September 9, 2026 • 18 mins
Hugh Millen joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the Seattle Seahawks new ownership family put in front of the press today, Brian Fleury’s age of 47, the team missing Nick Emmanwori in the opener tonight, what Drake Maye and the Patriots can do, Jadarian Price taking over at starting running back, and Rashid Shaheed’s impact.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, joining us right now on the radio show,
no better way to get this thing going, no better
preview we want more than our friend Hugh Millen to
break this thing down with the Seahawks and Patriots today
coming up at 520. Hughie, how are you, man?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I'm doing great. It's here. Yeah, it's here. It's going
to be electric.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah, there's a lot to talk about. Why don't we
first of all start off, before we talk football, with
your thoughts on what happened off the field today. The
Coastal family, press conference at Lumen Field. Neera, Vinod, and Neil,
the three of them. I'm sure you watched it. I'm
sure you saw some clips from the press conference. What'd
you make of what you heard and saw?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, I think they said mostly the right things, seem
very likable. Certainly they are high achievers and then some,
all three of them in their own right. I would
have asked, how do you characterize your sense of Paul
Allen and Jody Allen's involvement with the team? And how
will you be different, maybe more, maybe less, what have you?
(01:01):
That would be a question that I'd want to know.
I'm not sure he would have given a candid answer,
but I thought they were very engaging. And, you know,
I particularly made note of Neil because he's liable to
be the guy that is the long term steward of
this franchise. And there seemed to be a confidence in him.
I mean, he made me laugh out loud when when
(01:23):
the nod, I hope I said his name right. said
that we're not fancy people. And his son interrupts him
and says, you just ordered a sport coat custom, you know,
from Italy. What are we talking about here? Like the
ability to bust his dad's chops a little bit right
there on the fly. So, look, does that mean that
he's going to be a good owner? How the hell
(01:45):
do I know? I know this. You don't evaluate a
pilot on how he steers a plane in, you know,
sunny skies. you evaluate when the wind shear hits or
a flock of seagulls hit your engine. And until that happens,
we just don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Hugh, in the last segment, we played a cut from
Colin Coward, who is noted Seahawk believer this year, but
he said, Maybe his number one concern is the fact
that Ryan Fleury has never called a play in an
NFL regular season game, and he's 47 years of age.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I thought that last part was interesting. Is that a.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Concern that he got almost to a half a century
and never got hired by any team to call a play?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Potentially. I mean, basically all you can do is run
correlation numbers. Who are the most elite, considered the most
elite play callers, and what's the propensity that they had
really shined? In their 30s, well, it turns out that's
actually pretty strong. I mean, you look at Sean McVay,
Kyle Shanahan. We can go through this. Ben Johnson. Yeah,
(02:50):
Ben Johnson, Mike McDonald, even Jesse Minter. I think that
absolutely you'd say most of them, Collins got a point. Now,
not all. And so you just, you, for me, my
faith in Brian Flory is because Mike McDonald has faith
(03:14):
in Brian Flory. They had certainly extensive interviews and, and
I think that Mike McDonald's vision of how pro football
should look is so complete that he also understands how
it's supposed to look on offense. And of course he
was the guy that, that, that bounced grub after one
year and had a different vision. So, so that that's,
(03:35):
the basis for my, you know, I don't want to
say I'm calm about it, but that at least has
me somewhat optimistic. But until we see how he does it,
how he handles it, and really the number one thing
I'm looking for today, you know, the operation, obviously. You know,
are you having false starts and getting late, getting out
(03:56):
of the huddle and delay of games or anything? That
would be horrible. But the next thing is, how do
you handle blitz? And in the Super Bowl... The Patriots
had a hell of a blitz package. Sam Darnold and
under the direction of Clint Kubiak, they had their parameters
how they were going to handle it. They handled it
pretty damn well. Now, Darnold technically had more pressures against
(04:19):
him than the Seahawks defense posed against Drake May. And yet,
Darnold just handled it so much better. A good part
of that's coaching. We'll see how that goes tonight. But
that's really what I'm looking for.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
All right, well, I tell you what you're not going
to see is Nicky Manwari. He has been ruled out
along with Ty Okada. And I remember when Nicky Manwari
first got hurt, there were some folks around saying, ah,
no big deal, whatever, he'll be fine, blah, blah, blah,
not concerned. You were the one that I remember was
concerned the most from the start. And now here we are.
