August 31, 2026 • 18 mins
Hugh Millen joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to discuss Aaron Donald joining the Rams officially yesterday, Jalen Milroe’s performance in the final Seahawks preseason game last week, Seattle’s cornerback and running back depth currently, how Rashid Shaheed factors in the Hawks’ receiver chart in 2026 and what he brings to the offense.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Duke of Duke Seafood, letting you know that
this hour of Softie and Dick on your home for
the Huskies and Kraken is proudly brought to you by
Duke Seafood. Why not make it a Duke's night tonight?
Reserve your table today at dukesseafood.com on Sports Radio 93.3.
KJR FM.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Aaron Donald, unretiring.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Yeah. Joining the Rams.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
One year, $ 20 million deal. Could be worth up to
$ 30 million.
Speaker 5 (00:24):
I think we should talk to our next guest about
that right now.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Let's just start right there.
Speaker 5 (00:28):
Because this wreaked the entire time of a guy that
wanted nothing to do with training camp and was going
to come back the minute training camp was over. And
that's what Aaron Donald just did. Uh, they get miles Garrett.
They also get Aaron Donald. So they get a kind
of a two for one deal there.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Right.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
But there'll be 35 years. Oh, he is 35.
Speaker 5 (00:45):
He'll be 36 in may. How much does the old
man have left in the tank? Well, speaking of old men,
Hugh Millen joins us right now on the radio program.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
How are you, bud?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Uh, I'm doing a little less well when I learned about, uh, uh, Donald, uh, but, uh, I, uh,
you know, I think we all anticipated this and, and
away we go. You know, they've got the Rams since
we last played them, the Rams have acquired the player
that has the most sacks in NFL history before the
(01:20):
age of 30. And by the way, it's not close.
He he's run away ahead of second and third place and, uh,
Trent McDuffie and all pro and, uh, you know, and,
donald and i keep wanting to say don't say donald
donald he has eight eight time first team all pro
and that's in addition to his rookie of the year
(01:41):
so uh he's a beast he's in the top four
defensive players i've ever seen in my life uh all
we can hope for is that you know he's he
you know father time and it took a little bite
out of him.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Well how much does it move the needle towards the
rams for you the fact that donald is now a
member of the rams i i.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I think a little bit for now, I want to see,
you know, I kind of like the idea that, that
we'll play them later. When, you know, maybe, maybe they're,
they've kind of gassed out who, who knows what will happen.
I'm not rooting for injuries necessarily, but, but let's just
kind of see. I can remember when the, the Redskins
few years back, they made all these incredible acquisitions, paid
(02:24):
a lot of money for a lot of stars. Seemed
like it was, you know, a pro bowl team they
were buying and, and they just didn't gel. And, And
they just kind of fell apart at the seams. And
so we can't say for sure that this is going
to come together, but it's certainly a challenge, to say
(02:46):
the least, on paper right now.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Hugh, 9-9 in the final preseason game. But Jalen Milrow,
we were looking for something from Jalen Milrow, and I
think we got something, right?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Maybe even a little more than something.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, I think he navigated the pocket very well. When
he moved, he was supposed to move when there was
times where he could stand in there and kind of
throw out of a phone booth.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
He did that.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I think his decisions about where the ball went were
very good. A quick check down he had was one
that he processed early, got the ball to tight end's
hands and got a good run after the catch. We
had seen too many times where he's quick to the
check down, and then you watch the tape and you're saying,
(03:36):
wait a minute, you're turning down professional completions down the field.
And so I feel like he was challenged in that
regard to push it. In the prior two preseason games,
he had three completions where the ball was 10 yards,
air yards, 10 yards or more from the line of scrimmage.
