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Ian & Guests 9-14 · The Ian Furness Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hardcore Football with Hugh Millen. Brought to you by Hunt Services.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hit on the horn and call Hunt. Now here's Hugh
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: with Ian Furness on Sports Radio 93.3 KJR FM.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Every Monday, Hardcore Football with Hugh Millen. Normally on a Monday,
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: we'll be after a Seahawk game on the Sunday. That's
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: not the case. They play it on Wednesday. So we
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: kind of look back, and actually more than anything, we
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: want to look ahead. We did that on Friday with
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Greg Cosell. Our weekly visit with Greg Cosell every Friday,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: we check in with the NFL Films film guru on
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: all things NFL and get a preview of the Seahawks
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: game on the weekend, a little preview especially of the
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: other team, gives us a film breakdown. Last Friday we
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: did the post game, basically Greg Cosell kind of wrapping
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: things up when it was all said and done, so
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: that was fun. But today, is Hugh with us?
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Perfect.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Hugh Millen joining us right now to go through hardcore football.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: You've been doing it for a long time, you and me.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: I'm thinking this is about... I'm just doing the math, Hugh.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Math on the radio is always fun. I did the
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: first two football seasons I did were on the night show,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: and then I moved into the middays, and that was...
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: 2017 years. It's about 17th, 18th year we're doing this buddy.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: So I love doing this with you.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: And then, and, and, uh, and before that with, with garage. Yeah. So,
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: so yeah, the show has been going, going for a minute.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: So the idea had been that, Hey, this will be
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: a portion of the day where we try and talk
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: the X's and O's and go into some detailed, you know,
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: try and take you into the NFL tape room. I mean,
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: we used to call it a film room, right? But
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: it's a, now it's videotape obviously. And so, Anyways, we're
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: in the NFL tape room and kind of seeing it
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: from a player's perspective.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: I love it, and it's one of my favorite things
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I do every week. Normally, as I mentioned, we would
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: do this right after the game on a Monday, after
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: a Sunday game, but obviously they play it on Wednesday.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: I thought we would do something a little different if
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: we can today, Hugh. When I talk to people over
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: the weekend, the number one overriding thing that I heard
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: from football fans, friends, family, et cetera, we had a
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: whole group over watching games yesterday on the Red Zone,
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: was the name Drew Locke over and over again. And
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: there is no better person in my mind to talk
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: quarterbacks with than Hugh Millen. And I know, I'm going
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: to guess here, you've probably watched a little bit of
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: tape on Drew Locke since Wednesday night.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, indeed I have. And, you know, I think it's
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: an interesting study for me. Let me first say that
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: backup quarterbacks generally fall short in one of two groups
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: in the NFL. And that is those who are backups
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: because of their physical traits. Okay. Because of, and then
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: those who are backups despite their physical traits. And let
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: me tell you what I mean. Let me, let me
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: give you a list of guys. I think, I think
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: if you love football, this is not going to be
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: a hard idea to grasp that when you think of
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: like guys, okay, what are the, the, the, the, The
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: first traits that could jump out at you literally in
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: the first 60 seconds if you watch a guy throw
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: a ball. Watch a guy throw a ball once or twice. Well,
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: you can assess his size. You can watch him drop back.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: You can assess his athleticism. You can assess his release
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: and the velocity in his spin, right? Like you can
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: literally do a not insubstantial amount of evaluation in 60 seconds, right?
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: About a guy. And so the guys that really aren't
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: going to impress you in that regard, Chase Daniel, six
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: foot tall, you know, had a long career. Um, but
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: you know, you know, not, not a big arm, not
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: a great athlete, Kellen Moore. Yep. Uh, Went to New
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: York as a Heisman finalist, but six foot tall, weak arm,
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: wasn't drafted, played a couple years. His physical traits, he
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: just doesn't have the horsepower to play in the NFL.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: Graham Harrell, Nick Mullins, Bailey Zappi, even Matt Barkley, Colt McCoy,
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: Case Keenum. There's a lot of guys that have played
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: a lot of years and made a lot of money
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: that are in that category. Brett Rippin, Jake Browning, right?
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: Okay, now this is a category of guys that are
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: backups despite their trade. Mitch Trubisky, big dude, strong arm.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: Carson Wentz, Zach Wilson, 6'3, moves great, quick arm, strong arm.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: Trey Lance. third overall pick, right? Marcus Mariota, Justin Fields,
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: all of those guys have starter traits, period. Yep. But
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: they don't have the consistency or whatever. Maybe it's a
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: little bit of bad luck. Maybe injuries have played in
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: a part, but mostly they played themselves out of starting
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: contention because they've shown that even though their highlight reel
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: is every bit as good as a starters, their top
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: 10 or 15, when he plays over a course of
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: a season, they don't have it consistently. And so Drew Locke,
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: if you say, okay, which category is he in? Unquestionably
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: that second, this is a dude that, you know, six,
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: three plus that, uh, moves great. You saw him rush for, uh,
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: you know, that 14 yard run. You saw how, how
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: he accelerated. That's an athlete. His, he's got a very
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: quick release. He's got, um, not only adequate velocity velocity
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: when he throws, uh, with his body behind it, but
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: he has, uh, something that's what i call uh many
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: people call arm talent which is related but that's can
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: you generate velocity without your body behind it and and
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: he showed you that a number of times the other
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: night yep so i think that's that's just a way
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: to frame this just understand who our backup quarterback is
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: he has starter traits the uh and i would argue
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: that emphatically.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Hugh let me And we're going to deep dive this
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: in the next couple segments, but let me start with
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: this just general thought, because as you're describing all his traits, right,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: I'm thinking in the back of my mind, it sounds
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: very similar to the starter for Seattle in Sam Darnold.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: How similar are they in terms of physical traits, style
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: of play, ability to make plays in however it may be,
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: on script, off script, what have you, but how similar
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: is he to Sam Darnold?
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: Well, I think physically they're very similar. Uh, I think
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: they're about the same height at six, three. Uh, I
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: think their velocity on the ball is very similar. Uh,
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: maybe Sam spins it a little tighter. Uh, yes. Hard
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: knocks was trying to profile. Right. Um, I think their
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: athleticism is comparable. Um, I think their frame, you know, they're, they're,
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: they're both thick enough. Um, you know, they're not built
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: like Josh Allen, but I guess who, who is, so that, that,
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: It's foolish to even bring that up. But I would say,
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: if anything, Drew Locke has a quicker release. Now, why
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: is Darnold better? He just processes better. He does the
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: right thing more consistently. He's more accurate deep down the field.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: If you watched him over a long period of time
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: and you watched Drew Locke, He is going to do
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: the right thing in the offense with a greater percentage,
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: a higher consistency, even if it's just a four-yard completion.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: Sometimes a four-yard completion is the right decision because it's
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: the only decision. Sometimes a throwaway is the right decision
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: because it's the only decision. So Sam Darnold is going to,
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: over a period of time, make good decisions at a
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: higher rate.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: But their skill set, just standing and throwing the ball,
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: you know, if it was like, you know, at the
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: combine or, you know, they were going to play horse,
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: you know, think of this is a thought experiment now, right? Like, okay,
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: you know, Darnold's going to say, well, all right, I'm
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: going to go seven step. I'm going to go far
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: hash and I'm going to smoke a far field corner.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: Drew Lockett just nod and go, I got you. You
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: ain't going to get H on me.
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: Because I can make that throw too. What do you got? Like,
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: all right, let's go to the next throw. What do
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: you got? And that showed up on Wednesday night. Here's
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: just a handful of times where this showed up. Do
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: you remember the dagger route on 3rd and 21? I
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: know we're going back to Wednesday, and usually this shows
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: on the day after.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: The third quarter, maybe?
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: No, it was second quarter, late second quarter.
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: And it was 21 yards on third and 22, and
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: he throws that deep in to JSN. Well, that's against
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: a Tampa 2 defense. There's a safety on that half
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: of the field. There's a linebacker in the middle that
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: could break on the play, and what he does is
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: the curl defender is the one over from the inside
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: to the middle, excuse me, from the middle to the outside.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: You have The hook zone defender right in the middle.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: Then comes the curl as we're working our way out.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: And then the flat defender. All right. And so both
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: the hook defender directly in the middle of the hash mark.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: And then the defender one zone over adjacent, which we
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: describe as the curl defender. Both of those had the
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: potential to get underneath it. He actually shimmies his shoulder
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: and looks off the curl defender and then smokes at
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: exactly the right trajectory, right time. There is nobody in
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: football that can execute that play better than what he did.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: The corner out to Cup, you remember the 24-yarder over
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: by the far sideline? Cup didn't give you a millimeter
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: of separation.
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: Nope.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: And you just credit the coverage there. But Locke, now
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: I just described a velocity throw. Now I look and
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: I say, hey, how does a backup quarterback feel comfortable
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: with a touch throw? So now he throws a touch throw–
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: over by the sideline, over the top, allowing Cup to
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: make that one-handed. Like, you can't throw it any better
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: because that was the only place to get a completion.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: That is a big-time play by a quarterback and a receiver.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Absolute big time. There's a play. They're in a two-back,
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: and the corner comes off of the edge. The– who– oh.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: Anthony Bradford takes an L on the play, and so
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: he's got a defensive tackle coming right at him. Now,
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: the safety's coming over because of the cat blitz. What's
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: a cat? The corner coming off of the weak side.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: With two guys like a very muddy pocket, he, without
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: being able to step into it, he throws with a
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: little sidearm. He can vary his arm angle. He throws
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: a speed cut out route over to the Seahawks sideline.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: I think it was 13 yards, exactly 13 yards. That
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: was based on what was in front of him and
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: how he couldn't get his body into it. That was
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: a big-time arm talent. He threw with great anticipation. As
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: I said, all kinds of calamitous stuff was happening around him.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: The Seahawks did not protect well in that, but he
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: stood his ground and with a varied arm angle, smokes
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: a ball out to the sideline beautiful um even a
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: little do you remember the time where they had put
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: json in the backfield and he just swings around yep
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: and and then he hooks up at five yards yep
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: that that looks like a really easy throw and i
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: don't want to yeah it does i don't want to
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: overstate it okay because because the the plays i just
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: mentioned were really big time But even the little stuff,
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: the way, if you go back and watch the end
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: zone copy of that, which, which the NFL, what the,
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: what's the coaches study, they watch the all 22 and
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: then the end zone copy. So I watched that same tape.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: It's called the intercut. When you watch it from the
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: end zone. And again, there's a guy's barreling on him.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: He throws that thing sidearm around a rusher and, and, and,
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: He throws it. It looks like a second baseman who
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: just whipping the ball to first base. You go, wait
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: a minute. That's not the aerodynamics of a baseball. It's
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: easy to throw a baseball hard. It's not easy to
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: throw a football hard. And he smokes it to a
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: perfect spot with absolutely nobody behind. I don't mean nobody.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: I mean, no body inertia behind the throw. And so
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: even little stuff. um, you know, he was doing where
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: you say, wait a minute, that is starter traits. All
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: those quarterbacks that I mentioned at the top, the Kellen Moore's,
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: the Daniels, the Harold's, the Mullins, the Zappies, the Barclays,
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: the Jake Brownings, you know, case Keenum's those guys can't
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: do what he did on Wednesday. And so, um, you know,
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: that that's why I don't know if we're going to
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: see him for another week or another six weeks.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Well, let me, let me just, because I think most
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: people can visualize a lot of those plays in their
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: mind and that, The physical talent has been there with him.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: As you mentioned, he falls in that second category. It's
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: funny because they've got the Cardinals this week, and Justin
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Herbert had a less-than-stellar game, 17-27, 2-0-9, a touchdown interception,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: a rating of 83.7 against the Cardinals. Herbert's one of
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: those guys, if you're just drafting off of physical traits,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Herbert's at the top of the list, isn't he? It's
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: Josh Allen to him. You're talking about top-of-the-list guy. For
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: whatever reason, especially in the postseason, but even yesterday, it's
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: never come together for Herbert. For Locke, he's never been
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: a successful starter in the NFL. He will start this week.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: That'll be his 29th start coming up this Sunday in Arizona.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: He's played 42 games. His 43rd game, 29th start. It's
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: never quite come together. I always think with Darnold, Hugh,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: it goes back to you look at Darnold's resume. You
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: go to the Jets. Well, that's where everybody goes to
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: die as a good quarterback, right? It just doesn't matter.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: And then, you know, you bounce around for a while
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: and you finally found yourself as a backup and learn
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: in San Francisco. Then you go as a starter under
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Kevin O'Connell. And then you come here and have this
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: great success. That's Darnold's path, as we all know. With Locke,
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: we thought he was going to get a chance to
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: compete for the starting job with Geno, and that never
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: came to fruition. It was Geno's job from the get-go.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: In fact, the one week he was going to take
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: first-team reps in training camp that year, Locke got COVID,
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: and he was out. So it never came to fruition.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Why do you think it's never come to Locke to
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: be a successful starter in the NFL, despite all the
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: physical traits you just talked about?