(04:52):
So all the people out there that were trying to
poo-poo this as a nothing burger, the guy's not going
to play. And then you wonder, is he going to
play next week? And then when he does come back, Hugh,
how problematic is that ankle going to be as the
season goes on? So talk about Eamon Worry and how
significant this is for him that he's not playing tonight.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
It's very concerning to me. It was concerning then when
he was on the PUP because then you're just saying, wait,
what in the hell has happened here? We got a
sprained ankle in a few days before the Super Bowl
that allowed him to play, and then there's two words.
My concern is based on two words in our language, okay?
One is lingering. Do we like the word lingering when
(05:32):
we talk about? No, we do not. Yeah, and then
it's really, really evil language. sibling like like you know
sid dick you know in a toy story you got
kids you know you remember sid you know it was
you know you know defacing all the toys yeah well
the the sid of lingering is chronic and i i
(05:58):
do not want to have lingering uh we're already seeing
the signs of lingering and then chronic ends up in
a whole nother realm and you know i just was
teammates with uh i'm going to Mention one that most
people know if you're a football fan, Shannon Sharp. He
had a chronic ankle, and he couldn't practice. He would
limp in practice. He was constantly in the training room,
(06:20):
icing and getting shots before games, injections. And this beautiful athlete,
this incredible physique and specimen and a Hall of Fame player, right? Um,
but he just had this ankle and, and I could
list others. I'm not going to go through my career
and my teammates, but, but yeah, it's, um, it's concerning.
And here we are. We had somebody on our way,
(06:40):
airwaves come on and say that his concern lever was
in the negatives as in zero is neutral. Negatives would
be like the inverse of, of being concerned. And I
still have a bruise on my forehead from my own
palm when I heard that. I'm like, what? We have
a negative concern? We're going to rate our concern level
(07:01):
to this to be a negative? So here we are.
I don't want to say it's heartbreaking. That would be overboard.
But it's a real disappointment because... because Eamon Warrie in
year two is just primed to have this first-team NFL
all-pro type of season under the direction of Mike McDonald.
(07:23):
He's so versatile. He's one of one. And Seattle's going
to try to replace him, but there's nobody on that
roster that can replace him. You're going to have to
take several men to replace him.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
So, Hugh, Drake May clearly in February did not have
the ability or the weapons to exploit the Hawks' healthy secondary.
Does Drake May in September have the ability and the
weapons to exploit a banged up secondary? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
You know, here's the thing about Drake May. Look, I
understand based on how he played in the playoffs, you know,
that we're just kind of Drake May. And I've heard
a lot of that chatter. You know, the Patriots were
9-0 on the road last year. They won playoffs on
the road. He, Drake May, he was number one in
the following stats. I won't give the numbers. I'll just
(08:10):
tell you that he was number one in the NFL
in passer rating, adjusted net yards per attempt, explosive play rate, EPA,
expected point added per dropback, which is kind of the
new darling statistic for Sabre matricians. He then had a
big-time fall-off, won't cite the numbers. You know, expected completion percentage.
(08:31):
He was number one in the NFL. So this guy
was deserving of missing out on that MVP. Now he
gets A.J. Brown. Romeo Dobbs is really just kind of
your garden variety number two, but that's an upgrade given
how weak the Patriots were. And then A.J. Brown, if
there's one man on planet Earth who has more in
(08:53):
common in all attributes with D.K. Metcalfe, It's A.J. Brown,
and he can be a load. We know that. I mean,
he's a guy that was the AP Offensive Player of
the Year a few years ago at 1,500 yards receiving.
So he's going to be a problem, and I think
it's one of the reasons why, with Reek Woolen and
all of his length at 6'4, he's now a Philadelphia Eagle.