He had five on Friday. And four of them were
(03:59):
between the numbers where you have to kind of process
more defenders. And I won't go through all of the five,
but the anticipation on the intermediate stuff, you know, throwing
on time so he can get run after the catch,
you know, standing and his mechanics. He doesn't need to
really get his body behind the throw to generate a
(04:21):
lot of velocity. He can just kind of stand there
and snap his hips. I'd like to know how far
he can hit a golf ball because with hips like that,
you know, I would presume would be a long way.
You know, just the athleticism translated to quarterbacking and the
accuracy as well. But, you know, the movement, probably my
(04:43):
favorite play of it was the movement play where It
was a cover zero, all out blitz. He got six
guys blocking six, but he had to slide to his left,
then flip his hips around and throw to an in
route on man coverage. It was Henderson for a 26
yarder down to the one yard line. That was some
(05:03):
really elite level quarterbacking on that particular play. And so
very good night for him.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Great to advance.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I don't think that means we're out of the woods
with them. because it's one night, and we've seen him
six times, six preseason games. The regular season games, I'm
not going to count because he hasn't been given anything,
but it's nice to see that there was a big
jump in this last one.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
How does he help the Seahawks this year?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I don't think he does. I don't think there's any
sign that Mike McDonald wants to see a package for him. Now,
they may spring it on us on Wednesday night, and
then I'll confess to having been asleep at the wheel
at that possibility. But, you know, he didn't have but
(05:49):
one running attack, a rush attempt, I should say, on
a design run. And even that was, depending on how
you want to call a read zone keep, I mean,
the offensive line's blocking away to the right and he
keeps the ball in the alley, which he should. That's
a good decision. He got a touchdown and got called back.
But that's the first time he's kept the ball on
(06:10):
a design run or even a remotely, as I described,
semi-designed run. And so if Mike McDonald was looking to
see how that might have played out in the preseason,
he never showed it.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Let's go to the cornerback position, Hugh. What did you
see from Diggs, and what does it tell you that
John Schneider is trading for a corner on the 11th
hour before the regular season?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, it tells me what it tells you, apparently. You know,
I think that when you see the kind of activity
we've had in training camp with the corners, then they're
telling you right to your face that they're not liking
what they see in practice. And I think that the
(06:59):
guy that I was, you know, really had my spotlight
on was Nehemiah Pritchett because he came, he started, at
the very first practice with the number ones, then he
fell off. I think he's played better in the last
week or 10 days. And so I think maybe he's
(07:20):
rehabilitated himself, but they still feel like there's some holes there.
You know, they acquire Avery Smith, you know, that that's
probably just a very small upgrade. I tried to watch
some charger tape on him. It doesn't jump out at
me that he has a lot more upside than Andre
(07:43):
Fuller or D'Anthony Bell, but they watched more tape of
that than me. He has 141 snaps in the preseason,
which is a lot, only 52 are the outside, so
maybe that's suggestive that they really want that nickel spot,
what's often termed the star position, that strong outside linebacker
(08:03):
in the passing situation, or in the dime spot that
maybe he's He's thought to be that guy, but maybe
he's an outside guy. I don't know. I don't know
what their plans are for Avery Smith. He's freshly a Seahawk.
But all of the activity shows you that there's concern,
in my opinion.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
No question. Well, what about the running back spot?
Speaker 5 (08:22):
I mean, you've got three guys that have combined for
five NFL touchdowns. They've combined for 147 carries in their
NFL careers. and last year they went for 569 yards rushing.
I'm not including Price because he didn't play, but he's
part of it. He's a rookie. He's done nothing. So
(08:45):
you tell me about the depth at running back for
at least the first month of the year before Charbonnet
comes back. I don't think they have a two, and
I don't know if they have a one. I mean,
George Helani– I'll climb into an octagon and fight you
on that one. And now he's a valuable player to
the Seahawks because of his versatility. He's a nice utility
(09:06):
infielder who can play some outfield. There's a lot of
things he does. Just look at all his special teams
reps on all the different coverage units and kick units.
I think he's very good in the pass protection game.
He does a lot of things. But in terms of
first and 10, I'm going to hand this guy the ball.
