42 Comments
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Grant's avatar

1980!!! I was born and two weeks later Mt. Saint Helens erupted!

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Seaside Joe's avatar

Sounds like you're making a confession!

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Grant's avatar

Don't worry, I grew up to become a geologist and have learned to control my powers.

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Seaside Joe's avatar

Haha, well that worked out perfectly!

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Rozone's avatar

🤣🤣 It erupted 2 hours before my wedding reception. It was an omen.

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Grant Alden's avatar

I was in a small plane -- I guess the next morning? -- with the door open photographing a co-worker skydiving for the first time. We didn't know why the background was such muck.

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Dale's avatar

The 80’s were the best decade EVER (undeniably).

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Seaside Joe's avatar

I was going to put a "I love the 80s" reference in the article but it got too long!

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Hawkman54's avatar

not even close!

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Chris H's avatar

Good grief I'm old. I graduated high school in 1980.

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Randall Murray's avatar

We were celebrating my 14th birthday when it blew. Couple days later I’m cleaning ash off the roof.

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Seaside Joe's avatar

SEA MORE COMMENTS:

- I want to be able to do more with the answers you provided in the "one sentence or less" result, but that's a lot of words to know how to share them. If anyone has any ideas on how to use those answers, please let me know your thoughts. And I totally forgot to give the seeds of doubts answers on Geno Smith...but "Bridge" came up a lot. I guess you'd rather be the bridge than the water.

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Mike McD's avatar

I wish we could crumple up the term “bridge QB” and throw it in the trash!

Or have someone go through all 32 starting QBs and explain to me who is and isn’t a “bridge QB”. And define what it means.

Then in 5 years let’s see how right he or she was (I am assuming that part of the definition of non Bridge QB would be that he is the starter in 5 years).

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Chuck Turtleman's avatar

Hey, I know you are the coach of the Seahawks and everything, but if I may try to define it I'd like to try. A "bridge" QB is a solid to just below starter who won't win you many games on his own, but more importantly won't lose you many. I can think of a couple who won Super Bowls. My hometown high school football rival Brad Johnson comes to mind. Trent Dilfer, Jeff Hostetetler and Nick Foles also would likely fit the definition too.

As for active players, I'd be happy to look at the list and pick who I think would qualify, but it would just be my opinion and as Dalton said in Roadhouse, "opinions vary." Hell, I'd even consider Tua, who is making more than Mahomes (if I read his contract numbers correctly), a bridge until he shows that he can play better late in the season/playoffs. It's a guy to keep your team afloat (read, NOT get coaches/GMs fired) until you can find a true franchise QB. And one of the worst things an organization can do is sign one of these guys to a high dollar contract like Tua got as if they *were* a true franchise QB. In my opinion, of course.

In 5 years, I'm guessing I'd be right on some and wrong on a few. But the bridge QBs wouldn't be expected to be starters 5 years from now. The non bridge QBs in my view are currently Mahomes, Allen, Burrow, Jackson, Herbert, and then Rodgers (assuming some things), Love (assuming he picks up where he left off), Cousins (injury assumptions), and very likely youngsters like CJ Stroud, Purdy, and Lawrence. There aren't many A-listers at QB at any one time.

I didn't mean to go this long. Thanks for reading my TED Talk.

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Mike McD's avatar

Great comment. Glad to see someone take up the offer.

It’s inter that a bridge QB can also win a SB. And to me it sounds like there are very few (maybe about 8) non bridge QBs.

I also like Paul Gs comment that the Bears have had a bridge QB for 40 years! A bridge to where? Haha

I just want to play the best player and yes it’s good to have a future plan but know that most QBs won’t be the QB in 5 years so just play the best guy! (And keep taking shots for the future)

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Chuck Turtleman's avatar

That last line really hits me, as a Seahawks fan. :(

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Grant's avatar

How about this: A "bridge QB" is defined by their contract rather than their ability. Anyone who is: a) a starting QB; b) not on a rookie contract; and c) not guaranteed a significant salary beyond the current season, would be a bridge QB. A QB could therefore be a bridge to himself if his team rewards good performance with a multi-year contract and significant guaranteed money (Goff is an example).

I think once you pay Tua and Love like they got paid, they no longer qualify as bridge QBs (though they may be poor QBs and bad GM decisions).

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Mike McD's avatar

Good points 👍🏼

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JIMMY JOHNSON's avatar

I'm thinking Coach Campbell needed Goff to find the emotion to play with passion, if he wanted to win at the highest levels. After his trade, my bet is Campbell told him "If you ain't pissed off, you oughta be!". That's why I plopped down $100 that they make the SB last year.

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Scott M's avatar

Word Cloud...I bet there are free word cloud generators, maybe ones that do phrases too??

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Rusty's avatar

You nailed it, Scott. That’s the best was to visually present open ended text results. A word cloud.

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Seaside Joe's avatar

Good idea!

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Mcdude's avatar

There is a bridge and you are watching a fish jumping out of the water and below are two fish and one fish says to the other, “Oh no we are to late”. Gary Larson-Far Side cartoon. Took me awhile to get it.

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Mcdude's avatar

When I think top ten defense I go by the 2013 Seahawks. Points allowed 1st, yards allowed 1st and takeaways 1st. You can’t be much more successful than that.

May the 12s be with you and Go Seahawks!