(09:16):
All of the hand-wringing that you saw from John Schneider
in terms of the– cornerback acquisitions and flirtations and what
have you this August says to me they don't feel
quite right, and A.J. Brown has a chance. He's got
the ability to exploit that tonight. Mike McDonald's going to
have to watch the coverages and roll to A.J. Brown
(09:40):
if he needs to and be mindful because now the
Patriots had a playmaker they didn't have in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Well, Hugh Millen's with us. Jadarian Price is going to
play in his first football game since November 29th. of
last year, because you remember the Fighting Irish did not
get into the CFP, and Marcus Freeman said, we're not
doing a bowl game, and he pulled the plug. Remember that?
So the last game, Jadarian Price played, and he had
six carries for 15 yards and a touchdown against Stanford,
(10:07):
a 49-20 win. We did not see him play in
the preseason. So I'm wondering if there's going to be
a little bit of potential rust on Jadarian Price tonight,
maybe early in this game. Do you worry about him
being sloppy, maybe putting the ball on the ground because
of that potentially? How much do you expect Brian Fleury
to lean on Jadarian Price tonight in the opener?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Well, I think he's going to need to. And this
is kind of one of those, you know, this is
the fallout from the type of economic structure we have
in the NFL. I mean, this would be an example
where Scott Boris would come on and say, hey, why
should the Seahawks have to– to let a Super Bowl
MVP go. Now, you could say that this drives all
(10:52):
of the competitiveness and what have you. So here you
are having to rely on a rookie who had four fumbles. Dave,
you mentioned it. There is number three in the draft class.
So that's a concern. There's a concern about his durability,
where he had under 10 touches per game last year.
He never had a season of 125 carries in a year.
(11:15):
No first-round draft pick running back ever could make that claim.
So he just hasn't carried the workload. I mentioned to
you eyeballing him and then his listed weights, which are
at the combine, exactly 10 pounds less than the program
weight from Notre Dame. He's lighter. He looks thinner to
(11:36):
the eye. I mean, you stand next to Kenneth Walker.
That is a unique human being. He's short and he's stocky,
and yet in that package, He had incredible bursts, his
10-yard splits, his 40 yards, and what have you. That's
why he's a Super Bowl MVP. He's a unique specimen.
When you look at Jadarian Price, you just kind of say, like, hey,
he kind of looks a little bit like a thick
slot receiver. And so you're– which is a good bit
(12:00):
less than the hits you're going to take when you're
an NFL running back. So you hold your breath. We
understand the economic– terms and situations that led to tonight.
Hopefully they scouted well and this guy can have a
great debut. Now he did force missed tackles on 26.9%
of his touches last year for Notre Dame. That was
(12:22):
number one in the entire draft class. This guy can
make you miss. He's got some acceleration to him. So
it's going to be fun to watch him and see
how he adapts. There's a skill set in him that
But there's certainly enough of these factors that leave you
to be legitimately concerned about where we are at running back.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Hugh, I'm interested to hear your take on the role
of Rashid Shahid and if it's going to be significantly
different than it was last year.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
I just looked it up.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Rashid Shahid is the 32nd highest paid wide receiver in football. Now,
that's an interesting number, right?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
That's... You should have one on each team, right?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
So he is paid by definition as a low, low
end wide receiver one. How much creativity do you anticipate
they have with him this year?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Well, you know what his jersey number is, correct? Sorry
to put you on the spot.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
22.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
22.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
He wears a halfback number, right? 22, that's his average
yards receiving per game as a Seahawk.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
By the way, Hugh, do you like the fact that
I said that with a little bit of 22? Oh,
I'm terrible at numbers. Because you asked that question. I'm like,
you know, you're the numbers guy. And every now and
then I get it right, but just a 1% chance
I get it wrong.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I'm going to be an idiot if I can't get
his number right. Hey, listen, radio pop quizzes are not fun.
I get it.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
They're not at all.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
You're damn right I know his number. Then all of
a sudden you're like, then the lights, the Klieg lights
are on you. You're like, I don't know his freaking number.
But where's jersey number 22, which let that be a
symbol for his 22 yards per game average from a
year ago. You multiply that out by 17, that's 377
(14:07):
yards for these season guys. That's not enough for $ 17 million.
Not when you let Kenneth Walker out the door for
$ 14 million. Now, he is the most feared punt and
kickoff combined returner in the league. I'll give you that.
