Latest / Sea Hawkers Podcast: for Seattle Seahawks fans / Countdown to Kickoff: One More Week Until Seahawks vs Patriots

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Countdown to Kickoff: One More Week Until Seahawks vs Patriots · Sea Hawkers Podcast: for Seattle Seahawks fans

• 0:09
  Brandan: Welcome to the Sea Hawkers Podcast.
• 0:12
  I'm your host Brandan Schulze, and tonight, as we are a week out of the game
• 0:18
  against the New England Patriots, the kickoff for the 2026 NFL season, I am
• 0:24
  joined by a couple of my good buddies.
• 0:26
  We've got Clinton Bonner, and we've got managing editor of
• 0:30
  Field Gulls, Mookie Alexander.
• 0:32
  Mookie, welcome to the show.
• 0:34
  Mookie: Yeah, it's, it's good to be on.
• 0:36
  Man, it just feels weird to say that next week, next Wednesday…
• 0:38
  I, I, I know that the NFL is trying to take over every day
• 0:42
  of the week, but Wednesday Night Football just doesn't sound right.
• 0:45
  But Seahawks football being back, that sounds perfect.
• 0:47
  I mean, who are we to complain that the Seahawks get to start their season
• 0:51
  a day earlier than they normally would as Super Bowl champions?
• 0:54
  Brandan: Right.
• 0:55
  Well, Clinton, it's because, we have the, Los Angeles Rams who were taking
• 1:01
  over f- Thursday, and, my audio's freaking out, so you take over, buddy.
• 1:06
  Clinton: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:07
  It- I was about to say, this take- yeah, it's a little messed up, yes.
• 1:09
  So Mookie, when the, when the NFL came out with this Australia game, and they
• 1:13
  put the Niners and the Rams out there, and then they were like, "Oh, that's gonna be
• 1:17
  the Thursday game," I mean, it, it was…
• 1:20
  The disrespect started very early, very early, but we put our foot down.
• 1:24
  We get the Wednesday game.
• 1:26
  We keep the tradition because if you win the Super Bowl, not just handed a
• 1:30
  fake Super Bowl, not just assumed you're gonna win the next Super Bowl, Mookie.
• 1:34
  When you actually win the Super Bowl, y- you know, winners get sprinkles.
• 1:38
  Our Seahawks are indeed winners.
• 1:40
  And yeah, I mean, the Wednesday night thing's a little odd, and
• 1:45
  I just wonder if it's gonna play into any of the, the energy.
• 1:49
  You know, are people ready?
• 1:50
  Like, I, I think I'm ready, but are like…
• 1:52
  Do you think people will be like, the 12s be fully geared up and fully
• 1:56
  ready because it is a kind of an odd evening for a Wednesday night game.
• 2:01
  Mookie: Yeah, it, it, it's gonna be fascinating to see how, how the
• 2:04
  the atmosphere is like because New England j- they beat them in the Super
• 2:09
  Bowl, cool, but if it was a different opponent, I wonder if the atmosphere
• 2:11
  would be even more hyper-charged.
• 2:13
  Like imagine- Mm… if it was the immediately the Rams on opening night.
• 2:15
  Clinton: Yeah
• 2:16
  Mookie: yeah.
• 2:16
  That might be the biggest opening night game that the NFL has, has had
• 2:19
  in, in God knows how long, maybe ever, because of how thrilling all three
• 2:24
  Seahawks-Rams games were last year.
• 2:26
  But the other way I look at it, if the Seahawks had lost the NFC Championship
• 2:30
  and then the Rams beat up the Patriots in the Super Bowl, there might have
• 2:33
  been a chance they would've put the Seahawks and Niners in Australia instead.
• 2:37
  Clinton: Mm-hmm.
• 2:37
  Mookie: And Seattle would've been playing on Netflix, and I would've had
• 2:40
  to finally subscribe to them-… i- in order to watch Burt Crusher take his
• 2:44
  shirt off for, for no particular reason, just do it in another country, and then
• 2:48
  be upset that the Seahawks are being made to travel halfway around the world.
• 2:51
  So I like the, the alternate reality, the actual reality-
• 2:55
  Clinton: Yes
• 2:55
  … Mookie: of Seattle getting to host opening night against New England.
• 2:59
  Honestly, they weren't my top choice.
• 3:01
  I would've liked to play Chicago first, just- I
• 3:03
  Clinton: thought that was gonna be the game too, man.
• 3:05
  When…
• 3:05
  There was so many.
• 3:06
  We're playing, you, you mentioned last time we chatted, we're playing
• 3:08
  a lot of good quarterbacks this year.
• 3:10
  Just you play Mahomes, you play Dak, you play, you, you…
• 3:13
  We're playing Caleb, and there's several others.
• 3:15
  I thought with Chicago's juice and their run down the stretch, and they pl- they
• 3:20
  played pretty darn well in the playoffs.
• 3:22
  They, they almost won that second game.
• 3:24
  And I thought for sure it was gonna be Chicago at Seattle, and I was
• 3:29
  kinda shocked that they went with the Patriots, especially with the off-season
• 3:33
  that the Patriots had off the field.
• 3:35
  Mookie: Yeah, you know, my, my wonder about why they had New England as the
• 3:39
  immediate opponents, the, the, the Super Bowl rematch right away, is because of how
• 3:45
  easy New England's schedule was last year.
• 3:47
  Mm-hmm.
• 3:47
  They, they didn't wanna hedge…
• 3:48
  They didn't wanna risk that game being put in, like, week nine or 10 or
• 3:52
  something, and it turns out New England was a schedule merchant last year, so
• 3:55
  you might as well do it right away.
• 3:57
  And it is, it, it is a different match-up.
• 3:58
  New England has got some high-profile additions to their offense, and the
• 4:03
  Seahawks had some high-profile departures on offense, and mostly defense.
• 4:06
  So, it, it is not gonna be the exact same game just for those reasons.
• 4:10
  Seattle's gonna have, you know, a different starting running
• 4:13
  back, Super Bowl MVP's gone.
• 4:14
  New England's gonna have different top two wide receivers.
• 4:17
  they're, they're not gonna have, you know, Ja- Jared Wilson playing at
• 4:22
  guard, they're gonna have him at center.
• 4:23
  So it's still fascinating for, for, for different reasons to see- Yeah
• 4:27
  … what, what happens this go around.
• 4:28
  I mean, we're, we're aware of the Super Bowl rematch from the last
• 4:32
  time, when Seattle played Denver, blew 'em out in, in the Meadowlands.
• 4:35
  And then the next year they play 'em in, I think, week three, and it was a very, very
• 4:41
  different game- Mm… because the Broncos were able to, to peck away at Seattle's
• 4:44
  defense toward the end, only for, Russ and Marshawn to put 'em to bed.
• 4:48
  But that's probably the game that the NFL actually hoped would happen, and maybe
• 4:52
  that's what happens in this game, where it's more competitive, it's closer, but
• 4:56
  in the end the Seahawks still win and prove themselves as the rightful champs.
• 4:59
  Brandan: Well, you know, how do we- Do you really believe it's gonna
• 5:01
  be more competitive though, Mookie?
• 5:03
  Mookie: It's hard for it to be less competitive.
• 5:06
  I mean, that was a very deceiving 29 to 13 score line.
• 5:09
  Like, if Seattle's- That's true… red zone offense had, had fixed itself
• 5:13
  during the game, they, they could've dropped 40-something on them, so.
• 5:16
  Clinton: Oh, or if Gonzo didn't make, you know, two probably saving
• 5:20
  touchdown, defe- pass PBUs, that game was, had blowout…
• 5:24
  It was blowout anyway.
• 5:25
  But Brandan, you, are you fully back?
• 5:26
  You feeling good?
• 5:27
  Brandan: I, I feel great.
• 5:28
  Clinton: You feel great?
• 5:29
  Okay, good.
• 5:29
  Yeah.
• 5:29
  Mookie: Okay.
• 5:30
  So, so robot Brandan is gone.
• 5:31
  Clinton: Yeah.
• 5:32
  Which is, which is nice.
• 5:33
  And I know we got other topics to talk with Mookie about as well, Brandan, so
• 5:36
  I don't know where you wanna take it, but, but I've got some takes as well on
• 5:39
  this, this Pats-Seahawks game coming up.
• 5:41
  But, you know, we had a plan, and then of course you get punched in the, punched
• 5:44
  in the face by robot, Brandan.
• 5:46
  Where do you wanna take us, buddy?
• 5:47
  Brandan: well, yeah, let's start off, b- before we get more into the
• 5:50
  game with the Patriots, why don't we talk a little bit about where we are
• 5:54
  with the Seahawks roster, Mookie, because we had the cut down to 53/70.
• 5:59
  And, how are you feeling overall?
• 6:03
  Like wh- when you look at this roster, do you have any major concerns?
• 6:07
  And don't say Jason Myers because-… we, I think we're all concerned
• 6:11
  about Jason Myers right now.
• 6:13
  Mookie: Yeah, so on offense, I don't really have any concerns.
• 6:16
  Th- there's depth at every position, a- at least three deep.
• 6:20
  at wide receiver, depending on what happens with Torrey Horton.
• 6:23
  tight end we know is gonna be strong and maybe stronger with
• 6:26
  the way Elijah Arroyo has performed throughout camp and preseason.
• 6:29
  You're gonna have the same starting offensive line as last year.
• 6:32
  Sam Darnold's gonna still be there.
• 6:34
  We get to see Mr.
• 6:35
  Price and, and finally get to see him in, in live game action instead of
• 6:38
  in training camp reps, of which there were very few for the public to see.
• 6:43
  so the offense I'm not concerned about from a roster standpoint.
• 6:47
  Defensively is a little different.
• 6:49
  Ed Russian group is, is good without it being super strong, and you have
• 6:53
  to keep in mind that this is the last year for DeMarcus Lawrence and Donte
• 6:58
  Fowler has, has kind of been a, a journeyman at this stage of his career.
• 7:00
  And while I expect him to at least match Boye Mafe's production
• 7:04
  it's not a total guarantee.
• 7:05
  as far as the secondary, that's, that's gonna be interesting because
• 7:11
  at cornerback you know it's gonna be Joe Witherspoon and Pritchett.
• 7:14
  I think Pritchett did well enough to kind of lock down some
• 7:17
  playing time to start the year.
• 7:19
  After that, it's anybody's guess.
• 7:20
  They trade for, for Avery Smith, the undrafted rookie from, Toledo, and
• 7:25
  so they give up a six to the Chargers.
• 7:27
  Trevon Diggs is, is waiting in the wings on the ready squad
• 7:30
  to see i- if he needs a…
• 7:32
  He said on Hard Knocks he thinks he needs a couple of weeks to ramp up.
• 7:35
  Mm-hmm.
• 7:35
  So I'm wondering if we're gonna see him get some elevations, game day
• 7:39
  elevations during the season, and then at some point week five or six-ish
• 7:43
  they decide we're just gonna assign you directly to the active roster.
• 7:47
  But needless to say, replacing Rick Whelan as that sort of, I know it's
• 7:51
  easy to say CB3, but if you look at the stat counts that he had and Josh
• 7:55
  Jobe had, it's almost like it was 2A
• 7:58
  Clinton: 2B.
• 7:58
  Mm-hmm.
• 7:58
  Mookie: In the same way that Charbonnet Walker was 1A, 1B.
• 8:01
  So we'll see how those, those snaps get allocated.
