Tariq Woolen's bad news is Artie Burns' good news
Read Jaxon Smith-Njigba's origin story FOR FREE right now! Seaside Joe 1543
Before we see Dial of Destiny next month, Seaside Jay and I have been re-visiting the first four Indiana Jones movies and last night was our trip through The Last Crusade. It was during the opening sequence with River Phoenix as “young Indy” that I was reminded of a popular trope: “Everybody loves an origin story.”
Or at least, enough people are curious about hero origins that millions of hours of content have been created to satisfy that burning question, “How did this interesting character come to be so interesting?”
Such as in The Godfather: Part II, Batman Begins, and Kermit’s Swamp Years:
And coming to an e-mail near you this summer: Seaside Joe will keep creating in-depth, well-researched origin stories for new members of the Seattle Seahawks.
A week ago, I started with first round receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and how he came to be one of the most dominant high school football players in the history of Texas. Soon after posting it as a bonus article for people who opted to subscribe at the $120 per year premium level, I decided that it was a post I wanted every Seasider to be able to read eventually because as far as I know, Seahawks fans won’t find content like this anywhere else. So as of Tuesday morning, the Jaxon Smith-Njigba post is now public and if you’re a free subscriber, I implore you check it out to see if I’m telling no lies:
Jaxon Smith-Njigba: Let the story begin
On October 26, 2020, Jaxon Smith-Njigba posted “Let the story begin” on Instagram, two days after making his first career catch and scoring his first career touchdown as a college receiver for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Smith-Njigba had only five yards that day, only four catches for 12 yards over his next four games, and only 10 catches for 49 yards durin…
Then only three days after JSN, I gave the same treatment to seventh round running back Kenny McIntosh and how he got the nickname of “The Blueprint” as an 8-year-old peewee football player who would continue to dominate on the field through most of high school and then on his way to winning two national championships at Georgia. The McIntosh article was created for premium subscribers at the $5/month or $55/year level and as of this morning it is also now public for free subscribers to read:
How Seahawks RB Kenny McIntosh became "The Blueprint"
Something was up with NSU University School’s athletic program in the late ‘10s and I think I know what it was: They were a “University” playing against high school teams. That’s at least the best I can come up with so far. NSU, which in actuality is a pre-K through 12 private prep school in Davie, Florida, had great football and basketball programs arou…
I share these posts—and all the daily free articles—because I think they’re a good use of your time (your most valuable asset) as a Seahawks fan. Remember, I’m not only the Seaside Joe club president, but I’m also a client.
My own origin story is that I started blogging over 20 years ago simply because I would look for certain types of sports content on the Internet, not find it, and then have to create it myself. I do the research, I share the findings, and I know that for sure the one thing we’ll all definitely share is interest in the Seattle Seahawks.
Seahawks series like the one on Kenneth Walker III last summer, articles like last week’s on JSN and McIntosh, you won’t find them anywhere else or from any other Seattle writer. So if you read them and think, “These are good, I want to read more and I want to empower the writer to create more,” then consider joining the Regular Joes or Super Joes club when you’re finished. Just enter your email below to get started:
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No secrets. It’s all out in the open: 1,543 straight days of in-depth coverage of the Seattle Seahawks and 95% of it is free. People join the premium section not because they have to but because they want to, so if you read JSN or McIntosh and decide you want to sign up, great. If you want to read the free stuff, great. Just consider sharing us with other Seahawks fans—forward the e-mails, share the articles on social media, or simply talk about “Seaside Joe” at Starbucks for all I care—so that we can continue to get bigger and attract a larger audience.
Because remember, we’re still living inside of the origin story of “How Seaside Joe became the number one Seahawks writer in the world”. You’re helping create it as we speak.
By the way, did you know that access to The Seattle Times digital is $5…per week?!?!
That’s 2-4 times more than Seaside Joe. We’re an even better deal than I thought.
Tariq Woolen “out until training camp”
The Seahawks are not expecting to get Tariq Woolen back until training camp after the second-year cornerback underwent arthriscopic surgery on his knee on Tuesday. The optimistic view of the news is that nobody seems to be freaking out, with ESPN’s Brady Henderson noting “it wasn’t a significant injury” and that the team has no reservations about him being ready for camp.
