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Best of Ian Furness 9/28 · The Ian Furness Show

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Your home for the 12th man in the NFL proudly
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  Speaker 1: presents Hardcore Football with Hugh Millen.
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  Speaker 2: Brought to you by Hunt Services. Hit on the horn
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  Speaker 2: and call Hunt.
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  Speaker 1: Now here's Hugh with Ian Furness on Sports Radio 93.3 KJR-FM.
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  Speaker 3: Alright, Hardcore Football, Hugh Millen, every Monday after a game,
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  Speaker 3: after the Seahawks, and boy, we haven't had one of
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  Speaker 3: these in a while. It's been a long time since
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  Speaker 3: we had one of these, Hugh, where we had to
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  Speaker 3: talk about.
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  Speaker 4: Something that wasn't very good. How are you, my friend? Oh, well,
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  Speaker 4: you know, pretty bad weekend. Pretty bad weekend, all the
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  Speaker 4: way around. Didn't expect to lose to Minnesota. Nope, nope.
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  Speaker 4: Didn't expect to lose to the Commanders. Didn't expect the
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  Speaker 4: Mariners to be out of the playoffs.
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  Speaker 5: Nope.
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  Speaker 4: No, not a good week. So, yeah, yeah. They'll wrap
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  Speaker 4: that in route right in front of Finley. You would
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  Speaker 4: definitely say that was attacking the pigeon. Now, that was
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  Speaker 4: a backside read. So what that means, you tell the quarterback,
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  Speaker 4: this is an important part of just play construction. With
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  Speaker 4: five linemen and you're the quarterback, now we got six.
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  Speaker 4: There's five guys that are left that are eligible receivers.
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  Speaker 4: And so the defense will see it declared. as as
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  Speaker 4: five receivers and either a three by two or a
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  Speaker 4: four by one even if there's a running back eventually
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  Speaker 4: the back has got to declare what side he's going
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  Speaker 4: to so the defense always has a three receiver side
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  Speaker 4: eventually right either initially or eventually pre-snap or post-snap and
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  Speaker 4: so that second touchdown Mariota's looking to his left he
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  Speaker 4: has a three receiver combination but Ernest Jones, who's in
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  Speaker 4: the middle of the defense, Seattle's in a two-deep, five-under zone.
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  Speaker 4: And so you say, okay, at that line of scrimmage,
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  Speaker 4: that looks balanced from a quarterback. There's a safety on
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  Speaker 4: either half. Then there's five– I mean, hold up your hand.
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  Speaker 4: The middle finger is– you know, you've got– it's like
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  Speaker 4: looking at five fingers. And so you're looking at the
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  Speaker 4: middle guy and see what does he do. When the middle–
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  Speaker 4: goes to the three receiver side as you should, if
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  Speaker 4: he goes perhaps too aggressively for that particular coverage, then
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  Speaker 4: you have a one-on-one on the backside with Drake Thomas
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  Speaker 4: and you just kind of set the cheese for him,
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  Speaker 4: freeze him with a wide receiver in a backfield, and
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  Speaker 4: then what's called you do a wrap in route, wrap
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  Speaker 4: dig route, in breaking route right in front of Finley.
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  Speaker 4: And so a lesser experienced safety, if you had a
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  Speaker 4: safety that, If Julian Love is there, I'd have a
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  Speaker 4: lot more hesitation as a quarterback because I would just
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  Speaker 4: feel like he'd be able to decipher it, he'd be
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  Speaker 4: at the correct depth, and then he would trigger on
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  Speaker 4: it instantly. With Finley, you just say, okay, he's probably
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  Speaker 4: going to be a little too deep, probably going to
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  Speaker 4: read it late, and he's going to trigger top down
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  Speaker 4: late and you get your touchdown. That's what Mariota probably thought.
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  Speaker 3: Hugh Millen, hardcore football. Hugh, Jadarian Price, left tackle, first
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  Speaker 3: play of the game, got 11 yards. His next carry,
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  Speaker 3: he went for minus four off the right side, which
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  Speaker 3: was a problem yesterday. And then that was it. They
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  Speaker 3: ended up punting on that drive. The second drive, they
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  Speaker 3: get the ball back, and he gets two yards. As
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  Speaker 3: he's going down, he fumbles the football. You've watched him
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  Speaker 3: now for three weeks, Jadarian Price, first-round pick, and.
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  Speaker 3: I want to separate it from Ken Walker's success in
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  Speaker 3: Kansas City. I don't know if you can when people
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  Speaker 3: are going to watch and compare, and there's a lot
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  Speaker 3: involved here with salaries and salary cap and all that management,
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  Speaker 3: but just when you see the rookie and you saw
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  Speaker 3: the fumble after the first play that he gets 11 yards,
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  Speaker 3: he's had a couple little pops like that, but what
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  Speaker 3: are you seeing from him?
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  Speaker 4: Well, the first play was a lead stretch. They get
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  Speaker 4: Brady Russell coming in motion, and then he leads out
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  Speaker 4: on the stretch play, and so The commanders, they flowed hard.
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  Speaker 4: That play was designed to go to the D gap,
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  Speaker 4: as in delta to the left. But you saw the
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  Speaker 4: talent that Price has. Now, ideally, when you go to
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  Speaker 4: the backside, you don't chop your feet. You could do
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  Speaker 4: it at full stride. You make your decision by your
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  Speaker 4: third step. And then on your fifth step, if you're
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  Speaker 4: going to go backside, you do it without– chopping your feet,
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  Speaker 4: but I think based on how the left side kind
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  Speaker 4: of got collapsed, he had to do what he had
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  Speaker 4: to do. It was a beautiful run, and he actually
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  Speaker 4: hits it back on the backside C-gap. That would be
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  Speaker 4: on the– if you said raise your– stood the line
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  Speaker 4: and says, somebody raise their hand and raise the particular
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  Speaker 4: hand where this gap is. Who has the C-gap? Well,
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  Speaker 4: Abe Lucas would have raised his right hand, his outside hand.
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  Speaker 4: So that's where the ball went, Ian. It started left,
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  Speaker 4: far to the left, and then wrapped all the way back.
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  Speaker 4: So that was a great piece of running. As for
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  Speaker 4: the fumble, Christian Haynes, look, I don't know how they're
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  Speaker 4: being taught, but there was a run-through linebacker that came
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  Speaker 4: from the backside, 52. I always just go by my old.
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  Speaker 4: Just go 52. Nobody cares.
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  Speaker 6: 52.
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  Speaker 4: Nobody cares who they call. He's the inside linebacker. Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: And he comes running through, and there's a term called hinging.
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  Speaker 4: Your son would know it well, where you cut off
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  Speaker 4: the inside, and then your inside leg, you hinge, and
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  Speaker 4: then you block the man who is behind you because
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  Speaker 4: the play is going away from you, right? So we're
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  Speaker 4: trying to go outside to the left. Say, okay, right guard,
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  Speaker 4: what are you going to do? Cut off hinge. And
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  Speaker 4: that would be if you were a tackle, you would
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  Speaker 4: do that technique. But a guard has got to mind
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  Speaker 4: that A-gap for that free runner. So 52, he sees
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  Speaker 4: an opening, and Christian Haynes is doing this hinge technique
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  Speaker 4: as opposed to climbing and getting him. I would have
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  Speaker 4: thought that they would try and– and what's called deuce
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  Speaker 4: that block where the guard and the right tackle would,
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  Speaker 4: they would combo to the defensive line on their backside.
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  Speaker 4: And then, then you would see Haynes. He would, he
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  Speaker 4: would try and rise vertically. And so then now you
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  Speaker 4: turn the backside guy loose. I don't, I don't know.
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  Speaker 4: I don't like a free runner coming through and causing
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  Speaker 4: a fumble. Now there's ball security. There's five points of pressure. And,
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: you know, if you're coaching a, Youth football, eight-year-olds, five
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  Speaker 4: points of pressure. That is your upper chest, your bicep,
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  Speaker 4: your forearm, then your thumb and your index finger on
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  Speaker 4: one side of the ball, and then the three fingers
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  Speaker 4: on the other. That's five points of pressure up high.
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  Speaker 4: And if you don't have five points of pressure, then
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  Speaker 4: you're far more likely to fumble, and we've got a
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  Speaker 4: fumble problem. Got two fumbles. Kenneth Walker didn't fumble in
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  Speaker 4: four games. Or excuse me, four years. Four years. Lose
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  Speaker 4: a fumble. And so now Price, who had the third
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  Speaker 4: highest fumble rate of the draft class this last draft,
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  Speaker 4: he's now given the ball away twice. It's a problem.
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  Speaker 4: And it would start with five points of pressure. Fixable?
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 4: Yes. That's one reason why you see them on the bench. Yeah,
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  Speaker 4: there's been plenty of running backs who've had a fumble
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  Speaker 4: problem and then kicked a fumble problem, right, and were
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  Speaker 4: able to reduce or eliminate a fumble problem. So, yes,
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  Speaker 4: but it takes some focus. And right now, here's the thing,
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  Speaker 4: it gets worse because what do you think the Chargers
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  Speaker 4: defense is doing right now? When they're doing the scouting report, hey,
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  Speaker 4: everybody's going to be punching at the ball.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: And then you get more people punching, and then you
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  Speaker 4: get more fumbles. And then when you get more fumbles,
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  Speaker 4: you get more people punching. So he's got to tell
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  Speaker 4: the league right now that he doesn't have a fumble
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  Speaker 4: problem anymore. And the only way he can tell it
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  Speaker 4: is to do it.
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  Speaker 3: With Bradford out, they did the rotation again. Haynes played 60%
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  Speaker 3: of the snaps at right guard, and Bo Stevens played 40%
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  Speaker 3: at right guard. Ross Tucker is former offensive lineman. He's
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  Speaker 3: on our show every Thursday, Hugh, and you know, I
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  Speaker 3: kind of asked him about that this week and he
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  Speaker 3: said he did it one year in the NFL. I
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  Speaker 3: think he was in Buffalo. He said the one year
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  Speaker 3: he did it, he rotated with a guy and he
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  Speaker 3: said he hated it. And he said that, you know,
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  Speaker 3: the other people that hated it were the two guys
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  Speaker 3: next to you. And, you know, we all, we've always
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  Speaker 3: heard about offensive line and how, you know, they, they
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  Speaker 3: work in tandem. It's a, it's a, it's, you know,
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  Speaker 3: there's gotta be chemistry. It's, it's, you know, the old
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  Speaker 3: Lavelle Edwards. If you've got two quarterbacks, you've got none.
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  Speaker 3: If you've got two right guards, maybe you have none. I, I,
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  Speaker 3: I'm wondering about that. And listen, John Benton did a
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  Speaker 3: hell of a job last year. But that decision to
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  Speaker 3: rotate these guys, I don't know if that's helping them.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know if it's hurting them. But it is
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  Speaker 3: curious because when you talk to most offensive linemen, they
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  Speaker 3: think it's not the ideal way to go.
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  Speaker 4: Well, you have to have communication in passing situations with
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  Speaker 4: respect to what you think are pressures on your side.
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  Speaker 4: Is there pressure coming up the middle? Is it coming
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  Speaker 4: from the edge? You have to have communication. When you
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  Speaker 4: start running stunts and, you know, TE stunts, the tackle
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  Speaker 4: loops to the outside and the end. loops back inside.
