June 2, 2025 • 32 mins
In the second hour, Dick Fain and Hugh Millen discuss Randy Johnson having his #51 retired by the Mariners next year, plus a fun Randy story, then talk about the rankings of the greatest Seahawks of all time, plus Seattle’s OTAs underway and the draft’s future.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And Lumanfield will get nineteen million dollars in upgrades in
preparation for the twenty twenty six World Cup, but during
the competition it will not be known as lumen Field
due to FIFA rules on stadium sponsorship.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
What what's gonna be called?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Seattle Stadium?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Seattle Stadium, Seattle Stadium.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Oh, we got to come up with something better than that.
All right, here's you. We have mill In coming up
right now.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
We got we got to come up with something better
than Seattle Stadium.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
What are you talking about. That's the first rule in
soccer that I've liked that I've ever heard. Really, I
love that. Yeah, get the sponsors. Seattle Stadium, Yeah, keep
it simple.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Seattle Stadium.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I guess back in the day they were all known
as stadium or coliseum or arena.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Right, I was hoping we could go back to calling
it like the Clink or something. I was like, all right,
let's let's let's bring back one of the other. Let's
just call it the Kingdom for such stupid reason.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Why I would sell?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I would think FIFA would sell its own sponsorship for
the actual event, right and make some money off.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Well, you're hitting me like on a three second reaction.
I'm sure give me a I could think of something better,
but I like the idea of the I mean, think
of all the stadiums that used to have the classic
names Mile High Stadium, Riverfront, three Rivers, you know, yeah,
and and to go the way of the sponsorship. Hate it?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I got no, I'm with you.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I guess we're kind of used to it by now,
but I absolutely hated. I remember revolting when Key Arena
was called. I was like, I'm never gonna call it
Key Arena. It will only be the Seattle Center Coliseum.
And then it took me three or four years, and
of course I started calling it Key Arena like everybody
else but Hugh before we talk about football. Big news
in baseball today in the Pacific Northwest Randy Johnson on
(01:45):
the thirty fifth anniversary of the club's first no hitter.
Randy Johnson's number fifty one is gonna get retired in
the twenty twenty sixth season.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
How do you, yeah, what do you feel about that
kind of visa?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
V eachro Echro had some nice things to say about
Randy In January, Randy had some nice to say about
about Eachro earlier today when he was recorded.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So you know what's your thoughts on that, Well.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
It's all love. They're both deserving Hall of famers. But
if you ask me, I can understand rationally the argument
for each row if you had to have just one
number fifty one, you know, this hypothetical contest that will
never exist. I get the arguments for each row, the
longer tenure, and what have you. But if you just
(02:26):
say just meat and potatoes, brass tacks reality. Who is
more important to the franchise? In my opinion, if just
reviewing the facts, if there's no five magic, there's no
Mariners in Seattle, And if there's no Randy Johnson, there's
(02:47):
no there's no magic in ninety five. A universe where
Randy Johnson was never a pitcher for the Mariners looks
a lot more bleak for Seattle baseball fans than a
universe where Ichiro was never a Seattle Marrier. Because the
universe where Randy Johnson is never a Seattle Mariner, damn
good chance that it's the it's the Tampa Bay Mariners
(03:11):
that is the one.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
That's the one thing I've always thought about Visavi, the
Mariners and the Sonics. Would the Sonics have left if
the Mariners had already left, would the city of Seattle,
and would the local politicians had have let the Sonics
get out of Seattle if just twenty four months before
(03:35):
Jeff Smollian would have moved the Mariners to Tampa Bay.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, you would have
had to have had in that scenario somebody dig in
the waistlake Gordon did and and and kind of fight
on behalf of saving the Sonics. But I think it's
a fair inference to think that there would have been
more urgency. Sure, could you imagine us, Yeah, But but
I think it's that's that's more unknoble. There's a lot
of moving parts in that hypothetical when you consider Randy
(04:01):
Johnson's impact, I don't see a lot of moving parts there.
It's pretty simple. You have Randy Johnson, the Mariners stay
in Seattle. You don't have Randy Johnson, the Mariners are gone.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I think that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
And you can probably say that about two or three
of the marriage. You could have said about Griffy. Certainly
you can have said that about Edgar Martinez.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
But you're right, if it was out three months that year, right,
I mean, uhh.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, but they don't beat the Yankees without yeah and
yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I mean I don't imagine a magic for the Mariners
without Griffy. That's that's a pretty that's a pretty big
ask I got. I gotta really contort to get there.
So your point taking, I'll accept it. But if we're
talking Randy versus we're not talking Randy versus griff right, Griffy.
We're talking Randy versus et Ro. Who's the most deserving
of the fifty one. That's the coffee and beer talk
(04:46):
we're engaging from my perspective, And and I would just
say what I just said, you know, that's Randy is
more vital to the the existence of the Seattle marriage.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Well, I think, And that's the only only argument that
can be made on the side of Randy. Because eachiro
has got all the longevity, each ro's got all the records,
each Ro will spent his into almost his entire career here,
whereas Randy was a better player in Arizona than he
was here, and most of his accolades came with you.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Was when he was Marrior Nerd.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
But I can I could totally see your side, and
I think I would have a hard time disagreeing when
you're when you come when it comes to the franchise
in existence because of Randy Johnson, or partly because of
Randy Johnson. There is no Echiro Suzuki in Seattle without
Randy Johnson.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
You Millen joining us. Let's flip the football. But before
we talk about when.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
You're going off the script?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Oh what? Oh you're going off the script? Okay, well
we have a story for Randy story.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yes, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You just turned it over
the not the first time nor the last, by the way, right, So, uh, Jackson,
you'll get a kick out of them. So I'm gonna
take you back to nineteen ninety three. How old were
you one? You're one? Okay, you're one. You're in diapers,
so all right, Jackson's in diapers. All right. So when
(06:05):
I had played for the Patriots, my neighbor in Boston
was Sean McDonough, who was the lead announcer for the
Red Sox and in fact was so good that at
the age of thirty, he did the World Series for
a couple of years for CBS with Tim McCarver at
his side. That's how good he was, right, And so
when he came out to Seattle, you know, us being
(06:26):
good friends, we'd hook up. I had some buddies take
him out on Lake Washington and in pugea sound, take
him out on the boat and what have you. And
then he got it. He would get me tickets every
time the Reds and I had literally the best seats
in the Kingdome, those ones right behind first base where
the seat kind of jet out in a corner. And
then I'd have the corner seats Row one right behind first.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Base, right.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
And so the Red Sox come in April twenty first,
nineteen ninety three. The Red Sox are eleven and three,
the Mariners are five and eight. But Randy's on the
hill and Mike Greenwell was the left fielder for the
Red Sox at the time. He was batting three forty
five on his way to a three point fifteen that season.
(07:11):
The guy's a career three to zero three hitter.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
He was.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
He won a Silver Slugger and he won he was
second in the MVP vote a couple of years ago.
So we're talking about a legitimate big time hitter. Correct,
So first inning he best third in the order, Randy
fans him. Now they had had a history where Randy
had boinked him a headhunted him a time back, and
(07:36):
then Greenwell and another game had hit a line shot
back off his elbow. They had already had some crime
on crime before, so that there was some bad blood.
