Which offensive player's breakout would help the Seahawks the most?

Which Seahawks offensive player would you most want to see have a breakout season in 2024? Seaside Joe 1947

It is not easy to answer questions like these ones because I know the overwhelming response from Seahawks fans would be, “All of them please!”

Saturday’s Seaside Joe article covered three reasons why the Seahawks might end up targeting a quarterback or a wide receiver in the first round of the next draft, and as difficult as it is to project what Seattle could do nine months from now with so much information left to be discovered…what I really like about positations like those is that it allows me to see the current Seattle Seahawks for what they are and a reminder for what they could be.

For the Seahawks to NOT target a tackle early in the 2025 draft, they probably need to see Charles Cross and Abe Lucas solidify themselves as the long-term answers. For the Seahawks to NOT target a running back or tight end on day two, they would need to be sure they hit on acquisitions like Kenneth Walker, Zach Charbonnet, Noah Fant, and A.J. Barner. For the Seahawks to NOT target a guard or center in the first 60 picks, they would need to…keep doing what they’ve been doing for the last 50 years.

I wrote about quarterbacks and receivers not as a harsh criticism of the players that Seattle already has at those positions, but only as the end result of deductive reasoning: The Seahawks have made recent investments at those other positions that they really hope will pay off, but teams should a) always be open to drafting a quarterback and b) always be looking at receivers.

Those two positions could—not will, but could—have the most potential draft value for the 2025 Seattle Seahawks.

Could Sam Howell be the surprise of the 2025 NFL season and solidify himself as the Seahawks quarterback of the future? Anything is possible, but the odds are long enough for me to comfortably say that Seattle is unlikely to have that kind of quarterback on their roster right now. Could the Seahawks bring back Tyler Lockett in 2025, keep DK Metcalf, and run it back at receiver? Sure, but Seattle can’t rule out drafting a replacement receiver who is also much cheaper, which is valuable to a team spending the most cap room in the NFL at that position over the next two seasons.

So having acknowledged that it may not be easy for you to give only one asnwer to this question, and recapping the fact that the Seahawks don’t actually seem to have a lot of “needs” on offense going into the season (they have plenty of UNKNOWNS, but they certainly acquired the players they think they need to start at every offensive position), let’s return to the question of the headline:

Which breakout season on offense do you think would do the most to benefit the Seahawks?

I find it difficult to include Sam Howell in this list for two reasons: a) He’s not the starter and Seattle would be a happier team if they never had to see Sam Howell because it would mean they’re getting what they want out of Geno Smith, b) He’s a long shot but as a quarterback has the highest ceiling of value. So we should all be able to agree that the best possible breakout season would come from a quarterback…but I don’t want to include him in a poll that would then skew the results to a long shot and away from a player who has a real opportunity to breakout from Week 1.

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Sorry to say I am only allowed five poll options and these were the first 5 names I chose:

I’ll make a second poll and see how the secondary options shake out for you:

Every other week, I get questions from Super Joes subscribers to generate new topics and ideas for the newsletter. If you want to be included on the next one, upgrade to Super Joes here or here:

Here is the second half of this week’s Super Joes Q and A:

zezinhom400: How many times have there been completely new staff (HC, OC, DC, STC), and what were the short term and long term outcomes? For example how many had to be changed out again?

I’m not sure if you mean in general or specifically with regards to the Seahawks, although either would be difficult or really easy to answer. Because leaguewide, it happens every year. With the Seahawks, there just have not been that many head coaches.

When Pete Carroll came to Seattle in 2010, he kept Gus Bradley as defensive coordinator and Dan Quinn as defensive line coach. He did then fire Jeremy Bates after one season as offensive coordinator, but it seems like Carroll was able to keep above-average coaching continuity between his start in 2010 and winning the Super Bowl in 2013.

When Mike Holmgren was hired in 1999, there was a lot of immediate turnover. In 2000, offensive coordinator Mike Sherman was hired as head coach of the Packers and in Seattle Holmgren hired Steve Sidwell as a new defensive coordinator, which lasted for three years.

I assume what you’re getting at is, “What are the chances that the Seahawks don’t change out any major coaches in a year?” and I’d say those chances are very slim because the head coach was practically hired as a defensive coordinator—as in that seems to be the thing that Seattle wanted the most from Mike Macdonald—and Ryan Grubb feels like a much more stable first-time offensive coordinator hire than the average. Same with Jay Harbaugh as special teams coordinator.

Unless the 2024 season is extremely positive or extremely negative, I think Macdonald-Grubb-Durde-Harbaugh are strong bets to still have their same jobs in 2025.

