All the Wrong Moves
Seahawks must really regret all their poorly-graded moves of the last few years
Geez, what a terrible last few years it’s been for the Seahawks, right?
Go back to that awful Russell Wilson trade that Seattle made in 2022, when the Broncos “fleeced” the Seahawks as many said. Bill Barnwell rightfully gave Seattle the worst offseason grade in the entire league that year and boy was he right!
I mean seriously, how much value could the Seahawks possibly get from the first (Charles Cross, Devon Witherspoon) and second (either Boye Mafe or Kenneth Walker and Derick Hall) round picks, plus over $100 million saved by not paying Wilson again, by making that dumb trade?
Man, Barnwell’s so smart. But John Schneider? So stupid.
Then consider all the DUMB draft decisions by Schneider:
He took a second round running back (WHOOPS!)
An undersized cornerback in the top-5 over Jalen Carter (WHY?)
ANOTHER second round running back (YIKES!!!)
A first round GUARD?!?! (Seaside Joe said that was a “no-no”)
Firing Pete Carroll came with some controversy, although many people felt it was time, and hiring Mike Macdonald was almost universally praised except for one Seahawks writer/podcaster who felt his defensive value was being overrated:
And speaking of defensive value, trading a second round pick for Leonard Williams? That wasn’t very “genius” now was it? Forget that it’s probably the only reason that Seattle was able to sign Williams as a free agent. As Ben Baldwin kept saying that year, the move was so shortsighted.
But at least it wasn’t a “flat out terrible move” like trading Geno Smith.
Chances of upgrading were extremely low. Nobody knew that better than The Athletic’s Daniel Popper, who gave the Seahawks a lower grade for Sam Darnold (C) than he did the Jets for Justin Fields (B):
Yes, Darnold was one of the best stories of the 2024 season, and yes, it would be great to see him continue his climb as an NFL starter. But the Seahawks are putting him in a pressure-cooker situation, paying him $36 million per year to carry an offense that has nothing even close to the weapons he had at his disposal last season in Minnesota.
Personally, I like writers at The New York Times who a) watched the NFL for the last four years and know that Justin Fields is a great quarterback and b) lack such awareness of Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s potential that he won’t mention Seattle having him but will mention that the team parted with DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett.
That’s the type of football intelligence that our leading NFL media members have that the front office of the Seahawks WISHES they could steal.
And don’t even try me with that “but the Seahawks won the Super Bowl with the best defense in the NFL and a Super Bowl MVP running back and a quarterback who didn’t have any turnovers in the playoffs” NONSENSE.
Sure, that might get you a Lombardi Trophy. But will it go back in time and change your draft grades and your offseason grades and your trade grades and your free agency grades???
Nope. Nobody can ever change Seattle’s grades.
I mean…they do. The writers always go back and change their grades or delete them or pretend it never happened or amend what they said or act like it’s our fault for misunderstanding what they said or say that a good result doesn’t justify a “bad process” according to their judge of bad. So yeah you can change the grades.
But can you heal the deep scars left by getting a “D” for taking a star running back over a backup defensive tackle?
No. I just wish I could feel the same fulfillment of believing in the Seahawks as much as those writers believe in their opinions. I mean look at them now:
The Seahawks are the Super Bowl champions. Great.
That might feed you for a day. If you’re lucky. But as anyone who watched ESPN today can attest to by Ryan Clark arguing that Darnold isn’t one of the top-10 quarterbacks in THE NFC (just the NFC, not the entire NFL), if time heals no wounds, then Super Bowls improve no grades.
Here’s what some of you said about Seattle’s 29-13 win over the Patriots on Sunday. I’m glad to see that some of us are happy with the Seahawks being champions instead of valedictorians.
Ryan: What an incredible team!! What an incredible ride!! What a joy to share it with all of you in the Seaside Joe community all year!!
There were many comments expressing gratitude for the community here and I just picked one but I echo that and I thank you all. Come join us if you haven’t yet:
Signature Seahawks: I went to bed thinking that the Pats really were not ready for us (been thinking that for 2 weeks, yesterday we proved it.) By next year they might be.
