You'll pay more than money for mediocrity

Settling for a quarterback who's merely good is worse than drafting a bad one, and the Raiders are following the Vikings down a path the Seahawks should avoid at all costs.

The Las Vegas Raiders did not make a mistake at quarterback, they did something that’s much worse in the long run: They settled.

They settled for a quarterback they hope can be great rather than someone they believe to be so. They settled for someone who’s merely good rather than searching for someone who is great, a decision that reaks of fear instead of ambition, and since the Seahawks have gone back into the dating pool at quarterback, it’s good to look at the decisions other teams make at the most important position to see the tradeoffs those choices entail.

Because there are advantages to settling at quarterback. Settling gets you stability. Settling avoids the bottom absolutely dropping out. Settling allows you to start each season by looking your fans in the eye, saying that you’re trying our very best to win and actually meaning it even if you know deep down inside that the team is more likely to get a top-10 draft pick than to win a championship.

Settling is how you wind up extending Kirk Cousins, as the Minnesota Vikings did earlier this offseason, or recommitting to Carr, as the Raiders are doing. Settling should prompt a cold shiver to ripple down the spine of any Seahawks fan.