(09:26):
You know, and I want to go to the Super Bowl?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
No. Emmanuel Wilson. I watched every single, I don't want
to say play, but I certainly saw every carry he
had with the Packers. You know, I think he's a
two at best. We'll see what he can show. So
he's somewhere. I'm open to the idea that he can
(09:49):
look like a two or a three, but I'm going
to have to You're going to have to really pour
in a lot of evidence to get me to to,
to say that Emmanuel Wilson is a, is one of
the top 32 running backs in the NFL. And then
that leaves Jadarian price. Let me go back to a
year ago. So, uh, first of all, let me remind you,
Jadarian price was the second running back in the, in
(10:11):
the draft, right? Right. Cause Jeremiah love was a top five. Well,
you had a very similar situation in 2000, and 25
in the draft, where you had Ashton Gentry in the
top 10, like Jeremiah Love, and then you had the
next guy was Amarian Hampton, 22nd pick, the second running
(10:35):
back in the draft, taken at the end of the
first round, just like Price. Amarian Hampton had, in that
last year at North Carolina, he had 26.6 touches per game.
With Jadarian Price, and by the way, when I say touches,
(10:57):
that's counting rushes and receiving. He had 23.4 rushes per game,
talking about Hampton. Meanwhile, Price, Jadarian Price, he had 9.9
touches last year. So you had a guy in the
same position a year ago that was at 27 touches
and And Price is under 10, you know, 9.4 carries,
(11:23):
by the way. So, you know, you're asking a lot
on a load who's a guy that my first thought
when I eyeballed him, actually, I'm going to go back
to draft night when I thought, wait a minute, on
his combine, he weighed 10 pounds less than his listed
weight at Notre Dame. So there's a concern for me
(11:44):
right off the bat from his His weight, and then
you see him in practice, his legs look kind of
wide receiver-ish. There's a lot to like about Jadarian Price.
Just the acceleration, the vision. He's a playmaker, for sure.
But he's going to get thumped. He's going to get
racked around, and we don't have that body of work
(12:07):
from his college days to suggest that he can take
the load. in the manner that I've been describing with
these numbers. So to me, there's enough of a question
mark that you're concerned since we're not talking about a
team that was 8-9 last year and then we're trying
to see if we can make the playoffs. You're trying
(12:28):
to go back-to-back. And there's more than one concern at
that running back position, in my opinion.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Hugh, let's go to wide receiver. We were discussing.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Shahid earlier on the show. And I said, you know,
I like Shahid, but I keep hearing Hugh Millen's voice.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
In my head.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
And I was saying that he's not a very good
wide receiver.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
And what I meant by that was there's very good
and there's something less than very good. And when you
say that there's no number two wide receiver on this team,
I'm assuming you don't believe that a very good wide
receiver would be a third wide receiver. But maybe you're wrong.
Maybe I'm wrong about that. Give us again your opinion
of him as a wide receiver.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Well, yeah, we're going to go into a thought. I
feel similar about the wide receivers that I do with
the running backs. I feel like there's kind of a
hole at the number two, that there's guys that look
like candidates to be the third, but nobody just leaps
out at me to be the second. All right, let's
talk about Shahid. You're paying $ 17 million. He'd be the
most likely candidate. Torrey Horton may come on when he
(13:30):
gets healthy, but we can focus on Shahid. Cup has
probably passed his prime to be really a legit two.
Maybe I'm wrong. He had a hell of a camp,
so maybe he's found the fountain of the youth. But
Let's go back to a year ago, 12 games for Shahid.