They might be, but there’s a reason I really respect Dan Campbell as a coach. He said it best after the NFC Championship loss two years ago: “This might have been our only shot.”
After the game I saw Patriots fans give the exact same sentiment that 49ers fans gave after they lost badly to Seattle, which was “We weren’t even supposed to be here.” As if the team just got lucky (which those fans said before the game was not the case) and next year…oh boy wait till you see the team next year.
This is the NFL. There is no next year. If there was a next year, the best team would be the team that just won the Super Bowl—and they still do have the best odds, like Seattle does now—and yet 60 years in we have never seen a three-peat and we’ve only seen one repeat in the last 20.
Which isn’t to say that I don’t think the Seahawks are going to win the Super Bowl next year (I do think that), but not all 32 teams can be better next year, which is what the fans of all 32 teams believe. They all think their team is on an upward trajectory and that’s impossible.
I’ll be surprised if the Patriots are in the Super Bowl again any time soon.
Maxx: The AP sure as heck picked the wrong guy for coach of the year. What a masterful job by Macdonald tonight and the entire season! So deserving of COY!! And what a sore loser Vrabel was for that post-game handshake. He was outclassed and outcoached by Macdonald! Best team won tonight!! CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ENTIRE TEAM!!!!!!
You know, I was basically asleep at the wheel when Mike Vrabel won Coach of the Year because I don’t care about the awards, but the day before a game a friend was asking me advice for bets and I mentioned that the Seahawks had a better chance to score before halftime because Vrabel is notoriously bad at managing the game.
The Coach of the Year award is a “most improved team” award which has never made any sense to me and it’s also why so many coach of the year winners get fired within a few years. Maybe that won’t be Vrabel but he’s not a top-5 coach.
PNWRider: It could have been a shut out. The D is amazing. Walker is going to be $$$$ to sign.
This is what the franchise tag was made for. A RB franchise tag is projected at $14 million, per OvertheCap.com. The Seahawks have all the cap space in the world.
For the fans who are stressed about multi-year investments in running backs, giving Kenneth Walker III the franchise tag means that he’s in the fold for 2026 and the team buys another 12 months to think it over. $14 million seems like a lot for a running back but 13 running backs have at least that much guaranteed money on their contract.
If Seattle does re-sign Walker, or he hits free agency, he’s certain to get over $20 million guaranteed. Just give him the tag if the money is a concern. Better to go to him than anyone else and yes I’m including Tariq Woolen but given that today is a day of celebration I’ll leave that situation alone for now.
Danno: Anthony Bradford is a great, straight ahead power gap blocker, but he is slow, not quick, has very poor lateral movement, and is two steps slow getting to the second level coming off double teams. He’s not a good fit for the scheme the Seahawks want to play. I’ve mentioned this a few times the past few weeks and after my initial impression in the Super Bowl, I’ll say it again: The Ravens center Linderbaum may be a free agent.
I like your points about Bradford and I wouldn’t be mad about Tyler Linderbaum, but I’d be surprised if the Ravens let him go and if the Ravens do let him go the bidding war should price him out of Seattle’s price range. There’s a reason that the Seahawks don’t sign first wave free agents: They’re always overpaid.
There wasn’t a bidding war for Sam Darnold. It reportedly only came down to Minnesota or Seattle. There weren’t bidding wars for Demarcus Lawrence or Cooper Kupp. Any guy like Linderbaum is going to be overpaid if he gets to free agency (I don’t see any reason for a guy who is only 26 to take a discount to go to a Super Bowl contender) and I don’t think the Ravens are going to let that happen anyway.
I’ll go back to my original thought here: The Seahawks could still believe in their own investments like Bryce Cabeldue, Mason Richman, and Christian Haynes. It doesn’t matter if we are skeptical about these players, John Schneider would tell us that Jalen Sundell was an undrafted free agent who wasn’t supposed to beat out Olu Oluwatimi.
Schneider drafted Cabeldue for one reason and one reason only: He thought that Cabeldue had the potential to be a starter in 2026. Not 2025. He also didn’t draft Cabeldue and Richman to be backups. You can always sign backups.
