Hawks’ New OC Ryan Grubb on Offense, Weapons, UW Memories

Ryan Grubb, new Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator, sits down with Dave Softy Mahler, Dick Fain, and Hugh Millen at the VMAC to talk about the team’s new offense, the weapons he has to work with, including DK Metcalf, plus a great Huskies memory.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Now Beck to Softian Dick Gun SportsRadio ninety three point three kjr FM,
Hi, boys and girls, weare back here, ninety three three KJRFM.
I almost said, dog fans,it's a hard habit to break,
man, it's a hard habit tobreak. You know. The last time
I think I saw this guy inperson was pregame before the Michigan game Houston

(00:21):
Texas from the National Championship. Andhere we are, what seven and a
half eight months later, and he'sthe offensive coordinator from my favorite pro football
team after being the OC for myfavorite college football team. Maybe he'll coach
my favorite basketball team next or something. Who knows. Ryan Grubbs, Seahawk
offensive coordinator. How are you,man? Doing great? Doing great?
God? It is good to seeyou. Good to hear your voice,

(00:43):
good to see in person. We'retalking a bit off the air, just
about this whole experience, man,and what this transition for you has been
like. You're forty eight years old, you get your first crack now with
the NFL a year ago, you'rethinking about NIL and recruiting and bedcheck and
things like that. What's this experiencebeen like for you? Man? Well?
I think there's so many avenues thatcan go here at that question.

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But I think, you know,first of all, John and the Seahawks
have done such a fantastic job ofbuilding this roster. There's just outstanding guys.
And I'm not just saying that.It's a lot of fun to show
up every day to work, youknow, with Mike and the kind of
coaching staff that he built, youknow, feels like the right kind of
place. And I would have nevermade this move. I didn't feel like
they were building something special here.And I just, you know, hats

(01:26):
off to Leslie and Mike and justhow good a job they did and how
much vision they had for the staff, and then John with the players,
because everybody's so serious obviously about theirjob, but they're also you know,
the right kind of people. Theywant to do it, do it the
right way, show up and givegreat effort, be great guys every day.
So super lucky to be here.I'm asked a lot what is a

(01:47):
Ryan Grub offense? And I say, well, I can tell you what
a Ryan Grub offense is for theWashington Huskies personnel in twenty three and twenty
twenty two. I don't know whatit's gonna look like with the Seattle Seahawks.
I'm gonna have a couple of followups. But just in your words,
what are things? I mean,every offensive coordinator says, Hey,
we want to be tough in therunning game, inefficient and explosive in the

(02:08):
past game, we know that,but what is something that you really hold
dear to your philosophy offensively? Yeah, I think you know. One of
the things that we've done well inthe past when we've had good offenses is
we've beneficient and we've gotten ourselves intomanageable third downs, and that gives you
the freedom and flexibility to try toutilize some of those explosive players you have.

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And I think one of the thingsthe first thing you do is is
trying to highlight your personnel and overthe years what this to become or our
best offense is become when you havethree premier wideouts, legitimate running game,
and a physical mindset throughout. Soeven though you're throwing the football, there's
discipline to make sure that you're notending up in unmanageable situations and putting your

(02:53):
quarterback at risk constantly and realizing howimportant it is to take care of that
guy. Now that's oversimplifying it,but I think just making sure that we're
taking care of Gino and putting themin positions to get the ball to you
know, his best guys. We'vegot some good ones here obviously, but
at the same time, you know, making sure we can support that run

(03:14):
game, because I think we havea chance to be really really special running
the football. Really, you know, you don't get to see that as
much without pads on right with Knine and twenty six, those guys are
pretty special. But I mean,I think that's where it sets up and
it gets really hard. You wantto roll a guy in the box,
and now all of a sudden itlooks a little bit tougher out there on
the outside by yourself with fourteen andsome of those guys. So I think

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that the exploitation of defenses, utilizingyour best guys has to be you know,
number one. And then creating efficiency, and creating efficiency is not just
you know, oh hey, wegot to not lose yards in the run
game. It's it's making sure thatyou got some times to get the ball
out your hand quickly. You know. I know a lot of people talk
a lot about how much the ballgoes down the field, and it certainly

(03:57):
will. But at the same time, I just think you have to earn
those right, that right to putthat ball down the field. For those
who say, okay, Ryan Grebb, the stats can prove Ryan Grubb throws
the ball deep down the field.Ryan Grubb throws the ball to the outside
of the numbers. And Ryan Grubbcan be conservative in his protection scheme,
meaning if there's just four defensive linemenrushing, he'll he'll keep six guys in