So Randy fans him in the first inning, and he
does kind of a gesture with his left hand. Of
course he was left handed, but he takes his hand
and just like in an upward motion, like he was
fly shoeing a fly with the back of his palm.
(07:59):
He does a upward motion kind of like get out
of here. Well. Greenwell he interprets that like he's showing
him up, and so they're fu and each other literally
f you just f bombs. So now Greenball Greenwell gets
up again. A couple innings later, Randy fans him again,
and the place and the place is going every time,
(08:21):
you know, every time he comes up, the place is
just on its feet because they understand what had happened
in the first inning. Now he gets up for a
third time, fans him again. Okay, so now comes to
the ninth inning and he's up, and the place is
going crazy and By the way, Randy's on his way
to a nine inning complete game, four hit shutout. But
(08:44):
it's the ninth inning, it's five, it's five nothing, top
of the ninth and Greenwell gets up and it might
have been even with two outs, but anyways, he pops
up this meager pop pop fly just in foul territory,
like eight feet behind first base, as meek as it gets. Right.
So now fast forward, we're at the hotel. This just
(09:05):
speaks to the dominance of Randy and why it's so
cool baseball. It's hard to be dominant, right. But we
go back to McDonough's hotel, and you got guys like
Jerry Remy and Jokistigleon, all the the Red Sox announcers
and the writers. They're all in the nineteenth hole and
we're throwing back some whiskeys and and kind of talking
about the game and laughing about the game. And one
(09:26):
of the guys says he's in the locker room and
he goes up to Greenwell. He says, Greenwell, he says,
if I would have told you before that ab that
you would pop you know, he with now three strikeouts
behind you. If I would have told you that you
would pop out behind first base on your last appat,
He said, what have you taken that? And Greenwell, just
(09:48):
Adam goes f and a babbah.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
Hell.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yes, dude was delighted to pop out behind first base
because he was already he was already just getting racked
by Randy Johnson. The whole stadium was electric about it.
So Randy just had a you know, for you Jackson.
I know you can watch the YouTube highlights, but it's
(10:13):
hard to be intimidating. But a pitcher, you know, you
could be as small as Pedro and still in thirty,
but when you're six eleven and you got that reach
and you have that fastball and that nasty slider, like
like he had a way of taking the best hitters
in baseball and just making the mental midgets just like
dying to have a foul pop, you know, you know,
(10:34):
right behind first base, Like that's what he could do.
So I don't know in a day that we're honoring Randy.
He sure deserves it, because that dude was like a
football player in a baseball uniform on that mount.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
And I've never seen a guy that honed in his
wildness over a course of four or five years like
Randy Johnson, mean that dude in ninety one ninety two,
like he couldn't hit the broadside of a barn like
he was.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
He didn't know where the ball was going.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
And in nineteen I was telling the story earlier today
on the show about I was. I was sitting there
in good seats and that thirty five years ago today
in the Kingdome when he struck out Mike Keith a
no hitter, and we didn't even know there was a
no hitter until late in the seventh inning because he
had put he'd walk like five guys, like there was
guys all over the place. He was throwing wild pitches
and everything. And then he was able to use that
(11:23):
to his advantage. Who when he got to the point
where he was a complete pitcher in nineteen ninety five,
that because every hitter in the.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Back of their mind goes, well, he can control this.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
But he could also earhole me too, a ninety nine
miles an hour, So I'm not going to dig in
against this guy.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Well in Greenwall and had that experience, Yeah, I mean
you know it just it's just it's on your ball cap,
you know, faster than you can blink right. So yeah,
at any rate, he was a one of a kind certainly,
and you know, right central in the entire history of
the Mariners when you consider, you know, what's at stake
(11:59):
without Randy.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Well, we're talking about all time Mariners.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And then I put out a poll this weekend about
all time Seahawks Hugh And I don't really know why
I was prompted to do this, can't remember what I
was thinking about, but it does end up being coincidental
that the Seahawks today have released their first crop of
their fiftieth anniversary team. And I guess they're doing it
by position, so they did the secondary and they did
(12:22):
the running backs today. I don't know. I don't think
they're going to be ranking them one to fifty. They're
just going to say who the fifty players are. And
I put out a tweet and I didn't just want
to say is Russell a top ten Hawk ever?
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yes or no.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
I wanted to put the names on the tweet that
you could consider being better than Russell Wilson so fans
can look and say, oh, okay, largent tez Walt, Alexander
Hutch easily sherm Earl cam Bobby Marshawn. Crap, there's eleven names,
right there is Russ better than any of them. And
so I want to kind of get your take is
(12:59):
when you're just talking talking about greatest Seahawks, does.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Russell Wilson belong in the top ten?
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Because right now there's a big debate, and if you
look at the results of the poll, it's fifty four
forty six. It is almost dead down the middle. The
yeses have the slight edge over the nose.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Well, I think there's a fair argument to be made
on either side. I think before you get to the
bottom of it, I think that you have to decide
about the value of a quarterback. You just have to
you have to just say, Okay, how are we going
to assess quarterbacks? Because are we going to assess them
exactly the same as punters, you know, like if Ray
(13:40):
guy had been a seahawk, you know, you know, I mean,
at what point is that under considerate? It's hard not
even if you say no, that doesn't count, it's hard
not to let that creep into your analysis, knowing that
he's a quarterback. Right So I would say, you know,
the first barometer for me would be you know, the
(14:02):
Hall of Fame. How many guys are in the Hall
of Fame, and and and then we can reasonably this
is just the way I would reason through the debate.
I would say, is Russell hall of Famer? I don't
think he has enough on his resume to be a
Hall of Famer. I think I think he's in the discussion,
but I think as of now, I don't think he's
(14:22):
gonna make it. So I don't think his Sea Hawk
career was enough to make the Hall of Fame, despite
you know, several Pro Bowls, and and so I would
give the nod to Hall of famers just automatically.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
That's why margent tez Walt hutch easily. I don't think
I'm missing any There's five so yeah, so just for
the purposes of brevity, they're just automatically in there before
Russ for me. And then I would say, okay, well,
we know Bobby Wagner is going to the Hall of Fame. Yes,
six okay, and he's six times first team All Pro.
(14:56):
So that that's that that's a the definition of an
no brainer for me.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Then you get into uh.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
The l Ob and Marshawn and Alexander.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah, and at some point it's gonna be hard not
to have it a popularity, you know, it's really hard
to keep yourself objective, and so kind of your favorites
kind of tend to creep in. But you know, I
I just I think I'd studied too much stats at
the time of Russell's where if you just say, all
(15:31):
the quarterbacks in history, who who had you know, a
defense and a running game like him? Like you could
you could all there's numbers that I could point to.
