SEAHAWKS Training Camp CROSSOVER!! What I saw this week (w/ Bryce Coutts and Michael Thompson)
Heat. [Music] Heat. Welcome in everyone to another episode of the Hawk Zone Rundown live edition. So today I’ve got Dan Vienn and Michael Thompson joining me. Dan’s got a hat that he acquired off of our store at one point. Um, but gentlemen, good to have you in here after kind of the first week of camps now wrapped up. So, how you guys feeling so far of everything you’ve seen and heard coming out of Seahawks camp? I mean, everybody thinks they’re going to win the Super Bowl this time of year, right? every pass is the greatest pass ever and uh every coaching hire was perfect and every draft pick is going to be a superstar and uh yeah, if you if you just scroll through Twitter for about a half an hour, everyone everyone’s going to go undefeated. Yeah, Mike, what about you? How do you how do you feel things are going so far? Yeah, it’s it’s the for like the NFL, I feel like the baseball terms of of training camp is opening day, right? like hope springs eternal once training camp starts cuz you know like summer’s starting to make its turn. You can like it’s still summer but fall’s around the corner. Um everyone looks like an 11 and six to 13 and four. you know, this could be the year if things go right and then things come crashing down once you get that first injury and it’s just like it hits you like, oh, okay, like it’s it’s real life again and all those like hopes and dreams. Even whether it’s a a role player or a superstar, it just feels like a gut wrench. And I think for Seahawk fans, we felt that in the last, you know, 24, 48 hours. You just had to just bring that right up off the top. Our poor boy. our poor boy Kenny. I’m trying to go positive. Yeah. Like, wow. And what’s funny is just uh you know, Friday I was out there uh and maybe I jinxed it, but I didn’t say it to anyone. I was just thinking it internally like, man, this is the healthiest training camp that I can ever remember. And and did you knock on wood after that happened, Dan? Did you when you thought that, did you find You can’t You can’t hold You can think stuff. You’re just not You just can’t say it out loud or the jinx is off. classic podcaster jinx. Yeah, look, when you’re when you look around the division, the Seahawks are still the healthiest team right now in the NFC West. So, knock on wood that it that it ends here, but just a horrible blow for Macintosh. He’s already been through well, not this severe. You know, his rookie year was just kind of a nagging knee injury that kept him out uh for most of that, but just it’s so hard for running. Bryce and I were talking a little bit before we went live about it. It’s just so hard to make it in this league as a running back anyway to find the right spot to get an opportunity. Uh you’re so you’re so dispensable, you know, at that position. Uh and then he finally got an opportunity late last year. He was looking good in camp. You know, they all were. I mean, that that running back room is stacked fortunately for the team. But just to get that news yesterday, uh the way it went down is just uh my first thought is always the player. Um but also I think he was going to have a potentially a role on this team. So, um, there is an impact there. Yeah. So, obviously we’re discussing right now Kenny Macintosh’s ACL tear that I’m pretty much I think has been confirmed that it is a tear of his ACL. And for a guy that basically lost his entire rookie season if we think about it, he had a really good start to his rookie camp. Mock game happened. Sprains, I believe, his knee was the issue. He basically only made it back for the last three games of the year. Only contributed really on specials. and then last year didn’t really see the field for whatever reason even being healthy then finally gets a chance with some of the injuries to that room and I know Dan you and me talked about it I’m pretty sure me and Mike did it two points too being like wow like Kenny Macintosh can be a viable running back in this offense like he gives us a little something different than what we get with K9 and what we get with Charbanet I agree I was in the same camp that I figured they were going to keep all four running backs plus a fullback and have five guys truly in in that backfield and it was going to affect the receiver position, how many receivers they were going to carry through. Now, I really think they’re going to carry three running backs and a fullback and only have four. I don’t think George Hani will be that fourth back because I just don’t see the same potentially level of upside that Macintosh offered. And he was getting opportunities in the kick return game, which I think was exciting, too. This is a really tough blow for one, the player, like you said, Dan, and two, I think in some respects, it really damages the Seahawks depth in that room because we know that this room has basically had its own jinx on it since Marshon’s left when it comes to the injury bug. Yeah, Rashad Penny, Chris Carson, like you know, the Seahawks might lead the league right now in running backs come through here over the last 10 years that showed massive upside and just could never ever beat the uh CJ Pro. It’s we’re kind of the poster child for the attrition that that position usually sees. Um and and and it’s a cautionary tale, too. I mentioned this on my show last night that like, you know, when we go through draft season, you guys know what I’m talking about here. It’s it’s you know, you can you can post a mock draft any given day and someone’s going to have an issue with some of your picks and it usually goes something like this. Why do we need another edge? We our edge room is loaded. Why are you taking a tight end there? We have enough tight ends. But you know what I mean? And and we certainly heard heard that with C with running backs. We always hear that with running backs, specifically here with the backto-back second round picks, right? Like it’s bad value. It’s you can never count on players staying healthy. Attrition is a real thing. And that’s why I think this is a perfect example of it because you know here I think a month six weeks ago I did a show about how that room might be the deepest and most talented running back room in the entire league but one guy goes down even though he’s not the starter. In fact, we would all agree he’s he’s the third running back at best. And it changes the complexion of that whole room because now suddenly if anything happens to Ken Walker or Zack Charban, now you’re down to if you assume and and you kind of implied it there that like Damen Martinez, for example, is your your next man up. Well, Damen Martinez has some significant shortcomings in the passing game. He just hasn’t done it. And when he has, he hasn’t looked very good doing it. He dropped two passes on Thursday on easy balls uh right in front of me. Uh and he’s he’s struggling in pass protection as well. So, you know, it gets thin really quick. And because of that, maybe a guy like Helani might actually have a leg up because he’s more uh he’s a little bit more accomplice. They threw the ball to him quite a bit at Boyise City. I think he had like 70 or 80 catches there. Uh it might give him an edge in that competition. But just to my point, it’s it’s uh it only takes one guy to go down to kind of muck up the whole depth chart and change the whole dynamic. We’re seeing it at edge and now we’re seeing it at running back. It’ll be it’ll be very interesting to see how Seattle adjusts to this and where they go and what these numbers on this 53man roster look like because I think what Wright’s the only other back I know of that’s in camp or has been at least there through OTAAS and what and and Jakardia White, sorry. So, you know, you could be very well right down with with Helani there and and the fact he’s already got experience at the NFL level. If if Martinez can’t pick up the pass pro side and and be more of a viable option out of the backfield, it could make a challenge for him to make this team. Um, with that being said though, on, you know, other than that, Dan, let’s kind of steer into you. You were at camp for a bunch of days there early on with your credentialed access and whatnot. And what were first off, what was that experience like for you? I know that’s kind of getting back to the roots for you a little bit because you’ve been to a Seahawks training camp years and years ago. Uh what was like finally being back in that atmosphere and what were some of the observations you took away that really stood out to you? Don’t love the emphasis you put on how many years ago it was. Uh I never specified a digit. I just years ago. Leave that to me. Leather helmets, no face masks. That’s we’ll just leave it at that. Um yeah. Yeah. No, Kirkland Bible College was the last time I ever covered officially covered a Seahawks training camp. So, it’s cool. It’s in one sense like I’m only 10 feet closer to the action than before, right? Like just uh you know, give or take, but you know, seen plenty of practices from the Burm. I used to go when they’d train in Cheney and you could just literally walk right up to the chain link fence and stand and Mike Homegrren would be like three feet away from you and there was nobody there. Um, but but to just be on the field, my first impression, this may sound silly, was like this is the nicest turf I think I’ve ever stepped on. Like like the fact I was so obsessed with that the first day. the fact that that some of the stadiums in the NFL are notorious and have struggled like Hinesfield, I don’t know if it’s still called that in Pittsburgh, uh you know, Levi Stadium in Santa Clara just notoriously every year struggle with being able to put good solid quality NFL caliber turf out there. The practice field at V-Mac is unbelievable. It’s like a It’s like a putting green. It really is like you could literally putt a ball out there. Um, it was great mostly because um, you just things just look different. I I mean, you know, I joke about how I I wasn’t that far away on the Burm anyway, but you are and things look different. Like one of the first things I noticed when I walked up to the field was uh Robbie Utes was standing there with the running back in the fullback group and like you can see uh specs on a sheet of paper, right, or a computer screen. He’s 63, 274. Cool. he’s massive and then you see him in the back field lining up and it just seems unnatural, but then you get to see