• 8:04
  Riq Woolen snaps that is, get allocated under this new defense.
• 8:08
  And then safety Who knows about Nick Emmanwori?
• 8:11
  I think he's gonna play.
• 8:12
  I mean, Hard Knocks did a very good job of, of kind of, calming us
• 8:16
  down as far as how his rehab is going, but I don't like hearing how his
• 8:19
  ankle's still sore, you know, that deep into preseason as far as practicing.
• 8:23
  but they- there's definitely a, a situation where I think they're gonna
• 8:28
  have to either elevate or straight promote somebody to active roster from the ready
• 8:34
  squad, in the longer term, whether it's Rodney Thomas, AJ Finley, or Maxen
• 8:37
  Hook, 'cause you can't really roll with three safeties the whole season.
• 8:41
  Right.
• 8:41
  Meaning Okada, Love, and Iman Worley.
• 8:44
  Iman Worley is, is basically he, he's a safety by name, and then
• 8:50
  when you watch him play, he's, he's pretty much a linebacker.
• 8:53
  so I, I, I think that they're gonna be, still tinkering there.
• 8:57
  The Bud Clark injury just changed so much with that safety room.
• 9:00
  Yeah
• 9:00
  that, that definitely was a, was a real bummer, the biggest
• 9:03
  bummer of preseason for me.
• 9:05
  Overall, this roster is, is still great.
• 9:08
  Is it as sexy as the Rams roster?
• 9:10
  Not really, but I will take Seattle's top to bottom over the Rams' top to bottom.
• 9:16
  As far as the Rams, like one through 22, when you look at the offense
• 9:19
  and defense, all the big names, that's a different conversation.
• 9:22
  But when you're talking about depth, which is what helped carry the Seahawks
• 9:25
  through last season, it's still Seattle
• 9:28
  Brandan: It's interesting though that your mind goes more toward the
• 9:31
  concerns on defense, because with head coach Mike Macdonald leading us to a
• 9:37
  Super Bowl, like, it feels like more of the turnover to be concerned about
• 9:41
  is with, the, the new offensive coordinator, and, you know, not really
• 9:46
  having a, a solid idea on the run game.
• 9:49
  But, you know, maybe, maybe you're just more of the mind of, hey, put anybody
• 9:53
  back there as long as the offensive line, continues to do what they do.
• 9:57
  It, it…
• 9:57
  Who's toting the rock doesn't matter so much.
• 10:00
  Mookie: I think it will matter to an extent.
• 10:01
  I'm not sure.
• 10:02
  I know George Holani's listed as RB1 on the unofficial depth chart
• 10:06
  and I have to say that almost like it's a, a sponsorship read.
• 10:09
  It's the unofficial depth chart.
• 10:11
  Brandan: Sure.
• 10:11
  Mookie: so I, I
• 10:13
  Brandan: expect Holani- But, but strangely everybody is in the right spot.
• 10:15
  Mookie: Yes.
• 10:15
  just about everybody's in the right spot.
• 10:17
  I imagine Holani's gonna get a good set of carries throughout the, the
• 10:21
  first few weeks of the season if for one thing, even if he's not an every
• 10:24
  down back in the sense that I don't think he's a, the type of back who
• 10:28
  who merits, like, 15 or 20 carries a game, he is by far the best protec- pass
• 10:32
  protecting back on this roster right now.
• 10:35
  and Jadarian Price, he's a work in progress there, and getting to
• 10:39
  see it, the one practice that Price was there and I was there, I can
• 10:43
  see him getting coached up a lot by Thomas Hammock over on the sideline
• 10:47
  as far as his working on his pass pro.
• 10:49
  So, Price will get his carries, no doubt about it.
• 10:52
  he is essentially the home run hitter on this team in theory.
• 10:56
  Emmanuel Wilson will get a few touches here and there, but I, I'm, I'm bullish
• 11:00
  on the offense being better than last year, and the offense last year was good.
• 11:03
  Clinton: Mm.
• 11:03
  Mookie: Very good at times, but there were some inconsistencies toward
• 11:06
  the end of the season where I go, when defense is adjusted to not playing
• 11:11
  light box, you know, not selling out to stop the run, and then keying in on
• 11:15
  JSN a little bit more, we saw some ugly moments on, on the offensive side of
• 11:20
  the ball where if they weren't getting short fields, they weren't scoring.
• 11:23
  So, or, or they were kicking field goals instead of getting touchdowns.
• 11:26
  So I think that Brian Fleury, might have some growing pains as a play caller.
• 11:30
  There's gonna be a lot about sequencing to me more than play concepts.
• 11:34
  Ultimately, though, he's gonna keep a lot of the Kubiak stuff.
• 11:36
  I'm curious to see what happens with, the wrinkles in his version of, of the
• 11:41
  offense, and Sam Darnold I think is poised to be even better than he was last year.
• 11:45
  So the offense I don't really have big concerns about.
• 11:48
  I just hope that their non-play action passing, the straight drop back
• 11:51
  game, is smoother than last year's.
• 11:53
  That's where I think Kubiak fell a little bit short.
• 11:55
  Defensively is where more people were lost.
• 11:58
  Like, you lose Reek, you lose Kobe Bryant, and you lose Boye Mafe.
• 12:02
  So those are the three.
• 12:04
  It's more the secondary for me and whether or not- You know, can, can the
• 12:08
  Reek snaps be replaced effectively?
• 12:11
  And then with Coby, it's, it's less about him being like this
• 12:13
  super, super key contributor.
• 12:14
  He's a very valuable player for Seattle those last couple of, seasons.
• 12:18
  But Ty Okada as a full-time starter, as well as he played last
• 12:22
  year, he was still just a, a sub.
• 12:24
  So now he's the unquestioned starter, and there's no real backup
• 12:28
  for him at the, at the moment, as opposed to like maybe Bud Clark gets
• 12:31
  some, you know, sub package looks.
• 12:33
  So I, I'm very interested to see what happens at the back end and how that
• 12:37
  affects things in Macdonald's defense.
• 12:38
  I'm sure Macdonald will find a way, but y- you still have to have the bodies.
• 12:43
  Clinton: Mookie laid a lot out there, so I wanna go kind of around
• 12:46
  the horn a little bit with it, meaning around what he laid out.
• 12:49
  So first thing for me with the, the roster itself is you mentioned
• 12:54
  Mookie, that, you know, Delaw is gonna retire, or he says he's gonna retire.
• 12:58
  And we're a little long in the tooth along the parts of the defensive line, and
• 13:01
  then the edge group is not a young group.
• 13:04
  I was kinda shocked that we let Jamie Sheriff leave the building.
• 13:07
  the guy could do a thing, and that's rush the passer.
• 13:10
  And he can mix bull rush with getting around, getting around the edge
• 13:13
  with just, just some speed, and he was still a work in progress.
• 13:16
  He's… I, you know, I think he signed with the Rams o- on their practice
• 13:19
  squad, so see what happens there.
• 13:21
  Another one was DeAnthony Bell.
• 13:22
  We got some depth problems at sa- well, challenges at safety.
• 13:26
  We don't know about problems.
• 13:27
  And they l- let a guy go who did a job, you know, who did a, did a pretty damn
• 13:31
  … So much so that they gave him a ring after he was claimed by Carolina and got ousted.
• 13:35
  They were like, "You know what?
• 13:36
  You still deserve a ring."
• 13:37
  so tho- those are some interesting choices for me that I… I mean
• 13:41
  hey, they know the room better than I do, but I didn't love those choices.
• 13:45
  Flipping it to the offensive side, I always like to see, even though
• 13:48
  it's week one, I like to start looking at what does Vegas think?
• 13:51
  I don't mean the Vegas Raiders, I mean Vegas, Vegas.
• 13:53
  What do they think about who's gonna get the most yards, right?
• 13:57
  So I was looking at this this morning.
• 13:58
  They actually got, Jadarian Price as the, the most likely to get
• 14:03
  the most yards in the entire game.
• 14:05
  So that would include, you know, Rhamondre, if Trey Henderson's healthy
• 14:08
  it includes any, any other Seahawk.
• 14:10
  And his over-under was like 51 and a half yards rushing, which
• 14:13
  would lead the game actually.
• 14:15
  So just interesting that their Vegas thinks that, Jadarian
• 14:19
  will actually be basically RB one.
• 14:22
  Maybe not the first dude to get the first touch, but Brandan, they're saying
• 14:26
  when it all compiles at the end of the day, Price might be the guy that is
• 14:30
  is carrying the day for our Seahawks.
• 14:32
  Brandan: Yeah.
• 14:32
  Might be a good tip there for Gambling Goat, who is in chat
• 14:35
  saying, "Is Wilson healthy?"
• 14:36
  Mm.
• 14:36
  If he is, I'd assume he'd be RB one due to what I've heard during training camp.
• 14:41
  And based off of…
• 14:44
  It seemed like- We were hearing different things throughout training camp because
• 14:50
  a little bit of Wilson, y- based on the depth chart, a little bit of
• 14:55
  Holani, especially when the final, 53 came out and he was listed as RB1.
• 15:02
  But they made an interesting decision, Mookie, of not really playing any
• 15:06
  starters throughout the preseason.
• 15:08
  And when it, that also included Ja- Jadarian Price, it made you think
• 15:15
  and, and it kind of led to that idea of, okay, well maybe they've seen
• 15:19
  enough to where he is elevated to that level, they don't wanna see him get
• 15:23
  hurt along with all the other starters that they're keeping out of camp.
• 15:27
  Mookie: Yeah, and then when you see Buck Clark get injured the same
• 15:30
  week that Macdonald said, "We've, we've al-" or he might not have said
• 15:35
  it, Greg Bell reported it, that we've seen enough of, of Jadarian in camp and
• 15:39
  practices to know that he can be full go.
• 15:41
  He'll get his live reps against actual first teamers.
• 15:45
  you know, opposition first teamers, that is.
• 15:48
  Emmanuel Wilson, from what I saw, he, he looked a little, I, I, I'd say
• 15:52
  he looked a little faster than I thought because there is the one infamous play
• 15:57
  of him running for, for what was like a 19-yard loss against the Vikings
• 16:01
  in the, in the regular season finale.
• 16:03
  And don't get me wrong, Emmanuel Wilson cannot do the Kenneth Walker
• 16:07
  he can't dance in the backfield- Mm
• 16:08
  make people miss that, no.
• 16:09
  He, he's a very much a one-cut north/south guy.
• 16:13
  or if it's a outside zone play, he can follow his blockers
• 16:16
  and then get up the field.
• 16:17
  If you see him dancing in the backfield, we have got an issue a-
• 16:21
  and I'd just rather burn that play.
• 16:24
  but I, I think he's gonna be N- not a change of pace back, but more
• 16:29
  of a guy to get the tough yards.
• 16:31
  So Holani could get tough yards, I'm not saying he can't
• 16:33
  but Wilson's a bigger body.
• 16:35
  And he also seems to have soft hands out of the backfield, so he could be a
• 16:38
  little, you know, a receiving back option.
• 16:40
  So, y- you know, Emanuel Wilson doesn't have a lot of…
• 16:43
  It, it's funny.
• 16:44
  With this running back room, for as long as Charbonnet is out, there's
• 16:47
  very little f- like proven down to down experience on the team.
• 16:50
  Price is a rookie.
• 16:51
  Holani barely has any NFL carries.
• 16:54
  And then Emanuel Wilson, last year, he got the bulk of his
• 16:57
  carries really in the starts in which Josh Jacobs was out injured.