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: Well, he was playing for the Broncos. Vic Fangio, wasn't
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: he the head coach there? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Pre-Sean Payton.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: Vic Fangio is one of these old school red asses
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: that he's like, quarterback, just don't screw it up. And
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: he had gone– 4-1 to start, but then they made
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: a change and it was a bad fit with Fangio.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: I think COVID played a part for him because he
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: gets a new coach and it's COVID, so they don't
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: get the training camp and what have you. Playing for
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: a non-quarterback friendly coach, which is, you're inclined maybe to
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: poo-poo that, all right, Millen, just play.
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: No, no.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: Young quarterback, it doesn't have to be a offensive guru
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: at head coach, but you've got to have an environment
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: that's good for the quarterback. And, and, you know, I
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: used to play for the Broncos. I, I know more
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: than I'm going to talk about. It was a really bad, uh,
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: environment and I'm not, I'm not being charitable to drew lock.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: It was, you, you would have had to be extraordinary in, to, uh, to,
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: to fight through that. So, you know, look at, but, but,
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: you know, he, when he's had his chances, he hasn't
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: played consistently enough. Now here's the thing he's in year.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: He's in, is it year eight or year nine?
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Uh, go back to his years, uh, year eight, year eight.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: So he's in year eight and, and he's, you know,
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: he's made 20.8 million. Might be 20.7, whatever. He's just
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: under 21 million. And he, and the way I calculate and,
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: you know, I kind of ran the numbers on, you know, when,
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: when he was a giant, it would be more, taxes and,
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: you know, and when he's a Seahawk, he's not paying
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: state tax. I ran some numbers on this and I
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: think now I don't know how he wants to live.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: Maybe he wants to own an Island and a, and a,
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: and a submarine, but for the most part, a reasonable, uh, uh,
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: you know, investment, if, you know, if I just calculated,
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: if he spent 500 grand a year and, and, and
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: then he invested the rest at a rate that is
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: exactly equal to Dow Jones, you know, just like a,
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: a boiler plate analysis, he's just arriving right now. I
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: think at a time, or I could suppose, I can't
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: say I think, but I would, my speculation is he's
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: just about arriving at the point in his life where
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: he never has to work again.
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: Yep.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: No matter like he can, he can sleep in, he
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: can go throw the freaking tennis ball to his dog
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: and coach high school football. Like he's never going to
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: have to set his alarm.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: And that could be liberating that emotionally. He's been exposed to,
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: you know, you know, Sam Darnold, the way Sam Darnold quarterback,
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: and an awareness of what the defense has. So he
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: didn't turn the ball over on Wednesday. He didn't put
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: the ball in harm's way other than that first corner
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: out over by the Seahawks' sideline. That could have been intercepted,
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: but he protected the ball. And so it's possible that
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: in year eight, that the things that got him in
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: trouble as a young guy, like, hey, I'm going to
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: show you that I got this arm because he has it,
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: you know, and I'm going to make my mark. And
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: now you hear him say, hey, look, it's my job
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: to be as supportive as I can to Sam. So maybe,
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: you know, there's an evolution sometimes with guys. I'm not
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: in his head. I don't know what his values are
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: and what have you. But it's not unreasonable to have
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: a discussion about maybe these factors were are playing into
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: him playing well. And we don't know if he's going
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: to play well. Um, but he played well Wednesday. Um,
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think, I think it's worth talking about that.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: There was four minuses that I have, which is not many,
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: by the way. Um, so we can talk about, he
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: didn't play perfect on Wednesday night and he can clean
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: some things up, but, but, um, uh, you know, I
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: kind of see a guy evolving at year eight. That's
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: kind of learning how to play the game, learning what his,
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: his physical traits can do for himself. And, you know,
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: realizing when he's trying to throw it through a carwash
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: without getting the football wet. Um, and, and so, you know,
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: like I, I, I kind of compare him to a
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: Zach Wilson traits wise, uh, you know, you know, about
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: the same height, quick release, really good athlete, velocity, all
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: of this. But, you know, Zach Wilson has been a
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: junk show mentally.
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: You know, you just can't process, can't make good decisions.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: Drew Locke, even if you took the worst view of
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: Drew Locke, throughout, you could at least see a glimpse
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: that maybe he, in year eight, has arrived at a
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: spot through all the things we've been discussing that he's
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: prepared to play decent football. Now, he's no Sam Darnold,
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: like I mean, I don't know, maybe he'll pull a
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: Kurt Warner in year eight and he'll do something that
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: we don't expect. But as I sit here now, there's
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: no part of me that is not dying for Sam
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: Darnold to get back. But I feel good about this guy.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: And one thing we know, he's not going to be
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: limited in anything physically. Nothing.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: Let me do this. Let's get a break and come back.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: We'll wrap up Hardcore Football with... How will he, what
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: will he be limited to in terms of the Brian
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: Fleury offense? Again, we're playing a guessing game here, but
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: are there things that they would change? And your thoughts
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: also on Fleury's offense as well as we look ahead
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: to the Cardinals game. Hugh Millen, Hardcore Football continues next.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: All right, we're back.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Here we are.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: It's a Monday afternoon, Hardcore Football, Hugh Millen. Hugh, we've
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: got about six minutes here, so I'm going to fire
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: kind of a two-parter. Hopefully you can combine the two.
• 21:02
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Seahawks at Cardinals on Sunday coming up and the Cardinals,
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: by the way, I mean, put on a clinic against
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: the chargers. They, uh, they held the chargers to two
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: of eight on third downs, uh, over three on fourth
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: down chargers had 268 yards of offense. I talked about
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: Justin Herbert's numbers earlier, Maureen Hampton, they're out sending running
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: back 12 carries for 43 yards. Uh, they ran for
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: just 81 in the game. And, uh, A couple of
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: those came on some chunk plays by Herbert and Elhampton
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: as well. So that Cardinals defense is not going to
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: roll over just to play dead for the No. 1
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: overall pick, apparently, on Sunday. You watched Brian Fleury, and
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: you watched Drew Locke with Brian Fleury for the majority
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: of the game. We just talked about Drew Locke and
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: what Drew Locke's all about. In your mind's eye, what
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: do you see from this offense, whether it be Fleury,
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: how you liked what he did, didn't like what he did,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: and combine that with Drew Locke on Sunday?
• 21:56
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: I don't know that we can learn much from Brian
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: Flory on this, what his propensity to run different plays
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: would be. I think that they started to open things
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: up more in the third quarter, and I think Jadarian Price,
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: I would expect, I would hope that he would see
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: the ball more.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: Now, in Price's case, all of his runs except for
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: the second one were outside generally wide zone runs. And
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: his acceleration can really make that scheme work. And so
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: I would hope they'd lean on him more, that he
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: should get more carries. That would be a big factor
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: for me. And then for Drew Locke, he's got to
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: clean up a couple of things that probably cost him
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: an extra– eight points because he had the, the, uh,
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: legal shift in motion on the, the, uh, cup touchdown, right.
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: That got called back that ended up in a field goal.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: And he had the, you know, the second and inches
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: down by the, uh, uh, the goal line and they
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: get the delay game and that led to a field goal.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: So if they get second and inches at the, I
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: think it was a three or four yard line, presumably
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: they plunge it in and now they got first and
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: goal at the, the two or the three, I'm going
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: to say they were going to score. So I think
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: the eight net points there. He had another one where
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: he throws the ball to JSN on a corner route
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: down in the red zone, and it was good coverage
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: and what have you. On that play, he had Rashid
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: Shaheed on a now slant coming wide open. If you
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: would have stopped the frame on the TV when he
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: caught it, there wouldn't have been a defender in the frame.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: I know when Drew Locke watched that, he just goes,
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: oh my God. A walk-in touchdown. He ran into a
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: sack early in the game where he had JSN on
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: an OTB over the ball and then return out. If
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: he just stays in the throwing position, he's going to
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: get a nice completion, probably 20-yard run after the catch.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: That was early. That was among the I don't know,
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: three or four first plays for him. And he got
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: a little fidgety in the pocket. But from that point on, Ian.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: It's like he went and watched the Microsoft Surface, the tape,
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: and he goes, whoa, what am I doing? And from
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: that play on, his pocket presence was fantastic, or at
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: least no problems. I thought he navigated the pocket and
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: made decisions as to when to move, when not to move,
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: when to stand in the barrel and throw the ball,
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: even though you're going to get hit. I thought his...