Now does that stop the Seahawks from signing a starter or drafting a guy in the first three rounds this year? If the opportunity is there to improve a weakness, Seattle should take it. But I won’t be surprised if the starting right guard/center is on the roster right now because that’s in line with how Schneider has always planned 2-3 steps ahead.
Celebrate the win by getting a Seahawks fan a gift subscription:
AJ: Dickson, Myers, and Spoon all had legit cases for MVP too.
Seahawks win a Super Bowl in dominant fashion and somehow the performance I thought about the most last night was Michael Dickson’s. These last two games have been two of the best by a Seahawks punter that I can ever remember.
IdahoFred: We should have really had more points. In those circumstances you don't know if the offense misfired or it the defense was causing issues. Good that Meyers was so good that we had a big enough lead to put pressure on them.
There’s no question that the Seahawks would have rather been up 28-0 than 12-0. However, if Klint Kubiak didn’t know he had the number one defense, if the Patriots could literally do anything offensively, Seattle calls a totally different offensive gameplan.
I think the Seahawks were capable of scoring more, they just didn’t need that gameplan. Whereas the Patriots were incapable of scoring more than they did and only got 13 because when they got desperate they got a little bit lucky.
Bob Johnston: The most impressive play I saw tonight was Rylie Mills' sack. I can't wait to see what this guy can do.
Out of 47 active players, Rylie Mills was probably about the 44th-most important (I rank him above a couple of backup OLs and Cam Akers) and he had a better game than the fourth overall pick in the draft, Will Campbell.
Bill: Great season all, it was so much fun to share it with all of you.
He’s not paying me to type this, but unless you are destitute or barely scraping by, you should be subscribing to this newsletter as a Super Joe. A huge part of what made this season so great was the daily news provided by SJ along the way and he deserves to rewarded for his hard work and dedication to this team and this newsletter. Just imagine that Ken had to stop the newsletter and get a real job. I would miss it terribly. He deserves your support.
Okay, I’ll share one more like this. (And how funny would that be if I DID pay people to say nice things about me.)
Thank you, Bill.
I say that if you can afford a $5 subscription or $55 for a year, I appreciate that. If you feel like you can afford the $120 a year for Super Joes, that’s cool too. I will continue the Super Joes Q&As in the offseason.
But also if you just want a free Seahawks newsletter and that’s good enough for you, I’m glad you’re here too. Everyone is supporting Seaside Joe in their own way and the way you support is guaranteed to be right for you.
On that note, the streak will continue whether we like it or not so if you do sign up for a year, I promise you’ll get your investment’s worth:
Thanks for bringing back all those takes that use to drive me crazy. Mina Kimes was the worst one for me. I thought it was so easy to see that Kubiak liked Darnold better to run his system from the moment he was signed. The trade made sense to me. Then she does this gig in the offseason where she has a guest on her show to do power rankings. She consistently offered the choice of the Seahawks to her guests after 20 in her power rankings. Only the top 14 teams make the playoffs and rankings in the 20s are all teams with losing records. Plus, every time I see or hear her, I keep hearing Don Henley’s song, “Dirty Laundry.” (Verse three, I think)
The disrespect continues…. I don’t know if it was CBS or FOX, but one came out with their first 2026 season power rankings, and somehow the Seahawks have already slipped to 3, behind Denver and the Rams.
Great year for your blog! Loved every minute and I’m thankful for everyone who puts up with my biased and overly optimistic predictions. (Although I take credit, I do appreciate the Seahawks for making me look smart occasionally, … more than I deserve)
Re: the Seahawks offense, let's give quite a bit of credit to the Pats defense. They really stepped up at key moments and shut the Hawks' offense down. Williams' sack, multiple good plays by their secondary (especially Gonzalez), tight coverage particularly early in the game, all were factors. It really could have been a laugher at halftime (24-0, 28-0 something like that). And the Hawks' defense was even better.
The Hawks' special teams advantage was key as well. I'll say it again. I was pissed when Larry Izzo was let go from the staff and they brought in nepo baby Jay Harbaugh, and I'm happy to admit I was wrong about that, that Jay really came through for this team and he deserves a lot of credit for that, along with the special teamers who really clearly take pride in that job and should.