He was on a pace for 377 yards per game.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Like his– or excuse me, 377 for a 17-game season. Obviously,
not 377 yards per game.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
He was 22 yards per game.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Matches his jersey number. So you carry that out times 17,
that's 377.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
So– Um, what is it? Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
So those are the numbers he's, he, by the way,
he's in, he's played four years in the league. He's
never had a season, uh, where he's matched 720 yards
or more.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Right.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Uh, now last year he was on the pace with,
with the, uh, saints. He was on a pace to
hit nine 42, which would have been a career high
by over 200 yards. Um, but, but okay. Then now
throw on the tape the same way wide receiver looks
very innate and to Jackson Smith and jig, but he
has a feeling for how to set up a man
(14:39):
coverage guy in zone. He, he, he knows the timing of,
of how to, to make a move and then, and
then get into a hole, get quarterback friendly, turn his
numbers when the ball.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Is in the air.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
He tracks it right off the quarterback's hands. He'll even,
you know, on a deeper ball, he'll put his body
on a defender because he knows right, you know, like
a center fielder off the crack of a bat. He
knows where the ball is going and he puts his
body in a position to block and then he has
the late hands and the secure hands. All of the
things that you say, forget athleticism. What are unique skills
(15:18):
about a wide receiver? Well, JSN, we already have the model.
We see it. We see the highest level of wide
receiver nuanced skill on the planet, and we see them
every Sunday.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
So in.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
In Shahid, it's the opposite. Being a wide receiver looks difficult.
It takes him a long time to slow down. When
he does speed cuts, he throws his shoulder back, and
it's like pulling a parachute. When he goes into a zone,
he'll settle too early sometimes. Going towards the north zone,
(15:57):
I don't remember the opponent, but I remember a wide
open hole and, and Sam Darnold is smoking it into
this window. It would have been, it would have been
a 25 yard gain and, and Shahid slowed down too soon.
And it ends up looking like a bad pass. And
it's like Shahid somewhere. Somebody told him, remember now you
got to slow down in a zone.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Well, okay. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
You were slowing down in zone, but you slowed down
too soon and too close to the, the, the nearest defender,
you know, like, like, go into the hole where Darnold
knew it was on a deep ball. Uh, you know,
he starts to cross the corner's face and then he goes,
go back over top. Now the ball's way to the
inside and you look back and you go, how did
Darnold miss that, that post by so much? And he go, Oh,
(16:40):
because the wide receiver deked him, start, he started to
cross the face and went behind him. Like, like guys that,
you know, you know, JSN would just intuitively know, never
do that. And so, so all of the things, you know,
he's a beautiful runner, uh, My God, I mean, I
love watching him run. He's a two-time Pro Bowl guy
(17:01):
as a returner. So the skill and with the ball
in his hand, he is so fluid. So there's elements
of his athleticism, obviously, that are incredible. But, you know,
wide receiver, no. Now, today's his 28th birthday. Happy birthday, Rasheed.
And so we'll see what that means later. in terms
(17:23):
of his development, but it's not going to be a secret.
If we get midway through the season and he has
come on and he's hitting the numbers, we're not going
to wonder why. We're going to know the answer why.
Because he had an offseason with Sam Darnold. He was
acquired on November 4th. He didn't have the training camp.
He didn't have the offseason. And with all that work,
he and Sam Darnold developed a cohesion. that we're going
(17:47):
to know we're already going to reverse it. We can
reverse engineer that now. And we haven't even seen the
end product. If he becomes the guy, it's going to
be because of that.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
But until we see it, there's enough things that, that
I see the tape and I don't see an instinctive receiver.
You're asking me to say, okay, yeah, he's got to
get cohesion, but he's also got to become more instinctive.
Maybe cup can accelerate that process that helped JSN. So
maybe cup can help him. you know, kind of understand
the craft of receiving. So there's all good reasons to
(18:20):
be optimistic. But for me personally, until I see it,
I'm not saying he's a clear number two.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
All right, good stuff. We've got to run, and we
will talk on Friday before the Apple Cup, all right?
