What's your favorite position? (in football)

A simple question with maybe a not so simple answer: Seaside Joe 1635

My main takeaway from the third episode of Hard Knocks is that Robert Saleh’s son gets to play catch with Aaron Rodgers. He just gets to do that. Imagine a year ago, Saleh goes to his son and says, “Hey you want to play catch with a Super Bowl-winning quarterback?”

A few minutes later, Saleh calls Joe Flacco, “Sorry Joe, he said no again.”

Now it’s Aaron Rodgers and Saleh probably can’t get his son to go to school or do his homework anymore. And why should he? Saleh’s son seems pretty set for life now that he’s playing catch with Aaron Rodgers.

Watching that moment on Hard Knocks happened only hours after I heard Pete Carroll say this at his press conference on Tuesday:

“I play catch everyday and to me football’s always been about playing catch.”

Yes, that’s right, THE Pete Carroll says that football has “always been about” throwing.

Which does make sense when you start to work backwards from what Pete’s signature coaching position has always been as the all-time cornerbacks guru. It was nice that Richard Sherman could tackle, but he’s a Hall of Fame kind of cornerback because he shut down the pass.

Pete and Robert Saleh’s son’s adoration for playing catch made me think about my own experience when it comes to watching football. Two positions come to mind first and they are typically the two that play catch: QB and WR.

Those are my favorite positions to watch and to track player careers.

Side note: Today is the 1,635th day in a row of sending out the Seaside Joe newsletter meaning that we are officially ONE YEAR AWAY from reaching the 2,000 mark! I just wanted to mark that occasion and get some other people on board with counting down to 2,000.

If you aren’t subscribed at all, do that today. It’s free and it’s daily. If you want to help support the newsletter with $5, or $55 to get you all the way until day 2,000, sign up for the Regular Joes club. There are SO MANY bonus articles!

Pop quiz hot shot: How many days has Pete Carroll been head coach of the Seahawks?

For a long time I’ve said that football is an individual sport playing inside of a team sport: So much of the game is channeled through the quarterback, not only what he’s physically capable of doing but also the decisions that he makes before and after each snap. For the most part, the running backs, receivers, tight ends, and offensive linemen are all helpless and at the mercy of the quarterback.

Going back to Hard Knocks, Randall Cobb told the Jets receivers that “Aaron’s not going to throw you the ball if he doesn’t trust you.”

To me, a quarterback is almost like a golfer, while the other 21 players on the field are “the conditions”. One set of circumstances could be like a par 3 on a calm afternoon, while another could be like playing in a tropical storm on Pebble Beach with an eyepatch and an arm tied behind your back.

These days we just call that “playing for the Cardinals”.

Speaking of WRs: Did you read Tuesday’s bonus article on how the fallout of the WR depth chart following injury news on Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Dareke Young? There’s also a film breakdown of Seattle’s OL vs the Cowboys and more!

So that makes watching quarterbacks a sport of its own, in many ways. I like to start keeping tabs on the best quarterback prospects in high school and that’s not something I do for any other position.

But setting aside quarterbacks, the position I find the next-most interesting to watch and follow their careers would be the players on the other end of that catch, the wide receivers. Through my offseason habit of watching more Xs and Os-based content and making an effort to understand football better, I’ve come to appreciate even more just how intricate the position is and how detailed you have to be as a receiver to be good, let alone great.

Size, speed, and highlight reel ability only gets you so far. Many first and second round picks with those three things ended up having very short careers.

These days we just call that “playing for the Cardinals”.

I want to put some poll questions to you to find out what positions Seaside Joe readers like to follow the most. I can only put five answers per poll, so that’s why we’re splitting it up to offense and defense.

If QB was an option would you have chosen that?

What about defense?

I’ll see how these answers turn out and then we’ll have an ultimate showdown later, so don’t forget to subscribe! And send this email to other Seahawks fans so they can vote too.

Answer: 4,975. Pete was announced as the Seahawks head coach on January 11, 2010, but the news first broke on January 9, 2010. That means that Pete Carroll will reach day 5,000 on September 17, 2023, which is Seattle’s Week 2 game against the Detroit Lions.

For Seaside Joe to reach Pete’s current longetivy as Seahawks head coach, without any days off, I will need to write for another 3,340 days in a row. That’s only if Pete stopped today. Still, I accept the challenge.