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  Speaker 4: So there's got to be communication there. In the running game,
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  Speaker 4: if you're zone blocking together, there's a timing to that
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  Speaker 4: where you say, okay, you know, if you and I are–
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  Speaker 4: you and I are going to, well, we don't have
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  Speaker 4: four people in the room. When the guard and the
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  Speaker 4: tackle come off together, they are blocking at the defensive
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  Speaker 4: line level. And they've determined who they're going to zone to.
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  Speaker 4: And really what zone is, when you start watching offensive
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  Speaker 4: line coaches draw it up on a zone, you know,
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  Speaker 4: there's a lot of misnomers about what it means, but
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  Speaker 4: But one of the, you know, there's covered rules and
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  Speaker 4: uncovered rules. It starts with that, right? If you're covered,
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  Speaker 4: block the man to the play side. If you're uncovered,
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  Speaker 4: help the man to the play side. And then now
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  Speaker 4: you two are going to zone, you know, from the
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  Speaker 4: defensive lineman to the linebacker. And it's really just a
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  Speaker 4: series of double teams where you say, you can draw
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  Speaker 4: with a figure eight. You say, okay, you two have
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  Speaker 4: these two. You two have these two. you two have
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  Speaker 4: these two, right? If, if you have that many blockers,
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  Speaker 4: that makes sense. Like, like the guard and the tackle. Okay.
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  Speaker 4: You got the threat three technique to the will. And,
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  Speaker 4: and so really what that means is, is say, okay,
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  Speaker 4: we're going to, we're going to get movement at the
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  Speaker 4: defensive line level. And then together, we're going to watch
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  Speaker 4: the flow of the linebacker. If he comes to the inside,
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  Speaker 4: then the guard will take him. If he flows to
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  Speaker 4: the outside, then the tackle take them. So you're, you're
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: kind of trying to take a takeover where one guy
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  Speaker 4: is ultimately going to have to block the defensive lineman alone.
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  Speaker 4: Does that make sense? Yes. And so for the guy
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  Speaker 4: that has to block the defensive lineman alone, you want
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  Speaker 4: that timing. You don't want to leave to the linebacker
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  Speaker 4: level too early because then that's essentially man blocking and
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  Speaker 4: that's hard on the guy at the defensive line level.
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  Speaker 4: But you don't want to do it too late because
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  Speaker 4: then you'll never get to the linebacker. So knowing when,
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  Speaker 4: if you're the tackle, if you're Abe Lucas is going
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  Speaker 4: to climb, knowing when that guard is comfortable, like, okay,
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  Speaker 4: I can leave him. I can go to the linebacker
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  Speaker 4: level now because Anthony's fine. That would be an instance
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  Speaker 4: among several where having that cohesion and that experience with
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  Speaker 4: the guy next to you pays dividends.
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  Speaker 3: Hugh Millen, Hardcore Football. I want to jump ahead fourth
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  Speaker 3: quarter and get your thoughts on the play everyone was
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: talking about afterwards. Seahawks trailing by three, 27-24, second and
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: 15 of the Washington 49-yard line.
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  Speaker 4: They're marching.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, you're 10 yards away or so from a
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: field goal attempt to tie the game in the fourth quarter.
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  Speaker 3: Sam Darnold throws it right to the middle of the
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  Speaker 3: field and what effectively is a third-string linebacker. Madrono, whatever
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  Speaker 3: his name is, houses it for 50 yards. Everyone watching
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  Speaker 3: it on TV, Hugh, saw Barner covered and two other guys,
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: like three Washington Commanders players there and A.J. Barner and
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  Speaker 3: Donald throwing the ball away. Now, listen, this is the
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  Speaker 3: world we live in. This is why we do this segment.
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  Speaker 3: Easy to say, boy, he should have just thrown it away.
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  Speaker 3: What was he seeing? What was he doing? Just a
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  Speaker 3: bad throw by Sam Donald. But I can do hardcore
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  Speaker 3: football to find out exactly what the hell happened on
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  Speaker 3: the game-deciding play, Hugh.
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  Speaker 4: So what happened there? Yeah, I mean, if there's one
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  Speaker 4: thought that I've acquired through the years, um, you know,
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  Speaker 4: I'm just, you're talking to one man. So this is
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  Speaker 4: one man's opinion that there's precision in the details. And
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: if you want to play high level football, even at
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: the high school level, you have to pay attention to
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  Speaker 4: the details. The details have to be done right now.
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  Speaker 4: I'm going to give you a spoiler alert, Sam Darnold's, um,
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  Speaker 4: that's a double minus. He, he, he can't throw that ball. Okay.
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  Speaker 4: So I don't want what I'm about to say to
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  Speaker 4: have preceded that, because then you'd say, is he not
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: going to blame it on Sam Donald? So no, I
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: just jumped ahead. All right. Okay. But now let's talk
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: about doing good football and let's talk, let's talk about
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: what you're trying to accomplish on that play. It's a
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  Speaker 4: naked bootleg from a right-hand quarterback to a left. All right.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: So you, you, you know, there's going to be, it's
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: going to, you can't throw it as quick when you're
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: going to your left.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 4: Here's another part about it. It's in the category of
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: misdirection play. So you're trying to run to the right
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: side with zone blocking, got me, and then have the
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: defense flow in that direction. In this case, the ball's
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: on the right hash. It's into the boundary as opposed
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: to the field. Boundary is the short side. So the
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: defense is flowing into the boundary following the misdirection fake
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: of the run. You can... You could fake that off
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: the inside zone. You wouldn't get as much flow from
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: the linebackers, but you would get far more attention from
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: the defensive end that you're booting out to, right? Because
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: on the defensive end away from the run, he's got
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: to say, what if it cuts back to me? You
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: could do it off the mid zone where you're going
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: off the inside leg of the tackle. you could do
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: it off the wide zone. So there's a lot of
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  Speaker 4: different paths. You can fake that off. And, and when
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: you construct a play, you got to decide one or
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: the other. You're not just going to tell the running back, um, Hey,
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: go to the right. You're going to give them a
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: naming point. Well, on this play, I'm just telling you
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: what the tape shows. You're sounding great. God, I'm just
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: going to say, is this a Friday?
• 16:04
  Speaker 7: Hey, it's a Friday already.
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: All right. Ring a bell. I just went co-sell. Um,
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: Emmanuel Wilson is going straight sideways.
• 16:13
  Speaker 7: Yep.
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  Speaker 4: And that to me is a problem. I would coach that.
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: I would tell Emmanuel Wilson as he's faking that wide zone, Hey,
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: you got to act like you have the ball, but
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: you got to sprint right to the outside hip of
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: a Lucas. Like you got to come at some point,
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: you got to try and come downhill. And with him
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: going so flat, it, two defenders are influenced who played
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: the biggest part in the play 56, the linebacker that side,
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: he's going, wait a minute, that, that, that looks, that
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: looks squirrely to me. Nobody, nobody runs sideways and doesn't
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: try and advance the ball. So when you, when you,
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: a slice of time into infinite fractions or infinite decimal points.
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  Speaker 4: You want to hold literally that linebacker as long as
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: you can. And you, you let him off the hook
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  Speaker 4: about as fast as you possibly could by, by Emmanuel.
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: Did I say Ernest Jones or Emmanuel Wilson, Emmanuel Wilson
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: going straight sideways.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Yep.
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  Speaker 4: And then the backside and who you're trying to influence down. He,
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: the formation, the tight ends to his side. What has
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: he seen? He's like, okay, I'm standing in the middle field. Oh,
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: they're faking a wide run away from me. Look how
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: he's taking an angle that could never bring the ball
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: back to me. In fact, the only way the ball
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: is coming back to me is if there's a reverse.
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: And The receiver, he was in what's called a nasty
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: split tight to the ball, and he's running an intermediate cross. Now,
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: I'm not saying that he saw that, but he knew
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: the ball wasn't coming back to him, so he didn't
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: bite down to create the naked fake. So we got
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: a problem already about the angle that Emmanuel Wilson did
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: in the manner I just described. One final point that
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: aj barner who i would say has very very good
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: instincts and just you know i don't think he's an
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: elite he's not a kellen winslow sprint down the field
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: type of tight end but he's pretty he's pretty damn
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: solid he's smart certainly physical he's got an oddly you
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: uh effective way of running with the ball he's not
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: very fast but he but he's got good running instincts
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: like A.J. Barner is a damn good football player. He
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: was not a damn good football player on that play.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: His responsibility is a down flat. Most coaches will call
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: that route a down flat. So he's a tight end
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: away from the run you're faking. He's blocking down, down,
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: down towards the football. Yep, I'm watching right now.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Yep, yep. Okay.
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: Now, the commanders are in a cover too. There's always
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: this point where I go, how much detail are you
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: going to give them, Millen? The commanders are in a
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: two-deep shell, and the construct of the play, which would
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: beat that cover two, is called smash, and the Seahawks
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: are running smash elsewhere. They've got– and a smash is
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: a corner out high and then somebody in the flat low.
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: And they've got Cooper Cup on a corner out, and
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: he's hitting that hole in the cover two. And they've
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: got Rasheed Shaheed in the flat. Right there. To occupy
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: the corner.
• 19:44
  Speaker 6: Yep.
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: So you're, you, you have a chance if you, if
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: Darnold could have thrown it out there to cup. Uh,
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: you know, just, just kind of hold it out there.
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: He could have grenade thrown that right. You know, like,
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: like water balloon thrown it out there to cup, but
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: there was a guy in his face for the reasons
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: I already described, but here's the part from AJ Barner.
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: There's a space and you got Rashid Shaheed in the flat.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: And then what, what was the route that I described
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: down flat? That just means you block down and then
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: we're having a horizontal layering. We've got receipt to heat
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: in the flat, but then we have, we have AJ
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: Barner trailing him. Now it's like Goldilocks in the porridge.
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: Can't be too hot. Can't be too cold from, you
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: can't be too close to she heat as you're falling,
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: falling them. Cause then the same defender could damn near, uh,
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: defend them both, but you don't want to be too
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: far from him. But, The mistake, just like you make
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: the porridge too hot or too cold, in this case, A.J. Barner,
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: he created way too much space. He stopped. The ball's
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: on the right hash. He stopped on the far hash.
• 20:55
  Speaker 7: Yeah, he did.
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: So you say, A.J., what's your route? I got it
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: down flat on this play. Let's watch the tape. What
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: are you running? I would call that a down stop. Mm-hmm.
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: You know, we never we never told you to run
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: a down stop, run down to the opposite side of
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: the hash and stop. So what happens is, is that
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: Darnold comes around as a right handed quarterback to his left.
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: It's always harder, always harder to dirt the ball are
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: always harder to get completions, always harder on everything.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 21:26
  Speaker 6: Yep.
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: The end is up in his face because the end
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: never saw any cutback coming back, and the formation had
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: him wide to begin with. He's way out in a
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: wide nine technique. So he's up to– so Darnold's got
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: to do something. And he's looking– he's like, Barner, you're
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: my only chance to get rid of this ball. And
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: he's assuming Barner's going to do the right thing. Like, dude,
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: you know, keep moving. And so then what should have
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: happened right in that moment for a quarterback is abort. Like,
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: I got to get out of this fighter plane because
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: it's going down. And, you know, pull the ripcord, call
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: it whatever you want. And the abort trigger never really
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: got activated in his mind. And it had to happen
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: in way less than a second, way less than a
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: half a second. At some point, you just say, this
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: is not going anywhere. And so he throws it, and
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: then by this time, The guy that he never saw
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: was 56, the guy who caught the football. He's just
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: running right underneath him. And he runs right underneath it.
