Backs get hurt a lot! They have short life spans , therefore Walker's contract will be dependent on his health or lack thereof. It's way too early to discuss extensions at this time. Sorry.
I think CBs get hurt as often as RBs, yet fans haven't for some reason allowed themselves to accept that the difference in injuries is so negligible that we should be talking about CB injuries just as much. Yet I think I wouldn't get any pushback for talking about Riq Woolen's future.
I'm a left brain sort of guy, so for JS/MM I think the order of operations is;
- Play the 2024 year and figure out what you have.
- Identify your anchor players. These will be your priorities when it comes to contracts. Probably only 4-6 of these. More if we're lucky. Must have terrific talent and be leaders and tone setters on the field and in the locker room. They own the culture.....the 'who we are' players. They tell everyone else what it takes to be a Seahawk.
- Everyone else is interchangeable parts. Keep 'em if you can, replace 'em if you have to. Obviously they'll be your B players and your C players, so JS will have priorities, but look after the anchor (blue chip) players first.
I love K9, but I don't know whether he is one of those anchor players yet. Hopefully we'll know more at the end of the year. Predicting is a fools game, but for fun I'd say on defense it's Spoon, Murphy, and Mafe. On offense, JSN and I'm not sure who else yet. Maybe K9. Maybe Abe, if he's healthy. DK has the talent, I just don't know about the leadership and locker room stuff. The bar needs to be high for your anchor players.
Very good read. Plus interesting take on the whole idea of signing early rather than waiting. I see JS figuring it out based on what they see and feel on the upcoming year. Thanks-
I never look at the email. I go to the website, read the new article and read the comments from oldest to newest. Since there's a new article every day, who needs the email? lol
What if the Seahawks have THREE RBs that are "good to great"? Kenny Mac is the wildcard that didn't get any playing time last year is the forgotten man in the RB room. We haven't seen Grubbs' NFL scheme yet, so the unanswerable question at the moment is how big a role does Grubb have for a "feature back" vs interchangeable parts? My hunch is Grubb is the "interchangeable parts" guy and Kenny Mac may find a role that is more than injury insurance. That would weaken K9s case for a top tier contract.
I love K9 (except for that time he thrashed MICH) but it is possible that he may be great AND the Seahawks let him leave after 4 years with no extension (or trade him before the draft in his last league year). Just don't ever, ever, ever sign with the Niners.
With 3 "good to great" backs, none of them ever become "great" because of the playing time split 3 ways. They'll all have stats about ⅓ to ½ as good as the high-end backs. So, their contract offers will probably be tempered by each other, especially when they all don't have to reup at thr same time. I think the team's position gets better if 3 are good, rather than just 1 or 2, they now have other options.
I've seen Walker and Charbonnet play football in the regular season. I'll reserve judgment on McIntosh until I see him play regular season NFL football.
Oh, agree. But what he did while at Georgia was significant and the Seahawks drafting him last year was widely seen as a "steal". I am very interested to see him on the field.
If everyone was as half as confident in themselves as many fans are in the 48th-best player on their favorite football team, the world would have a lot fewer therapists.
By the way... I saw your breakdown of the McVay scheme on the "other" site and it made me wonder what Grubb's favorite formation is? Pete always preferred to have two TEs on the field but it is interesting that McVay favours 11 personnel and runs out of it 45% of the time.
- Another reason to extend Walker over the other 2022 class is that the Seahawks probably want to reserve the 2026 franchise tag for Abe Lucas. If he can make it through 2 more years, he's the perfect candidate to keep on a one-year deal to test his knee. Seattle can give Cross the 5th year option, tag Lucas, and then the 3 big names left are Walker, Mafe, and Woolen. Between those 3, Walker should be the easiest to extend early.
- I think Walker's really good, so I'm more inclined to pay him than others. Especially with Charbs in the room. But again, keep both just like you'd keep 2 WRs if both are really good.
- The Seahawks shouldn't have any problem to be able to keep all the players they want to keep past next year, including DK, including Geno, including the entire 2022 class if they want to. There's nothing to keep them from doing that if all those players are worth keeping. Trust me.
That is part of the issue with draft success. Stevenson also likely got paid in part because what’s their QB salary cap now? Not significant. If our 2022 and 2023 classes are top, going to be difficult to pay them all.
But getting it done sooner may work against Walker, even though it’d be better for the franchise.
From what I’ve seen of Walker, he has attitude and is very confident in himself. I agree with SSJ that Walker has a very high ceiling that he may very well reach. The longer he holds out in negotiating, so long as he stays injury free, the more likely he is to get paid more because contracts, overall, rarely go down (though personally I think the $ are already obscene).
