What a life. Travel around the country on a private jet and check out Football players at Pro Days. Where did we go wrong???
By Bob Condotta
Seattle Times staff reporter
PHOENIX — As soon as the NFL’s annual meetings ended here, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider did the same as almost everyone else — boarded a plane to get out of town.
Only, this wasn’t just any other plane.
Carroll and Schneider boarded the private jet of team chair Jody Allen on Wednesday. And they weren’t heading home.
Instead, Carroll and Schneider were off to Gainesville, Fla., to attend the University of Florida’s pro day Thursday, when the featured attraction will be quarterback Anthony Richardson.
It’s the last of their scheduled tour of pro days of the four top-rated QBs available in the 2023 draft.
The Seahawks last week attended pro days for Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud, Alabama QB Bryce Young and Kentucky QB Will Levis.
Schneider and Carroll — who rarely has attended pro days during his time as Seahawks coach — have been accompanied on the visits by offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, new quarterbacks coach Greg Olson and other coaches and scouts.
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“A freaking blast,” Schneider said of the visits, giving hearty praise to Allen’s loaning of the jet for the trips.
“It’s awesome,” he said. “Living where we live, you’ve got to use your time as efficiently as possible.”
Indeed, Carroll was actually asked during his media availability here Tuesday if he had any issues with the fact that the Seahawks usually lead the NFL in most air miles traveled.
“You ever look at a map?” Carroll incredulously asked the questioner.
Allen further illustrated her involvement in the team by attending the annual meeting, something she had not done since taking over as team chair when her bother, Paul, died in October 2018. She has attended other meetings and often watched via Zoom. The meetings were canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19 and conducted virtually in 2021.
“It’s pretty awesome, and it’s just fun,” Schneider said of the trips with Carroll and others to take in the pro days.
Seattle has punctuated each stop with a group selfie taken by the quarterback they’ve seen that day. The photos posted on the team’s Twitter page illustrated — or amplified — how much they are reveling in the rare opportunity to pick at No. 5 and potentially draft a QB.
But after the fun is done, the work — deciding if Seattle really thinks one of the QBs is worth taking if available — will begin.
Some have wondered if Seattle’s visits are a smoke screen designed to influence teams drafting behind them to offer a king’s ransom for the No. 5 pick and a chance to pick a QB.
Carroll and Schneider used their media appearances here to insist Seattle could take a quarterback, adding they have talked to incumbents Geno Smith and Drew Lock to inform them they could have significant competition in the fall.
“Pete and I both had frank conversations with them and said, ‘We haven’t been in this spot for a long, long time, so we can’t guarantee you that we won’t take a quarterback,’ ” Schneider said. “You just put all the information on the table so everybody knows what they’re getting into, and there’s no second guessing like, ‘What do they think about me?’ ”
Smith signed a three-year deal worth up to $105 million, but the contract is incentive-laden and contains no guaranteed money beyond the first year.
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Lock’s one-year, $4 million deal contains just $1.75 million in guaranteed money.
In other words, though Seattle’s QB situation for 2023 can seem set, the future is far from certain.
“It’s a hard reality when you have an incumbent guy, to say that you’re competing,” Carroll said. “But that’s what we do. Things don’t always stay the same. Each season brings new surprises and challenges and all that. We’re open to that. It’s good for the player that’s the incumbent as well, to know that. They don’t want to look at it that way, always, and I don’t mind them doing that, but we’re going to try to make them feel the competition. So if a new guy shows up, we’re going to go about it the same way and see where they could come and help the team.”
It’s the future Seattle must consider most as it debates its draft decisions.
Holding the No. 5 pick — which the Seahawks received from Denver in the Russell Wilson trade — gives Schneider and Carroll a rare chance to scout quarterbacks.
Seattle hadn’t needed one for years after drafting Wilson in 2012 in the third round.
And last year after trading Wilson, when the Seahawks had the ninth pick, there weren’t any worth taking that high — Kenny Pickett was the only QB taken in the first two rounds, drafted at No. 20 by Pittsburgh.
But this year’s draft offers an opportunity the team knows it might not have for years — or hopes it won’t have, because it no longer has any first-round picks besides its own.
The Seahawks aren’t giving any hints of what they might do. Asked to describe the four quarterbacks, Schneider noted that they each has a unique style.
“The four top guys, basically they’re all completely different players,” Schneider said. “It’s awesome. They all have completely different skill sets.”
And the Seahawks know they might not get the best assessment of those skill sets in a controlled setting such as a pro day.
“I like watching the quarterbacks at the combine, because the timing is kind of jacked up [and] they have to really be on it,” Schneider said.
Not that there isn’t something to be learned along the way of their grand adventure.
“The scripted stuff at the schools is cool,” Schneider said Tuesday. “Are they leading it themselves, or is a quarterback guy just taking them through it? How into it are they? How do they handle themselves? How are they with the receivers? It’s cool to see. You learn so much from it.”
Whether the Seahawks learn enough to want to take a QB with the No. 5 pick will remain the biggest question hovering over the team until the draft, which begins April 27.