And that is certainly not insignificant. That is, in fact, significant.
But I do think that based on what they– that contract,
(14:31):
it has an expectation with it. that you're going to
produce more than 22 yards receiving per game. And the
basis for that is the offseason, the training camp, the
cohesion that should have been built with Sam Darnold, and
I expect we'll see that. But there are still things
that are just innately difficult to for his intuition as
(14:55):
a receiver i'm not going to you know we could
go a whole segment on how jsn is is an
intuitive receiver he's not but he can you know with
that speed he doesn't have to be jsn uh he
won't be of course he'll never be but if he
can just improve a little bit hey hey what's how
do i get quarterback friendly when i come into a
zone i turn my numbers How do I recognize, you know,
(15:16):
do I need to take so many steps when I
make a stop route? Can I get my chin over
my toes, drop my hips a little better? Like technique
parts of being a receiver that I think watching the tape,
he needs to have. Hopefully with this added time with
the Seahawk, it can show with his match with Darnold tonight.
(15:37):
Let me ask you a quick question.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Three years 51 for Shahid, three years 43 for Kenny Walker.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Which one would you have paid out? Yeah, yeah, I just,
I think I would have been reluctant to part with
Kenneth Walker. I just, yeah. Is neither an option?
Speaker 1 (15:54):
No, you got to pick one.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
You got to pick one.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Because you, I just wonder this, and Dick, you made
the point on the morning show this morning that he's
going to get beat to death in Kansas City. They're
going to use him a lot.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
That would not have been the case here, though.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
He would have been used differently in Seattle than he
would have been used in Kansas City. So I could
see Kenny Walker getting hurt in Kansas City. And all
of us saying, oh, that's the right call by John.
Bull crap, because it's all about what he would have
been doing here in Seattle.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
But in October, none of us wanted Kenny Walker back.
And then he blew up.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I mean, you know, look, I was talking to a guy.
I won't tell you who it is, but his name
rhymes with Kevin Harlan, who made the point that Kenny
Walker may have just pulled a Joe Flacco and had
a great end of the year and then turned that
into a massive fat contract. with Kansas City, but, Hugh,
I'm kind of 50-50 on this, man. I just hope
(16:44):
that we're not sitting here in November asking ourselves, why
the hell didn't we pick Kenny Walker?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah, I mean, here they are, an outside zone team,
and you had Kenneth Walker at 5.7, and you had
Charbonnet at 4.5, over a yard difference per attempt. I mean,
that's like the difference between the middle of the pack
and being at the top, so I always thought that Walker...
Whether he had 15 yards in a game or 115
(17:11):
yards in a game, I thought it was always based
on how everything was blocked, and I just think that
he has an ability to create more than Charbonnet or
anybody else. Now, if Price comes in here and plays
to a high level, certainly, hell, he's a first-rounder. We
could go through the Jameer Gibbs and the Cooks and
(17:35):
Derek Henrys, the second-round draft picks. uh, are, have, have in,
in some ways blown away, even the first round draft pick.
So he being the 32nd pick in the draft, there's
every bit of a, a, a reasonable reason to, to,
to believe that he can be, you know, a top
10 back. Um, but until we see it, I think
it was a gamble. I think it was a gamble
(17:56):
for the Superbowl champions, but, but, uh, Certainly when you
consider the guys making the decision, you have to say
reasonable minds can differ. Of course they're reasonable. But we'll
just see if they look back. But they're not inerrant.
It's not as if they've never made a decision that
they haven't regretted. So let's see. It would have been
a safer pick, a safer decision, I should say, to
(18:20):
stick with K-9. This is more of a gamble. We'll
see how it works starting tonight.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
All right, Hugh, you'll be on postgame with Dick as
soon as the game is over.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Great stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
And we promise we're going to be pop quizzing you
all night long, so be ready.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Go Hawks. My first question for him is what number
does Rasheed Shaheed wear?
Speaker 1 (18:38):
What number does Torrey Horton wear? Hey, Hugh, what number
did Torrey Horton wear?
Speaker 3 (18:42):
15, right?