uh how easily he moves at that size and and there’s something that Mike McDonald there’s a word he uses quite a bit that I’ve really come to appreciate and that’s feel. He’ll talk in terms of like you can feel his presence on the field. I think that was the biggest takeaway I had from this week is there’s a different level uh to which you can really take in what what’s happening at practice because you’re close enough to feel it if that makes sense. So being as close as you were Dan, what was it like with the O line group? You know that’s obviously everyone’s main kind of focus and it will be until it gets right. Was there anything in particular like when you’re near that group with John Benton and this new coaching staff that’s there? Was was it different? Did it seem like the way that John Bettton goes about it, you see that NFL experience come into the actual coaching? For sure. Yeah. Two things stood out. Number one, just the athleticism of the group. Like I I’ve never seen a group before that that you know from top to bottom uh just all moves as well as they do. Um so that was that was cool to see because you know we’ve been talking so much about the scheme these last few months and finding the right parts to fit the scheme. um the guys they have on hand certainly seem like there’s a a good group to choose from. But the other thing I’m glad you touched on on it the way you did was I had it might have been my most fun takeaway of the week is is watching and listening to the training and uh you know can’t pass along anything that I heard him say but just I I can say this a lot of work on the fundamentals and the basics and at one point John Benton was with one group and Justin Outton was with the other group and at first I thought well maybe it’s split into tackles an interior lineman, but there was some crossover. And some of that’s because they’re cross trainining a lot of these guys. But then it it kind of struck me that the group that was over to the left were the the more experienced guys and the group to the right were were more of the young guys because the things that they that he was teaching just about where to put your hand, right? And and just little things about positioning and footwork. Um, at one point he he he talked about like, hey, if this three technique goes that way and and you you know right off the snap that he’s he’s twisting in that way, do you go with him? Do you do you do you try to take him far that way? Do you even put your hands on him? No. It’s like it’s like they were in uh outside zone running scheme 101, day one of class, and just really going o over those the little minutia. um that that I think just speaks to to his experience, his experience in the scheme and the success he’s had in his career, John Benton, at teaching these guys, just making sure that that they’re really paying attention to the details. So, the next one I wanted to ask you about, Dan, and and Mike, feel free to chime in at any point here, but how is the reincarnated 2020 battle of Matt Flynn, Russell Wilson 2.0, know if you listen to all the Seahawks fans out there, Jaylen Milro and Sam Darnold are now Matt Flynn and Russell Wilson all over again. Dan, how did that look to you? I I don’t know if you could end this sarcasm there. Yeah. No, I get it. And uh the difference was and and this came up again on Twitter like right before I logged in here too. Somebody was making this point. I think I think we miss uh some of the reality of what happened in 2012 and that is the first day of rookie mini camp. Pete Carol said, “Hey, this guy’s really good and he’s in the competition to be a starter.” It was a much different dynamic back then. Matt Flynn was no sure thing. Tvarus Jackson was just there as a clipboard holder. Uh much different situation. But that being said, um and I I think I reported this every day. Uh with the exception maybe of Friday, a little bit tougher day for Sam Darnold. Um a really really good week for all three of them. And then it sounds like yesterday uh they were all really good again com um according to all the the beat writers that were there on hand and even uh our our good friend Curtis Allen who was watching from the Burm for the Seahawks draft blog wrote a wrote a a piece about it. Uh good week for the quarterbacks and and the cool thing is you can see you can see the plan in place and you can see the depth chart right in front of your eyes. Like Sam’s clearly the best of the three. Drew looks like a guy that can start games and win games for you. And he looks like a little better version of Drew Lockach than the one that left here and went to New York for a year. And Jaylen Milro looks very much like the guy who’s just dripping with upside and you know makes some young mistakes and has stuff to learn, but you can see it right. Um, I thought I thought as a group uh it struck me I I think at a certain point on Thursday because that was a really good day for all three of them that I don’t know if you can make an argument that there’s a more talented three in the league from top to bottom. And that while the plan is in place, I believe in the plan. They’re not going to they’re not going to, you know, veer from it. This idea among some fans that like, hey, I’m hearing good things about Milro. he can just be the backup and we can trade Drew Lock or get That’s not going to happen. They’re going to stick to this plan. Um, can’t wait for preseason to see these guys play, but I think they’re going about it the right way. And while, you know, you always want to temper enthusiasm, what we’re seeing out of Jaylen Milro this first week of training camp, uh, has to, it’s so encouraging that, um, it should quiet the doubters. doesn’t mean he’s going to light the world on fire, but the steps he’s taken just since I saw him in Mobile, since the combine, since his pro day, um he’s doing the right things and he’s moving in the right direction. I feel like this is just, you know, just from what I’m hearing, it just echoes this sentiment that the offense, it’s early. Obviously, they haven’t even put on pads and we’ll find out. You know, we’re going to find out next week and in the coming weeks as we get going, but like there’s just a very strong sense of like comfortability with the offense at training camp is what I’ve heard from a few people. It just like like what like what Dan talked about and what he can’t talk about is just the the tone that Benton is setting and and and just the vibe that’s going on over there. It’s just a little bit different than what it was last year of a new guy with a lot of veterans trying to, you know, assimilate Washington Husky football, Seattle Seahawk NFL style. Like that was there was some rough practices is what I heard last year, right? Like, and that’s no knock on Grub. Grub’s going to be fantastic. Alabama’s probably going to have an amazing year next year and Grub’s going to be probably a head coach in college football next year. So, like, it just didn’t work here. That doesn’t mean he’s a bad coach. Um, but just again, like we’re it’s this scheme, man. like and we have veterans, we have talented, we have bloodlines in this coaching staff. Like I think Dan, we talked about this last time on on the show is like there’s a real shot even with the 49ers and the Steelers as your first two games. Like this offense could look pretty decent if if they click and it just goes again to the scheme and then this the players that we have. Like obviously we’ll see what the offensive line look like and that’s what it all comes down to every year for every team, but like the combination of Darnold and what he brings and what he has and may not have, which you know 5 years ago he was the golden boy, right? And like this has been kind of an interesting journey. Drew Lock is like he’s not your backup that you put in when the when you’re ready to lose. He’s the one that can come in and he might mess around and go beat the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football. He might also throw four picks, right? and and or he might cost the Giants the number one overall pick in the draft. Like he’s a gunslinger that’s now in a in a scheme that’s very much like QB friendly and it’s going to protect you. And then you have this fascinating toy which again, you know, I don’t know what Twitter looked like in 2012, but I I I wonder how much it would be the same, you know, if Russ was doing this. We’re just in a different era where, you know, like we’ve we joked about certain personalities on social media, every throw that Jaylen Mro is going to make is going to be like, “Oh, this guy’s going to be a problem.” Um, and we all know this 40, 50, 60 yard touchdown run is going to happen in one of these preseason games against guys that aren’t going to be in the NFL. And like it’s just it’s going to get out of control. And I know we’ve talked about this, we don’t need to rehash it, but like it’s just three interesting pieces that should all really well fit into this scheme that we have watched for as long as we’ve been football fans, right? 