid because those guys will only have eight years in the league” (which is an eternity) but we’ve actually yet to see—ever—a quarterback like Anthony Richardson have sustained success in the NFL.

That’s now up to the Indianapolis Colts to figure out, I know. But I think that in either case, Pete Carroll and John Schneider are plenty happy with a quarterback who is a little bit mobile at 33 (Geno had 68 carries for 366 yards last year) and who can pass than one who is extremely mobile at 21 and can’t. I am pro-Richardson and hope he excels, I just don’t yet see how the Cam Newton or Josh Allen comparisons are favorable for the long-term.

Thank you!

I was not expecting such a massive turnout of Seahawks fans signing up for the Super Joes club after posting the Jaxon Smith-Njigba bonus article on Tuesday and I appreciate all your messages of support to keep growing the newsletter. I explained more of the history behind Super Joes and the “founding members” level in a follow-up JSN post on Wednesday, in case you missed it. To be clear, there will be no shortage of bonus content for people in the $55/year Regular Joes club and I do apologize for any confusion as I am organically planning the future of an NFL newsletter for which there is no precedent.

We are the first of our kind and I love that about us. To be organic, it means to run a test and then to react to the results, which is what I’ve been able to do this week. With so many people signing up for Super Joes at $120/year, I think starting with one bonus post per month is reasonable as that community is rapidly growing. I will write 500+ articles this year though, over 1.3 million words about the Seattle Seahawks, so there’s no shortage of anything here.

Every day: At least one free Seahawks newsletter.

Every week: At least two bonus articles.

Every month: One “Super Joes” post.

The nice thing about signing up for a full year right now is not only are you supporting a Seahawks-related business, you’ll also be paid up for bonus content all the way through the 2024 draft. That’s all summer, all training camp, all season, and all through the next draft.

Again, whether you just want the free stuff, or the bonus content, or the perks, or you just like supporting media/journalism that isn’t screwing up our reality in the mainstream, I’m happy you joined Seaside Joe. Tell other Seahawks fans!