Devin Bush: Voted 'Most Slept On' by Seahawks fans

What Seahawks fans had to say after last week's preseason win: Seaside Joe 1628

Let’s keep this on the down low for because Jordyn Brooks only just got back on Tuesday and we want to break the news to him at the right time: Seahawks fans see linebacker teammate Devin Bush as “the player being slept on” as of last week’s four-question survey.

The thing that jumps out to me the most about this survey is just how much the answers and options would change depending on the day. This poll was created right after beating the Vikings and Bush was a standout, so it makes sense that fans would think to themselves, “Oh man, I’m kinda sleeping on Devin Bush.”

But now it feels like Coby Bryant has strung together a few good days, plus compliments from coaches about his transition from cornerback to safety. Jake Bobo is a player who I basically refused to acknowledge as a roster contender until a couple of weeks ago. In his press conference on Tuesday, Pete Carroll mentioned Darrell Taylor as the outside linebacker who still “flashes” the most promise as a pass rusher and I have barely talked about him lately as he’s been less visible due to injury.

Even Jordyn Brooks has a case this week for being “slept on” during his rehabilitation from ACL surgery.

By definition, the right answer would be someone who doesn’t get mentioned at all and we may even forget he’s on the team sometimes but eventually he has a substantial role in 2023. (That’s your queue, Bryan Mone.)

Here are the rest of your answers to last week’s poll:

The Seahawks didn’t come out injury-free and the tackling was sloppy in the first quarter, but Seattle played better as the game went on and Drew Lock had his best performance with the team—although that’s kind of a backhanded compliment given that he’s had so few opportunities and they’ve only come in the preseason. He’ll have his next against the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday.

Three-quarters of Seahawks fans like Drew Lock at least a little bit more than they did before Thursday’s win. The rest remain neutral.

But then I watched The QB School’s breakdown of Trey Lance against the Raiders and it made me ready to start polishing a “2” for Seattle’s Ring of Honor…

I don’t blame Lance. He didn’t force the 49ers to trade up for him and it was San Francisco that decided not to put him in a position to at least have a chance at success. Regardless of who is to blame, the way that Lance has played in his sparce appearances in the NFL brings back memories of quarterbacks who I won’t name right now out of respect for the 23-year-old who doesn’t seem to have any confidence left in the tank.

It actually kind of made me want to amend my 49ers preview this week because if San Francisco’s quarterback room is whittled down to Lance—and by Kyle Shanahan’s history, that could happen sooner than we think—I’m not sure any team could overcome that. Speaking of which…

I agree, it’s best to wait and see what happens. The Seahawks have won the NFC West just once in the last six years, although they’ve finished in second four times; the Patriots have finished in third place in the AFC East in two of the last three years, the Packers have finished in third place in three of the last six years, and nobody has won the NFC East in back-to-back seasons in almost 20 years.

Does Pete Carroll get enough credit for the fact that Seattle has finished in third or fourth place only ONCE in the last 11 SEASONS???

He doesn’t.

I’m still reviewing all of the amazing comments and survey results from the “Where are Seahawks fans from???” article—Results and follow-up to come soon! It’s been great to get to know you better through newsletters like that one.

Here are a few more Seahawks news items to cover from Tuesday and other things I found on the web related to football.

If you haven’t become a free subscriber to Seaside Joe, do that today. If you want a ton of bonus Seahawks content, access to the Origin Story archives, and to help Seaside Joe move up the charts en route to being a full-time business, consider upgrading if you feel so inclined!

Why Tyler Lockett is actually underrated

KJ Wright’s podcast has been interesting to follow this summer, but Tyler Lockett’s interview was probably the first one that I wanted to watch all the way through and at regular speed. This is the most I’ve gotten to know Lockett at any point in the last eight years and what makes me feel more confident that he can play at least two more seasons at a high level: his demeanor and his acceptance of always being underrated because of how he goes about his business as a team-first guy.

There are players who do want credit and let you know. There are players who say they don’t want credit, but they actually do. And every once in a while, players who actually do not care about credit. Lockett seems to be one of those rare players who doesn’t want the spotlight and isn’t pretending like he doesn’t but actually does.

