Countdown to Kickoff: One More Week Until Seahawks vs Patriots

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brandan (00:09):
Welcome to the Sea Hawkers Podcast.
I'm your host Brandan Schulze, andtonight, as we are a week out of the game
against the New England Patriots, thekickoff for the 2026 NFL season, I am
joined by a couple of my good buddies.
We've got Clinton Bonner, andwe've got managing editor of

(00:30):
Field Gulls, Mookie Alexander.
Mookie, welcome to the show.

Mookie (00:34):
Yeah, it's, it's good to be on.
Man, it just feels weird to saythat next week, next Wednesday…
I, I, I know that the NFL istrying to take over every day
of the week, but Wednesday NightFootball just doesn't sound right.
But Seahawks football beingback, that sounds perfect.
I mean, who are we to complain thatthe Seahawks get to start their season
a day earlier than they normallywould as Super Bowl champions?

Brandan (00:54):
Right.
Well, Clinton, it's because, we havethe, Los Angeles Rams who were taking
over f- Thursday, and, my audio'sfreaking out, so you take over, buddy.

Clinton (01:06):
Yeah, yeah.
It- I was about to say, this take-yeah, it's a little messed up, yes.
So Mookie, when the, when the NFL cameout with this Australia game, and they
put the Niners and the Rams out there, andthen they were like, "Oh, that's gonna be
the Thursday game," I mean, it, it was…
The disrespect started very early,very early, but we put our foot down.
We get the Wednesday game.
We keep the tradition because if youwin the Super Bowl, not just handed a

(01:30):
fake Super Bowl, not just assumed you'regonna win the next Super Bowl, Mookie.
When you actually win the Super Bowl,y- you know, winners get sprinkles.
Our Seahawks are indeed winners.
And yeah, I mean, the Wednesdaynight thing's a little odd, and
I just wonder if it's gonna playinto any of the, the energy.
You know, are people ready?
Like, I, I think I'mready, but are like…

(01:52):
Do you think people will be like,the 12s be fully geared up and fully
ready because it is a kind of an oddevening for a Wednesday night game.

Mookie (02:01):
Yeah, it, it, it's gonna be fascinating to see how, how the
the atmosphere is like because NewEngland j- they beat them in the Super
Bowl, cool, but if it was a differentopponent, I wonder if the atmosphere
would be even more hyper-charged.
Like imagine- Mm… if it was theimmediately the Rams on opening night.

Clinton (02:15):
Yeah

Mookie (02:16):
yeah.
That might be the biggest openingnight game that the NFL has, has had
in, in God knows how long, maybe ever,because of how thrilling all three
Seahawks-Rams games were last year.
But the other way I look at it, if theSeahawks had lost the NFC Championship
and then the Rams beat up the Patriotsin the Super Bowl, there might have
been a chance they would've put theSeahawks and Niners in Australia instead.

Clinton (02:37):
Mm-hmm.

Mookie (02:37):
And Seattle would've been playing on Netflix, and I would've had
to finally subscribe to them-… i-in order to watch Burt Crusher take his
shirt off for, for no particular reason,just do it in another country, and then
be upset that the Seahawks are beingmade to travel halfway around the world.
So I like the, the alternatereality, the actual reality-

Clinton (02:55):
Yes

… Mookie (02:55):
of Seattle getting to host opening night against New England.
Honestly, they weren't my top choice.
I would've liked to playChicago first, just- I

Clinton (03:03):
thought that was gonna be the game too, man.
When…
There was so many.
We're playing, you, you mentionedlast time we chatted, we're playing
a lot of good quarterbacks this year.
Just you play Mahomes, youplay Dak, you play, you, you…
We're playing Caleb, andthere's several others.
I thought with Chicago's juice and theirrun down the stretch, and they pl- they
played pretty darn well in the playoffs.
They, they almost won that second game.

(03:24):
And I thought for sure it was gonnabe Chicago at Seattle, and I was
kinda shocked that they went with thePatriots, especially with the off-season
that the Patriots had off the field.

Mookie (03:35):
Yeah, you know, my, my wonder about why they had New England as the
immediate opponents, the, the, the SuperBowl rematch right away, is because of how
easy New England's schedule was last year.
Mm-hmm.
They, they didn't wanna hedge…
They didn't wanna risk that gamebeing put in, like, week nine or 10 or
something, and it turns out New Englandwas a schedule merchant last year, so
you might as well do it right away.

(03:57):
And it is, it, it is a different match-up.
New England has got some high-profileadditions to their offense, and the
Seahawks had some high-profile departureson offense, and mostly defense.
So, it, it is not gonna be theexact same game just for those reasons.
Seattle's gonna have, youknow, a different starting running
back, Super Bowl MVP's gone.
New England's gonna havedifferent top two wide receivers.

(04:17):
they're, they're not gonna have,you know, Ja- Jared Wilson playing at
guard, they're gonna have him at center.
So it's still fascinating for, for,for different reasons to see- Yeah
… what, what happens this go around.
I mean, we're, we're aware of theSuper Bowl rematch from the last
time, when Seattle played Denver,blew 'em out in, in the Meadowlands.
And then the next year they play 'em in, Ithink, week three, and it was a very, very

(04:41):
different game- Mm… because the Broncoswere able to, to peck away at Seattle's
defense toward the end, only for,Russ and Marshawn to put 'em to bed.
But that's probably the game that the NFLactually hoped would happen, and maybe
that's what happens in this game, whereit's more competitive, it's closer, but
in the end the Seahawks still win andprove themselves as the rightful champs.

Brandan (04:59):
Well, you know, how do we- Do you really believe it's gonna
be more competitive though, Mookie?

Mookie (05:03):
It's hard for it to be less competitive.
I mean, that was a verydeceiving 29 to 13 score line.
Like, if Seattle's- That's true… redzone offense had, had fixed itself
during the game, they, they could'vedropped 40-something on them, so.

Clinton (05:16):
Oh, or if Gonzo didn't make, you know, two probably saving
touchdown, defe- pass PBUs,that game was, had blowout…
It was blowout anyway.
But Brandan, you, are you fully back?
You feeling good?

Brandan (05:27):
I, I feel great.

Clinton (05:28):
You feel great?
Okay, good.
Yeah.

Mookie (05:29):
Okay.
So, so robot Brandan is gone.

Clinton (05:31):
Yeah.
Which is, which is nice.
And I know we got other topics to talkwith Mookie about as well, Brandan, so
I don't know where you wanna take it,but, but I've got some takes as well on
this, this Pats-Seahawks game coming up.
But, you know, we had a plan, and thenof course you get punched in the, punched
in the face by robot, Brandan.
Where do you wanna take us, buddy?

Brandan (05:47):
well, yeah, let's start off, b- before we get more into the
game with the Patriots, why don't wetalk a little bit about where we are
with the Seahawks roster, Mookie,because we had the cut down to 53/70.
And, howare you feeling overall?
Like wh- when you look at this roster,do you have any major concerns?

(06:07):
And don't say Jason Myers because-… we, I think we're all concerned
about Jason Myers right now.

Mookie (06:13):
Yeah, so on offense, I don't really have any concerns.
Th- there's depth at everyposition, a- at least three deep.
at wide receiver, depending onwhat happens with Torrey Horton.
tight end we know is gonnabe strong and maybe stronger with
the way Elijah Arroyo has performedthroughout camp and preseason.
You're gonna have the same startingoffensive line as last year.
Sam Darnold's gonna still be there.

(06:34):
We get to see Mr.
Price and, and finally get to see himin, in live game action instead of
in training camp reps, of which therewere very few for the public to see.
so the offense I'm not concernedabout from a roster standpoint.
Defensively is a little different.
Ed Russian group is, is good withoutit being super strong, and you have
to keep in mind that this is the lastyear for DeMarcus Lawrence and Donte

(06:58):
Fowler has, has kind of been a, ajourneyman at this stage of his career.
And while I expect him to at leastmatch Boye Mafe's production
it's not a total guarantee.
as far as the secondary, that's,that's gonna be interesting because
at cornerback you know it's gonnabe Joe Witherspoon and Pritchett.
I think Pritchett did wellenough to kind of lock down some
playing time to start the year.

(07:19):
After that, it's anybody's guess.
They trade for, for Avery Smith, theundrafted rookie from, Toledo, and
so they give up a six to the Chargers.
Trevon Diggs is, is waitingin the wings on the ready squad
to see i- if he needs a…
He said on Hard Knocks he thinks heneeds a couple of weeks to ramp up.
Mm-hmm.
So I'm wondering if we're gonna seehim get some elevations, game day

(07:39):
elevations during the season, and thenat some point week five or six-ish
they decide we're just gonna assignyou directly to the active roster.
But needless to say, replacing RickWhelan as that sort of, I know it's
easy to say CB3, but if you look atthe stat counts that he had and Josh
Jobe had, it's almost like it was 2A

Clinton (07:58):
2B.
Mm-hmm.

Mookie (07:58):
In the same way that Charbonnet Walker was 1A, 1B.
So we'll see how those,those snaps get allocated.
Riq Woolen snaps that is,get allocated under this new defense.
And then safety Whoknows about Nick Emmanwori?
I think he's gonna play.
I mean, Hard Knocks did a very goodjob of, of kind of, calming us
down as far as how his rehab is going,but I don't like hearing how his

(08:19):
ankle's still sore, you know, that deepinto preseason as far as practicing.
but they- there's definitely a, asituation where I think they're gonna
have to either elevate or straight promotesomebody to active roster from the ready
squad, in the longer term, whetherit's Rodney Thomas, AJ Finley, or Maxen
Hook, 'cause you can't really rollwith three safeties the whole season.

(08:41):
Right.
Meaning Okada, Love, and Iman Worley.
Iman Worley is, is basically he,he's a safety by name, and then
when you watch him play, he's,he's pretty much a linebacker.
so I, I, I think that they'regonna be, still tinkering there.
The Bud Clark injury just changedso much with that safety room.
Yeah
that, that definitely was a,was a real bummer, the biggest

(09:03):
bummer of preseason for me.
Overall, this roster is, is still great.
Is it as sexy as the Rams roster?
Not really, but I will take Seattle's topto bottom over the Rams' top to bottom.
As far as the Rams, like one through22, when you look at the offense
and defense, all the big names,that's a different conversation.
But when you're talking about depth,which is what helped carry the Seahawks

(09:25):
through last season, it's still Seattle

Brandan (09:28):
It's interesting though that your mind goes more toward the
concerns on defense, because with headcoach Mike Macdonald leading us to a
Super Bowl, like, it feels like moreof the turnover to be concerned about
is with, the, the new offensivecoordinator, and, you know, not really
having a, a solid idea on the run game.

(09:49):
But, you know, maybe, maybe you're justmore of the mind of, hey, put anybody
back there as long as the offensiveline, continues to do what they do.
It, it…
Who's toting the rockdoesn't matter so much.

Mookie (10:00):
I think it will matter to an extent.
I'm not sure.
I know George Holani's listed asRB1 on the unofficial depth chart
and I have to say that almostlike it's a, a sponsorship read.
It's the unofficial depth chart.

Brandan (10:11):
Sure.

Mookie (10:11):
so I, I

Brandan (10:13):
expect Holani- But, but strangely everybody is in the right spot.

Mookie (10:15):
Yes.
just about everybody'sin the right spot.
I imagine Holani's gonna get a goodset of carries throughout the, the
first few weeks of the season if forone thing, even if he's not an every
down back in the sense that I don'tthink he's a, the type of back who
who merits, like, 15 or 20 carries agame, he is by far the best protec- pass
protecting back on this roster right now.
and Jadarian Price, he's a workin progress there, and getting to

(10:39):
see it, the one practice that Pricewas there and I was there, I can
see him getting coached up a lot byThomas Hammock over on the sideline
as far as his working on his pass pro.
So, Price will get hiscarries, no doubt about it.
he is essentially the homerun hitter on this team in theory.
Emmanuel Wilson will get a few toucheshere and there, but I, I'm, I'm bullish

(11:00):
on the offense being better than lastyear, and the offense last year was good.

Clinton (11:03):
Mm.

Mookie (11:03):
Very good at times, but there were some inconsistencies toward
the end of the season where I go, whendefense is adjusted to not playing
light box, you know, not selling outto stop the run, and then keying in on
JSN a little bit more, we saw some uglymoments on, on the offensive side of
the ball where if they weren't gettingshort fields, they weren't scoring.
So, or, or they were kicking fieldgoals instead of getting touchdowns.

(11:26):
So I think that Brian Fleury, mighthave some growing pains as a play caller.
There's gonna be a lot about sequencingto me more than play concepts.
Ultimately, though, he's gonnakeep a lot of the Kubiak stuff.
I'm curious to see what happens with,the wrinkles in his version of, of the
offense, and Sam Darnold I think is poisedto be even better than he was last year.
So the offense I don't reallyhave big concerns about.

(11:48):
I just hope that their non-playaction passing, the straight drop back
game, is smoother than last year's.
That's where I think Kubiakfell a little bit short.
Defensively is wheremore people were lost.
Like, you lose Reek, you lose KobeBryant, and you lose Boye Mafe.
So those are the three.
It's more the secondary for me andwhether or not- You know, can, can the
Reek snaps be replaced effectively?

(12:11):
And then with Coby, it's, it'sless about him being like this
super, super key contributor.
He's a very valuable player for Seattlethose last couple of, seasons.
But Ty Okada as a full-time starter, as well as he played last
year, he was still just a, a sub.
So now he's the unquestionedstarter, and there's no real backup
for him at the, at the moment, asopposed to like maybe Bud Clark gets

(12:31):
some, you know, sub package looks.
So I, I'm very interested to see whathappens at the back end and how that
affects things in Macdonald's defense.
I'm sure Macdonald will find a way, buty- you still have to have the bodies.

Clinton (12:43):
Mookie laid a lot out there, so I wanna go kind of around
the horn a little bit with it,meaning around what he laid out.
So first thing for me with the,the roster itself is you mentioned
Mookie, that, you know, Delaw is gonnaretire, or he says he's gonna retire.
And we're a little long in the toothalong the parts of the defensive line, and
then the edge group is not a young group.

(13:04):
I was kinda shocked that we letJamie Sheriff leave the building.
the guy could do a thing,and that's rush the passer.
And he can mix bull rush with gettingaround, getting around the edge
with just, just some speed, andhe was still a work in progress.
He's… I, you know, I think he signedwith the Rams o- on their practice
squad, so see what happens there.
Another one was DeAnthony Bell.
We got some depth problems atsa- well, challenges at safety.

(13:26):
We don't know about problems.
And they l- let a guy go who did a job,you know, who did a, did a pretty damn
… So much so that they gave him a ring afterhe was claimed by Carolina and got ousted.
They were like, "You know what?
You still deserve a ring."
so tho- those are some interestingchoices for me that I… I mean
hey, they know the room better than Ido, but I didn't love those choices.
Flipping it to the offensive side,I always like to see, even though

(13:48):
it's week one, I like to startlooking at what does Vegas think?
I don't mean the VegasRaiders, I mean Vegas, Vegas.
What do they think about who'sgonna get the most yards, right?
So I was looking at this this morning.
They actually got, JadarianPrice as the, the most likely to get
the most yards in the entire game.
So that would include, you know,Rhamondre, if Trey Henderson's healthy

(14:08):
it includes any, any other Seahawk.
And his over-under was like 51and a half yards rushing, which
would lead the game actually.
So just interesting that theirVegas thinks that, Jadarian
will actually be basically RB one.
Maybe not the first dude to get the firsttouch, but Brandan, they're saying
when it all compiles at the end of theday, Price might be the guy that is

(14:30):
is carrying the day for our Seahawks.

Brandan (14:32):
Yeah.
Might be a good tip there forGambling Goat, who is in chat
saying, "Is Wilson healthy?"
Mm.
If he is, I'd assume he'd be RB one dueto what I've heard during training camp.
And based off of…
It seemed like- We were hearing differentthings throughout training camp because
a little bit of Wilson, y- basedon the depth chart, a little bit of

(14:55):
Holani, especially when the final, 53 came out and he was listed as RB1.
But they made an interesting decision,Mookie, of not really playing any
starters throughout the preseason.
And when it, that also included Ja-Jadarian Price, it made you think

(15:15):
and, and it kind of led to that ideaof, okay, well maybe they've seen
enough to where he is elevated to thatlevel, they don't wanna see him get
hurt along with all the other startersthat they're keeping out of camp.

Mookie (15:27):
Yeah, and then when you see Buck Clark get injured the same
week that Macdonald said, "We've,we've al-" or he might not have said
it, Greg Bell reported it, that we'veseen enough of, of Jadarian in camp and
practices to know that he can be full go.
He'll get his live repsagainst actual first teamers.
you know, oppositionfirst teamers, that is.

(15:48):
Emmanuel Wilson, from what I saw, he,he looked a little, I, I, I'd say
he looked a little faster than I thoughtbecause there is the one infamous play
of him running for, for what was likea 19-yard loss against the Vikings
in the, in the regular season finale.
And don't get me wrong, EmmanuelWilson cannot do the Kenneth Walker
he can't dance in the backfield- Mm

(16:08):
make people miss that, no.
He, he's a very much aone-cut north/south guy.
or if it's a outside zoneplay, he can follow his blockers
and then get up the field.
If you see him dancing in thebackfield, we have got an issue a-
and I'd just rather burn that play.
but I, I think he's gonna be N-not a change of pace back, but more

(16:29):
of a guy to get the tough yards.
So Holani could get toughyards, I'm not saying he can't
but Wilson's a bigger body.
And he also seems to have soft handsout of the backfield, so he could be a
little, you know, a receiving back option.
So, y- you know, EmanuelWilson doesn't have a lot of…
It, it's funny.
With this running back room, for aslong as Charbonnet is out, there's
very little f- like proven downto down experience on the team.

(16:50):
Price is a rookie.
Holani barely has any NFL carries.
And then Emanuel Wilson, lastyear, he got the bulk of his
carries really in the starts inwhich Josh Jacobs was out injured.
So th- there's just no definitiveRB1 on this team just due
to a lack of NFL experience.
So I can understand the, the rotation thatthey're gonna have these guys go through.

(17:11):
And then when Charbonnet comes back,let's be real, Charbonnet has no
history as a running back one either.

Brandan (17:16):
Hmm.

Mookie (17:16):
There's a reason why he was splitting snaps with Walker
in the first place, instead ofjust overtaking him altogether.
So, yeah, I agree with, Dogzilla, Dogzilla rather.
that, Price Price is gonnaget the majority of the carries in
some early games, but not week one.
Yes, they're gonna kindalike ease him into it.
And it's not too dissimilar to whatSeattle did with, like, Kenneth
Walker when Rashaad Penny wasgetting the bulk of the carries

(17:39):
early, and then Penny got hurt.
So hopefully there'sno injury repeat there.
But, I, I definitely believe thatPrice is gonna be eased in, as opposed
to, like, a full throttle thing.
But this running game, I, I thinkis gonna be fascinating to watch.
I'm not saying it's gonna beas explosive as last year's
but it can be more efficient.
You know, explosive and efficient don'talways have to have to be the same thing.

(18:01):
You can be efficient but not explosive,and that to me describes somebody
like Emanuel Wilson in this offense.
He can get you, you know,five yards here and there.
He can convert third and oneby getting you two yards.
You're not gonna be relying on EmanuelWilson to get fif- a 50-yard run
whereas you could say that for JadarianPrice, maybe less so George Holani.
And I'd say Zach Charbonnet iscapable of that, even if he's not

(18:22):
as explosive as Kenneth Walker.
So running game's gonna bea big, big watch for us.
I hope we're not a three yards andcloud of dust type of offense this
year, with, a very expensivewide receiver, most expensive
receiver in the NFL on the roster.
So, what I believe, the passing game,if that improves, if they're like a top
five passing offense and they're notas reliant on Smith-Njigba, they can

(18:44):
spread it out to Shaheed, Horton, Kupp.
Spread it out to, to AJBarner, Elijah Arroyo.
Give it to the backs a few timesout of the backfield, g- have them
running actual routes instead ofcheck downs or moving out the flat.
The diversity of attack in thepassing game could make Seattle
really difficult to defend.

Brandan (19:02):
Yeah, Mookie responding to the question in chat about whether or not this
offense is gonna be more three yards anda cloud of dust type of offense this year.
And I, I would say to Doo Daddy, who'sasking that question, I, I have
to think that based off of What we'vecome to learn about Coach Mike Macdonald
and the way they ran a pretty balancedattack last year is that he still wants

(19:25):
to be the type of, have that typeof offense where they attack on the
ground, they're balanced, but they stillcontinue to hunt those explosive plays.
And I think that even with some of thethings that we've seen from even the
opening drives, even though it's notthe starters, kind of those scripted
drives, is it does seem to be that CoachFleury is, is trying to run plays that

(19:48):
then set up those explosive chunk plays.

Clinton (19:50):
I think the other piece too is, and we'll, we'll learn, w- we, and
we probably won't even learn it afterweek one, 'cause like week one last year
that was not, that was not I didn't evensay, I don't wanna think about it, but
we lost to the Niners, but it didn'tmatter at the end of the day, right?
So it wasn't, it wasn't likeevidence of what was to come.
But I think we're gonna see fairly, fairlyearly with Fleury, and this is because

(20:12):
of the way that they motion the runningbacks a lot in the Fleury offense versus
what Kubiak does, is that he generatesmore opportunities for shorter free yards.
And I, I don't know about you guys, Ilike short free yards in, in the NFL.
If you, if, if it's first down, it'slike, okay, that's a freebie of fi-
five, six yards and get you into areally good position, and then you can

(20:33):
really start, as you're saying,Brandan, sort of be a bit more aggressive
and kinda hunt for those chunk plays.
I think Fleury will do the job of, offinding ways to consistently get those
little bit of free yards, and, and oftenthat means using the running backs more
with more intent as pass catchers, whichthe Niners absolutely did a lot of

(20:55):
and Seattle did, simply did less of.
So it's, some stuff towatch for pretty early on.
I think we're gonna see it based on, youknow, based on Fleury's track record and
kinda the tree he's coming from, Mookie.

Mookie (21:08):
Yeah, definitely.
We see it with, with McCaffrey.
and of course he's the most obviousexample, as far as a, a running
back who's also a gifted receiving back.
But I'm not expecting anybodyon Seattle's roster to basically
produce like CMC, because McCaffrey'sjust, he, he's a supreme…
He's an outlier.
but the concept, the idea of gettingthe backs involved more in the passing

(21:29):
game, through actual route running,maybe isolate them against a linebacker-

Clinton (21:33):
Mm.

Mookie (21:33):
You know, get them in, get them into space, get them on a, a, a wheel
route, get them on those, one of thoseangle routes where they're fake to the
outside and then kind of slant inside.
Those are areas where I think thatFleury's gonna try and incorporate
more of that into the offense.
And yes, those free yards underneath,they matter a lot because as great
as Seattle's offense was at timeslast year, they were horrible when

(21:53):
it came to converting third and long.

Clinton (21:55):
Mm-hmm.

Mookie (21:56):
So they, they e- even, you know, with the exception of the weird
three or four times where they keptgetting touchdowns or big plays on
third and 15 give up handoffs, whenit was third and 10 plus, I believe
they were dead last in converting.
So and that's, that'snot new to Seahawks fans.
We, we've seen this many timesbefore with previous offenses and
coordinators and quarterbacks.
But if they can stay ahead of thechains, totally changes the playbook

(22:20):
changes the play calling situation.
You're not in obvious down anddistances where everybody knows you're
gonna be throwing the ball, and Ithink that also impacts Price too.
You're probably not gonna see Ja-Jadarian Price on the field if it's
third and nine, and the defense isgearing up to blitz and they see a
weak spot in the pass protection.

(22:41):
Third down and three-Very different outcome.
You could have, you couldhave two backs there.
I saw some of, of, some two backlooks with Fleury's offense as some
of the play calls with the firstteamers out there in training camp.
So it's something that they're, they'redefinitely looking to, to incorporate.
And yes, I, I do remember Clinton,week one, Clint Kubiak fooled us all

(23:03):
for a day- Yes… by running oneplay action pass the entire game.

Brandan (23:07):
It's crazy.

Mookie (23:07):
And I'm sure Macdonald was seething, as was I.
And the next week against Pittsburgh,that looked a lot more like
the offense we expected to see.
A lot of play action shots,some work in the underneath
work in the intermediate, workin the middle of the field.
so I don't think thatFleury's gonna make that same
mistake, the week one mistake.
Play action is at theheart of this offense.

(23:28):
It, it, it's what makes it flowso well, both for the passing
game and the running game.
Even when the running game struggles,the play action pass game has been so
deadly for the Seahawks, and it doesn'thave to be play action shot plays.
Mm-hmm.
It doesn't have to be a, ashot play to JSN or a dig route
to, to Shaheed or whatever.
It can be that little boot action andyou've got AJ Barner coming in on a

(23:49):
crossing route or something, gettingan underneath route and turning that
up field for, for yards after catch.
Because we know w- watching the 49ersover the years, how often they use
that with George Kittle, and justShanahan offenses in general, they
kill you with yards after catch.
Seattle finally figured out how to stopthat last year, and now the goal is for
Seattle to be a YAC monster as well.

Brandan (24:10):
We've got Johnny A in chat saying, "Hit that like button."
Yes.
Yeah.
Joining us live, please hit the like.
If you're new here, hitthe subscribe button.
And I, I do wanna get back to previewingthis matchup between the Seahawks and
the Patriots next week- Mm… Mookie.
But, you guys over at SBNation, at Field Gulls, you've got
a new phone app that I think,people are gonna wanna know about.

(24:32):
And, it's going to help people getthemselves ready for the football season.

Mookie (24:37):
Yes, we do.
If you have not heard or read thenews, then, September 1st marked
the start of the SB Nation app.
Now, I must stress that for the timebeing, this is only available to
users based in the United States,and we are hoping that over the
weeks and months to come, that itwill launch, it'll be available
for download, around the world.

(24:58):
Certainly, Canada would be anobvious place to, to launch next.
But SB Nation, if you wanna see FieldGulls, Lookout Landing if you're a
Mariners fan, Blazers Edge ifyou're a Portland Trail Blazers fan
regrettably like me, or UW Dog Poundi- if you're a Washington Huskies fan.
If you wanna just go browse all ofthose SB Nation communities, instead

(25:21):
of going on your browser on your phoneand having to type in the URL every
time and have it drain your batterylike crazy, you have the option on
the SB Nation app to just follow allthose communities, swipe right, swipe
right, swipe right or swipe back left.
so if you just followField Gulls, that's fine.
You can see when, when Sea Hawkershas podcast episodes that they

(25:41):
have up on, on, on the site.
You'll be able to see that.
it, it's, it's really, it's a gamechanger for us at SB Nation and at Field
Goals, especially with the ease ofuse, the fact that there are push
notifications now for every comment,that, that happens in a post that you make
or if somebody replies to your comment.

(26:02):
I, I can't say whether or notwe will have push notifications
for when new articles come out, butthat's a feature that I'm, I'm sure
is gonna be requested and I thinkthat they would gladly implement it.
We'll see about that.
But, definitelydownload the SB Nation app.
It is available on both the AppleStore and, at Google Play I
believe for, for Android users.

Brandan (26:22):
Yep.

Mookie (26:22):
And it's free.
Must stress that heavily that it is free.
There are no in-app purchases.
and another thing a- as far as joiningthe Field Gulls community, it is as simple
as just having an email address, username,and a password, and you're all good to go.
So definitely check out the SB Nation app.
It is a lifesaver as far as wanting tojust hang out with your fellow Seahawks

(26:44):
fans or Huskies fans or Mariners fansor in the case of Clinton, Mets fans.
And, the comments section on gameday is gonna be awesome because we have a
revamped, improved live game chat feature.
So like how these comments are populatingin real time over on YouTube or on
Twitter, on Facebook or wherever this isbeing streamed, that is what also applies

(27:05):
on the SB Nation app over at Field Gulls.
You even have a notification halfhour before kickoff of every Seahawks
game that when it's game time,there's gonna be a little live button.
You can hop in and there'llbe live mode that's turned on
but you can also toggle it off.
And, for those of you who havevery poor vision like me, yes
this app is available in dark mode.
It can adjust to dark modeon your phone setting if you

(27:28):
already got it on dark mode.
But if you don't, if you use it- You know,just within the app, you can do that too.
So download that app.
Can't stress it enough, the SB Nationapp rules, and, we're looking to make
it even better with your feedback too.

Brandan (27:40):
Yeah, I've already got it downloaded, and it is…
Just even if you are used to going toField Gulls on the website every day, it
it's just that much easier to log on tothe app, pull up all the articles, and
and you can get to everything right there.
So, definitely go check that out.
Patriots coming up, Mookie.
And we…
Well, Clinton talked a little bit about, maybe the offense starting a little

(28:04):
bit slow, but I, I look at this def-this defense for the Patriots, and
I see a lot of similar names, right?
They, they did add Dre'Mont Jones, whichis a familiar name, but, not a name
that, I think we were all that excitedabout after his time here in Seattle.
Christian Barmore, of course,up the middle with Milton Williams
so they, they bring back that,defensive interior group that I

(28:28):
know a lot of people are concernedabout, but we didn't see much of.
And then one of their biggest issues,Mookie, is that Christian Gonzalez
continues to not have a contract, andI, I have to imagine that he would
play week one, but is it guaranteed?

Mookie (28:46):
It might not be.
I, I admit, as somebody who is very muchon the side of players secure in the
bag, with- within reason of course,I think if I was a Patriots fan, I would
be disappointed if Gonzalez did not suitup for week one, did not play week one
when he has two years left on his deal.
'Cause they picked up hisfifth year, to my knowledge.

Brandan (29:03):
Right.

Mookie (29:03):
It's not like he, he, he's facing free agency at the end of the year.
He has the rest of this year, andhe has all of the season after
that on a significant pay bump fora guy who was a first round pick.
so if he sits out, I am notgonna complain one bit, because that
dude is a phenomenal cornerback,and, Jackson Smith-Njigba's
eyes are g- are gonna light up.
I mean, s- it's not like NewEngland has bad other corners.

(29:25):
Like Carlton Davis, Marcus Jones,they're capable players, but they're
not as good as Christian Gonzalez.

Brandan (29:30):
Sure.

Mookie (29:30):
So, th- there are definitely some question marks
about New England's defense asfar as Gonzalez's availability.
I think it was mentioned inthe chat already, they're not
gonna have, Harold Landry.
He's already on the PUP list.
Yeah.
K'Lavon Chaisson's gone, so they subin with, with Dre'Mont Jones.
Christian Barmore, I, I, Ibelieve he had, blood clots
or something, and that was partof why he, he missed so much time.

(29:52):
it was either lastyear or the year before.
But there was a reason why,why Barmore was not around
you know, from start to finish.
But still, New England'sgot a respectable team.
I'm not gonna, you know, writeoff, write them off by any means.
But we also saw that Seattle's offense,even though they didn't finish their
drives, they were able to exploit NewEngland's defense pretty consistently in

(30:15):
the run game, and that's even with allthe blitzing New England did in that game.
So, what I am fascinated by, what willbe key for next Wednesday, are they gonna
just blitz the hell out of Sam Darnoldthe way they did the, in the Super Bowl?
Because they blitzed him on,like, 60% of his dropbacks.
Sure.
I might be making that number up,but it certainly felt that way.
Right.
And in the first half, Darnold, youcould tell, was a little skittish.

(30:37):
He was making some chancy throwsthat, that, that admittedly
had me a little bit nervous.
And then he settleddown in the second half.
Kubiak had some blitz beaters.
New England, e- eventuallythe, the well had to dry up.
So, i- when it comes to this matchup,the Seahawks rushing offense, if it is
as good as it was in the Super Bowl,New England's gonna be in trouble.

(30:58):
But if that gets bottled up,then that passing game versus New
England's secondary is gonna bea really, really fun one to see.
And, they also gained,Kevin Byard from the Chicago Bears.
Mm-hmm.
And if nothing else, even thoughByard has been around for, for, for
a good while, and You know, he'sprobably not gonna be at this level
of getting as many picks as he does.

(31:19):
He is a ball hawk, and you don't wannabe messing around with Kevin Byard
you know, in, in the general area.
So, that, that's gonna beanother to be considerable
dynamic in this, in this matchup.
So again, it's a Super Bowl rematch,and at the same time it really isn't
because you got so many new cast,cast members on, on both sides.

Clinton (31:40):
Yeah.
The…
I think the most, one of the p- placesto really focus is gonna be on that
edge group for the Patriots, 'causeI just don't think it's all that.
I just don't think it's all that.
You know, it's, it's not…
They don't have, star talenton the edge group, and then behind
it it's seemingly very, very thin.
So when they start to rotate playersin, maybe if you, if, if Seattle has

(32:00):
some, early success and they needto rotate some dudes in, it is not an
impressive roster even beyond their,their starting two or three edge guys.
So can we exploit that?
Can, can Fleury exploit that?
We know that Jadarian Price is seeminglyvery, very good kind of against the grain
like reading things and cutting back,you know, cutting back the other way.

(32:21):
Can we get some overcommits andget some big chunk plays where we
see Price getting around this, Ithink, very lackluster edge group?
And you mentioned Lander being on the pup.
That's just, that's a huge loss.
Linebackers are…
You know, Spillane's a nice player.
They're okay.
if Gonzo's not there itcompletely changes the, the dynamic
for, for their, for their defense.
But guys, that, that side ofthe ball is still probably…

(32:46):
It's, it's pretty good but, youknow, Brandan, if I had to ask you
"Hey, where did the Patriots spendmore money this year, and where
did the Patriots put more emphasisthis year, on offense or defense?"
What would, what would be your answer?

Brandan (32:57):
Well, I think where they ended up putting a lot more resources
is at the wide receiver spot.
But I don't know if it was necessarily, dropped passes or guys getting
open being the issue, with,w- with that Patriots offense, Mookie.
I felt like, you know, you talked abouthow Jared Wilson now moved to center

(33:20):
and they have Elijah Vera-Tucker now atthe left guard spot, but Jared Wilson
can still get run through at center.

Mookie (33:26):
Yes.
Congrats.
You no longer have to deal withRiley Mills when you're out
at guard facing three techs.
You now have to move to centerplaying zero and one techs and
oh look, they got Byron Murphy andLeonard Williams and Jarran Reed.
All right.
Good luck with that, son.

Brandan (33:39):
Yeah.
It, it does not get any easiermoving inside for Jared Wilson.
But y- with the, with the receivers,that's I th- I think where you're
going with that, right, Glen?

Clinton (33:47):
Well, that, that's definitely part of it, right?
So the receiver, they also, you know,slip in, Reggie Gilliam real quick-
Oh, gosh… that comes from Buffalo asa fullback, because he's a good fullback
and that changes what Vrabel wants to do a

Brandan (33:57):
little bit.
It changes everything when youhave an amazing fullback, Glen.
He is

Clinton (33:59):
a good fullback.

Brandan (34:00):
I mean, gosh.
How, how is Mike Macdonald gonnagame plan around the idea of the
opposing offense having a fullback?

Clinton (34:07):
I could tell you Mike Macdonald

Brandan (34:08):
would like to put- I just, I don't think highly enough of our head
coach- Mike Macdonald would like to have-
that he can scheme around a really goodfullback being on that Patriots offense.

Clinton (34:15):
I guarantee you he'd like to have Robbie Bates or
a player like Gilliam, 'causehe's actually a good fullback.
But obviously A.J.
Brown is, is the, the star there, but theyalso went, went out and got Romeo
Doubs, and he's a good NFL wide receiver.
And what it also does for the room isit takes like Pop Douglas, who is like
the Landal Robinson of the Patriots,volume guy, horizontal threat, quick

(34:37):
slot, he can sit down in zones,and it makes him an actual three.
And as opposed to like the stretchtwo, and you got Mack Hollins
and with Stefon Diggs not reallya one, it's a different room.
it's a different room.
Now, with all that said, guys, I'mecstatic we're playing them week one.
I'm ecstatic.
Like, if you're like, "Hey, what was…
Where'd you have more shakeup,your offense or your defense?"

(34:59):
Okay, it's, it's, it's offense.
And you got, you got Tucker as a newguard, who's a quality player, so
maybe they upgrade the, the line a bit.
You still got, what's it,Moses out on the edge there, like
year 15 or something like that.
But it's an upgrade, andthey've upgraded wide receiver.
okay, cool, cool, cool.

Brandan (35:13):
Will, Will Campbell's arms haven't-… they haven't
grown in the off-season.
They haven't gotten

Clinton (35:16):
longer.
They have…
Yeah, they haven't gotten longer.
But if you were to say to me, "Whenwould you like to play a team that
had a kind of an offensive overhaul?"
I'd rather play them early.
They, they have notgotten legit, real snaps.
They're not in a flow yet.
And give me them week one versus likewhat we, we know we can do on defense.
And so for, for me, Mookie, I li- I, I…

(35:38):
Where I didn't like this game beingthe lead game for the Juice, after they
made their moves, I was like, okay,this actually breaks, I think, pretty
favorably than playing them maybe, Idon't know, week six, seven if they
were, if they do get into an offensivegroove, which they, they probably should.

Mookie (35:54):
Yeah.
A- and we know that week onecan sometimes produce some
unrepeatable results and- Yeah
d- don't both teams know it?
Last year- Yeah… these areyour Super Bowl teams, and
what happened to the Seahawks?
They lose to the 49ers.
Okay, I mean, it's a…
A- and then they dominatethem the, the last two games.
But the Patriots lostat home to the Raiders.

Brandan (36:11):
The Raiders.

Mookie (36:12):
So, so they, they- It was

Brandan (36:13):
like, what, the Raiders' one of three wins last

Mookie (36:15):
year?
Yes.
They started and ended the seasonlosing to Pete Carroll's…
well, then Pete Carroll's team, and thenthe pre- the previous Pete Carroll team.
So there was…
A- of course, Pete Carroll being theirformer head coach once upon a time.

Clinton (36:27):
Yeah.

Mookie (36:27):
so yeah.
The changes on New England'soffense are significant.
Like, they knew that they needed todo something as far as guard, and that
Wilson is probably be- best suited moving.
So what's funny is I think Campbellcould end up being a guard as well-
Mm-hmm… and maybe should have moved toguard instead of staying out at tackle.
so that'll be something to watch.
Having a fullback as good as ReggieGilliam, might improve, change

(36:49):
their running game for, for the better.
But we know that Seattle's rundefense is hard to deal with.
What, I don't care ifyou've got a running…
a, a fullback or not.
Wide receiver, that's gonnabe a big test because A.J.
Brown has got the size advantageon every Seattle corner.
That's what you lose withReek, you lose the height.

Clinton (37:07):
Mm.

Mookie (37:07):
you might, you know, y- you lose the height, you lose the
speed Did Rick utilize his heightand speed to the fullest extent?
No, not every time.
There are certainly some times wherehe decided to play like he was 5'9".
But, there are times when as goodas, like, Witherspoon and Joe are, for
example, they can get beaten by goodthrows in tight coverage because they're

(37:29):
just in the, in the too small area.
It's not like they're diminutivefigures, but just there's
so many tall wide receivers.
Romeo Doubs is another goup and get it type of…
He makes some spectaculargrabs every week.
He's good.
Yeah.
His issue, and why he wears that guardianhelmet, is he's had a h- deep history of
injuries and particularly concussions.
So Drake May's gonna have some jumpball opportunities, maybe in one-on-one

(37:50):
situations against Seattle's secondary.
so that, that's gonna be, that'sgonna be an early test for, for, for the
Seahawks cornerbacks for sure, and I'll befascinated to see how they deal with it.
And then as you said, Pop Douglas, notjust him, I'm gonna leave aside Mack
Hollins, but even though he scored oneof their touchdowns in the Super Bowl
but Kyle Williams had a good pre-season.

(38:12):
And if for any Wazzu fans in thechat, like, Kyle Williams could
be somebody who, who makes thatsecond year leap for them and really
strengthens their wide receiver group.
Tight end I think is the same.
They've got, Hunter Henryas, as the main guy, and he's
just a steady, solid veteran.

Brandan (38:26):
Mm-hmm.

Mookie (38:26):
but I think Seattle's done a really good job covering
tight ends with their linebackers.
Emmanwori I think is gonna be somebodywho, who's a work in progress still as
far as covering tight ends on a moreconsistent basis deeper down the field
as opposed to when he's sniffing outa screen to Kittle in the 49ers game.
But still, the, the, it is a matchupI still favor Seattle's defense

(38:48):
but it might not look the same, a- as it did in the Super Bowl.
But ultimately, as great as New England'supgrades are at wide receiver, if Drake
May still doesn't have time to throw, itain't gonna matter too much because you're
still having to deal with that pass rush.
You're still having to deal with thatinterior of the defensive line, and
that can make things even tougherfor Drake May or any quarterback.

(39:10):
When it's interior rush that'sgetting you, then you don't
have much room to escape

Brandan (39:16):
Yeah, and that's gonna be the big question going into this.
The other big question Johnny A is askingin chat is if we see Nick Emmanwori playing.
gut feeling around that.
You, you talked about off the top,Mookie, that we got to see incredible
progress by Nick throughout hard knocks.
And so knowing that even they're like aweek behind production schedule, right?

(39:39):
For, or a few days at leastwhen, especially when you
see some of those meetings.
Do you think that based on whatwe've seen so far, we see Nick
Emmanwori out there week one?

Mookie (39:49):
Well, today's Wednesday, so the last practice they had that
made it into hard knocks or could havemade it into hard knocks was Sunday.
And we know just through beat reporterslike, Corbin Smith and, and Brady
Henderson and, and, and Brian Nemhauser,Hawk blogger, that Emmanwori was
at least in pads, so that's, that'sanother upgrade as far as him being

(40:10):
fully suited up to, to practice I thinkthat he'll be on a snap, a snap count.

Brandan (40:16):
Okay.

Mookie (40:16):
Like a, a, a limited snap count.
And how they replace his snaps is gonnabe r- really something I, I'm keen
to, to figure out what Macdonald does.
Do they, for example, find a wayto play Tyrese Knight more often?

Clinton (40:29):
Hmm.

Mookie (40:30):
You know, ha- have that third linebacker, have three linebackers on
the field, 'cause Knight was outstandingin preseason and in training camp.
So if there's a way to get him on thefield, they've had him out at edge, and
if they wanted Emmanwori to be outat edge, maybe those snaps just go to
Tyrese Knight instead, or they splithim if, if Emmanwori's ready to go.
so I think their firstpractice of which they need to
file an injury report is Saturday.

(40:53):
So if I see DNPs for, for EvenWarrior on Saturday and Sunday, forget
about Wednesday, in all likelihood.
Right.
But if I see even, like, limited repsSaturday and Sunday, rep, you know
ramping that up, and then Monday's,like, a questionable designation
I'm feeling a little bit betterabout Emmanwori's chances to play.
So that's gonna be definitely onething to watch as far as Seattle's

(41:14):
secondary because I don't need to sayit, Macdonald said it on Hard Knocks.
Right away, the very firstepisode, how much Emmanwori
means to this defense already.

Clinton (41:24):
It's interesting, too, I- the Tyrese Knight part intrigues me
because I think he's super talented.
I gained so much respect.
I mean, he's a NFL baller, andhe had a very good rookie year.
I gained so much respect for theguy year two by the way he handles
his business, and every time hegot a chance, what, what did he do?
Just cause fumbles that DeMarcus Lawrencepicked up for touchdowns, and he just

(41:45):
played really, really sound footballwith every- without ever making a peep
while he, you know, got injured earlyon and w- was replaced by Drake Thomas
like, just completely professional.
So really loved his arc.
It'd be really cool, Brandan, if, if,like, when Emmanwori's in there
Seattle's actually basically playinga base defense and, and you could
call it what you wanna call it, buthe's playing linebacker in many, many

(42:09):
instances and ways because he's fastenough, he tackles hard, you know
just, he's a hybrid type player anyway.
And can Tyrese Knight do a chunkof those things athletically?
I think he can, so, the pointthat Mookie brought, brought up has
just got me thinking a bit, dude.

Brandan (42:25):
Yeah, and it's interesting, too, because we see
Witherspoon play inside a lot now.
Yeah.
With the receivers that the Patriots have,how much are they gonna try and move
Witherspoon inside, especially knowingthat if you do that, then you're really
losing that size advantage on the outsidebecause, you know, you're really…
Gosh, even w- with Ig- Igbinoghenegoing, like, do they have…

(42:49):
I, I suppose then we would…
it w- it would make menervous, Mookie, seeing Nehemiah
Pritchett out there on the edge,and even though he probably has
that size to match up with A.J.
Brown, I d- I don't have theconfidence quite yet that he has
the skill to match up with A.J.
Brown.

Mookie (43:06):
Yeah, he, he is quick.
I mean, he, I think he was in the 4.3s
in his 40-yard dash, which is nota be-all, end-all when it comes
to, timing how fast or, ormeasuring how fast athletes are.
In fact, it's got, to me, lessrelevance over the years- Mm-hmm… and
it's really position dependent asfar as how much that 40 matters.
But, b- the thing is with Pritchettis he's pretty much a boundary corner

(43:29):
and if he's gonna be a boundary corner,if the snaps he gets, that means you
gotta have Spoon inside more often.
at, at least that's in, in my view.
so one of the things about Woolen,for as frustrating as he was at times
when he was on, he was really on.
It definitely changed Witherspoon'salignment in, in terms of how
often we play in the slot,how often we play outside.

(43:50):
He was definitely playing moreoutside than normal last year
compared to the previous season.
So we are, we aredefinitely in for a treat.
I, I hope to say just treat and, andnot, not a, a trick or a nightmare- Mm
as far as, how, how thewhole alignment goes with
Spoon and Pritchett and Joe

Brandan (44:08):
Doo-dad, Doo-daddy asking, "Will we see Knight, Thomas, and
Emmanwori on the field together?"
That, that would be, based on whatyou've said Mookie, maybe an unlikely
combo because you're talking aboutKnight being out there potentially
when Emmanwori's off the field.

Mookie (44:23):
Yeah.
A- and that- that's what I wouldbe getting at, is that's, I don't
think that's a case where Knight and,and Thomas are gonna be splitting
snaps again like they did last year.
i- if Knight's in the game,maybe Thomas i- i- is out, or when
Thomas is in the game, Knight's out.
so I- I'm seeing this commenthere, "I hope Julian Love balls out.
He's the only tall cornerback on the…"
I hope he does as well, and that's anotherthing with this cornerback group, right?

(44:47):
Didn't ment- we're 45 minutes and wehaven't mentioned Julian Love once
because there's been nothing to bring up.

Brandan (44:51):
Yeah.

Mookie (44:51):
He had a quad injury.
That's

Brandan (44:52):
another name to watch when the injury, when that
first injury report comes

Mookie (44:54):
out, right?
Yeah, he had a, he had a quad injury,and just from us being long time Seahawks
fans, we know that's what has felledJamal Adams for, over the last few years.
Ruptured quad in 2022, and then hehad another one just a few weeks ago
with the Vikings that, for all intentsand purposes, is a career ender.
Mm.
I mean, when you realize how seriousa ruptured quad is once, to have it

(45:15):
twice, is, is absolutely horrible.
But you wanna be cautious with that, andhe has been practicing it looks like
but he's not played any pre-season reps.
He would have if he was healthy.
He hasn't been practicing fully, sohe's gonna be too far behind, I think
to make an impact, a meaningful impactover the first few weeks of the season.

Brandan (45:35):
Yeah, that's a very, and again, a very tough assignment if
you're asking him to play either ofthe outside corner spots and
go up against veteran guys like A.J.
Brown or Romeo Dobbs.

Mookie (45:46):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, and he has the size.
I mean, he's the tallestcorner on the roster.
Right.
He's like 6'2"ish, thereabouts,and a little over 200 pounds.
He's a big corner,re- relatively speaking.
But how comfortable is hepressing at the line of scrimmage?
can he be physical?
Can he play the ball well when he'sgoing up against, you know, the best

(46:06):
of the best and the guys like A.J.
Brown?
And Romeo Dobbs isn't an elitereceiver, but he's certainly been
a, an above average receiver.
so I- I'm kind of wondering ifNeil is gonna be one of those healthy
scratches for the first couple weeksof the season, and then as he's more
up to speed practicing more often,then we're gonna see him on the field.
I

Clinton (46:23):
got one more, one more topic that I, I think is worth examining.
Like last year's, week one, wehad some hard times getting home at
the beginning of the, the year againstPurdy and the Niners that first game.
There was what, one, Derekhad a sack called back.
There was a sack in that game, if Irecall, that we did get a sack at
at a timely man- a timely s- youknow, important part of the game.

(46:43):
But there was not a lot of pressure, not too much consistent pressure
and Purdy did a nice job at, myrecollection, of escaping some
of the two throughout the day.
But down the stretch, Drake May was,sacked 21 times in the four playoff games.
Now they played good, youknow, they played the Chargers
Texans, Broncos, and us.
So- That's some tough slang.
But what do we think?

(47:04):
Can we start, can we start a lot hotter?
Can…
I'm not sure you could pick it right backup with, like, Spoon dest- us destroying
all monsters and putting the ballin, in Nu'u's helmet, and he takes it
back for six, and Riley Mills runningthrough Jared Wilson, and Derek Hall
getting two sacks, one of them beinga strip sack, et cetera, et cetera.
I don't know if we could be thathot out of the gate, Brandan

(47:26):
but can we be more…
Can we see more action from our, from ouredge and from the blitzing packages from
Macdonald than we did last year, game one?

Brandan (47:36):
Yeah, I think, well, having an elite tackle like Trent Williams
for the Niners changes things alittle bit for the, the pass rush.
I, I do have the…
I, I think that this defense shouldbe able to pick it up relatively
quickly against this offensive line.
how do you feel about it, Mookie?

Mookie (47:55):
I think that the pass rush should be good against New
England's semi-retooled offensiveline, 'cause I think they got the
same right guard, and, and MorganMoses is still out at right tackle.
Mm.
And that kinda surprised me, because2026 version of Morgan Moses might
might be a, a bit of an issue for,for New England in the long run.
maybe it's a sh- in theshort run come next week.
But, you know, Seattle's passrush, we, we tend to focus on the

(48:20):
edge rushers, but they do passrush as one, just like 12 is one.
They pass rush as one, where it'snot any singular person dominating
their, their match-up.
So, you can consider it aweakness in the sense that they don't
have a Myles Garrett, obviously.
They don't have a Nick Bonito.
They don't have one ofthose- Mm… M- Maxx Crosby.

(48:40):
Maybe not yet, wink, wink.
they don't have one ofthose, those A-plus edge rushers.
So they do have to rush a littlebit differently, and they do a very
good job of containing as well.
'Cause Drake May is quite mobile.

Clinton (48:52):
Mm-hmm.

Mookie (48:52):
And you notice how infrequently he was able to
scramble and get positive yards.
And, and I liken it to whenSeattle played Jacksonville.
Trevor Lawrence, mobile, very athletics- for a guy who's what, 6'5" or 6'6".
And Seattle kept him in the pocket,gave him no, no room to really escape.
They sacked him what, sixor seven times in that game.

(49:12):
So they just kinda took the TrevorLawrence game plan and just did
it for, for Drake May, and theygot pretty much the same outcome.
And what they did a littledifferently, they blitzed, I believe
a little more than they usually do-

Clinton (49:24):
Mm-hmm, yeah

Mookie (49:24):
or usually did the last season.
So we saw Spoon a couple oftimes, and we saw Umanmora
coming off the edge a few times.
I, I wonder if we will see somesim pressures to offset some of
the blitzing, especially when youconsider new, new look secondary.
Are we gonna have some sort of…
"This chat is dry,"says, Matt Schmidt.
Well

Brandan (49:45):
I think, I think we didn't get to his question.
I was saving it, but, if he'sout of here- Yeah… we can…
It's fine.

Mookie (49:49):
Yeah.
Well, yeah, we'll, we'll, we'llget to that at, at some point.
But, yeah, I, I think that's, therecould be some early four-man rush just
to see how it goes, a feel-out process.
And then if the results aren't to theirliking, then they'll start to mix things
up with more exotic looks, maybe showblitz and then rush four, but it's
three traditional edge rushers andthen here comes Spoon screaming through

(50:10):
the, through the, the B gap again.
or you do a double mug, have DrakeThomas and, and Ernest come, you know
show and blitz up the middle, and maybeone drops, one rushes, or both drop back.
I, I, I think that we're gonna seeMacdonald kind of mix it up a little bit.
So y- you're not gonna run the exactsame game plan as the Super Bowl.
It would be naive.

(50:31):
But, there are definitely waysfor Seattle's off- defense rather
to get at New England's, offense.
So the onus is really on McDaniels.
Can he get the ball out ofDrake May's hands quicker?
'Cause if he can't- Then it's justgonna be, you know, pick, pick
whoever's on the defensive line, pickwhoe- anybody on Seattle's starting
defense, and you can count how manypressures and sacks they're gonna get.

Clinton (50:51):
Yeah.
And the piece with that too islike, they did a good job of that
on the whole for year two.
Like, he got rid of the ball-Yeah… pretty damn quickly.
But, just not in the Super Bowl.
Not, not at all in the Super Bowl.
In fact, again, he, you know,they, we gotta remember too
they barely got by the Broncos.
Who was the Broncos quarterback?

Mookie (51:08):
It was Jared Stidham.

Clinton (51:09):
Was it Stidham when, when Nick's went down?
Okay.
So, and they barely got by theTexans with, C.J.
Stroud, I think he threwwhat, four picks that game?
Four interceptions.
Right?
Yeah.
So, it, it was whatever.
They, they got there.
They got to the Super Bowl, sothey deserve for getting there and
surviving all that, but it wasn'tpretty along the way whatsoever.
So, you know, I think the Patriotsare, are- Doing, I think most Patriots

(51:31):
fans are like, "Yeah, we got our guy.
He's, you know, he's absolutely aabsolute stud," like no-brainer Drake May.
I think there's a couple of fans thatare still like, "But, but is he?"
You know, and like he, when theyplayed the best talent or the better
talent, it was not nearly as clean.
And, yeah, j- I'm very interestedto see if we could simply bottle him up.

(51:51):
I love the point youmade, Mookie, about…
I remember going into theSuper Bowl coverage, Brandan.
We were talking about Drake May'srunning ability, like oh, he, he
escapes, he gets out, he creates onthe move, he creates with his feet.
And as Mookie said, therewas none of that whatsoever.
So will he, will he do more of that?
Will he have opportunityto do more of that?
Or will he be just as bottled up?

(52:13):
You know, we got one last thing aboutthat is you gotta remember, what was
it, like three-quarters of the waythrough the game, he gets his n- his gets
block knocked off on the sideline, andVrabel, Vrabel's like, "Are you okay?
Want me to take you out of the game?"
I mean, good night.
He's, he's asking his, hisstar quarterback if he wants to
like basically take a breather.
So, I just wonder if wecould be that dominant again.

(52:36):
There's, there's a paththere though, Brandan.

Brandan (52:37):
Yeah.
Hope, hopefully we give him that sameopportunity of taking a breather-
in the, opener.
And, I, I did see in chat we'vegot a few folks here with some
predictions, so I, I think we-Nice… we're getting to the prediction
portion of the show, Mookie, and wegot Johnny A saying Drake May will
have three interceptions next week.
I like that.
Byron Murphy, two-plus sacks.

(52:59):
And, I, I look, Doodaddy's questionhere, for looking out at the whole season
who will be the sack leader this year?
Because you bring back DerekHall and give him a big contract.
You hear about the team.
They really like how, hisexplosiveness, his violence.
you hear them talking about how he'sone of the more violent defensive players.

(53:19):
But you ha- also have Byron Murphy, whocontinues to come along, and oh, Big
Cat Leonard Williams, who, got a newdeal too, I think would have something to
say about being this season's sack leader.
who do you like to get thingsgoing, get off to a good start?
Because you could even throw in Spoonif, if what we saw in those i- in the

(53:39):
Super Bowl, him getting two sacks, it,it doesn't take a whole lot of games for
him to get to a couple sacks per game.
Before seven, eight sacks, he'sup there among the team leaders.

Mookie (53:50):
Yeah, because, you look at last year, I think Williams
and somebody else was tied, andthat might have been Lawrence.
But seven sacks was his, was what it tookto lead Seattle in sacks, but they had
like, 13 different people get a sack.
Yeah.
So they were up, up there interms of sack productivity.
It was just they spread the wealtharound, so to speak, and I
think we're gonna see a littlebit more of that again this year.

(54:13):
I, I think that Byron Murphy'sgot a really good chance to lead
the team in sacks this year.
the disrespect has been noted, from the national media as
far as him, like, being kindof this, this secondary act.
I, I…
At least Leonard Williams got hisflowers, but they should have also
mentioned that Byron Murphy is a bigpart of Seattle's run defense, and

(54:34):
he's vastly improved as a pass rusher.
I think he said in maybe an interviewwith, it was either Brock & Salk-
it was somebody from Seattle Sports.
So if it wasn't Brock & Salk,it had to have been, Bob

Clinton (54:46):
Stelton… Bob

Mookie (54:47):
Stelton and, and Dave Wyman- Right… that he's aiming
for double digits sacks this year.
I think he'll live up to his word.
I think he'll get 10, 10 and ahalf sacks a- and lead the team.
Williams will be up there mayberushing double digits, but
not, you know, reaching that.
But, the edge rushers, I expecta lot of the same, but for more
more than two sacks for Derek Hall.

(55:07):
So, like-

Clinton (55:08):
And we…
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love that point.
Like, th- you know, Hall explodes atthe, two sacks for the year, and then he
had two sacks in the Super Bowl, so hecertainly ended really, really strong.
And he had, man, he was, he was close alot last year, and, you know, just
didn't f- fully get home a couple times.
I think Derek, Derek Hall's a dark, a darkhorse to actually lead the team in sacks.
but you know, there's a namethat we haven't said once, and I

(55:30):
think he was the guy who was…
He had seven or eight last year,seven and a half, was Nwosu.
Nwosu- Mm-hmm… just keepsplugging along, and it's like
another guy- Yeah… out there.
Yeah.
You kind of, you know, he's kind ofthe forgotten man, which I'm not even-

Brandan (55:41):
Oh, Fowler's even kind of a forgotten- Yeah… man
by, in some ways, too.

Clinton (55:45):
Yeah.
We haven't talked about him at all, right?
So it's just an interesting…
Again, you, you hit it squarelyearlier, Mookie, that, you know
they, they don't have the 15sack guy until we get Max Crosby.
but we don't have the 15 sackguy, and that's okay, you know?
So if we end up, if we end upsomewhere around 20 sacks, let
me, let me jack this up a bit.
Let's go with, like, if we had 26sacks from the interior, you know

(56:08):
with Leo and Riley and Murphy andJanvier getting home a couple times.
If you're somewhere around 25 betweenthose four dudes, that's- It doesn't
you know, you, you don't need a,you don't need a Myles Garrett.
You just don't if you get thatmuch pressure from your defensive
tackles, and I think we will

Mookie (56:26):
Yeah, I'm glad you brought up Riley Mills, because I know that, self
included because I got to see it severaltimes in practice, we've hyped Riley Mills
a bit in terms of what he could do inyear two, and even at Hard Knocks they've
called him, what, the Polar Bear, I think.
th- I can't remember… Ican't remember the, the, the n-
the nickname that they gave him.
But, Riley Mills is not athree down lineman just yet.

(56:47):
Mm-hmm.
He, he's, he's very much asituational pass rusher at this point.
I think, the run defensecould use some work, for sure.
So early downs might be a bit iffy asfar as a snap count, at least in like
non-garbage time situations, for example.
But if it's third and eight,third and l- you know, 10 plus
you could see Riley Mills gettingin there and, and causing havoc.

(57:08):
Because for as much as I've just notedsome of the preseason struggles and
limited reps defending the run, and maybehe didn't look as dominant as a pass
rusher, he was going alongside Brandon P.
Lee, who at least, you know,good nose tackle, good rotational
player, but he wasn't going up withLeonard Williams and Byron Murphy.
He, he wasn't with the starters.
So there's nobody else to really respecton the defensive line as far as pass

(57:31):
rushing, whereas if you have Riley Millsin a lot of one-on-one situations because
they gotta worry about Murphy or Williams,that's where Riley and his, very
unorthodox I guess, based on the HardKnocks reactions from his teammates
his, his, his, his rip move, can, can,can really cause havoc f- in the backfield

Brandan (57:50):
All right, Mookie.
Well, other predictions.
May- maybe an offensive predictionbefore we get on out of here.
Sure.
who is one player that youreally like on offense or, or that
you have a really solid feelingfor, a prediction this season?

Mookie (58:04):
Yeah.
It was bull rush, not rip move thatwe're saying with, Riley Mills.
Gotcha.
But anyway, I think I reallyam, am wanting to, to buy
into the tight end stock.

Brandan (58:14):
Mm.

Mookie (58:14):
So I'm gonna leave aside Sawbert and Kellen 'cause they're
there for, for blocking, and Sawbert'sreally good at what he does, and we-

Clinton (58:20):
And two-point conversions.
And two-point con- Yes… don'tforget those… and two-point

Mookie (58:22):
conversions.
Please nobody read into t- himbeing tight end two on this roster.
Like, he's- Yeah… gonna get a lot ofsnaps, but a lot of it is gonna be him
as a blocker, not a- Yeah… target guy.
But A.J.
Barner and Elijah Arroyo, I thinkthe two of them can combine to be
even if not through volume, among thebest tight end duos in the league
'cause Barner's that all-around guy.
He can block, he cancatch, he can run routes.

(58:43):
I, I remember speaking to A.J.
you know, talking to him during Super Bowlweek when I was down in San Jose, and he
he believes that he, he's, his goal, hislong-term goal is gonna be recognized as
one of the best tight ends in the league.
And while that distinction tends to go toguys who catch a lot of passes, so like
Brock Bowers or Travis Kelce over theyears, Barner is gonna be that every man's
tight end, where he might get 50 to 60grabs, he'll get s- you know, 700 yards or

(59:08):
so, but he's gonna quietly, you know, getseven, eight touchdowns, and he was second
on the team in receptions last year, Ibelieve, and then third in, in receiving
yards, or I might have had it flipped.
So he was important last year.
I think that New England's linebackers,I mean, they, they got Spillane there.
I think they kind ofswapped some, some guys.
I can't remember who left,but, Spillane I'm pretty sure

(59:29):
is, is a, a new addition for them.
I think that Seattle's tight ends aregonna be huge in this passing game
especially with Brian Fleury around.
I think they're gonna combinefor over 100 receiving yards next
Wednesday, and at least one of themis gonna get into the end zone.
And just for clarification purposes,I misspoke with Christian Barmore.

(59:49):
I forgot that the pulmonary, the bloodclot, the stuff, that was two years ago.
Mm.
Last year, it was thelegal issue that he had.

Brandan (59:56):
Mm.

Mookie (59:57):
so he played every game, but he had that kind of
you know, hanging over his head.
And he's not suspended to my knowledge,so he's gonna be still a, a problem for
Seattle's interior line to deal with.

Brandan (01:00:07):
Yeah.
we have a episode coming up, for our season expectation show
Mookie, and that was, we, we leanedinto the tight end bit there too.
We said, between, Arroyo and A.J.
Barner, 1,200 yards, 12 touchdowns.

Clinton (01:00:24):
Ooh.
Mm.
That's a good number.
I like the numerology there

Brandan (01:00:27):
Brandan.
We, we were leaning into the,you know, the fan number there.
speaking of, speaking of the number12, Corey Kuhlman in chat brought up
earlier on, said the new owner said onTwitter in the past few hours that he'd
love to have Jody hoist the 12th man flag.
I have a feeling Mookie, as theowner of our team, he should be
able to, you know, make that happenif he truly wants it to happen.

Mookie (01:00:47):
Yeah, so, so much of…
Well, they haven't actually closedits sale yet, but as far as I'm
concerned, they're the new owners.
So- Right… you might as wellhave, maybe as a ceremonial raising
of the flag, have them both there.
Have the previous and the current bothraising the, the, the 12 flag, and
and, and just get a new era underway.
So, like, have the previous ownershipgroup, the Allen's who saved the Seahawks

(01:01:09):
from leaving Seattle, they get one more12 flag raise, and then the Koslas
they can get it started, and hopefullythe success continues with them.

Clinton (01:01:17):
Really, I love that.
Brandan, I saw you pulled upthe Snail's comment here saying
the, "This offense is loaded.
Sammy D wins MVP," and starts changingthe conversation about who the best
quarterback from this, from his class is.
One thing I wanted to talk aboutthat, so great comment from Snail
is- Seattle, you know, was…
Their, in the last two years, 19 of20 teams that were in the bottom 10 of

(01:01:41):
turnovers in the league, so that being abad stat, negative, missed the playoffs.
Seattle was the only one.
They won the whole thing.
So the only one of 20, so, inthe last two years to be bottom 10
and still not only make the playoffs,but win the whole darn thing.
So it's just a little bit…
And then of course we have an epicplayoff run where we are the only team

(01:02:02):
to never turn the ball over and goall the way to the Super Bowl and win.
So it's, one of the what ifs I wanna justexplore is just, you know, what happens
if s- if instead of 25-14, Sam's morelike 31-9, 31-12, something like that.
And it just, you know, the, theturnovers drop a little bit, or

(01:02:23):
12, interceptions but maybe twoless fumbles that are recovered.
It, there's a lot of room therefor what the Snail is saying.
Now m- now the MVP part is, is,you know, is, would be amazing, but
in general, guys, I don't think it'stoo far-fetched to be, to, to see Sam
have, like, a, a, a another pro- prog-another year where he takes a, a

(01:02:46):
another leap forward as a professional,and that that'd be, like, his third
year being a really solid quarterback.
And what does it do to a team if theyjust turn the ball over, let's say
five less times this year, Brandan?
I think it's very achievable.

Brandan (01:02:59):
Mookie, can a zebra change his stripes?
Can Sam Darnold become nota turnover quarterback?

Mookie (01:03:07):
I know that Darnold is the face of the turnover problem because
he led all quarterbacks, I thinkthey led the league in turnovers.
Some of them were a little bit unlucky,some weird bounces off helmets and
and, you know, some other mishaps, badexchange with Olu Wattenb for example.
He definitely had some bad turnovers.
There was a stretch against theRams, I'm sure that was the

Brandan (01:03:27):
Mm-hmm

… Mookie (01:03:27):
the, the, the freak out moment for, for a lot of
people, the Rams loss in particular.
But it wasn't just him.
I mean, they, they had so much of aturnover problem that they had two
interceptions on defense and theygave the ball back on the same play.
Colby and, and Reek both getting picks andthen fumbling it back to the other team.
the, the Seahawks had criticalfumbles from Jaxon Smith-Njigba

(01:03:49):
and Elijah Arroyo had a, a lesscritical fumble against- Mm-hmm
Houston, again, that they recovered.
Cooper Kupp had a weirdone over the middle.
Had a fumble against,against the Rams as well.
Mm-hmm.
The team had a hard timeholding onto the ball.
except the running backs.
The running backs were, were great.
I think Polani might have fumbled, ingarbage time against the Saints, whatever.
But the one thing that Iwould note, Kenneth Walker and

(01:04:11):
Zach Charbonnet were amazing.
And in Charbonnet's case isstill, he's still on the team.
Amazing with ball security.

Brandan (01:04:18):
Yeah.

Mookie (01:04:19):
Jadarian Price, this is gonna be a big test for him.
You know, getting a, a NFLworkload, can he hold onto the ball?
Same applies to George Holani becausehe's gonna get more game action
than he ever has in his NFL career.
So the turnovers, it's a greatpoint made, because it wasn't just
Donald, it was certainly a lotof it, but if that normalizes-

Clinton (01:04:38):
Mm-hmm

… Mookie (01:04:38):
that's another way that the offense can improve, and also
help the defense, not haveto fight tooth and nail to keep
their number one scoring title.
Because part of why they were, like,n- number two for much of the year
and then one at the very end, theyhad so many short fields to defend
because of the timeliness and where theywere k- you know, giving the ball up.
So if you clean that up, Seattlecan do wonderf- wonderful things.

(01:05:02):
Yeah.

Brandan (01:05:03):
Yeah.

Clinton (01:05:04):
Love it.

Brandan (01:05:04):
Well, we are looking forward to it, Mookie.
Looking forward to this season fromour Seahawks, and it's gonna be
kicking off one week from today.
So really wanna thank you for comingon, promoting the new SB Nation app too.
So as people are leading up toward gameday, if you wanna catch some of the
Seahawks news, get it right throughthat new app, that new SB Nation app.

(01:05:25):
Make sure and download it, and,make sure you subscribe to Field
Goals, above all the otherplaces where you get your team news.

Mookie (01:05:33):
Yeah.
Thanks, thanks for having me onagain, and we'll be seeing you on Field
Goals regularly throughout the year.
And, one last misspeak from me.
Spillane was on last year's team.
I get certain linebackers mixed up.
They had Spillane, Ellis- I think it was

Clinton (01:05:45):
Ellis

… Brandan (01:05:45):
yeah, Christian-

Mookie (01:05:45):
They had so much

Brandan (01:05:46):
turnover at linebacker, I, I, I wasn't-

Mookie (01:05:48):
It was, it was Tavai… I'm looking at their

Brandan (01:05:49):
list, and they have, like, four or

Mookie (01:05:51):
five- It was Tavai
rookie

Brandan (01:05:51):
linebackers.

Mookie (01:05:52):
Yep.
Yeah.
Tavai was the one thatthey, they let go of.
So.

Clinton (01:05:55):
Okay, yeah.
And they br- and so one last fin-final piece of the Patriots, when
the 53 got announced, they had tolike 10 or 10 dudes get swapped out.
Like, it was like the back endof their roster, it's like, okay
they have some good starters.
Their depth is a problem, Brandan,and they're gonna feel it.
Yeah.
They're gonna feel it.
You don't swap n- if you're nine or 10dudes swapped, you're like the Dolphins.

(01:06:17):
You

Brandan (01:06:17):
don't want your Patriots to do it.
They have, they have eight rookiesfrom their 26 draft class who made
the team, which I, I guess you could,y- you could say, well, they have
they, they had a great draft thatthey got to keep eight rookies.
But

Clinton (01:06:29):
Or…

Brandan (01:06:29):
Or, or they're, they're really struggling with their depth.

Clinton (01:06:33):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think with that-

Brandan (01:06:35):
There's only one thing left to say

Clinton (01:06:37):
Go Hawks.

Brandan (01:06:37):
Go Hawks.

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