Which Seahawks will be better or worse than our expectations?

Week 1 questions and answers about the Seahawks!

The Seaside Joe newsletter’s consistent publishing for the last 6.5 years is a byproduct of the non-negotiable daily habits that I used to restructure my life when I was 36, and for any longtime subcribers out there who are curious because I no longer write about this anymore, yes I have continued every other non-negotiable habit that I’ve started and added some more.

That includes over 2,400 days in a row of intermittent fasting, twice-daily meditation, and a secret project that I’ve been practicing for the past 3 years that I don’t tell anyone about because I think it’s a lot cooler if you surprise people that you learned a skill rather than just telling them that you’re going to learn how to do something “someday, maybe, I hope, we’ll see”.

And there 15 other non-negotiable daily habits, like watching football film studies that I believe has helped improve the content around here thanks to creators like All-22 (channel) and Legion of 12s (channel). Subscribe to their channels, support them at Patreon (Legion of 12s or All-22) because yeah it’s amazing that the Internet has made it possible to access so much knowledge for “free” but they’re working really hard to create stuff for us.

I’m opening today’s newsletter by sharing this because a) some of you said you were curious about the off-the-field habits and b) I want new readers to feel confident that Seaside Joe is 100% committed to covering the Seahawks today, tomorrow, the day after that, two months from now, a year from now, and well into the future.

This is what I live to do.

Every week I will send a newsletter that only goes to Super Joes “founding members” subscribers asking them to send me questions and comments about the Seattle Seahawks. Upgrade to Super Joes if you would like to do that, but don’t be too jealous about missing a newsletter because it’s truly just “send me questions!” and not an actual article.

Danno: I’d love to see a poll of SSJ readers as to how their expectation of Klint Kubiak has changed between his announcement as OC and today

Ask and you receive:

Paul G: What are the biggest questions about the team going into Week 1? No actual answers necessary.

In that case, I don’t know what to say!

I tend to think of strengths rather than weaknesses. For example, a lot of people question if the offense can be good with Sam Darnold and Kubiak, but I question if the defense can be elite going into Mike Macdonald’s second year. It might be more fun to watch a team with a top-3 defense and a mediocre offense than just “pretty good” on both sides of the ball.

Tim McConnell:

My hopes and dreams for 2025:

Darnold plays great, reads his progressions well and keeps the ball moving downfield at a fast pace. Limited turnovers. Zero ghosts; Defense does what we all expect; Stafford plays but has to take time off, Garoppolo plays as expected, Rams 9-8; Niners early lack of weapons shows Purdy for what he is, serviceable but not great. Niners 8-9; Cards continue to not live up the the hype. Arizona 7-10. Lets go play some football! Go Hawks!

As wildest dreams go, I think we can shoot even lower for some of Seattle’s opponents. Out of all three of those teams, I definitely see a 12+ loss season coming from somewhere.

Rusty: What’s your prediction for the Hawks record this season? Who do you project as team offensive and defensive MVPs?

I only ever predict records with a “give or take 2” range. I think I may have answered this a month ago, but I’d see the Seahawks at 10.5 wins, give or take 2. Technically not a cop out answer for the .5 because ties are possible.

Bret: Is there any explanation/analysis regarding the starting offensive line's success in the KC preseason game that can help us have realistic expectations for the regular season? I'm hoping you might've unearthed something other than the typical platitudes reminding us that it's "just the preseason."

Coincidentally I happened to post about this on Tuesday before reading the Super Joes questions. There’s some commentary and film analysis in Tuesday’s newsletter for anyone who missed it. As a bonus, here’s a new Jaxon Smith-Njigba breakdown posted on Wednesday:

Grant: It seems unreasonable to expect it all to work. Just like last year, we're probably going to be surprised along the way, in both positive and negative ways. Where would you tell your readers (a pretty optimistic bunch, in general) to temper their expectations with regard to our revamped offense? What component of the offense makes you the most nervous without seeing evidence of it working in real games yet?

Having posted several times about Darnold’s probability to not be as good as he was last year, hopefully those expectations are already tempered around here somewhat. Some rapid fire answers:

• Kenneth Walker could miss more games than we think

• Grey Zabel should have some “welcome to the NFL” moments

• If Tory Horton has 300 yards for the entire season, that’s actually not bad

• If Horton has over 600 yards, maybe Cooper Kupp didn’t do as much as fans hoped he would

• Elijah Arroyo is a rookie tight end

• Jalen Milroe might get even less run than we expect

• The center competition is not truly over

• The depth chart on defense seems kind of shallow

On the flip side, what are some things that might be better?

• Robbie Ouzts

• Eric Saubert’s blocking

• Jared Ivey sneaking his way into action as an undrafted rookie

• A.J. Barner Pro Bowl season?

• If one of the top-2 options is out, George Holani stealing the show for a game or two

• Byron Murphy’s dirty work opening up teammates for sacks and pressures

• A relatively healthy season for Uchenna Nwosu

I couldn’t leave you with tempered expectations. Not this close to the start of the season.

zezinhom400: I noticed a big difference between this team and the ones back in the Legion of Boom days, in that our cuts to get to 53 were pretty picked over on the waiver wire in those days, was risky as hell to put someone out there. But man, am I dreaming or do we have one of the most loaded practice squads in the NFL?

