Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Chad Brown previews Super Bowl LX, Being an "alum" of both franchises, Key matchups + more

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Chad Brown previews Super Bowl LX, Being an "alum" of both franchises, Key matchups + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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Speaker 1: Chad Brown, former Colorade of Buffalo, former New England Patriot,
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Speaker 1: former Seattle Seahawk. The Venn diagram of people who have
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Speaker 1: played for both of those teams and are now ready
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Speaker 1: to talk about it in sports media. It's a small group,
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Speaker 1: and we're lucky enough to welcome one of the all
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Speaker 1: time Buffs legends to the show again on the Sean
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Speaker 1: O'Connell Show.
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Speaker 2: Chad, welcome back. How are you.
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Speaker 3: I'm fantastic, Sean. How are you, my friend?
0:24
Speaker 2: I'm doing great, man.
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Speaker 1: I don't know if you heard my preamble there, but
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Speaker 1: we just had Eric wedelon and we were talking to
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Speaker 1: him about the specifics of how he thought New England
0:34
Speaker 1: should try to slow down Jackson Smith and Jigba And
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Speaker 1: you would not have drawn this duty as a big
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Speaker 1: body linebacker, But how would you like to see the
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Speaker 1: defensive backs and your defensive coordinator approach somebody like JSN.
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Speaker 3: Well, there's a couple of different philosophies you can go to.
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Speaker 3: You can go with the you know Bill Belichick, Well,
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Speaker 3: we can do w all over the field. We're going
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Speaker 3: to make sure that if you find way to beat us,
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Speaker 3: it's not going to be with that guy. So to
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Speaker 3: be able to have a underneath coverage and a safety
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Speaker 3: on top obviously would be a way to do that.
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Speaker 3: That way, then you can put your best cornerback on
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Speaker 3: the second best targets. You're kind of eliminating the number
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Speaker 3: one threat and the number two threat. From a linebacker perspective,
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Speaker 3: I certainly would have a responsibility in that as well.
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Speaker 3: So my ability if he's going to line up in
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Speaker 3: the slot to as an outside linebacker, to get on
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Speaker 3: top of him and who rouse him and get him
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Speaker 3: off his spot. If I can make him move three
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Speaker 3: or four yards from his original alignment as he's trying
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Speaker 3: to get around me to get into his route, some
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Speaker 3: of the timing between him and Sam Doronald is affected.
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Speaker 3: And so with that pass rush, being able to get
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Speaker 3: the Sambuella an extra second or two could actually matter there.
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Speaker 3: And if those guys aren't exactly in the spot where
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Speaker 3: they expect each other to be, then that connection is
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Speaker 3: not going to be as strong. So there's a number
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Speaker 3: of ways you can approach this, and I'm assuming that
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Speaker 3: Mike Rabel and that the defensive staff in New England
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Speaker 3: are looking at all these different angles. They just don't
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Speaker 3: want to show Sam Donald one thing. They're going to
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Speaker 3: try to show him multiple things.
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Speaker 2: Let's talk about Sam Donald.
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Speaker 1: If he can pull this off, if he can help
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Speaker 1: lead this Seattle team to a super Bowl championship. It's
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Speaker 1: one of the great kind of turnaround stories of the
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Speaker 1: recent history in the NFL. A guy that got drafted
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Speaker 1: to an organization that typically doesn't treat quarterbacks all that
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Speaker 1: well in terms of their success. And then even after
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Speaker 1: he moved on from there, I mean he was with
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Speaker 1: the Niners as a backup. He won games in Minnesota,
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Speaker 1: and Minnesota still decided they needed to move on from him.
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Speaker 1: If Sam Donald can pull this off in Seattle, is
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Speaker 1: there a lesson for the NFL, a lesson for draft
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Speaker 1: stories like his? If he can make it happen.
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Speaker 3: Now, I think it shouldn't be surprising that sometimes quarterbacks
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Speaker 3: need a good situation around them. So you talk about
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Speaker 3: him being drafted to the Jets, and the Jets honestly
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Speaker 3: weren't very good organizationally. They haven't been very in a
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Speaker 3: long time, so we don't want to you know, haven't
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Speaker 3: been in the playoff game. So the thought that yes,
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Speaker 3: we aren't very good at let's drafted quarterback with our
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Speaker 3: number one pick and cuddenly everything is going to be better.
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Speaker 3: I think that's a ridiculous notion. You've got to juild
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Speaker 3: up the organization around these young quarterbacks. You're almost an
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Speaker 3: impossible task to ask these young guys to come in
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Speaker 3: and be able to deal with being in the franchise
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Speaker 3: face of the franchise. But also, you don't have a
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Speaker 3: pretty good offensive line, your skill persision, guys are not
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Speaker 3: exactly meeting the level you need to be successful. And
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Speaker 3: yet we move on from these guys and say it's
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Speaker 3: all his fault. It's a lesson that the NFL should
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Speaker 3: have more patience with your quarterbacks, particularly when you invest
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Speaker 3: so much draft capital to get them in the first
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Speaker 3: three or four or five picks.
