There were a lot of folks geeked when we traded you know who. Lots of banter about how Geno ran things smoother and how much better the team would be.
Drew Lock support? Check!
Retooling…not rebuilding!!
The tone has shifted.
I don’t take much out of preseason and I imagine most of you are the same way. With that said, what’s changed?
If anything, Geno has looked way better than I thought he would. Lock is still getting comfortable in a new system.
I think part of what's changed is that those of us who were fine and/or satisfied to see the team finally move on from a situation that had obviously reached a point of diminishing returns have just gotten tired of the way the discussion goes?
For example, I don't think anyone legitimately thinks or thought Geno was better than Russ. I do think there is a chance for our offense to be smoother simply because it was obvious the last two seasons (more?) that Russ was fighting against the gameplan. There is simply no talent evaluation in this assessment though, but this discussion always spirals into some strawman argument about how great we must think Geno is. All things being equal, a QB who is on the same page as his coach and OC is better than one who's not. How did this become controversial?
Also, we have had WAY too much hand wringing over how the team looked in the preseason. It borders on the ridiculous. I understand, that like me, many folks paid way more attention to the preseason than a typical year (I typically watch zero preseason games, but watched all three this year). The problem is you CANNOT assess the overall talent of a team from pre-season performance. Outside of a few attempts to understand the relative talent of a few players on the bubble or getting an idea of how NFL ready your rookies are (or, in the case this year, a QB battle that may or may not have been competitive), you can't make any predictions for how the rest of the year will go off of preseason games.
And yet, exactly how many preseason game threads can you click into without dire prognostications for the upcoming season because of this or that failing of a player who may or may not have even made our final roster in a game that doesn't matter?
I'm still enthusiastic about this season. Our defense (which was better than given credit for last year) seems to have improved. Our offensive line as well. We continue to have very talented playmakers on offense. I still think there is a chance for us to have a better season this year than last. Is losing Russ and (in my book, perhaps more importantly) Bobby going to doom us to a 'rebuilding' year? Maybe, but if that's the case we're off to a good start in that regard as well and we'll be in a good spot to fill our remaining holes in the draft next year.
So, my enthusiasm for the season remains, but my enthusiasm to have the same discussion with the same folks posting the same mostly uninteresting and unnuanced takes about why the Seahawks are doomed forever because we kept 'Old Man Pete' instead of 'St. Russ' has definitely dissipated.
Frankly, I just need the real season to start.