Is this okay? Pre-training camp edition (Offense)

Does Seahawks OC Ryan Grubb have the pieces he needs to be a top-ranked offense in 2024? Seaside Joe 1935

One of the most popular and well-received Seaside Joe’s of 2024 was the two-part “Is this okay?” series that I posted before the draft: One for the offense and one for the defense. The premise couldn’t be any more simple if I wrote it in crayon: I look at the position groups on the Seattle Seahawks and I answer the question, “Is this okay?”

This way, we could assess together the various groups on the team and the needs of the draft. If something looked really not okay, to what degree should the Seahawks should prioritize that need in the draft? Well, one of our assessments at Seaside Joe was certainly that Seattle’s run defense and pass rush presence was sorely lacking; drafting Byron Murphy II in the first round is John Schneider’s way of attempting to address both of those needs. What’s left to address after the draft and before training camp?

But we will save the defense’s “Is this okay?” next time and focus on Ryan Grubb’s offensive needs between the draft and training camp this time. Helping the offensive line has been the center of attention for Seahawks fans and Seasiders for a very long time, so how “okay” are those position groups—as well as the four others on offense—since the drafted ended?

QB Geno Smith, Sam Howell, P.J. Walker

“Is this okay?” It depends on your timeline

Something very interesting happened in the NFL over the offseason. I tend to observe these specific changes every year, but I don’t see it covered anywhere else with much significance or regularity: The NFC added four new first round quarterbacks: Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Michael Penix, and J.J. McCarthy.

That could represent a major shift in the NFC power rankings over the next 2-4 years.

For a while now, any time an NFC team took their shots in the first round of the draft, it usually hasn’t worked out: Jameis Winston in 2015, Jared Goff and Carson Wentz in 2016, Mitch Trubisky in 2017, Josh Rosen in 2018, Daniel Jones and Dwayne Haskins in 2019, Trey Lance and Justin Fields in 2021.

The biggest success story in the whole category is Kyler Murray, a player who is on the hot seat in Arizona. Then behind him would be Bryce Young, simply for the fact that he hasn’t had enough time to guarantee failure or success but his first season was considered the worst year in the league by any QB. Goff reached the Super Bowl with L.A. (Wentz won the Super Bowl on the sidelines, but his career can’t be called ‘successful’) and found a second life with the Lions, but he’s not considered to be a very intimidating quarterback.

In that same period of time of the draft, the AFC has added Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Deshaun Watson, Trevor Lawrence, Tua Tagovailoa, and C.J. Stroud, in addition to Anthony Richardson, Will Levis (second round), the Jets trading for Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers recently adding Russell Wilson.

I mean, if just Stroud was in the NFC, that team would seem to be in a far more powerful position than most others in the conference.

Of course, non-first round QBs in the NFC include Dak Prescott, Jalen Hurts, and Brock Purdy. Plus there is a late bloomer to watch in Jordan Love, the other recent NFC first round pick, as well as Geno Smith, Baker Mayfield, Derek Carr, Kirk Cousins, and Matthew Stafford.

It seems like Stafford could be the best quarterback in the NFC right now and he’s 36, the second-oldest starter in the NFL behind Rodgers, which gives some hope to teams trying to beat the Rams with less talent at the position. However, now the timeline could favor the Bears with Williams or the Moons with Daniels or Penix or McCarthy or Love or Young or Hurts or Dak or Kyler…

To me, it does start to seem like if you’re not trying to keep pace with the NFC teams that have recently attempted to upgrade their quarterback position for the future then you are risking being like one of those teams in the AFC that didn’t succeed in finding a QBOTF while others succeeded: Like the Patriots. Like the Jets. Like the Titans, Broncos, or Raiders, for examples.

And look, the Jets drafted two first round QBs in that time—Sam Darnold and Zach Wilson—and before then they took Mark Sanchez. There’s no guaranteeing that drafting a quarterback won’t be a disaster or even set you back. Maybe the Titans wasted a pick on Levis and the Broncos wasted a pick on Bo Nix. We’ll see. The Broncos definitely wasted a lot of picks on Russell Wilson.

But whatever the means are to find a quarterback of the future, including trading for Sam Howell as a necessary step along the way, I don’t think it’s a good idea for the Seahawks to say “This is okay” with their current quarterbacks—unless—the 2024 season tells us differently. If Geno’s career takes another surprisingly big leap forward with Ryan Grubb, or Howell proves that the enemy of Bieniemy is my friend, then perhaps Seattle’s going to be able to put a pin in the quarterback search for another year.

As I wrote on Monday, we know know that the Seahawks are not the type of franchise to invest draft capital or salary cap or trade resources into “the big name quarterbacks” of the NFL. Even if the Seahawks think they want a big name quarterback like Dak Prescott or Tua Tagovailoa, history has shown us that there will always be a higher bidder (Broncos>Peyton Manning) than Seattle. And I think that’s almost always a good thing.

So “Is this okay?” —

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