So, even though a sooner deal would be great for the Seahawks and us fans to know he’ll be definitely with us for however long the new deal is, it would likely be better for Walker to refuse to deal until contract prices, in general, rise so he gets paid more. His only concern is whether he stays healthy and performs to the level he so obviously believes he can - risks, I get it. But with his confidence….
The Seahawks are in a power position to negotiate next year, just like all teams would be with all running backs. It's better for Walker to sign a deal that's available to him with $20 million guaranteed than to take the risk of playing a season without a deal. This is one of the major problems working against RBs, which is that you're kind of foolish to turn down top-10 RB money in any case if you're ever lucky enough to ever get a long-term offer. Whereas a WR, a QB, a EDGE, he's in a power position to wait, RBs would be crazy to wait because they "might" get $12 million per year if they wait. It's actually more likely that Walker would lower his value than increase by waiting until 2026.
I agree with the risk. I just see Walker as a different kinda guy with his confidence (cockiness?). Like I said, I think the money is obscene. If was me, they’d have me at minimal signing cost :-).
I can't speak to Walker's confidence and whether or not it eclipses the amount needed to turn down a comparable contract to what Stevenson signed or not. I can only say that the risk exists for Walker that he's turning down $20 million guaranteed out of some sliver of hope to get $25 million guaranteed if he's an All-Pro or $0 if he tears his ACL or Achilles. Therefore, even though I wish RBs had a better life, to me it would not be brave or confident but idiotic for a RB to turn that kind of money down to play for next year.
I'm with you that Walker's a confident guy, probably believes in himself, and might do what you say and wait...but honestly I would almost hate that for him if he didn't take the money. There's no such thing as a player who can be confident his career won't end tomorrow because of one bad step.
Don’t I know it. An injury crushed my sporting dreams.
When you put it like you did on your first response, I’d say you’re right. The benefits outweigh the risks (I just hadn’t thought it through to ghat extent). It is, after all, only 5M-ish extra (I can’t believe I just made that comment - I could probably retire on that 5M).
Backs get hurt a lot! They have short life spans , therefore Walker's contract will be dependent on his health or lack thereof. It's way too early to discuss extensions at this time. Sorry.
I think CBs get hurt as often as RBs, yet fans haven't for some reason allowed themselves to accept that the difference in injuries is so negligible that we should be talking about CB injuries just as much. Yet I think I wouldn't get any pushback for talking about Riq Woolen's future.
I'm a left brain sort of guy, so for JS/MM I think the order of operations is;
- Play the 2024 year and figure out what you have.
- Identify your anchor players. These will be your priorities when it comes to contracts. Probably only 4-6 of these. More if we're lucky. Must have terrific talent and be leaders and tone setters on the field and in the locker room. They own the culture.....the 'who we are' players. They tell everyone else what it takes to be a Seahawk.
- Everyone else is interchangeable parts. Keep 'em if you can, replace 'em if you have to. Obviously they'll be your B players and your C players, so JS will have priorities, but look after the anchor (blue chip) players first.
I love K9, but I don't know whether he is one of those anchor players yet. Hopefully we'll know more at the end of the year. Predicting is a fools game, but for fun I'd say on defense it's Spoon, Murphy, and Mafe. On offense, JSN and I'm not sure who else yet. Maybe K9. Maybe Abe, if he's healthy. DK has the talent, I just don't know about the leadership and locker room stuff. The bar needs to be high for your anchor players.
Very good read. Plus interesting take on the whole idea of signing early rather than waiting. I see JS figuring it out based on what they see and feel on the upcoming year. Thanks-
Point of order: Saquon is with the EAGLES, now, not the Giants.
Thanks, I guess my brain wasn't ready for the change.
Commenters: When you just want to read the comments first, what’s your typical move? What button do you click from the email to read the comments?
I’m on iPhone using the app. I try to stay ahead but currently behind so when I come to comments I’m usually seeing newest.
Like many things in my life, my approach is random!
I never look at the email. I go to the website, read the new article and read the comments from oldest to newest. Since there's a new article every day, who needs the email? lol
Good point!
I just open the app each afternoon/evening. If I see the email first, it still just prompts me to open the app.
I look at oldest 1st, then when I revisit I look at newest 1st. I use the app, so no email buttons for me.
Interesting to hear that people are using the app, I will keep that in mind because I think I make too many assumptions of how people read JOE.
I'd like to make oldest comment first my default.
I'm only reading on Mac devices.
Done.
Thank you!
I follow the McFamous strategy.
Me too. except on a PC. I push the little conversation bubble.
Same, same on Substack.
What if the Seahawks have THREE RBs that are "good to great"? Kenny Mac is the wildcard that didn't get any playing time last year is the forgotten man in the RB room. We haven't seen Grubbs' NFL scheme yet, so the unanswerable question at the moment is how big a role does Grubb have for a "feature back" vs interchangeable parts? My hunch is Grubb is the "interchangeable parts" guy and Kenny Mac may find a role that is more than injury insurance. That would weaken K9s case for a top tier contract.
