Seahawk fans lost all hope for 2022 after Russ trade; were frustrated by the QB "competition"

Seaside Joe 1283, 9/9/22: Poll results show fans still support Pete Carroll for long-term vision

The fifth episode of The Sound of the Seahawks premiered on YouTube on Thursday and while the team’s mini-docuseries still lacks shareable moments that make Hard Knocks and the video content of some other franchises more popular, it was the best of Seattle’s five attempts so far. Because finally there is an episode that focuses on football.

In it, Pete Carroll channels his inner Dan Campbell to focus on grit and talks about how the Seahawks measure each player’s competitiveness on a numerical scale. Every Seahawks fan must be wondering what those grit charts look like going into this season and whether or not Pete feels like he has one of the most competitive teams that he’s ever coached in Seattle.

Because there are not many Seahawks fans who feel that he has the most talented team during his Seattle tenure.

On Tuesday, Seaside Joe posted a Seahawks fan survey with the goal of measuring expectations for the team this season: Before the trade, after the trade, before camp, and after camp.

These are your results. And I do want to emphasize that these are your results: Seaside Joe is not about me, it’s about the Seahawks fan community that is generous enough with their time to spend a little bit of each day with this newsletter. Otherwise this website would merely be a John Wilson-style notebook that I keep in a bookcase overloaded with manifestos that one day after I die my grown adult kids will say, “Pop was a little bit ‘different’ than others parents” as they throw everything into a bonfire.

Thank you for hanging out with me to talk about the Seahawks and to take this survey. It would be great if the community grew a little bit more each day, so consider subscribing to and/or sharing Seaside Joe.

The percentage of Seahawks fans who expected a 10-7 or 11-6 record dropped by a FACTOR OF TEN because of the Russell Wilson trade

Out of 327 votes counted, over 52-percent of Seahawks fans expected Seattle to win 10 or 11 games with Russell Wilson. Another 27-percent felt that the team would be hovering around .500, 14-percent felt the team would not improve upon its 7-10 record, and only 2.5-percent (less than 10 Seahawks fans in this poll) felt the team would be 6-11 or worse.

Now let’s compare those results to the expectations AFTER the Wilson trade:

The number of Seahawks fans who expected a 6-11 or worse record went from 2.5-percent before the trade…to 45-percent after the trade!!!

The percentage of Seahawks fans who thought that the team would repeat 7-10 more than doubled and the .500 crowd went down by seven points. You may be asking yourself, “This chart is flawed, there are only four bars instead of five. Seaside Joe, you are an incompetent buffoon.”

True or not regarding my buffoonery, the answer for that is simple: Before the Wilson trade, four-percent of Seahawks fans still thought that 12-5 or better was possible. After the trade, not a single one of 327 fans voted for that as a possibility.

I mean, you could poll 327 people on whether or not the Earth is flat and I promise you will get at least one “Yes.” Not so the case with the idea that the Seattle Seahawks could win 12 games with Geno Smith and Drew Lock.

The number of fans who felt 10-6 or 11-7 is possible went from 52-percent to 5-percent.

Training camp, preseason did little to change expectations

(My apologies to those of you who abhor pie charts, I am attempting to mix it up but felt this was the best way to show side-by-side comparison here.)

The number of Seahawks fans who believe the team will be 6-11 worse stayed the course through watching three preseason games and reading training camp reports. There was little encouraging to take away from Geno Smith’s 4+ preseason quarters and little of anything to gain from Drew Lock’s limited reps with the starters in practice and exhibition games.

Perhaps instead there is a little bit more faith in Seattle’s chances to go 7-10, 8-9, or 9-8 because of a solid first step by the 2022 rookie class. Charles Cross and Abe Lucas give hope that the offensive edges are set for the next three or four years, Boye Mafe appears to be the right selection for pick 40, and Tariq Woolen has emerged as a shocking Week 1 starter despite having no experience as a cornerback prior to his 2019-2020 season.

Seahawks fans are mostly ambivalent about the QB situation, disappointed by the lack of a “real competition”

In the question of “Geno or Drew?” the most popular answer was: “Who cares, Joe?” Over 24-percent of Seahawks fans said “I don’t really care who starts” followed by 20-percent who said “Geno is the best option available to the Seahawks right now.”

Which is different than wanting Geno Smith to start: Only 3-percent of you voted that Geno won the job.

In the question of “How upsetting was the competition?” the results were led by “I was a little frustrated” at 24.6-percent, followed by “There was not a real competition” at 24-percent, so just under half of you were clearly nonplussed and/or disappointed by Pete Carroll’s intentions to give Drew Lock a chance.

The least-popular answer was that Geno Smith “won” the job, while the fourth-most popular answer (by less than one-point behind third place) was that Lock “lost” the job. The third-most popular answer, at 16.6-percent, was “I wasn’t frustrated” so those folks may be fine with Geno or Drew or they are just ambivalent.

Geno and Drew may just be necessary cannon fodder between 2022 and the search for an actual franchise quarterback in 2023.

Over two-thirds of Seahawks fans still believe that Lock will replace Geno before Seattle’s Week 11 bye, while only 11-percent think that Smith will retain the job for the entire season.

Over 40-percent of Seahawks fans support Pete Carroll regardless of 2022 outcome

In total, 63-percent of Seahawks fans do not question Pete Carroll’s plan for this season, even if it results in a bad record: 41.5-percent voted that Carroll NEEDS to keep his job no matter what happens, while 21.5-percent say that they do not question Carroll for now. Given that most of you expect the Seahawks to be 6-11 or worse, that tells me that those fans aren’t worried about the record as much as they’re worried about a lack of positive momentum with regards to talent development.

I think this is a good time to remind people that Zac Taylor had a 6-25-1 record prior to leading the Cincinnati Bengals to the Super Bowl in 2021. Usually those are the types of records that get coaches fired, but the Bengals were reasonable about the state of the team when they hired Taylor; I think we have to see Carroll as almost a new head coach for the franchise given the Wilson trade and understand that a bad record is not only possible, it is probable, and that’s not necessarily the fault of the head coach.

Less than 10-percent of fans voted that Carroll should be fired now or in the near future.

Seahawks fans are mostly supportive of—but not elated about—Seattle’s rushing offense and Clint Hurtt’s defense

We know that Pete Carroll continues to carry high expectations for the 2022 Seahawks but we also have to assume that the team is aware of the difference between Wilson and Lock-Smith, so where does that leave us: Pete is Pete and he thinks that football is still mostly about running the ball well and playing great defense. So I was curious if you believe that Seattle has the rushing offense with Rashaad Penny and Ken Walker III and the defense to carry Lock-Smith to the playoffs.

Unsurprisingly, Seahawks fans are not especially worried about either of those aspects of the game, but most of you also are not overly impressed with the rushing offense or defense either.

Over 52-percent of Seahawks fans believe that the team will have a good rushing attack, but not a dominant one. Just under 40-percent of fans believe the defense will be good but that it may not matter because similar to the troubles of 2021, the offense will constantly be putting them in a tough position. The issue isn’t just field position, it’s also about playing time: The Seahawks played the most defensive snaps in the NFL last season and it wasn’t close.

Only 4-percent of you voted that the Seahawks will have a great defense, while 14-percent said that the defense is average. But a quarter of you also believe that the rushing offense will be dominant, as it was over the final stretch of last season.

Remind me to recall these results later in the season or after the season is over on a future episode of Seaside Joe.