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: And what did we say about 56? Why wasn't he influenced?
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: Because we have lousy technique with the halfback, Emmanuel Wilson.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: Let me stop you there. I've got to get a break,
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: so I want to get one more segment in. And
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: just to reiterate, minus minus on Darnold, but it was also–
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: A lot of things contributed.
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: You've got Emmanuel Wilson. People watch the replays. I'm not
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: the coordinator. Emmanuel Wilson gets a minus. Yeah.
• 22:59
  Speaker 8: A.J.
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: Barner gets a minus.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: We'll take a break. Come back. We'll wrap things up
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: with Hugh Millen next, 93.3 KGFM. Hi, welcome back.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: Hardcore football, Hugh Mill, and just a couple minutes here
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: before the Jerry DiPoto News Conference top of the hour. Hugh,
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: Marcus Mariota sealed the deal with a run late in
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: the game. If Seattle gets a stop there, they got
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: an opportunity.
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: They don't.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: He runs for nine on the fourth or third and seven.
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: I know there's another run, too. There are a couple
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: runs by Mariota. Let's break those down. Yeah, yeah. So
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: the commanders, they come out with the trips left, and
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: I think possibly in part because of both safeties playing
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: back that The Seahawks didn't disguise it as well as
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: they wanted. They showed a cover zero with everybody up.
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: And you had Rodney Thomas. There was some communication piece
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: going on there. Mariota sniffed it out. It wasn't a
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: difficult read. A freshman in college could have got it.
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: But he audibles to the wide side run. And earlier
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: in the show, we were talking about the right guard
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: and the right tackle communicating. The commanders, they– They do,
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: some people call it a G block, or it's essentially
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: a cross block where the guard is going to kick
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: out and the tackle is going to block down. The
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: tackle blocks down against Nuoso, and now the right guard,
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: he is going to block outward from the ball, and
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: he has Drake Thomas, and Drake Thomas has just got
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: to stay outside. He's got to take on the block
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: with his inside shoulder, keep his outside shoulder free, keeps
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: his hips open, in a position where he can bounce,
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: he's got to turn the ball inside. But there wasn't
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: anybody that's the second level, but at least he had
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: some help in pursuit. It was an excellent check and,
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: you know, score that one for them. But Drake Thomas
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: is the guy that needs to be better right in
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: that moment. Because that was with 155 to go, a
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: ball on the 35, four-yard line, Commander 34. You get
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: the stop here. You get a minute 55 here. You're
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: going to have a minute 44, and all the Seahawks
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: have to do is go down and get a field goal? Yep, yep.
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: To win the game, not tie? I mean, it was
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: just a brutal, brutal breakdown.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: Did DeMarcus Lawrence... Was he guilty at all of anything
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: on that play on the next one?
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: Oh, DeMarcus Lawrence. Um, no, I mean, he had, he,
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: you know, that that's, that's a hard, he's, he's inside,
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: he's a three technique. So he's inside of the tackle.
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: The tackle's gonna block down. I mean, if you're in
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: an offensive line room, you'd say, Hey, we've got great
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: leverage here. You don't have to, to, uh, you know,
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: slip to anybody, any linebacker at all.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: There's no deuce that, um, and, and, uh, you, you just,
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: you know, block him, walk down, you got a favorable angle.
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: So the DeMarcus Lawrence, he got, he got blocked momentarily,
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: but he pursued and, and, uh, you know, it just,
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: it was just a, a, a bad play by Drake Thomas,
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: but it's a defense that put now here, here, I'll
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: tell you what, if you want me to give some credit, Mariota,
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: because of the way they blocked it, the turn that
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: you've got, You've got Ernest Jones on the backside who
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: might have run it down. But Mariota blocks Ernest Jones.
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: After he hands off, he steps forward and he blocks
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: the backside end. But, no, I'd be– now, you mentioned
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: Demarcus Lawrence. Let's go into that third and seven. Yeah,
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: let's do that real quick. The read keep– so on
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: that play, you know, I heard earlier it mentioned RPO. Mm-hmm. Please,
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: no serious student of this series that we have, please
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: don't call that an RPO. An RPO is run pass
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: option where the wide receivers are running around and the
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: quarterback who does not need to be athletic, he could
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: stand there and just make a decision. Do I give
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: the ball? Or do I throw it? So this is
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: not an RPO. This is just a read keep. And
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: people say a read zone keep. Yeah, but you can
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: also run gap scheme. You could run power and you
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: could still have a keep. So if we're doing terminology, yes,
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: this is a read zone. And so it's inside zone
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: blocking to the left and then The guy that's on
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: the edge is DeMarcus Lawrence, and that is Marcus Mariota's key.
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: He's been reading this probably far before Oregon, but he
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: probably has 1,000 keeps in his career at Oregon, just
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: like this. And DeMarcus Lawrence, you've got to do what's
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: called a surf technique. You've got to stand there like
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: you're surfing with your hips parallel to the line of
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: scrimmage to dissuade– the quarterback from keeping, he only, he, he,
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: he just momentarily had the right technique, but he didn't
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: maintain it. And so Mariota, he rode the fake deep
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: into the belly of the running back and then pulled
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: it just like he should. Cause because, uh, the Marcus
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: Lawrence collapsed. Marcus Lawrence played college football maybe before, Well,
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: that's not true. He's at Boise State. They had Reed's
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: own back then. At any rate, you allowed the football
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: to get to the edge. Here's the takeaway. I know
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: you got to go. You allowed the football to get
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: to the edge on a third and nine and then
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: a third and seven, one in the person of a
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: running back, one in the person of a quarterback. And really,
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: the guy, I've just told you, it's Drake Thomas and
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: then DeMarcus Lawrence. And oh, by the way, Finley took
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: a bad angle, slow angle. a starting safety for the
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: Seahawks would have prevented that conversion. There's no question in
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: my mind. It's all over the tape. Playing not one,
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: but two of your deep backups, guys that were on
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: the street a couple weeks ago. I mean, that would
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: have been Kobe Bryant last year. That would have been
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: Bud Clark.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: That would have been Ty Okada. I mean, how far
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: do we have to go down? That would have been
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: Julian Love. Our safety structure is just absolutely decimated, and
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: that's his bigger reason why he lost the football game.
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: It's a great point with Bud Clark, too. We forget
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: about that. Rodney Thomas and A.J. Finley are both guys
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: on the practice squad, and that's where they would be
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: on the practice squad, except for basically you're now one, two,
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: three gone. And there's number four.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: We've got to go. You're the best. Next week we
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: do an hour, and I can't wait. We'll talk to
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: you then. Good to be with you. That's Hugh Millen.
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: We'll take a quick break. Very quick break. Come back.
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: Expecting to hear from Jerry DiPoto next. Let's go. Let's
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: go to Jerry DiPoto's news conference, courtesy of Fox 13.
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: Then here we go. Let's take it to that live.
• 29:48
  Speaker 9: This is a really talented roster, and none of those
• 29:52
  Speaker 9: guys are outside the prime years of their careers. There's
• 29:55
  Speaker 9: no reason why we shouldn't be able to reset, look
• 29:59
  Speaker 9: ourselves in the mirror. And I know our players, we've
• 30:01
  Speaker 9: had a lot of conversation privately with our roster of
• 30:05
  Speaker 9: players this past week, and I know every one of
• 30:08
  Speaker 9: them is already hungry to come back and prove that
• 30:11
  Speaker 9: this was an aberration.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: You have a short question to Julio there.
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: What does Julio need to do to do it?
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: Take that next step? Julio needs to continue to evolve.
• 30:19
  Speaker 9: Julio has been a phenomenal player. He has accumulated more
• 30:27
  Speaker 9: for his age and what he's done. He has done
• 30:29
  Speaker 9: remarkable things. This year, he notes that he left something
• 30:33
  Speaker 9: on the table and he's going to go home and
• 30:34
  Speaker 9: he's going to focus on the things that we discussed
• 30:37
  Speaker 9: and I think he will come back a better player
• 30:40
  Speaker 9: because of it.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: But he'll just continue to evolve. Do you have a
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: short list on a manager and what's the time frame? No.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: And the time frame is as long as it takes.
• 30:49
  Speaker 10: Jerry, do you feel like player accountability was something that
• 30:51
  Speaker 10: slowly but surely slipped away?
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: And how much of that.
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: Will be part of the criteria of what you want
• 30:57
  Speaker 5: to hire.
• 30:57
  Speaker 6: In your new manager?
• 30:58
  Speaker 9: It is a heavy piece of the criteria. But I
• 31:01
  Speaker 9: wouldn't limit that just to the players. Accountability is just
• 31:06
  Speaker 9: a word. Unless you are accountable to a standard, that
• 31:10
  Speaker 9: is preset, everybody understands what that standard is, and then
• 31:14
  Speaker 9: we hold ourselves accountable to it. The bigger issue is
• 31:17
  Speaker 9: the standard itself, and that's on me. The one person
• 31:22
  Speaker 9: who has the ability to drill down to the bottom
• 31:25
  Speaker 9: and say, we are not.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: Upholding these standards, we need to do better.
• 31:28
  Speaker 9: I did an ineffective job of making sure that we
• 31:31
  Speaker 9: held one another accountable, because we started with standards, and
• 31:35
  Speaker 9: it faded. And That's not just on our players. That's
• 31:39
  Speaker 9: on me. It's on our front office group. It's on
• 31:41
  Speaker 9: the staff and the players collectively.
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: What does holding accountable look like?
• 31:47
  Speaker 9: Holding accountable looks like culture. It is what are you
• 31:51
  Speaker 9: willing to tolerate. Are you willing to tolerate less than
• 31:54
  Speaker 9: full effort? Are you willing to tolerate less than full focus?
• 31:59
  Speaker 9: Are you willing to tolerate, you know, What we saw
• 32:02
  Speaker 9: in mid-season was a team playing with limited urgency and
• 32:06
  Speaker 9: waiting for the water to turn on. And it just
• 32:09
  Speaker 9: didn't come on instead of turning it on ourselves. And
• 32:13
  Speaker 9: we saw it unfolding. Our players saw it unfolding. And
• 32:17
  Speaker 9: we talked about it a lot as the season went along. Again,
• 32:21
  Speaker 9: it's where I would count myself most at fault. You
• 32:25
  Speaker 9: can talk about it or you can just go out
• 32:28
  Speaker 9: and do it. You can lament the fact that there
• 32:31
  Speaker 9: was an injury here.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: We had fewer injuries.
• 32:33
  Speaker 9: To deal with than many teams that wound up finishing
• 32:35
  Speaker 9: in a really good spot and still playing today. We
• 32:40
  Speaker 9: had a tendency this year to just shrug it off to,
• 32:43
  Speaker 9: we're more talented than the teams around us.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: Don't worry, it'll happen.
• 32:47
  Speaker 9: Instead of going out and making our own thing happen
• 32:50
  Speaker 9: and um, That's what accountability looks like.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: It's calling that out in the moment.
• 32:56
  Speaker 9: It's stopping it before it gets rolling any further. It's
• 33:00
  Speaker 9: being truthful in our discussion with one another. And for years,
• 33:04
  Speaker 9: our program has always been built on truth. We tell
• 33:06
  Speaker 9: the truth with love. And sometimes you might get your
• 33:09
  Speaker 9: nose out of joint for a moment, but you wake
• 33:11
  Speaker 9: up the next day and you realize that you're loved.