(04:19):
to make sure in that case Pennixstays up right. You had the Joe
Moore winning line in front of you. How do things change now with a
different quarterback. He doesn't have theinjury history of Pennix, you don't have
the offensive line. How might thosethings change? My stance doesn't change at
all with the quarterback position in thesense that I got to make sure that,

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you know, like I said before, we take care of Geno,
and I think the first thing isI would much rather overinvest in protection and
keep us up right and give ourselvesa chance. You know, the we
had a couple of a B gapproblems today and that's that's exactly what you
can't have as interior problems. Ifit's off the edge, guys can get
out of it, get the otherhands and stay in a man of both
situations. So number one, keepingyour quarterback healthy. Number two obviously not

(05:05):
getting in a negative yardage situation.So and I think you know when you
think about the deep ball and theball pushing to the perimeter of the field,
yep, those are some of thehardest throws, right, those are
the things that the defense is like, let's see you do that. And
so when you can become elite atthose things that defenses are like daring you
to do, like push the ballwide, show us you can compete and

(05:27):
complete the ball with with and thenmake accurate deep throws and give him a
chance. When you can become eliteat that, when you have those opportunities
and chances, those are the thingssometimes at fall secondary in an offense where
people don't emphasize that. And youknow old saying, right, you achieve
what you emphasize. So we certainlydo that. Hawk's off head of coordinatey
Ryan Grubb joining us here from campand coach. Now that you know Genail

(05:49):
pretty well, where is he mostsimilar to Mike And where is he most
different than Mike similar. I wouldsay that the ball comes out of his
hands so clean, just like itdid with Mike. I think that for
people that haven't seen Geno throw inperson, I think he's special, you
know, And I've watched plenty ofNFL film on plenty of guys, and

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Gino's throwing talent, arm talent,the way it comes out, accuracy,
you know, it's not a youget to know him when you start watching
him. You're at practice with himnow every day, and you're like,
hey, two years ago, thisguy led the league in completion percentage.
I'm not surprised at all. Ithink he's I think he's an elite quarterback,
and I think that he has thetraits to be able to push the
ball down the field, quick release, to get accurate underneath throws, and

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great understanding of the protection scheme.He's he's a veteran guy like that's one
of the biggest assets is you comein and you have a guy like Geno
that can, you know, executeyour protection scheme and take care of himself.
And then I don't know, Imean I think that, you know,
I would say Mike and Gino areboth really really great spirited guys as

(06:56):
far as just they're awesome in themeeting room, you know, and so
there's no difference there. I wouldjust say, you know, maturity,
which is not a knock on Mic. It's just you know, time and
distance. I think Geno would probablytell Mike, hey, when you're going
through these things early on, here'ssome things to consider. And he's so
they're both one of the other similaritiesjust really humble guys. They want to

(07:17):
be great, and I think that'swhat makes them great is they're open to
the possibility of being coached right tomake their game better. Like Gino doesn't
look at you like, hey,make sure you think about this, or
work your footwork this way whatever.He's like, okay, yeah, let
me try that, you know.And that's what makes them great. And
one of the things I love aboutGeno is like his chip and if you

(07:38):
didn't know him, you know,one of the things that in a very
humble way, you know, Ginolooks at you know, six to seven
years of his NFL career that hefeels like, not not that anyone was
wrong or anything like that, butthat you know, he got robbed out
of that and and he doesn't getthose years back. So now he comes
in every day early, he stayslate. You know, he's he's studying
the playbook and he's making sure thatprotection schemes are sound. He wants the

(08:01):
signal to be right with the receivers. I mean, he's he's demanding.
He's what you would expect out ofa top tier lead NFL quarterback twenty one
years ago in Kingsley, Iowa.And you got your coaching start. Now
you're forty eight years old doing thisfor the first time. I know the
answer to this question. These guysknow the answer to this question. I
remember asking Hugh or Hugh saying RyanGrubb isn't one hundred percent ready for this

(08:24):
job. He's one thousand percent readyfor this job. We have thought for
a long time that you are readyfor this job. I appreciate that.
Why do you think you're ready forI think I just have the same approach.
I think every job I've ever taken, I felt like I could bring
value. And I would have nevertaken this job if I didn't feel like
I could bring value to the Seahawks. And so there's a belief in what
your ability is. But also thesame things that I think where the relational

(08:48):
part with Geno and Mike was easyfor me is that if Mike comes in
and says, hey, Grub,you really need to consider that this pressure
is possible and that this is somethingthat's going to happen to you. I'm
gonna look at it. I'm gonnalisten. I want to know, like,
why isn't this happened? You know, if Friz comes in our wide
receiver coach, he said, hey, Grub, I think that this is
better at sixteen, you know,versus eighteen, I'm gonna be like,