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Ah, you gave it away. I got it.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
All right, we're going to break. We're going to talk
to Neil Kosla. one of the new owners of the Seahawks.
His mom and dad just bought the team. We'll chat
with him next on 93.3 KJRFM.
All right, joining us right now on the radio show,
no better way to get this thing going, no better
preview we want more than our friend Hugh Millen to
break this thing down with the Seahawks and Patriots today
coming up at 520. Hughie, how are you, man?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I'm doing great. It's here. Yeah, it's here. It's going
to be electric.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yeah, there's a lot to talk about. Why don't we
first of all start off, before we talk football, with
your thoughts on what happened off the field today. The
Coastal family, press conference at Lumen Field. Neera, Vinod, and Neil,
the three of them. I'm sure you watched it. I'm
sure you saw some clips from the press conference. What'd
you make of what you heard and saw?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, I think they said mostly the right things, seem
very likable. Certainly they are high achievers and then some,
all three of them in their own right. I would
have asked, how do you characterize your sense of Paul
Allen and Jody Allen's involvement with the team? And how
will you be different, maybe more, maybe less, what have you?
(01:01):
That would be a question that I'd want to know.
I'm not sure he would have given a candid answer,
but I thought they were very engaging. And, you know,
I particularly made note of Neil because he's liable to
be the guy that is the long term steward of
this franchise. And there seemed to be a confidence in him.
I mean, he made me laugh out loud when when
(01:23):
the nod, I hope I said his name right. said
that we're not fancy people. And his son interrupts him
and says, you just ordered a sport coat custom, you know,
from Italy. What are we talking about here? Like the
ability to bust his dad's chops a little bit right
there on the fly. So, look, does that mean that
he's going to be a good owner? How the hell
(01:45):
do I know? I know this. You don't evaluate a
pilot on how he steers a plane in, you know,
sunny skies. you evaluate when the wind shear hits or
a flock of seagulls hit your engine. And until that happens,
we just don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Hugh, in the last segment, we played a cut from
Colin Coward, who is noted Seahawk believer this year, but
he said, Maybe his number one concern is the fact
that Ryan Fleury has never called a play in an
NFL regular season game, and he's 47 years of age.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I thought that last part was interesting. Is that a.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Concern that he got almost to a half a century
and never got hired by any team to call a play?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Potentially. I mean, basically all you can do is run
correlation numbers. Who are the most elite, considered the most
elite play callers, and what's the propensity that they had
really shined? In their 30s, well, it turns out that's
actually pretty strong. I mean, you look at Sean McVay,
Kyle Shanahan. We can go through this. Ben Johnson. Yeah,
(02:50):
Ben Johnson, Mike McDonald, even Jesse Minter. I think that
absolutely you'd say most of them, Collins got a point. Now,
not all. And so you just, you, for me, my
faith in Brian Flory is because Mike McDonald has faith
(03:14):
in Brian Flory. They had certainly extensive interviews and, and
I think that Mike McDonald's vision of how pro football
should look is so complete that he also understands how
it's supposed to look on offense. And of course he
was the guy that, that, that bounced grub after one
year and had a different vision. So, so that that's,
(03:35):
the basis for my, you know, I don't want to
say I'm calm about it, but that at least has
me somewhat optimistic. But until we see how he does it,
how he handles it, and really the number one thing
I'm looking for today, you know, the operation, obviously. You know,
are you having false starts and getting late, getting out
(03:56):
of the huddle and delay of games or anything? That
would be horrible. But the next thing is, how do
you handle blitz? And in the Super Bowl... The Patriots
had a hell of a blitz package. Sam Darnold and
under the direction of Clint Kubiak, they had their parameters
how they were going to handle it. They handled it
pretty damn well. Now, Darnold technically had more pressures against
(04:19):
him than the Seahawks defense posed against Drake May. And yet,
Darnold just handled it so much better. A good part
of that's coaching. We'll see how that goes tonight. But
that's really what I'm looking for.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
All right, well, I tell you what you're not going
to see is Nicky Manwari. He has been ruled out
along with Ty Okada. And I remember when Nicky Manwari
first got hurt, there were some folks around saying, ah,
no big deal, whatever, he'll be fine, blah, blah, blah,
not concerned. You were the one that I remember was
concerned the most from the start. And now here we are.