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Hammer down.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
All right, boys. All right, Hugh Millen with us. We're
going to break.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
Don't forget, speaking of the Apple Cup, the debut for
2026 of the Husky football coaches' show with Jed Fish,
Elyse Woodward, Damon Hewitt at 6 p.m. tonight from Eureka,
U Village. Hear that at 6 tonight right here on
93.3 KJRFM.
This is Duke of Duke Seafood, letting you know that
this hour of Softie and Dick on your home for
the Huskies and Kraken is proudly brought to you by
Duke Seafood. Why not make it a Duke's night tonight?
Reserve your table today at dukesseafood.com on Sports Radio 93.3.
KJR FM.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Aaron Donald, unretiring.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Yeah. Joining the Rams.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
One year, $ 20 million deal. Could be worth up to
$ 30 million.
Speaker 5 (00:24):
I think we should talk to our next guest about
that right now.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Let's just start right there.
Speaker 5 (00:28):
Because this wreaked the entire time of a guy that
wanted nothing to do with training camp and was going
to come back the minute training camp was over. And
that's what Aaron Donald just did. Uh, they get miles Garrett.
They also get Aaron Donald. So they get a kind
of a two for one deal there.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Right.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
But there'll be 35 years. Oh, he is 35.
Speaker 5 (00:45):
He'll be 36 in may. How much does the old
man have left in the tank? Well, speaking of old men,
Hugh Millen joins us right now on the radio program.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
How are you, bud?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Uh, I'm doing a little less well when I learned about, uh, uh, Donald, uh, but, uh, I, uh,
you know, I think we all anticipated this and, and
away we go. You know, they've got the Rams since
we last played them, the Rams have acquired the player
that has the most sacks in NFL history before the
(01:20):
age of 30. And by the way, it's not close.
He he's run away ahead of second and third place and, uh,
Trent McDuffie and all pro and, uh, you know, and,
donald and i keep wanting to say don't say donald
donald he has eight eight time first team all pro
and that's in addition to his rookie of the year
(01:41):
so uh he's a beast he's in the top four
defensive players i've ever seen in my life uh all
we can hope for is that you know he's he
you know father time and it took a little bite
out of him.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Well how much does it move the needle towards the
rams for you the fact that donald is now a
member of the rams i i.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I think a little bit for now, I want to see,
you know, I kind of like the idea that, that
we'll play them later. When, you know, maybe, maybe they're,
they've kind of gassed out who, who knows what will happen.
I'm not rooting for injuries necessarily, but, but let's just
kind of see. I can remember when the, the Redskins
few years back, they made all these incredible acquisitions, paid
(02:24):
a lot of money for a lot of stars. Seemed
like it was, you know, a pro bowl team they
were buying and, and they just didn't gel. And, And
they just kind of fell apart at the seams. And
so we can't say for sure that this is going
to come together, but it's certainly a challenge, to say
(02:46):
the least, on paper right now.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Hugh, 9-9 in the final preseason game. But Jalen Milrow,
we were looking for something from Jalen Milrow, and I
think we got something, right?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Maybe even a little more than something.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, I think he navigated the pocket very well. When
he moved, he was supposed to move when there was
times where he could stand in there and kind of
throw out of a phone booth.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
He did that.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I think his decisions about where the ball went were
very good. A quick check down he had was one
that he processed early, got the ball to tight end's
hands and got a good run after the catch. We
had seen too many times where he's quick to the
check down, and then you watch the tape and you're saying,
(03:36):
wait a minute, you're turning down professional completions down the field.
And so I feel like he was challenged in that
regard to push it. In the prior two preseason games,
he had three completions where the ball was 10 yards,
air yards, 10 yards or more from the line of scrimmage.
He had five on Friday. And four of them were
(03:59):
between the numbers where you have to kind of process
more defenders. And I won't go through all of the five,
but the anticipation on the intermediate stuff, you know, throwing
on time so he can get run after the catch,
you know, standing and his mechanics. He doesn't need to
really get his body behind the throw to generate a
(04:21):
lot of velocity. He can just kind of stand there
and snap his hips. I'd like to know how far
he can hit a golf ball because with hips like that,
you know, I would presume would be a long way.