I don't have him in front of me now, but
there's numbers you could point to that literally say this
is the luckiest Super Bowl winning quarterback of all.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Time because the intense and the running back and the percentage.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
You say, wait a minute, Russe isn't the first guy
to have a good running game and a good defense
behind him. But but but just trust me, the numbers
are there, and in so than Dilfer. Well, if it
kind of depends on you know, that's that's a one off. Yeah, yeah,
because he had that oh god, the running back two
thousand yards, yeah, Jamal Lewis, And of course they had
(16:12):
the great defense. But if you you know, the Seahawk
portion would be like four years. The seas are the
only team in history to uh to have the scoring
title defensively for four straight years fewest points allowed, right.
And then the percentage if you go like percentage of
the yards that were accumulated by the quarterback versus the
(16:34):
running back relative to the year, right, because you have
to adjust for the times, because you know, like Bob
Greasy won a Super Bowl. He threw you know, he's
like seven for ten in the Super Bowl, you know,
and he's handing the ball off to Larry'sanka and they
had the killer Bees and all. But but that's that's
the way football was in nineteen seventy two, you know.
So so if you if it's a little bit of
(16:55):
a book cook and I will I will get you.
But if you if you factor the years and and
what what other quarterbacks are doing, and uh, you know,
I mean, uh, the Seahawks were dead last in that
year in terms of past percentage. They were number one
in run percentage and dead last thirty second in the league.
(17:18):
So you know, you know, so I think that there's
some numbers that that kind of creep in that I
think are reasonable to consider. But I would say Richard
Sherman is uh was was a better player that because
Richard Sherman was the best corner in treotball. That's right.
And nobody ever said Russell Wilson's the best quarterback.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Well, wasn't Earl Thomas the best free safety in football?
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yeah, yeah he was, and was Cam Chancell of the
best strong safety.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
But he was the enforcer. I mean, you know these
I mean, now you're you're you're sending me back to
things like nineteen seventy seven the Portland Trailblazer world title
team more East Lucas, like there was an inform had
a power forward name Maurice the Enforcer, right, like there
was an It wasn't just that Cam Chancellor was a
strong safety. He was a enforcer. He was a temple setter.
(18:11):
Like I I've never been in the head of a
running back, obviously, but when I study the tape, I
see reliable indicators that the running backs are like, no, no,
I'm not going back to inside cutting back to that lunatic.
He's he's the eighth man in the box, he's unblocked,
and he will come in and stamp me. And and
so there was just decisions perpetually why I'd see running
(18:35):
backs just they would not go back to him. And
and it sure bore the signs of guys that were
aware of that enforcement uh element that he brought. So
so the lob is a one I don't expect at
my age to ever see uh, certainly a seahawk defense
like that. They were just they were just a joy
to watch every Sunday and uh and then you and
(18:57):
then Marshall Lynch. For a guy that I'm not a
big Sean Allen Xander fan at all, I just there
because when I would watch, when i'd watch the tape,
I I could go frame by frame and I go,
wait a minute, he's starting, he's starting to go to
his knees and he hasn't been touched yet. He had
a knack to right before contact to start to give
(19:17):
up on his box. And I'm like, this is utter bs.
So I am not a Saun Alexander fan in any way,
shape or form. Plus he didn't give two craps about
pass protecting for Matt Hasselbeck or being a factor in
the passing game. So so to me, Marshaw Lynch was
a godsend. It's like the football gods just said well,
(19:38):
you know, we we gave you this Nancy boy, albeit
really good runner, but you know, on a toughness quite
a Sally, and now we're going to give you just
the badass of all bad ass freaking uh b b
yob be your own blocker, just you know, intimidation. Getting
back to that word with uh So to me, marshn
(19:59):
lyn Inch is uh you know, I'm always going to
put him above Russell. But I think but if you
were to say, well, you're letting some of the emotion
creep in, I'd say, yeah, you're probably right, right, But
I think I think russ is a round ten, but
I could make an argument that he's not in the
top ten.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah, that's and that's where Jackson and I were. I
mean Jackson and I were right around nine ish nine
for me in there. So yeah, I think we're all
we're all in.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I think he was.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I think he's nine. I think he's probably not. I
think he's for me. I think he's fairly comfortably in
the top ten. But I'm splitting hairs when it comes
to you know, guys like Sean Alexander and uh maybe
Cam Chancellor.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
I think we're it's it's really tough.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Well, then Tyler Lockett. Uh. You know, I think the
tiebreaker might be if you put Tyler in front of him,
then that pushes him out. If you don't, maybe that puts.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
You know, like personally, I wouldn't put Tyler in front
of I wouldn't put Tyler in front of Russ.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
I mean Tyler's yeah. I mean what I said was,
I don't.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
I can't blame anybody if they say I'm going to
have Russ behind Hutch, behind a lot of the cam
behind Frankly, you could make a case for Locket singing
second best wide receiver and seek history the longevity thing.
I wouldn't blame somebody, but I disagree Ke. What I
said was, if anybody has Russell Wilson higher than five,
if anybody has him above either Tes or above Walter,
(21:23):
or above Steve or about Bobby, if anybody has Russell
above those four, I have a problem with that.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
With that take well, I would say I would, I
would dig in and I plan a flag hard on
the beach that the highest you could rank him would
be seven, the very yes, because that's the five Hall
of famers plus Bobby who you know, And I would
not put him at seven, but that's as high as
I'd be willing. You know, the old saying, Hey, reasonable
(21:51):
minds can differ if you try and put him above seven.
For me, I'm gonna like I might, I might kind
of say reasonable mine, it's going to differ, but there's
gonna be a poor something. I'll be thinking, you're freaking nuts. Yeah,
it's good stuff.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
We'll talk some OTAs with Hugh when we come back.
And you know, Peter King had an interesting statement to
run by Hugh. He says, at some point in our lifetime,
the NFL Draft is going to go away and players
will jump directly from college through free agency to the
whatever team they want to play for.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
See a few agrees that that may come to fruition.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Next on ninety three point three KJFM.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
Podcasting Live from the R and R Foundation Specialist Broadcast Studio.
Now back to Softie and Dick, powered by Emerald Queen Casino,
the Vetting and capital of the Northwest.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
On Sports Radio ninety three point three kJ r.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
FM Softian Deck without the Sopho one for one more day.
He'll be back live from the EQC. Will be out
there tomorrow. Jackson is here Hughes here for one more
segment today. He was working hard on the morning show
today and Hue we were I was talking to Ian
earlier today and he mentioned that boy there, he's seeing
(23:00):
a lot of eye formation out there, which is just
something we did not see with Ryan Grubb, we did
not see with Shane Waldron. And I want to talk
a little little eye formation with you out there. I
think most people, probably especially those that are old enough
to remember nineteen eighties football, certainly remember. Yeah, it's because
it was all over the place. But maybe just just
talk about the benefits of the eye with having a fullback,
(23:25):
you know, as a lead blocker, and maybe some of
the detriments of having the affirmation because we're certainly going
to see it in the repertoire this year for the Hawks.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Yeah, I mean part of me breaks out in hives
at the side of the eye forirmation. It's just reminiscent
of you know, mid nineteen eighties University of Washington football.
