Author's note: This is the fifteenth installment of my weekly column, Barely Relevant.
I say, blah. Blah to all of the hey, the Seattle Seahawks kept up with a 13-2 team, and blah to all of the it's the first year of a completely new coaching staff pretension. Fine. That's all fine. Fine and blah. We should have beaten the Vikings. Riq Woolen should have played as promising as he looked in the preseason (and his Pro Bowl rookie year), and DK Metcalf should run the route that's been drawn up. DK had a pretty good game (3/7 for 57 yards and 1 TD), but for some reason, offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb decided to put the game in his hands when it mattered the most. You don't do that; all the rest of us have learned. You pass it to JSN.
DK flubbed the route... as he's done many times before. There's a great Maya Angelou quote that's a little weird to insert in this context, but I'm going to do it anyway: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them...." I don't know if it applies to football, but damn if DK Metcalf, now in his sixth season, hasn't shown us who he is time and time again.
This isn't a DK hate post. I really like the guy, but he's not to be trusted. It's like one of those relationships where you love someone but have become completely aware that the relationship doesn't have a future anymore. It's gonna hurt. It might take some time, and maybe some Fireball once they're gone, but slip out the back, Jack. Make a new plan, Stan. No need to be coy, Roy. Just listen to me.
But our trust issues extend beyond DK. Who do you trust on the coaching staff, and does it really end at Mike Macdonald? On the offensive side of the ball, we have several first-year NFL coaches. Do they deserve a little time to grow and develop like rookie players do? Like our new head coach does?
Probably. But who cares? The Seahawks are headed for mediocrity again this year, and it all feels so blah. But why? This is the process. The Seahawks went 7-9 under Pete Carroll during his first season (2010) and made it to the playoffs. In Holmgren's first season as head coach (1999), the Seahawks went 9-7 and made it to the playoffs. For Dennis Erickson's first season (1995), we went 8-8, and Chuck Knox (1983) took us to 9-7. There's been worse (Mora), but you get my point.
Mediocrity is basically the name of the game during a head coach's first season. At least in Seattle. New coaches don't get hired because a city has a banger team. Do we need to just trust the process?
The Seahawks appear to be headed for a 9-8 season, by my estimation, and whether or not the Rams pick up and continue to have steam determines our playoff fate. That's right about in line with what everyone thought this season might look like in August, anyhow. But then something funny happened. We had streaks of greatness. Like starting off 3-0. But then we lost three in a row. But then we beat the 49ers on the road and swept Arizona. Jaxon Smith-Njigba became a top-five wide receiver, and on defense, Witherspoon, Leonard Williams, and Julian Love found their stride... and Tariq Woolen misplaced his.
I guess this ping-pong effect - back and forth - is precisely what mediocrity is: win three in a row, lose three in a row, win four in a row, etc. But it still sucks. And I think I know why. It's because we're from Seattle. Which, unfortunately, has been the land of professional sports mediocrity for much too long.
Pete Carroll spoiled us. During his tenure, he was the winningest coach in Seahawks history. The Seahawks had a winning record 11 of 14 seasons during his reign (not even including the 2010 playoff win) and our first Lombardi. But the thought of going back to what we once were? It's too much to bear. Oh boy, were we were mediocre. Just look at how consistently mediocre we were prior to 2010, when Pete Carroll taught us what consistently winning actually looked like.
And it's not just football. Seattle happens to be the home of the Mariners, the absolute poster children of mediocrity, who have never even participated in a World Series.
Of course, the Seattle SuperSonics won it all in 1979, but they couldn't quite do it again. But they did return to the big game in 1996 (and once before they won the trophy [1978]). The Sonics made the playoffs a LOT. Except for their last ten years, when they were pretty darn mediocre. And then they weren't at all anymore.
Mediocrity is a curse. One we're undeniably and decidedly headed for again this year. There are a lot of reasons why mediocrity sucks, but the biggest one is because we're from Seattle. And we feel mediocrity a little differently up here.
It stings right now, and I'm pissed. But this is where I have to remind myself that that's because there were so many surprising moments this season that gave me hope. And to trust the process. This moment in time - week 16 of the 2024 season - is but a blink of an eye. An eye that could still even be watching the Seahawks (mediocre or not) in the playoffs this year. And the lemon squirt in the eye of this one is that we really could've won it. Our mediocre butts could have beaten a 12-2 Vikings team if only we could have cleaned up a few stupid mistakes, somehow replaced Riq Woolen AND Tre Brown, and not thrown it to DK when the game was on the line.
Our new coach, Mike Macdonald, he's a smart guy. There's no debating that. And smart guys know how to clean that sort of stuff up. Trust the process. This is how Mike Macdonald's tenure was supposed to begin. As familiar as it all feels, it's not. It's new. But still, blah.