You know, just the athleticism translated to quarterbacking and the
accuracy as well. But, you know, the movement, probably my
(04:43):
favorite play of it was the movement play where It
was a cover zero, all out blitz. He got six
guys blocking six, but he had to slide to his left,
then flip his hips around and throw to an in
route on man coverage. It was Henderson for a 26
yarder down to the one yard line. That was some
(05:03):
really elite level quarterbacking on that particular play. And so
very good night for him.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Great to advance.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I don't think that means we're out of the woods
with them. because it's one night, and we've seen him
six times, six preseason games. The regular season games, I'm
not going to count because he hasn't been given anything,
but it's nice to see that there was a big
jump in this last one.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
How does he help the Seahawks this year?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I don't think he does. I don't think there's any
sign that Mike McDonald wants to see a package for him. Now,
they may spring it on us on Wednesday night, and
then I'll confess to having been asleep at the wheel
at that possibility. But, you know, he didn't have but
(05:49):
one running attack, a rush attempt, I should say, on
a design run. And even that was, depending on how
you want to call a read zone keep, I mean,
the offensive line's blocking away to the right and he
keeps the ball in the alley, which he should. That's
a good decision. He got a touchdown and got called back.
But that's the first time he's kept the ball on
(06:10):
a design run or even a remotely, as I described,
semi-designed run. And so if Mike McDonald was looking to
see how that might have played out in the preseason,
he never showed it.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Let's go to the cornerback position, Hugh. What did you
see from Diggs, and what does it tell you that
John Schneider is trading for a corner on the 11th
hour before the regular season?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, it tells me what it tells you, apparently. You know,
I think that when you see the kind of activity
we've had in training camp with the corners, then they're
telling you right to your face that they're not liking
what they see in practice. And I think that the
(06:59):
guy that I was, you know, really had my spotlight
on was Nehemiah Pritchett because he came, he started, at
the very first practice with the number ones, then he
fell off. I think he's played better in the last
week or 10 days. And so I think maybe he's
(07:20):
rehabilitated himself, but they still feel like there's some holes there.
You know, they acquire Avery Smith, you know, that that's
probably just a very small upgrade. I tried to watch
some charger tape on him. It doesn't jump out at
me that he has a lot more upside than Andre
(07:43):
Fuller or D'Anthony Bell, but they watched more tape of
that than me. He has 141 snaps in the preseason,
which is a lot, only 52 are the outside, so
maybe that's suggestive that they really want that nickel spot,
what's often termed the star position, that strong outside linebacker
(08:03):
in the passing situation, or in the dime spot that
maybe he's He's thought to be that guy, but maybe
he's an outside guy. I don't know. I don't know
what their plans are for Avery Smith. He's freshly a Seahawk.
But all of the activity shows you that there's concern,
in my opinion.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
No question. Well, what about the running back spot?
Speaker 5 (08:22):
I mean, you've got three guys that have combined for
five NFL touchdowns. They've combined for 147 carries in their
NFL careers. and last year they went for 569 yards rushing.
I'm not including Price because he didn't play, but he's
part of it. He's a rookie. He's done nothing. So
(08:45):
you tell me about the depth at running back for
at least the first month of the year before Charbonnet
comes back. I don't think they have a two, and
I don't know if they have a one. I mean,
George Helani– I'll climb into an octagon and fight you
on that one. And now he's a valuable player to
the Seahawks because of his versatility. He's a nice utility
(09:06):
infielder who can play some outfield. There's a lot of
things he does. Just look at all his special teams
reps on all the different coverage units and kick units.
I think he's very good in the pass protection game.
He does a lot of things. But in terms of
first and 10, I'm going to hand this guy the ball.