I don't have a problem with ifirmation on neutral downs,
but on third down, you know, particularly third and medium,
third and long, you go ifirmation and you go play
(23:54):
action from under center, turn you back on the defense
on a seven step drop. It's just it was a illogical,
and I thank Don James for the sake of the
Huskies that they brid and Keith Gilbertson and open things
up and change the formations entirely. Think about this, You've
got as a quarterback, You've got five eligible receivers, right,
(24:16):
So if most of the time teams are in a
one back personnel, In fact, eighty nine point eight percent
of the time that in all NFL snaps last year
was exactly one back, whereas just nine point three percent
of time did you have a two back? And which
(24:38):
is in the NFL? That's usually the ifirmation. Okay, but
just think of you asked me the pluses and minuses.
I'll give you the minuses first. If you have an
I formation, you have a fullback and a tailback behind you,
and you say, okay, what routes can you run from there? Well,
the tailback can run, he can run a swing, can
(25:00):
stretch the field laterally, or he can do it. You
can fake and then check down laid over the middle.
That's about it. The full back he can't basically do
anything from right behind you. Uh. He can lead, block
up in and be a late delay, but there's no
he's not going to stretch the defense at the onset
of the play if you even if you just offset
(25:24):
the full back. And so it's kind of like what
what Mike Homgren would call strong eye or weak eye,
so that the fullback is instead of behind the center
and the quarterback he's behind, you know, call it in
the B gap or just the inside leg of the tackle.
He can at least run a flat route. He can
run a little angle route over the middle, like at
least there's a little bit of of of a pass
(25:46):
tree from that position. So you're really hamstring, you know,
as a quarterback, you get infirmation I got two eligible
receivers that can't stretch the field vertically for sure. The
tailback can only stretch the field laterally if he runs
a swim. And so now I just have three guys
going against seven defenders, which is general zone. Now there
(26:07):
could be eight, there could be six, but as a
general rule, zone has played with seven guys. So it's
just becomes kind of a numbers thing. And in terms
of how quickly can you stretch a defense, and and
you know, by contrast, just to it might be easier
to illustrate this. If we were in empty backfield, no
running backs. Let's say we went five wide, We'd put
(26:28):
three receivers on one side, two to the other. We're
all spread out. Well, boom, at the snap of the ball,
all five of those guys can immediately get vertical. They
can meet you know, the inside guys can can go vertical,
or they can run crossing routes, they can break to
the outside. Like, there's all kinds of ways you can
stretch the defense from empty and infirmation is the opposite
(26:52):
of empty, you know, and so so. But here's here's
where the benefit is on first down, and if you
have a lead full back, it really helps your running
game and you're almost assured to get a single high defense.
That's the key that they're are most all. I bet
(27:14):
eighty you know, I could probably do the factory on
some of the filters, but I.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Bet you gause you're too susceptible to the run if
you have two deep safeties.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
And yeah, and and they know that you're you're stretched
thin from uh from a standpoint of stretching the defense
in passing game. But so they'll bring that safety. Now
you're going to see cover three or cover one. Those
are single high defenses, which means you have one on
one to the outside. So the idea that you go,
you fake, fake some type of lead it could be
(27:41):
a lead stretch or what have you. And then Darnold
fakes the canine then flips around and and finds the
defense and he works the outside the perimeter. You're it's
it's almost surely going to be one on one, and
that's how you dictate, and you know, go play action.
But drop back from ifirmation is just is just silly.
(28:04):
It's it's just purposeless. Right, So so if you're gonna
if you're gonna throw the ball out of the iffirmation,
unless it's the quick game, you know, you you want
to hit a slant or something. But but in any
downfield sense, you really should go play action and it
should be early downs, great stuff. And and yeah, so
that's how that's that's how I see it. But but
(28:25):
oh what one final thought. The the forty nine ers
were number one with two running backs at forty percent
the uh the NFL average the NFL average was eight
point nine percent. Okay, and the U of the time,
and you're in two running backs, uh and and they
(28:46):
they're forty forty point one percent, where the forty nine
and the Saints were fifth at twenty four percent last year.
So Niners forty percent, Saints last year, Gary Kubak, sorry,
Clint Kubiak twenty four percent, Seattle the Sea last year
just one point seven percent. So we're going to go
from one point seven percent to twenty four percent. You know, Yeah,
(29:08):
that's significant. What's that? Fifteen x? Yes?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Or hey?
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Before we let you go, I want to get your
take on what Peter Peter King had to say, the legendary.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Sports reporter football reporter.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
He says, some point in our lifetime, the NFL Draft
will go away and players will just jump jump to
the pros through a form of free agency, and he
said it'll be celebrated similar to like a signing day
in college sports. Is that something that I mean, obviously
the players I think would like that. Would the league
(29:39):
like something like that because their draft is so successful
as far as the eyeballs.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Go, Yeah, I I I because you sent it to
me and I just kind of perused through it. I
didn't I didn't read it intently, but you know one
of the things that you know, I was, I was
a player rep during the time where we fought to
gain free agency. And I think Peter just one of
the things. My eyebrow kind of went up and he says, well,
(30:05):
you know, will it survive the the labor laws. The
labor laws are not the problem, specifically the Wagner Labor Act.
The Labor Act states that that if you have collective bargaining,
then anti trust law can be permitted if it's it's
if it's acceeded to in collective bargaining, and so so
(30:27):
what what how does how does that play out? The
draft is a violation not of the labor laws, of
the anti trust laws. It's a restraint of trade. It's
anti competitive. Can you imagine in other industries where you
get out of college and then you're just you know,
you graduate with a aeronautics degree and and then you
just get drafted to the company and and your and
(30:50):
your salary is already slotted like that's that's anti American,
that's anti competitive. And thus it's a violation of the
Sherman Anti Trust Act. So so what what would have
to happen for this to the steps that would precede this?
In my opinion, if the if the if the NFL
ever said okay, we're going to decertify as a union,
(31:11):
and so that now now the collective bargaining agreement that
did exist, uh, where the labor laws superseded the anti
trust laws. Now the the the whole, the whole, the
whole system could be analyzed by anti trust law. I
(31:31):
cannot survive anti trust lab period. Everybody knows that. And so,
but you have to get out from underneath the cloak.
From the owner's perspective, what they would fear is the
players getting out front of the cloak of the of
the collective bargain agreement and detached from that. And then
you would have a system that would be analyzed and
(31:52):
and they would lose every time that the draft was
patently in violation of anti trust laws. But the players
have always said, hey, as long as you give us this,
this pension and this percentage of the revenue, if we're
up around forty eight forty nine percent of revenue, and
and and you have a not only a salary cap,
but a minimum that you have to spend. If you're
(32:13):
willing to do all that, then we'll let you have
your illegal draft. Does that make sense? Yes, that's the
way it's played out in the past, and so you'd
have to have a dismantling of those facets that prop
up the system and make it legal.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Now, Hugh, always a pleasure. We'll talk about Friday, man,
Thank you. Enjoy the enjoy the morning show. You got
another morning show tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
No, no, not till Thursday, gotcha? Perfect right, thanks man,
al Right, hammer down, guys, you bet.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Hugh breed love millon we come back. I want to
get your take on the text line four nine four
five one. Where's Russ in your top ten? Or is
he in your top ten? We'll get some of those
texts next on ninety three point three KJRFM.