(04:52):
So all the people out there that were trying to
poo-poo this as a nothing burger, the guy's not going
to play. And then you wonder, is he going to
play next week? And then when he does come back, Hugh,
how problematic is that ankle going to be as the
season goes on? So talk about Eamon Worry and how
significant this is for him that he's not playing tonight.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
It's very concerning to me. It was concerning then when
he was on the PUP because then you're just saying, wait,
what in the hell has happened here? We got a
sprained ankle in a few days before the Super Bowl
that allowed him to play, and then there's two words.
My concern is based on two words in our language, okay?
One is lingering. Do we like the word lingering when
(05:32):
we talk about? No, we do not. Yeah, and then
it's really, really evil language. sibling like like you know
sid dick you know in a toy story you got
kids you know you remember sid you know it was
you know you know defacing all the toys yeah well
the the sid of lingering is chronic and i i
(05:58):
do not want to have lingering uh we're already seeing
the signs of lingering and then chronic ends up in
a whole nother realm and you know i just was
teammates with uh i'm going to Mention one that most
people know if you're a football fan, Shannon Sharp. He
had a chronic ankle, and he couldn't practice. He would
limp in practice. He was constantly in the training room,
(06:20):
icing and getting shots before games, injections. And this beautiful athlete,
this incredible physique and specimen and a Hall of Fame player, right? Um,
but he just had this ankle and, and I could
list others. I'm not going to go through my career
and my teammates, but, but yeah, it's, um, it's concerning.
And here we are. We had somebody on our way,
(06:40):
airwaves come on and say that his concern lever was
in the negatives as in zero is neutral. Negatives would
be like the inverse of, of being concerned. And I
still have a bruise on my forehead from my own
palm when I heard that. I'm like, what? We have
a negative concern? We're going to rate our concern level
(07:01):
to this to be a negative? So here we are.
I don't want to say it's heartbreaking. That would be overboard.
But it's a real disappointment because... because Eamon Warrie in
year two is just primed to have this first-team NFL
all-pro type of season under the direction of Mike McDonald.
(07:23):
He's so versatile. He's one of one. And Seattle's going
to try to replace him, but there's nobody on that
roster that can replace him. You're going to have to
take several men to replace him.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
So, Hugh, Drake May clearly in February did not have
the ability or the weapons to exploit the Hawks' healthy secondary.
Does Drake May in September have the ability and the
weapons to exploit a banged up secondary? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
You know, here's the thing about Drake May. Look, I
understand based on how he played in the playoffs, you know,
that we're just kind of Drake May. And I've heard
a lot of that chatter. You know, the Patriots were
9-0 on the road last year. They won playoffs on
the road. He, Drake May, he was number one in
the following stats. I won't give the numbers. I'll just
(08:10):
tell you that he was number one in the NFL
in passer rating, adjusted net yards per attempt, explosive play rate, EPA,
expected point added per dropback, which is kind of the
new darling statistic for Sabre matricians. He then had a
big-time fall-off, won't cite the numbers. You know, expected completion percentage.
(08:31):
He was number one in the NFL. So this guy
was deserving of missing out on that MVP. Now he
gets A.J. Brown. Romeo Dobbs is really just kind of
your garden variety number two, but that's an upgrade given
how weak the Patriots were. And then A.J. Brown, if
there's one man on planet Earth who has more in
(08:53):
common in all attributes with D.K. Metcalfe, It's A.J. Brown,
and he can be a load. We know that. I mean,
he's a guy that was the AP Offensive Player of
the Year a few years ago at 1,500 yards receiving.
So he's going to be a problem, and I think
it's one of the reasons why, with Reek Woolen and
all of his length at 6'4, he's now a Philadelphia Eagle.
(09:16):
All of the hand-wringing that you saw from John Schneider
in terms of the– cornerback acquisitions and flirtations and what
have you this August says to me they don't feel
quite right, and A.J. Brown has a chance. He's got
the ability to exploit that tonight. Mike McDonald's going to
have to watch the coverages and roll to A.J. Brown
(09:40):
if he needs to and be mindful because now the
Patriots had a playmaker they didn't have in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Well, Hugh Millen's with us. Jadarian Price is going to
play in his first football game since November 29th. of
last year, because you remember the Fighting Irish did not
get into the CFP, and Marcus Freeman said, we're not
doing a bowl game, and he pulled the plug. Remember that?