(09:26):
You know, and I want to go to the Super Bowl?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
No. Emmanuel Wilson. I watched every single, I don't want
to say play, but I certainly saw every carry he
had with the Packers. You know, I think he's a
two at best. We'll see what he can show. So
he's somewhere. I'm open to the idea that he can
(09:49):
look like a two or a three, but I'm going
to have to You're going to have to really pour
in a lot of evidence to get me to to,
to say that Emmanuel Wilson is a, is one of
the top 32 running backs in the NFL. And then
that leaves Jadarian price. Let me go back to a
year ago. So, uh, first of all, let me remind you,
Jadarian price was the second running back in the, in
(10:11):
the draft, right? Right. Cause Jeremiah love was a top five. Well,
you had a very similar situation in 2000, and 25
in the draft, where you had Ashton Gentry in the
top 10, like Jeremiah Love, and then you had the
next guy was Amarian Hampton, 22nd pick, the second running
(10:35):
back in the draft, taken at the end of the
first round, just like Price. Amarian Hampton had, in that
last year at North Carolina, he had 26.6 touches per game.
With Jadarian Price, and by the way, when I say touches,
(10:57):
that's counting rushes and receiving. He had 23.4 rushes per game,
talking about Hampton. Meanwhile, Price, Jadarian Price, he had 9.9
touches last year. So you had a guy in the
same position a year ago that was at 27 touches
and And Price is under 10, you know, 9.4 carries,
(11:23):
by the way. So, you know, you're asking a lot
on a load who's a guy that my first thought
when I eyeballed him, actually, I'm going to go back
to draft night when I thought, wait a minute, on
his combine, he weighed 10 pounds less than his listed
weight at Notre Dame. So there's a concern for me
(11:44):
right off the bat from his His weight, and then
you see him in practice, his legs look kind of
wide receiver-ish. There's a lot to like about Jadarian Price.
Just the acceleration, the vision. He's a playmaker, for sure.
But he's going to get thumped. He's going to get
racked around, and we don't have that body of work
(12:07):
from his college days to suggest that he can take
the load. in the manner that I've been describing with
these numbers. So to me, there's enough of a question
mark that you're concerned since we're not talking about a
team that was 8-9 last year and then we're trying
to see if we can make the playoffs. You're trying
(12:28):
to go back-to-back. And there's more than one concern at
that running back position, in my opinion.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Hugh, let's go to wide receiver. We were discussing.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Shahid earlier on the show. And I said, you know,
I like Shahid, but I keep hearing Hugh Millen's voice.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
In my head.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
And I was saying that he's not a very good
wide receiver.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
And what I meant by that was there's very good
and there's something less than very good. And when you
say that there's no number two wide receiver on this team,
I'm assuming you don't believe that a very good wide
receiver would be a third wide receiver. But maybe you're wrong.
Maybe I'm wrong about that. Give us again your opinion
of him as a wide receiver.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Well, yeah, we're going to go into a thought. I
feel similar about the wide receivers that I do with
the running backs. I feel like there's kind of a
hole at the number two, that there's guys that look
like candidates to be the third, but nobody just leaps
out at me to be the second. All right, let's
talk about Shahid. You're paying $ 17 million. He'd be the
most likely candidate. Torrey Horton may come on when he
(13:30):
gets healthy, but we can focus on Shahid. Cup has
probably passed his prime to be really a legit two.
Maybe I'm wrong. He had a hell of a camp,
so maybe he's found the fountain of the youth. But
Let's go back to a year ago, 12 games for Shahid.