And Lumanfield will get nineteen million dollars in upgrades in
preparation for the twenty twenty six World Cup, but during
the competition it will not be known as lumen Field
due to FIFA rules on stadium sponsorship.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
What what's gonna be called?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Seattle Stadium?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Seattle Stadium, Seattle Stadium.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Oh, we got to come up with something better than that.
All right, here's you. We have mill In coming up
right now.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
We got we got to come up with something better
than Seattle Stadium.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
What are you talking about. That's the first rule in
soccer that I've liked that I've ever heard. Really, I
love that. Yeah, get the sponsors. Seattle Stadium, Yeah, keep
it simple.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Seattle Stadium.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
I guess back in the day they were all known
as stadium or coliseum or arena.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Right, I was hoping we could go back to calling
it like the Clink or something. I was like, all right,
let's let's let's bring back one of the other. Let's
just call it the Kingdom for such stupid reason.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Why I would sell?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I would think FIFA would sell its own sponsorship for
the actual event, right and make some money off.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Well, you're hitting me like on a three second reaction.
I'm sure give me a I could think of something better,
but I like the idea of the I mean, think
of all the stadiums that used to have the classic
names Mile High Stadium, Riverfront, three Rivers, you know, yeah,
and and to go the way of the sponsorship. Hate it?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I got no, I'm with you.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I guess we're kind of used to it by now,
but I absolutely hated. I remember revolting when Key Arena
was called. I was like, I'm never gonna call it
Key Arena. It will only be the Seattle Center Coliseum.
And then it took me three or four years, and
of course I started calling it Key Arena like everybody
else but Hugh before we talk about football. Big news
in baseball today in the Pacific Northwest Randy Johnson on
(01:45):
the thirty fifth anniversary of the club's first no hitter.
Randy Johnson's number fifty one is gonna get retired in
the twenty twenty sixth season.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
How do you, yeah, what do you feel about that
kind of visa?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
V eachro Echro had some nice things to say about
Randy In January, Randy had some nice to say about
about Eachro earlier today when he was recorded.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So you know what's your thoughts on that, Well.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
It's all love. They're both deserving Hall of famers. But
if you ask me, I can understand rationally the argument
for each row if you had to have just one
number fifty one, you know, this hypothetical contest that will
never exist. I get the arguments for each row, the
longer tenure, and what have you. But if you just
(02:26):
say just meat and potatoes, brass tacks reality. Who is
more important to the franchise? In my opinion, if just
reviewing the facts, if there's no five magic, there's no
Mariners in Seattle, And if there's no Randy Johnson, there's
(02:47):
no there's no magic in ninety five. A universe where
Randy Johnson was never a pitcher for the Mariners looks
a lot more bleak for Seattle baseball fans than a
universe where Ichiro was never a Seattle Marrier. Because the
universe where Randy Johnson is never a Seattle Mariner, damn
good chance that it's the it's the Tampa Bay Mariners
(03:11):
that is the one.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
That's the one thing I've always thought about Visavi, the
Mariners and the Sonics. Would the Sonics have left if
the Mariners had already left, would the city of Seattle,
and would the local politicians had have let the Sonics
get out of Seattle if just twenty four months before
(03:35):
Jeff Smollian would have moved the Mariners to Tampa Bay.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, you would have
had to have had in that scenario somebody dig in
the waistlake Gordon did and and and kind of fight
on behalf of saving the Sonics. But I think it's
a fair inference to think that there would have been
more urgency. Sure, could you imagine us, Yeah, But but
I think it's that's that's more unknoble. There's a lot
of moving parts in that hypothetical when you consider Randy
(04:01):
Johnson's impact, I don't see a lot of moving parts there.
It's pretty simple. You have Randy Johnson, the Mariners stay
in Seattle. You don't have Randy Johnson, the Mariners are gone.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I think that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
And you can probably say that about two or three
of the marriage. You could have said about Griffy. Certainly
you can have said that about Edgar Martinez.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
But you're right, if it was out three months that year, right,
I mean, uhh.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, but they don't beat the Yankees without yeah and
yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I mean I don't imagine a magic for the Mariners
without Griffy. That's that's a pretty that's a pretty big
ask I got. I gotta really contort to get there.
So your point taking, I'll accept it. But if we're
talking Randy versus we're not talking Randy versus griff right, Griffy.
We're talking Randy versus et Ro. Who's the most deserving
of the fifty one. That's the coffee and beer talk
(04:46):
we're engaging from my perspective, And and I would just
say what I just said, you know, that's Randy is
more vital to the the existence of the Seattle marriage.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Well, I think, And that's the only only argument that
can be made on the side of Randy. Because eachiro
has got all the longevity, each ro's got all the records,
each Ro will spent his into almost his entire career here,
whereas Randy was a better player in Arizona than he
was here, and most of his accolades came with you.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Was when he was Marrior Nerd.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
But I can I could totally see your side, and
I think I would have a hard time disagreeing when
you're when you come when it comes to the franchise
in existence because of Randy Johnson, or partly because of
Randy Johnson. There is no Echiro Suzuki in Seattle without
Randy Johnson.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
You Millen joining us. Let's flip the football. But before
we talk about when.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
You're going off the script?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Oh what? Oh you're going off the script? Okay, well
we have a story for Randy story.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yes, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You just turned it over
the not the first time nor the last, by the way, right, So, uh, Jackson,
you'll get a kick out of them. So I'm gonna
take you back to nineteen ninety three. How old were
you one? You're one? Okay, you're one. You're in diapers,
so all right, Jackson's in diapers. All right. So when
(06:05):
I had played for the Patriots, my neighbor in Boston
was Sean McDonough, who was the lead announcer for the
Red Sox and in fact was so good that at
the age of thirty, he did the World Series for
a couple of years for CBS with Tim McCarver at
his side. That's how good he was, right, And so
when he came out to Seattle, you know, us being
(06:26):
good friends, we'd hook up. I had some buddies take
him out on Lake Washington and in pugea sound, take
him out on the boat and what have you. And
then he got it. He would get me tickets every
time the Reds and I had literally the best seats
in the Kingdome, those ones right behind first base where
the seat kind of jet out in a corner. And
then I'd have the corner seats Row one right behind first.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Base, right.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
And so the Red Sox come in April twenty first,
nineteen ninety three. The Red Sox are eleven and three,
the Mariners are five and eight. But Randy's on the
hill and Mike Greenwell was the left fielder for the
Red Sox at the time. He was batting three forty
five on his way to a three point fifteen that season.
(07:11):
The guy's a career three to zero three hitter.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
He was.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
He won a Silver Slugger and he won he was
second in the MVP vote a couple of years ago.
So we're talking about a legitimate big time hitter. Correct,
So first inning he best third in the order, Randy
fans him. Now they had had a history where Randy
had boinked him a headhunted him a time back, and
(07:36):
then Greenwell and another game had hit a line shot
back off his elbow. They had already had some crime
on crime before, so that there was some bad blood.