(09:09):
Okay, let's let's talk about let'sfigure out why. And I think that
when you have that approach and you'reconsistent and you have a good vision for
what the game is, then Ithink that it gets it gets clean fast.
Now it's never perfect, but Ithink that you don't. There's nothing
that I feel like, oh mygod, I'm watching an NFL film.
This is too big. That's notarrogant, it's just it's real. Like

(09:30):
there's still the same problems. Now, some of the adjustments happen quicker,
the windows are tighter, the playersare better, there's less time where you're
gonna go out and like, ohwow, their boundary safety is really bad.
Let's go after this guy, right, Like, That's not gonna happen
very often in the NFL, Sosome of those possibilities get limited. But
I just feel like I've just alwaysbeen open to the possibility of how good

(09:52):
it could be, and how goodI have to be, and just the
demanding nature of my job. AndI love that. I welcome in.
Ryan grew up with this, andI've been asking guys questions here on the
radio for twenty five years. I'mabout to go off the rails, okay,
every day, and my question isreally gonna be ask you to respond
to my my Okay, So,played in Dallas with Michael Irvin in a

(10:13):
Super Bowl champion year. Michael Irvinhad more than ten targets per game.
He had over one hundred and sixtyfor the season. So I am going
to get on my knees. I'mgonna I'm gonna pray to the Lord Grub,
will you please get DK Metcalf tenlegit targets per game? I think,

(10:33):
Look, this guy, in myeyes is the all time freak in
the history of the selcas at anyposition. Look I see Falts. There's
times where I give him minus onhis route, but the good things that
can happen that work. I justfeel like he's been underutilized. So my
question is what's your response to mebeing a dorky fan. Well, well,

(10:54):
number one, you know, Ihave no real idea you know,
how he was used or not usedas far as like what that preparation look
like. You know, you justyou never know when you're not in those
seats, So certainly wouldn't want toshed any bad light on that. But
you know, looking at DK andand how he fits our system and you
go back, you know, howevermany years or Fresno State or Washington,
you know there's gonna be a guylike him that's been isolated and you have

(11:18):
to be creative and work your tailoff to get that guy by himself,
you know, if if we can, yep, and if you can't,
you know, there's there was plentyof routes today that people wouldn't even have
noticed how well DK cleared out abackside, you know, and not just
by himself in a three by one. I'm saying two by two and he's
ripping windows open, and he's runningfast to get that window open. And

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you know, I think one ofthe things that's been so cool, and
I kind of alluded to it earlier, is it's easy to want to get
the ball to a guy like DKor Jack's or lock there. They're said
they practice hard. It means alot to him. Like the first time
I saw DK practice, I waslike, wow, mean, yeah,
that's what approach should look like,right, and and you have a certain

(12:03):
expectation. But it's like, it'sthe same reason I thought we had a
chance at Washington. You got thesehigh profile players that have low egos,
that that want to be great.And you know, for me, I
think that those those possibilities certainly withinthe framework of the offense. How's you
different than Rome? I mean he'sbigger, you know, I mean,
DK's he's a he's a he's abig guy. They were doing tackling circuit

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yesterday and they called for the offensiveguys, a DK stay here. You
know, I don't want want anycrazy ideas for my defensive guy, but
I do think there's some things justas far as like full on just speed,
like d K can really go.Like when you you say, wow,
he ran a four to three atthe com you can see it and
you feel that, and I justthink the presence part. And I still

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you know, Rome is still growing, so he may end up, you
know, playing a two twenty somethingyou know, like DK as well.
So I just think there's a sizedifference there, Brian. I love Ken
Walker. I don't know if Ilove him as much as he loves DK,
but it's close. And I lookat two hundred nineteen carries for nine
hundred yards four point one yards percarried ile, there's just so much more
there. How do you unlock thattalent? Well? I mean and again,

(13:09):
you know, coaches defending coaches,right, And I know the fans
will hate this, but there wasit was tough up front at times last
year. Got to hate we're beingif we're being honest, right, You're
right, it was. It washard, yeah, yeah, And but
I to to expound on what you'resaying. I think Ken is an elite
back. I think that his mistacklesforced at an NFL level is as good

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as it gets. He's got superiorhands, Kph Kennedy pal Malour running back
coaches doing an awesome job mentoring himin pass protection. I think that,
you know, I would love tosee him on the field more and third
down just for even the checkdown opportunitiesbecause he has he has probably far better
hands than people realize. I mean, he is really, really a good
pass catcher. Hey, before yougo, uh, this is a little