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Speaker 1: We do treat Super Bowl wins as a quarterback stat,
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Speaker 1: even though the NFL is the ultimate team game. As
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Speaker 1: someone who played the game as well and as long
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Speaker 1: as you did, how do you approach that because it
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Speaker 1: is one of the things where you separate the week
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Speaker 1: from the chaff and where you find the elite versus
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Speaker 1: the just just pretty good. How do you, as a
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Speaker 1: player who knows all of the ins and outs, approach
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Speaker 1: that quarterback? You got to win a Super Bowl to
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Speaker 1: be truly great conversation.
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Speaker 3: Well, I think the truly greats do find a way
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Speaker 3: to overcome some shortcomings. The amount of offensive structures of
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Speaker 3: Tom Brady was able to make successful in New England.
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Speaker 3: When you first won a first couple of Super Bowls,
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Speaker 3: they were defensive and run oriented teams. Then they went
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Speaker 3: to a phase they had the two tight ends when
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Speaker 3: Gronk and hernandez I was there in six and seven
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Speaker 3: when it was Wes Welker and Randy Moss. So a
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Speaker 3: great quarterback is going to be that rising tide that
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Speaker 3: lifts all boats outside of a couple of guys in
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Speaker 3: Peyton Manning's keen here from a Colt perspective, fun off
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Speaker 3: of the line was never really great, but Bayden was
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Speaker 3: always going to be in the right play. He was
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Speaker 3: always going to get the ball out of his hand quickly,
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Speaker 3: so he was able to overcome some deficiency that other
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Speaker 3: quarterbacks may not have been able to operate with. Now,
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Speaker 3: having said all that, those are the truly truly great.
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Speaker 3: But if you're you know, I've also been a teammate
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Speaker 3: of Trent Dolpher, who won a Super Bowl with the
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Speaker 3: Baltimore Ravens. And so if we're going to somehow discount
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Speaker 3: Dan Moreno's greatness because he never hoisted the Lombardi Trophy
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Speaker 3: and elevate Trent Dilfer because he did, that would not
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Speaker 3: be an accurate nor true telling of the facts about
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Speaker 3: their skill sets or their greatness.
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Speaker 1: Chad Brown, as our guest here on the Sean O'Connell Show,
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Speaker 1: former Seahawk, former Patriot, I think I've heard you answer
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Speaker 1: this question already, but I've got to ask it for
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Speaker 1: our audience. Is there a particular rooting interest for you
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Speaker 1: given the fact that you have connections to both of
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Speaker 1: these franchises.
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Speaker 3: I mean, at this point, it's been so far to
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Speaker 3: move since I got in the paycheck from either of
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Speaker 3: these teams. I don't necessarily root any for anybody outside
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Speaker 3: of the Colorado Buffalo's and the John Muir High School
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Speaker 3: Muddy Muddy Bustangs. All my teams that I played with,
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Speaker 3: the Steelers, Seahawks, and the Patriots, there's been tremendous turnover
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Speaker 3: obviously since I was there. There's very few connections who
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Speaker 3: were there when I was there. But for the case
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Speaker 3: of the Patriots, obviously was to share a linebacker room
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Speaker 3: with Mike Rabel, so I've got a great connection with him.
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Speaker 3: But I've got great connections with guys on the Seahawks
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Speaker 3: as well, So I know front office people, I know
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Speaker 3: guys who are now coaches. So I just wish my
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Speaker 3: best for all those guys to somehow put their best
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Speaker 3: together in this most important game of the season so
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Speaker 3: they can walk away with no regrets. You may not
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Speaker 3: be necessarily happy with the way things turned out, but
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Speaker 3: I want you to put together such a great game
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Speaker 3: or a great game plan that you feel no regrets
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Speaker 3: and relate it all on the line out there. That's
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Speaker 3: my only ask for these friends of mine.
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Speaker 1: You mentioned Mike Rabel, and neither of the head coaches
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Speaker 1: in this game are particularly long tenured, either as head
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Speaker 1: coaches or at their current spot. But of course Rabel
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Speaker 1: has plenty of Super Bowl caliber success as a player.
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Speaker 1: And I will admit to falling back on the lazy
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Speaker 1: tropes as a media member and just saying like, oh, yeah,
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Speaker 1: this guy's got experience in the playoffs, and well, you
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Speaker 1: got to have been there to really know, Chad.
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Speaker 2: I wasn't in the NFL. I don't know.
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Speaker 1: Does it translate from player experience and knowing what this
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Speaker 1: game is like, knowing what these two weeks of preparation
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Speaker 1: are like. Can you use that to help your team
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Speaker 1: If you're Mike Rabel, I think.
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Speaker 3: You can't because you've gone through it multiple times. If
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Speaker 3: the Mike Rabel so his ability to relate his playing
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Speaker 3: experience to his guys run of the guy we're going
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Speaker 3: to win and lose the game out there on the field,
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Speaker 3: I think it's critically important. Now he's got a great
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Speaker 3: number of coaches who he played for or played with,
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Speaker 3: who he can refer back to for the coaching aspect
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Speaker 3: of things. You know, he was drafted to Pittsburgh Steelers
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Speaker 3: as I was real Cowers got super Bowl experience. Clearly,
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Speaker 3: Bill Belichick's got that. Josh McDaniels, who you know is
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Speaker 3: his offensive coordinator, has been there for those Patriots super bowls.
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Speaker 3: So he's not going to be lacking from the player experience,
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Speaker 3: nor from what it's like to be a coach and
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Speaker 3: how the best execute the extra week, how do you
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Speaker 3: take advantage of that all those small pieces of the
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Speaker 3: puzzle that you need to do. And they're talking to
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Speaker 3: Bill Kaller about Super Bowl preparation. He always talked about
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Speaker 3: it's such a long week that he wanted to hold
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Speaker 3: back certain aspects of the game plan for getting down
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Speaker 3: to the host city. And you know, getting the guys
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Speaker 3: re excited and reinvigorated by having a couple of trick
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Speaker 3: that you wanted to insert into the game plan that
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Speaker 3: may not even be called during the game, but just
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Speaker 3: to get the guy excited and re engaged with it.
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Speaker 3: So it's not just here's another meeting, here's the same
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Speaker 3: game plan we used all year long. Let's have something new,
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Speaker 3: fresh and interesting. Bill Cowell always talks about.
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Speaker 1: That it's been a particularly dramatic year in the coaching carousel,
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Speaker 1: and you talked about turnover, even the Steelers, even your
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Speaker 1: former team, the Steelers finally had some turnover, which is
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Speaker 1: not characteristic of that organization. Uh, when you look at
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Speaker 1: all the turnover and the coordinators and especially the head
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Speaker 1: coaches that have been hired, is there one situation that's
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Speaker 1: going to draw your attention more than others because of
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Speaker 1: either who got pushed out or who got hired.
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Speaker 3: Well, we're you know, we're seeing this continuation of if
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Speaker 3: you coach with Kyle Shanahan or you coach with Shong
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Speaker 3: with a suddenly you are feels like you're just next
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Speaker 3: in line to be an NFL head coach. So, whether
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Speaker 3: we're talking about Clint Kubiak most likely leaving the Seahawks
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Speaker 3: and going to the Raiders, when we're talking about Lafleur
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Speaker 3: going to the Cardinals, that's a very interesting way to
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Speaker 3: go about the process if I'm going to judge it
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Speaker 3: from the outside. And of course I've got college teammates
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Speaker 3: an Airpianemy or Advance Joseph who have proven themselves as
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Speaker 3: play callers on both sides of the ball. For these guys,
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Speaker 3: and I think they both deserve head coaching opportunities. So
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Speaker 3: rather than focus on maybe one guy, I think this
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Speaker 3: hiring process is a bit flawed. And obviously it's skews
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Speaker 3: to some of these younger guys who have again coach
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Speaker 3: with Shanahan or McVeigh. That doesn't necessarily make you ready
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Speaker 3: to be a leader of men. I'm not sure how
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Speaker 3: that equation stacks up for these owners, but for me,
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Speaker 3: it just feels very short sighted and it doesn't actually
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Speaker 3: give the team the best chance for success. Jess because
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Speaker 3: somebody coached with someone else, did you.
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Speaker 2: Ever play for a coach younger than you.
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Speaker 3: Bill Cower was thirty four when he got that Pittsburgh
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Speaker 3: Steelers job. Of course I was a rookie, so he
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Speaker 3: was older than me. So No, Mike Homgran, Dennis Erickson,
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Speaker 3: Bill Belichick, all these head coaches were you know, definitely
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Speaker 3: into their tower within his forties by the time I
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Speaker 3: got No. No, he was in his late thirties by
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Speaker 3: time I got there. But Belichick, Holmgren, and Erickson were
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Speaker 3: definitely older guys. I did have position coaches who were younger,
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Speaker 3: and sometimes that was great because we could relate on
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Speaker 3: a younger person's level. But other times it just felt like,
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Speaker 3: you know, you didn't have quite enough skins on the
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Speaker 3: wall to be telling me what to do and asking
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Speaker 3: me to run down the field and hit somebody full
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Speaker 3: speed with my face.