• 17:01
  So th- there's just no definitive RB1 on this team just due
• 17:05
  to a lack of NFL experience.
• 17:07
  So I can understand the, the rotation that they're gonna have these guys go through.
• 17:11
  And then when Charbonnet comes back, let's be real, Charbonnet has no
• 17:15
  history as a running back one either.
• 17:16
  Brandan: Hmm.
• 17:16
  Mookie: There's a reason why he was splitting snaps with Walker
• 17:19
  in the first place, instead of just overtaking him altogether.
• 17:21
  So, yeah, I agree with, Dogzilla, Dogzilla rather.
• 17:25
  that, Price Price is gonna get the majority of the carries in
• 17:30
  some early games, but not week one.
• 17:31
  Yes, they're gonna kinda like ease him into it.
• 17:33
  And it's not too dissimilar to what Seattle did with, like, Kenneth
• 17:36
  Walker when Rashaad Penny was getting the bulk of the carries
• 17:39
  early, and then Penny got hurt.
• 17:41
  So hopefully there's no injury repeat there.
• 17:44
  But, I, I definitely believe that Price is gonna be eased in, as opposed
• 17:48
  to, like, a full throttle thing.
• 17:49
  But this running game, I, I think is gonna be fascinating to watch.
• 17:54
  I'm not saying it's gonna be as explosive as last year's
• 17:56
  but it can be more efficient.
• 17:57
  You know, explosive and efficient don't always have to have to be the same thing.
• 18:01
  You can be efficient but not explosive, and that to me describes somebody
• 18:05
  like Emanuel Wilson in this offense.
• 18:06
  He can get you, you know, five yards here and there.
• 18:09
  He can convert third and one by getting you two yards.
• 18:12
  You're not gonna be relying on Emanuel Wilson to get fif- a 50-yard run
• 18:15
  whereas you could say that for Jadarian Price, maybe less so George Holani.
• 18:19
  And I'd say Zach Charbonnet is capable of that, even if he's not
• 18:22
  as explosive as Kenneth Walker.
• 18:23
  So running game's gonna be a big, big watch for us.
• 18:26
  I hope we're not a three yards and cloud of dust type of offense this
• 18:29
  year, with, a very expensive wide receiver, most expensive
• 18:33
  receiver in the NFL on the roster.
• 18:35
  So, what I believe, the passing game, if that improves, if they're like a top
• 18:41
  five passing offense and they're not as reliant on Smith-Njigba, they can
• 18:44
  spread it out to Shaheed, Horton, Kupp.
• 18:48
  Spread it out to, to AJ Barner, Elijah Arroyo.
• 18:51
  Give it to the backs a few times out of the backfield, g- have them
• 18:54
  running actual routes instead of check downs or moving out the flat.
• 18:57
  The diversity of attack in the passing game could make Seattle
• 19:00
  really difficult to defend.
• 19:02
  Brandan: Yeah, Mookie responding to the question in chat about whether or not this
• 19:05
  offense is gonna be more three yards and a cloud of dust type of offense this year.
• 19:09
  And I, I would say to Doo Daddy, who's asking that question, I, I have
• 19:14
  to think that based off of What we've come to learn about Coach Mike Macdonald
• 19:19
  and the way they ran a pretty balanced attack last year is that he still wants
• 19:25
  to be the type of, have that type of offense where they attack on the
• 19:30
  ground, they're balanced, but they still continue to hunt those explosive plays.
• 19:34
  And I think that even with some of the things that we've seen from even the
• 19:39
  opening drives, even though it's not the starters, kind of those scripted
• 19:42
  drives, is it does seem to be that Coach Fleury is, is trying to run plays that
• 19:48
  then set up those explosive chunk plays.
• 19:50
  Clinton: I think the other piece too is, and we'll, we'll learn, w- we, and
• 19:54
  we probably won't even learn it after week one, 'cause like week one last year
• 19:59
  that was not, that was not I didn't even say, I don't wanna think about it, but
• 20:02
  we lost to the Niners, but it didn't matter at the end of the day, right?
• 20:05
  So it wasn't, it wasn't like evidence of what was to come.
• 20:08
  But I think we're gonna see fairly, fairly early with Fleury, and this is because
• 20:12
  of the way that they motion the running backs a lot in the Fleury offense versus
• 20:16
  what Kubiak does, is that he generates more opportunities for shorter free yards.
• 20:23
  And I, I don't know about you guys, I like short free yards in, in the NFL.
• 20:27
  If you, if, if it's first down, it's like, okay, that's a freebie of fi-
• 20:30
  five, six yards and get you into a really good position, and then you can
• 20:33
  really start, as you're saying, Brandan, sort of be a bit more aggressive
• 20:37
  and kinda hunt for those chunk plays.
• 20:38
  I think Fleury will do the job of, of finding ways to consistently get those
• 20:45
  little bit of free yards, and, and often that means using the running backs more
• 20:50
  with more intent as pass catchers, which the Niners absolutely did a lot of
• 20:55
  and Seattle did, simply did less of.
• 20:57
  So it's, some stuff to watch for pretty early on.
• 21:01
  I think we're gonna see it based on, you know, based on Fleury's track record and
• 21:04
  kinda the tree he's coming from, Mookie.
• 21:08
  Mookie: Yeah, definitely.
• 21:08
  We see it with, with McCaffrey.
• 21:10
  and of course he's the most obvious example, as far as a, a running
• 21:15
  back who's also a gifted receiving back.
• 21:17
  But I'm not expecting anybody on Seattle's roster to basically
• 21:20
  produce like CMC, because McCaffrey's just, he, he's a supreme…
• 21:24
  He's an outlier.
• 21:25
  but the concept, the idea of getting the backs involved more in the passing
• 21:29
  game, through actual route running, maybe isolate them against a linebacker-
• 21:33
  Clinton: Mm.
• 21:33
  Mookie: You know, get them in, get them into space, get them on a, a, a wheel
• 21:36
  route, get them on those, one of those angle routes where they're fake to the
• 21:39
  outside and then kind of slant inside.
• 21:42
  Those are areas where I think that Fleury's gonna try and incorporate
• 21:45
  more of that into the offense.
• 21:47
  And yes, those free yards underneath, they matter a lot because as great
• 21:50
  as Seattle's offense was at times last year, they were horrible when
• 21:53
  it came to converting third and long.
• 21:55
  Clinton: Mm-hmm.
• 21:56
  Mookie: So they, they e- even, you know, with the exception of the weird
• 21:59
  three or four times where they kept getting touchdowns or big plays on
• 22:02
  third and 15 give up handoffs, when it was third and 10 plus, I believe
• 22:06
  they were dead last in converting.
• 22:08
  So and that's, that's not new to Seahawks fans.
• 22:11
  We, we've seen this many times before with previous offenses and
• 22:14
  coordinators and quarterbacks.
• 22:15
  But if they can stay ahead of the chains, totally changes the playbook
• 22:20
  changes the play calling situation.
• 22:21
  You're not in obvious down and distances where everybody knows you're
• 22:25
  gonna be throwing the ball, and I think that also impacts Price too.
• 22:30
  You're probably not gonna see Ja- Jadarian Price on the field if it's
• 22:33
  third and nine, and the defense is gearing up to blitz and they see a
• 22:39
  weak spot in the pass protection.
• 22:41
  Third down and three- Very different outcome.
• 22:44
  You could have, you could have two backs there.
• 22:47
  I saw some of, of, some two back looks with Fleury's offense as some
• 22:51
  of the play calls with the first teamers out there in training camp.
• 22:54
  So it's something that they're, they're definitely looking to, to incorporate.
• 22:58
  And yes, I, I do remember Clinton, week one, Clint Kubiak fooled us all
• 23:03
  for a day- Yes… by running one play action pass the entire game.
• 23:07
  Brandan: It's crazy.
• 23:07
  Mookie: And I'm sure Macdonald was seething, as was I.
• 23:10
  And the next week against Pittsburgh, that looked a lot more like
• 23:13
  the offense we expected to see.
• 23:14
  A lot of play action shots, some work in the underneath
• 23:17
  work in the intermediate, work in the middle of the field.
• 23:20
  so I don't think that Fleury's gonna make that same
• 23:23
  mistake, the week one mistake.
• 23:26
  Play action is at the heart of this offense.
• 23:28
  It, it, it's what makes it flow so well, both for the passing
• 23:32
  game and the running game.
• 23:33
  Even when the running game struggles, the play action pass game has been so
• 23:36
  deadly for the Seahawks, and it doesn't have to be play action shot plays.
• 23:39
  Mm-hmm.
• 23:40
  It doesn't have to be a, a shot play to JSN or a dig route
• 23:43
  to, to Shaheed or whatever.
• 23:45
  It can be that little boot action and you've got AJ Barner coming in on a
• 23:49
  crossing route or something, getting an underneath route and turning that
• 23:52
  up field for, for yards after catch.
• 23:54
  Because we know w- watching the 49ers over the years, how often they use
• 23:58
  that with George Kittle, and just Shanahan offenses in general, they
• 24:01
  kill you with yards after catch.
• 24:03
  Seattle finally figured out how to stop that last year, and now the goal is for
• 24:07
  Seattle to be a YAC monster as well.
• 24:10
  Brandan: We've got Johnny A in chat saying, "Hit that like button."
• 24:13
  Yes.
• 24:14
  Yeah.
• 24:14
  Joining us live, please hit the like.
• 24:16
  If you're new here, hit the subscribe button.
• 24:18
  And I, I do wanna get back to previewing this matchup between the Seahawks and
• 24:23
  the Patriots next week- Mm… Mookie.
• 24:24
  But, you guys over at SB Nation, at Field Gulls, you've got
• 24:28
  a new phone app that I think, people are gonna wanna know about.
• 24:32
  And, it's going to help people get themselves ready for the football season.
• 24:37
  Mookie: Yes, we do.
• 24:38
  If you have not heard or read the news, then, September 1st marked
• 24:43
  the start of the SB Nation app.
• 24:46
  Now, I must stress that for the time being, this is only available to
• 24:49
  users based in the United States, and we are hoping that over the
• 24:54
  weeks and months to come, that it will launch, it'll be available
• 24:56
  for download, around the world.
• 24:58
  Certainly, Canada would be an obvious place to, to launch next.
• 25:03
  But SB Nation, if you wanna see Field Gulls, Lookout Landing if you're a
• 25:08
  Mariners fan, Blazers Edge if you're a Portland Trail Blazers fan
• 25:12
  regrettably like me, or UW Dog Pound i- if you're a Washington Huskies fan.
• 25:17
  If you wanna just go browse all of those SB Nation communities, instead
• 25:21
  of going on your browser on your phone and having to type in the URL every
• 25:24
  time and have it drain your battery like crazy, you have the option on
• 25:28
  the SB Nation app to just follow all those communities, swipe right, swipe
• 25:32
  right, swipe right or swipe back left.
• 25:34
  so if you just follow Field Gulls, that's fine.
• 25:37
  You can see when, when Sea Hawkers has podcast episodes that they
• 25:41
  have up on, on, on the site.
• 25:44
  You'll be able to see that.
• 25:45
  it, it's, it's really, it's a game changer for us at SB Nation and at Field
• 25:50
  Goals, especially with the ease of use, the fact that there are push
• 25:54
  notifications now for every comment, that, that happens in a post that you make
• 26:00
  or if somebody replies to your comment.