49ers to Shanahan with the Broncos to Kyle Shanahan and the Rams and everything we’ve seen like everyone we’ve this is what we’ve grown up watching and this offense is always pretty good and it it always does a good job and it’s got its flaws but it’s just kind of nice to see that and everything I’m hearing is like it’s just a different vibe. It’s it’s it’s you know even if it doesn’t exactly work it’s not going to have the warts and the ugly moments that we may have seen last year. Health being a thing. Um, Dan, question I got for you is, and I’ve I’ve heard this from a few people, is what has the battles been like, if it has been much, between the secondary that I’ve heard has been outstanding so far versus the wide receivers, which I’ve heard Cooper Cup looks like he’s 28 instead of however however old he is now. He looks like he’s in his prime. And JSN sounds like he looks really good. And Horton, I’m hearing some interesting stuff. Would love to see what you’ve heard and what you can talk about with that. It’s a lot of give and take like you know it’s because they’re battling each other right in the first day it was really evident to me that the secondary was ahead of the offense and that that made it really really difficult even in seven on sevens um because they’re just you know you’re you’re literally going up against one of the best secondaries in the league and so they were making plays they were forcing the quarterbacks to check it down a lot which is a real emphasis of this camp is like you know kind of establishing that internal clock we heard Sam Darnold talk about this after practice on Thursday and and and you know that’s that’s something he’s still working on at this point in his career. His detractors will tell you that’s been his biggest issue. But you can make that case about a lot of quarterbacks in the league. And so uh you know with that being said if if there’s nothing open right away you know how aggressive do you want to be when you’re trying to split hairs with Reek Woolen and Devin Witherspoon back there and Julian Love and Kobe Bryant and everybody else and even some of the guys that aren’t going to make this roster out there making plays. like it’s the depth in the secondary is uh is pretty striking, but the offense then especially Thursday, Friday, you know, started fighting back and making some plays of their own. Some of them are tough to gauge because the the DBs can’t really fight for the ball um and and be physical, but you get an idea, right? When you see a completion, you can be like, “Okay, that might not have been it or whatever.” But um but they’re out there battling and and it’s a good mix. And I think um somebody asked the question of McDonald on Friday. I think it might have been Brian actually that that how do you judge that? How how how do you when you’re trying to make evaluations decide was that a good play on the part of the offense or a bad play on the part of the defense or vice versa? I think what you want to see is that it’s kind of 5050. And Thursday in particular, we saw that for every play the defense made. And that was the first day that Darnold threw an interception. In fact, there wasn’t an interception at all from anyone on Wednesday. um you know, he comes right back a couple of plays later and hits JSN for a 40-yard touchdown. It’s the way that they’re still coming back and making plays. Uh they were given they were giving the quarterbacks a real hard time on Friday and then uh uh Drew Lock hit a ball down the middle to Tory Horton uh for about 30 35 yards that might have been a touchdown even if there was even if there was some uh some contact allowed. So I think you you don’t you don’t want to see your do your defense dominating your offense. You don’t want to see your offense dominating your defense either, right? That would bring up more questions than answers. Uh I think it’s been pretty split and I like what I seen I’ve seen from this offense knowing the guys that they’re going up against on the other side. Yeah, this is going to be really really interesting. And the one person I wanted to kind of ask you about too, Dan, in that uh secondary and then that receiving core too is one Jake Bobo. How has Jake looked out there? because I know coming out of OTAAS and even around this time of the year, Jake tends to get a lot of Bobo tends to get a lot of hype. How is he fitting in with this um offense? And then on the secondary side of thing, how has Nehemiah Pritchette looked? Because he’s had this up and down sort of initial start to his NFL career. Were there any takeaways from either one of those guys um that you saw there that kind of stood out? Yeah, it’s you just sent me back to my notes and I thought, “Oh, I might not be able to find this.” It was on the second page. Uh Pritchette pick out D. Young Milroe. He he had a great interception on Thursday. Uh just jumping and out route by Dariq Young that Jaylen Milro threw. Um he looks pretty sticky in coverage. I like what I’ve seen from him and I and I put him on the roster in my latest projection. Um I I think you know everything I’ve heard from others who cover the team is that they they think highly of him. Um, and uh, he’s a guy that I think really has a chance to kind of turn some heads in the preseason and and make a name for himself. Uh, I like what I saw there. And he might need to be ready to go because, uh, we didn’t really see Shaquille Griffin this week. He was out with an illness on Wednesday. He was gone for a personal matter Friday. And even though he was out there on Thursday with his uniform on and he was all energetic and he was working the crowd and he was catching up with some people in the organization he hadn’t seen in a while, they didn’t do anything on the field. So I really don’t know what his standing is uh there in the secondary. Um but what was the first part of first part of that question? Bobo Bobo. Uh if you were out at practice on any given day in training camp, I think this would be the case. Um, and you were just trying to decide. I do this when I go watch a team practice for the first time. I try not to look at a at a roster at first. I want to decide, can I tell who the starting quarterback is? Can I tell who the best players are, right? Without without looking. You wouldn’t think Bobo’s won it. You You just wouldn’t. It’s just not his game. He’s not out there. He’s not a training camp wow guy. Um, because that’s just not his skill set. He’s not out there beating guys on the boundary with with 4-3 speed or, you know, showing off his 40inch vertical, jumping over guys to make plays. Um, he’s a guy that you kind of forget about and take for granted. But then if you fall into the trap of like not putting him on your roster projection, then Mike McDonald rolls out after practice on Friday and uses words like identity. Said he was big part of our identity. said he was an integral part of the roster. Like in that moment, I came home and reported it that night. It’s like, well, Bobo’s making this team. Like, he just does all those little things that coaches want to see. Uh, including blocking, which is huge in the scheme. Um, but I also think that this coaching staff is equipped and capable of getting the most out of him because I thought that was just a huge missed opportunity last year from Ryan Grub, is not using him, especially as a weapon in the middle of the field. all those issues that we had on third downs and in the red zone last year, you got a 6’5 guy right here that can catch anything and and isn’t afraid to mix it up and get physical um and can block too. I I just I thought that was a a huge missed opportunity. Kind of a wasted year last year uh on the part of Ryan Grub when it comes to Jake Bobo. So, no, he’s on this team and and I think he’s going to contribute. So, let’s move over to a couple other guys. So, for both of you guys, who are some guys you’ve either seen through social media and and you know, Greg Bell or Corbin Smith, uh Brady Henderson talk about or Dan, who were some other guys that stood out to you at camp that kind of made you go, “Oh, like this is someone I got to look at through preseason and through this upcoming week and even at the fan the football fest uh practice that we’ll most of us will be attending.” Uh Steven Sims is the first guy that comes to mind. Um, like to the point that I put six receivers on my 53 when I did it this week, he just he presents a different player stylistically than anything else they have in that wide receiver room, right? Like he’s 59 5’9, 5’10”, 190 pounds, more along the lines of like Penny Hart or Dridge that they they’ve been kind of trying to find that type of player for a while. He’s the most accomplished punt kick returner of that group and so that gives him a leg up. Um while he’s not a burner, like he’s not a he’s not a 4-3 guy, he is uh really quick and shifty. Saw him take a reverse out of the back field on Friday in a red zone period. And so he does offer something that those other receivers don’t. and they also just seem to be he’s pretty heavy in in the rotation and and seems to be uh getting practice reps along the lines of a player that might have a role. So, I think it’s going to be real hard for him to keep off the roster. Now, that being said, he might be a guy that because he’s a seven, eight year vet, hasn’t really caught on anywhere yet. Um, you know, similar to like Cody White, I mean, their their history there is kind of similar. uh you know he he might be a guy that you can get through to the practice squad if you need to protect someone else, but he’s probably the the one guy when you ask that question that has stood out the most. And the other one, I know you’ll be happy to hear this, but every single day last week, pads or no pads, guys can still make plays, right? Um Mike Morris was in the back field at some point each practice Monday uh or Wednesday, Thursday, Friday that I was able to see. He was getting penetration. He was getting in the back field. It’s a big year for him. He’s got to have a good preseason to make the team. And at least through the first week, he was he was flashing. So, my other part of this, Dan, with the standouts, and and Mike, you feel free to jump in, is, you know, I know the offensive line can’t use their pads yet. Pads aren’t coming on till tomorrow. Did any of the offensive lineman stand out? Because you talked about them being, you know, explosive and they move well. What about these guys who were drafted this year? Obviously, Gray Zable, we already all know he’s going to be the left guard. Like, that legitimately is his spot unless there’s something that occurs, will be his his role. On that right guard side though, as we saw from different reports, they were moving pieces throughout. Jaylen Sundell, one of our favorites, was getting a lot of play at right guard throughout as long as well as center. But yeah, who else kind of outside of that group really stood out? Did did Bradford continue his strong performances that he had kind of proceeded to get in mini camp? Christian Haynes, did he step up? And my personal favorite is Bryce Cable. What did Bryce Cable do look like as a NFL guard potentially in that spot? So, I’ll answer this one backwards. Cabled, uh, you know, just just based on individual work, pad work, uh, you know, twoon- two stuff, some of the teaching drills. Um he stood out to me day one because you can see the athleticism, right? The reason, you know, he tested at an elite level on the RA chart. Um we know the Seahawks like him. You’ve been talking to him up for a long time and and even though he played mostly uh tackle in college, they’re working him out at guard. He just he’s such an easy athlete. You can see the appeal there. Um we’ll talk about him when we get to the roster thing. Uh, but he’s he’s probably the guy that I’m most excited of them all to see when the bullets start flying. As far