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: His instincts in the pocket were sensational after that first
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: miss that I just described. So I think that they're
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: just going to have to work this stuff in and
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: find what he's good at. I think that he throws
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: the ball to the outside very well. So let's get
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: some comebacks. Let's get some speed outs. A lot of times, guys,
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: we just talked at the onset of the beginning segment
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: that the group of quarterbacks who have the traits and
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: they are backups, not because of their traits, but despite
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: their traits, meaning they have great traits, generally processing would
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: be a common denominator. They just don't see things as
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: fast and anticipate and see, okay, I got to see
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: the movie before it happens. Well, that's more difficult between numbers.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: But if you've got a big arm, you know, throwing
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: those out, out, breaking routes, uh, you can just smoke
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: it to the sideline because you've got a big arm
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: and you don't have to process as much. So let's
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: see if we see more of that. Now, that would
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: take an adjustment from Flory because he comes from the 49ers,
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: and because they have Brock Purdy, nobody has a higher
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: ratio of throwing inside than Brock Purdy because his superpower
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: is his processing. He's elite at seeing the movie before
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: it happens, so he just lays balls into these areas,
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden 49er receivers come out
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: of nowhere and intersect with the ball because the ball
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: is just a lollipop, but it's thrown so early that
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: it makes him work for himself. And so Flory comes
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: from a system where the big diet of that is
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: in the middle of the field. He would have to
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: adjust and say, oh, wait a minute. I got a
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: guy who could smoke the ball to the sideline. Let's
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: use that.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: I'm going to ask you to process something in one minute, okay?
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: Okay, this is my QB1 processing something. A quick thought
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: on Jadarian Price. Ten carries, only four in the second half.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: You want to see him touch the ball more? What
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: did you see from the rookie? Well, as I said,
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: everything was to the outside.
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: You know, the stretch plays, a toss, what have you.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: And what's great about him is that he can make
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: the timing of that work. Because those blocks out on
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: the perimeter, you know, often involving A.J. Brown. A.J.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Barner.
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: Yes, A.J.
• 27:25
  Speaker 7: Barner.
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: Oh, my God. I watch a lot of tape involving
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: 88 Barner that, you know, you can't block forever. But
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: if you're fast enough to get there, it can be
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: a green light for him to get to the sideline
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: like it was. I mean, he had a few breathtaking
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: that first. That first stretch, well, the first one that
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: he ran, the first play of the season was he
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: runs stretch right. That's a wide zone to the right
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: going to the D gap on the right side, D
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: as in delta. And he ends up taking it back
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: to the D gap as in delta on the left side.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: Now, the gaps flow because the defense is pursuing and
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: the linemen are stepping to that. So it's not quite
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: as drastic as that might seem because of the flow,
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: but it was still a hell of a cutback. He
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: did it at full speed. He gets 13 yards. And
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: so the other stretches, I can already tell right now
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: he's going to be top shelf on the wide zone,
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: which is their bread and butter. I still need to
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: see it on those inside, you know, the ice– the
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: iso and the duo and the inside zone so the
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: common inside runs that we see we haven't seen that
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: from him yet.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Great stuff as always my friend next week we'll have
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: an actual game to talk about that just happened 24
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: hours prior we'll do that on hardcore football i'm assuming
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: more of it more at four probably with softy today
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: and throughout the rest of the week rqb1 the great
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: hugh millen always awesome to have you on my friend
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: thank you Thank you so much. That's our friend Hugh Milton.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: Take a quick break. Come back. Molly Watt Monday. God,
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: stand by, buckle your seatbelts, and get ready for that next.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: It's Monday, and that means one thing. It's time to mollywop. Uncensored, unscripted,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: and filled with the passion that all Mariners fans can
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: relate to. And brought to you by the company that's
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: all about Seattle sports. Simply Seattle. Visit simplyseattle.com for the
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: best Mariners gear. Now with the mollywop boys, Nathan Bishop
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: and Chris Crawford. With my O-Y, here's Ian Furness.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: Cortez with first base open.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: Brown ball, it takes off the glove, and Young can't
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: get to it.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: This game is tied.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: Highlight courtesy of MLB TV, Mariners.
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: TV.
• 29:46
  Speaker 6: Hmm.
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: Hmm.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: Molly Watt Monday brought to you by our friends at
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: Simply Seattle, simplyseattle.com. Probably now you're thinking about your Seahawks
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: gear at simplyseattle.com or your college gear as well. Although
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: I don't think Husky fans are all too happy today either.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: So let's just talk Seahawks gear and all the Sonics
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: retro gear, all they have there at Simply Seattle, simplyseattle.com,
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: mollywatt15 at checkout. Nathan Bishop, Christopher Crawford, a.k.a. on our
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: Zoom call today.
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator 69. Yeah, there you go. They
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: only gave up 59, buddy. Not 69, 59. I thought
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: I did a great job, and I think that's the
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: fact that I was able to hold.
• 30:35
  Speaker 7: Them under 60, knowing that he's going to be really
• 30:39
  Speaker 7: tired the next few weeks. Caleb Williams has run so
• 30:42
  Speaker 7: much that he's just not going to have it. I
• 30:44
  Speaker 7: think the rest of the world should be thanking me,
• 30:46
  Speaker 7: but no, apparently 59 points in the opener is a
• 30:49
  Speaker 7: bad thing.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: That's what I hear. I heard it's not good. By
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: the way, fellas... Welcome Ashley Ryan to the show. She
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: is now with us.
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: Sorry in advance, Ashley. That's all right.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to let your negativity rub off on me.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: I've got it building on its own.
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: Just keep in mind.
• 31:05
  Speaker 7: If Cortland Sutton scores negative 30 points this week, you
• 31:08
  Speaker 7: still lose by a point.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I know.
• 31:10
  Speaker 7: I know.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's right. You guys are in the same fantasy
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: league now. Chris is in our fantasy league. Yeah, he's
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: kicking my butt.
• 31:14
  Speaker 7: Uh-oh.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: Uh-oh. Okay. All right.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: Well, listen, Ashley, I know you've– working the morning show
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: for all those years, you've probably never heard of this
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: show before. It's called Molly Watt Monday.
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: Yeah, no, brand new.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: It's brand new for me. Brand new show. No one's
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: really heard of it. I know the morning show for
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: years really– Never really talked about this show or got
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: antagonized by them. I don't know what you mean. This
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: is a safe space, Ash. You can say what you
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: want here. You can say what you want. And away
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: we go. A lot to get to today on a
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: Molly Watt Monday brought to you by Simply Seattle. Simplyseattle.com.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Before we get to that stuff, let's get to the
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: fun stuff first. Chris, how was your week last week?
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: You went to a Marriott game in the Diamond Club
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: and a Seahawks game in the club level. Are you
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: kidding me?
• 31:54
  Speaker 7: Yeah. People are going to think that I actually make
• 31:57
  Speaker 7: money when we say something like that. Let me be
• 31:59
  Speaker 7: abundantly clear that we can thank Little Creek Casino for
• 32:02
  Speaker 7: everything that happened there. If they want to sponsor the show,
• 32:05
  Speaker 7: by the way, let me know.
• 32:07
  Speaker 5: It was a blast.
• 32:08
  Speaker 7: I mean, the Diamond Club was one of the coolest
• 32:11
  Speaker 7: things that I've ever done. To be able to see
• 32:14
  Speaker 7: the game from that close, I can't confirm that big
• 32:18
  Speaker 7: dumper is big. I can't confirm it after staring at
• 32:20
  Speaker 7: that for a little while. And then the Seahawk game,
• 32:23
  Speaker 7: that was my first game in Seattle, Washington since 2004.
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 32:27
  Speaker 7: And I just had a blast and it was fun
• 32:30
  Speaker 7: to pretend to be, uh, among the, uh, among the uppers, but, uh, boy,
• 32:35
  Speaker 7: it's fun. And it's just a great example of how
• 32:37
  Speaker 7: great Seattle sports can be.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: Uh, Nathan, how was your, your week? You went all
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: over the place.
• 32:41
  Speaker 6: Oh, let me tell you, man, I was so far
• 32:44
  Speaker 6: away from the Seattle Mariners, both mentally and geographically that
• 32:47
  Speaker 6: I had just the best weekend you could possibly have.
• 32:50
  Speaker 6: I got a duck over to the The Windy City
• 32:52
  Speaker 6: for a couple days with my boy who's headed to college,
• 32:55
  Speaker 6: and we got to go see a first-place team in
• 32:57
  Speaker 6: the Chicago White Sox at Rayfield, and the next day
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: we followed it up with probably the best lineup in
• 33:02
  Speaker 6: baseball in the Chicago Cubs as they destroyed the Pittsburgh Pirates.
• 33:06
  Speaker 6: It was idyllic and gorgeous and beautiful, and like I said,
• 33:08
  Speaker 6: absolutely nowhere near the Seattle Mariners.
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: Strong endorse.
• 33:12
  Speaker 6: If you can get away from the Mariners, you should
• 33:14
  Speaker 6: do it.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: Let's get to our opening thoughts. As always, the Mariners...
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: They had a week. They had something of a week
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: that finishes off losing two of three to the A's,
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: including walk-off fashion both Friday and Sunday. Sunday really stung
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: because you had a pretty big lead. You're five out,
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: 12 to go, and the Rangers are closing in. You're
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: basically five out of them as well because they've got
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: the tiebreaker on you as we head down the home stretch. Nathan,
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: opening thoughts.
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: Well, I.
• 33:49
  Speaker 6: the season's basically over and we've been talking about this
• 33:52
  Speaker 6: for a couple of weeks now. I mean, it's going
• 33:54
  Speaker 6: to come down to the division. If they had taken
• 33:56
  Speaker 6: care of business against an absolutely wretched, I think I
• 33:59
  Speaker 6: texted the group chat yesterday, maybe that this, this A's
• 34:03
  Speaker 6: staff is, is maybe the worst staff I've ever seen.
• 34:05
  Speaker 6: It's just, and putting them in that moon ball of
• 34:09
  Speaker 6: a ballpark in Sacramento is just even worse. I mean,
• 34:12
  Speaker 6: there's no way that team can do anything but give
• 34:15
  Speaker 6: up runs. And it's, if the Mariners had just taken
• 34:17
  Speaker 6: care of business against them, and I don't even mean sweeping,
• 34:20
  Speaker 6: I mean, going like four and three against them in
• 34:22
  Speaker 6: the last two series they've had, they'd be three games
• 34:24
  Speaker 6: out with a real chance to do some damage. Cause
• 34:27
  Speaker 6: in essence, that would be two games out with the
• 34:29
  Speaker 6: tiebreaker and Houston and And they tripped all over themselves
• 34:32
  Speaker 6: in the way that they've done it all year. And
• 34:34
  Speaker 6: that's just by not executing at high leverage moments and
• 34:37
  Speaker 6: not figuring out ways to win. And with the season
• 34:39
  Speaker 6: going down the crapper now, I was trying to think
• 34:41
  Speaker 6: of a new way to think about this. And maybe
• 34:43
  Speaker 6: it's not new, but it's not the way that we've
• 34:45
  Speaker 6: been talking about this team all year, which is that
• 34:47
  Speaker 6: Dan and primarily that Dan's been failing the team. And
• 34:51
  Speaker 6: I think that we're at a point now where Most
• 34:53
  Speaker 6: people agree he will not be the manager in 2027,
• 34:56
  Speaker 6: whatever mechanism they want to call it, whether it's firing
• 34:59
  Speaker 6: or it's the Kevin Mather, thank you for your service,
• 35:02
  Speaker 6: we no longer want you award. But I was thinking
• 35:05
  Speaker 6: about in the more long-term and this modern era of
• 35:08
  Speaker 6: Mariners baseball, about what an outlier 2025 is really feeling.