• 33:14
  Speaker 9: And you're just trying to help one another.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: Do you need.
• 33:17
  Speaker 6: More than out of those players in that clubhouse? Because
• 33:19
  Speaker 6: we heard the same thing from them. We heard... We
• 33:22
  Speaker 6: were waiting to catch fire, and we.
• 33:23
  Speaker 7: Just never did.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: There was a passivity.
• 33:26
  Speaker 6: How does that go, that accountability, from the front office
• 33:29
  Speaker 6: down to the players, and do you need more from
• 33:31
  Speaker 6: the players in that clubhouse?
• 33:32
  Speaker 9: I do think that, well, the players expect more of themselves.
• 33:37
  Speaker 9: I can answer that question for them. I think they're
• 33:38
  Speaker 9: telling you that now. They know it of themselves. They
• 33:43
  Speaker 9: saw this happening. And a lot of times when you're struggling,
• 33:46
  Speaker 9: you know, I played in the league long enough to
• 33:48
  Speaker 9: know I had more days to struggle than the other kind. And,
• 33:52
  Speaker 9: you know, and I've had this conversation with our players. It's,
• 33:55
  Speaker 9: you know, when you're struggling, you tend to internalize. And
• 34:01
  Speaker 9: this year, right, wrong or indifferent, and this is somehow
• 34:03
  Speaker 9: just how it happens in baseball, the majority of our
• 34:06
  Speaker 9: players struggle to perform well. to their expectations. And when
• 34:13
  Speaker 9: you do that, you tend to internalize. When that's happening
• 34:16
  Speaker 9: with a large group of players at the same time
• 34:18
  Speaker 9: and everyone is internalizing, you need an outside impact, and
• 34:23
  Speaker 9: that comes from front office.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: It comes from staff. You know, you need to be
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: there to help your players out.
• 34:29
  Speaker 9: In that moment, recognizing that sometimes player leaders, as they struggle,
• 34:33
  Speaker 9: are less likely to interact with one another.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: In a meaningful way. We lived through some of that.
• 34:38
  Speaker 9: And we didn't do enough as a leadership team to
• 34:41
  Speaker 9: provide our players with those types of outlets. And that
• 34:45
  Speaker 9: is maybe our biggest failure this year. But again, only
• 34:47
  Speaker 9: a failure if you don't learn from it.
• 34:49
  Speaker 10: With the CBA, just how much added pressure is there
• 34:52
  Speaker 10: knowing that you guys have that abbreviated timeline to do
• 34:56
  Speaker 10: whatever you feel like is necessary to add to the team?
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: You know, we can't really think about a CBA.
• 35:00
  Speaker 9: We have to approach this like, 2027 starts in mid-February
• 35:04
  Speaker 9: for us.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: We're looking to build out our roster.
• 35:07
  Speaker 9: We are going to have a very busy October and November,
• 35:10
  Speaker 9: you know, looking for a.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: Manager and staff.
• 35:13
  Speaker 9: Markets will open and we, like we always are, will
• 35:16
  Speaker 9: be very aggressive in trying to go out and fill
• 35:18
  Speaker 9: the holes that we have and try to find those
• 35:21
  Speaker 9: final pieces. And along the way, you know, do an
• 35:25
  Speaker 9: audit ourselves. Why do we keep running into the same
• 35:28
  Speaker 9: problem with, you know, our inability to say it out loud,
• 35:31
  Speaker 9: our inability to find, you know, a right-hand bat who
• 35:34
  Speaker 9: can enter our market and seamlessly transition, you know. Randy
• 35:40
  Speaker 9: did it and did an amazing job of producing maybe
• 35:43
  Speaker 9: the best season he's ever had and produced throughout in
• 35:47
  Speaker 9: his time as a mariner. It's been hard for us otherwise.
• 35:50
  Speaker 9: We bring guys in, and it's the environment. I don't
• 35:54
  Speaker 9: know what it is, but we are resolute in trying
• 35:58
  Speaker 9: to figure out how, how we can not run into
• 36:01
  Speaker 9: the same issue. Our homegrown players don't deal with it
• 36:04
  Speaker 9: quite as much, but the guys who come in from
• 36:06
  Speaker 9: elsewhere do.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: Are there changes here? what do you look at?
• 36:10
  Speaker 10: Knowing that most of your core is here, what do
• 36:12
  Speaker 10: you look at your specific needs?
• 36:16
  Speaker 9: The good thing is we have enough flexibility among our
• 36:19
  Speaker 9: players that we can look at different things to get
• 36:23
  Speaker 9: the type of offense lineup impact that we're looking for.
• 36:27
  Speaker 9: Our starting pitching is our starting pitching. The group that
• 36:31
  Speaker 9: we have, we will have a homegrown starting rotation. Whether
• 36:36
  Speaker 9: we have six of them or five of them remains
• 36:38
  Speaker 9: to be seen. But our bullpen, there's a lot of
• 36:41
  Speaker 9: goodness in our bullpen. And I will say on individuals,
• 36:45
  Speaker 9: Andres Munoz led the league in blown saves. Weirdly, had
• 36:49
  Speaker 9: as good a year on a lot of the underlying stuff,
• 36:53
  Speaker 9: including the stuff that was coming out of his hand
• 36:55
  Speaker 9: and how much he grew emotionally as the season went along.
• 36:58
  Speaker 9: I'm very proud of him for getting through it. I'm
• 37:00
  Speaker 9: very proud of the fact that these guys, you know,
• 37:04
  Speaker 9: Edward Bizzardo finished on a sour note. We put a
• 37:08
  Speaker 9: ton of pressure on he and Chucky in the middle
• 37:11
  Speaker 9: of the season when Gabe was.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: Out, when Brash was out.
• 37:14
  Speaker 9: And they had to wear a terribly difficult workload, including
• 37:17
  Speaker 9: the up and downs, when they might be pitching one pluses.
• 37:21
  Speaker 9: And as a result, they were worn out by the
• 37:23
  Speaker 9: time we got to the dog days. And that's on us.
• 37:27
  Speaker 9: We need to provide more depth. And we looked to
• 37:30
  Speaker 9: do it at the deadline when we brought Sir Anthony in,
• 37:32
  Speaker 9: who I think did a really nice job for us.
• 37:34
  Speaker 9: But You know, our bullpen has a lot of really
• 37:37
  Speaker 9: good components. Matt Brash presumably is healthy and rejoins the
• 37:41
  Speaker 9: group next year, and we need to add impact back
• 37:44
  Speaker 9: there to join that leverage group.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: Obviously, we have.
• 37:48
  Speaker 9: free agents coming up, you know, JP, Randy, most notably,
• 37:52
  Speaker 9: but a couple of others. We need to refill those voids,
• 37:54
  Speaker 9: and they're not small voids to refill, you know, especially
• 37:58
  Speaker 9: Randy and left field. But we are excited about our
• 38:01
  Speaker 9: young players. Michael Arroyo, I think, had a wonderful 40-plate appearance,
• 38:05
  Speaker 9: you know, transition to the big leagues. Laz does exciting things.
• 38:10
  Speaker 9: You know, Brendan Donovan coming back, who left healthy. Hopefully
• 38:14
  Speaker 9: he is ready to go. And we see the version
• 38:18
  Speaker 9: of Brendan we saw, which is an awesome player. We
• 38:20
  Speaker 9: just saw him for 39 games. We'd like to see that,
• 38:23
  Speaker 9: you know, for the full schedule in a postseason.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: And I think we will.
• 38:28
  Speaker 9: And if we do that, now we have the flexibility of,
• 38:31
  Speaker 9: you know, Donnie can play a lot of different positions.
• 38:34
  Speaker 9: Colt can play either of the two.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: Left side infields.
• 38:37
  Speaker 9: You know, Arroyo can spell Cole Young at second base
• 38:40
  Speaker 9: versus a tough lefty. He can play left field and
• 38:43
  Speaker 9: continue to evolve in that way. And then we'll look
• 38:46
  Speaker 9: to trade and free agency to see if there's the
• 38:49
  Speaker 9: potential of finding that impact back that might come help us.
• 38:52
  Speaker 10: Jerry, do you walk us through the process to find
• 38:55
  Speaker 10: the new manager and how much autonomy would you have?
• 38:58
  Speaker 9: Full autonomy. That I can assure you is, and I
• 39:01
  Speaker 9: always have, I always have full autonomy. I work for
• 39:05
  Speaker 9: great people. They give us the resources that we need
• 39:07
  Speaker 9: to do the thing we need to do. They trust
• 39:09
  Speaker 9: our programs and And I feel like we failed them
• 39:13
  Speaker 9: this year because this should have been the year that
• 39:16
  Speaker 9: we did amazing things, and we just didn't.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: But full autonomy, our process starts now.
• 39:22
  Speaker 9: Jess and I are both making phone calls around the league,
• 39:25
  Speaker 9: starting to dig into who the best candidates are out there.
• 39:30
  Speaker 9: why there is no timeline on it. We will get
• 39:33
  Speaker 9: the best candidate available. And I will say this selfishly.
• 39:36
  Speaker 9: We just had a 76-win season, which is usually associated
• 39:40
  Speaker 9: with a team that's not particularly exciting to be with.
• 39:44
  Speaker 9: There's not a single candidate in baseball that wouldn't be
• 39:46
  Speaker 9: excited to take over this job.
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: This ballpark, this city.
• 39:49
  Speaker 9: The talent on that roster, not one of those guys
• 39:52
  Speaker 9: I mentioned will be older than 30 years old to
• 39:54
  Speaker 9: start next year. A robust farm system and a deep
• 39:57
  Speaker 9: pitching staff. All the elements are there. But you can't
• 40:01
  Speaker 9: be the worst defensive team in baseball. You can't make
• 40:04
  Speaker 9: the mistakes that we made constantly throughout the year. You
• 40:06
  Speaker 9: need to be better prepared and prepared. in line with
• 40:10
  Speaker 9: a process that leads to winning. And we will find
• 40:13
  Speaker 9: someone through this process who comes in and is in
• 40:17
  Speaker 9: alignment with what we see as the direction the team
• 40:21
  Speaker 9: needs to head and then guides us in a way
• 40:24
  Speaker 9: that we get better. Because obviously the performance on the
• 40:30
  Speaker 9: field this year has made us question a lot.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: Of the things that we are doing at the major
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: league level.
• 40:36
  Speaker 9: And I will say multiple of our major league players
• 40:40
  Speaker 9: who came through our system have referenced what they learned
• 40:44
  Speaker 9: in player development that got abandoned in the big leagues
• 40:47
  Speaker 9: this year. And not just the players who came up
• 40:50
  Speaker 9: for the first time, but we have a host of
• 40:52
  Speaker 9: players who've come through our system, and they saw a difference.
• 40:56
  Speaker 9: We need to get back to what we believe is
• 40:59
  Speaker 9: a Mariners baseball process.
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: Jerry, do you think yours is back next year? I'm sorry?
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: Is that your back?
• 41:04
  Speaker 9: Uh, yeah, in some capacity, you know, Edgar's part of
• 41:06
  Speaker 9: what we do. He's been a Mariner for 44 years.
