Field Gulls Mailbag: About Jake Bobo’s 40 time...

Welcome to another edition of the Field Gulls Mailbag, where I answer your questions posted in the comments section. All of these were submitted before the Seattle Seahawks’ preseason finale against the Green Bay Packers, and some of my answers are impacted as a result of the game. Let’s get to it!

Dre’Mont Jones being a 3-4 DE and commanding as much money as he did is probably as heavy an investment as they’ve made over the years. Generally speaking this is not an area where they’ve historically been too willing to splash the cash or draft capital. The closest we’ve seen is the desperation Sheldon Richardson trade after the Malik McDowell accident.

Otherwise you think of some other notable moves: Clinton McDonald was acquired via the Kelly Jennings trade, they inherited Brandon Mebane (3rd round pick), signed Alan Branch for two years and $7 million, signed Tony McDaniel for under $1 million in the Super Bowl season, signed Ahtyba Rubin to a one-year deal before giving him an inexpensive contract extension, the list goes on and on.

I’m not saying this is the right approach, but much like cornerback prior to this year’s draft this has been Pete’s approach. Seattle has been willing to burn through quite a bit of draft capital on the edges and at safety, but that hasn’t necessarily translated to other positions on defense.

Gambling on Jarran Reed being a good nose tackle feels dicey, for sure. I’m not sure I’m a fan of leaning heavily on d-line versatility over clearly defined roles like Big Al Woods had.

I thought I said don’t put all of your questions in one comment! I’ll answer two of them.

Other than the Packers game, which just was a snooze inducer for much of the afternoon, this has felt like the preseason of hope. We know who the quarterback is, we have a lot of intriguing young players (even the ones who haven’t played in preseason yet), and it’s allowed these games to feel a bit more relaxed. Now of course if this season goes south when the games count, we might be feeling a little different.

As far as NFC West rookies on other teams: EDGE Byron Young on the Rams, EDGE B.J. Ojulari on the Cardinals, WR Ronnie Bell on the 49ers. Actually it might be Bell over the other two, believe it or not. Any potential offensive threat in a Kyle Shanahan offense is a worry to me.

Can’t see it. He’s 36 years old and he’s got some restaurants here in Portland to tend to. I doubt he has anything left to offer at a decent NFL level.

I would not, however, be surprised if Seattle went rummaging during roster cuts for a defensive tackle or two. I’m not really sold that the run defense will improve that much this year, and we may be in for a rude awakening in the opening month.

I think he’s been fine in preseason but now he’s in concussion protocol so who knows what lies ahead? He’s a willing tackler and likes to play downhill but his last two seasons with the Steelers were alarming. His performances were definitely impacted by injury, which if nothing else has me a little worried about how Brooks will look.

Ultimately Brooks is the better player when healthy anyway, and I believe he’ll be on the team in 2024 even if it’s not a long-term deal. Bush is realistically depth/a reclamation project.

Bobo’s startlingly slow 40-time needs some context. UCLA had a rainy pro day and since Bobo didn’t go to the combine, that’s all we got to work with. Rainy conditions are (unsurprisingly) not conductive to running your best, fastest times. He’s probably not a 4.5 or 4.6 guy but 4.99 clearly doesn’t match his tape. I bet Bobo is somewhere in the 4.7s, which is still not fast for the position, but not “you’re in the wrong position” slow.

Maybe the best gauge of Bobo’s speed (or lack thereof) is what happens when (not if) he’s out there versus first-team defenses for the first time.

Obviously this was asked before the trade to the Dallas Cowboys but I figured Seattle was never interested. Sure it might have been worth a shot if Drew Lock wasn’t on the team, but otherwise I wouldn’t have parted ways with a fourth-rounder for him.

Winners and Losers is staying around. Cigar Thoughts will be in written form in addition to Jacson’s CT podcasts. This mailbag will be a twice monthly feature during the regular season, and I might make video shows a weekly feature this year but I haven’t committed to the frequency just yet. The 5 Qs and 5 As preview is back for another season and will primarily be handled by John Gilbert.

Pour some Robitussin on it and see what happens. Let that ‘Tussin get on down to the bone. You should be fine.

Thanks for all of your questions! Next one will be before the Monday Night Football game against the New York Giants, and from there we’ll try and do this twice a month.