as the other interior guys, it’s so hard to tell, but I got I saw good stuff from all of them, right? They were mixing and matching so much. I saw some reps on Friday from Christian Haynes playing center that looked really good. Like he had about seven or eight reps in a row at one point at center and he’s he’s really quick out of his stance after he snaps a ball. Uh he’s built like a center. You know, he worked at center at the Senior Bowl. There were some some of the scouting analysts um that did reports on him last year said they thought ultimately that might be his best spot and then Mike McDonald when asked uh Friday if he’s in the mix to start at center he said yeah he later said don’t get me wrong Olu and Sundell are ahead of him but he’s in the competition that’s why we’re doing it. Um, like it looked really good. But then I’ll say this, I’m sitting there thinking that and I’m writing notes in my notepad and then I look up and the very next rep all loos back in there and he had to execute a reach block where he had to get around a lineman who was slanting that direction, right? It’s the hardest block that you’re asked to make in any kind of his own block uh run call and and he was able to do it. We’ve seen him do that on tape in the past, too. He he was quick enough out of his stance to be able to get around and wall off uh the interior defensive lineman and make that block. So, I thought Olu’s been solid. I did a thing with Corbin on Thursday on the Emerald City Spectrum, and the way Corbin worded it in regards to Jaylen Sundell is he said, “I don’t know if he’s going to win one of these starting jobs, but I think the Seahawks want him to. like the way they’re moving him between center and guard. He’s he’s such a good athlete and an easy mover that um he’s going to play this year whether he’s a starter or not. At some point he’s going to be called on. He’s going to play. But uh those are my impressions. As far as Anthony Bradford, I just don’t see it. I I just you can talk all you want about how um he’s an elite athlete for his size. At least he tested that way. John Schneider says we think he can get to the second level. can play in this scheme. He just every time I want to believe in him, he records a really bad pass pro and I just can’t trust him there. I just we, you know, we’ve talked at Nauseium over the last five months about this running scheme, but they got to be able to pass protect, too. That’s got to be that’s been a huge issue over the last few years. They’ve got to pass protect. And if it comes down to that right now, if they were playing tomorrow, I believe it would be Ola, Watimi, and Haynes. Um, but that’s still fluid. Yeah, I know. I I kind of wondered about Bradford as well and like obviously the reports out of OTAAS and mini camp was, hey, look, he’s slimmed down. Hey, this, you know, he looks good doing this. And then the more like when I did my show with Bobby Peters and we talked about Kubak’s offense and he explained the diagrams and explained what they look for, he even kind of hinted at like you need athletic linemen. you need them to be able to get to the second level. It’s not all about power. It’s about understanding leverage and how to set yourself up and set things up. And for me, that’s just one of the things I don’t know if that’s necessarily in Bradford’s game and or at least consistently in his game. He might have the good rep here or there, but can he can do it in, you know, 80 to 70% of the time throughout a game is going to be the the other question. Like you said too, Dan, that the pass pro sets are always a concerning thing with Bradford and I don’t think you can have that. Again, a lot of their stuff moves pockets, right? The pockets’s not necessarily in the same spot like it was last year. It’ll slide. It’ll move. How is Bradford going to handle those things? So, I think it’ll be interesting to see. I think there’s a good chance that Bradford doesn’t make this team. He will be a trade piece to a team that wants a gap power guard and he has decentable, you know, reps on tape that you could, you know, make something of him. So, that’ll be something that will be kind of interesting. Uh, Mike, anything that you’ve seen on social, anything about guys that stand out maybe to your eye that you have, you know, thought about. Yeah, I think on the defensive side, it’s been encouraging to hear and I’d be curious to hear what Dan has has seen. Obviously, no pads, but does seem to be a swelling buildup of Byron Murphy like sophomore season. you know, what what can we see from a guy that probably should have been a top 10 pick that fell to us at 16. I think some of his teammates thought he’s going to have, you know, a massive breakout year. Um, you know, I’m sure I can go to all 32 teams and see a similar comment, but Byron Murphy, I thought had a very interesting rookie season. So, on the defensive side, that’s a guy I was looking at. And then offensively, I feel like it’s hard not to hear about Horton um and just how he looks post his injury. And it feels like there’s already like this push to push uh uh MVS kind of out and before he’s even really had a shot and then just kind of see what Horton can do. And I don’t really know if they’re the exact same player, but um it it’s just been interesting and encouraging to hear what I’ve seen and heard on on social media and stuff of Horton potentially trying to take that receiving version of the number three wide receiver. I think we all agree Bobo’s probably got a good shot to earn like those blocking reps just because of what that value is. But, um, I think those are two really interesting players that I’ve heard about. All right, guys. Well, with all this talk of the players and everything, first thing I’ll say, anyone that’s in the channel, whether it’s in YouTube or Twitter, on one of me and Dan’s pages here, feel free to comment in the chat. Even the Twitter comments will come through and we will get to those. We’re going to do a Q&A part at the end of this, so make sure you guys get all your comments in there. I already got it started going through and looking at some that we’re going to definitely pull up and talk about. But also guys, don’t forget to subscribe to the channel, click that notification button, do the same thing on Seahawks Forever for Dan. We do have a cool kind of start to this weekend coming up at the end of the week with myself, Dan, and a whole bunch of other Seahawk content creators. Mookie Alexander who’s in the chat some field goals Brandon Kane from the Hawk Nest myself and Dan are going to be doing two live shows down in the sodto area at what’s our sponsor there Dan I’ll let you punch that Fast Fashion Brewing got their Czech style pills right here. Uh it’s fantastic. Yeah, it’s down on First Avenue right next to Hooverville across the street from uh Showbox Sodto. Uh, it’s a father-son duo. The Storms that own that down there. Great setup. Really cool vibe down there. You’re going to love uh sort of the the kitsy sort of uh feel and vibe of their decor and everything. Um, and then they’ve got this back room with some games and stuff and a big screen. So, we can have the Mariner game on in the background while it’s going. And should be a lot of foot traffic in the area. Big home stand with the Texas Rangers and the Mariners this weekend. And then the football fest on Saturday. So, uh, looking forward to it. That’ll be a lot of fun. Yeah, it’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re also going to have Corbin Smith stop by from the Emerald City Spectrum and Seox Beat reporter. He’s going to come in on the Saturdays. So guys, make sure you have your notifications clicked. You got your subscriptions to both of these channels. On top of that, if you live in the area, come say hi. Come talk to myself, Dan, Brandon, Mookie, all of us that’ll be there. We’d love to interact with you guys and meet you guys in person. So, feel free to come. Uh, but with that being said, guys, let’s get into this 53man roster projection here. And I’m going to use the good old German Seahawkers uh roster builder, which shout out to them. They do a fantastic job with it. I know Dan, you use it as well as I do. Yeah, it’s fun. It It makes my life so much easier doing it. And it also is aesthetically pleasing to people when you see it actually that way instead of us with our Excel spreadsheets. Uh let me find it here. Sorry, it’s in my bookmarks, everybody. Just give me one second. Now Dan, I got to ask you one thing about before we get into this with the offense. What did you notice different between Kubak’s way of doing things, you know, is there a different flow to practice than when Ryan Grub or is it kind of the same or, you know, does Mike McDonald hang out with the offense more even in those first couple of days? Is he or is he still very on the defensive side of things? It’s kind of funny. Both of them are are kind of uh ghostlike. if they’re not real. You know, Pete, you always knew Pete was like, “Where’s Wally?” You could always see him. And part of it was the silver hair, right? But he was just such an energy force. He stood out even when he wasn’t wearing white while everybody else was wearing dark. Um Mike and Clint are both really quiet. There’s times where I had to remind myself like, where is Clint Kubak? Like he’s just very kind of subdued. But practice seemed really really tight, really well organized. Um, and that’s really all all I can judge uh a coordinator on at this point. It was a nice balance. I got to see some installs, which was kind of cool watching them literally walk through certain plays and do it over and over and over again. Um, at one point in seven on sevens, they were working on this particular route concept and install and uh and there were like five or six plays in a row because that where the defense made a play and broke up the pass. Well, it’s because they knew exactly what was coming, right? um because they’re running the same play over and over again. But some of that tedium uh that we saw uh they just they looked really sharp. Wednesday was sloppy, but it was sloppy kind of teamwide. There were a lot of flags, especially in the 11 on 111 for motion and off sides and stuff like that. I think they were kind of being tight. Um, but and Mike McDonald just he just seems so in command this year and so in control whereas last year it felt like I remember commenting on it at the time it felt like he was feeling his way and learning the job