So Randy fans him in the first inning, and he
does kind of a gesture with his left hand. Of
course he was left handed, but he takes his hand
and just like in an upward motion, like he was
fly shoeing a fly with the back of his palm.
(07:59):
He does a upward motion kind of like get out
of here. Well. Greenwell he interprets that like he's showing
him up, and so they're fu and each other literally
f you just f bombs. So now Greenball Greenwell gets
up again. A couple innings later, Randy fans him again,
and the place and the place is going every time,
(08:21):
you know, every time he comes up, the place is
just on its feet because they understand what had happened
in the first inning. Now he gets up for a
third time, fans him again. Okay, so now comes to
the ninth inning and he's up, and the place is
going crazy and By the way, Randy's on his way
to a nine inning complete game, four hit shutout. But
(08:44):
it's the ninth inning, it's five, it's five nothing, top
of the ninth and Greenwell gets up and it might
have been even with two outs, but anyways, he pops
up this meager pop pop fly just in foul territory,
like eight feet behind first base, as meek as it gets. Right.
So now fast forward, we're at the hotel. This just
(09:05):
speaks to the dominance of Randy and why it's so
cool baseball. It's hard to be dominant, right. But we
go back to McDonough's hotel, and you got guys like
Jerry Remy and Jokistigleon, all the the Red Sox announcers
and the writers. They're all in the nineteenth hole and
we're throwing back some whiskeys and and kind of talking
about the game and laughing about the game. And one
(09:26):
of the guys says he's in the locker room and
he goes up to Greenwell. He says, Greenwell, he says,
if I would have told you before that ab that
you would pop you know, he with now three strikeouts
behind you. If I would have told you that you
would pop out behind first base on your last appat,
He said, what have you taken that? And Greenwell, just
(09:48):
Adam goes f and a babbah.
Speaker 5 (09:51):
Hell.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yes, dude was delighted to pop out behind first base
because he was already he was already just getting racked
by Randy Johnson. The whole stadium was electric about it.
So Randy just had a you know, for you Jackson.
I know you can watch the YouTube highlights, but it's
(10:13):
hard to be intimidating. But a pitcher, you know, you
could be as small as Pedro and still in thirty,
but when you're six eleven and you got that reach
and you have that fastball and that nasty slider, like
like he had a way of taking the best hitters
in baseball and just making the mental midgets just like
dying to have a foul pop, you know, you know,
(10:34):
right behind first base, Like that's what he could do.
So I don't know in a day that we're honoring Randy.
He sure deserves it, because that dude was like a
football player in a baseball uniform on that mount.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
And I've never seen a guy that honed in his
wildness over a course of four or five years like
Randy Johnson, mean that dude in ninety one ninety two,
like he couldn't hit the broadside of a barn like
he was.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
He didn't know where the ball was going.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
And in nineteen I was telling the story earlier today
on the show about I was. I was sitting there
in good seats and that thirty five years ago today
in the Kingdome when he struck out Mike Keith a
no hitter, and we didn't even know there was a
no hitter until late in the seventh inning because he
had put he'd walk like five guys, like there was
guys all over the place. He was throwing wild pitches
and everything. And then he was able to use that
(11:23):
to his advantage. Who when he got to the point
where he was a complete pitcher in nineteen ninety five,
that because every hitter in the.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Back of their mind goes, well, he can control this.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
But he could also earhole me too, a ninety nine
miles an hour, So I'm not going to dig in
against this guy.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Well in Greenwall and had that experience, Yeah, I mean
you know it just it's just it's on your ball cap,
you know, faster than you can blink right. So yeah,
at any rate, he was a one of a kind certainly,
and you know, right central in the entire history of
the Mariners when you consider, you know, what's at stake
(11:59):
without Randy.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Well, we're talking about all time Mariners.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And then I put out a poll this weekend about
all time Seahawks Hugh And I don't really know why
I was prompted to do this, can't remember what I
was thinking about, but it does end up being coincidental
that the Seahawks today have released their first crop of
their fiftieth anniversary team. And I guess they're doing it
by position, so they did the secondary and they did
(12:22):
the running backs today. I don't know. I don't think
they're going to be ranking them one to fifty. They're
just going to say who the fifty players are. And
I put out a tweet and I didn't just want
to say is Russell a top ten Hawk ever?
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yes or no.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
I wanted to put the names on the tweet that
you could consider being better than Russell Wilson so fans
can look and say, oh, okay, largent tez Walt, Alexander
Hutch easily sherm Earl cam Bobby Marshawn. Crap, there's eleven names,
right there is Russ better than any of them. And
so I want to kind of get your take is
(12:59):
when you're just talking talking about greatest Seahawks, does.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Russell Wilson belong in the top ten?
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Because right now there's a big debate, and if you
look at the results of the poll, it's fifty four
forty six. It is almost dead down the middle. The
yeses have the slight edge over the nose.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Well, I think there's a fair argument to be made
on either side. I think before you get to the
bottom of it, I think that you have to decide
about the value of a quarterback. You just have to
you have to just say, Okay, how are we going
to assess quarterbacks? Because are we going to assess them
exactly the same as punters, you know, like if Ray
(13:40):
guy had been a seahawk, you know, you know, I mean,
at what point is that under considerate? It's hard not
even if you say no, that doesn't count, it's hard
not to let that creep into your analysis, knowing that
he's a quarterback. Right So I would say, you know,
the first barometer for me would be you know, the
(14:02):
Hall of Fame. How many guys are in the Hall
of Fame, and and and then we can reasonably this
is just the way I would reason through the debate.
I would say, is Russell hall of Famer? I don't
think he has enough on his resume to be a
Hall of Famer. I think I think he's in the discussion,
but I think as of now, I don't think he's
(14:22):
gonna make it. So I don't think his Sea Hawk
career was enough to make the Hall of Fame, despite
you know, several Pro Bowls, and and so I would
give the nod to Hall of famers just automatically.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
That's why margent tez Walt hutch easily. I don't think
I'm missing any There's five so yeah, so just for
the purposes of brevity, they're just automatically in there before
Russ for me. And then I would say, okay, well,
we know Bobby Wagner is going to the Hall of Fame. Yes,
six okay, and he's six times first team All Pro.
(14:56):
So that that's that that's a the definition of an
no brainer for me.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Then you get into uh.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
The l Ob and Marshawn and Alexander.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah, and at some point it's gonna be hard not
to have it a popularity, you know, it's really hard
to keep yourself objective, and so kind of your favorites
kind of tend to creep in. But you know, I
I just I think I'd studied too much stats at
the time of Russell's where if you just say, all
(15:31):
the quarterbacks in history, who who had you know, a
defense and a running game like him? Like you could
you could all there's numbers that I could point to.
I don't have him in front of me now, but
there's numbers you could point to that literally say this
is the luckiest Super Bowl winning quarterback of all.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Time because the intense and the running back and the percentage.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
You say, wait a minute, Russe isn't the first guy
to have a good running game and a good defense
behind him. But but but just trust me, the numbers
are there, and in so than Dilfer. Well, if it
kind of depends on you know, that's that's a one off. Yeah, yeah,
because he had that oh god, the running back two
thousand yards, yeah, Jamal Lewis, And of course they had
(16:12):
the great defense. But if you you know, the Seahawk
portion would be like four years. The seas are the
only team in history to uh to have the scoring
title defensively for four straight years fewest points allowed, right.