• 35:13
  Speaker 6: Because you remember way back when this rebuild started, one
• 35:18
  Speaker 6: of the things that this franchise talked about was that
• 35:21
  Speaker 6: they were going to time their ascent when their ascendant powers,
• 35:25
  Speaker 6: which is primarily the Houston Astros, came back to Earth.
• 35:28
  Speaker 6: And that was the idea, that the Mariners were going
• 35:29
  Speaker 6: to get great right when the Houston Astros got bad,
• 35:32
  Speaker 6: or at least stopped being the best baseball team in
• 35:35
  Speaker 6: the world. And after 2022, that happened with the Houston Astros.
• 35:39
  Speaker 6: They stopped being the best baseball team in the world.
• 35:42
  Speaker 6: If you think that the division winner this year in
• 35:44
  Speaker 6: the AL West is going to win something like 82 games,
• 35:46
  Speaker 6: since 2022, the AL West division champ will have averaged
• 35:48
  Speaker 6: 87 wins. That's an extremely modest number, especially for a
• 35:56
  Speaker 6: non-central division in Major League Baseball. And the Mariners will
• 36:00
  Speaker 6: have leveraged that in an era with three wildcard spots
• 36:05
  Speaker 6: into one playoff appearance. And this predates Dan Wilson. And
• 36:09
  Speaker 6: I think that I hated the concept of not trying
• 36:13
  Speaker 6: to beat a great team when the Astros were amazing
• 36:16
  Speaker 6: and winning 105 plus games. I hated that idea of like,
• 36:19
  Speaker 6: we're just going to wait them out. But then for
• 36:21
  Speaker 6: them to be kind of right about it and then
• 36:23
  Speaker 6: fail to execute what I think was a cowardly plan,
• 36:26
  Speaker 6: I just want to remind people that as frustrated as
• 36:29
  Speaker 6: we are with Dan and as frustrated as we are
• 36:31
  Speaker 6: with this season, the failures go so much higher than that.
• 36:34
  Speaker 6: This is such a failure of both vision and execution
• 36:37
  Speaker 6: at the very highest level. And I think that if
• 36:40
  Speaker 6: this franchise ever wants to be more than this, where
• 36:44
  Speaker 6: they're maybe making the playoffs once or twice every four
• 36:48
  Speaker 6: or five years in kind of meandering fashion when 40%
• 36:51
  Speaker 6: of the league makes the playoffs. If you want to
• 36:53
  Speaker 6: stop being like the Carolina Panthers or the Tennessee Titans
• 36:56
  Speaker 6: of Major League Baseball, you've got to dream bigger. You've
• 37:00
  Speaker 6: got to demand better. You have to expect more. You
• 37:02
  Speaker 6: have to set a higher standard than anybody has ever
• 37:05
  Speaker 6: set here before. This franchise has spent 50 years without
• 37:09
  Speaker 6: setting a high standard for itself. And it's just time
• 37:12
  Speaker 6: for it to change. It has to change after this year.
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: Chris.
• 37:17
  Speaker 7: So, I mean, there's so many what ifs that you
• 37:23
  Speaker 7: can do with this season. Like you can play the
• 37:25
  Speaker 7: what if game. What if Andres Munoz blows five saves
• 37:28
  Speaker 7: instead of 10? What if Cal Raleigh is fully healthy?
• 37:32
  Speaker 7: What if Julio would have had second half Julio? What
• 37:35
  Speaker 7: if Brendan Donovan would have stayed healthy? But I think
• 37:38
  Speaker 7: that's dangerous to do because I think that kind of
• 37:41
  Speaker 7: lets them off the hook too much, that this was
• 37:43
  Speaker 7: just a bad baseball team. This was a poorly constructed roster.
• 37:48
  Speaker 7: This was a team that didn't do enough to try
• 37:50
  Speaker 7: to get better during the season, barely did anything, and
• 37:53
  Speaker 7: Taylor Ward has been borderline a disaster since being acquired.
• 37:57
  Speaker 7: I know there's a Price is Right chart that we
• 38:00
  Speaker 7: can look at a little later with Mr.
• 38:02
  Speaker 5: Ward, but it's just.
• 38:06
  Speaker 7: I'm struggling to get disappointed by it because of what
• 38:09
  Speaker 7: I said last week that I just haven't enjoyed watching
• 38:11
  Speaker 7: this team all year. There has been a dislike ability
• 38:15
  Speaker 7: about this team and anyone who's still enjoying it, by
• 38:18
  Speaker 7: the way, more power to you.
• 38:20
  Speaker 5: And that's great. That is awesome.
• 38:22
  Speaker 7: Like you can still have awesome individual moments. Saturday was
• 38:25
  Speaker 7: one of those individual awesome, awesome moments. That was really
• 38:28
  Speaker 7: fun to see. It's crazy to think that they, uh,
• 38:31
  Speaker 7: have won a game by 18 runs and lost a
• 38:34
  Speaker 7: couple of games by more than 18 runs in the
• 38:36
  Speaker 7: same season. I just haven't had a fun time Ian.
• 38:40
  Speaker 7: And maybe that's because of the demands that I had
• 38:42
  Speaker 7: at the beginning of the year. Maybe that's on me.
• 38:44
  Speaker 7: I don't think it's just me though, because I talked
• 38:47
  Speaker 7: to other people. My OI has been getting incredible view
• 38:50
  Speaker 7: counts lately. And I really appreciate that. And the comments
• 38:54
  Speaker 7: have all kind of said the same thing that we
• 38:56
  Speaker 7: just straight up are not having a good time watching
• 38:58
  Speaker 7: this baseball team. And I think, Overall, that's the most
• 39:02
  Speaker 7: disappointing thing of all, is that people aren't having fun
• 39:05
  Speaker 7: watching a baseball team that should have been a hell
• 39:07
  Speaker 7: of a lot of fun.
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: That's Chris Crawford, Nathan Bishop, Molly Watt Monday, brought to
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: you by Simply Seattle, simplyseattle.com, Molly Watt 15 at your
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: checkout for your discount code. Okay, I'm glad you went
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: down that road for a second. I texted you guys
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: the other day. We've all been doing, everyone not named Softie,
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: has been doing a fantasy football draft in the last
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: little while, and getting together with friends, and whether group
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: chats or in person, what have you. We had one
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: last week. I'm in a league that's 50 years old,
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: by the way, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. A
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: lot of old ex-media guys and print guys in town
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: and some of their kids and so forth. And I
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: had three different people come up to me that I
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: respect greatly. One ex-media and a couple that grew up
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: around the media as well. And they said the same thing.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: They said, you know, it's our favorite segment of the week.
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: And it's not because of the perceived negativity of you
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: two guys. It's because if you're a fan, you want honesty.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: And you want honesty. You don't want, hey, they just lost.
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: Here are the fireworks. Or here's the cookbook the wives
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: are selling. That's not what they want. They want honesty
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: and they want to know why and why it went wrong.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: But one of the things that jumped out at me, guys,
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: and this has been kind of an overriding theme from
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: people all year that I've talked to on and off
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: the air, text at 49451 and, you know, this show
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: and after this show, we get other texts or talking
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: to people that you're just friends with and sports fans.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: What you said, Chris, and I'm still trying to figure
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: out why to put a finger on it. People are
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: still passionate about this baseball team. They're still passionate. They're
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: passionately pissed off right now, but they're passionate, which is
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: a good thing. They haven't, you know, now they're kind
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: of tuning out. People are tuning out now. A lot
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: of people say, oh, they lost?
• 40:52
  Speaker 5: What the hell?
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: I forgot they were even playing yesterday. But there's passion.
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: The unlikeability, the part that you mentioned, I hear a lot.
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: I don't know if we can put a finger on
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: how or why, but how would you describe that? You're
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: doing a nightly podcast with people on YouTube. We do
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: this show every week. We hear from fans every day.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: How would you describe that, Chris, and why is that?
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: Is it because they haven't met expectations?
• 41:16
  Speaker 5: I think it's a combination of a lot of things.
• 41:20
  Speaker 7: I think it's the fact that you were so close
• 41:23
  Speaker 7: to making the World Series last year, the fact that
• 41:25
  Speaker 7: you had so much. It was fun, and you can
• 41:29
  Speaker 7: just say, hey, maybe it was just fun because they
• 41:31
  Speaker 7: were winning, but I don't think so.
• 41:33
  Speaker 5: There was a likability to that team.
• 41:35
  Speaker 7: Julio's smile is infectious, whether you get frustrated by his
• 41:39
  Speaker 7: play or not.
• 41:39
  Speaker 5: That smile just hasn't been there this year. I have
• 41:42
  Speaker 5: not seen it. Cal Raleigh, I think has.
• 41:45
  Speaker 7: Gone to the most, I don't even know what the
• 41:49
  Speaker 7: word is, but he went from being a guy who
• 41:52
  Speaker 7: looked like he was having so much fun out there
• 41:54
  Speaker 7: to being someone who looked borderline militant, someone who just
• 41:58
  Speaker 7: looks like he is not interested in anything but the results.
• 42:02
  Speaker 7: And hey, the results are what ends up getting you paid.
• 42:04
  Speaker 7: And the results are what made him the runner up
• 42:06
  Speaker 7: to the MVP last year. but the process of him
• 42:09
  Speaker 7: looking like he has fun has not been there this year.
• 42:14
  Speaker 7: The manager is a big thing here too. And I
• 42:16
  Speaker 7: think people turned on the manager. I mean, again, I've
• 42:19
  Speaker 7: talked about it ad nauseum. I thought it was a
• 42:21
  Speaker 7: terrible hire in the first place and the results so
• 42:24
  Speaker 7: far are not anywhere close to good enough. I think
• 42:26
  Speaker 7: people have turned on that a little bit as well.
• 42:29
  Speaker 7: And they just don't look like they have any enthusiasm
• 42:32
  Speaker 7: out there. There's just a very paint by numbers, baseball team,
• 42:37
  Speaker 7: that when you're not winning is a hell of a lot,
• 42:40
  Speaker 7: not fun to watch. Like when you are just going
• 42:43
  Speaker 7: through the motions, that's not fun to watch. And ultimately
• 42:47
  Speaker 7: I think it just comes down to not winning, but
• 42:50
  Speaker 7: I know this, that like just the eye test for
• 42:53
  Speaker 7: me with this baseball team tells me that this team
• 42:56
  Speaker 7: just doesn't enjoy playing baseball right now.
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: And that sucks.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: Nathan.
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: I think it's that they're old.