The understandably pessimistic angle to take here for fans is…”Oh God why? No. No! Why God, why?”
Football players have bad shit happen to their bodies all the time, that’s the nature of the game and thankfully Woolen has no injury history that would give me pause about believing that he will recover and be fine. Woolen played in basically 100% of the snaps after Week 1 and he’s a physical specimen who wouldn’t be so speciministic if not for the fact that he takes good care of his body.
But it is doubly unfortunate that the Seahawks entered camp with Devon Witherspoon “nursing a hamstring injury” and on the second day of camp announce minor knee surgery for their other star cornerback.
The ideal here would be “Everybody’s fine, nobody’s hurt” but that’s just not realistic in the NFL. Ever. And it’s better for these issues to be on the docket for May than popping up in September, although it is also a reminder for fans that bad things will happen during the season. Now is the chance to find out how the depth is looking at every position and as far as cornerbacks go, that’s why the team re-signed Artie Burns on Monday.
Burns, still only 28, has the injury history that no cornerback wants. He played in 9% of the snaps with the Steelers in 2019, missed 2020, played in 39% of the snaps with the Bears in 2021, and played in 16 snaps with the Seahawks in 2022. He wasn’t going to have much of a role with Seattle anyway, but Burns is nonetheless nothing more than insurance and a veteran to help run plays in OTAs. Without him, the most veteran cornerbacks on the roster (not including safeties) would be Mike Jackson (year 5), Tre Brown and Isaiah Dunn (year 3), and then Woolen, Coby Bryant.
All things being healthy, I don’t expect Burns to make the 53-man roster. All things being football, the Seahawks have to be ready because of days like today.
Our depth seems fine to me. I still remember the glory days of this team and, don't get me wrong, they were glorious days, BUT in one of those glory day games, our LEO got injured and all of a sudden we couldn't pressure the QB and we lost an important game. Another game, Lane, I think got injured and all of a sudden the replacement was getting torched.
Much more than on the offensive side of the ball where deficiencies can be adjusted to with play calling, but on the defensive side of the ball, if there is a deficiency, it gets picked on until that weak link is removed from the game. There were at least six players on defense in the glory days that if they got injured our team became easy to scheme against. Earl Thomas, Sherman and whoever the other outside CB was, and our nickel CB was usually our weakest link so if he went down the replacement might be better but usually wasn't.
Last year our #1 defensive star, Adams, went down in the first half of the first game and from then on that was a weak link until Ryan Neal returned to the position and then we were fine because we had pretty good depth at safety with Neal as the first man up.
With Tre Brown, if he returns to form, Michael Jackson, Love, Coby Bryant all essentially competing for one spot as a defensive back, and the losers all acting as significant depth, I think we have the deepest and most talented group of back ups at DB as we have ever had, and while healthy, a group of starters in this league without peer. Certainly, our DB's represent the strength of our defense, and that might remain true even with an injury or two.
Our Edges is probably our second strongest and maybe our deepest of all the position groups. With the addition of Hall, we have Nwosu, Mafe, Taylor, Smith, and Robinson. With Irvin standing by his telephone. Taylor will be playing to get his next job and Mafe will be a vet now. The strength of this group is its depth.
Forget LB's. I think we'll assume BWags can hold down that fort all by himself if necessary.
Interior defensive line is the big, BIG question mark from starters to rotational to back ups this group is entirely new to each other. And while some serious money has been given to Jones and Reed, to some extent, no one knows how this group will perform. I cannot pretend to know we will be OK. Maybe SSJ can give us a deep dive on this group. I have hopes that Mike Morris or one of the UDFA's will shock us with some great play and allow us to rest easy, but that won't happen for a long time. So we, or I at least, need some kind words about this group from our most trustworthy source: SSJ.
My mantra; “no injuries, no injuries, no injuries”and thank God we only play one game in Arizona a year. I read Seaside Joe for the weird sense of humor. Thanks Seattle Joe. Seriously Ken you’re honest and forthright and you do your due diligence as I mentioned before plus you make it fun. Love your readers comments but enough flattery. May the 12s be with you and go Seahawks!