Seahawks to be shut out of Pro Bowl for first time in 13 years?

Are any Seahawks deserving of Pro Bowl this season? Seaside Joe 1746

A light episode of Seaside Joe today, as we get an extra day to prepare for Seahawks-Eagles on Monday Night Football and there’s already a lot to read this week from Tuesday’s extra long post about the next offseason.

Let’s get a few points about the Pro Bowl out of the way first:

No, it doesn’t matter.

No, it’s not a real football game. (I don’t think I’ve ever even watched it.)

Yes, it’s a popularity contest.

No, I don’t “care” how many Seahawks get named to the Pro Bowl. (I used to though. I think we all grow out of caring about the Pro Bowl, like how we grow out of watching WWF.)

(Sorry, if you do still follow pro wrestling.)

But let’s be real about what does matter, and that’s the fact that Super Bowl teams typically have rosters with an inordinately high number of talented—and popular—football players. The 2013 Seahawks had a Pro Bowl quarterback, running back, cornerback, two safeties, and a center. And in 2014, Bobby Wagner joined them and would stay there for eight years in a row.

Even in 2020, Seattle had remained well-represented. In fact, they had more Pro Bowls than the team that won the Super Bowl.

You’ve heard of “Where have all the cowboys gone?” Well, where have all the Pro Bowls gone?

Russell Wilson, Quandre Diggs, Duane Brown, and Wagner represented Seattle in 2021. Diggs was named again in 2022, Wilson was replaced by Geno Smith, and Riq Woolen, Jason Myers made it in too.

Now coming to the end of Pro Bowl voting for 2023, the Seahawks could have zero players representing Seattle for this season.

That has not happened since 2010.

If it’s any consolation, maybe that means that the Seahawks will win a playoff game!

As to whether or not at Seahawks are “deserving” of an honor that most consider meaningless, let’s instead ask whether Seattle has any top-3 players in the NFC at their respective positions:

That’s looking doubtful right now.

Start with last season’s Pro Bowl players, it’s relatively easy to scratch off Geno, Myers, Woolen, and Diggs from contention. I won’t pretend to be an expert on ranking safeties, but Jessie Bates, Talanoa Hufanga, and Tyrann Mathieu would appear to be three safe-ish bets in the NFC. Diggs and Jamal Adams are not safe bets.

Any offensive linemen or tight ends? Probably not. A running back? Not without injuries forcing others to miss the game until you finally get to Ken Walker, who ranks 13th in the conference in rushing yards. Receivers? The NFC has A.J. Brown, CeeDee Lamb, D.J. Moore, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, Mike Evans, Chris Olave, DeVonta Smith, and even Puka Nacua lining up as options over DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett.

Boye Mafe isn’t there yet. Bobby probably has the best odds to actually go.

The best bet, as you can imagine, is Devon Witherspoon.

The rookie has been great and producing ahead of schedule, but has to compete against corners who exclusively play on the outside and are deemed to face “tougher receivers”, and I would not yet say that Witherspoon is that elite shutdown cornerback yet. Next season? I would assume so.

This season? I would assume not.

Oh, and Michael Dickson. I have no idea why he’s not leading the pack.

I wrote before the season started that I only had Myers and Dickson as “blue chip right now” talents on the Seahawks. Myers has regressed, leaving Dickson alone. This has not yet been the season where enough others have leveled up…and unlike the Pro Bowl voting, that does matter.

Seaside Joe fantasy football playoffs

Congrats to the teams that made the Seaside Joe Fantasy Football playoffs, and thanks for participating with your community in this and the Survivor league! Jonathan F was kind enough to send me the bracket:

Waiver Wire Watcher (Logan Miller) vs. Lunatic Fringe (Bob Johnston)

JSN OROTY (Brendan Schwartz) vs. HeavyDeez (Mike Fisk)

Good luck!

Should podcast return in 2024?

Substack, the newsletter platform I use, has upgraded their video hosting capabilities and I’ve considered bringing back the podcast in 2024 for Regular Joes subscribers. The reason I would make it a paid feature is that I need to make additional time in my schedule to create it, so I need an incentive to bring it back. I understand that there are so many podcasts already—that’s a big part of the reason I stopped!—so maybe there isn’t really room for another. My episodes would be shorter, more to the point, and directed at hot topics of the moment instead of another weekly or daily show in which the hosts are filling time whether they have something to talk about or they don’t.

I’ll create two polls to help me decide, one for free subscribers and one for Regular Joes. First for paid subscribers:

And now for everyone: