What are the Seahawks trying to do by posting pics with top QB prospects?

The Seahawks have stressed throughout the offseason that they’re considering taking a quarterback with the No. 5 overall pick in next month’s NFL Draft. Whether that’s going to happen or not, Seattle has certainly been keeping up that appearance throughout the pre-draft process.

Want to know who Seahawks will draft? Look to the Senior Bowl

Not only have the Seahawks been front and center at the pro days of Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Alabama’s Bryce Young and Kentucky’s Will Levis (and should be at Florida’s for Anthony Richardson at a later date), but top Hawks brass including head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider have taken selfies with those three top QB prospects, with the official team account posting those photos on social media.

Meeting of the minds. pic.twitter.com/odlysE3Shf

— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) March 23, 2023

The Young and the restless pic.twitter.com/mBJo8ZDPtR

— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) March 23, 2023

Just a couple cats. 😏 pic.twitter.com/LcLHyu5kPP

— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) March 24, 2023

So what are the Seahawks trying to accomplish by posting these photos on social media? Former NFL quarterback Brock Huard and ESPN Seahawks insider Brady Henderson discussed that during Friday’s Brock and Salk on Seattle Sports.

(Note: This conversation occurred Friday morning, which was before Levis’ pro day and the picture was posted Friday afternoon.)

Henderson noted that there are plenty of top players at both Ohio State and Alabama the Seahawks could be interested in, but they still chose to take photos with Stroud and Young.

“They could have taken a selfie with Jaxon Smith-Njigba at the Ohio State pro day, they could have done one with Will Anderson at Alabama’s but no, this was the quarterbacks,” he said.

Henderson has a few thoughts on the Seahawks’ meaning with the photos.

“One is that they’re just trolling everybody because they know that everybody is going to have the same conversation, they know the airwaves are going to be filled with this exact conversation we’re having right now,” he said. “And they’re having fun with it just like Pete Carroll has fun with his pre-draft clues that I’m convinced mean absolutely nothing at all.”

Henderson said this is a different type of draft for a Seahawks regime that typically drafts near the back-end of the first round.

“I think maybe it’s a little reinvigorating compared to when you’re drafting in the 20s and you know that you’re just not that excited about the guys you know you’re going to have a chance to get at that spot. So I genuinely think they are excited about this,” he said.

“What’s fascinating about this is people might say, ‘Oh, well, it’s a smokescreen, and they’re trying to project to the world how much interest they have in these quarterbacks,'” Henderson later added. “Look, they don’t need to take selfies to do that because they’re at these pro days, right? Every team is represented at these pro days, whether it’s the head coach of the GM or a scout, so NFL teams know how represented they are, but there is this sort of show of force there.”

Henderson said this could be the Seahawks trying to send a message to the team’s players.

“The other is this is about competition, and that they are sending a message to the rest of their team – not just to Geno Smith – but just to their team in general that, ‘Look, we paid Geno Smith some money, he’s coming off a Pro Bowl season, and look at us. We’re still looking at quarterbacks.'” he said. “And what kind of message does that send to the rest of the team that ‘look, nobody is on scholarship.’ That rookie class that you just had? … ‘Guess what? We might be looking to draft your replacement in the first or second round, so nobody better be getting comfortable.'”

For Huard, he said that it’s just a different world at the top of the draft where the teams are dealing with “five-stars,” alikening it to college recruiting, which Carroll used to do when he was head coach at USC.

“This is Pete back to his recruiting of Reggie Bush. This is Pete trying to get and recruit Julio Jones down in Tuscaloosa,” Huard said. ” … This is Pete where this takes him back to that decade at USC where it’s like, ‘Hey man, I’m not getting a four-star, I’m getting a five-star.'”

“And you’ve felt that from Pete, the bounce that he calls it that they’ve all got, the juice in that building,” he later added. “If last year moving on from Russell put Pete and John in their ‘sweet spot’ as (team owner) Jody Allen said and as we’ve heard a lot, you know what the No. 5 pick does? It puts them right back in their sweet spot again for John to leverage value and for Pete just to have fun. ‘Are you kidding me? I get to go see all these kids? I get to hang with (Alabama head coach) Nick Saban?’ This is fun for Pete. Recruiting is fun for him. So I’d probably land a little bit more there than anywhere else.”

Listen to the full third hour of Friday’s Brock and Salk at this link or in the player below.

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