• 41:08
  Speaker 9: I spoke to him the other day. Um, I don't
• 41:11
  Speaker 9: know that he's going to be in the dugout for
• 41:13
  Speaker 9: 162 games. Um, I am certain that he's going to
• 41:15
  Speaker 9: be part of what we do from a baseball operation
• 41:17
  Speaker 9: standpoint and organizationally.
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: Do you regret at all the way the piggyback and
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: the six memberization was either a handle or.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: Be communicated throughout the year?
• 41:27
  Speaker 9: Uh, I regret a lot of communication issues that we
• 41:30
  Speaker 9: had this year. Um, Weirdly, the piggyback period was when
• 41:34
  Speaker 9: we were our very best this year. That's when our
• 41:36
  Speaker 9: team was most successful. The way it was communicated, the
• 41:40
  Speaker 9: way it was received, and the drama around it was
• 41:45
  Speaker 9: part of what I think was a bag that we
• 41:48
  Speaker 9: were carrying.
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: Around with us all year and couldn't shed.
• 41:51
  Speaker 9: And the piggyback is one piece of that. I could
• 41:55
  Speaker 9: come up with 10 others that were contributing factors, but
• 41:58
  Speaker 9: We need to communicate more clearly. And we talked about
• 42:02
  Speaker 9: this with the players during that piggyback period. We handled
• 42:06
  Speaker 9: the kickoff of that as poorly as you possibly could
• 42:09
  Speaker 9: from a leadership standpoint. And as we got into the drama,
• 42:16
  Speaker 9: and it was perpetuating in this.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: This was one start in. It was the White Sox game.
• 42:21
  Speaker 9: I personally sat down with Bryce and with Louie and
• 42:24
  Speaker 9: we cleared it up. And I don't think that was
• 42:26
  Speaker 9: an issue. The piggyback, the extended version of the piggyback
• 42:31
  Speaker 9: was something that we put in front of our pitchers
• 42:34
  Speaker 9: and asked them to decide what they wanted to do.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: And it's what they chose.
• 42:38
  Speaker 9: Unfortunately, as the schedule goes, some guys need an extra
• 42:41
  Speaker 9: day here or a non-bullpen day there. And I don't
• 42:45
  Speaker 9: think we did a great job of communicating it externally.
• 42:49
  Speaker 9: But I can tell you internally, the strife ended. There
• 42:52
  Speaker 9: was no more talk about concern about the piggyback. It
• 42:56
  Speaker 9: was a collective agreement, but we did not communicate that
• 43:00
  Speaker 9: well inside out.
• 43:02
  Speaker 5: Two questions for you.
• 43:03
  Speaker 10: One, when it comes to this manager search and these
• 43:05
  Speaker 10: recent coaching changes, how much say will your new manager
• 43:08
  Speaker 10: have in.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: Picking his staff?
• 43:10
  Speaker 10: And two, could we expect more coaching changes after what
• 43:13
  Speaker 10: you all announced today?
• 43:16
  Speaker 9: I'll answer from the second question back. I wouldn't anticipate
• 43:20
  Speaker 9: any more coaching changes. The coaches that we have maintained,
• 43:26
  Speaker 9: everyone is now under agreement for a contract for 2027
• 43:29
  Speaker 9: and in some cases beyond.
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: We love those people. They do a great job.
• 43:33
  Speaker 9: I love the people who I spoke to yesterday and
• 43:35
  Speaker 9: who've been here for a long time and made real contributions.
• 43:39
  Speaker 9: But we thought it was important that whoever we hire
• 43:41
  Speaker 9: as the manager come in and have the ability to
• 43:44
  Speaker 9: have his hand on the wheel in creating his own staff.
• 43:48
  Speaker 9: Handing a new manager, we want to get better culturally.
• 43:51
  Speaker 9: We want you to show us where we might be
• 43:54
  Speaker 9: doing this wrong with our people. Seems to be a
• 43:56
  Speaker 9: very difficult task. needle to thread. That manager, whoever it is,
• 44:01
  Speaker 9: he will have the ability to point us in the
• 44:05
  Speaker 9: direction of the people he wants if we can access them.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: Jerry, the defense really fell off this year. What do
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: you view as the outlook for the guys you have
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: coming back? Were things struggled?
• 44:15
  Speaker 9: Like you said, a lot of those pieces aren't changing,
• 44:16
  Speaker 9: so do you have to commit a little bit more
• 44:18
  Speaker 9: to finding some defenders to fill out this, or how
• 44:21
  Speaker 9: do you view that push forward? Well, I mean, some
• 44:25
  Speaker 9: of it is just the regression of players who have
• 44:27
  Speaker 9: been good defensive players who regressed in 2026. And I
• 44:33
  Speaker 9: say this, and this is just real. Being a bad
• 44:37
  Speaker 9: defender is a choice. You being a good defender sometimes
• 44:41
  Speaker 9: requires a skill set that some players may or may
• 44:45
  Speaker 9: not have. Our players have the skills to do it.
• 44:48
  Speaker 9: And they've been somewhere between this. For a five-year stretch,
• 44:52
  Speaker 9: we were somewhere between a slightly above average to, in
• 44:57
  Speaker 9: some areas, a well above average major league defense. And
• 45:01
  Speaker 9: we didn't beat ourselves. This year we led the league
• 45:03
  Speaker 9: in throwing errors.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: It was fantastic. awful to watch. It was awful for
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: the players.
• 45:07
  Speaker 9: We led the league and the least likely team to
• 45:10
  Speaker 9: convert a double play that we started.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: That's not helpful to our pitchers.
• 45:15
  Speaker 9: A starting pitching staff who attacks the strike zone and
• 45:20
  Speaker 9: has the ball put in play is harmed by the
• 45:23
  Speaker 9: lack of range and positioning with our team. We can
• 45:28
  Speaker 9: solve some of that through more focus, more demanding and
• 45:32
  Speaker 9: challenging practice and But, you know, especially in the positioning
• 45:36
  Speaker 9: of those players, that's something that we as a scouting
• 45:39
  Speaker 9: advanced team can provide our players that we need to
• 45:43
  Speaker 9: implement more effectively than.
• 45:45
  Speaker 4: We did this year. Jerry, are there off-season surgeries scheduled
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: or coming up?
• 45:50
  Speaker 9: None yet, but I can't tell you what that might
• 45:52
  Speaker 9: look like as we finish the process of exit physicals
• 45:57
  Speaker 9: and such. not expecting anything, certainly not expecting anything major,
• 46:03
  Speaker 9: but it's possible.
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: We have time for Kate and a couple more.
• 46:06
  Speaker 6: Jerry, several of your players, your player leaders, like Cal,
• 46:09
  Speaker 6: like Brian, expressed interest in having a voice in some
• 46:12
  Speaker 6: of these personnel changes, either in the clubhouse or above.
• 46:16
  Speaker 6: How much will they have a role to play, and
• 46:17
  Speaker 6: do you think empowering them to do so could maybe
• 46:20
  Speaker 6: help to address that leadership piece, that passivity in the clubhouse?
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: Well, I will say this.
• 46:25
  Speaker 9: This week, we met individually with most of our players.
• 46:30
  Speaker 9: The core players who have been here, among them Cal
• 46:34
  Speaker 9: and Brian, and many others along the way. It wasn't
• 46:39
  Speaker 9: just players who came through our system, it was players
• 46:41
  Speaker 9: who joined on the fly, who we think very highly
• 46:43
  Speaker 9: of in terms of their level of character.
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: We have good people.
• 46:51
  Speaker 9: Our issue is not the quality of the person in
• 46:53
  Speaker 9: the clubhouse. I will say Cal's been invested in this
• 46:58
  Speaker 9: for years now. You know, I've joked around that he's
• 47:00
  Speaker 9: like an assistant GM, but we bounce all of this
• 47:03
  Speaker 9: off Cal. And, you know, he's very communicative with us.
• 47:08
  Speaker 9: He knows what we're doing before we do it with
• 47:10
  Speaker 9: player personnel. You know, how much we will factor their
• 47:15
  Speaker 9: opinions in on who the manager is That remains to
• 47:18
  Speaker 9: be seen. I think there's also a danger zone there,
• 47:21
  Speaker 9: but they'll be in tune as to what we're doing,
• 47:23
  Speaker 9: and they will give us the feedback that is required
• 47:27
  Speaker 9: to make sure that this is a good fit. But
• 47:30
  Speaker 9: we're not going to ask them to be a part
• 47:31
  Speaker 9: of an interview process.
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: I think that's unfair.
• 47:34
  Speaker 9: It's unfair to the candidate as much as it is
• 47:36
  Speaker 9: unfair to the organization.
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: Jerry, it sounds like you guys are going to have
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: an exhaustive search for the manager.
• 47:41
  Speaker 4: That doesn't appear to be what happened the last time
• 47:44
  Speaker 4: when you went from Scott to Dan.
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: Why is it different now? Perhaps because of that.
• 47:49
  Speaker 9: But in general, we have been exhausted in our search
• 47:53
  Speaker 9: for almost every position we've filled. Dan, and I said this,
• 47:57
  Speaker 9: and it wasn't meant to be in a wise assy
• 48:02
  Speaker 9: type of way, if I'm being honest. Dan's interview is
• 48:05
  Speaker 9: like 35 years long with the Mariners. And, you know,
• 48:08
  Speaker 9: when he joined, you know, we were, we were looking
• 48:12
  Speaker 9: for someone who could bring levity to the environment, who
• 48:16
  Speaker 9: had trust with the players out of the shoot. And, and,
• 48:19
  Speaker 9: and it was reciprocal. And, and I think at that time,
• 48:25
  Speaker 9: Dan was the appropriate person for that job. We just
• 48:29
  Speaker 9: didn't grow forward as a group. And I think that's
• 48:32
  Speaker 9: what leads us here today. Our interview process, from the
• 48:37
  Speaker 9: time we hired Scott, Scott was on a 25-year interview
• 48:40
  Speaker 9: with me, but we still went through a process that
• 48:43
  Speaker 9: included At that time, six managerial candidates and multiple layers
• 48:48
  Speaker 9: of interview. We, when we hire an area scout or
• 48:52
  Speaker 9: a minor league coach or a front office member, put
• 48:55
  Speaker 9: them through the rigors of multi-layered interview processes where they
• 48:59
  Speaker 9: sit with various departments who will affect them and various
• 49:04
  Speaker 9: people who will affect them and their ability to be
• 49:07
  Speaker 9: productive in their roles. And then we sit down and
• 49:10
  Speaker 9: we debrief and we talk through it and we determine
• 49:13
  Speaker 9: which candidates move on. And that's been exhaustive in other
• 49:18
  Speaker 9: areas of our organization for years.
• 49:20
  Speaker 5: Years.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: And we will do that in this process. Thank you, guys.
• 49:25
  Speaker 8: Thanks, Jerry.
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: All right, there you go. Jerry DiPoto wrapping up his
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: news conference. We will try to check in with Softie.
• 49:33
  Speaker 4: He's down there.
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: You heard him ask that last question about the interview
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: process with the manager. Let's take a quick break. Come
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: back with more. On 93.3, KJR FM.
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: How much autonomy do you have? Full autonomy.
• 49:45
  Speaker 9: That I can assure you is... And I always have.
• 49:48
  Speaker 9: I always have full autonomy. I work for great people.
• 49:52
  Speaker 9: They give us the resources that we need to do
• 49:54
  Speaker 9: the thing we need to do. They trust our programs.
