THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: What's the plan Seattle?

Pete Carroll bristles when it’s suggested the Seahawks are rebuilding.

“We’ve got the talent on this roster to compete for a Super Bowl,” says Pete, who will be 71 years old during the 2022 season.

It has been assumed that Carroll, who has a contract through 2025, would not want any part of a serious reconstruction job.

When you look at some of the moves made by Carroll and GM John Schneider, though, they almost scream out that the Seahawks are, well ...

In deference to all their past success together, we’ll describe this coming season as a retooling.

Rebooting, maybe?

Something like that.

Pete and John are perfectly aware that you don’t turn loose franchise cornerstones like QB Russell Wilson and middle linebacker Bobby Wagner if you’re imagining a deep playoff run.

Those are guys who get you there, right?

No question.

But Carroll may have more of a point in this rebuilding debate that most of us have struggled to acknowledge.

AS YOU know, the Seahawks ain’t playing baseball.

That’s a sport that requires patience, excellent scouting and instruction — and most of all, time — to create a team, or rather, an organization that can climb into a pennant hunt almost every year.

Some years you win it, some you don’t, but ...

The idea, with all of baseball’s moving parts, is to be knocking on the door pretty much all the time.

Pete Carroll no doubt admires what the Mariners next door are doing as they struggle upward — and Jerry Dipoto’s bunch had to hit bottom and work up toward daylight for three years.

And counting.

Carroll likewise knows that the NFL is a very different animal.

Cincinnati was in the league’s back lot until drafting Joe Burrow, and after one interrupted season when the kid went down with an injury ...

To quote the great John Madden ...

Boom!

They’re in the Super Bowl.

The lesson is really pretty simple.

In pro football, you’re only a quarterback away from the penthouse.

What’s more, you’re TRULY in clover if you can find an elite QB on a rookie contract (less than five years in the league), so you have plenty of money and cap space to surround him with talent.

So, if we want to decode what Carroll is telling us, his message seems to be that if the Seahawks can unearth a gifted quarterback without paying him Russell Wilson money, rebuilding never even happens.

HOWEVER ...

There’s one obvious — or at least, potential — flaw in Pete’s current plan.

Oh, and at the moment, we don’t even know the plan.

Seattle’s ideas will be revealed, most likely, during or around the NFL draft, the three-day extravaganza that begins April 28.

That’s when a few items on the Seahawks’ checklist should become obvious.

First off, have they been serious all along when they’ve claimed that Drew Lock has the talent and teachability to become one of the league’s better QBs?

Lock’s tenure in Denver, except for a five-game span as a rookie three years ago, appears to show that he’s not the answer.

Then there are possibilities in the draft.

The Hawks, with the No. 9 pick in the first round, may believe (though most scouts and personnel people would disagree) that there is a potential star QB waiting for them.

NO ONE can argue that point, not yet, but it’s worth remembering that they selected Wilson with the 75th overall pick back in 2012.

Carroll and Schneider DO know what they want, and they can profile the type of quarterback who can complement Pete’s dream of a powerhouse running game.

If the Seahawks’ future lies with a QB drafted in a couple of weeks, that probably (in their fantasy view of things) pushes their window for deep playoff runs back to starting in 2023.

If it happens at all, of course.

One last option is that they’ve perhaps coveted Baker Mayfield all along, and are waiting for Cleveland to release the former No. 1 overall pick — thus dumping his $18.86 million salary.

The thought, presumably, would be to offer a desperate Mayfield something far less, probably with an option.

Needless to say, THAT plan requires plenty of fortunate bounces.

Bottom line, maybe the Seahawks are not rebuilding, but with all due respect, Pete ...

Who’s going to steer this Super Bowl ship?

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published monthly during the off season.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”