Seahawks fan survey: Is it time to extend Uchenna Nwosu?

DK Metcalf breakout? Who is the most overlooked Seahawks player now? Seaside Joe 1559

At this time last year, the Seaside Joe newsletter had 689 total subscribers and 103 paid subscribers. In the past 12 months, we have grown substantially and as of today we are up to 2,265 total subscribers and 528 members of the Regular Joes and Super Joes clubs. That’s a growth of over 3x among total subscribers and over 5x for paid and that is in thanks to the support from YOU on a daily basis, whether that be from subscribing, sharing us with other Seahawks fans, either by posting an article on Facebook or Twitter or simply forwarding the emails to them, and becoming a part of the community.

Substack (the hosting service I use to send you these daily Seahawks posts) reports that their newsletters have an average paid-to-free subscriber rate as low as 5%, but at Seaside Joe we have a rate over 23% and that is in spite of being a FREE newsletter that has gone out for the last 1,559 days in a row. This chart showing subscriber growth since we moved to Substack reminds me of the arduous hills that Jaxon Smith-Njigba would run up with his dad and brother as a kid:

I say that not only to say THANK YOU for your support, but also because as the community of Seaside subscribers keeps getting bigger, I want to keep reaching out to the people who matter-You, the Seahawks fans aka the Seahawks experts—to gauge your opinions on the team, any burning questions you may have right now, and what you’d like to see next.

So today I’ll be posting another series of poll questions and then I’ll circle back next week when the polls are closed to show you the answers and to answer any questions you leave in the comments, if you choose to do so.

To not miss the results, be sure to become a free subscriber by entering your email address below.

Now time for some Seahawks-related questions I have for you.

Should Seahawks give Uchenna Nwosu competitive extension?

PFF posted some contract extension figures this week and specifically mentioned a potential new deal for Uchenna Nwosu:

“sign edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu to a three-year, $45 million contract extension (with $27 million guaranteed). Nwosu is on the verge of entering the second year of a two-year, $19 million deal he signed last offseason.”

A $15 million APY contract would be nowhere near the top of the edge rusher market, as the elite players like Myles Garrett, Joey Bosa, and T.J. Watt all make at least $25 million per year. A $15 million figure would tie Haason Reddick of the Eagles and Trey Hendrickson of the Bengals at 13th in the NFL among edge rushers.

I’ve been arguing that Seattle should extend Nwosu, not only because he’s their only proven quality player at the position but also due to the fact that the Seahawks can show to other free agents in the future that they’re willing to reward players who out-play their deals. Nwosu’s two-year contract should fit in as a “prove it” type of deal and for the most part, he did prove it with 9.5 sacks and 26 QB hits.

However, a new contract does carry some risk and I think Nwosu’s final stat line doesn’t totally reflect his value. Over the last nine games, including playoffs, Nwosu had a total of 2.5 sacks and they all came against the L.A. Rams, who had the worst offensive line in football. Did Nwosu help open up sack opportunities for other players, like Darrell Taylor? That could be the case. But is an edge rusher worth $15 million per season if he’s not a singularly disruptive force who is also consistent?

As always, I’ll remind you that you should never have to feel like you aren’t informed enough to answer a Seahawks poll question. You are a Seahawks fan, you have a right to an opinion, and there are no wrong answers! If you still don’t feel like you want to answer, that’s perfectly okay, but don’t feel like you are inadequate or incapable. Even NFL general managers have proven over and over again that they’re just going with their gut and they’re often very wrong.

Which player’s upcoming contributions are being overlooked?

DK Metcalf met with the media on Wednesday and it reminded me…that DK Metcalf exists. It’s interesting how sometimes Seattle’s most high-profile players can sort of get lost in the shuffle—at least for my own reflections—when we spend so much time focusing on rookies, free agents, and changes.

Metcalf noted that this may be the first time in his career when he can solely focus on football and have a full offseason with no distractions. First, he was a rookie. Second, the pandemic happened. And last year, there was the contract extension talks. (I can’t remember what may have distracted him in 2021. Candy diet?)