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Seaside Joe's avatar

Now that's undeniable!

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Seaside Joe's avatar

One of my favorite quotes: If you're undeniable, you can't be denied.

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Mcdude's avatar

No plausible deniability here!

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Dale's avatar

If we’re off on that tangent, one of my favourite quotes is:

“Whoever said winning isn’t everything, never won anything”.

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Shaymus McFamous's avatar

Sounds like Yogi Berra

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Seaside Joe's avatar

From the Sopranos: "He's in no position to go into the unknown not knowing."

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JIMMY JOHNSON's avatar

I just want our Team to never count themselves out. Sometimes it will be Defense; sometimes Offense; sometimes both. That is what brought me around in 2012. I now feel we have a Coaching Staff who will have set designs for 10 points inside 3 minutes, customized for each and every team. We will have a sizable Dog in every game this year.

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Mike McD's avatar

Great article. Fascinating results.

I am seeing more and more from national commentators just how good Geno has been. It seems the secret is coming out more and more (that Geno Smith is really freakin good)

https://x.com/_danchu/status/1819479597081415980?s=46&t=GOr4QVtKtJ8ZabyL8K_o7Q

https://x.com/_danchu/status/1819275500399088086?s=46&t=GOr4QVtKtJ8ZabyL8K_o7Q

Go hawks.

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JIMMY JOHNSON's avatar

Howell has to be at least Good or we'll have a helluva time this year. Sam is rough-and-tough in a very real Russell Wilson way. It needs to become a point of pride that the entire team gets very protective of Geno. It's a good bet that we keep Walker on the Team until we see how Geno does at playing balls-out against teams upping their ferocity to get at him.

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JIMMY JOHNSON's avatar

Appreciate the links, McD!

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Dale's avatar

The way to tell that anything is top 10 or not is by feeling it (or seeing it / not stats - though they can sometimes help explain certain aspects). I think the old Australian movie ‘The Castle’ puts it perfectly:

https://youtu.be/nMuh33BMZYY?si=1XiAP2MeLQanG3vQ

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Seaside Joe's avatar

hahaha. "It's just the vibe of the thing"

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Dale's avatar

Exactly.

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KHammarling's avatar

After a damp squib of a finale to the Carrol era it's no surprise most people have upbeat expectations. You've got to, otherwise i wonder what you're doing as a sports fan. Super highly rated young HC, super highly rated OC, and a realtively well regarded set of talent across the field. Expecting that to lose/regress, that's depressing to me.

If this Survey was run at the bye-week it'd be equally interesting (not saying you should, just hypothesising). The proof, as always, is in the pudding. My expectations are 8-10 on the assumption McDonald and Grubb make the impacts media and SSJ have lead us to believe. More than that is a bit of reach to my eyes.

I look at McVay coming into LA and going 11-5 in his first season, whilst Shanahan was 6-10. All logic tells me we'll be somewhere in between those two, which would be 7-10 wins, with playoff hopes resting more on the 49ers ability to run it back again. And that would be great!

Success this year is rightly not going to be measured in wins/losses, but in the individual performances on the field. The issue with the end of the PC era was too many players stagnating, and too many mismatched gameplans from him and Waldron. I'll be happy winning just 5 games but seeing our players look better than last year, look better from week 1 to 18, and feel we have a philosophy and gameplan that consistently plays to our strengths.

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Grant Alden's avatar

So...as one of the seven percent...(no, I don't have a solution)...I think it is entirely possible and even likely that Geno will have an all-pro season and Mike McD will prove a more than able NFL coach AND the team will win fewer games than it did last year. My comment on that thread said something like: injuries, and we might be due for a spate of those, and this season should shake out whether the personnel we have can execute the plays Grubb and McD have designed. It seems more likely than not that at least one and probably both of those things are true. But as a fan I will, of course, be delighted to be proven wrong.

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JIMMY JOHNSON's avatar

Our Division Opponents are coached by 2 men provenly among the top in the League, and Arizona is coming on with a strong finish last year. Mike Mack embarrassed both Frisco and LA. There is no doubt we are at the top of their target lists now. Our Season revolves around how Mike adjusts for this, but more importantly, is how our Men find the fire to release the Big Dog in each of themselves. It can be as simple as Philly's Butt-Push on 3rd and1. Unstoppable. No stone unturned. They have 3 early games to gel with Mike's genius ideas. Wins will be nice, but equally important, more important, is how they measure themselves if they meet Bigger Dogs, hungry as Hell. Rah Rah chest-pounding doesn't take us far. How much Growl does your Dog have, Boys?

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Chris H's avatar

My 'B' ranking for Mike Mac isn't really because I think he'll be a 'B' coach, I just think this year we'll have a 'B' defense, so I linked his grade to the defensive grade. Probably not fair, but there you are. Considering we had a 'D' defense last year, 'B' sounds pretty good to me.

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Hawkman54's avatar

On defense IMHO there are two most important stats! Points allowed and Offensive time of possession! If your good on both of those you have a good to very good D! If this D (this year) just does better on both of those and the O-line improves even just say 25% Geno should have a very good year! Do I think he is an elite type QB, heck no- But he has enough skill set with a competent team around him to do all kinds of good things! Everyone talks about the fall off last year, But I think the last part of the season he played very well with everything around him. Go HAWKS!

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