12 Thoughts as the Seahawks kick off the 2023 season

A collection of FTR thoughts that weren’t turned into their own articles …

It’s Seahawks game day so I’ll keep this brief – well, “brief” in an FTR sense, anyway.

Thought No. 1

It’s been a while since the Seahawks have whooped the Rams.

They swept the series last year, but both games were very close, with one of them requiring overtime for Seattle to seal the win.

The Seahawks won by double digits in Week 16 of the 2020 season (20-9), and captured the NFC West title in the process. That wasn’t a butt-whoopin’ though, and the Rams returned the favor in the wildcard round two weeks later.

No, the last actual “dominant” display by the Seahawks against the Rams was all the way back in 2016 when the Seahawks hosted the Rams on Thursday Night Football and completely shut them down (47 yards rushing, 136 yards passing) en route to a 24-3 victory.

While I doubt our defense will hold the Rams under 200 yards today, I am semi-expecting a lopsided score with the Seahawks prevailing by three (or more) scores.

Thought No. 2

Week 2 is going to be F-U-N !!!

I’m fully expecting the undefeated Lions and the undefeated Seahawks to engage in a shootout that will rival last year’s 48-45 barn-burner.

I don’t know what the Over/Under will be on the game, but I’m inclined to take the Over even if Vegas sets it at 100.

Naturally, that means the game will be a defensive slugfest that the Seahawks win 12-9 courtesy of a Jason Myers walk-off homerun field goal.

Thought No. 3

Unlike most NFL weekends when the Seahawks play in the PM slot, I will not be watching any of the early games this week.

No, I’ll be watching the Mariners game instead, hoping for the loveliest of days with a Mariners win followed by a Seahawks win . . .

. . . with losses by the Astros, Rangers, and 49ers thrown in for good measure.

Thought No. 4

Earlier this week I wrote an article about the possibility of Seattle having three 1,000-yard receivers this season.

A couple folks commented that it could be four with either Noah Fant or Jake Bobo joining DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

Love him though I do, Jake “More” Bobo ain’t getting 1,000 yards this year.

Heck, Doug Baldwin didn’t hit the 1,000 yard mark until Year 5 and Seattle’s wide receiver room is a whole lot more stacked now than it was in ADB’s rookie year.

Likewise, Fant’s career high is 673 yards and he only had 486 yards last year. Do we really think he is going to more than double that in 2023?

Spoiler: No, he isn’t.

Thought No. 5

I know no one cares about my fantasy team(s), but what the heck is up with all of the good tight ends landing on the injury reports leading up to this week’s games?

Travis Kelce OUT.

Mark Andrews, Darren Waller, and George Kittle QUESTIONABLE.

Ugh!

Super amusingly, I never cared about injury reports before I got peer-pressured into joining a fantasy league last year and now I scour those things like they’re treasure maps.

Someone save me from myself!

Thought No. 6

Pete Carroll could learn some things from Dan Campbell.

He won’t, but he could.

For those that don’t know what I’m referring to, here’s a tweet from the Lions:

That’s a 4th and 2 play from their own 17-yard line on the Lions’ second series of Thursday night’s game against the defending Super Bowl champs.

And it was GLORIOUS!

Yes, Dan Campbell would have been crucified if the gamble had failed.

But it didn’t!

And the Lions scored the first touchdown of the 2023 season 10 plays later.

Moral of the story: No guts, no glory! Roughly 54-1/2 minutes (of game time) after that gutsy, GUTSY call, Detroit left Arrowhead Stadium with a well-earned 1-point win.

Thought No. 7

The Cincinnati Bengals made QB Joe Burrow the highest-paid player in the history of the league this week, and the first thing I thought when I saw the report about his 5-year, $275M extension was:

Geno Smith’s deal is such a steal!

To illustrate just how much of a steal it is compared to the contract that Joe Burrow just signed, let’s look at the amount that was guaranteed at signing:

• Geno Smith: $27.3M
• Joe Burrow: $219.01M

WoW!

Thought No. 8

On September 6th, behind the ESPN+ paywall, Bill Barnwell looked at how every NFL team can win Super Bowl 58 – yes, every team, including the Cardinals.

For the Seahawks, his opinion is that it will take 12 wins (which seems appropriate), some key injuries in Santa Clara, and an assist from the ultra-competitive NFC East where the division champ will have 11 wins.

Putting that another way, Seattle + the top seed in the NFC = Super Bowl, baby!

Which sounds like something I recently said:

Given that each of Seattle’s Super Bowl runs has started with a first-round bye, it would be natural to assume an optimist such as myself has the Seahawks reaching the Super Bowl. And you would be right!

Thought No. 9

Piggybacking on the thought above . . .

In the Comments section of the Open Thread for 2023 season predictions from the 12s, I said the following:

The Hawks will start the season slowly, performance-wise, but will get to their Week 5 bye with at least 3 wins. They’ll add 4 or 5 wins from Week 6 through Week 11 and then lay the hammer down with another 3 wins between Week 12 and Week 15 to essentially lock up all the tiebreakers for the NFC’s No. 1 seed.

Yes, I’m an optimist, and, yes, I’m extremely biased.

That doesn’t mean I’m wrong.

Thought No. 10

On Friday, the Seahawks announced a multi-year partnership with T-Mobile whereby T-Mobile will become the exclusive 5G wireless partner for the team.

As part of the agreement, T-Mobile will get to light up Lumen Field in their gaudy trademark magenta. (Yes, T-Mobile really trademarked the color magenta – or, rather, “Pantone Rhodamine Red U”.)

How tacky awesome will Lumen Field look bathed in the T-Mobile color?

The press release has a mock-up . . . and a video.

I, for one, can’t wait!

Thought No. 11

According to Jordyn Brooks, via an article by ESPN’s Brady Henderson, “better vibes” will lead to better results against the run this year.

“. . . I think we’ll be 10 times as better as we were last year and the year before — I think we were top five.”

“I think we can be first in the league this year, just because of the attitude.”

Yeah, um . . . that’s not really how football works.

Brooks isn’t wrong about the difference between last season and the one before it though.

This is from that same article:

Seattle allowed the second-lowest yards-per-carry average (3.8) in 2021 with much of the same personnel as ‘22.

Taking that a step further, here is the breakdown for rushing yards allowed over the past two seasons:

• Under 100 yards rushing: 2021 = 7 | 2022 = 4
• 100 to 124 yards: 2021 = 5 | 2022 = 2
• 125 to 149 yards: 2021 = 3 | 2022 = 3
• 150 to 199 yards: 2021 = 1 | 2022 = 6 (including 181 in the playoff loss to SF)
• 200+ yards: 2021 = 1 | 2022 = 3 (including 283 to the Raiders)

To summarize that, in 2021, the Seahawks held 15 of their 17 opponents under 150 yards on the ground but only did that in half of their games last season (9 out of 18).

Thought No. 12

Pete Carroll’s 72nd birthday is this week.

September 15th, to be exact.

Here’s to the Seahawks giving him an early birthday present and hanging 50 points on the Rams today.

Go Hawks!