The offseason, aka the hopeseason, has arrived

In the coming months there will be countless reports and social media posts and articles about how free agents and draft picks have the ability to instantly tilt the field. The reality is that a large percentage of these can be ignored.

The offseason has arrived for the Seattle Seahawks, after failing to qualify for the postseason for the second year in a row and the third time in four seasons. This in spite of putting up double digit wins in the first season under new head coach Mike Macdonald, and holding sole possession of first place in the NFC West in mid-December heading into Week 15.

With the end of the season comes the unending spring of hope for teams to improve through free agency and the draft, while those players on the roster already under contract will certainly only continue to improve. Next season will surely be better, fans assure themselves, while diving deep into the hype and hope of free agent acquisitions and players added in the draft.

Then, towards the end of every summer hope reaches fever pitch as reports from training camp and the preseason drive levels of hope even higher. At that point, it’s up to fans to be able to hold back their hopes and dreams for the upcoming season, or else risk the four month dose of reality known as the regular season that brings expectations back down to earth.

For example, during the late summer of 2024 multiple members of the Seahawks were regularly praised during training camp, with their potential to contribute during the regular season repeated over and over. McClendon Curtis, who signed with the Arizona Cardinals on Monday after spending most of the 2024 season on the Seattle practice squad is one such example.

Reality hit hard at the end of training camp, though, when McClendon Curtis failed to make the 53-man roster. Then, even as the season wore on and the struggles of the offensive line became readily apparent, Curtis failed to make it on to the field for even a single offensive snap. In spite of injuries forcing the Seahawks to dig deep and give snaps to both the third string right guard and the fourth string right tackle, Curtis saw the field for exactly zero offensive snaps.

It’s not just training camp reports fans should be wary of. The offseason is the playground of hopes and dreams and every free agent signing has All Pro potential for many fans.

Author’s Note: Dodson played for the Seahawks for half the season, and reportedly played well for the Miami Dolphins after the Hawks waived him midseason.

Author’s Note: It was not, in fact, a great move to sign Jerome Baker.

It’s not just free agent signings who have huge upside, as draft picks tend to get overhyped as well.

Author’s Note: The trench was not, in fact, ready. Or, perhaps it’s more accurate to state that Christian Haynes was not ready for the trench.

Author’s Note: Christian Haynes did not easily slide right in, starting zero [0] games and playing almost 200 fewer offensive snaps than sixth round pick Sataoa Laumea.

In any case, the purpose of this post isn’t to poo poo the entirety of John Schneider’s 2024 offseason, just most of it.

Specifically the parts that involved players not performing up to expectations.

However, the reality is that those expectations are not set by the team. They are set by fans who read into and then buy into unrealistic expectations, rather than accepting that most free agents won’t blossom into All Pros or even Pro Bowlers, and most draft picks, even those added on Day 1 and Day 2, don’t develop into difference makers.

In short, in the coming weeks there are going to be hype videos from the Senior Bowl. There are going to be insane workouts and ridiculous RAS scores from the 2025 NFL Combine. There are going to be high PFF grades on free agent signings. There are going to be glowing reports on drafted players.

Just be careful on how much trust to place into those reports, because when the regular season, and the reality it brings, hits a lot harder than the optimism driven hope of the offseason.