(13:56):
bit different. In the NFL,you get the wrap up sign from the
pr staff. When that happens,you better follow through or you end up
in the lake over here. ButI want to do one quick thing.
I want you to close your eyes. Listen to this. Jackson third and
nine. If they can take fifteenseconds off the clock, they're gonna win
the ball game. Toss sweep right, Dylan Johnson cuts up field. Oh
he's gonna go. We'll toss thethirty five thirty. He slides down to

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the twenty five. The Huskys aregonna win the twelve tenpions him Dylan Johnson,
did it? Do you believe that? Huskeys? When you hear that?
What goes through your mind? Man? Three to Oh there you go,
baby, you're a legend. You'rea damn legend. Now go be
a legend here, all right,no pressure, just go do the same
thing here. Ryan grow up withus. On the radio show we're gonna

(14:43):
break. Actually, we're gonna keepit right here for a few more minutes.
Thanks, Ryan, we'll talk somebuddy. Appreciate this man you throw
those back on. It is justI don't know when you have a guy
like this that stays in town,that accomplished as much as he did for
for Washington. I'm sorry, guys, but I had to get that in
before he took off, and justto get his thoughts on on that play
and what it meant to him.He'll never lose to Oregon. As long

(15:05):
as he waltks the face of theearth, he'll never lose to Oregon.
I want to go back to theword elite. He said he's got an
elite quarterback. He said he's gotan elite running back, and he says
he's got elite wide receiver. AndI think we have an elite play caller.
If you can just have some semblanceof an offensive line, Hugh,
this offense could be devastated. Ohwell, yeah, all the pieces are

(15:26):
there. Because I think that Iwas saying earlier that Kenneth Walker I think
is a better pro running back thanDylan Johnson was a college running back.
And I'm not trying to detegrate Dylan. You know, he went a Warrior,
total was undrafted and so so Ijust got water. So I think

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Kenneth Walker has ability to be atop five running back in this league.
I mean, it kind of shocksme this he's only he's only what about
ten picks behind or in front ofCharbonnay rather and I like sharbonizing a changeup
guy, but they're both second rounders. To me, I look at Kenneth
Walker and he's you know, asI said, a premiere back. Guys

(16:10):
stay healthy the same thing as thisguy. Stay healthy. I mean,
look the listeners. I mean,I you know, I was gonna ask
him JSN. You know, there'sexactly one hundred and fifty receivers that went
one hundred routes or more, andhe's ranked one hundred and forty second in
in uh average depth of target.Like they just didn't throw the ball to
there's Dick had twenty questions. Ihad twenty questions. You had twenty,

(16:33):
Like we had forty questions. Yeah, so you know what, you're a
slave to the to the schedule whenit comes to training camp in the NFL.
A little bit different in college footballbut we'll have him on again.
I was gonna ask him about wasit McDonald yesterday that said seven potential wide
receivers? I know you were.This is you're off the air conversation and
you blew me off. Yeah,left four what I got and you got
it. I got some potentially sevendeep. So that's a conversation for him

(16:55):
as well. But I actually knowwhat guys, I actually appreciated what he
said about Shane Waldron and the stackdeck he was playing with a year ago
with the offensive line, because it'snot taken three years to get this offensive
line, at least on paper towhere it's at right now. I mean
Cross and Lucas. All of asudden, you wake up. Those guys
are in the year three of theNFL. All lose in year two,

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right, George Fan coming back,Christian Haines in year one, Laken,
Tomlinson, the veterans. So thisoffensive line looks on paper as good as
it has for a couple of years. But just picking up, but what
Dick was saying, you have madeit crystal clear that you believe the pieces
they have on defense now can improvecollectively just because of Mike McDonald's scheme.
How much can the pieces on offenseimprove collectively just because of Ryan Grubb a

(17:38):
lot. I think that they canbe you know, you know the precision,
and it's all gonna be about theprotection now. As I mentioned,
and he was willing to accede toit. He says, hey, we
got to keep our quarterback up right. And what that means is out of
I don't have the number in frontof me, the pay, but I

(17:59):
know that Penni's had five hundred andseventy five passes last year attempts he had
about four hundred and thirty two timeswhere there was exactly a four man rush.
That's that standard. So don't quoteme exactly. I might be off
up, but call it four thirtyfour to thirty five out of five seventy
five five point fifty five attempts lastyear. Yeah, whatever, right.

