Why Seahawks are going full court press with QBs before 2023 NFL Draft
Why Seahawks are going full court press with QBs before 2023 NFL Draft
Other Seahawks writers will tell you that the team is trading up for Anthony Richardson, but I say "Not so fast": 4/2/2023
The Seattle Seahawks have had an unusual-for-them flamboyant escapade tour around the country to meet with the four highly-publicized quarterback prospects in the 2023 NFL Draft: Anthony Richardson, Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, and Will Levis. In a vacuum, the Seahawks being so open about their interest in using an early first round pick on a quarterback is as surprising as it is explainable.
It is unusual because in his previous 13 years as the man in charge, Pete Carroll has only made two large investments in the quarterback position and both of them were contract extensions for Russell Wilson. The Matt Flynn contract, the Charlie Whitehurst trade, even Geno Smith’s recent extension are all meager in comparison to those deals or using the fifth overall pick in the draft on a quarterback.
This is a trend that goes back to the beginning of Seahawks history as using #75 on Wilson makes him the third-highest overall pick that Seattle has ever used on a quarterback. In fact, of the 17 quarterbacks ever drafted by the Seahawks, they have only combined for 15 total seasons as a starter in Seattle: 10 by Wilson, four by Rick Mirer, and one by Seneca Wallace.
The most challenging part about writing a Seahawks newsletter that I feel needs to be 100-percent honest with fans is that I often have to give opinions that won’t be popular and so Seaside Joe may never grow as fast as some websites that pay a bit more lip service and tell you what you want to hear.
From a lot of other Seahawks sources, you will read/hear/watch that the team has legitimate interest in trading up for Anthony Richardson because Tony Pauline (Yep, we’re right back to square one with Tony Pauline reporting Seattle’s interest to trade up in the draft for a quarterback and nobody who has peddled that rumor last week has referenced his Desmond Ridder story from last year…) and one other non-Seahawks writer is saying that’s what they’ve heard. That could be one reason that people are sharing a story like this: They believe it.
To me, believing this story is either a sign of being gullible or willfully ignorant because you just want it to happen.
Another reason to share the Pauline/Vic Tafur rumor on Richardson is that you want the clicks. Anthony Richardson is an even hotter name in 2023 than Malik Willis was in 2022 and even though there are two quarterback prospects clearly ahead of him, Young and Stroud don’t generate near the amount of attention anymore because the top-two seems to be a foregone conclusion. So we move on and look for QB prospect landing spots that are more mysterious and because Richardson is the winner of the NFL Scouting Combine, a quarterback, and someone who has a wide range of franchises that the media could at least force a fit with…
He is the hottest name right now.
Hey, nobody in my business doesn’t want, need, or love a good click: I’ve written two Anthony Richardson stories in the last week and I’m referencing him again right now. However, I’ve only done this because a) Pete is forcing me to by going on this QB bus tour and b) I keep saying that I don’t actually believe it’s going to happen.
Let alone believing that Pete Carroll—PETE CARROLL—is going to trade up in the draft with a division rival to select a quarterback who needs experience/doesn’t have experience/won’t get experience if he goes to Seattle. There’s such a hyper focus on trying to make sense of why Richardson would “fit” John Schneider’s QB model (“If he reportedly loved Josh Allen, then he must just love big dudes and strong arms who were bad in college!”) but there’s a much longer list of attributes that connect virtually all of the Seahawks QBs since Pete arrived and Richardson checks almost none of those boxes. (Yes, the boxes that "they” keep ignoring—but we don’t do that at Seaside Joe.)
The one that I think is most important being experience.
So back to what I find challenging about writing an honest Seahawks blog based on all the evidence we have from 14 years of a single regime being in charge: Many of you want me to tell you that the Seahawks will draft Richardson. I don’t think that’s going to happen.
I was wrong about Geno Smith starting last season. I was wrong about Geno Smith hitting free agency this year. I could be wrong about this, too. And Seattle’s long wait to get back to scouting QB prospects can also be easily explained by opportunity and Wilson’s 10-year run as the starter: Sure the Seahawks don’t have a track record for drafting quarterbacks, but they’ve rarely been in this position before, right?
But when I add up all the evidence that normies outside of the organization have access to, and there’s a ton of it because this is Year 14: a) Mid-range shots at QBs every single time, b) So many needs (on Pete’s favorite side of the ball especially), c) Unless the Seahawks swap picks with the Texans the two obvious candidates will be gone, d) and this is the reason that they hate the most: Seattle already has two quarterbacks.
A starter who Pete loves and a backup who, by all accounts, the team loves.
What’s the deal then? Why the full court press to openly show the world you want a QB and for Pete/John to tell people in interviews over and over again that they are scouting the QBs at the top of the draft, that they’re taking advantage of this opportunity to potentially pick a franchise QB for the first time since Mirer in 1992, and to even have Geno himself hype up getting a potential replacement behind him? Especially given that if the average fan can scream “SMOKE SCREEN!” and see right through it, surely seasoned NFL executives are having the same thoughts?
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There’s one reason above all others that makes the most sense to me as to why Pete and John have been so upfront in their adoration for the four quarterback prospects expected to go early and it’s not what anybody else has told you even though it should be…