Will Seahawks re-sign Drew Lock?
Will Seahawks re-sign Drew Lock?
Predicting 2024 QB carousel and how it impacts Drew Lock, Seahawks, and Geno Smith: Seaside Joe 1813
At some point in life, everybody has to look at themselves in the mirror and ask, “Am I George Clooney or David Caruso?”
Right now, that man is Drew Lock.
In 1993, actor David Caruso landed the dream job with the starring role in a hit TV show, NYPD Blue. His work was being seen in over 13 million households, he won a Golden Globe for season one, so why did he quit a year later?
He forgot how lucky he was to have the job at all and wrongly assumed he was bigger than the show. Caruso left NYPD Blue four episodes into season two over a contract dispute and proceeded to have one of the worst movie careers of all-time after attempting to make the jump to feature-length films; both of his film projects—Kiss of Death and Jade—earned him Razzie nominations.
Caruso later said that he “handled it like an amateur” and that he was actually “terrified” of the job with NYPD Blue because he had wanted it so bad and now had convinced himself after years of rejection that he wasn’t good enough for it. The show simply hired Jimmy Smits in his place and lasted for 12 seasons. At least he’ll always have this meme:
The show goes on. Only sometimes does the actor go on too.
I remember George Clooney having a very minor role as Roseanne’s boss in Roseanne, but WE only know of him because he played Dr. Doug Ross on ER. Same as Caruso, Clooney’s career turn came on a hit TV show (although at the time, he may have even taken a backseat to co-stars Anthony Edwards and Eriq La Salle) but he may have been able to take notes by watching the other actor’s highly-publicized crash from the top.
Clooney spent five seasons on ER and similar to Michael J. Fox with Family Ties and Back to the Future, pulled double-duty between television and movies. (He was also contractually obligated to stay at ER for four years.)
(Speaking of Back to the Future, do you also get Eric Stoltz confused for David Caruso?)
Clooney was still on ER when he filmed From Dusk Till Dawn, One Fine Day, Out of Sight, and Three Kings. He even had a huge flop during his ER career when he portrayed the nippled Batman. (Batman and Robin did make $240 million so not exactly a financial failure, but certainly became the punching bag of the franchise.)
Contrary to Caruso, everything that George Clooney did in his attempted transition from television to movies was correct, even being described as humble in his auditions despite simultaneously being one of the biggest TV stars in the country. And yet, you can’t just argue that Clooney created a blueprint because plenty of actors since then have tried (and failed) to make the move, even including The Office’s John Krasinksi, who I mostly remember from a very forgettable football movie called Leatherheads…directed and starring George Clooney.
(It seems Krasinski is instead taking more of the Ron Howard route by focusing on directing.)
It turns out that in addition to doing everything right, and being extremely lucky in two separate fields of the same industry, and choosing your projects wisely, and perservering through constant adversity, and looking-like-George-Clooney, you also have to be talented. Not only do you have to know your place in THE world, you also have to know your place in YOUR world.
The entertainment industry needs TV actors just as much as they need movie actors and just as much as they need soap opera actors or reality stars. There doesn’t have to be a “better” job because your only goal is to do the best job, regardless of what that role is. Caruso isn’t a movie actor, but when he got the lead role in CSI: Miami in 2002, he was right back where he left off.
Clooney made sense for the movies. Caruso made sense for television.
Patrick Mahomes is a great starting quarterback. Blaine Gabbert is a great backup quarterback. Mahomes has three Super Bowl titles. Gabbert has two. Neither of them are poor.
What is Drew Lock meant to do? TV or movies? Starter or backup?
My sense is that he will return to the Seattle Seahawks. Though it could be important that Seattle’s new coaches have talked about Lock as if they expect him to return, that’s still not a decision that’s up to them. As a free agent, Lock could explore opportunities on the market that he might feel lead him back to becoming a starter in a shorter period of time.
If that’s even what he’s meant to do.
So will those opportunities exist? Let’s explore the potentially available 2024 quarterbacks and where Lock fits within those names.
Seaside Joe recently won a Golden Globe for best paid newsletter in North America, so becoming a Regular Joes or Super Joes subscriber today to support the cause of someone that People magazine called “The George Clooney of Seahawks content creators”:
These guys are starters
Kirk Cousins (FA)
Russell Wilson (Release/Trade)
Baker Mayfield (FA)
Baker Mayfield is basically the reason that quarterbacks like Lock might explore other options in free agency if they feel that they’re stuck as backups in their current situations. I actually had bad advice for Mayfield a year ago, as I felt he should have stayed with the Rams and continued to work on his game from the shadows behind a great quarterback and a proven coach. I didn’t think he would have a successful season as he had in Tampa Bay.
Prepare for potentially more bad advice: The Bucs are crazy if they pay him like the Giants paid Daniel Jones or the Saints paid Derek Carr.
At some point, a team needs to put their foot in the ground with these average starting quarterbacks who ask for $40 million+ per season. How much more evidence does the NFL need that the difference between the eighth-best QB and the 28th-best QB isn’t $35 million+? Case in point, Tampa Bay won more games with Mayfield than they did a year earlier with Tom Brady. The Browns were better with Joe Flacco than Deshaun Watson. The Bengals survived Joe Burrow with Jake Browning.
If it was Burrow, I would say “Yes, pay him.” But it’s Baker and if he wants a stalemate over $100 million guarnteed, I’ll go talk to Browning or Flacco or a number of other comparable quarterbacks, including Drew Lock. Maybe I’m as off the mark as a Watson corner shot outside the hashes, but how many bad quarterback contracts does the NFL need to go through before it wakes up?
That being said, of course I think Baker Mayfield gets a starting job with the team he signs with, whoever that is. It’s probably going to be the Bucs. And I still think the Vikings re-sign Kirk Cousins, although I would be stingy there too. They just seem very committed to Cousins, going as far to hire Kevin O’Connell (his QBs coach in Washington) two years ago.
Your speculative guess on where Russell Wilson goes is as good as mine, but he will be leaving Denver and I don’t doubt there’s a team that wants him to be the starter. But don’t rule out a team that drafts a quarterback though like Chicago, Washington, or New England: Remember when the Giants signed Kurt Warner to be a bridge for Eli Manning, then the Cardinals did the same when they drafted Matt Leinart? It turned out that Warner was much more than a bridge for Arizona.
Shane Waldron is now the offensive coordinator for the Bears and as I said, I think Caleb Williams should sit for a year. Chicago would trade Justin Fields (my thoughts on that are here) and sign Wilson for the veteran minimum with the plan in mind for him to re-establish his value as a starter while Williams develops.