I love K9 (except for that time he thrashed MICH) but it is possible that he may be great AND the Seahawks let him leave after 4 years with no extension (or trade him before the draft in his last league year). Just don't ever, ever, ever sign with the Niners.
With 3 "good to great" backs, none of them ever become "great" because of the playing time split 3 ways. They'll all have stats about ⅓ to ½ as good as the high-end backs. So, their contract offers will probably be tempered by each other, especially when they all don't have to reup at thr same time. I think the team's position gets better if 3 are good, rather than just 1 or 2, they now have other options.
I've seen Walker and Charbonnet play football in the regular season. I'll reserve judgment on McIntosh until I see him play regular season NFL football.
Oh, agree. But what he did while at Georgia was significant and the Seahawks drafting him last year was widely seen as a "steal". I am very interested to see him on the field.
If everyone was as half as confident in themselves as many fans are in the 48th-best player on their favorite football team, the world would have a lot fewer therapists.
By the way... I saw your breakdown of the McVay scheme on the "other" site and it made me wonder what Grubb's favorite formation is? Pete always preferred to have two TEs on the field but it is interesting that McVay favours 11 personnel and runs out of it 45% of the time.
Don't you know it lol!!!
More:
- Another reason to extend Walker over the other 2022 class is that the Seahawks probably want to reserve the 2026 franchise tag for Abe Lucas. If he can make it through 2 more years, he's the perfect candidate to keep on a one-year deal to test his knee. Seattle can give Cross the 5th year option, tag Lucas, and then the 3 big names left are Walker, Mafe, and Woolen. Between those 3, Walker should be the easiest to extend early.
- I think Walker's really good, so I'm more inclined to pay him than others. Especially with Charbs in the room. But again, keep both just like you'd keep 2 WRs if both are really good.
- The Seahawks shouldn't have any problem to be able to keep all the players they want to keep past next year, including DK, including Geno, including the entire 2022 class if they want to. There's nothing to keep them from doing that if all those players are worth keeping. Trust me.
That is part of the issue with draft success. Stevenson also likely got paid in part because what’s their QB salary cap now? Not significant. If our 2022 and 2023 classes are top, going to be difficult to pay them all.
But getting it done sooner may work against Walker, even though it’d be better for the franchise.
From what I’ve seen of Walker, he has attitude and is very confident in himself. I agree with SSJ that Walker has a very high ceiling that he may very well reach. The longer he holds out in negotiating, so long as he stays injury free, the more likely he is to get paid more because contracts, overall, rarely go down (though personally I think the $ are already obscene).
So, even though a sooner deal would be great for the Seahawks and us fans to know he’ll be definitely with us for however long the new deal is, it would likely be better for Walker to refuse to deal until contract prices, in general, rise so he gets paid more. His only concern is whether he stays healthy and performs to the level he so obviously believes he can - risks, I get it. But with his confidence….
The Seahawks are in a power position to negotiate next year, just like all teams would be with all running backs. It's better for Walker to sign a deal that's available to him with $20 million guaranteed than to take the risk of playing a season without a deal. This is one of the major problems working against RBs, which is that you're kind of foolish to turn down top-10 RB money in any case if you're ever lucky enough to ever get a long-term offer. Whereas a WR, a QB, a EDGE, he's in a power position to wait, RBs would be crazy to wait because they "might" get $12 million per year if they wait. It's actually more likely that Walker would lower his value than increase by waiting until 2026.
I agree with the risk. I just see Walker as a different kinda guy with his confidence (cockiness?). Like I said, I think the money is obscene. If was me, they’d have me at minimal signing cost :-).
I can't speak to Walker's confidence and whether or not it eclipses the amount needed to turn down a comparable contract to what Stevenson signed or not. I can only say that the risk exists for Walker that he's turning down $20 million guaranteed out of some sliver of hope to get $25 million guaranteed if he's an All-Pro or $0 if he tears his ACL or Achilles. Therefore, even though I wish RBs had a better life, to me it would not be brave or confident but idiotic for a RB to turn that kind of money down to play for next year.
Fair point.
I'm with you that Walker's a confident guy, probably believes in himself, and might do what you say and wait...but honestly I would almost hate that for him if he didn't take the money. There's no such thing as a player who can be confident his career won't end tomorrow because of one bad step.
In terms of risk management, the salary cap and non-guaranteed money puts the team in a favorable position with just about any player.
Don’t I know it. An injury crushed my sporting dreams.
When you put it like you did on your first response, I’d say you’re right. The benefits outweigh the risks (I just hadn’t thought it through to ghat extent). It is, after all, only 5M-ish extra (I can’t believe I just made that comment - I could probably retire on that 5M).