Seaside Memories: From January 1, 2022 to the Russell Wilson trade

When Russ was still the Seahawks QB, a look at what we were saying a year ago: Seaside Joe 1444

We’ve been covering the Seattle Seahawks for the last 1,444 days in a row. Most of you were not here for the first 1,100 or so of those days, as I spent three years training, gaining experience in this format, and getting my 10,000 hours of newsletter writing in over on another platform, prior to moving Seaside Joe to Substack full-time in March of 2022; this being contrary to everyone else I see who believes that they can jump into this space with no experience and immediately reap rewards.

I’m grateful for the Russell Wilson trade for a number of reasons, but selfishly the biggest of those is that it really hypercharged Seaside Joe a week after that move and everyday since then I think we’ve grown, evolved, and improved as a site, blog, newsletter, and community. I continue to believe we’re moving closer to creating a groundbreaking Seahawks website and community unlike any other seen before and growing over 1200% larger in our first year at Substack is proof of that trajectory.

Since many of you are relatively new Seasiders, let me debrief readers again with a short summary of non-negotiable habits and why this Seahawks newsletter has gone out for almost four years without missing a single day.

In January of 2019, I quit drinking and made the decision to improve everything about my life and to stop repeating the same cycles that kept bringing me back to square one. I read the book Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss and committed to the habits that I felt would work best for me, including meditation and intermittent fasting. In the true nature of synchronicity, at that time I was gifted a four-day session to learn Vedic meditation, which is where I first heard of “non-negotiable habits”.

The guru said that Vedic meditation was to be practiced twice a day for 20 minutes, with no exceptions. She said, “If you do that, you will meditate 730 times in the first year” and I instantly replied, “Then I will meditate 730 times in the next year.” That was April 14, 2019. Every single day since then, I have meditated twice for at least 20 minutes. That means I’ve meditated 2,802 times as of yesterday.

I applied non-negotiable habits all over my life. I have been on a daily intermittent fasting diet since February, 2019, meaning that not once have I eaten outside of an 8-hour window each day since then. I have exercised for a certain amount of time for a certain number of days each week since March, 2019. I clean for a certain amount of time every day. I have several self-care habits that happen every day. I’ve also been working on adding a certain skill by practicing every day without negotiating it off like, “Oh, I’ll just do it tomorrow.”

No, that’s the promise you make with non-negotiable habits: I’ll do it today.

I don’t let myself down and fail to complete a daily habit and my proof of that is that some of you have received a Seaside Joe newsletter every day since March 4, 2019.

I don’t write about the habits as much anymore because talking about myself feels a bit too much like….talking about myself. But we’ve got a larger group now and some of you have asked for updates, though there isn’t much to update when you repeat the same habits everyday. I do feel that the decision to improve my life four years ago has been working, I’ve let go of the need to feel like I constantly need “more”. Everything I have is exactly the amount that is satisfying and every day is full.

Although I do need more Seasiders, as always!

But today’s amount of people reading this is the perfect amount. Just as a year ago, far fewer people reading was the perfect amount at the time, although I have long been wanting to bring back and re-live some of those lesser read pieces from the pre-move and pre-trade days of Seaside Joe.

Today’s newsletter is a look back at January and February of 2022, back when the newsletter was on a different platform but I was also putting out bonus articles on the Substack prior to moving over full-time on March 1, 2022. Then a week later, Russ was traded! Synchronicity at it again.

Many of these articles feel as relevant now as they were before Wilson was traded and in the cases of using draft picks, even more so. Feel free to comment on anything you read here or on another article linked here!

Today’s newsletter goes OVER the e-mail limit so if you’re reading this in your e-mail, you have to click “read more” or click the Seaside Joe banner at the top of the e-mail to read the full article on the website! And share us with a Seahawks fan as we approach 1,600 subscribers!

Seaside Joe 1035: January 1, 2022 - “Happy Blue Year”

We opened 2022 with Seahawks mailbag questions.

Seaside Bonus, 1/15/2022: Fans vote to “Run it back” with Russ, Pete, and John

13 months ago, I ran a poll about whether the team should move on from any of Pete Carroll, John Schneider, or Russell Wilson.

Seahawks 2021 season wrap-up: Fans overwhelmingly vote to "run it back" with Pete, John, & Russ

“Trade Russell Wilson” was only the fifth-most popular answer. Many of you wanted the team to fire Ken Norton as defensive coordinator, which did happen.

Seaside Bonus, 1/17/2022: If Seahawks trade Russ, QB market could be more robust than usual

If the Seahawks do trade Russell Wilson, the NFL QB market is more than robust than usual in 2022

Here’s something I’ve been saying for a while:

Seaside Bonus, 1/18/2022: Teams don’t immediately improve from first round picks

I felt this was a good reminder going into the all-important 2023 draft and also bringing back my previous article on Patrick Surtain (with new reports suggesting that Denver is to trading young players for first round picks now): Other than the miracle 2021 Bengals, the best usage of first round picks in last year’s playoffs showed up as Orlando Brown, Jalen Ramsey, and Stefon Diggs. All trades for veterans.

The Evidence is Evident: Teams don't immediately improve from 1st round picks

Seaside Bonus 1/18/2022 - Not all 1st round picks are created equal

I like this one again because a trade scenario with the Eagles for three mid-first round picks did not entice me like a trade that would have two top-10 picks. Better picks are…better. A lot better. The Seahawks instead traded Russ for a top-10 pick, an early second round pick, and then they did get a bit lucky to receive another top-10 pick and another early second. I love the Broncos trade more than the proposed Eagles trade…and obviously so do the Eagles.

Daniel Jeremiah's Russell Wilson-Eagles trade scenario: Perfect example of overrating "1st round picks"

Seaside Bonus, 1/20/2022 - Best teams Seahawks have played since 2016

Let’s keep this in our pocket and keep adding to it.

The best teams the Seahawks have played since 2016

Seaside Bonus, 1/24/2022 - Look at how bad mock drafts were a year ago

Evan Neal was near consensus as number one pick and there were a ton of QBs being mocked in the top-10 and first round. Mocks at this time of year are even worse than mocks a month from now!

2022 NFL Mock Draft Round-up: 3 things I've learned about the draft over the last year

Seaside Bonus, 1/28/2022 - Most Seahawks fans did not want Seattle to draft a RB with second round pick

This article explored my history with analytics and ran a poll on PFF grades and the usage of analytics in football and social media. Interestingly, over 60% of votes said not to use pick 41 on a running back, but of course at the time Seattle didn’t have picks 9 and 40. So perhaps with that context, some of you would have changed your answers based on being able to draft Charles Cross and Boye Mafe ahead of Ken Walker III. But I still think many people were not on board with selecting Walker or Breece Hall early in the second round because the Seahawks still had many other needs and would re-sign Rashaad Penny.

2022 NFL Mock Draft Round-up: 3 things I've learned about the draft over the last year

Here’s a bit more of what I wrote, hopefully I’ve grown a lot more patient with “analytics” people in the past year. But I still think the following is true:

Seaside Joe 1067: February 2, 2022 - The Bob Condotta Tapes

In February, I interviewed Bob “The Real One” Condotta. I don’t even think the episode is available anymore, everything was lost when I decided to quit podcasting after a decade of audial coverage and hundreds of interviews. Always know when to walk away! Thanks to Bob and all my past podcast guests, to them I say good luck with all your podcasts.

Seaside Bonus, 2/10/2022 - The Year of the NFL Tank Job

Every offseason I try and predict what the theme of the year will be and in 2022 that was expecting teams to try and tank for Bryce Young. I was confident then that Young would be the number one pick in 2023 and I’m just as confident now that he’s the best prospect.

2022: The Year of the NFL Tank Job

Here’s what I wrote about the Broncos before they traded for Russell Wilson and the Chicago Bears, who I’ve believed are the NFL’s worst team since they traded up for Justin Fields.

We know what rumors will surround the Broncos in the coming weeks, but what if the Packers don’t trade Aaron Rodgers? Denver still looks like a fourth place in the AFC West, what good would another 7-10 season do? If you were Nathaniel Hackett, wouldn’t you rather start your career with a young Aaron Rodgers instead of the old Aaron Rodgers? I’m not sure I buy that hype.

I think it’s going to be a bumpy year for the Chicago Bears.

And:

Most likely to tank: Texans, Panthers, Lions, Giants, Commanders, Broncos, Bears

I’d say that’s not bad.

Seaside Bonus, 2/15/2022 - There should be 0 first round QBs; history of first round quarterbacks

This is a LONG and exhaustive look back at first round quarterbacks, even more relevant today for the Seahawks. So I recommend it.

If NFL teams want to reach for too many 1st round QBs again, it'll only benefit the NFC West

Make note that I said that I wouldn’t pick ANY of these QBs in the first round and that if there was one you had to reach for, it’s Kenny Pickett. I had Malik Willis and Desmond Ridder with third round grades, while your other NFL writers were telling you that they were first round picks, if not top-10.

Lots to dig into with this piece: The risk and reward of first round QBs can’t be ignored.

Seaside Joe 1091: February 26, 2022 - “Will Russell Wilson be traded?” Survey results

Out of 162 responses, 90% of Seahawks fans said that Wilson would NOT be traded, with 8% voting “Maybe” and only 2% voting “Yes”. Compare that to a team that you have no affiliation with: 26% of voters said that the Packers would trade Aaron Rodgers, with 46% voting “No” and 28% “Maybe”.

72% of voters said Bobby Wagner would return to Seattle, 82% said the Seahawks would re-sign Quandre Diggs, 78% said the Seahawks would re-sign D.J. Reed, and when asked for a surprise NFC team, the Eagles got the most votes.

Here’s another interesting result:

Seaside Bonus, March 7, 2022: Will Seahawks draft Abe Lucas?

Notably, I asked fans who they wanted the most at pick 41 and Lucas was the answer. He compared so favorably to former WSU tackle Andre Dillard and there was some speculation he could fall to the third round. We saw what happened next. Good call, y’all!

Will Seahawks draft Washington State tackle Abraham Lucas?

Seaside Bonus, March 8, 2023 - Seahawks trade Russell Wilson to Broncos

And here we have history.

Russell Wilson traded to Broncos for top-10 pick, Drew Lock

Dov Kleiman @NFL_DovKleiman

#Seahawks committed grand larceny with the Russell Wilson trade to Denver. #Broncos gave up: * Two 1st round picks * Two 2nd round picks * 3 players, one of them was a 1st round pick * $245 million contract And the Seahawks were the ones that improved at QB (with Geno Smith)

Here’s some of what I wrote in the article, but then I wrote a lot more about the trade that day and that week.

The trade helps Seattle get back into the top-10 of this year’s draft, likely connecting the Seahawks to a premier prospect at another position. I wouldn’t expect John Schneider and Pete Carroll to use a first round pick on a quarterback this year, as Seattle is now the clear number four team in the NFC West and it sets the franchise up in a premium spot to be involved in next year’s QB class—when the potential to find greatness at the position is much greater.

Next time, I’ll bring back some of the post-Russ trade articles that I wrote at Seaside Joe between March 8 and the draft. Sneak preview: I was staunchly against any major acquisitions at quarterback!

Comments are open so throw your thoughts in below and I’ll give out some free premium subscriptions to new readers!