So the last game, Jadarian Price played, and he had
six carries for 15 yards and a touchdown against Stanford,
(10:07):
a 49-20 win. We did not see him play in
the preseason. So I'm wondering if there's going to be
a little bit of potential rust on Jadarian Price tonight,
maybe early in this game. Do you worry about him
being sloppy, maybe putting the ball on the ground because
of that potentially? How much do you expect Brian Fleury
to lean on Jadarian Price tonight in the opener?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Well, I think he's going to need to. And this
is kind of one of those, you know, this is
the fallout from the type of economic structure we have
in the NFL. I mean, this would be an example
where Scott Boris would come on and say, hey, why
should the Seahawks have to– to let a Super Bowl
MVP go. Now, you could say that this drives all
(10:52):
of the competitiveness and what have you. So here you
are having to rely on a rookie who had four fumbles. Dave,
you mentioned it. There is number three in the draft class.
So that's a concern. There's a concern about his durability,
where he had under 10 touches per game last year.
He never had a season of 125 carries in a year.
(11:15):
No first-round draft pick running back ever could make that claim.
So he just hasn't carried the workload. I mentioned to
you eyeballing him and then his listed weights, which are
at the combine, exactly 10 pounds less than the program
weight from Notre Dame. He's lighter. He looks thinner to
(11:36):
the eye. I mean, you stand next to Kenneth Walker.
That is a unique human being. He's short and he's stocky,
and yet in that package, He had incredible bursts, his
10-yard splits, his 40 yards, and what have you. That's
why he's a Super Bowl MVP. He's a unique specimen.
When you look at Jadarian Price, you just kind of say, like, hey,
he kind of looks a little bit like a thick
slot receiver. And so you're– which is a good bit
(12:00):
less than the hits you're going to take when you're
an NFL running back. So you hold your breath. We
understand the economic– terms and situations that led to tonight.
Hopefully they scouted well and this guy can have a
great debut. Now he did force missed tackles on 26.9%
of his touches last year for Notre Dame. That was
(12:22):
number one in the entire draft class. This guy can
make you miss. He's got some acceleration to him. So
it's going to be fun to watch him and see
how he adapts. There's a skill set in him that
But there's certainly enough of these factors that leave you
to be legitimately concerned about where we are at running back.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Hugh, I'm interested to hear your take on the role
of Rashid Shahid and if it's going to be significantly
different than it was last year.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
I just looked it up.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Rashid Shahid is the 32nd highest paid wide receiver in football. Now,
that's an interesting number, right?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
That's... You should have one on each team, right?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
So he is paid by definition as a low, low
end wide receiver one. How much creativity do you anticipate
they have with him this year?
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Well, you know what his jersey number is, correct? Sorry
to put you on the spot.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
22.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
22.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
He wears a halfback number, right? 22, that's his average
yards receiving per game as a Seahawk.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
By the way, Hugh, do you like the fact that
I said that with a little bit of 22? Oh,
I'm terrible at numbers. Because you asked that question. I'm like,
you know, you're the numbers guy. And every now and
then I get it right, but just a 1% chance
I get it wrong.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I'm going to be an idiot if I can't get
his number right. Hey, listen, radio pop quizzes are not fun.
I get it.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
They're not at all.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
You're damn right I know his number. Then all of
a sudden you're like, then the lights, the Klieg lights
are on you. You're like, I don't know his freaking number.
But where's jersey number 22, which let that be a
symbol for his 22 yards per game average from a
year ago. You multiply that out by 17, that's 377
(14:07):
yards for these season guys. That's not enough for $ 17 million.
Not when you let Kenneth Walker out the door for
$ 14 million. Now, he is the most feared punt and
kickoff combined returner in the league. I'll give you that.
And that is certainly not insignificant. That is, in fact, significant.