And then the percentage if you go like percentage of
the yards that were accumulated by the quarterback versus the
(16:34):
running back relative to the year, right, because you have
to adjust for the times, because you know, like Bob
Greasy won a Super Bowl. He threw you know, he's
like seven for ten in the Super Bowl, you know,
and he's handing the ball off to Larry'sanka and they
had the killer Bees and all. But but that's that's
the way football was in nineteen seventy two, you know.
So so if you if it's a little bit of
(16:55):
a book cook and I will I will get you.
But if you if you factor the years and and
what what other quarterbacks are doing, and uh, you know,
I mean, uh, the Seahawks were dead last in that
year in terms of past percentage. They were number one
in run percentage and dead last thirty second in the league.
(17:18):
So you know, you know, so I think that there's
some numbers that that kind of creep in that I
think are reasonable to consider. But I would say Richard
Sherman is uh was was a better player that because
Richard Sherman was the best corner in treotball. That's right.
And nobody ever said Russell Wilson's the best quarterback.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Well, wasn't Earl Thomas the best free safety in football?
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yeah, yeah he was, and was Cam Chancell of the
best strong safety.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
But he was the enforcer. I mean, you know these
I mean, now you're you're you're sending me back to
things like nineteen seventy seven the Portland Trailblazer world title
team more East Lucas, like there was an inform had
a power forward name Maurice the Enforcer, right, like there
was an It wasn't just that Cam Chancellor was a
strong safety. He was a enforcer. He was a temple setter.
(18:11):
Like I I've never been in the head of a
running back, obviously, but when I study the tape, I
see reliable indicators that the running backs are like, no, no,
I'm not going back to inside cutting back to that lunatic.
He's he's the eighth man in the box, he's unblocked,
and he will come in and stamp me. And and
so there was just decisions perpetually why I'd see running
(18:35):
backs just they would not go back to him. And
and it sure bore the signs of guys that were
aware of that enforcement uh element that he brought. So
so the lob is a one I don't expect at
my age to ever see uh, certainly a seahawk defense
like that. They were just they were just a joy
to watch every Sunday and uh and then you and
(18:57):
then Marshall Lynch. For a guy that I'm not a
big Sean Allen Xander fan at all, I just there
because when I would watch, when i'd watch the tape,
I I could go frame by frame and I go,
wait a minute, he's starting, he's starting to go to
his knees and he hasn't been touched yet. He had
a knack to right before contact to start to give
(19:17):
up on his box. And I'm like, this is utter bs.
So I am not a Saun Alexander fan in any way,
shape or form. Plus he didn't give two craps about
pass protecting for Matt Hasselbeck or being a factor in
the passing game. So so to me, Marshaw Lynch was
a godsend. It's like the football gods just said well,
(19:38):
you know, we we gave you this Nancy boy, albeit
really good runner, but you know, on a toughness quite
a Sally, and now we're going to give you just
the badass of all bad ass freaking uh b b
yob be your own blocker, just you know, intimidation. Getting
back to that word with uh So to me, marshn
(19:59):
lyn Inch is uh you know, I'm always going to
put him above Russell. But I think but if you
were to say, well, you're letting some of the emotion
creep in, I'd say, yeah, you're probably right, right, But
I think I think russ is a round ten, but
I could make an argument that he's not in the
top ten.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Yeah, that's and that's where Jackson and I were. I
mean Jackson and I were right around nine ish nine
for me in there. So yeah, I think we're all
we're all in.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I think he was.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I think he's nine. I think he's probably not. I
think he's for me. I think he's fairly comfortably in
the top ten. But I'm splitting hairs when it comes
to you know, guys like Sean Alexander and uh maybe
Cam Chancellor.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
I think we're it's it's really tough.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Well, then Tyler Lockett. Uh. You know, I think the
tiebreaker might be if you put Tyler in front of him,
then that pushes him out. If you don't, maybe that puts.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
You know, like personally, I wouldn't put Tyler in front
of I wouldn't put Tyler in front of Russ.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
I mean Tyler's yeah. I mean what I said was,
I don't.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
I can't blame anybody if they say I'm going to
have Russ behind Hutch, behind a lot of the cam
behind Frankly, you could make a case for Locket singing
second best wide receiver and seek history the longevity thing.
I wouldn't blame somebody, but I disagree Ke. What I
said was, if anybody has Russell Wilson higher than five,
if anybody has him above either Tes or above Walter,
(21:23):
or above Steve or about Bobby, if anybody has Russell
above those four, I have a problem with that.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
With that take well, I would say I would, I
would dig in and I plan a flag hard on
the beach that the highest you could rank him would
be seven, the very yes, because that's the five Hall
of famers plus Bobby who you know, And I would
not put him at seven, but that's as high as
I'd be willing. You know, the old saying, Hey, reasonable
(21:51):
minds can differ if you try and put him above seven.
For me, I'm gonna like I might, I might kind
of say reasonable mine, it's going to differ, but there's
gonna be a poor something. I'll be thinking, you're freaking nuts. Yeah,
it's good stuff.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
We'll talk some OTAs with Hugh when we come back.
And you know, Peter King had an interesting statement to
run by Hugh. He says, at some point in our lifetime,
the NFL Draft is going to go away and players
will jump directly from college through free agency to the
whatever team they want to play for.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
See a few agrees that that may come to fruition.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Next on ninety three point three KJFM.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
Podcasting Live from the R and R Foundation Specialist Broadcast Studio.
Now back to Softie and Dick, powered by Emerald Queen Casino,
the Vetting and capital of the Northwest.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
On Sports Radio ninety three point three kJ r.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
FM Softian Deck without the Sopho one for one more day.
He'll be back live from the EQC. Will be out
there tomorrow. Jackson is here Hughes here for one more
segment today. He was working hard on the morning show
today and Hue we were I was talking to Ian
earlier today and he mentioned that boy there, he's seeing
(23:00):
a lot of eye formation out there, which is just
something we did not see with Ryan Grubb, we did
not see with Shane Waldron. And I want to talk
a little little eye formation with you out there. I
think most people, probably especially those that are old enough
to remember nineteen eighties football, certainly remember. Yeah, it's because
it was all over the place. But maybe just just
talk about the benefits of the eye with having a fullback,
(23:25):
you know, as a lead blocker, and maybe some of
the detriments of having the affirmation because we're certainly going
to see it in the repertoire this year for the Hawks.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Yeah, I mean part of me breaks out in hives
at the side of the eye forirmation. It's just reminiscent
of you know, mid nineteen eighties University of Washington football.
