Share your Seahawks hot takes!

Let's talk about what you believe that maybe not everyone agrees with: Seaside Joe 1685

Leading into the 2022 NFL Draft, a take I had that some people took issue with was that the upcoming class was relatively bad and probably the worst we’ve seen since 2013. I took a little flak for that, but here’s why that is important:

• A bad draft class means fewer trades (and the Seahawks were talked about as a team that obviously could move down)

• A bad draft class often starts with a weak QB class (and the Seahawks were one of the hottest teams to be mentioned alongside names like Malik Willis and Desmond Ridder (but for some reason not Kenny Pickett))

While most NFL Draft experts were saying that Willis would go somewhere in the top-10 and that the first round would have at least three QBs, if not four including Matt Corral, I was saying that Pickett had the only first round grade, that he wouldn’t go that early, and that Willis and Ridder were third round prospects.

For those of you who were subscribed to Seaside Joe last spring, the evidence is crystalized in many an e-mail.

Just as it is that my very first mock draft after the Seahawks acquired the ninth overall pick in the Russell Wilson trade, I had Seattle choosing Charles Cross because I strongly believed that the pick would either be an offensive tackle or a defensive end. And then…a few days later I said that Cross would not be the pick based on athletic testing.

(I should have paid more attention to the fact that the last Seahawks offensive tackle who tested similar to Cross was Russell Okung.)

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To say that the 2022 class was weak, that Willis and Ridder were third round talents, and that teams were holding out for the 2023 draft were all considered “hot takes” at the time. Then comes the day of the first round and guess what happens?

Travon Walker becomes the most mediocre first overall pick since Eric Fisher in 2013, there are no trades in the top-10, Pickett becomes the only first or second round QB, and Ridder, Willis don’t go until the third.

It isn’t until 18 months later that others are starting to ask, “Is the 2022 draft class one of the worst in history?”

Just speaking of the top-seven picks, Walker is someone that most fans forget about with much more regularity than your average first overall pick; Derek Stingley has played in only 11 games; Kayvon Thibodeaux didn’t start having any real success until he met Jake Curhan two weeks ago; Ikem Ekwonu and Evan Neal are two of the least-effective pass blocking OTs in the NFL right now.

There is also Aidan Hutchinson (awesome) and Sauce Gardner (had a poor start to this season), followed at eight and nine by Drake London (we’ll see) and Cross (expected to return on Sunday).

There are other positive early returns from the first round (Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, Trent McDuffie, Tyler Smith, Tyler Linderbaum) and good depth (which I expected, another debate some of us had before the draft which is that I meant to refer to the top of the class as “weak”) and several years left for these young players to find their footing in the NFL.

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However is it now easier to see how last year’s draft class could not only be as weak as 2013, but also that NFL GMs perceived it as weak a year ago, which is why the Seattle Seahawks held firm at ninth overall, could not trade down if they wanted to, didn’t want to trade up, and certainly did NOT want to draft Willis at 9 (or 40 or 41 or 72) or trade up for Ridder in the first round (lol Tony Pauline).

The Seahawks certainly could have entertained picking Wilson or Olave—especially since we now know that they would end up using a first round pick on teammate Jaxon Smith-Njigba—or Jordan Davis, but with Duane Brown leaving and a need for multiple new offensive tackles, also leading to the Abe Lucas pick at 72, it’s clear that John and Pete concluded that Charles Cross was the best they could do in last year’s top-10.

And that’s not bad!

I still have no idea how good Cross is going to end up being in the NFL—I think it is early for anyone to say that—but if he has a career like Okung that will be a huge win for the Seahawks. Okung was never a star, but he was always a starter at a key position and Seattle was able to be the best team in the NFC for anywhere between 2-4 years in a row.

This entire post idea comes after watching a video on Thursday in which the YouTuber asks for “hot takes” by the commenters and the lead story is that the 2022 Draft Class is the worst in a decade. That’s not a hot take to me…but I’ll take it!

It also gave me another idea for something we could do today at Seaside Joe and I’ll post my thoughts on your answers in a follow-up newsletter:

What are your hot takes about the Seattle Seahawks?

The Internet has conflated this concept of “hot takes” with being “bad opinions”, but that’s not how I perceive the question of asking for your hot takes: This is not “bad opinions”, this is “I have an unpopular opinion but I’m steadfast in my beliefs.”

I HATE that so many people have been silenced from sharing their unpopular opinions. I would MUCH RATHER hear someone’s unpopular opinion than the parroting of narratives that you see everyday on Twitter and YouTube. Especially because in my unpopular opinion, popular opinions are WRONG more often than people who repeat the popular opinions are willing to admit.

And unpopular opinions, when right, are far more valuable to us than when the obvious answers are copy/pasted ad nauseum.

I would much rather read an unpopular opinion that is wrong than the same 100 tweets that all say the same thing.

So if you have an opinion related to the Seahawks that you feel is unpopular, but right anyway, now is your opportunity to share it. You can either leave a comment below or reply to the e-mail to tell me directly and I’ll keep it anonymous if you prefer (but really aren’t we all anonymous here?).

I’ll write about some of the Seahawks hot takes that piqued my interest and that I had my own takes about and give Seaside Joe readers a chance to respond to them too. Share us with other Seahawks fans and we can get their hot takes too.

You could also share hot takes about the NFL in general, if you’ve got something to say about other teams or players that you’ve wanted to get off your chest.