(18:19):
I was the Huskies at five seventyfive because because the backups had a couple
more. But if you take thethe number of times that Grubb had six
or more protecting for against just afour man rush, he was at about
thirty seven thirty eight percent, whichwas fifty percent more than all his other

(18:41):
top opponents. I mean, theMichigan was like eighteen percent, so he's
at thirty seven percent eight So again, and he talked about it. Hey,
I'm willing to put pull guys inand have more blockers to build that
cocoon around Geno Smith so that he'supright, so that he has a tick

(19:02):
of an extra second to find thosetargets down the field. So is that
one of the reasons why we're theJoe Moore Offensive Line of the Year.
Him? No, Well, thatthat scheme is what I'm saying. Keeping
more guys in limits the sack numbers. I mean you win on stats,
right, I mean if the Huskiesgave up fourteen sacks last year, they
wouldn't have been the Joe Moore Awardwinners. So is that one of the
reasons why they won the award becauseof his scheme? Well, I would

(19:25):
say this, And David and Iare Heisman voters. I think the Heisman
voting and how they vet us,I think it's a joke and I think
Heisman Eisen voters. There's a lotof guys that haven't watched any tape.
They haven't watched, they barely watchgames. They've watched maybe Sports Center and
they go off high like because there'slike eleven hundred, there's eleven hundred,

(19:48):
especially West Coast games eleven. ButI've did some homework on that Joe Moore
Award you've got. There's like ninepanelists. They all played or coached,
and they all watched the game tape. They have a weekly meeting and they
discussed phil I actually think that therethat that is the most the premiere.

(20:10):
Now I don't I don't know aboutthe Bulittnikoff and everything, so let me
strike that I don't know. Butversus the Heisman Trophy, I can't say
that. I think it's way morelegit. I do think they study tape
and there can be two truth Ithink it can be a very legit process,
and it could be the line looksbetter because thirty seven percent of the

(20:30):
time they're keeping extra guys in solet guys are less on a on the
islands to get beat. So sothat to answer your question, I do
think it was a factor. Yeah, I'm just trying to think of a
coach. And again, I mean, this is all he's got to do
it. First, he hasn't evencoached a game. He hasn't called a
play, yet for the Seahawks.So we'll see what happens in September.

(20:51):
But the way it's trending, thepositive vibes, the good vibes, you
feel good about what Ryan Grubb isabout to do. We've we've seen it.
We haven't seen it here yet andit's a different animal. We'll see
right when it's all said and done. But I think the odds, I
mean, if you were a bettingman, you feel pretty good about it.
But he's got it. He's gonnaprove it, you know, just
thinking about a guy that's had animpact like that on the Seahawks and the
Huskies as a coach, and there'sthere's there's there's a handful, right,

(21:12):
you know, if guys out therethat Gilby for sure didn't have in with
both, but he never didn't haveYou'll never called plays freak. Mikel was
calling plays right. So he theoffense is his, The offense is his.
He is the head coach of theoffense. He has a And one
of the things that remains to beseen is how much authority is does McDonald
give this guy? Does he backoff? Is McDonald down there on the

(21:34):
end of the sideline with no headsetson letting grub from the booth or wherever
he's at call the plays without anyintervention whatsoever. We know Carol was involved
with the offense for sure. Howinvolved is not going to be well.
And the answer in November might bedifferent than the end total answer in September.
Of course, he might give himlatitude and then yeah, and then
in certain get certain situations like Iwas gonna ask him, is Mike McDonald

(21:56):
gonna let you go for it andfourth and one from your own twenty five
yard line like it did in theApple Cup? Well, if the playoffs
are on the line, yes,yes, I mean that was desperation at
that point in time in the AppleCup, right, So we'll see.
Maybe there's other moments where they won'tbe so desperate, but they'll let him
do it anyway. Who knows,But that was that could have also been
interpreted as, hey, let's beconservative, you know, let's just punt

(22:18):
it away and and hope our defensecan stop him. Like like that was
a ballsy ask question. That's mypoint that the boor had to run through
his headphones and say let's go.But here's the thing I love about Gruff.
He doesn't just call the play becauseit's on his sheet. He calls
it because he's been studying. Heknows on that formation how the the outside

(22:40):
linebacker is gonna he's gonna take ahard angle inside and he knows he's gonna
get the edge. We got abreak. We got a lot more to
get to from the Virginia Mason AtleticCenter. Mariners have made a big deal.
They made two of them since wewere last on the air. Steven
Sousa is gonna give us at bonustime at four o'clock today, right here
on ninety three to three KJRFM.