What to believe from Kubiak press conference
Will Seahawks follow through on stated intention to keep Geno Smith and DK Metcalf?
Have you ever seen an actor do a press junket promoting a film only a week after he or she was cast in the movie? There’s a good reason you haven’t.
All they can really talk about is intentions and it’s impossible to answer every question thoroughly — or even honestly — until the movie has hired the rest of the cast, the crew, and actually started filming it. Will the movie stay under budget, will the actor get along with the director, and will the final product look anything like the original vision?
The Seahawks can’t be criticized for holding a Klint Kubiak press conference on Tuesday, quite the opposite, but the answers that he and Mike Macdonald gave to the media’s questions about Geno Smith, Tyler Lockett, and DK Metcalf only have as much value as the cost to watch it on YouTube:
Geno Smith → Baker Mayfield?
Kubiak called Geno “a huge draw”, which could mean that candidates were told that they have to build an offense around Geno. But I wasn’t aware that Kubiak had any other offers to be an NFL’s team offensive coordinator, so isn’t the “draw” the fact that Seattle asked him if he wanted the job?
The only other team to interview Kubiak that I’m aware of was the Cleveland Browns (so yeah, Geno is probably more appealing than…Dorian Thompson-Robinson? Shedeur Sanders?) and they went with a different candidate almost two weeks before the Seahawks hired Kubiak. So it is reasonable to assume that Kubiak would have been complimentary of any quarterback presently contracted to start for the team that offered him the offensive coordinator job of their team.
Or were people expecting Kubiak to say that Geno “threw too many interceptions” and “should be on the hot seat until he shoots straight again” and “I can’t work with this!”
Coaches and GMs won’t have transparency in situations like the recent press tour of Macdonald and Kubiak emphasizing that Geno “is the guy” and there are MANY examples of teams walking back their comments to the media when the time was right. Including with regards to Seahawks quarterbacks.
But we can start with a non-Seattle example first.
Go back to the end of the 2021 season after the Browns went 8-9 and doubts crept up about Baker Mayfield just one year after he helped take Cleveland to the playoffs.
Browns GM Andrew Berry told the media two days after the end of the season that “We fully expect Baker to be our starter and to bounce back.” Head coach Kevin Stefanski backed up Berry, emphasizing that Mayfield would be better after getting shoulder surgery, and noting that he still had a really good working relationship with the quarterback despite some flare ups during the regular season that suggested the opposite.
A month later, Berry told Mayfield’s agent that the team might look into trading for his replacement, which of course ended in the Browns acquiring Deshaun Watson for three first round picks and a fully-guaranteed contract. What reportedly upset Mayfield the most was not that the team was replacing him, but that they didn’t give him a heads up when they were on the verge of trading for Watson.
So it’s not just that the Browns skirted around the most juicy details of being open to trading for a new QB when asked about their intentions, they also misled Mayfield behind the scenes basically during the entire process of replacing him.
Sure, we can put almost any flub by Cleveland as “a classic Browns mishap”, but Baker’s situation isn’t an isolated example. Teams deflect and sometimes lie about players under contract all the time and for kind of a good reason: If there’s a 1% chance of making a trade happen, a better GM will find a way to do it.
Even when it was obvious to everyone in 2018 that the Chiefs were going to trade Alex Smith with a year left on his contract and a replacement ready to go, Andy Reid wasn’t running to the media to tell them that he couldn’t wait to open up a spot for Patrick Mahomes so that one day they could do Wendy’s commercials together. And Smith’s Kansas City teammates were still calling Smith “the best QB in the NFL” — because that’s what you do for your teammate.
This same thing even played out under John Schneider’s watch in Seattle.
Seahawks have ‘no plans’ to trade Russell Wilson
At the end of a 7-10 season, Pete Carroll’s job was thought to be in jeopardy, not Russell Wilson’s. In January, NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo reported that “sources” in Seattle told him that the team would move forward with Wilson in 2022, confirming Wilson’s own statement that week that he wanted to win more Super Bowls with the Seahawks.