Obviously, Metcalf is one of the Seahawks most important players, as well as being one of the highest paid, but I just don’t feel like I’ve written about him very much this year. Yet, it wouldn’t surprise me if at the end of the season we are talking about DK Metcalf in the same breath that we talk about players like Davante Adams and DeAndre Hopkins. I don’t see Metcalf in that top tier yet.

He had just two regular season games over 90 yards, but then had 136 yards and two touchdowns in the playoff loss to San Francisco. Consider that in 2020, Metcalf had nine games over 90 yards and five games over 100 yards.

Perhaps going into a second season with Geno Smith will help. Or having Jaxon Smith-Njigba to draw some of the defense’s attention away from him. Let’s start with a DK Metcalf question, with “production” being some combination of targets, yards, and touchdowns:

Now, I’ve talked about how DK Metcalf has been a little overlooked by me, but what other Seahawks are maybe being overlooked because maybe we’re so focused on new players like Dre’Mont Jones, the return of Bobby Wagner, and the rookie class?

It is impossible to come up with just four or five names and call that adequate because you could really make an argument to say that just about anybody on the team is being overlooked in some way. Still, I’ll give it a shot and if you feel like I’m leaving somebody off the list, leave a comment to shout them out.

Let’s think of “contributions next season” as in a statement like, “Nobody is talking about Charles Cross at all, but he has Pro Bowl potential at left tackle” or “Nobody is talking about Quandre Diggs, but he could be the most important player on defense” or something along those lines.

Next free Origin Story?

On Wednesday, I posted a bonus article looking at the high school history of Seahawks’ top pick Devon Witherspoon and we learned a ton about how he went from being “off of every radar” to “enrolling at community college” to “transferring to Illinois before he ever had to start for that football team” and immediately becoming the best true freshman in the entire program.

So far, we’ve had origin stories on Witherspoon, Derick Hall, Dee Eskridge, Clint Hurtt, Zach Charbonnet, Kenny McIntosh, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, with more to come. You can always drop into the SeasideJoe.com homepage to scroll the archives and see what you may have missed.

What if we look at the origin story of a veteran addition next time?

To not miss any origin stories, don’t forget to sign up for a free newsletter. Or to read the bonus content origin stories, your support by upgrading to premium is HUGE in helping this Seahawks newsletter move up the charts in effort to be number one on Substack and to upend the entire Seattle media industry with what we can do.

Geno Smith expectations

I want to follow up the article I wrote about the Seahawks passing offense—”did Seattle quietly build a passing machine”—and the comparison to Matt Ryan’s breakout MVP season for Geno Smith by asking Seaside Joe readers their opinion on the matter in poll form.

Do you think that Geno Smith is capable of having a season like what Matt Ryan had in 2016?

I’m going to have a third option called “Good like Ryan, but not MVP” and by that I mean this: He could be as good as Matt Ryan was in 2016, but because the rest of the league is so competitive (Ryan didn’t have to fight off Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, or Joe Burrow, for example) maybe he doesn’t stand a shot at MVP this season?

Next, let’s focus on the Seahawks offense as a whole unit. Seattle has rebuilt their offense in short order and apart from making a change at QB, Pete Carroll has also rebuilt the entire offensive line (with the exception of Damien Lewis), and added Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Noah Fant, Kenneth Walker III, and Zach Charbonnet in just the last two offseasons. Along with Dee Eskridge, Will Dissly, Colby Parkinson, and a few other parts, have the Seahawks done enough to help Geno lead a top-5 scoring offense?

You are also allowed to feel that—maybe if you don’t believe in Geno Smith or Shane Waldron—Seattle’s offensive struggles in the second half of the 2022 season will continue. That’s the beauty of surveys: You are anonymous!

To see all the answers, make sure you’re subscribed to Seaside Joe. Thanks again for helping us grow so substantially in the last year, we’re already starting to have that impact on the media that I’ve been referencing for so long.