• 26:02
  I, I can't say whether or not we will have push notifications
• 26:06
  for when new articles come out, but that's a feature that I'm, I'm sure
• 26:09
  is gonna be requested and I think that they would gladly implement it.
• 26:12
  We'll see about that.
• 26:13
  But, definitely download the SB Nation app.
• 26:16
  It is available on both the Apple Store and, at Google Play I
• 26:20
  believe for, for Android users.
• 26:22
  Brandan: Yep.
• 26:22
  Mookie: And it's free.
• 26:23
  Must stress that heavily that it is free.
• 26:26
  There are no in-app purchases.
• 26:27
  and another thing a- as far as joining the Field Gulls community, it is as simple
• 26:32
  as just having an email address, username, and a password, and you're all good to go.
• 26:38
  So definitely check out the SB Nation app.
• 26:40
  It is a lifesaver as far as wanting to just hang out with your fellow Seahawks
• 26:44
  fans or Huskies fans or Mariners fans or in the case of Clinton, Mets fans.
• 26:48
  And, the comments section on game day is gonna be awesome because we have a
• 26:54
  revamped, improved live game chat feature.
• 26:56
  So like how these comments are populating in real time over on YouTube or on
• 27:01
  Twitter, on Facebook or wherever this is being streamed, that is what also applies
• 27:05
  on the SB Nation app over at Field Gulls.
• 27:08
  You even have a notification half hour before kickoff of every Seahawks
• 27:11
  game that when it's game time, there's gonna be a little live button.
• 27:15
  You can hop in and there'll be live mode that's turned on
• 27:18
  but you can also toggle it off.
• 27:20
  And, for those of you who have very poor vision like me, yes
• 27:23
  this app is available in dark mode.
• 27:25
  It can adjust to dark mode on your phone setting if you
• 27:28
  already got it on dark mode.
• 27:29
  But if you don't, if you use it- You know, just within the app, you can do that too.
• 27:33
  So download that app.
• 27:34
  Can't stress it enough, the SB Nation app rules, and, we're looking to make
• 27:39
  it even better with your feedback too.
• 27:40
  Brandan: Yeah, I've already got it downloaded, and it is…
• 27:43
  Just even if you are used to going to Field Gulls on the website every day, it
• 27:48
  it's just that much easier to log on to the app, pull up all the articles, and
• 27:52
  and you can get to everything right there.
• 27:54
  So, definitely go check that out.
• 27:56
  Patriots coming up, Mookie.
• 27:58
  And we…
• 28:00
  Well, Clinton talked a little bit about, maybe the offense starting a little
• 28:04
  bit slow, but I, I look at this def- this defense for the Patriots, and
• 28:10
  I see a lot of similar names, right?
• 28:12
  They, they did add Dre'Mont Jones, which is a familiar name, but, not a name
• 28:16
  that, I think we were all that excited about after his time here in Seattle.
• 28:20
  Christian Barmore, of course, up the middle with Milton Williams
• 28:24
  so they, they bring back that, defensive interior group that I
• 28:28
  know a lot of people are concerned about, but we didn't see much of.
• 28:31
  And then one of their biggest issues, Mookie, is that Christian Gonzalez
• 28:36
  continues to not have a contract, and I, I have to imagine that he would
• 28:42
  play week one, but is it guaranteed?
• 28:46
  Mookie: It might not be.
• 28:46
  I, I admit, as somebody who is very much on the side of players secure in the
• 28:51
  bag, with- within reason of course, I think if I was a Patriots fan, I would
• 28:55
  be disappointed if Gonzalez did not suit up for week one, did not play week one
• 28:59
  when he has two years left on his deal.
• 29:00
  'Cause they picked up his fifth year, to my knowledge.
• 29:03
  Brandan: Right.
• 29:03
  Mookie: It's not like he, he, he's facing free agency at the end of the year.
• 29:06
  He has the rest of this year, and he has all of the season after
• 29:10
  that on a significant pay bump for a guy who was a first round pick.
• 29:13
  so if he sits out, I am not gonna complain one bit, because that
• 29:17
  dude is a phenomenal cornerback, and, Jackson Smith-Njigba's
• 29:20
  eyes are g- are gonna light up.
• 29:22
  I mean, s- it's not like New England has bad other corners.
• 29:25
  Like Carlton Davis, Marcus Jones, they're capable players, but they're
• 29:28
  not as good as Christian Gonzalez.
• 29:30
  Brandan: Sure.
• 29:30
  Mookie: So, th- there are definitely some question marks
• 29:32
  about New England's defense as far as Gonzalez's availability.
• 29:35
  I think it was mentioned in the chat already, they're not
• 29:37
  gonna have, Harold Landry.
• 29:39
  He's already on the PUP list.
• 29:40
  Yeah.
• 29:41
  K'Lavon Chaisson's gone, so they sub in with, with Dre'Mont Jones.
• 29:44
  Christian Barmore, I, I, I believe he had, blood clots
• 29:49
  or something, and that was part of why he, he missed so much time.
• 29:52
  it was either last year or the year before.
• 29:54
  But there was a reason why, why Barmore was not around
• 29:57
  you know, from start to finish.
• 29:59
  But still, New England's got a respectable team.
• 30:02
  I'm not gonna, you know, write off, write them off by any means.
• 30:06
  But we also saw that Seattle's offense, even though they didn't finish their
• 30:11
  drives, they were able to exploit New England's defense pretty consistently in
• 30:15
  the run game, and that's even with all the blitzing New England did in that game.
• 30:19
  So, what I am fascinated by, what will be key for next Wednesday, are they gonna
• 30:25
  just blitz the hell out of Sam Darnold the way they did the, in the Super Bowl?
• 30:28
  Because they blitzed him on, like, 60% of his dropbacks.
• 30:31
  Sure.
• 30:32
  I might be making that number up, but it certainly felt that way.
• 30:34
  Right.
• 30:34
  And in the first half, Darnold, you could tell, was a little skittish.
• 30:37
  He was making some chancy throws that, that, that admittedly
• 30:41
  had me a little bit nervous.
• 30:43
  And then he settled down in the second half.
• 30:45
  Kubiak had some blitz beaters.
• 30:47
  New England, e- eventually the, the well had to dry up.
• 30:49
  So, i- when it comes to this matchup, the Seahawks rushing offense, if it is
• 30:55
  as good as it was in the Super Bowl, New England's gonna be in trouble.
• 30:58
  But if that gets bottled up, then that passing game versus New
• 31:03
  England's secondary is gonna be a really, really fun one to see.
• 31:06
  And, they also gained, Kevin Byard from the Chicago Bears.
• 31:10
  Mm-hmm.
• 31:11
  And if nothing else, even though Byard has been around for, for, for
• 31:13
  a good while, and You know, he's probably not gonna be at this level
• 31:17
  of getting as many picks as he does.
• 31:19
  He is a ball hawk, and you don't wanna be messing around with Kevin Byard
• 31:23
  you know, in, in the general area.
• 31:25
  So, that, that's gonna be another to be considerable
• 31:29
  dynamic in this, in this matchup.
• 31:31
  So again, it's a Super Bowl rematch, and at the same time it really isn't
• 31:36
  because you got so many new cast, cast members on, on both sides.
• 31:40
  Clinton: Yeah.
• 31:40
  The…
• 31:41
  I think the most, one of the p- places to really focus is gonna be on that
• 31:44
  edge group for the Patriots, 'cause I just don't think it's all that.
• 31:47
  I just don't think it's all that.
• 31:48
  You know, it's, it's not…
• 31:50
  They don't have, star talent on the edge group, and then behind
• 31:53
  it it's seemingly very, very thin.
• 31:57
  So when they start to rotate players in, maybe if you, if, if Seattle has
• 32:00
  some, early success and they need to rotate some dudes in, it is not an
• 32:05
  impressive roster even beyond their, their starting two or three edge guys.
• 32:10
  So can we exploit that?
• 32:11
  Can, can Fleury exploit that?
• 32:12
  We know that Jadarian Price is seemingly very, very good kind of against the grain
• 32:18
  like reading things and cutting back, you know, cutting back the other way.
• 32:21
  Can we get some overcommits and get some big chunk plays where we
• 32:25
  see Price getting around this, I think, very lackluster edge group?
• 32:29
  And you mentioned Lander being on the pup.
• 32:30
  That's just, that's a huge loss.
• 32:32
  Linebackers are…
• 32:33
  You know, Spillane's a nice player.
• 32:34
  They're okay.
• 32:35
  if Gonzo's not there it completely changes the, the dynamic
• 32:39
  for, for their, for their defense.
• 32:41
  But guys, that, that side of the ball is still probably…
• 32:46
  It's, it's pretty good but, you know, Brandan, if I had to ask you
• 32:49
  "Hey, where did the Patriots spend more money this year, and where
• 32:52
  did the Patriots put more emphasis this year, on offense or defense?"
• 32:56
  What would, what would be your answer?
• 32:57
  Brandan: Well, I think where they ended up putting a lot more resources
• 33:01
  is at the wide receiver spot.
• 33:03
  But I don't know if it was necessarily, dropped passes or guys getting
• 33:09
  open being the issue, with, w- with that Patriots offense, Mookie.
• 33:15
  I felt like, you know, you talked about how Jared Wilson now moved to center
• 33:20
  and they have Elijah Vera-Tucker now at the left guard spot, but Jared Wilson
• 33:24
  can still get run through at center.
• 33:26
  Mookie: Yes.
• 33:26
  Congrats.
• 33:27
  You no longer have to deal with Riley Mills when you're out
• 33:29
  at guard facing three techs.
• 33:31
  You now have to move to center playing zero and one techs and
• 33:34
  oh look, they got Byron Murphy and Leonard Williams and Jarran Reed.
• 33:36
  All right.
• 33:37
  Good luck with that, son.
• 33:39
  Brandan: Yeah.
• 33:39
  It, it does not get any easier moving inside for Jared Wilson.
• 33:43
  But y- with the, with the receivers, that's I th- I think where you're
• 33:46
  going with that, right, Glen?
• 33:47
  Clinton: Well, that, that's definitely part of it, right?
• 33:48
  So the receiver, they also, you know, slip in, Reggie Gilliam real quick-
• 33:53
  Oh, gosh… that comes from Buffalo as a fullback, because he's a good fullback
• 33:55
  and that changes what Vrabel wants to do a
• 33:57
  Brandan: little bit.
• 33:57
  It changes everything when you have an amazing fullback, Glen.
• 33:59
  He is
• 33:59
  Clinton: a good fullback.
• 34:00
  Brandan: I mean, gosh.
• 34:01
  How, how is Mike Macdonald gonna game plan around the idea of the
• 34:05
  opposing offense having a fullback?
• 34:07
  Clinton: I could tell you Mike Macdonald
• 34:08
  Brandan: would like to put- I just, I don't think highly enough of our head
• 34:10
  coach- Mike Macdonald would like to have-
• 34:11
  that he can scheme around a really good fullback being on that Patriots offense.
• 34:15
  Clinton: I guarantee you he'd like to have Robbie Bates or
• 34:17
  a player like Gilliam, 'cause he's actually a good fullback.
• 34:19
  But obviously A.J.
• 34:20
  Brown is, is the, the star there, but they also went, went out and got Romeo
• 34:24
  Doubs, and he's a good NFL wide receiver.
• 34:27
  And what it also does for the room is it takes like Pop Douglas, who is like
• 34:31
  the Landal Robinson of the Patriots, volume guy, horizontal threat, quick
• 34:37
  slot, he can sit down in zones, and it makes him an actual three.