Have there been firings of borderline or actual HOF coaches (like Carroll and Belichick) and what has happened to their teams post-firing?

There have definitely been firings of Hall of Fame coaches (Andy Reid was fired by the Eagles not super long ago) but overall that would have to be a really small sample size (because there aren’t many Hall of Famers in general) and I’m not sure to what degree it would be useful. Does the Chargers firing Marty Schottenheimer in 2007 help us better understand what could come of the Seahawks after firing Pete? I’m not sure that it does.

We could probably say that the Patriots “fired” Bill Parcells after the 1996 season, at which point they hired Pete, who they later fired for Belichick (who worked for Parcells and was himself fired by the Browns) in 2000, who then won six Super Bowls, and then was fired this past January at the same time as Pete.

It’s a very interesting question you raise, what does an organization go through during a transition from a coach who was basically the team’s identity for so long, and what could make that team more successful without him? There are examples of success stories and failures, but it’s hard to generalize because every case is so unique.

I think the Seahawks are better primed for a change that most organizations though because they’ve done it before with Mike Holmgren (even if it took a Jim L. Mora year to get it right), they kept John Schneider for stability, and then Schneider seemed to do the best job that he could do in the coaching market by hiring Macdonald.

Would you be willing to do another Grayson McCall piece and if so, has your view changed on him?

I am always happy when someone wants updates on Grayson McCall, I just wish I had more news to give. For the uninitiated, McCall has been the college quarterback endorsed by Seaside Joe since 2021 and that’s good news for Seahawks fans because I ended up falling for a quarterback who very few people expect to get drafted…hence, he might actually have a shot at going to Seattle. We’d be screwed if McCall was considered a first or second round prospect!

After five seasons at Coastal Carolina, McCall is preparing to start his first and only season with NC State in the fall. The offense is expected to be one of the best in the ACC, if not the best, so this is the best opportunity that McCall has ever had to showcase his abilities as a—I’ll just say it—elite game manager. If McCall is even a sixth round pick, I’ll consider that a huge scouting win for Seaside Joe. And the Seahawks should be the ones to make it happen.

When we get some new data on McCall in the McFall, I’ll send new updates. If any readers ever come across McCall news, feel free to send it to me!

Seaside Joe appreciates your support!

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Seasider Eduardo: In the modern NFL with 6'4+ TE's working out of the slot, as well as smaller shiftier receivers and stouter running backs being shuffled in and out of the slot, it seems hard to have a "Swiss army knife" slot corner in today's NFL. It feels like there should be a few slot corner measurements depending on the team you play. With how crucial/versatile this position has become, I'd be interested in hearing you expand on this a bit, as well as relate it to the current Hawks' slot corner stable along with their +s and -s. Gracias!

This would be a good question for me to send All_22 for some insights from a defensive coach. I’ll ask him what he thinks.

On my end, I’m not sure how big of a problem it is for NFL teams that they might have a mismatch in the slot sometimes. As you say, the number of different NFL skill player archetypes that you could have lining up in the Y runs the entire spectrum of sizes and speeds…The slot role can be a very dangerous weapon if utilized correctly and/or if poorly defended without having adequate personnel.

If I could trust any coach of the current day to match up properly though, it would be Mike Macdonald.

I doubt that the Ravens would say, “We have a slot guy” but instead “We have a number of good players who can man that role—and you don’t know who that will be most of the time until after the snap” which is what makes a player like Kyle Hamilton so effective in a variety of positions. And maybe no players on the Ravens defense were more dangerous in that regard than Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen. Having linebackers who can tackle and hit without sacrificing speed and range…and definitely Smith is more valuable there.

We know the Seahawks probably don’t have that linebacker yet.

And if fans have any concerns about Devon Witherspoon matching up with various types of players on the inside—be it George Kittle, Deebo Samuel, or Christian McCaffrey—I don’t. Yes, Witherspoon is 190 lbs (if he’s carrying a 7 lb dog) but anyone who does film study on him comes away saying, “He plays like he’s 210 and there’s no evidence of being overwhelmed by bigger players.”

The other great part of your question though is just that it reminds me how many options Seattle enters camp with in the secondary besides Witherspoon: Rayshawn Jenkins, K’Von Wallace, Julian Love, Coby Bryant, Tre Brown, D.J. James, Nehemiah Pritchett…maybe any of these guys could be lined up inside from time-to-time. I suspect Riq Woolen wouldn’t be.

I’ll let you know if and when I get some insight from All_22.