on the job, right? Everything that goes into it, not just how to organize practice and where to where to spend your your your time and your attention, but also how to deal with the media. He’s so in control of that now. And I feel like that permeates throughout the entire team and the entire squad. Very, very organized practices. Although, I will say this, Friday, and somebody asked him about it and he said it was no big deal. But Friday in particular, he was kind of following the offensive linemen around and watching what they did in that particular practice. So, he isn’t just watching the defense. Okay, gentlemen. Well, let’s start this roster construction again. I know we did one literally last week before it all started, but let’s try and do one now. We’ll take a lot of what Dan said here and bring it into this, you know, kind of idea of what the Seahawks roster could look and some of the changes. Obviously, the Macintosh injury does change a lot of things. So, let’s go here. Sam Darnold, Jaylen Milro, Drew Lock, all make it. And I’m actually going to pull up one thing right now that just came in the chat that I think is absolutely hilarious. And I’m going to throw this up there right now. MWM, who’s one of the guys that’s always in this chat. He goes, “Michael Thompson, you look like you’re ready to talk Mariners, not Seahawks.” I don’t want to I don’t want to talk about that offense today. I want to talk about the Seahawks offense, huh? Except for Cal, you know, Big Dumper got number 41, but other than that, no. Oh, man. Yeah. Cal Cali’s had himself a Only only talk about the Mariners in the chat when we trade for Gino Suarez while we’re doing this podcast. That’s That’s the only time I want to talk about the Mariners. There we go. And that reminds me guys, go over and sub to Dan and Mike’s uh channel, Mariners Forever. They do a great show over there. So, jump on over there if you want your Mariners content, guys. It’s a great channel, and I listen and watch it all the time myself. So, and we’ll get now that I’m settled, we’ll we’ll get we’ll get active over there again. We’re talking about doing another show soon. So, all right, guys. So, let’s look at this running back room. So Kenny Walker, Charban are there. Macintosh isn’t. There’s Helani, there’s Jakardi, right? Brady Russell, who interestingly enough, I wonder if Brady Russell’s moved out of fullback and moved more into the tight end role again because I’ve heard he hasn’t been doing as much there. And it’s very much Robbie Us is the fullback. Yeah. So, I’m these guys I I’ll shoot these guys a message, too. They should switch them back over. Like it it was very clear to me all week that he is back in the tight end room. That’s his primary position and but that he’s the backup fullback. Yeah. Okay guys, so we got three in there right now. Walker, Charminate, OTS. Are we all pretty safe to say we think Martinez is making this roster or do we think it’s Alani? What do we think right now? I I had Martinez on my latest just because I do think there’s going to be an opportunity for him in the preseason to to show off what he does best and be such a dynamic physical runner that they’re worried about him getting poached if they try to get him through to the practice squad. It just comes down to how much trust do we need to have in our third running back to be able to pass, protect, and catch the ball out of the back field. Um because as we said at the top, it gets really thin really quickly. And those are things that Helani has a lot more experience doing. Um, as long as Charbanet and Ken Walker are 100% healthy on cutdown day, then I think uh provided he’s had a good preseason, I think Martinez makes sense because I do I think teams around the league, they reset after the draft, right? And they go back and they reassess what we miss on. Uh, how did we have guys judged incorrectly, too high, too low? And I bet there’s a lot of teams around the league thinking, how did Damen Martinez get to the seventh round? And if they get the opportunity uh to uh claim him on waiverss, they might. Um but right now, I would put him on because I do as a runner, I think he’s a he’s a future starter. I I think that if the if we were playing the 49ers, you know, if the game was tomorrow, I I actually think Hani would be on the roster. Like I just I think with what is required of this scheme like having that third running back being that elusive that scat back so to speak I think that’s something Hani can do. However, I think as we go into into preseason games and more into this I think we’re going to see why just what Dan said Damen Martinez I think Dan had him as a fourth round grade or fifth round grade and and and maybe that is the reason why he fell that far is because he can’t pass block and that is going to probably be something that maybe will affect his career. But I also watched these running backs run into a brick wall and not move the line at all last year time after time after time. And I believe from watching Damen at Oregon State and then watching him with Miami, I think that’s something that he can provide. Um, but this is like we talked about, this is a great opportunity for Helani to prove, hey, like, you know, don’t ask Kenneth Walker and Charbanet to catch these passes out of the backfield. I can do this. I can be that guy. I can be that Travis Merr in this scheme for you guys. Um, and so I I really do think that and then the other big thing is as as Dan said, the draft is kind of allows that reset and that allows an opportunity for people to be like, man, why did they we why did we let Martinez go that late? I think if you don’t have Martinez, there’s a really good shot he gets poached. However, I I think the league is deep at the running back position right now and this draft class that just came in has just created this nice, you know, like just depth. Whereas a Helani I actually do think will make it through waiverss by the time by September 7th when it’s time to go. So, right now I would say gun to my head, I would take Helani, but when it is time for when it’s gets go time, it will be Martinez. And I think Helani will not be on the roster. I’m going to lean to Martinez just because I think with what they want to do offensively, what I talked with Bobby Peters about his style of running, it’s an identity. It’s an identity. It’s an identity thing. And you put him behind a Robbie Us and you run a wide zone with a fullback here and a tight end. That linebacker that wants to fill that back cutback lane is got a workhorse that’s about to hit. Yeah. And that’s why I think like, you know what, you can develop Think of it this way, and this is my kind of reference point. When Kenny Mc Mintosh came to Seattle two, you know, three years ago now, his biggest knock was, well, he’s not great in pass pro and he’s not great at other backfield catching. He’s able to stick around. I think Martinez might be a better running back than Kenny Mintosh. And I think that’s where the identity part of him really does play a factor. So, let’s go with Martinez. And I think that’s that’s what I think the running back room will look like now because the Macintosh injury they only and I think Helani or Wright will get kind of scooted through to you know the practice squad. So let’s go look at tight end. I think it’s, you know, we’ll put the first two guys kind of do we think it’s Eric Sabert, who I think is, you know, probably someone that they really do want to have on this roster for what he he excels at with the other two tight ends don’t, which is being a move blocking tight end. Yeah. I I just I think it’s barring injury, I think it’s pretty set in stone that that is your three, that’s your trio. Saber is your veteran kind of safety net in case anything happens or Aoyo or Barner struggles in this new scheme. And it just kind of goes back again with what we’ve seen from Brady Russell that yeah, he might be becoming a tight end. But I think we all agree this is also another player that would easily make it through. I don’t say easily, but should make it through waiverss. Yes. If if if that were to happen in my opinion, I agree with you. I agree with you totally, Michael. I think he him and Helani are two guys that can you can sneak through now with that big cut down day that they get lost in that shuffle and unless it’s Pete Carol sitting there on the other side and looking at Brady Russell going yeah I need Brady down here in in Vegas I don’t think you know he sneaks through and that’s something I guess we all have to kind of think about now is with Pete being back in the league Pete is definitely going to have an eye on what Jon and them are cutting up here because there will be guys that he knows really really that you may go pick up. I think it’s going to play a part in their decisions that that if they’re thinking in a normal year there’s they might think well this guy we should be able to get this guy through waiverss no problem. That’s a that’s a whole different variable sitting out there and Pete like you can’t try to try to get a guy like Jake Bobo through to the practice squad. There’s no way. There’s other guys on defense that you can’t. Brady could be one of those. I mean I I saw him out there on Friday trying to get the the crowd all fired up. He’s kind of a become sort of a spiritual leader uh and part of the personality of this team. They love him. They love what he does on special teams. I’m I’m not altogether sure Pete doesn’t claim him if they wave him. So, let’s look at this. Let’s go receivers and then we’ll go to the O line. So, we’re at 10 total players right now on offense up there in the the corner here. That’s 10 total players, I should say, right there in that area. receiver. I think it’s pretty safe to go one, two, and I’m going to throw Bobo on here as three because to Dan’s point, he’s an identity piece for Mike McDonald, which I don’t think Mike McDonald throws that term around very lightly. JSN and Cooper Cup. Now, for me, I think MVS and Tory Horton are the next two that go on this list. I don’t think Horton. So, we’ll go Tory Horton. We’ll go MVS. That’s where it gets interesting. I think they’re gonna carry a six receiver. Now, I think this is where that extra spot goes to because they still can carry 10 offensive linemen at this point. Um, and I know Dan, you said Steven Sims is who you think. I think it’s a toss up between Sims, Ricky White, and Cody White on who makes this team. And Ricky White does have