• 34:41
  And as opposed to like the stretch two, and you got Mack Hollins
• 34:45
  and with Stefon Diggs not really a one, it's a different room.
• 34:49
  it's a different room.
• 34:50
  Now, with all that said, guys, I'm ecstatic we're playing them week one.
• 34:54
  I'm ecstatic.
• 34:55
  Like, if you're like, "Hey, what was…
• 34:56
  Where'd you have more shakeup, your offense or your defense?"
• 34:59
  Okay, it's, it's, it's offense.
• 35:00
  And you got, you got Tucker as a new guard, who's a quality player, so
• 35:04
  maybe they upgrade the, the line a bit.
• 35:05
  You still got, what's it, Moses out on the edge there, like
• 35:08
  year 15 or something like that.
• 35:09
  But it's an upgrade, and they've upgraded wide receiver.
• 35:12
  okay, cool, cool, cool.
• 35:13
  Brandan: Will, Will Campbell's arms haven't-… they haven't
• 35:15
  grown in the off-season.
• 35:16
  They haven't gotten
• 35:16
  Clinton: longer.
• 35:17
  They have…
• 35:17
  Yeah, they haven't gotten longer.
• 35:18
  But if you were to say to me, "When would you like to play a team that
• 35:21
  had a kind of an offensive overhaul?"
• 35:23
  I'd rather play them early.
• 35:25
  They, they have not gotten legit, real snaps.
• 35:27
  They're not in a flow yet.
• 35:29
  And give me them week one versus like what we, we know we can do on defense.
• 35:35
  And so for, for me, Mookie, I li- I, I…
• 35:38
  Where I didn't like this game being the lead game for the Juice, after they
• 35:42
  made their moves, I was like, okay, this actually breaks, I think, pretty
• 35:45
  favorably than playing them maybe, I don't know, week six, seven if they
• 35:49
  were, if they do get into an offensive groove, which they, they probably should.
• 35:54
  Mookie: Yeah.
• 35:55
  A- and we know that week one can sometimes produce some
• 35:57
  unrepeatable results and- Yeah
• 35:59
  d- don't both teams know it?
• 36:00
  Last year- Yeah… these are your Super Bowl teams, and
• 36:03
  what happened to the Seahawks?
• 36:03
  They lose to the 49ers.
• 36:04
  Okay, I mean, it's a…
• 36:05
  A- and then they dominate them the, the last two games.
• 36:08
  But the Patriots lost at home to the Raiders.
• 36:11
  Brandan: The Raiders.
• 36:12
  Mookie: So, so they, they- It was
• 36:13
  Brandan: like, what, the Raiders' one of three wins last
• 36:15
  Mookie: year?
• 36:16
  Yes.
• 36:16
  They started and ended the season losing to Pete Carroll's…
• 36:19
  well, then Pete Carroll's team, and then the pre- the previous Pete Carroll team.
• 36:23
  So there was…
• 36:24
  A- of course, Pete Carroll being their former head coach once upon a time.
• 36:27
  Clinton: Yeah.
• 36:27
  Mookie: so yeah.
• 36:28
  The changes on New England's offense are significant.
• 36:30
  Like, they knew that they needed to do something as far as guard, and that
• 36:34
  Wilson is probably be- best suited moving.
• 36:37
  So what's funny is I think Campbell could end up being a guard as well-
• 36:40
  Mm-hmm… and maybe should have moved to guard instead of staying out at tackle.
• 36:43
  so that'll be something to watch.
• 36:45
  Having a fullback as good as Reggie Gilliam, might improve, change
• 36:49
  their running game for, for the better.
• 36:50
  But we know that Seattle's run defense is hard to deal with.
• 36:53
  What, I don't care if you've got a running…
• 36:54
  a, a fullback or not.
• 36:56
  Wide receiver, that's gonna be a big test because A.J.
• 37:00
  Brown has got the size advantage on every Seattle corner.
• 37:04
  That's what you lose with Reek, you lose the height.
• 37:07
  Clinton: Mm.
• 37:07
  Mookie: you might, you know, y- you lose the height, you lose the
• 37:10
  speed Did Rick utilize his height and speed to the fullest extent?
• 37:14
  No, not every time.
• 37:16
  There are certainly some times where he decided to play like he was 5'9".
• 37:19
  But, there are times when as good as, like, Witherspoon and Joe are, for
• 37:23
  example, they can get beaten by good throws in tight coverage because they're
• 37:29
  just in the, in the too small area.
• 37:31
  It's not like they're diminutive figures, but just there's
• 37:33
  so many tall wide receivers.
• 37:35
  Romeo Doubs is another go up and get it type of…
• 37:37
  He makes some spectacular grabs every week.
• 37:40
  He's good.
• 37:40
  Yeah.
• 37:40
  His issue, and why he wears that guardian helmet, is he's had a h- deep history of
• 37:43
  injuries and particularly concussions.
• 37:46
  So Drake May's gonna have some jump ball opportunities, maybe in one-on-one
• 37:50
  situations against Seattle's secondary.
• 37:52
  so that, that's gonna be, that's gonna be an early test for, for, for the
• 37:56
  Seahawks cornerbacks for sure, and I'll be fascinated to see how they deal with it.
• 38:01
  And then as you said, Pop Douglas, not just him, I'm gonna leave aside Mack
• 38:04
  Hollins, but even though he scored one of their touchdowns in the Super Bowl
• 38:09
  but Kyle Williams had a good pre-season.
• 38:12
  And if for any Wazzu fans in the chat, like, Kyle Williams could
• 38:15
  be somebody who, who makes that second year leap for them and really
• 38:18
  strengthens their wide receiver group.
• 38:20
  Tight end I think is the same.
• 38:21
  They've got, Hunter Henry as, as the main guy, and he's
• 38:24
  just a steady, solid veteran.
• 38:26
  Brandan: Mm-hmm.
• 38:26
  Mookie: but I think Seattle's done a really good job covering
• 38:29
  tight ends with their linebackers.
• 38:31
  Emmanwori I think is gonna be somebody who, who's a work in progress still as
• 38:35
  far as covering tight ends on a more consistent basis deeper down the field
• 38:39
  as opposed to when he's sniffing out a screen to Kittle in the 49ers game.
• 38:43
  But still, the, the, it is a matchup I still favor Seattle's defense
• 38:48
  but it might not look the same, a- as it did in the Super Bowl.
• 38:52
  But ultimately, as great as New England's upgrades are at wide receiver, if Drake
• 38:59
  May still doesn't have time to throw, it ain't gonna matter too much because you're
• 39:02
  still having to deal with that pass rush.
• 39:03
  You're still having to deal with that interior of the defensive line, and
• 39:06
  that can make things even tougher for Drake May or any quarterback.
• 39:10
  When it's interior rush that's getting you, then you don't
• 39:14
  have much room to escape
• 39:16
  Brandan: Yeah, and that's gonna be the big question going into this.
• 39:18
  The other big question Johnny A is asking in chat is if we see Nick Emmanwori playing.
• 39:24
  gut feeling around that.
• 39:25
  You, you talked about off the top, Mookie, that we got to see incredible
• 39:30
  progress by Nick throughout hard knocks.
• 39:34
  And so knowing that even they're like a week behind production schedule, right?
• 39:39
  For, or a few days at least when, especially when you
• 39:42
  see some of those meetings.
• 39:44
  Do you think that based on what we've seen so far, we see Nick
• 39:47
  Emmanwori out there week one?
• 39:49
  Mookie: Well, today's Wednesday, so the last practice they had that
• 39:52
  made it into hard knocks or could have made it into hard knocks was Sunday.
• 39:56
  And we know just through beat reporters like, Corbin Smith and, and Brady
• 40:01
  Henderson and, and, and Brian Nemhauser, Hawk blogger, that Emmanwori was
• 40:05
  at least in pads, so that's, that's another upgrade as far as him being
• 40:10
  fully suited up to, to practice I think that he'll be on a snap, a snap count.
• 40:16
  Brandan: Okay.
• 40:16
  Mookie: Like a, a, a limited snap count.
• 40:18
  And how they replace his snaps is gonna be r- really something I, I'm keen
• 40:23
  to, to figure out what Macdonald does.
• 40:25
  Do they, for example, find a way to play Tyrese Knight more often?
• 40:29
  Clinton: Hmm.
• 40:30
  Mookie: You know, ha- have that third linebacker, have three linebackers on
• 40:33
  the field, 'cause Knight was outstanding in preseason and in training camp.
• 40:36
  So if there's a way to get him on the field, they've had him out at edge, and
• 40:40
  if they wanted Emmanwori to be out at edge, maybe those snaps just go to
• 40:42
  Tyrese Knight instead, or they split him if, if Emmanwori's ready to go.
• 40:47
  so I think their first practice of which they need to
• 40:50
  file an injury report is Saturday.
• 40:53
  So if I see DNPs for, for Even Warrior on Saturday and Sunday, forget
• 40:58
  about Wednesday, in all likelihood.
• 41:00
  Right.
• 41:00
  But if I see even, like, limited reps Saturday and Sunday, rep, you know
• 41:04
  ramping that up, and then Monday's, like, a questionable designation
• 41:07
  I'm feeling a little bit better about Emmanwori's chances to play.
• 41:11
  So that's gonna be definitely one thing to watch as far as Seattle's
• 41:14
  secondary because I don't need to say it, Macdonald said it on Hard Knocks.
• 41:18
  Right away, the very first episode, how much Emmanwori
• 41:22
  means to this defense already.
• 41:24
  Clinton: It's interesting, too, I- the Tyrese Knight part intrigues me
• 41:28
  because I think he's super talented.
• 41:30
  I gained so much respect.
• 41:31
  I mean, he's a NFL baller, and he had a very good rookie year.
• 41:36
  I gained so much respect for the guy year two by the way he handles
• 41:39
  his business, and every time he got a chance, what, what did he do?
• 41:42
  Just cause fumbles that DeMarcus Lawrence picked up for touchdowns, and he just
• 41:45
  played really, really sound football with every- without ever making a peep
• 41:49
  while he, you know, got injured early on and w- was replaced by Drake Thomas
• 41:53
  like, just completely professional.
• 41:55
  So really loved his arc.
• 41:57
  It'd be really cool, Brandan, if, if, like, when Emmanwori's in there
• 42:02
  Seattle's actually basically playing a base defense and, and you could
• 42:05
  call it what you wanna call it, but he's playing linebacker in many, many
• 42:09
  instances and ways because he's fast enough, he tackles hard, you know
• 42:12
  just, he's a hybrid type player anyway.
• 42:15
  And can Tyrese Knight do a chunk of those things athletically?
• 42:20
  I think he can, so, the point that Mookie brought, brought up has
• 42:23
  just got me thinking a bit, dude.
• 42:25
  Brandan: Yeah, and it's interesting, too, because we see
• 42:28
  Witherspoon play inside a lot now.
• 42:30
  Yeah.
• 42:30
  With the receivers that the Patriots have, how much are they gonna try and move
• 42:36
  Witherspoon inside, especially knowing that if you do that, then you're really
• 42:40
  losing that size advantage on the outside because, you know, you're really…
• 42:44
  Gosh, even w- with Ig- Igbinoghene going, like, do they have…
• 42:49
  I, I suppose then we would…
• 42:52
  it w- it would make me nervous, Mookie, seeing Nehemiah
• 42:54
  Pritchett out there on the edge, and even though he probably has
• 42:58
  that size to match up with A.J.