The Rams had 4 players claimed after final cuts, including Derion Kendrick going to Seattle, so I’m hesitant to use this as a measure of a loaded roster. Do the Seahawks have a loaded practice squad relative to the other 31? I really don’t know what the other 31 practice squads look like, but I think that’s a pretty common feeling for every fan base because it’s almost like saying “I grew up with these guys”.

I can hold a soft spot for the Ninja Turtles because I grew up with them but their movies won’t be the first thing we show to the aliens when they arrive.

You also mentioned in your comment some names that I agree seem very useful to Seattle’s roster, but at the same time this does highlight why practice squads feel different compared to 2013: You couldn’t keep veterans on the practice squad back then (like Shaquill Griffin), practice squads are bigger, elevation rules didn’t exist a decade ago, and neither did the International Pathway exemption (Federico Maranges).

Without new rules, Griffin, Maranges, D’Anthony Bell, Jerrick Reed, Patrick O’Connell, and Brandon Pili either wouldn’t have been allowed on the practice squad or the Seahawks may have cut them in favor of a rookie who had more eligibility.

As to comparison to other practice squads, I picked a team at random (Falcons) and saw former top-10 pick C.J. Henderson, veterans safety Ronnie Harrison, quarterback Easton Stick, and Kentavius Street, undrafted rookie Cobee Bryant (who was getting some pre-draft attention), and recent fourth round tackle Carter Warren. I’m sure Atlanta’s fans like many of the players who none of us really know that well in the same way that we like Jacardia Wright or Jamie Sheriff but Falcons fans have never heard of them.

Is the practice squad one of the best in the NFL? I would not know how to answer that but maybe other people here would. Is the practice squad going to help Seattle fill their needs over the next 18 weeks and change? I sure hope so, the rules were changed so that practice squads would become a more valuable utility for all teams.

Also, the aliens would probably be asking themselves, “So this planet has talking turtles who do martial arts but we’re having to deal with regular humans who play video games all day?” It wouldn’t make sense.

Cavmax: Wouldn't the Hawks start planning for some changes even before they cut MVS?

You mention someone saying that the 49ers would be able to gain intel from Marquez Valdes-Scantling after the Seahawks cut him and he signed with the 49ers. I wasn’t 100% sure who you were referring to and I just didn’t want to accidentally misname someone as the intended reference.

This morning, the 49ers did promote MVS to the 53-man roster ahead of Sunday’s game against Seattle. And yes, I assume that the Seahawks only give each position group so much information and never go beyond what they absolutely need to know. It’s like when you’re making a horror movie but you don’t give the entire script to everyone or you write 4 different endings so that none of the actors can spoil it. I think Scream did that.

No amount of intel — going in either direction — could top the fact that Klint Kubiak worked for Kyle Shanahan in 2023.

Defjames: Who do you think is flying under the radar and/or is a breakout candidate this year? Who are you most excited to see play? Pick one for offense and defense.

• Offensively, A.J. Barner. I think he would be open a lot and I think he will catch everything.

• Defensively, Jarran Reed. Too late in his career to call it a breakout, but “flying under the radar”? Sure, I’d say he qualifies there relative to his teammates on the defensive line.

• Special teams, very curious to see Horton as a punt returner.

What say you?

Largentium: What's the more important matchup to "win" in week 1 for the Hawks to get a win? SEA offense vs. SF defense? SF offense vs. SEA defense? Special teams?

It would be a heartbreaker to see the 49ers even post a couple of long scoring touchdown drives against Seattle, like they’ve done many times in the past. Without any known major quantities at receiver, that would be a total bummer. But maybe more important is seeing the Seahawks offense carry its offensive line momentum into the regular season and scoring touchdowns against a division rival, a San Francisco team that looks vulnerable on defense.

A real “Are you sure you should have come back?” moment for Robert Saleh.

La’au: Roster building through draft, trade or both. Which teams follow a clear philosophy that works and perhaps you guess as to why? Roseman and the Eagles have built a good young team but the Jets always suck. Is this due to roster building through draft, free agency or both? What make a successful free agent or successful draft pick?

I just happened to watch a Howie Roseman video this week:

I don’t really like philosophies anymore. If you’re just following someone else’s formula for success, then what do I need you for?

The best players do tend to be first and second round picks. And yet the Rams have continuously consolidated and/or traded away first round picks and had much success with that method; at this very moment, the Rams only have one player on the roster (Jared Verse) who they drafted in the first round and three other first rounders total, with Matthew Stafford being the only starter. The Eagles have 11 former first round picks on their roster, 7 of whom were drafted by Roseman. Some say those are the 2 best teams in the NFC.

Copying either the Eagles or the Rams carries very dangerous consequences that has gotten many GMs fired, which I think we also saw happen for 20 years when people tried to copy Bill Belichick.

Instead of looking backwards to try and deconstruct why good teams are good, I’d rather just see the Seahawks be good and then we can try and figure out why that happened after the fact. It’s been a decade since the last time the Seahawks were so good that anyone else wanted to copy them, so hopefully that happens now because of John Schneider’s anti-Pete approach and Macdonald’s “everyone wants what I have” defense.

Seaside Joe 2375