some kick return flexibility. We’ve seen that. He can contribute on specials. I think again it comes down to do they think Ricky White can sneak through to practice squad? He produced some pretty good seasons the last few years at UNLV that I think might make it hard to where a guy like I think a Stephen Sims who kind of bounces around the NFL might be a little bit easier to sneak through there. What are your guys’ thoughts on that? It’s funny because I just did my updated 53 based on what I saw and I put Sims on the roster for the reasons I explained at the top of the show, but Cody White just keeps making plays. Like every single day at practice, he’s out there making plays. And if again use to use that analogy, if you were showing up to watch practice and you had no knowledge about how this team or this roster, you’ you might think he’s one of the top three or four receivers on this team. It’s it’s going to be really hard to keep him off the roster. Again, that being said, he’s also a guy that’s played for like eight teams. He’s been out there before. The league sometimes tells you how they feel about a player. Um, I don’t think, let I’ll put it this way, these eight names that are left on the board at receiver, I don’t think the league is going to be crawling over each other to claim any of these eight. And so, I think it’s just who fits who fits best and what you want to do. And that’s why I went with Sims because I think like he’s I I think he’s the best punt return candidate on the roster. Ricky White didn’t flash at all this week as much as I wanted him to and and like him. Um I I didn’t hear a word on social media about him. Yeah, neither did I. I’m just He had one and I’ve heard Cody Cody White is someone that I would love to see on this roster. And if Steven Sims flashes as a punt returner type, I think that’s an added bonus because we do not want the D. Williams experiment again in Seattle. No, but I saw Sims do much more than return kicks in practice, too. And and he’s a guy that uh he was just, you know, making plays left and right and they’ve used him out of the back field. Again, I think they’re going to keep a six receiver. I do. So, we probably should pick one of these, but I don’t think it really matters if that makes sense. Well, I mean, yeah, if you’re expecting this guy to play a pivotal role in your season, then that’s probably not a good thing. like no offense. Um, and so it definitely becomes that kind of a game of all right, what are the chances this person gets claimed? All right, is it 10% if it’s Sims? Is it 20% if it’s White, Cody White? Is it 25% if it’s Ricky White because of his name? Like the the punt block thing? Like, is that something that a team’s going to be like, “Ooh, right. I may not think of you so much as a wide receiver right now, but I feel like you’re someone that can get me two blocks this season because it is a specialty that you have or or such.” And so I think it comes down to that game, but like also right now this early in the game, I kind of I’d prefer to reward the the the veteran and stim honestly if I mean Dan’s not the only person that’s been glowing about him so far. And and yeah, like at the same time like Ricky White, you can probably get another Ricky White, there’s probably another Ricky White somewhere out there. And and again, I’m not trying to disrespect him. And I like Cody White, too. I was very excited when we got him a couple years ago, but like it’s just one of those things where I I would run with the hot hand. And don’t get me wrong, it’s a strong group. When I say they’re not going to get, you know, they don’t have to worry about these guys getting claimed. I think that speaks more to to just kind of the the depth of talent at wide receiver around the league. Um, you know, day two, uh, I had a conversation with Corbin on the sidelines about like this is, in fact, I I talked about it on my show. Uh, it was it was Thursday and early in camp, I had a thought that like, man, they’re going to have a hard time keeping Steven Sims off this roster. He just looks like he belongs. Then I ran into Corbin about a half an hour later and the first thing out of his mouth he goes, “How are they going to keep Stephven Sims off this roster?” Yeah. So like, you know, great minds think alike, right? But uh but I I just want to make the point that like it’s it’s not when I say that I I’m not worried about these guys getting claimed, it’s not because I don’t think they’re talented. I think the opposite. Like this entire group, Foster from Michigan State was out there making plays. Uh Plumbley looks like a guy that could play in this league and he has no shot to make this roster. Tyrone Broadden at 6’5 runs a 4-3 and is out there making all these guys except for McCollum were making plays this week and some of them will catch on with other teams and have a shot elsewhere. Um it’s a good problem to have. Even Dariq Young, we forget about Dariq Young, but my goodness, you see him standing out there next to the other receivers and he just looks like a physical specimen. It’s a real bummer we haven’t seen him build on on kind of some of that stuff we saw at the end of his rookie year when they were like using him in the back field and moving him around and stuff. All right. Well, given all that, I think we go with Sims here because of what we talked about with the versatility. And that’s something we know Mike McDonald loves about players is their versatility. If you can get a guy that can punt return, kick return, and come in as your six receiver. If you ever get to a point you’re playing, you know, in a game where you get to the need to have a three-ack on each side with six total receivers on the field, you never know, right? So, let’s go with that. Now, let’s move over to the offensive line. I think I’ll click the guys that we all kind of know are going to be on this team and then we’ll see where we go. So, Olu, Gray Zable, Charles Cross, Jaylen Sundell, Christian Haynes, Abe Lucas. Now, this is where it gets interesting. So, I’ve clicked six of them, and that’s the six I think that are pretty much locks to be on this team. Do we believe Satara Lamea is a potential guy that’s going to be on this team? I know he’s practicing at left guard this year, not right guard. He’s over there behind Grace Ael. Is Lamea someone, Dan, that you think’s going to be a guy that makes this team? I think he’s a lock. Okay. I do. The fact that he can play left and right, they’re very high on him. Uh I know you’ve even told me before that that uh some of your um connections have told you the same thing. It’s um I just think he’s a guy with that versatility and the athletic ability. He can get out and move. We saw that in the Arizona game last year um in particular that he fits this scheme. And uh and I’ve said it before, too. I think in an emergency if you’re short on bodies on game day and and you get down to your third right tackle, he could get you out of a game. you know, played right tackle, played it well for a couple years in the Pack 12 at Utah. Um, I just I think he’s he’s on this he’s on this roster. What What about Joan? What about who? Jones. Kind of a similar story, right? Just at the tackle situation. They I think they signed him to be on this roster, right? They wanted a guy they wanted, first of all, they wanted Stone Foresight to develop into this guy, a guy that could play left or right tackle, and they could trust him on either side if if they needed him. They signed Fant to be that guy. Um, Michael Jerrell’s playing left tackle this this camp, and I had only seen him previous to this year at right tackle. That’s all he played at at uh Finley. And he was dominating, guys. Like if you watch his college tape, you think he’s this 335 pound mauling right tackle. He’s just burying guys into the turf. Obviously, at the division two level, he’s playing a lot of left tackle and looking good there. And I know they they think highly of him. I think there’s a chance um in particular uh if Michael Jerel has a really good preseason, they’re not gonna bat an eye at losing a million and a half dollars, which is what they paid Josh Jones as his signing bonus. He’s not guaranteed to make this roster is what I’m saying. So, I think Jerrell’s on the roster no matter what. And Jones is a guy that has to have a really good preseason to cement a spot. What about Richmond and Cabled? I put Cable on the roster because I think I will I will go with that cuz I’m a cable lover. I think they really like him and I think maybe as much as any of these guys, including Sundell, he might be like the poster child for the athletic profile that you look for in a guard in this system. And I I just think he’s a guy that they were high on all throughout the process. They were fortunate to get him in the draft and they’re really high on him. I think similar we we look back to last year when they kept 11 offensive linemen, they kept Jerel, they kept Sundell, they kept all the rookies because they didn’t want to expose any of them to waivers and risk losing them even though they didn’t think they were going to get down to those guys. Now ultimately they all ended up having to play. Welcome to the NFL, right? Uh but that wasn’t the plan. They just wanted to protect him. I think he’s that guy this year. And then it comes down to um you know a question of whether you’re gonna keep Bradford or Richmond for the 10th guy probably. Or is or are we already at 10? I think we’re at eight right now. Nine. We’re at eight. I think it comes down then then uh I misspoke. It comes down to Richmond or Jones. Um however, I would lean Jones here because I only saw Richmond playing guard this week. They said they were going to try him. Originally when they drafted him, he was lifted listed as a guard, but then they said they were going to give him a shot at tackle first. I only saw him play guard this week. If that’s the case, I think you can get him to the practice squad. Um, and they they would probably go with the veteran Jones. Okay, so we’re going to go Jones here over Richmond. Consensus? Yes. No. Yeah, go. I think Bradford gets us a conditional day three pick or something from a from a gap power team because look, if I’m a team that that wants to that has a physical running game and wants to go straight ahead north south and and run gap power, I’m taking I’m interested in Anthony Bradford. Yep. No, I am as well. All right, so there’s our offensive kind of setup right now. Let’s go