• 43:04
  Speaker 6: Honestly, like not right now at this exact moment. And
• 43:06
  Speaker 6: I think part of the reason why they've been a
• 43:08
  Speaker 6: little bit more fun to watch recently is because you guys,
• 43:10
  Speaker 6: you have guys like Michael Arroyo making debuts and hitting
• 43:13
  Speaker 6: home runs and Laz Montez, absolutely.
• 43:16
  Speaker 3: Obliterating mistake pitches. Very few people in the game can.
• 43:20
  Speaker 6: I think that that when that kind of stuff is
• 43:22
  Speaker 6: going on, when young guys are doing stuff and you're losing,
• 43:25
  Speaker 6: it's a totally different experience than what you're having with
• 43:27
  Speaker 6: this team. I think the fact that this was In
• 43:31
  Speaker 6: some ways, the Mariners' most win-now roster that they've had
• 43:35
  Speaker 6: in this era, or at least the one that they
• 43:38
  Speaker 6: themselves kind of talked themselves into being their most win-now roster,
• 43:42
  Speaker 6: I would take huge exception with that because I don't
• 43:44
  Speaker 6: think they've tried to ever actually truly build a win-now roster.
• 43:47
  Speaker 6: But I think in their head and the way that
• 43:49
  Speaker 6: they marketed it and the way that they thought about
• 43:52
  Speaker 6: this team was it was kind of in line with Mr.
• 43:55
  Speaker 6: Crawford's opening day statement that they were demanding more than
• 44:00
  Speaker 6: what they got last year. I'm not sure what they
• 44:02
  Speaker 6: thought their actions were that deserve that kind of expectation,
• 44:06
  Speaker 6: but I do think that's the mindset they brought into
• 44:09
  Speaker 6: the season and to watch them fall flat with an
• 44:14
  Speaker 6: older group, an unathletic, I've mentioned this at multiple times.
• 44:18
  Speaker 6: I do think that there is an aesthetic joy to
• 44:20
  Speaker 6: watching great athletes play great baseball, especially defensively, And this
• 44:25
  Speaker 6: team is so unathletic. They're just winning or losing. The
• 44:29
  Speaker 6: winning would cover up a lot of it, but you
• 44:31
  Speaker 6: cannot help but wince when you watch J.P. Crawford try
• 44:33
  Speaker 6: to play defense. It's hard to watch somebody, even a
• 44:37
  Speaker 6: great player like Randy Rosarena in left field. The third
• 44:40
  Speaker 6: base position has been an abomination all season long. I mean,
• 44:44
  Speaker 6: it's so hard to watch if you just like to
• 44:47
  Speaker 6: watch good baseball. So to Chris's point, it's a lot
• 44:50
  Speaker 6: of things. I really think that it's, the manager not
• 44:55
  Speaker 6: keeping it together. And the fact that as Chris said, I,
• 44:58
  Speaker 6: I think like half, half of the way through this year,
• 45:01
  Speaker 6: we've talked so much about how this group of guys,
• 45:03
  Speaker 6: when the back has been against the wall, they have
• 45:05
  Speaker 6: rallied themselves and fought and found something in the tank
• 45:09
  Speaker 6: that wasn't there. And that maybe you didn't think was there,
• 45:12
  Speaker 6: but it became so abundantly clear by like early July
• 45:16
  Speaker 6: that this group was just not going to have that
• 45:19
  Speaker 6: same gear in them. And for whatever reason, I would
• 45:22
  Speaker 6: say it's probably a good portion of it is the
• 45:25
  Speaker 6: manager and the leadership or the absence of leadership in
• 45:27
  Speaker 6: the clubhouse. It's just not there, man. It's so hard
• 45:31
  Speaker 6: to watch.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: I've got a thought, too, that I'll share in a second.
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: But I want to ask Ashley because all joking aside,
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: new and different perspective. You hear things like unlikable or
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: hard to watch. You're a big fan. You had three
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: TVs on yesterday and one of them was on the
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: baseball game.
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: What are your thoughts on why this team has that
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: feeling by many fans?
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think it is just purely for the
• 45:52
  Speaker 4: fact that people had such high expectations. I mean, we
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: went to the highest place that we have been as
• 45:57
  Speaker 4: Mariners fans to go to game seven of the ALCS
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: and to come back and have it be just a
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: disappointment to start again. It's like, how are we going to,
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: how do we have to keep going through this every year?
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: But especially this year, especially when the expectations were so
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: high and then for it to seem like nothing's going
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: right and no one's getting angry about it, even though
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: fans are getting angry.
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: That's what's frustrating.
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: I think to me, especially like when I want somebody
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: to get pissed off in a post game interview and
• 46:25
  Speaker 4: I want them to not just be mad at themselves.
• 46:27
  Speaker 4: I want them to be mad at the team and
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: I want Dan to be mad at himself. And I
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: want Dan to be mad at the team because I'm
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: irritated and I'm frustrated. And when every night you watch
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: and you hear the same thing, that was a tough one. Yeah,
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: it was an effing tough one.
• 46:39
  Speaker 5: I got it.
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: What are we doing about it? It's a tough one tonight.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: My thought along those lines is, because I think it's
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: all cumulative. I don't think it's one thing or two things.
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: But if we just go back chronologically, you get the
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: World Baseball Classic. You've got a guy coming off a
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: year in which he should have been the MVP in
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: most people's minds. And the WBC, whether it was injury
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: or not, wrecked Cal Raleigh. The whole Randy thing, however
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: you want to slice it, that's dysfunctional. It's just dysfunctional.
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: It just is, right? I mean, it's just dysfunctional. And
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: I think that turned a lot of people off. And
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: then I think if you really look at it, I
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: don't think some people got paid, Naylor, and hasn't been
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: the same. The starting pitching has been just okay. This
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: roster and this way this team's beat, it needs to
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: be elite. And when the starting pitching is just okay,
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: that's hard to watch because that's kind of the thing
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: we can lean into. It'll be fine. It'll be like
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: if It'd be like if Mike McDonald's defense gave up
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: a 600-yard offense today. If they gave up what Chicago
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: got yesterday, that'd be like, what the hell? That's not
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: supposed to happen. So guys getting paid, guys not meeting expectations.
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: Maybe you had a group that, in an organization that
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: does not have the DNA of a winner, wasn't prepared
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: mentally to have the pressure to be the team that
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: everyone was looking at. Start of the season, Chris demanded
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: the World Series. Joe Sheehan and others said this will
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: be the American League West champion and the favorite in
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: the American League. It's almost like the pressure, the expectations
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: were something they weren't ready for, didn't embrace. They certainly
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: didn't embrace it. Whereas some teams want that. I think
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: these guys, it's an easy place to be comfortable. You
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: play in a gorgeous ballpark. Fans come out every single night.
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: It's a very, very easy place to play. If people
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: criticize them, those people get criticized by many. you guys
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: and others. Right. And I just think that all those things,
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: they needed, they need a DNA change.
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: They just do.
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: And whether that's roster front office manager, all of the above.
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: They need a DNA change because they were not prepared
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: to build on what they did last year. And guys,
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: here's the frustrating thing. I'll leave you this. Well, I
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: want your thoughts on this on the other side. This
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: is exactly what happened the last time they went to
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: the post season. They were not capable of taking that
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: and taking the next step for whatever reason. And I
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: think that lies with the front office. I really do.
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: I think that lies with the front office. We can
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: blame ownership and managers all we want, but I think
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: that lies with the front office. That you have these expectations,
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: you finish a season, short of where you want, because
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: everyone wants to win the World Series, but you still
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: took those steps forward, and instead of taking the next
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: step forward, you've taken a big step back. And I
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: think that's what's hard to watch right now with this
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: baseball team. We'll get your thoughts on that on the
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: other side. Molly Watt Monday continues next. Back to Ian
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: Furness on your home for the Huskies, Kraken, and the
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: 12th man. Brought to you by Seattle's closest Snoqualmie Casino
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: and Hotel on Sports Radio 93.3, KJR FM. Molly Watt
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: Monday continues. Brought to you by Simply Seattle, simplyseattle.com. Molly
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: Watt 15 at checkout. Nathan and Chris are here. Well, Chris,
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: I gave you my thoughts. I don't know. There's very
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: kind of a culmination of a lot of different things,
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: but we'll just wrap up this conversation. You're dealing with
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: people on mile Y every night. You're hearing from Felix
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: every night. There's a lot of reasons why I guess
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: we're asking the question. So let's just sum it up
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: this way. This team has, has kind of turned off
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: its fan base and that that's hard to do.
• 50:25
  Speaker 5: No, it's really hard to do.
• 50:27
  Speaker 7: And, you know, I will tell you this being there,
• 50:30
  Speaker 7: there's still a great crowd and they're still having fun,
• 50:32
  Speaker 7: but it's, that is not the experience that I'm experiencing
• 50:36
  Speaker 7: from talking to people online. And I do realize that
• 50:39
  Speaker 7: online is not real life, but there are a hell
• 50:41
  Speaker 7: of a lot more people who are not at the
• 50:43
  Speaker 7: game who are pissed off about this stuff than the
• 50:45
  Speaker 7: people who are at the game and, you know, being
• 50:48
  Speaker 7: suckered in by Sockeye, the salmon running and all of
• 50:52
  Speaker 7: that good stuff.
• 50:54
  Speaker 5: They're mad. They're pissed off. And you know what? You
• 50:57
  Speaker 5: mentioned it earlier.
• 50:58
  Speaker 7: It's a good thing that they're pissed off because the
• 51:00
  Speaker 7: worst thing that you could have is complacency. The worst
• 51:03
  Speaker 7: thing is, is where you just don't care when that
• 51:06
  Speaker 7: was kind of what the experience was from 2005 to 2015,
• 51:09
  Speaker 7: give or take maybe a little bit longer there where
• 51:13
  Speaker 7: there was a complacency. And that's the good news is
• 51:17
  Speaker 7: that people still care, but you are at risk of
• 51:21
  Speaker 7: turning off a massive and turning off to the point
• 51:24
  Speaker 7: where things get bad and for the Seattle Mariners if
• 51:27
  Speaker 7: you have more seasons like this going forward.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: All right. We'll table the rest of this because I think–
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to table this to Nathan. I'll throw
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: it to you when we get here in a couple weeks,
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: assuming things don't improve and they miss the playoffs, because
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: I just think this is a– just this conversation tells
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: us you can't run it back. You just can't. But
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: we'll get to that later. Nathan, is there any part
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: of you tonight– they got L.A., start the series with
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: the Angels, next three in Anaheim– Is there any part
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: of you that thinks, now let me do just the
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: math real quick for folks. If we assume, and I
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: think it's safe to say we can assume, that you're
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: going to have to be at least 81-81 to get
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: into the playoffs as the AL West champion, I think
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: we're also safe to assume you're not going to be
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: wildcard three with less than 83 wins, right? Can we
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: assume that? Is that 82-83 wins, right? So 12-0 gets
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: you to 82. If you go 11-1, you get to 81-81, Nathan.