• 49:56
  Speaker 9: And I feel like we failed them this year. Because
• 50:00
  Speaker 9: this should have been the year that we did amazing things.
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: And we just didn't. But full autonomy....
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: Interesting comment there. Full autonomy.
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: So a lot to get to. Dave Softy Mahler, our
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: own guy. We need to do more at four with Hugh.
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: We're going to do more with Softy at two is
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: what we're doing right now. And that's what we're going
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: to do. We'll have Softy on in an hour. But
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: just real quick, you were there. I mean, you'll see
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: the text line when you log in later. A zillion texts.
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: But a lot of people, we were in breaking news
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: with Fox 13 beforehand. So let me just fire a
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: couple things at you that people are asking and wondering
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: about from the start that we might have missed.
• 50:38
  Speaker 4: One, Jerry is back. Jerry and Justin, correct? They are back.
• 50:43
  Speaker 4: They're not going anywhere.
• 50:44
  Speaker 7: Yes, yes, yes.
• 50:46
  Speaker 4: Dan Wilson, fired or not? Whose decision was it?
• 50:50
  Speaker 8: I asked Jerry DiPoto flat out if Dan was fired
• 50:53
  Speaker 8: or if he resigned, and he refused to answer the question.
• 50:56
  Speaker 7: He would not answer.
• 50:57
  Speaker 8: He said, out of respect for Dan, that's a personal thing.
• 51:00
  Speaker 7: We're not going to talk about that.
• 51:02
  Speaker 8: That was actually as short and as curt as he
• 51:06
  Speaker 8: was in the entire press conference with all the questions
• 51:08
  Speaker 8: he had gotten. from the media most of the questions
• 51:11
  Speaker 8: i would say 99.99 of them if not every single
• 51:15
  Speaker 8: one besides that he was expansive he would get into
• 51:19
  Speaker 8: detail he would follow up he would talk for you
• 51:22
  Speaker 8: know 60 90 seconds two minutes the one question he
• 51:26
  Speaker 8: was very very short on was me asking him if
• 51:29
  Speaker 8: dan quit or if he was fired and he refused
• 51:31
  Speaker 8: to answer so there you go.
• 51:33
  Speaker 4: What were your other takeaways.
• 51:35
  Speaker 7: I thought he said all the right things.
• 51:37
  Speaker 8: I mean, he was visibly shaken a little bit. You know,
• 51:39
  Speaker 8: Dick mentioned that in the press conference as we were done,
• 51:41
  Speaker 8: and I think Dick's right that this was maybe as
• 51:44
  Speaker 8: tough a press conference as he's ever done.
• 51:46
  Speaker 7: It was a weird setup. It was upstairs in the
• 51:48
  Speaker 7: press box, right? I mean, it was not in the
• 51:50
  Speaker 7: media room.
• 51:51
  Speaker 8: There was no speaker providing audio, nowhere for media to
• 51:54
  Speaker 8: plug into and get an audio feed of the conference.
• 51:57
  Speaker 7: Of the press conference.
• 51:58
  Speaker 8: I ended up sitting on top of a table behind
• 52:01
  Speaker 8: Tim Booth and Mike Varel so I could see the
• 52:03
  Speaker 8: actual press conference itself and see Jerry himself. Kind of
• 52:07
  Speaker 8: weird for him to look up and see some idiot
• 52:09
  Speaker 8: sitting up in the sky, you know, staring at him, right?
• 52:11
  Speaker 8: Coming from down, from up high. So that was weird.
• 52:14
  Speaker 8: Why they did that, I have no idea. You know,
• 52:16
  Speaker 8: the Mariners are typically pretty damn good when it comes
• 52:18
  Speaker 8: to PR and things like that. So I'm sure they
• 52:21
  Speaker 8: had their reasons. Why those reasons were, I don't have
• 52:23
  Speaker 8: any idea. But he was shaken, there's no doubt. He was,
• 52:26
  Speaker 8: I think, as direct as he's been since he's been here.
• 52:30
  Speaker 8: This was obviously no fun for him to answer these questions.
• 52:33
  Speaker 8: I asked him flat out. I said, for people out
• 52:36
  Speaker 8: there that wonder why you should be allowed to continue
• 52:39
  Speaker 8: running this thing, what do you say to them? And
• 52:42
  Speaker 8: he said, I get it. He said, if I didn't
• 52:44
  Speaker 8: have a job today, it'd be justified. I totally understand that.
• 52:49
  Speaker 8: And so he knows he's on the hot seat. He
• 52:51
  Speaker 8: knows any time you have a third manager in four years,
• 52:53
  Speaker 8: the Klieg light is squarely on him starting next season,
• 52:56
  Speaker 8: and it should be. And we asked him about this
• 52:59
  Speaker 8: search coming up for a manager. There's going to be
• 53:01
  Speaker 8: this expansive search for a manager, which is something that
• 53:04
  Speaker 8: they did not do the last time when they gave
• 53:07
  Speaker 8: the job to Dan Wilson in what, August of 2024, 2023,
• 53:10
  Speaker 8: whatever year it was. And I asked him, I said,
• 53:15
  Speaker 8: if there's going to be a search now, why was
• 53:17
  Speaker 8: there not a search last time? And he said, maybe
• 53:20
  Speaker 8: one of the reasons why we're going to go on
• 53:22
  Speaker 8: this search is because of the way we did it
• 53:24
  Speaker 8: last time.
• 53:25
  Speaker 7: It didn't work. We didn't do what we were supposed
• 53:28
  Speaker 7: to do, and he admitted that.
• 53:30
  Speaker 8: He did say that Dan Wilson's resume is 35 years long,
• 53:33
  Speaker 8: and I get that.
• 53:34
  Speaker 7: When you're around the franchise and.
• 53:36
  Speaker 8: People know who you are, you're not asking the same
• 53:39
  Speaker 8: questions because you know the guy better than you would,
• 53:41
  Speaker 8: let's say, somebody else from the outside. But it sounds
• 53:44
  Speaker 8: like they're willing to admit the mistakes of the past
• 53:47
  Speaker 8: and learn from them.
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: Go back to what you just said, that question you asked,
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: because we didn't hear that. I think that's the money question,
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: the money quote, because a lot of people, again, I'm
• 53:56
  Speaker 3: just looking on the text line. Sometimes we get texts
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: and you go, is that really a true indication of
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: what the majority of people are saying?
• 54:03
  Speaker 4: I think it is.
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: I think most people that I hear from, I see
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: you hear from, and you talk to, people are like,
• 54:08
  Speaker 3: why the hell is this guy still in charge? So
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: you asked him point blank that question.
• 54:13
  Speaker 6: Right, right.
• 54:14
  Speaker 4: And he just said it would be justified if he
• 54:16
  Speaker 4: got let go.
• 54:17
  Speaker 8: Yeah that's a great that's a crazy response man i
• 54:20
  Speaker 8: mean look i thought it was the right answer he's
• 54:22
  Speaker 8: basically saying i get it i've been here for 11
• 54:24
  Speaker 8: years we've won one division championship we've made the playoffs
• 54:27
  Speaker 8: two times i'm on my third manager in four years
• 54:29
  Speaker 8: i'm not stupid you know i get it you know
• 54:31
  Speaker 8: i get why people would question why i should be
• 54:34
  Speaker 8: continuing to run this thing so you know we talked
• 54:36
  Speaker 8: about you know that their culture needs a reset right
• 54:39
  Speaker 8: and that's a word that we've used a lot over
• 54:40
  Speaker 8: this last season i i I've thought for months now
• 54:43
  Speaker 8: that the Mariner culture was awful, and it sounds like
• 54:46
  Speaker 8: he admitted that, you know, that this was a bad,
• 54:47
  Speaker 8: bad culture. For whatever reason, they got away from a
• 54:50
  Speaker 8: lot of what made their culture great last season, and
• 54:53
  Speaker 8: they need to have a reset. He talked about the
• 54:55
  Speaker 8: horrible defense. You know, he said being a bad defender sucks.
• 54:58
  Speaker 8: is a choice I thought that was an interesting comment
• 55:00
  Speaker 8: yeah I'm curious about Josh Naylor's response to that by
• 55:03
  Speaker 8: the way and Randy Rosarito's response to that so he's
• 55:06
  Speaker 8: basically putting it on their lack of effort in a
• 55:08
  Speaker 8: lot of ways let's face it with a comment like
• 55:11
  Speaker 8: that nobody got around to asking about Randy Rosarito's future
• 55:14
  Speaker 8: by the way I got the stink eye from Divish
• 55:17
  Speaker 8: for asking too many questions anyway so you know maybe
• 55:20
  Speaker 8: somebody else could take over that role next time but No,
• 55:22
  Speaker 8: I mean, Ian, it was kind of a surreal thing, man.
• 55:25
  Speaker 7: It really was.
• 55:25
  Speaker 8: I just can't maybe do it justice when I describe
• 55:28
  Speaker 8: where this thing was. It was in the back of
• 55:30
  Speaker 8: the press box, very small area. They had a bunch
• 55:33
  Speaker 8: of tables shoved up against the TV cameras, so people
• 55:36
  Speaker 8: were kind of out of whack as far as the
• 55:38
  Speaker 8: angles for where they got to stand and sit and
• 55:41
  Speaker 8: ask questions and cover this thing. It was not a
• 55:43
  Speaker 8: traditional press conference inside the media room, which is a
• 55:46
  Speaker 8: gigantic space downstairs underneath the bells at T-Mobile Park that
• 55:49
  Speaker 8: they've used many, many times before. And for whatever reason today,
• 55:52
  Speaker 8: decided not to use it. So, again, I thought he
• 55:55
  Speaker 8: answered every question the right way, and we'll see what
• 55:57
  Speaker 8: happens next April.
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I know that listeners don't always care about that stuff,
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: but I think it speaks volumes about how they handle
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: things and how this was handled. You know what they
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: did just watching the video, Dave? They made it difficult
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: for everyone covering it. They made it difficult for those
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: asking questions. And then they made it difficult, and this
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: is maybe the most important point, If he's your president
• 56:20
  Speaker 3: of baseball operations, he's the guy in charge. You're putting
• 56:22
  Speaker 3: him out here because your owner doesn't want to do jack, right?
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: So you put him out there to be the bad guy,
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: and rightfully so.
• 56:29
  Speaker 4: That's his job.
• 56:30
  Speaker 8: To be fair, just real quick, he did talk to
• 56:32
  Speaker 8: Paul Silvey today, and he's also talking to Jude.
• 56:35
  Speaker 7: Stanton is. I know that.
• 56:36
  Speaker 4: Is he talking to us?
• 56:38
  Speaker 7: I have no idea.
• 56:38
  Speaker 3: It's all safe haven because TV partner and so forth.
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: But my point with DiPoto, watching DiPoto, he looked like
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: Richard Nixon under interrogation for Watergate, man.
• 56:50
  Speaker 4: And he's usually as calm as they come. They made
• 56:52
  Speaker 4: it just really difficult. His job's difficult enough. I think
• 56:56
  Speaker 4: I loved your questions.
• 56:57
  Speaker 3: I thought great job and people don't like it tough,
• 57:00
  Speaker 3: but I thought it was good. The one thing, I'll
• 57:02
  Speaker 3: wrap it up with this that I thought was really strange.