over the defensive side if the thing will cooperate with me. All right, defense. Here we go. So linebacker the problem here just to specify with everybody a little bit of a hiccup. It also counts edges in the linebacker instead of their own category. So our number will be a little bit different than what most people expect. But Ernest Jones, Tyrese Knight, Boy Maf, Dererick Hall, Chenna will be there even though he’s injured right now. And I believe Drake Thomas will be there as well because he’s going to be your third inside backer. Yep. And from all reports I’ve heard is he’s doing quite well in camp this year. better than obviously last year when you didn’t actually get to participate really. So, who out of this group stands out to you guys? How’s Ty or Tyreek Jackson looked at? No idea. Like that’s a pretty telling statement right there. No, it’s not though because like if if you’re if you’re running with the threes in non-cont training camp. Yeah. Unless you pick off a ball in seven on seven or something like that. Like how are you going to make an impression? Like he looks the part. He looks, you know, he’s I like how he’s built as an inside linebacker. Um but he’s also a guy that we know how the league feels about him. He was still available two weeks before camp for them to sign or whatever it was a month before camp. He was signed in June, wasn’t he? Um you know, it’s not like teams are banging down the door. So he’s he’s he’s a definite practice squad guy. The question for me is, do you even need to keep a fourth inside linebacker? If you do, it’s Okonnell in in my opinion. Um, I left one off my 53 because I think there’s going to be so few instances where they run with uh you know, they’re going to play a lot of nickel. They’re going to play quite a bit of dime, right? You’re going to pull a linebacker off the field in some of those instances. We heard, I don’t know if he told you on your show, but I know Greg Bell told me that during OTAAS’s, Nick M, and Warry was playing a lot of weak side linebacker. He was playing a lot of Will. And so they they might feel like that’s kind of they’re sort of stealing uh an extra roster spot there with Emmanry playing like box safety or a third safety, but also can play some weak side linebacker. And that because Drake Thomas can play Mike and Will, I think the opening 53 might only have three true inside linebackers on it. Then a couple of these other guys will be on the practice squad. And so one other player I’m going to add to that weak linebacker, weedside linebacker, subp package linebacker is DeAnthony Bell. Another bigger safety they signed from Cleveland this year that I think can play in that same spot too. Can do a lot of the same things. When I talked with Cody Alexander, you know, earlier from Match Quarters on one of our shows, he brought that up and he said that’s where I’d play Emmen and Bellis. had play them in that box sub big dime package and let them wreak havoc because he goes they’re both guys that are over 200 lb 215 lbs. Let them let them go be an advantage on a tight end and you know then fill in run g run gaps if they need to. So with that being said then is there anybody here does Jared Ivy did he stand out? Did Tyreek Smith stand out at all to you Dan when you were there? Uh, Ivy more than Smith, but I I think as the ro roster is currently constructed, as we sit here today, unless they pick up another veteran edge, I think Ivy makes this team. I think he has to because I I have some pictures. Uh, I should have sent them to you so you could upload them. I focused yesterday before practice or Friday before practice on the edge players who were overdoing some blocking sled stuff and it was Boy Maf, Demarcus Lawrence, Derek Hall and Aenna watching. That was it. There was only four guys in the edge group because they do have Ivy working out more with the defensive lineman even though he can do some of that stuff and drop. Um I think right now the way this roster stands, he has to make the team. Boy, it sure sounds like they could use another edge. Okay, Mr. guy over there that wants everyone and their brother traded for at this point. Hold your horses. We’ll get to that. I’m sure it’ll come up. We’ll talk about that. We’ll talk. All right. Cornerback. So, Z Alexander is obviously no longer a part of the team at this point. Witherspoon, Reek, I think Josh Job is a pretty much a lock to make this team at this point. Uh, and outside of that, so couple guys here. Obviously, we know, you know, Dan, you kind of touched on Shaquille already. He’s not necessarily a lock, even though they paid him the money. I wouldn’t say he’s necessarily a lock to make this roster. Nehemiah Pritchette’s had some good days. The other one is Waxter here is someone that I’m interested. And same with Jean Charles is another one or Gene Charles is another guy that I’m interested in. What have you thought of Waxter and Jean Charles so far, Dan? So, without getting in trouble for saying something that I don’t think has been confirmed and so I can’t say anything about it, uh, let’s just say that Gene Charles was not involved in practice this week. Okay. Okay. So, for me, for me, he’s out. That’s a guy that if you’re if you’re a bubble guy, you’re on the edges of the roster. Like, uh, what do they say? Availability is the best ability. You you have to be out there, right? And same with Shaq. Like I said at the top, like he’s he’s got to figure out I don’t know what’s going on with him, you know, if it’s family stuff or or whatever or maybe he’s just rethinking whether he wants to play. Like how how often have we heard that where someone’s dealing with personal issues and then they end up retiring or stepping away from the game. He seemed pretty happy to be out there on Thursday. He just couldn’t go. Um and so for me, uh I was just looking through my notes because God, there was a couple of plays in particular. Thursday was a really good day for Waxter and there was one play in particular where he broke a ball up. Yep, here it is. Uh it was an out route from Darnold to Bobo. It was fantastic PBU from Waxter where he really timed it, saw it, broke on the ball, uh came up and and knocked the ball away. Really nice nice uh rep from him. And uh and he’s got some good college tape as far as run uh defense and we know how much Mike McDonald values that. So, uh, right now out of this group, um, to me, Pritchette’s on the team, and there’s very little there’s very little question about that for me at this point. Um, I mean, there’s a chance he might even take some of Job’s snaps, right? Like, is that kind of what you’re thinking is more likely than him missing the team or do you think Job is very clearly number three? Job’s job’s pretty clearly he’s he’s the guy that’s in there when Devin moves inside. Okay. So, we saw a lot of that. We saw a lot of Reek playing on the left side in practice this week, too, which is interesting. They’re they’re switching Devin and Reek and and Job side to side this year more than they have in the past. So, that’ll be, you know, just another another thing for offensive coordinators to have to worry about, right? They will they will keep they will keep a fifth corner. And so, you know, for me it comes down to um if Jean Charles was out there, he’d be in the mix because he certainly uh got a lot of buzz during OTAAS and mini camp, but for me it’s down to to Griffin or Waxter. I think they in this case it’s down to Griffin or Waxter. Like you said, if the young guy can come in and and be someone that you can, you know, use in a versatile way, like, you know, we talked about Waxter could be a guy that you could see a Kobe Bryant role with where he could move back depending on what next year is and if you bring in, you know, a draft pick, maybe he’s a guy that you move around and start doing things. I personally like Waxter when they signed him. I thought he would be an interesting piece as a guy that you could develop. Him being a fifth corner, I think you could do a lot worse. And again, you’re looking at the, you know, upside of a player that’s not yet at near the point of getting close to the end of their cure where I think Shaquille’s at that cusp. I think they might lean with the the younger player here and go with that guy over the the older guy. I think the interesting thing too is like like Shaq, yes, he knows Seattle, he knows the building. This coaching staff is not the same coaching staff that drafted him, developed him, and was here with him. like there are no ties whatsoever that I know of that the staff has to Shaq. And so yes, he’s a name and he’s had some success in the NFL and in Seattle, but like man, I I really hope whatever’s going on, they can it gets sorted out cuz I would like to see that be a competition cuz like if he can be something as a veteran, I would like that. But again, as a guy that mocked Waxter to Seattle in the seventh round quite frequently in the draft time, like I love what I’m hearing from from Dan and what we’re hearing about Waxter. This is a great comment from Mookie uh because I was going to make a point that’s very similar. It’s um you know the the reason I wasn’t high on Waxter when they signed him as as UDFA is he’s a 46 guy, right? That’s always that’s always a concern at that position. And so I was going to say he has to have a really good preseason um or I’m sorry if he has a really good preseason. This is how I meant to word this. Then where he’s making plays, he’s locking guys down in the pre in in games, right? Uh showing that he can he can make the jump. He can play at the NFL level and and cover at this level. you’re going to have to put him on the roster because this league still is enamored with tall, long, physical corners. And if he goes out and puts reps on tape in games and shows that he can play, I he’s a guy that might get poached and and you have to take that into account. You might think he’s not going to see the field at all as a rookie. And again, this goes back to how they approached the offensive line group last year. Uh, but if they feel highly enough about him that they think he might he might be a significant player in the future, um, then they’re going to have to put him on the 53 because Devin Witherspoon and Rick Woolen, their contracts are up in the next year. Jack Griffin’s on a one-year deal. Josh’s on a one-year deal, right? The future of the quarterback position is not yet quite locked up. So, if you can lock up a rookie that you think has