Wilson went as far as to say that “maybe you guys know something I don’t know” with regards to rumors that he was looking for a way out of Seattle, when in reality that was true. Wilson was looking for a trade or if not that, then more power and more money with the Seahawks. He didn’t change his tune in mid-February, telling Chris Russo that his goal was to stay in Seattle and that it has “never been anything different”.
Carroll was more cryptic, talking around questions about Wilson trade rumors, but did say in January that he thought Wilson would be the team’s QB in 2022.
Even in March, DAYS before Wilson was traded to the Broncos, Carroll and Schneider were telling the media that teams were rebuffed when they called about trading for the quarterback:
Why say this to teams? Why say this to the media instead of, “Yeah, we’re close with the Broncos and we hope to get this done soon”?
Because that’s part of the job!
Maybe on March 2, the Broncos were offering 2 first round picks and no second round picks. Then on March 8, they threw in 2 second round picks. Because that’s negotiating. You negotiated directly and indirectly.
Does this mean that Macdonald, Kubiak, and Schneider are currently indirectly shopping Geno Smith by calling him their quarterback in 2025? NO! It doesn’t mean that. It also doesn’t mean that he definitely will be.
It just means that instead of saying something really shocking like, “Geno Who?”, Seattle’s coaches are saying everything we should expect them to say when asked questions from the media that they couldn’t possibly answer with total transparency and honesty.
Words are hollow, so what we want as fans, to quote a film director, is:
ACTION!
On Tyler Lockett
Even when asked about the most obvious cap casualty candidate on the team, if not in the NFL, Macdonald couldn’t be more forthright than to say that the Seahawks were “working through” Lockett’s situation.
The only thing Seattle could possibly be working through is whether to let Lockett come back IF he gives up basically all the non-guaranteed money he’s due in 2025. The Seahawks parted with Bobby Wagner — twice — when he was more valuable and less expensive, so moving on from a 33-year-old reciever shouldn’t take much thought regardless of how popular he is in Seattle.
On DK Metcalf
To emphasize the Lockett point, Kubiak noted that he was excited to get to work with Metcalf and JSN while not specifically saying anything about Lockett. When asked about how he addressed using Metcalf with prospective OC candidates in interviews, Macdonald said that “every candidate had how we’re going to use DK on the top of their mind…”
I think it is interesting that he said that DK was on the top of the interviewees minds instead of it being the interviewers who were asking for their visions.
Is that relevant? Probably not. But I don’t think that fans can guarantee based on this press conference that Seattle won’t consider Metcalf trade offers, nor should any fans dismiss the possibility that trading Metcalf could make the team better. It’s not even entirely up to Macdonald and Schneider if the Seahawks will keep DK Metcalf or trade him; If DK’s agent calls them tomorrow and asks for a $35 million per season extension, then he’s making the decision pretty easy for them.
The Seahawks can afford to keep Geno and DK in 2025 without doing anything to their contracts because they have so many other cap casualty candidates and ways to save money this year. But if the players exercise their right to a silent negotiation by sitting out, then the Seahawks can always go back and reverse course on anything they said to the media because the situation has changed…
As teams often do.
Seaside Joe 2172
Well, like the song says, "It Takes Two." Whatever Seahawks brass is saying out loud to the public probably has little to do with what they're hearing from the relevant agents, what they're hearing from other teams about trade options (if it's even time for those conversations yet), how they evaluate free agent possibilities, and what their instincts about the draft are apt to be.
So: What Joe said.
They're on the team until they're not. Team and player both have (free) agency in that.
The interview question of, “How do you use DK?”, is excellent, not because DK will be back, but because he’s a unique player and it tests that the candidate has done his homework. I’d have loved to have been in the room to hear the responses.
DK can win with speed, he can body up, and he has trouble catching away from his body. He doesn’t do jump balls as well as one would expect, and he risks fumbles with his YAC. I’d love to see how he fits the route tree, based on his characteristics.