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Speaker 1: That's why I asked the question, because we're seeing like
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Speaker 1: these now. It's getting younger and younger and younger. We're
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Speaker 1: seeing thirty one year olds being elevated to coordinator positions
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Speaker 1: and things like that. And I know that the league
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Speaker 1: is a young man's league as well, but there's plenty
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Speaker 1: of guys in this NFL that are in their early
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Speaker 1: and mid thirties that I don't know, again because I've
12:17
Speaker 1: never been in the NFL.
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Speaker 2: But it's like, what are you going to tell you?
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Speaker 2: How are you gonna tell me? Kid?
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Speaker 1: Like, how I'm supposed to be doing my job when
12:25
Speaker 1: you probably have never done the job at my level
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Speaker 1: and you weren't even born when I started doing the job.
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Speaker 2: Maybe.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's an interesting, you know, subset of the NFL,
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Speaker 3: these these younger coaches, And I often think the process
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Speaker 3: of some of these guys who didn't play in the NFL.
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Speaker 3: They maybe played in college, and as soon as college
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Speaker 3: was done, they were able to jump onto their dad's
12:53
Speaker 3: staff and work their way up. While that certainly gives
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Speaker 3: them this schematic knowledge, I mean x's and o's that
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Speaker 3: are needed to be an NFL coach, there's also I
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Speaker 3: think a disconnect there has to the struggle that a
13:08
Speaker 3: lot of the players go through to get to the NFL.
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Speaker 3: Because life has been great for them. They what to college,
13:13
Speaker 3: meate or had in an NFL job as soon as
13:16
Speaker 3: they were done in college. And so again, I know
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Speaker 3: the NFL is trending towards younger coaches, and I feel
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Speaker 3: like I sound like an old man, which get off
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Speaker 3: my law and moments. But I think there is something
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Speaker 3: to a guy who's battled Justine as the head coach,
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Speaker 3: who've seen it all and can relate that to you
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Speaker 3: and somebody who maybe has played in the league and
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Speaker 3: relate what it's like. Going back to our conversation a
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Speaker 3: bit to go about Mike Rabel, what it's like to
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Speaker 3: play in the Super Bowl, what's the daylight? How do
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Speaker 3: you handle all that? How do you handle your marriage?
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Speaker 3: In the first couple of quarters. These guys can't speak
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Speaker 3: to that. They've never been in those shoes.
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Speaker 2: Before.
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Speaker 1: I let you go back to the super Bowl itself.
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Speaker 1: Do you have a prediction on the game.
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Speaker 3: I think it's going to be an incredibly close game.
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Speaker 3: I know folks are discounting the Patriots offense. Drake May
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Speaker 3: sacked fifteen times in the first three playoff games. They've
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Speaker 3: been fairly ineffective, not to play some really good defenses,
14:17
Speaker 3: but the offense really has less one to be desired.
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Speaker 3: But I think you give Mike Braybell and Josh mcdangas
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Speaker 3: two weeks to prepare for somebody, they're going to dial
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Speaker 3: up some things that are going to be successful and
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Speaker 3: Sam Donald on the Seahawks side, his ability to be
14:32
Speaker 3: good Sam, and we saw in the championship game, or
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Speaker 3: is it going to be bad Sam, which we saw
14:37
Speaker 3: last year in Minnesota l agent the season, and we saw
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Speaker 3: a few times this year with the Seahawks. I think
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Speaker 3: the game plan that they dropped to drinke Maye with
14:46
Speaker 3: the Patriots, what Sam Donald shows up, those are going
14:50
Speaker 3: to be the two deciding factors in this game. So
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Speaker 3: in the end, I've got a close game. If it's
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Speaker 3: a one score game and it's seven minutes left, oh
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Speaker 3: my goodness. The Patriots are excellent at finding ways to
15:02
Speaker 3: manipulate situations and find ways to win close games. The Seahawks,
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Speaker 3: if they're able to get on top and use momentum
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Speaker 3: and maybe some in some ways, they're superior challenge to
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Speaker 3: drive them forward, they can find ways to win this
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Speaker 3: game as well. I don't necessarily have a prediction other
15:19
Speaker 3: than I expected to be close at the end. Chad.
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Speaker 1: I appreciate your time, especially I know you're traveling and
15:27
Speaker 1: it's not an ideal travel day and that's always stressful
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Speaker 1: and whatnot.
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Speaker 2: So thank you very much for joining us today. Enjoy
15:33
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl. Thanks for your time.
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Speaker 3: Well, I'm happy to be on with you, my friend.
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Speaker 3: Talk to you soon.
15:38
Speaker 1: Chad Brown former buff former Steeler, former Seahawk, former Patriot,
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Speaker 1: longtime NFL linebacker, and now NFL and college football analysts