I don't have a problem with ifirmation on neutral downs,
but on third down, you know, particularly third and medium,
third and long, you go ifirmation and you go play
(23:54):
action from under center, turn you back on the defense
on a seven step drop. It's just it was a illogical,
and I thank Don James for the sake of the
Huskies that they brid and Keith Gilbertson and open things
up and change the formations entirely. Think about this, You've
got as a quarterback, You've got five eligible receivers, right,
(24:16):
So if most of the time teams are in a
one back personnel, In fact, eighty nine point eight percent
of the time that in all NFL snaps last year
was exactly one back, whereas just nine point three percent
of time did you have a two back? And which
(24:38):
is in the NFL? That's usually the ifirmation. Okay, but
just think of you asked me the pluses and minuses.
I'll give you the minuses first. If you have an
I formation, you have a fullback and a tailback behind you,
and you say, okay, what routes can you run from there? Well,
the tailback can run, he can run a swing, can
(25:00):
stretch the field laterally, or he can do it. You
can fake and then check down laid over the middle.
That's about it. The full back he can't basically do
anything from right behind you. Uh. He can lead, block
up in and be a late delay, but there's no
he's not going to stretch the defense at the onset
of the play if you even if you just offset
(25:24):
the full back. And so it's kind of like what
what Mike Homgren would call strong eye or weak eye,
so that the fullback is instead of behind the center
and the quarterback he's behind, you know, call it in
the B gap or just the inside leg of the tackle.
He can at least run a flat route. He can
run a little angle route over the middle, like at
least there's a little bit of of of a pass
(25:46):
tree from that position. So you're really hamstring, you know,
as a quarterback, you get infirmation I got two eligible
receivers that can't stretch the field vertically for sure. The
tailback can only stretch the field laterally if he runs
a swim. And so now I just have three guys
going against seven defenders, which is general zone. Now there
(26:07):
could be eight, there could be six, but as a
general rule, zone has played with seven guys. So it's
just becomes kind of a numbers thing. And in terms
of how quickly can you stretch a defense, and and
you know, by contrast, just to it might be easier
to illustrate this. If we were in empty backfield, no
running backs. Let's say we went five wide, We'd put
(26:28):
three receivers on one side, two to the other. We're
all spread out. Well, boom, at the snap of the ball,
all five of those guys can immediately get vertical. They
can meet you know, the inside guys can can go vertical,
or they can run crossing routes, they can break to
the outside. Like, there's all kinds of ways you can
stretch the defense from empty and infirmation is the opposite
(26:52):
of empty, you know, and so so. But here's here's
where the benefit is on first down, and if you
have a lead full back, it really helps your running
game and you're almost assured to get a single high defense.
That's the key that they're are most all. I bet
(27:14):
eighty you know, I could probably do the factory on
some of the filters, but I.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Bet you gause you're too susceptible to the run if
you have two deep safeties.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
And yeah, and and they know that you're you're stretched
thin from uh from a standpoint of stretching the defense
in passing game. But so they'll bring that safety. Now
you're going to see cover three or cover one. Those
are single high defenses, which means you have one on
one to the outside. So the idea that you go,
you fake, fake some type of lead it could be
(27:41):
a lead stretch or what have you. And then Darnold
fakes the canine then flips around and and finds the
defense and he works the outside the perimeter. You're it's
it's almost surely going to be one on one, and
that's how you dictate, and you know, go play action.
But drop back from ifirmation is just is just silly.
(28:04):
It's it's just purposeless. Right, So so if you're gonna
if you're gonna throw the ball out of the iffirmation,
unless it's the quick game, you know, you you want
to hit a slant or something. But but in any
downfield sense, you really should go play action and it
should be early downs, great stuff. And and yeah, so
that's how that's that's how I see it. But but
(28:25):
oh what one final thought. The the forty nine ers
were number one with two running backs at forty percent
the uh the NFL average the NFL average was eight
point nine percent. Okay, and the U of the time,
and you're in two running backs, uh and and they
(28:46):
they're forty forty point one percent, where the forty nine
and the Saints were fifth at twenty four percent last year.
So Niners forty percent, Saints last year, Gary Kubak, sorry,
Clint Kubiak twenty four percent, Seattle the Sea last year
just one point seven percent. So we're going to go
from one point seven percent to twenty four percent. You know, Yeah,
(29:08):
that's significant. What's that? Fifteen x? Yes?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Or hey?
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Before we let you go, I want to get your
take on what Peter Peter King had to say, the legendary.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Sports reporter football reporter.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
He says, some point in our lifetime, the NFL Draft
will go away and players will just jump jump to
the pros through a form of free agency, and he
said it'll be celebrated similar to like a signing day
in college sports. Is that something that I mean, obviously
the players I think would like that. Would the league
(29:39):
like something like that because their draft is so successful
as far as the eyeballs.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Go, Yeah, I I I because you sent it to
me and I just kind of perused through it. I
didn't I didn't read it intently, but you know one
of the things that you know, I was, I was
a player rep during the time where we fought to
gain free agency. And I think Peter just one of
the things. My eyebrow kind of went up and he says, well,
(30:05):
you know, will it survive the the labor laws. The
labor laws are not the problem, specifically the Wagner Labor Act.
The Labor Act states that that if you have collective bargaining,
then anti trust law can be permitted if it's it's
if it's acceeded to in collective bargaining, and so so
(30:27):
what what how does how does that play out? The
draft is a violation not of the labor laws, of
the anti trust laws. It's a restraint of trade. It's
anti competitive. Can you imagine in other industries where you
get out of college and then you're just you know,
you graduate with a aeronautics degree and and then you
just get drafted to the company and and your and
(30:50):
your salary is already slotted like that's that's anti American,
that's anti competitive. And thus it's a violation of the
Sherman Anti Trust Act. So so what what would have
to happen for this to the steps that would precede this?
In my opinion, if the if the if the NFL
ever said okay, we're going to decertify as a union,
(31:11):
and so that now now the collective bargaining agreement that
did exist, uh, where the labor laws superseded the anti
trust laws. Now the the the whole, the whole, the
whole system could be analyzed by anti trust law. I
(31:31):
cannot survive anti trust lab period. Everybody knows that. And so,
but you have to get out from underneath the cloak.
From the owner's perspective, what they would fear is the
players getting out front of the cloak of the of
the collective bargain agreement and detached from that. And then
you would have a system that would be analyzed and
(31:52):
and they would lose every time that the draft was
patently in violation of anti trust laws. But the players
have always said, hey, as long as you give us this,
this pension and this percentage of the revenue, if we're
up around forty eight forty nine percent of revenue, and
and and you have a not only a salary cap,
but a minimum that you have to spend. If you're
(32:13):
willing to do all that, then we'll let you have
your illegal draft. Does that make sense? Yes, that's the
way it's played out in the past, and so you'd
have to have a dismantling of those facets that prop
up the system and make it legal.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Now, Hugh, always a pleasure. We'll talk about Friday, man,
Thank you. Enjoy the enjoy the morning show. You got
another morning show tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
No, no, not till Thursday, gotcha? Perfect right, thanks man,
al Right, hammer down, guys, you bet.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Hugh breed love millon we come back. I want to
get your take on the text line four nine four
five one. Where's Russ in your top ten? Or is
he in your top ten? We'll get some of those
texts next on ninety three point three KJRFM.
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