At one point, Lockett is asked why he thinks he’s so underrated and they give their thoughts but in my opinion it’s actually very simple: Athletes in any sport become stars when they reach “ridiculous” numbers, even if it’s only for one season. Look at Josh Gordon. Or Odell Beckham.

OBJ was great for three years and yet he’s still treated like a superstar seven years after the last time he was great.

All the guys who get ranked ahead of Tyler Lockett had at least one 1,300-1,800 yard season. And the ones who get labeled as “underrated” like Lockett, Doug Baldwin, Derrick Mason, Jarvis Landry, Amon-Ra St. Brown…always the receivers who don’t tend to go much higher than 1,100 yards. At any point, Tyler Lockett could have said, “I’m good enough to get 1,500 yards, I should be getting enough targets for 1,500 yards” and he would have been 100% right. He’s good enough to do that.

We saw a situation basically play out that way when Golden Tate went from “underrated” on the Seahawks to reaching 1,300 yards in his first season with the Lions.

But it’s Lockett’s personality to set aside personal bests for the betterment of the team and if that makes him underrated, well then I hope the Seahawks find 53 players who never get the credit that they deserve.

The other story to come out of this podcast that I liked was Lockett shouting out Richard Sherman as the player who always put in the most overtime in teaching younger cornerbacks how to do their jobs better. Even when he knew he was essentially showing someone like Shaquill Griffin how to take his job, Sherman apparently couldn’t help but be a mentor to Seattle’s younger players and that’s not something that he got any credit for until I heard it from Lockett this week.

Pete’s Tuesday press conference

Here are the notes I scratched together from watching Pete’s press conference on Tuesday:

-Cody Thompson is back at practice, Jamal Adams is “not as close” as Brooks to returning (obviously), Ken Walker “looks healed”, Kenny McIntosh is making good progress, Devon Witherspoon is “gonna be a bit” to get back, Holton Ahlers “is a quarterback” and “I’m excited about what he’s doing”, Riq Woolen’s experience as a receiver helps him predict the routes of receivers but he needs to develop his “every snap mentality” as in to only focus on the snap that is happening right now, Patrick O’Connell is a really good football player, “What can’t Jake Bobo do?” Pete thought his best play from Thursday was on special teams, Levi Bell needs to prove himself on special teams to make the roster, as does Tyreke Smith.

If that’s not enough, Pete was also on Brock and Salk:

I didn’t take notes for that one, but he gave shoutouts to Charles Cross, Coby Bryant, Abe Lucas, Boye Mafe, and Riq Woolen as all having improved in year two and that Jaxon Smith-Njigba is going to be heavily involved in the offense as soon as the first series of the season.

Brandon Shell retired

And right after my article about former Seahawks too.

Seahawks signed WR Ra’Shaun Henry on Monday

The team waived DT Robert Cooper again. Henry’s goal is pretty simple: A 2022 undrafted free agent out of Virginia who should be trying to make the practice squad and prove himself on the scout team. Unfortunately for Henry, Seattle is already his fourth team in barely 12 months…what went wrong with the first three teams?

What I like about latest Grayson McCall news

Around Seaside Joe parts, we root for Coastal Carolina quarterback Grayson McCall and hopefully his future with the Seattle Seahawks. Coastal opens their season against UCLA (a team that inquired about him when he entered the transfer portal this year) in two and a half weeks and hopefully that weekend the world starts to recognize his talents. Somehow 78 touchdowns and eight interceptions (Hello, Pete Carroll) didn’t do it.

Though McCall has long been one of my top quarterback prospects, most lists don’t have him in the top-20 and many don’t have him in the top-30. Just being drafted in 2024 would be a huge win for us. I mean, him. No, actually it is us.

McCall told The Sun News that he withdrew from the transfer portal because new Coastal head coach Tim Beck told him that he was going to build the entire offense around him and “do everything we can to put you in the position to play at the next level”. That’s what I really wanted to hear more than anything else. Finally, a coach for Grayson who knows he can play in the NFL but that he needs to showcase his talents apart from the triple-option offense.

Beck went full recruiter mode to keep Grayson, which is high praise coming from the guy who lured Bijan Robinson to Texas.

McCall is going for his fourth-straight Sun Belt Player of the Year title and then hopefully a whole lot more after that.