• 43:00
  Brown, I d- I don't have the confidence quite yet that he has
• 43:04
  the skill to match up with A.J.
• 43:05
  Brown.
• 43:06
  Mookie: Yeah, he, he is quick.
• 43:07
  I mean, he, I think he was in the 4.3s
• 43:09
  in his 40-yard dash, which is not a be-all, end-all when it comes
• 43:13
  to, timing how fast or, or measuring how fast athletes are.
• 43:17
  In fact, it's got, to me, less relevance over the years- Mm-hmm… and
• 43:20
  it's really position dependent as far as how much that 40 matters.
• 43:24
  But, b- the thing is with Pritchett is he's pretty much a boundary corner
• 43:29
  and if he's gonna be a boundary corner, if the snaps he gets, that means you
• 43:32
  gotta have Spoon inside more often.
• 43:35
  at, at least that's in, in my view.
• 43:37
  so one of the things about Woolen, for as frustrating as he was at times
• 43:41
  when he was on, he was really on.
• 43:43
  It definitely changed Witherspoon's alignment in, in terms of how
• 43:48
  often we play in the slot, how often we play outside.
• 43:50
  He was definitely playing more outside than normal last year
• 43:53
  compared to the previous season.
• 43:54
  So we are, we are definitely in for a treat.
• 43:58
  I, I hope to say just treat and, and not, not a, a trick or a nightmare- Mm
• 44:02
  as far as, how, how the whole alignment goes with
• 44:05
  Spoon and Pritchett and Joe
• 44:08
  Brandan: Doo-dad, Doo-daddy asking, "Will we see Knight, Thomas, and
• 44:12
  Emmanwori on the field together?"
• 44:14
  That, that would be, based on what you've said Mookie, maybe an unlikely
• 44:18
  combo because you're talking about Knight being out there potentially
• 44:22
  when Emmanwori's off the field.
• 44:23
  Mookie: Yeah.
• 44:24
  A- and that- that's what I would be getting at, is that's, I don't
• 44:27
  think that's a case where Knight and, and Thomas are gonna be splitting
• 44:30
  snaps again like they did last year.
• 44:32
  i- if Knight's in the game, maybe Thomas i- i- is out, or when
• 44:36
  Thomas is in the game, Knight's out.
• 44:38
  so I- I'm seeing this comment here, "I hope Julian Love balls out.
• 44:42
  He's the only tall cornerback on the…"
• 44:43
  I hope he does as well, and that's another thing with this cornerback group, right?
• 44:47
  Didn't ment- we're 45 minutes and we haven't mentioned Julian Love once
• 44:49
  because there's been nothing to bring up.
• 44:51
  Brandan: Yeah.
• 44:51
  Mookie: He had a quad injury.
• 44:52
  That's
• 44:52
  Brandan: another name to watch when the injury, when that
• 44:53
  first injury report comes
• 44:54
  Mookie: out, right?
• 44:55
  Yeah, he had a, he had a quad injury, and just from us being long time Seahawks
• 44:59
  fans, we know that's what has felled Jamal Adams for, over the last few years.
• 45:04
  Ruptured quad in 2022, and then he had another one just a few weeks ago
• 45:08
  with the Vikings that, for all intents and purposes, is a career ender.
• 45:11
  Mm.
• 45:12
  I mean, when you realize how serious a ruptured quad is once, to have it
• 45:15
  twice, is, is absolutely horrible.
• 45:19
  But you wanna be cautious with that, and he has been practicing it looks like
• 45:23
  but he's not played any pre-season reps.
• 45:25
  He would have if he was healthy.
• 45:27
  He hasn't been practicing fully, so he's gonna be too far behind, I think
• 45:31
  to make an impact, a meaningful impact over the first few weeks of the season.
• 45:35
  Brandan: Yeah, that's a very, and again, a very tough assignment if
• 45:38
  you're asking him to play either of the outside corner spots and
• 45:43
  go up against veteran guys like A.J.
• 45:45
  Brown or Romeo Dobbs.
• 45:46
  Mookie: Mm-hmm.
• 45:47
  Yeah, and he has the size.
• 45:48
  I mean, he's the tallest corner on the roster.
• 45:50
  Right.
• 45:50
  He's like 6'2"ish, thereabouts, and a little over 200 pounds.
• 45:53
  He's a big corner, re- relatively speaking.
• 45:57
  But how comfortable is he pressing at the line of scrimmage?
• 46:01
  can he be physical?
• 46:02
  Can he play the ball well when he's going up against, you know, the best
• 46:06
  of the best and the guys like A.J.
• 46:08
  Brown?
• 46:08
  And Romeo Dobbs isn't an elite receiver, but he's certainly been
• 46:11
  a, an above average receiver.
• 46:13
  so I- I'm kind of wondering if Neil is gonna be one of those healthy
• 46:16
  scratches for the first couple weeks of the season, and then as he's more
• 46:20
  up to speed practicing more often, then we're gonna see him on the field.
• 46:22
  I
• 46:23
  Clinton: got one more, one more topic that I, I think is worth examining.
• 46:27
  Like last year's, week one, we had some hard times getting home at
• 46:31
  the beginning of the, the year against Purdy and the Niners that first game.
• 46:34
  There was what, one, Derek had a sack called back.
• 46:37
  There was a sack in that game, if I recall, that we did get a sack at
• 46:40
  at a timely man- a timely s- you know, important part of the game.
• 46:43
  But there was not a lot of pressure, not too much consistent pressure
• 46:47
  and Purdy did a nice job at, my recollection, of escaping some
• 46:50
  of the two throughout the day.
• 46:51
  But down the stretch, Drake May was, sacked 21 times in the four playoff games.
• 46:57
  Now they played good, you know, they played the Chargers
• 46:59
  Texans, Broncos, and us.
• 47:00
  So- That's some tough slang.
• 47:03
  But what do we think?
• 47:04
  Can we start, can we start a lot hotter?
• 47:07
  Can…
• 47:08
  I'm not sure you could pick it right back up with, like, Spoon dest- us destroying
• 47:12
  all monsters and putting the ball in, in Nu'u's helmet, and he takes it
• 47:16
  back for six, and Riley Mills running through Jared Wilson, and Derek Hall
• 47:20
  getting two sacks, one of them being a strip sack, et cetera, et cetera.
• 47:22
  I don't know if we could be that hot out of the gate, Brandan
• 47:26
  but can we be more…
• 47:29
  Can we see more action from our, from our edge and from the blitzing packages from
• 47:33
  Macdonald than we did last year, game one?
• 47:36
  Brandan: Yeah, I think, well, having an elite tackle like Trent Williams
• 47:40
  for the Niners changes things a little bit for the, the pass rush.
• 47:44
  I, I do have the…
• 47:46
  I, I think that this defense should be able to pick it up relatively
• 47:50
  quickly against this offensive line.
• 47:52
  how do you feel about it, Mookie?
• 47:55
  Mookie: I think that the pass rush should be good against New
• 47:58
  England's semi-retooled offensive line, 'cause I think they got the
• 48:00
  same right guard, and, and Morgan Moses is still out at right tackle.
• 48:03
  Mm.
• 48:03
  And that kinda surprised me, because 2026 version of Morgan Moses might
• 48:08
  might be a, a bit of an issue for, for New England in the long run.
• 48:12
  maybe it's a sh- in the short run come next week.
• 48:15
  But, you know, Seattle's pass rush, we, we tend to focus on the
• 48:20
  edge rushers, but they do pass rush as one, just like 12 is one.
• 48:23
  They pass rush as one, where it's not any singular person dominating
• 48:28
  their, their match-up.
• 48:29
  So, you can consider it a weakness in the sense that they don't
• 48:32
  have a Myles Garrett, obviously.
• 48:36
  They don't have a Nick Bonito.
• 48:37
  They don't have one of those- Mm… M- Maxx Crosby.
• 48:40
  Maybe not yet, wink, wink.
• 48:41
  they don't have one of those, those A-plus edge rushers.
• 48:45
  So they do have to rush a little bit differently, and they do a very
• 48:49
  good job of containing as well.
• 48:50
  'Cause Drake May is quite mobile.
• 48:52
  Clinton: Mm-hmm.
• 48:52
  Mookie: And you notice how infrequently he was able to
• 48:54
  scramble and get positive yards.
• 48:56
  And, and I liken it to when Seattle played Jacksonville.
• 49:00
  Trevor Lawrence, mobile, very athletic s- for a guy who's what, 6'5" or 6'6".
• 49:05
  And Seattle kept him in the pocket, gave him no, no room to really escape.
• 49:09
  They sacked him what, six or seven times in that game.
• 49:12
  So they just kinda took the Trevor Lawrence game plan and just did
• 49:15
  it for, for Drake May, and they got pretty much the same outcome.
• 49:19
  And what they did a little differently, they blitzed, I believe
• 49:22
  a little more than they usually do-
• 49:24
  Clinton: Mm-hmm, yeah
• 49:24
  Mookie: or usually did the last season.
• 49:26
  So we saw Spoon a couple of times, and we saw Umanmora
• 49:30
  coming off the edge a few times.
• 49:32
  I, I wonder if we will see some sim pressures to offset some of
• 49:35
  the blitzing, especially when you consider new, new look secondary.
• 49:39
  Are we gonna have some sort of…
• 49:41
  "This chat is dry," says, Matt Schmidt.
• 49:44
  Well
• 49:45
  Brandan: I think, I think we didn't get to his question.
• 49:46
  I was saving it, but, if he's out of here- Yeah… we can…
• 49:49
  It's fine.
• 49:49
  Mookie: Yeah.
• 49:49
  Well, yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll get to that at, at some point.
• 49:52
  But, yeah, I, I think that's, there could be some early four-man rush just
• 49:57
  to see how it goes, a feel-out process.
• 49:59
  And then if the results aren't to their liking, then they'll start to mix things
• 50:02
  up with more exotic looks, maybe show blitz and then rush four, but it's
• 50:06
  three traditional edge rushers and then here comes Spoon screaming through
• 50:10
  the, through the, the B gap again.
• 50:12
  or you do a double mug, have Drake Thomas and, and Ernest come, you know
• 50:17
  show and blitz up the middle, and maybe one drops, one rushes, or both drop back.
• 50:22
  I, I, I think that we're gonna see Macdonald kind of mix it up a little bit.
• 50:27
  So y- you're not gonna run the exact same game plan as the Super Bowl.
• 50:30
  It would be naive.
• 50:31
  But, there are definitely ways for Seattle's off- defense rather
• 50:34
  to get at New England's, offense.
• 50:36
  So the onus is really on McDaniels.
• 50:38
  Can he get the ball out of Drake May's hands quicker?
• 50:40
  'Cause if he can't- Then it's just gonna be, you know, pick, pick
• 50:44
  whoever's on the defensive line, pick whoe- anybody on Seattle's starting
• 50:47
  defense, and you can count how many pressures and sacks they're gonna get.
• 50:51
  Clinton: Yeah.
• 50:51
  And the piece with that too is like, they did a good job of that
• 50:55
  on the whole for year two.
• 50:57
  Like, he got rid of the ball- Yeah… pretty damn quickly.
• 50:59
  But, just not in the Super Bowl.
• 51:01
  Not, not at all in the Super Bowl.
• 51:02
  In fact, again, he, you know, they, we gotta remember too
• 51:04
  they barely got by the Broncos.