But I do think that based on what they– that contract,
(14:31):
it has an expectation with it. that you're going to
produce more than 22 yards receiving per game. And the
basis for that is the offseason, the training camp, the
cohesion that should have been built with Sam Darnold, and
I expect we'll see that. But there are still things
that are just innately difficult to for his intuition as
(14:55):
a receiver i'm not going to you know we could
go a whole segment on how jsn is is an
intuitive receiver he's not but he can you know with
that speed he doesn't have to be jsn uh he
won't be of course he'll never be but if he
can just improve a little bit hey hey what's how
do i get quarterback friendly when i come into a
zone i turn my numbers How do I recognize, you know,
(15:16):
do I need to take so many steps when I
make a stop route? Can I get my chin over
my toes, drop my hips a little better? Like technique
parts of being a receiver that I think watching the tape,
he needs to have. Hopefully with this added time with
the Seahawk, it can show with his match with Darnold tonight.
(15:37):
Let me ask you a quick question.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Three years 51 for Shahid, three years 43 for Kenny Walker.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Which one would you have paid out? Yeah, yeah, I just,
I think I would have been reluctant to part with
Kenneth Walker. I just, yeah. Is neither an option?
Speaker 1 (15:54):
No, you got to pick one.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
You got to pick one.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Because you, I just wonder this, and Dick, you made
the point on the morning show this morning that he's
going to get beat to death in Kansas City. They're
going to use him a lot.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
That would not have been the case here, though.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
He would have been used differently in Seattle than he
would have been used in Kansas City. So I could
see Kenny Walker getting hurt in Kansas City. And all
of us saying, oh, that's the right call by John.
Bull crap, because it's all about what he would have
been doing here in Seattle.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
But in October, none of us wanted Kenny Walker back.
And then he blew up.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I mean, you know, look, I was talking to a guy.
I won't tell you who it is, but his name
rhymes with Kevin Harlan, who made the point that Kenny
Walker may have just pulled a Joe Flacco and had
a great end of the year and then turned that
into a massive fat contract. with Kansas City, but, Hugh,
I'm kind of 50-50 on this, man. I just hope
(16:44):
that we're not sitting here in November asking ourselves, why
the hell didn't we pick Kenny Walker?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah, I mean, here they are, an outside zone team,
and you had Kenneth Walker at 5.7, and you had
Charbonnet at 4.5, over a yard difference per attempt. I mean,
that's like the difference between the middle of the pack
and being at the top, so I always thought that Walker...
Whether he had 15 yards in a game or 115
(17:11):
yards in a game, I thought it was always based
on how everything was blocked, and I just think that
he has an ability to create more than Charbonnet or
anybody else. Now, if Price comes in here and plays
to a high level, certainly, hell, he's a first-rounder. We
could go through the Jameer Gibbs and the Cooks and
(17:35):
Derek Henrys, the second-round draft picks. uh, are, have, have in,
in some ways blown away, even the first round draft pick.
So he being the 32nd pick in the draft, there's
every bit of a, a, a reasonable reason to, to,
to believe that he can be, you know, a top
10 back. Um, but until we see it, I think
it was a gamble. I think it was a gamble
(17:56):
for the Superbowl champions, but, but, uh, Certainly when you
consider the guys making the decision, you have to say
reasonable minds can differ. Of course they're reasonable. But we'll
just see if they look back. But they're not inerrant.
It's not as if they've never made a decision that
they haven't regretted. So let's see. It would have been
a safer pick, a safer decision, I should say, to
(18:20):
stick with K-9. This is more of a gamble. We'll
see how it works starting tonight.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
All right, Hugh, you'll be on postgame with Dick as
soon as the game is over.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Great stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
And we promise we're going to be pop quizzing you
all night long, so be ready.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Go Hawks. My first question for him is what number
does Rasheed Shaheed wear?
Speaker 1 (18:38):
What number does Torrey Horton wear? Hey, Hugh, what number
did Torrey Horton wear?
Speaker 3 (18:42):
15, right?
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Ah, you gave it away. I got it.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
All right, we're going to break. We're going to talk
to Neil Kosla. one of the new owners of the Seahawks.
His mom and dad just bought the team. We'll chat
with him next on 93.3 KJRFM.
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