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: I didn't even look at the games behind because what
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: you're asking is you're asking to go on a run
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: that's unprecedented in a sense. They've done it, we know,
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: in years past. But then you're also asking everybody else
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: to fall apart, and that probably won't happen. So, Nathan,
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: is there any part of you that is still holding
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: out hope they could have a postseason?
• 52:49
  Speaker 6: I'm holding out dread that they can have a postseason because,
• 52:51
  Speaker 6: like I said last week, I don't think this team
• 52:53
  Speaker 6: deserves to go to the playoffs. And I'll be actively
• 52:55
  Speaker 6: angry if they're, you know, what gets rewarded with a
• 52:58
  Speaker 6: spot in the playoffs. But for people who have, you know,
• 53:01
  Speaker 6: warmth in their heart and can look at the sun
• 53:04
  Speaker 6: and feel joy.
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: Like me.
• 53:06
  Speaker 3: Like Ashley.
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: And for grandma and for all of the fans that
• 53:10
  Speaker 3: literally just show up.
• 53:11
  Speaker 6: Every day and want their baseball team to win. And
• 53:12
  Speaker 6: God bless all of you out there. You make the
• 53:16
  Speaker 6: baseball world go round. Yeah, there's a chance, and it
• 53:20
  Speaker 6: has to do with two things. One, the Astros are crap.
• 53:24
  Speaker 6: The Rangers are crap. And also, every single team the
• 53:27
  Speaker 6: Mariners are playing for the next 12 days is crap.
• 53:30
  Speaker 6: The Mariners are going to be arguably a worse team
• 53:33
  Speaker 6: than when they play the Astros in two games, but
• 53:35
  Speaker 6: they've had their number all year. Other than that, they
• 53:38
  Speaker 6: will be, by a significant margin, the better team on
• 53:40
  Speaker 6: the field every single time they take the field between
• 53:43
  Speaker 6: now and the end of the season. So really, all
• 53:45
  Speaker 6: you're asking them to do is be chalk for the
• 53:48
  Speaker 6: rest of the way. That's all you're asking them to
• 53:50
  Speaker 6: do when the games where you're the better team. And
• 53:52
  Speaker 6: they're going to be that every single step of the way.
• 53:54
  Speaker 6: So yeah, there's, there's definitely a chance. Um, it will be,
• 53:58
  Speaker 6: it would be absolutely disgusting. And in a way that I'm,
• 54:03
  Speaker 6: I'm only into it in, if they can do it
• 54:05
  Speaker 6: with a below 500 record. And I don't think that
• 54:08
  Speaker 6: that's possible, but if they can go 80 and 82, uh,
• 54:11
  Speaker 6: And be the first baseball team to win a division
• 54:13
  Speaker 6: below 500. I think I can get into it. But
• 54:15
  Speaker 6: 81 wins or 82, that's disgusting.
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: That is true, right, Chris? They'd be the first ones
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: to win a division under 500?
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: Is that right?
• 54:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I have to assume so.
• 54:24
  Speaker 7: We're still new to this comparatively, the three-division stuff. And
• 54:29
  Speaker 7: we've seen some... I think the St. Louis Cardinals won
• 54:32
  Speaker 7: a World Series going 83 and 79, something along those lines.
• 54:35
  Speaker 5: So it's not unheard of. I mean... You look at
• 54:39
  Speaker 5: that schedule that they play, and it is just.
• 54:41
  Speaker 7: Absolute hot, wet, stinky, Caden Pinnock, sorry, Ian, garbage that
• 54:47
  Speaker 7: you are looking at with this schedule coming up. It
• 54:49
  Speaker 7: is so freaking bad. But what the hell tells you
• 54:53
  Speaker 7: that they could beat bad teams? They just lost two
• 54:55
  Speaker 7: of three to one of the worst teams in baseball.
• 54:59
  Speaker 5: I get it.
• 55:00
  Speaker 7: And if they can get within four with that two-game
• 55:04
  Speaker 7: series against Houston, and you sweep that, and you're talking
• 55:07
  Speaker 7: two with four to go, and then you kind of
• 55:09
  Speaker 7: hope for the miracle because Houston's schedule is not friendly.
• 55:13
  Speaker 5: They have Kansas City, but then Atlanta, Seattle, and then
• 55:17
  Speaker 5: the Athletics. So I guess it's a little more friendly
• 55:19
  Speaker 5: than I thought. But I guess there's a chance.
• 55:23
  Speaker 7: Again, I'm going with the same chance of Kelly Kapowski
• 55:25
  Speaker 7: writing me back as the Mariners winning this division. But
• 55:28
  Speaker 7: because you are playing literally the two worst teams in
• 55:31
  Speaker 7: baseball and the team that's ahead of you over these
• 55:35
  Speaker 7: next 12 games, I guess weirder things have happened, even if,
• 55:39
  Speaker 7: like Nathan said, it's not really deserving.
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think, I love Nathan's morbid thought
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: of going 80 and 82 and winning the division. I
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: think that's hysterical.
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: I'd love it.
• 55:53
  Speaker 6: I do think that in 1994, before the strike, every
• 55:55
  Speaker 6: AOS team was significantly below 500. So it would have happened,
• 55:59
  Speaker 6: except for the fact that we had to go on strike.
• 56:02
  Speaker 7: The Mariners were going to win that division in 1994
• 56:05
  Speaker 7: and have to play every game on the road. It
• 56:07
  Speaker 7: would have been one of the because the kingdom wasn't
• 56:09
  Speaker 7: even close.
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 56:11
  Speaker 5: Not even close.
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's right.
• 56:12
  Speaker 7: So they would have had to play every game on
• 56:14
  Speaker 7: the road and it would have been the most cool
• 56:17
  Speaker 7: thing ever.
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: But alas, let's finish on a little bit of a
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: stronger note. Just for those that are watching that kind
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: of I mean, most people I know have just said
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: it's done. Like, I mean, it's just people have tuned
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: out and they've they've kind of tapped out and they
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: said they're done. For those who are watching, Chris, we'll
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: lean on your expertise in the development world and the
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: prospects world. Michael Royals played four games so far. In
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: those four games, he is three for nine. He's got
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: a home run. He's got three RBIs. Also, which is
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: kind of impressive to me, he's got four walks as
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: well at the plate. And then Montez just obliterates balls.
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: I mean, his averages come way down from that hot
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: start and everything else.
• 56:58
  Speaker 3: We get that.
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: It's going to happen. But boy, if somebody makes a
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: mistake to him, it's special. Just thoughts on those two guys.
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: And if you're a fan and you've kind of tuned out,
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: but you still want to do something, you still want
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: to watch them, those guys are worth watching, right? In fact,
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: play the hell out of them, please.
• 57:12
  Speaker 5: Oh, my God, yeah.
• 57:13
  Speaker 7: They should be in the lineup every single day. That
• 57:16
  Speaker 7: home run, and I'm so grateful that I got to
• 57:18
  Speaker 7: be there and sitting where I was for that first
• 57:21
  Speaker 7: home run from Lazaro Montes to get that view of
• 57:24
  Speaker 7: that ball getting patent-pending, mollywhopped, just absolutely shellacked into center field.
• 57:30
  Speaker 7: I believe they said that was the longest home run
• 57:32
  Speaker 7: in T-Mobile history and second longest all time.
• 57:35
  Speaker 5: That ball.
• 57:37
  Speaker 7: And you know what, Michael Arroyo, I've been really impressed
• 57:39
  Speaker 7: with the approach that he's shown.
• 57:40
  Speaker 5: And you know what?
• 57:41
  Speaker 7: I've been impressed with the approach Montez has shown. The
• 57:43
  Speaker 7: results in terms of on-base percentage haven't been there, but
• 57:46
  Speaker 7: he's working counts.
• 57:47
  Speaker 5: Like, he's getting into 3-2 counts.
• 57:49
  Speaker 7: He just isn't finishing them off, and that's going to
• 57:51
  Speaker 7: be an issue for him long-term. When you have the
• 57:54
  Speaker 7: levers that you do, where you would have him rushing
• 57:56
  Speaker 7: the passer on third down, you are going to strike
• 57:59
  Speaker 7: out a ton of But you just see the ball
• 58:02
  Speaker 7: just gets absolutely peed on. Like, it's just hit on
• 58:05
  Speaker 7: an absolute rope by this dude. I'm really excited about
• 58:09
  Speaker 7: his future. I'm excited about Arroyo's future. They're nothing more
• 58:12
  Speaker 7: than consolation prizes at this point. Like, for 2026, same
• 58:15
  Speaker 7: thing with Kate Anderson, who I think has pitched great.
• 58:18
  Speaker 7: But it is nice to have a little bit of
• 58:20
  Speaker 7: a consolation to get to watch young players enjoy the game.
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: God, and the Taylor Ward thing. That is just an
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: amazing thing. He's got an on-base percentage of 231 with Seattle.
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: He was leading the league in that before he got here, right?
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: That's crazy.
• 58:33
  Speaker 7: He was drawing tons of walks. And I'm telling you,
• 58:36
  Speaker 7: they built the stadium on Indigenous ground. And there's just
• 58:39
  Speaker 7: no other explaining what's going on here. Every single one
• 58:43
  Speaker 7: of these guys suck. You and Softie's mom are going
• 58:45
  Speaker 7: to go down that road until proven otherwise. And listen,
• 58:48
  Speaker 7: I'm here for all of it.
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: I'm here for all of it along the way. That
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: is absolutely perfect. All right, Nathan, we will see you
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: next week. Go sell a house or two over there
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: on the Kitsap Peninsula if you can. Chris, tell folks
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: about MyoY. I always say it's just the best thing
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: to do because you can find out why. Why did
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: that home run get hit in the ninth inning? Why
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: did that happen tonight?
• 59:09
  Speaker 7: I wish I was doing more of that instead of
• 59:11
  Speaker 7: just shaking my head and wondering what the hell the
• 59:13
  Speaker 7: point of life is to go down Nathan's raid lately.
• 59:15
  Speaker 7: But I recap every game. I got to do a
• 59:18
  Speaker 7: double header. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to do
• 59:21
  Speaker 7: because of some health stuff. I didn't get a recap
• 59:23
  Speaker 7: on Saturday or Sunday, but I'm going to jump off
• 59:25
  Speaker 7: right after this, do a recap.
• 59:28
  Speaker 5: Also, hit join.
• 59:29
  Speaker 7: Listen to me talk about the worst Washington Huskies team
• 59:32
  Speaker 7: I've seen in quite some time. Listen to me hopefully
• 59:36
  Speaker 7: talk about a really good Kraken team because I'm going
• 59:38
  Speaker 7: to recap those guys.
• 59:39
  Speaker 5: It's $ 3. 99 to join, and I'd really, really appreciate it.
• 59:41
  Speaker 6: I was going to say I'm so excited that you
• 59:43
  Speaker 6: get to transition from this Mariners. This Mariners season has
• 59:45
  Speaker 6: just prepared you so well for Huskies season, Chris. It's
• 59:48
  Speaker 6: going to be a seamless transition. People won't even know
• 59:51
  Speaker 6: the difference. Hey, look at this team not score any
• 59:53
  Speaker 6: points for whatever reason, maybe because the coaching is inexplicably crappy.