• 51:06
  Who was the Broncos quarterback?
• 51:08
  Mookie: It was Jared Stidham.
• 51:09
  Clinton: Was it Stidham when, when Nick's went down?
• 51:10
  Okay.
• 51:11
  So, and they barely got by the Texans with, C.J.
• 51:15
  Stroud, I think he threw what, four picks that game?
• 51:16
  Four interceptions.
• 51:17
  Right?
• 51:17
  Yeah.
• 51:17
  So, it, it was whatever.
• 51:20
  They, they got there.
• 51:21
  They got to the Super Bowl, so they deserve for getting there and
• 51:23
  surviving all that, but it wasn't pretty along the way whatsoever.
• 51:27
  So, you know, I think the Patriots are, are- Doing, I think most Patriots
• 51:31
  fans are like, "Yeah, we got our guy.
• 51:32
  He's, you know, he's absolutely a absolute stud," like no-brainer Drake May.
• 51:37
  I think there's a couple of fans that are still like, "But, but is he?"
• 51:40
  You know, and like he, when they played the best talent or the better
• 51:43
  talent, it was not nearly as clean.
• 51:46
  And, yeah, j- I'm very interested to see if we could simply bottle him up.
• 51:51
  I love the point you made, Mookie, about…
• 51:53
  I remember going into the Super Bowl coverage, Brandan.
• 51:56
  We were talking about Drake May's running ability, like oh, he, he
• 51:59
  escapes, he gets out, he creates on the move, he creates with his feet.
• 52:03
  And as Mookie said, there was none of that whatsoever.
• 52:06
  So will he, will he do more of that?
• 52:09
  Will he have opportunity to do more of that?
• 52:11
  Or will he be just as bottled up?
• 52:13
  You know, we got one last thing about that is you gotta remember, what was
• 52:16
  it, like three-quarters of the way through the game, he gets his n- his gets
• 52:20
  block knocked off on the sideline, and Vrabel, Vrabel's like, "Are you okay?
• 52:24
  Want me to take you out of the game?"
• 52:26
  I mean, good night.
• 52:28
  He's, he's asking his, his star quarterback if he wants to
• 52:31
  like basically take a breather.
• 52:32
  So, I just wonder if we could be that dominant again.
• 52:36
  There's, there's a path there though, Brandan.
• 52:37
  Brandan: Yeah.
• 52:37
  Hope, hopefully we give him that same opportunity of taking a breather-
• 52:42
  in the, opener.
• 52:43
  And, I, I did see in chat we've got a few folks here with some
• 52:46
  predictions, so I, I think we- Nice… we're getting to the prediction
• 52:50
  portion of the show, Mookie, and we got Johnny A saying Drake May will
• 52:53
  have three interceptions next week.
• 52:56
  I like that.
• 52:56
  Byron Murphy, two-plus sacks.
• 52:59
  And, I, I look, Doodaddy's question here, for looking out at the whole season
• 53:04
  who will be the sack leader this year?
• 53:06
  Because you bring back Derek Hall and give him a big contract.
• 53:10
  You hear about the team.
• 53:11
  They really like how, his explosiveness, his violence.
• 53:15
  you hear them talking about how he's one of the more violent defensive players.
• 53:19
  But you ha- also have Byron Murphy, who continues to come along, and oh, Big
• 53:23
  Cat Leonard Williams, who, got a new deal too, I think would have something to
• 53:28
  say about being this season's sack leader.
• 53:30
  who do you like to get things going, get off to a good start?
• 53:34
  Because you could even throw in Spoon if, if what we saw in those i- in the
• 53:39
  Super Bowl, him getting two sacks, it, it doesn't take a whole lot of games for
• 53:43
  him to get to a couple sacks per game.
• 53:46
  Before seven, eight sacks, he's up there among the team leaders.
• 53:50
  Mookie: Yeah, because, you look at last year, I think Williams
• 53:54
  and somebody else was tied, and that might have been Lawrence.
• 53:57
  But seven sacks was his, was what it took to lead Seattle in sacks, but they had
• 54:01
  like, 13 different people get a sack.
• 54:03
  Yeah.
• 54:03
  So they were up, up there in terms of sack productivity.
• 54:07
  It was just they spread the wealth around, so to speak, and I
• 54:10
  think we're gonna see a little bit more of that again this year.
• 54:13
  I, I think that Byron Murphy's got a really good chance to lead
• 54:18
  the team in sacks this year.
• 54:20
  the disrespect has been noted, from the national media as
• 54:23
  far as him, like, being kind of this, this secondary act.
• 54:26
  I, I…
• 54:27
  At least Leonard Williams got his flowers, but they should have also
• 54:30
  mentioned that Byron Murphy is a big part of Seattle's run defense, and
• 54:34
  he's vastly improved as a pass rusher.
• 54:37
  I think he said in maybe an interview with, it was either Brock & Salk-
• 54:41
  it was somebody from Seattle Sports.
• 54:43
  So if it wasn't Brock & Salk, it had to have been, Bob
• 54:46
  Clinton: Stelton… Bob
• 54:47
  Mookie: Stelton and, and Dave Wyman- Right… that he's aiming
• 54:50
  for double digits sacks this year.
• 54:51
  I think he'll live up to his word.
• 54:52
  I think he'll get 10, 10 and a half sacks a- and lead the team.
• 54:57
  Williams will be up there maybe rushing double digits, but
• 55:00
  not, you know, reaching that.
• 55:02
  But, the edge rushers, I expect a lot of the same, but for more
• 55:05
  more than two sacks for Derek Hall.
• 55:07
  So, like-
• 55:08
  Clinton: And we…
• 55:08
  Yeah.
• 55:08
  Yeah.
• 55:08
  Yeah.
• 55:08
  I love that point.
• 55:09
  Like, th- you know, Hall explodes at the, two sacks for the year, and then he
• 55:13
  had two sacks in the Super Bowl, so he certainly ended really, really strong.
• 55:16
  And he had, man, he was, he was close a lot last year, and, you know, just
• 55:21
  didn't f- fully get home a couple times.
• 55:23
  I think Derek, Derek Hall's a dark, a dark horse to actually lead the team in sacks.
• 55:27
  but you know, there's a name that we haven't said once, and I
• 55:30
  think he was the guy who was…
• 55:32
  He had seven or eight last year, seven and a half, was Nwosu.
• 55:35
  Nwosu- Mm-hmm… just keeps plugging along, and it's like
• 55:37
  another guy- Yeah… out there.
• 55:38
  Yeah.
• 55:38
  You kind of, you know, he's kind of the forgotten man, which I'm not even-
• 55:41
  Brandan: Oh, Fowler's even kind of a forgotten- Yeah… man
• 55:43
  by, in some ways, too.
• 55:45
  Clinton: Yeah.
• 55:45
  We haven't talked about him at all, right?
• 55:46
  So it's just an interesting…
• 55:48
  Again, you, you hit it squarely earlier, Mookie, that, you know
• 55:51
  they, they don't have the 15 sack guy until we get Max Crosby.
• 55:55
  but we don't have the 15 sack guy, and that's okay, you know?
• 55:57
  So if we end up, if we end up somewhere around 20 sacks, let
• 56:02
  me, let me jack this up a bit.
• 56:04
  Let's go with, like, if we had 26 sacks from the interior, you know
• 56:08
  with Leo and Riley and Murphy and Janvier getting home a couple times.
• 56:12
  If you're somewhere around 25 between those four dudes, that's- It doesn't
• 56:17
  you know, you, you don't need a, you don't need a Myles Garrett.
• 56:19
  You just don't if you get that much pressure from your defensive
• 56:23
  tackles, and I think we will
• 56:26
  Mookie: Yeah, I'm glad you brought up Riley Mills, because I know that, self
• 56:29
  included because I got to see it several times in practice, we've hyped Riley Mills
• 56:33
  a bit in terms of what he could do in year two, and even at Hard Knocks they've
• 56:37
  called him, what, the Polar Bear, I think.
• 56:39
  th- I can't remember… I can't remember the, the, the n-
• 56:41
  the nickname that they gave him.
• 56:42
  But, Riley Mills is not a three down lineman just yet.
• 56:47
  Mm-hmm.
• 56:47
  He, he's, he's very much a situational pass rusher at this point.
• 56:50
  I think, the run defense could use some work, for sure.
• 56:54
  So early downs might be a bit iffy as far as a snap count, at least in like
• 56:58
  non-garbage time situations, for example.
• 57:00
  But if it's third and eight, third and l- you know, 10 plus
• 57:04
  you could see Riley Mills getting in there and, and causing havoc.
• 57:08
  Because for as much as I've just noted some of the preseason struggles and
• 57:11
  limited reps defending the run, and maybe he didn't look as dominant as a pass
• 57:15
  rusher, he was going alongside Brandon P.
• 57:18
  Lee, who at least, you know, good nose tackle, good rotational
• 57:21
  player, but he wasn't going up with Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy.
• 57:25
  He, he wasn't with the starters.
• 57:26
  So there's nobody else to really respect on the defensive line as far as pass
• 57:31
  rushing, whereas if you have Riley Mills in a lot of one-on-one situations because
• 57:35
  they gotta worry about Murphy or Williams, that's where Riley and his, very
• 57:39
  unorthodox I guess, based on the Hard Knocks reactions from his teammates
• 57:43
  his, his, his, his rip move, can, can, can really cause havoc f- in the backfield
• 57:50
  Brandan: All right, Mookie.
• 57:51
  Well, other predictions.
• 57:52
  May- maybe an offensive prediction before we get on out of here.
• 57:56
  Sure.
• 57:56
  who is one player that you really like on offense or, or that
• 58:00
  you have a really solid feeling for, a prediction this season?
• 58:04
  Mookie: Yeah.
• 58:05
  It was bull rush, not rip move that we're saying with, Riley Mills.
• 58:08
  Gotcha.
• 58:08
  But anyway, I think I really am, am wanting to, to buy
• 58:12
  into the tight end stock.
• 58:14
  Brandan: Mm.
• 58:14
  Mookie: So I'm gonna leave aside Sawbert and Kellen 'cause they're
• 58:17
  there for, for blocking, and Sawbert's really good at what he does, and we-
• 58:20
  Clinton: And two-point conversions.
• 58:21
  And two-point con- Yes… don't forget those… and two-point
• 58:22
  Mookie: conversions.
• 58:23
  Please nobody read into t- him being tight end two on this roster.
• 58:26
  Like, he's- Yeah… gonna get a lot of snaps, but a lot of it is gonna be him
• 58:28
  as a blocker, not a- Yeah… target guy.
• 58:29
  But A.J.
• 58:30
  Barner and Elijah Arroyo, I think the two of them can combine to be
• 58:35
  even if not through volume, among the best tight end duos in the league
• 58:39
  'cause Barner's that all-around guy.
• 58:41
  He can block, he can catch, he can run routes.
• 58:43
  I, I remember speaking to A.J.
• 58:44
  you know, talking to him during Super Bowl week when I was down in San Jose, and he
• 58:48
  he believes that he, he's, his goal, his long-term goal is gonna be recognized as
• 58:52
  one of the best tight ends in the league.
• 58:54
  And while that distinction tends to go to guys who catch a lot of passes, so like
• 58:58
  Brock Bowers or Travis Kelce over the years, Barner is gonna be that every man's
• 59:03
  tight end, where he might get 50 to 60 grabs, he'll get s- you know, 700 yards or
• 59:08
  so, but he's gonna quietly, you know, get seven, eight touchdowns, and he was second
• 59:13
  on the team in receptions last year, I believe, and then third in, in receiving
• 59:16
  yards, or I might have had it flipped.