• 57:04
  Speaker 3: Full autonomy on the coaching staff for the new manager,
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: yet they're retaining some of the coaches.
• 57:08
  Speaker 4: That's not full autonomy, is it?
• 57:10
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 57:11
  Speaker 8: Full autonomy as far as who comes and who goes
• 57:13
  Speaker 8: is with him, is I think what he meant. I'm
• 57:16
  Speaker 8: the one who will decide, not the owner. Full autonomy
• 57:20
  Speaker 8: on hiring a manager, full autonomy on which coaches come
• 57:23
  Speaker 8: and which coaches go. Now, does that mean that he
• 57:25
  Speaker 8: will allow a new manager to fire Pete Woodworth if
• 57:28
  Speaker 8: he wants to?
• 57:28
  Speaker 4: That's what I'm wondering, yeah. I don't know.
• 57:30
  Speaker 8: I mean, in the end, I guess if he's talking
• 57:31
  Speaker 8: about it being– on his shoulders, then take him at
• 57:34
  Speaker 8: his word.
• 57:35
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 57:35
  Speaker 8: It's his, it's his call. He will decide whether or
• 57:38
  Speaker 8: not Pete Woodworth comes back. If they hire Steven vote
• 57:41
  Speaker 8: or Tori Lovallo or whoever, right. If that guy wants
• 57:44
  Speaker 8: to bring in, as you would think he'd be want
• 57:46
  Speaker 8: to do right. To bring in his own pitching coach.
• 57:48
  Speaker 8: He has somebody who he's known for a long time.
• 57:50
  Speaker 8: If that guy wants to fire Pete Woodworth, the Mariners
• 57:53
  Speaker 8: ERA went from second in 2024 to what?
• 57:55
  Speaker 7: 18th, 19th, whatever it is.
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 57:56
  Speaker 8: 2026 and maybe they want to make a change. I
• 58:01
  Speaker 8: guess Jerry's telling you that in the end, it's going
• 58:03
  Speaker 8: to be his call. So I would take him on
• 58:04
  Speaker 8: his face, face value for that. And then the other thing,
• 58:08
  Speaker 8: God darn it. I had some of the top of
• 58:09
  Speaker 8: my mind. I was going to tell you, I hate this. No,
• 58:13
  Speaker 8: it was just, it was just about, you know, The
• 58:15
  Speaker 8: entire situation with him and the piggyback and the lack
• 58:19
  Speaker 8: of communication.
• 58:20
  Speaker 7: I thought was really interesting.
• 58:21
  Speaker 4: I did too.
• 58:22
  Speaker 8: I asked him if he regretted the way it was handled,
• 58:25
  Speaker 8: and he said that the communication with the piggyback was terrible.
• 58:30
  Speaker 8: He said from the start they handled it as poorly
• 58:32
  Speaker 8: as they could from a leadership perspective. He said there
• 58:36
  Speaker 8: was a lot of drama around the piggyback, and I'm
• 58:39
  Speaker 8: assuming that that means internal drama, not external drama. I
• 58:43
  Speaker 8: don't know why anybody would give a damn about the
• 58:45
  Speaker 8: fans and the media and drama in the press and
• 58:47
  Speaker 8: drama on our radio station, so I'm assuming he meant internally.
• 58:51
  Speaker 8: But he did admit that that was handled terribly from
• 58:54
  Speaker 8: the start. So, yeah, we'll see if that happens again
• 58:56
  Speaker 8: next year.
• 58:56
  Speaker 4: All right, I know you're working on some other stuff.
• 58:57
  Speaker 4: We'll check in with you in about 45 minutes, by
• 58:59
  Speaker 4: the way.
• 58:59
  Speaker 7: I got nothing else going on.
• 59:00
  Speaker 4: I'm here for you, man. I'll read you one text.
• 59:03
  Speaker 4: You'll like this. From the 206.
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: Good thing you sent skinny Softie and not fat Softie
• 59:08
  Speaker 3: to that Mariners media room setup.
• 59:10
  Speaker 4: Probably right.
• 59:10
  Speaker 8: I would have fallen off the chair, off the table.
• 59:12
  Speaker 8: I was right behind Booth and Varel breathing down their
• 59:14
  Speaker 8: neck the entire time.
• 59:15
  Speaker 4: That's good. They need someone doing that. All right. We'll
• 59:17
  Speaker 4: talk to you in a little bit, man. Nice job.
• 59:18
  Speaker 7: Okay, buddy.
• 59:18
  Speaker 6: See you.
• 59:19
  Speaker 4: There you go. That's Dave Softie-Moller. We'll get back to
• 59:20
  Speaker 4: the NFL. Mike Sando joins us next.
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: It's time for our Monday visit with Mike Sando of
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: The Athletic, brought to you by Hunt Services. For HVAC, plumbing, sewer,
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: and electrical needs, get on the horn and call Hunt's
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: or visit HuntServices.com. Now with Mike Sando, here's Ian Furness.
• 59:43
  Speaker 3: Should know, two big NFL games tonight, Monday Night Football, Bears, Eagles,
• 59:46
  Speaker 3: coming up 5-15 right here on 93.3 KJR FM after
• 59:49
  Speaker 3: Softie and Fane wrap things up. That'll wrap up week
• 59:53
  Speaker 3: three of the NFL season. Our local team now 2-1
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: after just another crazy week in the league. And our
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 3: friend Mike Sando joins us right now from the Athletic
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: on the Beacon Plumbing Hotline.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 7: Hello, Mike.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: Hey, how's it going?
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 4: Good, good. By the way, for.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 3: Those that didn't see this, we talked about it last week.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 3: Mike did a story last week on some of the numbers,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: the analytical numbers, some of the numbers that maybe you
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 3: don't understand, including... expected points added EPA, which we talk
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 3: about on this show pretty much every week, and all
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 3: I know is this. The EPA world, Mike, was not
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 3: treating the Seattle Seahawks very well yesterday, whether it was
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: a turnover by Jadarian Price, an interception by Sam Darnold.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 3: There were a lot of EPA things in the negative
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 3: for Seattle yesterday.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 5: There really were, yeah. I mean, the turnovers is really
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 5: where it was at, and you can feel the value.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 5: You know, you can feel it sometimes being even bigger
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 5: than a touchdown. And so, yeah, I mean, that's how
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 5: you lose games. I think the Rams went through something similar, too,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 5: where if you compare a lot of the yards and
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 5: the other stats, you know, it looks pretty good. Like,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 5: you probably would have won the game. I don't even
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 5: think the Commanders had, what, 285 yards, something like that?
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was next.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 5: But when you're giving them short fields on the turnovers
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 5: or letting them score on a pick six, you know,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 5: they don't really need offensive yards to win.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 3: You mentioned the Rams. I mean, Darnold and Stafford both
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 3: had the same situation, right? I mean, what's a normal
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 3: pick six? What does that do? I mean, it's usually
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: not just six points or seven points the other way.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 3: It's usually more than that, right?
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 5: Well, think of this. If you're at your own one-yard
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 5: line and throw one, it's not even worth a full
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 5: touchdown because the other team was in good position as
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 5: it was.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean?
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 5: They're going to get the ball back at midfield on
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 5: a punt. They're going to expect to get three points anyway, right?
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 5: You're close to a field goal. But if you're about
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 5: to go in for a touchdown, we know this. You
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 5: always hear the announcers say, that's a 14-point swing. And
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 5: it's really usually about a 12-point swing. It's about what
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 5: it is. If you're really close, if you have a
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 5: first down, you're inside the five-yard line, you're probably going
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 5: to get a touchdown or certainly a field goal. And
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 5: all of a sudden, the other team takes a getaway.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 5: The expected points really adds not only their points, but
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 5: what you were likely to get. You're giving away this
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 5: prime field position that has a value. it has a
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 5: value even before you score, right? It has an expected value,
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 5: but guess what? Things don't always go as expected. And
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 5: that's why there's these big swings in games that you
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 5: can feel. And so, you know, it's nice to be
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 5: able to put a number on that and know exactly
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 5: how much that hurt. I think for the, I think
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 5: for the Seahawks, it was about eight, almost 18 points
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 5: is what those turnovers were worth. And so, you know, they,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 5: they lost the game by two points. It's a little
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 5: bit like, when they lost that game to the Rams.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 5: Remember last year, wasn't it a two point? Wasn't it
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 5: two points? I think they had four turnovers in that
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 5: one too. So, yeah, you can feel what's happening there
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 5: where that's obviously, you know, almost insurmountable, but these good teams,
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 5: and I think the Rams were one last night too.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 5: The good teams are right in it anyway. The really
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 5: top teams, they have those turnovers and they're still in
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 5: the game. The Rams almost won. Rams and Seattle both
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 5: threw pick sixes in the fourth quarter. And still, they're
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 5: right there and maybe should have won. Certainly the Rams
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 5: feel like it because they got the penalties at the
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 5: end of the game probably worked out bad for them.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, if we're being honest and you try to look
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 3: at even if you're an NFC West fan here in
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 3: Seattle or San Francisco, you're looking at saying, yeah, I
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 3: think the Rams may have got one taken away. The
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 3: interception at the end was certainly, it looked clean along
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 3: the way. Mike Sando joining us from The Athletic. Uh, does,
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 3: does a new England have a Drake may problem, the
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 3: runner up to the MVP last year and number two
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 3: in the top 100, all that fun stuff.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 4: Do they have a Drake may issue?
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: They do.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 5: You know, that's what I wrote about today in my column,
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 5: because it's, it's, it's what we saw in the first
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 5: game and all the Seahawks fans were watching when he
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 5: just inexplicably threw the game away, uh, made a high
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 5: risk interception when they were about to kick, uh, kick
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 5: a field goal. I think that would have tied the
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 5: game if I remember right. And he's making those types
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 5: of mistakes. It's, it's, There's a lot of times you
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 5: might have a cold streak and you throw some interceptions,
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 5: have some turnovers, but your process is pretty sound and
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 5: those things are going to even out. He doesn't have
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 5: sound process right now. And so, you know, I'm not
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 5: sure it's been a weird off. It was a weird
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 5: off season for them, obviously, but their head coach didn't
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 5: use the best judgment off the field. Their quarterback's not
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 5: using the best judgment on the field. And it's really
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 5: hard for them to win.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 3: Mike, this is a, I'm looking at the NFC and, and,
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 3: you know, for, for folks watching this, The Green Bay
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 3: game this week, you know, one of the things that
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 3: jumps out, I think, is at times the struggles of
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 3: a Jordan Love. But, you know, because it feels like.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 3: I mean, you go from Favre forever to Rodgers forever,
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 3: and you just feel like it's like they've always had
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 3: good quarterback play. Love may be struggling, but it feels like,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 3: and I know you wrote about this, for Green Bay,
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 3: and we saw this yesterday with Seattle missing Bradford maybe,
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 3: the offensive line is still one of the most underrated,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 3: most important things in all of football, and it sounds
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 3: like Green Bay, if you're looking at their 1-2 record, yes,
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 3: the defense has given up a lot, but at the
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 3: same time, it's the offensive line that might be an issue.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 5: There's some breaking points here. Think of it this way.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 5: So they lost their right tackle early in the season,
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 5: seasoning injury. And you go, okay, it's just one guy.
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 5: But when you're already in a precarious position, it's kind
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 5: of like this. What are you, Ian? You're about 6'4?