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: Anyway, go Dawgs.
• 59:59
  Speaker 2: I I'll subscribe just for that. If you're talking negative
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: Husky talk, I'm in man. I am in all day. Like,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: let's go. Let's have some fun.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 5: How did Avery Johnson look to you this week?
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: Avery Johnson's got a really good haircut. Like he's got
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: a really good flow.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 7: That guy's got the best hair in college football. That'd
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 7: be a fun stadium to go to, I think. I
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 7: bet you they do it right in Manhattan.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: They look like, yeah. Jess said it was pretty cool. Yeah,
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: it was pretty cool. Outside of, you know, the obvious. Okay,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: fun times.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: Good times.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: Well, that's all positive. Next week, we'll talk about Drew
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: Locke against the Cardinals, as well as a Molywod Monday,
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: as well. That's Nathan. That's Chris. Big thanks to Simply Seattle. Simplyseattle.com.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: Molywod 15 to check out. We'll talk to the boys
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: next week. We'll come back, wrap up hour number two next.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: It's time for our Monday visit with Mike Sando of
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: The Athletic, brought to you by Hunt Services. For HVAC, plumbing, sewer,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: and electrical needs, get on the horn and call Hunt
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: or visit HuntServices.com. Now with Mike Sando, here's Ian Furness.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: Mike Sando joins us Mondays at 2 o'clock. We'll tour
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: around the National Football League from Mike Sando from The Athletic.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 4: Hello, sir.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 3: How are you?
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: Good.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 8: How are you?
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 3: Good.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: What a fantastic Sunday. I gotta be honest with you.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's, um, I don't know. We've talked last
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: year for folks who missed it. We went through how
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: Mike puts together the pick six and it's a, it
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: is a process, like a long process. It's not just
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: done an hour or so after all the games are
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: done on Sunday. It's a, it's a day's process. I
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: don't know how you did it this week, my friend,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: because there were no shortage of storylines in week one.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 8: I know this one was so, uh, such an amazing week.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 8: There's things I wanted to get in there that I didn't,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 8: you know? So, uh, I thought it was great. It
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 8: was fun. There were surprises, right? Because the whole offseason,
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 8: you've got all these storylines that never get tested. And
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 8: then all of a sudden, they get tested in a game,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 8: and the ball is shaped this funny way, and things happen.
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 8: So I loved it. I thought it was a fun day.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: What a contrast between a couple teams. We'll start here
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: because the headline was Chargers disaster. But the contrast, the
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 2: Chicago Bears putting up almost 60 points against Carolina and Meanwhile,
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 2: the Chargers of Los Angeles with a new play caller
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: and a former head coach who people think highly of
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: as a play caller got kind of handled by the
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: Cardinals of Arizona. Mike, how do we make sense of
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: what just happened? Let's start first in Chicago. Is Carolina's
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: defense that bad? Chicago's offense under Ben Johnson in the
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: second year with Caleb Williams that good?
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 8: I think the offense, I don't think it's that good,
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 8: 59 points, but I think the offense is really good.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 8: And I think we're seeing Caleb Williams be able to
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 8: take another step here. There's going to always be some
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 8: inconsistency with him because of his improvisational and running around,
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 8: but man, looks pretty good. Looks pretty good. I think
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 8: he made a big jump last year as well. So
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 8: I'm leaning a little bit more towards believing that that
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 8: offense is going to be good from week to week,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 8: that Ben Johnson has had enough time and has enough
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 8: talent and has a good enough quarterback to Look, I
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 8: don't think he's an average 38 a game to break
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 8: the record like he talked about, but he may be
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 8: closer to it than we think.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: Chargers get beat by the Cardinals, and that was an
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: interesting game for us out here. Obviously, the Cardinals are
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: in the NFC West, so Seahawks fans pay attention to that.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: A Cardinals team that I think many of us felt like, well,
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: they'll get through the season. Maybe they'll get the No.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 3: 1 pick.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: Maybe they'll find a quarterback in that No. 1 pick
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: since they no longer have Kyler Murray. Jacoby Brissett seems
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: to be kind of a stopgap measure and a placeholder
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: along the way. And then they get a 23-17 win,
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: a game in which the Chargers had just 268 yards
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: of offense. They were 2-8 on third down, 0-3 on
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: fourth down. So if you just add, I mean, basically
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: 2-11 on the downs that matter. Herbert, 17-27 with McDaniel
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: calling plays. What's going on in the Chargers' land?
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 8: Yeah, just super disappointing for them. I think they, I
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 8: think their roster depth is not good. I think they're
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 8: pretty conservative with their roster, sort of like this build
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 8: for the long-term thing and, you know, get out from
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 8: under certain contracts. And so I just, I don't know.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 8: I feel like they're not, I like the urgency to
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 8: build that team is maybe not where it would be if,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 8: you know, I was trying to do it with that quarterback. That's,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 8: that's number one. I think their depth is an issue.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 8: The middle of their offensive line, now they lose Ladd McConkie.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 8: The stats with Ladd McConkie on the field and off
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 8: the field were polar opposites. He played almost an equal
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 8: number of snaps, about 25 on the field, I believe
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 8: maybe 26 off. Totally night and day difference. So I
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 8: think it'll take, maybe it's going to take them a
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 8: little bit of time with the new offense. But to me,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 8: that quarterback, that coordinator, you'd expect better results from that.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: Mike, you had a line in here in that story.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: I'm going to read this for our listeners because I
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: think it's worth examining a little bit more. A defensive
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: coach who's faced Justin Herbert multiple times compares and contrasts
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 2: the quarterback to Josh Allen. Both are a tick slower
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: than most top quarterbacks at seeing the game and processing it,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: this coach said. That gives defenses a chance to counter
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: the superior athletic and throwing ability. Now, Allen's been in
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: the same offense for a while, so he's able to
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 2: maybe get through it a little bit easier. Herbert's going through,
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: I think it's four coordinators in five years or maybe
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: five and five. But it's funny because we talked about
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: that earlier. We had Hugh Millen on his weekly visit
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: in the 12 o'clock hour and he was talking about
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: Drew Locke and said, look, passes the eye test, everything's there.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: And there's two different quarterbacks that are backups around the league.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: There's guys that physically don't have the tools, you know,
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: like Case Keenum or Colt McCoy, what have you. but
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: they can get through some things. And there's guys that
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: have the tools and it never works, right? Like, you know,
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: maybe it's Zach Wilson and things like that. Herbert and
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: Locke to me are somewhat similar. Herbert obviously bought more success.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 2: He's played and started longer and stuff like that. But
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: I thought that was an interesting comment that he's not
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 2: processing things. Have you heard that from other people when
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: you're doing your tier rankings and so forth?
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 4: I have.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 8: It's not that he's terrible at it, but he's not
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 8: elite at it.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 3: And I think.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 8: most of those guys that get into that tier one
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 8: for the most part are elite at that. You know,
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 8: that's a, that's a strength for them. You just think
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 8: of all the great quarterbacks over the years. They didn't
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 8: have to be super athletic and run around if you can.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 8: That's great, but that's not really what makes you be
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 8: able to play fast and stay a step ahead of
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 8: the defense. So, you know, I think the point being
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 8: made was that it's not a strength for Herbert. It
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 8: doesn't mean he can't be a good quarterback, but he
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 8: might benefit for sure from having more time in a system. Now,
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 8: this system in particular with Mike McDaniel is going to
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 8: be more intricate with the motion and movement and, and
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 8: a lot of things going on in the run game.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 8: So it's different, probably a harder offense than he's been
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 8: in before, but if he can master it, I think,
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 8: you know, there is more potential for him to be good.
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 8: The problem is like, if they does have success, Mike
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 8: McDaniel is going to get, get a head coaching job. So,
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 8: They'll be doing the same thing because Jim Harbaugh, offensive coach,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 8: but not really. I mean, he's more of just a
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 8: football coach. He's not going to call the offense or
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 8: put in some great schemes. So they may be a
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 8: little bit stuck.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: Interesting weekend for John Harbaugh, his former team. has just
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 2: a blowout win against what we thought would be a
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: good Indianapolis team, and then he goes over and beats
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: on the Dallas Cowboys. More on the Cowboys in a second,
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 2: but let's start first with Harbaugh's former team, Baltimore. That
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 2: was an impressive and new offensive coordinator, obviously, for Lamar
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 2: Jackson and company. That was an impressive, impressive win.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 3: Really was.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 8: We've seen Baltimore dominate like that before. It's probably been
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 8: a couple years, but man, when they get going, it
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 8: can really be overwhelming. I feel like with Lamar Jackson,
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 8: we talked about Herbert, obviously very talented, but maybe there's
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 8: a little bit of a processing thing. I think with
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 8: Lamar Jackson, there's an emotional energy thing that's a part
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 8: of his sort of fuel that separates when he's great
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 8: versus when he's not as great. I think one of
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 8: the ways it was put to me before the season
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 8: talking to somebody when I pull executives to rank the
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 8: teams in each conference was, this guy was predicting great
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 8: things for Baltimore this year because he thought with the
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 8: new coordinator, Lamar would be kind of excited and challenged
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 8: in a way he hadn't been before.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 3: It's interesting.
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 8: I believe his first game with Greg Roman as his coordinator,
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 8: they had 600 and some yards. So, you know, are
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 8: we going to get the best of Lamar this year
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 8: is kind of my, my question because last year he
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 8: seemed to not really be in it. I don't know
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 8: if the Harbaugh thing had run its course or offensively
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 8: to run his course, but, He was obviously banged up
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 8: and that's what he would say. And maybe that was it.
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 8: But I think he's just one of those guys that
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 8: fluctuates a little bit with how much fun he's having
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 8: and it affects how he's playing. And I think healthy,
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 8: new offense, excited. We got that Lamar and it probably
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 8: feeds their whole offense.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 2: I want to ask you just a general question because
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 2: for folks on my quarterback tiers, a special team story
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 2: the other day, you're talking to guys around the league, executives, coaches,
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 2: and others uh off the record and but but great
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 2: insight from them when you when you've talked to guys
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: over the years i always think week one we have
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 2: to be really really careful with any kind of generalizations
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 2: or overreactions and things like that and everyone in the
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 2: nfl jokes about overreaction monday and that's all 18 or
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 2: 17 weeks of the season right but but what have
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 2: you what has mike sandal learned over the years about
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: week one how much you can and cannot learn from
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 2: a week one games.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 8: Well, you're so hungry to have something because you've gone
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 8: so long with just storylines of, you know, that's kind
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 8: of in the media and our conversations. And so you do,
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 8: I think you do get something out of it. I mean,
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 8: to me, I'm looking a little bit more bigger picture,
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 8: like one of the interesting things that, you know, I
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 8: wasn't the only one to point it out, but, you know,
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 8: the way offenses look different, right? There's the under center
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 8: rate is going way up. Scoring was up. Some of
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 8: those types of things, you know, I think are valuable
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 8: to just see the way the trends are going. Now,
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 8: as far as any one matchup, I think you have
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 8: to look and see what's the context of where this
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 8: team's been. So take a team like Green Bay. Green
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 8: Bay lost a big lead in the fourth quarter. You know,
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 8: I think they were ahead big and lost, and it
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 8: was a historic loss in terms of how much they
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 8: were ahead. by with how much time left and then
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 8: they lost by 17 points. It almost like never happened before. Well,
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 8: they spent their whole off season talking about, you know,
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 8: needing to finish. I think that's a significant outcome. You know,
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 8: I think that's when you, when you preach something the
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 8: whole time and then it's exposed as being a major
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 8: problem right away and against a division rival. I think
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 8: there's significance in that. You know, the fact that the
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 8: Raiders won their first game, you know, I don't, I
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 8: don't know. I don't know what that means.