• 59:17
  So he was important last year.
• 59:19
  I think that New England's linebackers, I mean, they, they got Spillane there.
• 59:23
  I think they kind of swapped some, some guys.
• 59:26
  I can't remember who left, but, Spillane I'm pretty sure
• 59:29
  is, is a, a new addition for them.
• 59:33
  I think that Seattle's tight ends are gonna be huge in this passing game
• 59:37
  especially with Brian Fleury around.
• 59:39
  I think they're gonna combine for over 100 receiving yards next
• 59:42
  Wednesday, and at least one of them is gonna get into the end zone.
• 59:45
  And just for clarification purposes, I misspoke with Christian Barmore.
• 59:49
  I forgot that the pulmonary, the blood clot, the stuff, that was two years ago.
• 59:53
  Mm.
• 59:53
  Last year, it was the legal issue that he had.
• 59:56
  Brandan: Mm.
• 59:57
  Mookie: so he played every game, but he had that kind of
• 1:00:00
  you know, hanging over his head.
• 1:00:01
  And he's not suspended to my knowledge, so he's gonna be still a, a problem for
• 1:00:05
  Seattle's interior line to deal with.
• 1:00:07
  Brandan: Yeah.
• 1:00:08
  we have a episode coming up, for our season expectation show
• 1:00:13
  Mookie, and that was, we, we leaned into the tight end bit there too.
• 1:00:17
  We said, between, Arroyo and A.J.
• 1:00:21
  Barner, 1,200 yards, 12 touchdowns.
• 1:00:24
  Clinton: Ooh.
• 1:00:25
  Mm.
• 1:00:25
  That's a good number.
• 1:00:26
  I like the numerology there
• 1:00:27
  Brandan: Brandan.
• 1:00:27
  We, we were leaning into the, you know, the fan number there.
• 1:00:30
  speaking of, speaking of the number 12, Corey Kuhlman in chat brought up
• 1:00:34
  earlier on, said the new owner said on Twitter in the past few hours that he'd
• 1:00:37
  love to have Jody hoist the 12th man flag.
• 1:00:40
  I have a feeling Mookie, as the owner of our team, he should be
• 1:00:43
  able to, you know, make that happen if he truly wants it to happen.
• 1:00:47
  Mookie: Yeah, so, so much of…
• 1:00:48
  Well, they haven't actually closed its sale yet, but as far as I'm
• 1:00:51
  concerned, they're the new owners.
• 1:00:52
  So- Right… you might as well have, maybe as a ceremonial raising
• 1:00:55
  of the flag, have them both there.
• 1:00:57
  Have the previous and the current both raising the, the, the 12 flag, and
• 1:01:03
  and, and just get a new era underway.
• 1:01:05
  So, like, have the previous ownership group, the Allen's who saved the Seahawks
• 1:01:09
  from leaving Seattle, they get one more 12 flag raise, and then the Koslas
• 1:01:14
  they can get it started, and hopefully the success continues with them.
• 1:01:17
  Clinton: Really, I love that.
• 1:01:18
  Brandan, I saw you pulled up the Snail's comment here saying
• 1:01:21
  the, "This offense is loaded.
• 1:01:22
  Sammy D wins MVP," and starts changing the conversation about who the best
• 1:01:26
  quarterback from this, from his class is.
• 1:01:28
  One thing I wanted to talk about that, so great comment from Snail
• 1:01:31
  is- Seattle, you know, was…
• 1:01:34
  Their, in the last two years, 19 of 20 teams that were in the bottom 10 of
• 1:01:41
  turnovers in the league, so that being a bad stat, negative, missed the playoffs.
• 1:01:46
  Seattle was the only one.
• 1:01:47
  They won the whole thing.
• 1:01:48
  So the only one of 20, so, in the last two years to be bottom 10
• 1:01:53
  and still not only make the playoffs, but win the whole darn thing.
• 1:01:56
  So it's just a little bit…
• 1:01:57
  And then of course we have an epic playoff run where we are the only team
• 1:02:02
  to never turn the ball over and go all the way to the Super Bowl and win.
• 1:02:06
  So it's, one of the what ifs I wanna just explore is just, you know, what happens
• 1:02:11
  if s- if instead of 25-14, Sam's more like 31-9, 31-12, something like that.
• 1:02:18
  And it just, you know, the, the turnovers drop a little bit, or
• 1:02:23
  12, interceptions but maybe two less fumbles that are recovered.
• 1:02:27
  It, there's a lot of room there for what the Snail is saying.
• 1:02:30
  Now m- now the MVP part is, is, you know, is, would be amazing, but
• 1:02:35
  in general, guys, I don't think it's too far-fetched to be, to, to see Sam
• 1:02:40
  have, like, a, a, a another pro- prog- another year where he takes a, a
• 1:02:46
  another leap forward as a professional, and that that'd be, like, his third
• 1:02:50
  year being a really solid quarterback.
• 1:02:52
  And what does it do to a team if they just turn the ball over, let's say
• 1:02:56
  five less times this year, Brandan?
• 1:02:58
  I think it's very achievable.
• 1:02:59
  Brandan: Mookie, can a zebra change his stripes?
• 1:03:03
  Can Sam Darnold become not a turnover quarterback?
• 1:03:07
  Mookie: I know that Darnold is the face of the turnover problem because
• 1:03:10
  he led all quarterbacks, I think they led the league in turnovers.
• 1:03:14
  Some of them were a little bit unlucky, some weird bounces off helmets and
• 1:03:17
  and, you know, some other mishaps, bad exchange with Olu Wattenb for example.
• 1:03:22
  He definitely had some bad turnovers.
• 1:03:24
  There was a stretch against the Rams, I'm sure that was the
• 1:03:27
  Brandan: Mm-hmm
• 1:03:27
  … Mookie: the, the, the freak out moment for, for a lot of
• 1:03:30
  people, the Rams loss in particular.
• 1:03:32
  But it wasn't just him.
• 1:03:33
  I mean, they, they had so much of a turnover problem that they had two
• 1:03:37
  interceptions on defense and they gave the ball back on the same play.
• 1:03:40
  Colby and, and Reek both getting picks and then fumbling it back to the other team.
• 1:03:44
  the, the Seahawks had critical fumbles from Jaxon Smith-Njigba
• 1:03:49
  and Elijah Arroyo had a, a less critical fumble against- Mm-hmm
• 1:03:52
  Houston, again, that they recovered.
• 1:03:53
  Cooper Kupp had a weird one over the middle.
• 1:03:55
  Had a fumble against, against the Rams as well.
• 1:03:57
  Mm-hmm.
• 1:03:57
  The team had a hard time holding onto the ball.
• 1:04:00
  except the running backs.
• 1:04:01
  The running backs were, were great.
• 1:04:03
  I think Polani might have fumbled, in garbage time against the Saints, whatever.
• 1:04:06
  But the one thing that I would note, Kenneth Walker and
• 1:04:11
  Zach Charbonnet were amazing.
• 1:04:14
  And in Charbonnet's case is still, he's still on the team.
• 1:04:16
  Amazing with ball security.
• 1:04:18
  Brandan: Yeah.
• 1:04:19
  Mookie: Jadarian Price, this is gonna be a big test for him.
• 1:04:21
  You know, getting a, a NFL workload, can he hold onto the ball?
• 1:04:25
  Same applies to George Holani because he's gonna get more game action
• 1:04:28
  than he ever has in his NFL career.
• 1:04:30
  So the turnovers, it's a great point made, because it wasn't just
• 1:04:34
  Donald, it was certainly a lot of it, but if that normalizes-
• 1:04:38
  Clinton: Mm-hmm
• 1:04:38
  … Mookie: that's another way that the offense can improve, and also
• 1:04:40
  help the defense, not have to fight tooth and nail to keep
• 1:04:44
  their number one scoring title.
• 1:04:45
  Because part of why they were, like, n- number two for much of the year
• 1:04:50
  and then one at the very end, they had so many short fields to defend
• 1:04:54
  because of the timeliness and where they were k- you know, giving the ball up.
• 1:04:57
  So if you clean that up, Seattle can do wonderf- wonderful things.
• 1:05:02
  Yeah.
• 1:05:03
  Brandan: Yeah.
• 1:05:04
  Clinton: Love it.
• 1:05:04
  Brandan: Well, we are looking forward to it, Mookie.
• 1:05:06
  Looking forward to this season from our Seahawks, and it's gonna be
• 1:05:10
  kicking off one week from today.
• 1:05:12
  So really wanna thank you for coming on, promoting the new SB Nation app too.
• 1:05:17
  So as people are leading up toward game day, if you wanna catch some of the
• 1:05:21
  Seahawks news, get it right through that new app, that new SB Nation app.
• 1:05:25
  Make sure and download it, and, make sure you subscribe to Field
• 1:05:28
  Goals, above all the other places where you get your team news.
• 1:05:33
  Mookie: Yeah.
• 1:05:33
  Thanks, thanks for having me on again, and we'll be seeing you on Field
• 1:05:37
  Goals regularly throughout the year.
• 1:05:39
  And, one last misspeak from me.
• 1:05:40
  Spillane was on last year's team.
• 1:05:42
  I get certain linebackers mixed up.
• 1:05:43
  They had Spillane, Ellis- I think it was
• 1:05:45
  Clinton: Ellis
• 1:05:45
  … Brandan: yeah, Christian-
• 1:05:45
  Mookie: They had so much
• 1:05:46
  Brandan: turnover at linebacker, I, I, I wasn't-
• 1:05:48
  Mookie: It was, it was Tavai… I'm looking at their
• 1:05:49
  Brandan: list, and they have, like, four or
• 1:05:51
  Mookie: five- It was Tavai
• 1:05:51
  rookie
• 1:05:51
  Brandan: linebackers.
• 1:05:52
  Mookie: Yep.
• 1:05:53
  Yeah.
• 1:05:53
  Tavai was the one that they, they let go of.
• 1:05:55
  So.
• 1:05:55
  Clinton: Okay, yeah.
• 1:05:56
  And they br- and so one last fin- final piece of the Patriots, when
• 1:06:00
  the 53 got announced, they had to like 10 or 10 dudes get swapped out.
• 1:06:04
  Like, it was like the back end of their roster, it's like, okay
• 1:06:07
  they have some good starters.
• 1:06:08
  Their depth is a problem, Brandan, and they're gonna feel it.
• 1:06:12
  Yeah.
• 1:06:12
  They're gonna feel it.
• 1:06:12
  You don't swap n- if you're nine or 10 dudes swapped, you're like the Dolphins.
• 1:06:17
  You
• 1:06:17
  Brandan: don't want your Patriots to do it.
• 1:06:17
  They have, they have eight rookies from their 26 draft class who made
• 1:06:22
  the team, which I, I guess you could, y- you could say, well, they have
• 1:06:26
  they, they had a great draft that they got to keep eight rookies.
• 1:06:28
  But
• 1:06:29
  Clinton: Or…
• 1:06:29
  Brandan: Or, or they're, they're really struggling with their depth.
• 1:06:33
  Clinton: Yeah.
• 1:06:34
  Yeah.
• 1:06:34
  And I think with that-
• 1:06:35
  Brandan: There's only one thing left to say
• 1:06:37
  Clinton: Go Hawks.
• 1:06:37
  Brandan: Go Hawks.