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 6: Yep.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 5: Maybe 6'3, 6'4. So if you're standing in six feet
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 5: of water, that water's coming right up under your nose,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 5: but you can still breathe. That one extra inch of water,
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 5: you can't breathe. And that's where I feel like some
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 5: of these teams get with an offensive line where they're
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 5: you don't really realize the water's already up to the
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 5: bottom of your nose. And then that one little thing,
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 5: one other thing happens, and now suddenly you're underwater. And
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 5: I feel like that's happened to them a little bit
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 5: across their line. It's been a deterioration really over the
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 5: last couple of years. One of the things I pointed
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 5: out was their running back average per carry over the
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 5: last season and a half or so has fallen from
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 5: about 4.5 to 3.9 to 3.2. Some of that, sure,
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 5: Josh Jacobs is out, but a lot of it is
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 5: really their offensive line. That's what Matt LaFleur was asked
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 5: about their coach at his news conference today. I watched,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 5: do you think you need to run the ball more?
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 5: He's like, of course, but you've got to be able
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 5: to move some people, too.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 3: Mike, would you make the Giants trading for J.J. McCarthy
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 3: from Minnesota today?
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 4: Well, no.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 5: The connections people have that make them feel comfortable with
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 5: a player really are what facilitate these types of moves,
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 5: especially at the quarterback position. So obviously the Harbaugh's, Jim,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 5: and by extension, it's better, John, Michigan ties. So I
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 5: think that's a huge part of it. I think for
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 5: a lot of people, there's baggage and things that come
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 5: with J.J. McCarthy. I think his approach has been talked
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 5: about behind the scenes. He's just been off and obviously
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 5: he's been injured. And so they probably feel like, Hey,
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 5: we're desperate situation. This is somebody who does have probably
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 5: some upside. The, the giants, the Vikings couldn't really afford
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 5: to wait on them with the status of their team.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 5: Maybe he gets a chance down the stretch this year to,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 5: to play and what could be a difficult season for
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 5: the giants without their starting quarterback. But it's a weird
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 5: quarterback kind of depth chart to me. I think Jameis
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 5: Winston seems like he would be entertaining type of a guy,
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 5: but I don't know if he's the, you know, on
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 5: your P's and Q's mentor. Here's how you get prepared
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 5: for a game. Here's what you, here's how you say,
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 5: here's how you carry yourself. He's just kind of, he's
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 5: just kind of everybody's favorite uncle to me. And so
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 5: now you're throwing JJ McCarthy, who I think needs a
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 5: lot of guidance. Maybe getting cut is going to help
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 5: him and be a wake up call for him.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 5: Cause I think he needs one just professionally.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 3: It's, it's such a weird thing because it'd be nice, obviously,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 3: to have that mentor in the room. I mean, maybe
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 3: Cousins is that for Mendoza, but it feels like there's
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 3: just not a lot of that in the NFL. Guys want,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 3: I mean, they're competing for playing time, right? Competing for contracts.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 5: To some extent.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 4: I mean, it depends.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 5: There's some guys who know what their role is. And,
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 5: you know, I think we've seen some of those guys
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 5: around the Case Keenums of the world, you know, I
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 5: think Josh McCown at the end of his career, Those
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 5: guys sort of get it and you can hang around longer.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 5: You can be 37, 38 past your probably ability to
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 5: really help the team that much on the field. But
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 5: you can be seen as an asset. And it's hard
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 5: to prove if that helps or not. You know, I think, though,
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 5: for any of us, you know, having somebody who's a
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 5: mentor or who's been there before can offer some guidance
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 5: and perspective is helpful.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree. Mike, how shocked are you at Houston's 0-3?
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 5: I'm real shocked. You know, I think their defense is,
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 5: I thought their defense was so good coming into the
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 5: year that they could weather the ups and downs that
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 5: they were going to have on offense and, and do
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 5: better than they've done. I think the, the defense has
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 5: probably given up more points than I would have expected yesterday.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 5: Wasn't as bad against the Colts, but you know yeah,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 5: it's keeping everyone in that division.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 6: Down.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 5: Although I think Jacksonville is now, a pretty good team
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 5: and needs to be looked at.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, Jacksonville 2-1, everybody else is 1-2, 0-2, 1-2, 0-3, 0-3.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's not quite the AL West. I guess
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 3: if we're looking for the AL West, that would be
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 3: the NFC South. where Carolina leads with a 1-2 record.
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 3: It kind of feels like more of the same, right?
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 3: It's the American League West, just like that. Who's going
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 3: to be Houston this year? Yeah, tough loss for the
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 3: Saints at home yesterday.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 5: I think they felt like they were going to make
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 5: a move and just got themselves into a little bit
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 5: of a shootout with the Raiders. Hey, more power to
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 5: the Raiders. That's a great win for them. 3-0 with
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 5: Clint Kubiak. Cousins looks like he's got new life. He
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 5: looked like he was done in Atlanta. So, Raiders are
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 5: kind of a fun team. They get the Chiefs this week,
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 5: both 3-0. I'll watch that.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 4: Good for Clint Kubiak, huh?
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 3: It's so early in the process, but man, since the
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 3: Gruden departure and maybe even before that, it just feels
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 3: like they've been just trying to find their way, trying
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 3: to find the guy, trying to find the coach. You
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 3: could make an argument he's greatly missed here in Seattle,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 3: although it's early, but Boy, looking to see him, what
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 3: he's done there, it's kind of remarkable. It looks like
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 3: they're believing again. It feels like there hasn't been a
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 3: lot of belief in Raiderland for a while.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 5: Well, winning will make you a believer. And, of course,
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 5: believing can help you win. But I think it's hugely
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 5: important for him because the question on Clint Kubiak has
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 5: always been, yeah, great play caller, but low-key personality. Is
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 5: he going to command the room and that type of thing?
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 5: And I think that can be overrated. I think if–
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 5: If you know what you're doing and help the players
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 5: play well and you're yourself and you're authentic, and of
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 5: course you have to bring some enthusiasm, I think it's
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 5: an area that Kubiak has brought a little bit. We've
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 5: seen some of his post-game talks in there. He's firing
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 5: them up and yelling. He's being himself still. I think
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 5: it's a great development for him to get the wins
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 5: in the bank early at a place where there's just
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 5: been nothing but turmoil.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 3: I feel like there's a little Mike McDonald there as
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 3: you're describing that.
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 4: It's like you.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 3: Get– you get your Dan Campbell's of the world and
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 3: guys like that. And, you know, but then you've got
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 3: to get McDonald is, I mean, I know that we
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 3: all saw the hard knocks and stuff, but you know,
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 3: in the three years he's been here, he's evolved quite
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 3: a bit, but he's a pretty quiet dude. Like he's
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 3: not out there, you know, raw, raw, screaming, like that's,
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 3: that's not him. And he worked under that. And I
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 3: think you're right. Maybe that, that kind of that fiery
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 3: personality sometimes can be overrated. It just kind of depends
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 3: on the personality team. And like you said, you win,
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 3: you have some success. And all of a sudden that
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 3: belief validates everything. And, It's good to see that they're
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 3: doing that along the way. Quick thoughts from you before
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 3: I let you go on. We always like to talk
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 3: about Monday night. It is countdown to Monday night here
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 3: on KJR. We'll have the game tonight with Philadelphia at
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 3: 2-0 and Chicago at 1-1 with, I believe, Case Keenum
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 3: at quarterback. Kind of a pivotal game in the NFC tonight.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 5: It really is. Ben Johnson's obviously a very good coordinator
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 5: of the offense and I think he's done a great
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 5: job as a head coach. Now he's got the real challenge,
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 5: but he's had time. He's known all week. It's not
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 5: like he thought that Caleb Williams was going to, going
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 5: to play. He's got to get this veteran ready to
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 5: go against the Eagles who, you know, are, haven't been
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 5: scoring a ton of points, but have a good defense.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 5: I think it's a, uh, a fun matchup to just
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 5: kind of watch, uh, watch Ben Johnson operate with, uh,
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 5: different type of quarterback entirely.
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I would agree. Great stuff, sir.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 3: Mike's column, pick six, is at The Athletic every Monday.
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 3: It's usually on the front page, at least it is
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 3: for me. Maybe it's just my algorithm, but it goes
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 3: right there and then also on the NFL tab. And
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 3: like I mentioned, that great story. Tell folks about what
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 3: you wrote last week. I mentioned just kind of some
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 3: of the numbers. You and I discussed it, but I
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 3: think if you're an NFL fan, it's kind of a
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 3: must-read from what you did last week.
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just a primer on.
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 5: All these terms that you increasingly hear. And you know,
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 5: unless you're really into this, you're like, okay, what does
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 5: success rate mean again? You know what?
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 7: Okay.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 5: EPA, we hear that a lot, but at a certain
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 5: point you kind of just block stuff out that you
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 5: don't fully understand. And I think there's, it's worth understanding.
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 5: So I just put together a little primer and I
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 5: think you can, I think we even linked to it
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 5: maybe from my column today too, where when you stumble
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 5: across some of these things, you're like, okay, let's check
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 5: that out again. And then you get a couple of
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 5: reps on it and now you're, You're in the club, too.
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 5: You're in the club. We'll get you a little pocket protector,
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 5: get you some glasses, a little tape in the middle there,
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 5: and you can come to.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 4: Class with us. Oh, I love it.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 3: I do like the expected points added because I think,
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 3: as you mentioned, it's after a play. It's team scoring
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 3: expectations after a play.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 4: How it changes. How it changes, yeah. I think it's
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 4: a great number.
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 5: What was so amazing about the game yesterday is that
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 5: Mariota had three touchdowns, I believe, no sacks, no interceptions,
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 5: maybe two sacks, no interceptions, and had this real high
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 5: passer rating. But their offense overall was a touchdown worse
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 5: than expectation. It was minus 7.9 in the EPA. Well,
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 5: you say, oh, they won the game.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 2: Who cares?
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 5: Stats are for losers. No, no, no. It's helping us understand, wow,
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 5: you know, Seattle's defense wasn't as bad as it looked.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 5: Because I was talking to a coach last night who
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 5: didn't get to see their game. And he's like, wow,
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 5: Seattle gave up 33 to Mariota. You know, I was like, ah. Yeah,
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 5: he had a good game, but it really wasn't that
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 5: bad of a defensive performance under the circumstances. It wasn't
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 5: their best, but it really wasn't as bad as it looks.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 3: They gave up 258 total yards. You give up less
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 3: than 300 yards to a team, you should be winning
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 3: most of the time, but turnovers and what that negative
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 3: EPA was, as we talked about, was a big part
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 3: of that game. Short fields or a pick six came
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 3: into play.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 4: Great stuff, Mike. Talk to you next week, my friend.
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you.
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 3: That's Mike Sando. He'll be on later this week with
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 3: the morning show as well with Chuck and Anders. So
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 3: make sure you tune in. I think it's Thursday as
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 3: he comes on with those guys. So great stuff from Mike.
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 3: But yeah, the story he wrote last week is very
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 3: much a must read. Very good stuff by Mike Sando. Okay,
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 3: we'll take a quick break.
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 4: Come back.
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 3: We've got Factor Fiction coming up. In addition to that,
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 3: we've got text. We've got a lot of text. I
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 3: don't know if we have talkbacks.
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 4: Probably. But we've got a lot of text. A lot
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 4: of angry text today. It's an angry text day on
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 4: a Monday.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 2: 93.3 KDRFM.