The Seattle Seahawks may think they’ve defined their quarterback position in the near term with the trade that sent Russell Wilson to Denver — a deal that netted Seattle two first-round picks, two second-round picks, and former Broncos Noah Fant, Shelby Harris, and Drew Lock. Lock, the starter-turned-backup in Denver, was reallocated due to his overall inconsistency, which we at Touchdown Wire have detailed here.
It is also known that the Seahawks were interested in Lock when he came out of Missouri in the 2019 draft, where Denver selected him in the second round. No coincidence that Wilson got a new contract around that time. So, perhaps head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider actually see Lock as their quarterback of the future. An interesting gambit if so, given what Lock has and has not shown through three NFL seasons, but there you have it.
At the same time, there’s a budding friendship between Seahawks receiver Tyler Lockett and another NFL quarterback who’s been on the open market for quite some time.
Let’s do it bro! Me and my brother will come run routes for you! https://t.co/MPvZTKA8PG
— Tyler Lockett (@TDLockett12) March 13, 2022
Love to you and your brother! I’ll be there tomorrow. I’ll dm you to coordinate. https://t.co/wiJFVPnYD0
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) March 13, 2022
It didn’t take long for that to come to fruition. About 26 hours, in fact.
Seahawks WR Tyler Lockett running routes with Colin Kaepernick 👀
(🎥 IG: @Kaepernick7) pic.twitter.com/RnvbIACWu2
— Mohammed Al-Azadi (@_twinmohammed) March 14, 2022
Could Kaepernick actually be in Seattle’s future, given the team’s needs at quarterback whether they know it or not? We know that Seattle was one of the few teams to actually give Kaepernick a tryout in an honest fashion since his blacklisting for protesting police brutality by kneeling for the national anthem, and we also know that Carroll had this to say in 2020 about Kaepernick after that tryout in 2017:
“I regret that we weren’t the one way back when that just did it just to do it, even though I thought that it wasn’t the right fit necessarily for us at the time. The reason it wasn’t the right fit is because I held him in such a high regard I didn’t see him as a backup quarterback and I didn’t want to put him in that situation with Russ. It just didn’t feel like it would fit right. That’s the way I felt about it. So I just wish it would happen, and I wish we would have been a part of it when the time was available then. We’re kind of set up right now, so football-wise, it doesn’t seem to fit us like I said. But there’s a lot of time here. We’ll see what happens.”
Carroll also said that he had absolutely no issue with Kaepernick’s stance.
“He was right on it. He was right on the topics about police brutality and inequality, and he was right on the subject matter at the time. That’s so obvious now where maybe all of the flak that flew about not honoring the flag and all the other things that were not even a part of the demonstration or what his intent was at all, that just skewed the whole discussion, I don’t think that’s around now. It’s different at this time frame.”
For the record, I interviewed Carroll about these same subjects in July 2020, and he’s always been consistent with his own messaging.
Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll is making a push for racial equality in the NFL
“I don’t think players have been respected for what they have brought to our society,” Carroll told me. “They’ve brought us the game, and an allegiance to our areas, and what we love and stand for and all of that, and they have risked so much to do that. Without them, we have nothing, Over the course of time, our players have become more versed, and more prepared to have so much to offer as we move forward. Their vision and their connection to what’s going on culturally and socially is at the essence of what’s going on right now.
“So, we should be listening to them. And I always have – I’ve always felt like that. This isn’t new. But it’s more important now than ever. Because there are a lot of white guys who don’t know what they need to know, right? And there’s a lot to be learned. There’s a lot to understand. Our history has not worked properly for us to understand the real truth and reality of what’s going on in the world of minority groups – people who deserve the same love and consideration that everybody does. So, hopefully, through listening and positioning our players… they’ve got to find their voices too, so their voices can be constructive and productive. They want to, and they will, if we give them a chance.
“It’s challenging for leadership to give the voice to the people. It’s supposed to be that way in our society, but it’s challenging, and most of the people on top try to control it. They try to manage it so they get what they want out of it. That’s not what I’m seeing here. I think it will work to our betterment if our players do have the voice, and they do have the leadership opportunities, and we follow along with them, they’re going to help us where we need to go. Particularly now.
“75% of our league is Black players. And they have the wisdom it’s necessary for us to learn from. Without an understanding of their story, we don’t understand what’s going on in the world. I’m talking about white people [not understanding]. We have to position them [Black players] to speak and teach us.”
Around that same time, Carroll expressed his regret for not signing Kaepernick when he had the chance.
“We had great meetings. I don’t know if I had ever explained it in as much depth, but we spent half a day together and he spent time with our people throughout the building and almost a full day, and he was awesome. He just backed up even more of the play that we had seen and the character and his smarts and his togetherness and his competitiveness to the point where it was so obvious that he’s a starter in the NFL. That’s what I think I eventually wound up … saying to you guys, that he was a dominant figure as a football player and that’s how we saw him.
“The fact that it didn’t work out for us, I figured he was going to wind up starting somewhere for sure, and it just didn’t happen. So the rest of that story is one that I regret that that didn’t happen in some fashion. I wish we would have contributed to it because the guy deserved to play. I thought at the time, just our situation, as a backup, man, I didn’t feel it was right at that time. So I had to make that football decision. It was about our team and the situation. We had our starting quarterback and all of that, and it wasn’t going to be the open competitive situation that I like to think all of our spots are because Russ was such a dominant figure and all that.”
Well, Russ is still a dominant figure, but he’s a dominant figure in the Mike High City. There is no sure starting quarterback in Seattle for the first time since 2011. The Seahawks’ best and most practiced route-runner is out running routes for Colin Kaepernick, who Carroll has publicly supported in an actual sympathetic and empathetic sense, as opposed to the NFL’s party line of “I’m going to say something phony and nice about Kaepernick because I don’t want to validate that the blacklist actually happened” sense.
If any NFL team is ever going to sign Colin Kaepernick and at least give him the opportunity he deserves — and I have my severe doubts at this point — there would seem to be no better time, place, head coach… or receiver.
It’s time to connect all the dots here.