He was on a pace for 377 yards per game.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Like his– or excuse me, 377 for a 17-game season. Obviously,
not 377 yards per game.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
He was 22 yards per game.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Matches his jersey number. So you carry that out times 17,
that's 377.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
So– Um, what is it? Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
So those are the numbers he's, he, by the way,
he's in, he's played four years in the league. He's
never had a season, uh, where he's matched 720 yards
or more.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Right.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Uh, now last year he was on the pace with,
with the, uh, saints. He was on a pace to
hit nine 42, which would have been a career high
by over 200 yards. Um, but, but okay. Then now
throw on the tape the same way wide receiver looks
very innate and to Jackson Smith and jig, but he
has a feeling for how to set up a man
(14:39):
coverage guy in zone. He, he, he knows the timing of,
of how to, to make a move and then, and
then get into a hole, get quarterback friendly, turn his
numbers when the ball.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Is in the air.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
He tracks it right off the quarterback's hands. He'll even,
you know, on a deeper ball, he'll put his body
on a defender because he knows right, you know, like
a center fielder off the crack of a bat. He
knows where the ball is going and he puts his
body in a position to block and then he has
the late hands and the secure hands. All of the
things that you say, forget athleticism. What are unique skills
(15:18):
about a wide receiver? Well, JSN, we already have the model.
We see it. We see the highest level of wide
receiver nuanced skill on the planet, and we see them
every Sunday.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
So in.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
In Shahid, it's the opposite. Being a wide receiver looks difficult.
It takes him a long time to slow down. When
he does speed cuts, he throws his shoulder back, and
it's like pulling a parachute. When he goes into a zone,
he'll settle too early sometimes. Going towards the north zone,
(15:57):
I don't remember the opponent, but I remember a wide
open hole and, and Sam Darnold is smoking it into
this window. It would have been, it would have been
a 25 yard gain and, and Shahid slowed down too soon.
And it ends up looking like a bad pass. And
it's like Shahid somewhere. Somebody told him, remember now you
got to slow down in a zone.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Well, okay. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
You were slowing down in zone, but you slowed down
too soon and too close to the, the, the nearest defender,
you know, like, like, go into the hole where Darnold
knew it was on a deep ball. Uh, you know,
he starts to cross the corner's face and then he goes,
go back over top. Now the ball's way to the
inside and you look back and you go, how did
Darnold miss that, that post by so much? And he go, Oh,
(16:40):
because the wide receiver deked him, start, he started to
cross the face and went behind him. Like, like guys that,
you know, you know, JSN would just intuitively know, never
do that. And so, so all of the things, you know,
he's a beautiful runner, uh, My God, I mean, I
love watching him run. He's a two-time Pro Bowl guy
(17:01):
as a returner. So the skill and with the ball
in his hand, he is so fluid. So there's elements
of his athleticism, obviously, that are incredible. But, you know,
wide receiver, no. Now, today's his 28th birthday. Happy birthday, Rasheed.
And so we'll see what that means later. in terms
(17:23):
of his development, but it's not going to be a secret.
If we get midway through the season and he has
come on and he's hitting the numbers, we're not going
to wonder why. We're going to know the answer why.
Because he had an offseason with Sam Darnold. He was
acquired on November 4th. He didn't have the training camp.
He didn't have the offseason. And with all that work,
he and Sam Darnold developed a cohesion. that we're going
(17:47):
to know we're already going to reverse it. We can
reverse engineer that now. And we haven't even seen the
end product. If he becomes the guy, it's going to
be because of that.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
But until we see it, there's enough things that, that
I see the tape and I don't see an instinctive receiver.
You're asking me to say, okay, yeah, he's got to
get cohesion, but he's also got to become more instinctive.
Maybe cup can accelerate that process that helped JSN. So
maybe cup can help him. you know, kind of understand
the craft of receiving. So there's all good reasons to
(18:20):
be optimistic. But for me personally, until I see it,
I'm not saying he's a clear number two.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
All right, good stuff. We've got to run, and we
will talk on Friday before the Apple Cup, all right?
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Hammer down.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
All right, boys. All right, Hugh Millen with us. We're
going to break.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
Don't forget, speaking of the Apple Cup, the debut for
2026 of the Husky football coaches' show with Jed Fish,
Elyse Woodward, Damon Hewitt at 6 p.m. tonight from Eureka,
U Village. Hear that at 6 tonight right here on
93.3 KJRFM.
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