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 8: I think we need to, see them over the course
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 8: of a month and see if Kirk Cousins can hold
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 8: up and all of those types of things before I'm
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 8: willing to say much about them.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: The one of the things that I found really interesting
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: and just because I did a lot on them before
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 2: they played the preseason game here for some radio stuff
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 2: we were doing is Dallas. And last year, one of
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 2: the best offenses in football, but one of the worst,
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 2: if not the worst defense in football. And they went out,
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 2: they basically, they turfed their entire defensive staff, bring in
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 2: kind of the new hotshot defensive coordinator, Christian Parker, and
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 2: restructure everything, add to the defensive line, invest in two
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: first-round draft picks on the defense in the draft this
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 2: year in Downs and Lawrence. And they looked as bad,
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: if not worse, than they did last year and confused
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 2: at times. Mike, I mean, I kind of feel like
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 2: there's some red flags going on there with the Dallas Cowboys.
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 8: Yeah, absolutely. With Brian Schottenheimer, the coach, kind of was
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 8: exasperated after the game. Talking about young guys not knowing
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 8: what to do. So I would give them some time,
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 8: I think, defensively, the intricacies. And they haven't been good
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 8: on defense. They don't have this defensive culture. It's going
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 8: to take some time probably to build that up. So
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 8: I would think that they will improve still on defense.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 8: That was a jarring game, though. And I think sometimes
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 8: the offseason excitement over teams works against them out of
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 8: the gates. I think the Rams had such a big
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 8: target on their back. Not that they were necessarily talking
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 8: about the Superbowl, but you know, Miles Garrett, Aaron Donald,
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 8: you know, everyone just gets tired of it. And the
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 8: 49ers were like, Hey, we're here too.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 8: You know, Arizona is going to hear about Justin Herbert
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 8: and he's going to be the goat, you know, the
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 8: greatest quarterback, according to Harbaugh. Well, they got to play
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 8: the games, you know, and I think a team like
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 8: the Cowboys in the off season did talk about Superbowl. Hey,
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 8: we can't be afraid to talk about Superbowl. And so
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 8: you got John Harbaugh looking at that going, I've been
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 8: to a Superbowl. These guys, I didn't see them there,
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 8: you know, and he gets his team ready and emotionally ready.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 8: And the gaps between these teams talent wise isn't, you know,
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 8: probably it's probably isn't what it was kind of back
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 8: in the day. I think there's, there's definitely more parody
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 8: in the, in, you know, the last 20, 30 years,
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 8: there's not these super teams for the most part. And
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 8: so I think the any given Sunday thing lives even
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 8: more and, and you get, Do you get punched in
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 8: the face sometimes in this league when you think you're
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 8: coming in and buying how good you're going to be
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 8: talking Super Bowl? That stuff can bite you.
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: What do you think is going through the Rams' minds
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 2: right now? off the record behind the scenes and, you know,
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 2: whether it be the travel schedule, the Miles Garrett injury,
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 2: you know, Donald didn't go down there and wonder what
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: he's thinking. Like, wait a second. I thought I'm playing
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 2: with Miles Garrett. That was going to be kind of
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 2: nice and easy. Like he's going to double team him
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 2: all day and now he's not going to be out
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 2: there for the next four weeks. And all the questions
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 2: surrounding the LA Rams and what happened down under in
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 2: that first game.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 8: So I think the Rams will, you know, definitely, you know,
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 8: you know, right. The ship, I do think they have
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 8: to worry a little bit about, you know, Coming out
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 8: of that other game, now there's a readjustment too. And look,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 8: their first three games are primetime games. Four of their
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 8: first five are primetime games. So they got the 49ers'
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 8: best punch. The 49ers were ready. Now they're going to
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 8: get the Giants, who I would think the Rams are
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 8: going to beat the Giants. But look, they're at Denver.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 8: They're at Philly. They're at home Buffalo. Tough schedule. The
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 8: Rams could stumble a bit out of the gates eventually.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 2: Two more things from Mike Sander from The Athletic. One,
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 2: he's not a starter, so I'm not sure if you've
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 2: had any conversations when you're doing your tiers, your quarterback
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 2: tier story with anybody around the league. But what do
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 2: you hear about Drew Locke and what people think of
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 2: him and perceive him? A lot of guys will say, hey,
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 2: we have the best backup quarterback in the league. I've
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: always kind of thought that Schneider was interesting outside of
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 2: the Trevon Boykin backup role the one year, which didn't
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 2: work out well because that's when Russ hurt himself and
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 2: they had to play him no matter what. whether it
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 2: be Tavares Jackson, Matt Flynn, and of course, for many,
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 2: for Geno Smith, what have you, it always feels like
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 2: they've had a good backup quarterback in Seattle, good insurance
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 2: policy behind who the starter is. Now that gets tested.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 2: What have you heard about Drew Locke from people?
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 5: That's a great one.
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 8: I wish I would have known this one was coming
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 8: because it's been a while since he's been in quarterback tiers.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 8: And I can't remember specifically enough, other than to say,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 8: I don't think people were super excited about him. I
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 8: think he has... Kind of disproved the expectations around him.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 8: Probably got a little bit of a, you know, maybe
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 8: a little bit of a bad rap coming out of Denver,
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 8: which wasn't the best situation. But my thought on him
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 8: is probably that, like anybody, I mean, you mature over time.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 8: You are in a different role now than you were
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 8: when people were hoping you'd be the starter and all
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 8: of that. And he seems to have done a pretty
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 8: good job. I mean, obviously the Philly game, you know, he's,
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 8: he's had, when he led him back to win with
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 8: a deep touchdown pass, I believe to JSN in the
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 8: right corner of that end zone, if I'm remembering it right,
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 8: you know, he's had a couple of skims on the
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 8: wall here. So to me, it's a totally different deal
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 8: when you're in the backup mode. I think then you're
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 8: talking about being complimentary football, get us through a few games,
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 8: give us a chance to win. Don't, don't wreck the game.
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 8: So I don't, I don't think that people are talking
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 8: about him as a starter. And hey, you can leapfrog
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 8: out of this to be a starter. But let's just see.
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 8: There's been conflicting timelines right on Sam Darnold of how
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 8: long he's going to be out. This could be a
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 8: great opportunity for him with a good team to change
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 8: the narrative a little bit.
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 2: 5.20 tonight, kickoff. Chiefs and the Broncos wrap up the
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 2: week one schedule in the NFL. We'll have that game
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 2: for you right here on 93.3 KJR FM, your home
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 2: for the NFL. on Sunday night, Monday night, and Thursday
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 2: night football. Mike Sandel, thoughts on what you expect to see?
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 2: The return of Panama Holmes, miracle recovery for the ACL,
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 2: and much more. And Bo Nix coming off an injury, too.
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 2: And people in Denver will tell me that if Bo
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 2: Nix was healthy, they would have beat the Patriots and
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 2: the Seahawks in the Super Bowl. We'll never know. Give
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 2: us some thoughts on tonight.
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 8: So I think my mind initially goes to, hey, Denver's
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 8: the more complete team, and And this and that. But
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 8: I think this is one of those where the offseason
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 8: narratives could affect the game. I think Pat Mahomes and
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 8: those guys probably are tired about hearing their demise. When
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 8: I polled executives before the year, people had them sixth
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 8: in the AFC. That's unheard of from where they've been
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 8: in the past. So I'm a little wary of the
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 8: home team in Kansas City. I still think Denver's probably better.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 8: Maybe if they played three times, Denver might win a
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 8: couple of them right now.
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 3: But I'm wary.
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 8: I'm a little wary of those guys in Kansas City.
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 8: And let's just see that they're bad before we say
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 8: that they're bad. Let's just see that they're not a
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 8: top contender before we say it.
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think what's the old reports of their demise?
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 2: Mark Twain greatly exaggerated, right? It's still Andy Reid, last
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 2: I checked, and Pat Mahomes. And they added a running back,
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 2: which they haven't had in a long time.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 8: That's why I can't wait.
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right?
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 8: I can't wait to see the run game part of it.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 8: Just because they haven't really been even formationally aligned to
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 8: try to want to run the ball and I guess
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 8: I'll believe that when I see it, too, that Andy
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 8: Reid wants to run the ball.
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, listen, Pacheco was always hurt. And part
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 2: of it, not to hurt him, I mean, that's just
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 2: the way he ran. He ran hard in college at Rutgers.
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 2: He ran hard, period. And then, you know, Kareem Hunt,
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 2: his best days were long gone by the time he
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 2: came back for his second stint there. And they got
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 2: a legitimate guy. Seahawks fans, you'll remember him. He won
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 2: an MVP in the Super Bowl, so. I think it's
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 2: a fun game tonight. Can't wait. It should be a
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 2: lot of fun. The Pick 6 column is up there.
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 2: There's more on. If you want to read more about
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 2: Sean McVay not being happy and the Rams suffering, go
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 2: check out the Pick 6 column that Mike's got up
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 2: there at The Athletic on the NFL tab. It's great
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 2: stuff every Monday. And we will talk to you in
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 2: a week's time, my friend.
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 2: That is Mike Sando joining us here on the Beacon Book.
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 2: It's just good stuff all the way. His Pick 6
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 2: column is my favorite thing. Monday morning, get up. That's
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 2: a cup and a half of coffee usually. Nice long read,
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 2: but a really good in-depth read too. Good stuff from
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 2: Mike at TheAthletic, TheAthletic.com.
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 2: Your text, 49451. Talkbacks, maybe, as well. We'll see if
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 2: we've got any of those today, and then time to...
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 2: The rally starts now. The rally starts now with Factor Fiction.
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 2: Here we go. God, death taxes and me sucking at
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 2: factor fiction. It also looks a lot like my betting
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 2: slip last week in the Snoqualmie Casino on week one.
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 3: So we'll see.
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 2: And listen, if all you guys are going to text
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 2: fiction just out of general principle, you've got to wait
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 2: until the window opens at 235 to win a $ 1, 000
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 2: weekly prize. $ 10, 000 grand prize coming up.