a bright future and he goes out and proves it in games during the preseason, you have to put him on the roster. All right. So, who are we going with, Shaq or Waxter here, guys? I’d go Waxer. Yeah, I I think until if Shaq doesn’t show up pretty soon, it’s gonna have to be Wack. It’s gonna be Waxter. And Shaq could be an Arty Burns guy, too. He could be a guy that if he comes back and he contributes and he has a solid preseason, you can release him. No one else is going to pick him up. He was out there until June. Again, the league told us what they felt about him. And then you can wait until after week one when veteran uh salaries don’t have to be guaranteed like they would always do with burns and you could bring him back. All right, let’s move on to the safety group here, guys. So, I think this is an interesting thing because we’ve got in my opinion, these are the four and I think that’s I think Tyoka makes it through to practice squad. I think AJ Finley can make it through and I think Jerick Reed can at this point if they were to put him through. I think all three guys that we left off of this are guys that will get through to a practice squad. I agree. Yeah, I agree now, too. I in mine uh just the other day, I put Okata on there and only because like he’s solidly running with the ones and twos all the time and and we also saw them elevate him to the the active roster at the end of last year. But your comments about his versatility, how he can basically he can play down in the box more, he can basically play weak side linebacker. And the way that the rest of the guys on that defense talk about him. Um, and he’s also making plays. You know, he had the first interception in camp, picking off uh Sam Darnold trying to hit JSN on a post route on Thursday. Um, he feels like a guy that’s kind of part of the personality of the team already. I think that’s safe enough to say those are our four safeties. Now, let’s move over to Dline. Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy, Jiren Reed, Demarcus Lawrence, and now from this, Riley Mills will make this because he will be going through on Pup. Yeah. So, we won’t even click him and put him on this because he’s going to be through on to Pup and you don’t have to really account for him on the 53 just yet. So, Jonathan Henkins, he’s kind of on this got a back injury. vet I think rest kind of I think along the lines of you don’t really have to show us anything Jonathan in camp come in be healthy when we do call upon you so I think Jonathan Henkins is going to make this team because I don’t think they have anybody currently in mind that really fits that role so between Peely Mike Morris Bohana who do you guys think is the next one that comes onto this list what are our numbers right now so with 47 total. That’s Oh, and I’ll quickly, sorry, I know Dan, this is a big thing. I will move across and do this really quickly because this will make things a lot easier. Yeah. Yeah. So, now I’ll go back. There we go. Okay. So, we have three spots left. Okay. Yeah. So, uh until Riley Mills is healthy, Mike Morris is on this team. Okay. Um, and and for anyone who doubts it because he didn’t do anything last year, we really didn’t see him take a step. Uh, and granted, no pads, I get it. But, you know, you still have an opportunity to make plays and, uh, players get fired up, uh, about each other when they do. Mike Morris was in the back field every day this week. Okay. So, do we add another one in this group? Uh, I think you have to just from a number standpoint. It’s just a question of is it one of those is it Bohana or Peely or is it someone that’s not currently on the roster. Um I think they’re going to be chopping heavy at the cut down for potential younger nose tackles that maybe can grow with the team and that can be kind of a a solution moving forward. I went with Peely on mine simply because he was Mike McDonald was asked about him Friday after practice and he kind of lit up a little bit about when talking about Peely and in particular just how uh he said you can never have too many big guys that are athletic and that can move. They really like his athletic ability. Um I think he’s ahead of Bohana right now. Okay, I’m good with that. I’ll take that. All right. So, we have one roster spot left. Do we dedicate it to offense? We currently have 26 players. Defense, we have 23. Do we dedicate this to another defensive player? Does Kyle Okada make it as a fifth safety? So, if I if I remember correctly, last week we finished with 23 defensive players. So, I think what we’re talking about here is what do you do with Kenny Mintosh’s spot, right? Correct. We had four running backs last week and we had 10 offensive linemen last week. We still have 10. We had five backs in total last time when we did this. So, we have two spots left open. We have one spot left, Dan. Oh, so are you talking Oka? Are you talking Russell? Did we add Bell? I think Bell Anthony Bell is Anthony Bell is sitting right there. Okay. Yeah, it’s tough because I think even if you if you went out, let’s say they go out and sign Jade and Clowney, I think that just moves Ivy off the roster. Um I’d be tempted. I know I did it on mine. I’ve seen some I’ve seen some comments off to the right. Um that and I did it on my 53 that I think if you have an extra spot, you feel good about the rest of the position groups. I think Brady Russell makes this team because of the versatility, because he can play he can play that fourth tight end and he can play fullback and he is uh he’d probably if he makes this team he probably gets voted special teams captain. So we’re going to take So here’s my caveat because I think special teams is key here and this is kind of the role. Is it Brady Russell or is it Ty Okata? because Okata is the other guy. And that’s where I wonder with McDonald seems to love Okata and and I just feel like he’s that 54th guy that you can have on the practice squad, elevate him on game day, deactivate one of the young offensive linemen, and have him as your fifth safety on game day. I I think it’s more likely that Pete Carol is going to claim Brady Russell than Okata, if that makes sense. I think that’s so that’s why I think and like you said it it’s tough if he if you feel like he’s going to be a captain like there is something to that whether you’re you’re big into that or not there is something there and it’s just hard for me I I I just would be surprised to see us lose Okata whereas with Brady I can just I can already see him in the silver and black. Okay, so we’ll take Brady Russell. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And that’ll be that because we got our three special teamers on here. That’s our 53man roster right there for everyone to look at. Just like last week, this I just feel like this is a really solid roster. Does it Does it show you the names that are left? All the names that we didn’t pick? I don’t believe so. No, I was just asking because that would be that could be like uh the you know the the Raiders uh waiver claims list. Oh gosh, yes, it will be. Yeah, I think it’s a good group. I do think I do think they’re going to have to add I think they’re going to have to add a defensive player because I don’t think Chenn is going to be ready to go. And I don’t think they’re gonna they’re gonna feel comfortable going into this into this schedule with Jared Ivy as your fourth edge or Tyreek Smith or um I I still think there’s a veteran move coming either at nose tackle or edge or both. Well, if we, you know, right now, guys, if I asked Michael Thompson what they should be doing with Edge, we all know that he would be currently on the phone with the Cincinnati Bengals and would be doing anything possible to get Trey Hendrickson out of Cincinnati to an extent. I don’t know if I’d say anything possible. I think I’ve been pretty adamant that like I I would do a second round pick if there’s an extension agreed upon. And like I think that’s where I’m at. Like I’m offering a third and a fifth. Um, and that fifth is conditional, whatever you want to call that, or it’s a conditional six. I don’t think the Cincinnati Bengals as a franchise is going to accept a third round pick. I think they want a second, and that’s what it would take. And to be honest, if I felt Seattle was one win better, maybe even two wins better than than I feel they are right now, I probably swing that deal because I I think that’s the difference in potentially hosting two home playoff games in one. So, like that’s where I’m at. But like I think Dan mentioned it earlier and he’s talked about it a lot like do you want Trey Hendrickson and all that he provides longterm and the risk that comes with that and losing that pick or can you get Dave and Clownley out here and I don’t want to say kick the can down the road like I think every day when John Schneider wakes up he should be looking for that next blue chip pass rusher. Like it’s just just like an offensive lineman, a quarterback, an edge rusher. Every day that should be your job. Like if I’m owning a football team, that’s what I want my general manager to be doing. But that doesn’t mean Javian Clowney can’t be a huge part in Seattle winning the division this year. Like that rush defense and what we saw with him with McDonald was that I don’t want to say was the number one pick, but it was pretty close to what we all thought could have been his career every single year. And Mike got that out of him. And if you can tell me I can get him for what, what are we talking here? $9 million, guys. eight, you know, incentives is probably up to 10, 11, like give or take. One year deal. Yeah. And and and a guy that a guy that you could, you know, sign and and then if you know, Mills gets healthy and Ivy steps up or and and No comes back healthy, just put him back out on the market and release him again or or maybe find a trade partner at the deadline. Um yeah, I I think it’d be a pretty no- risk move at this point. And that’s where I just feel like I feel like where we’re going to see in the next couple weeks is, you know, until we see Trey Hendrickson and Micah Parson sign their extensions, there’s just going to be those whispers with Micah and the smoke and the shouting with Hendrickson that’s going on. But again, let’s talk about the odds of Seattle getting either of those guys. Micah’s less than 1% and Trey Hendrickson is probably less than 20% with what we’re talking about here because there’s just other biders and other people that feel like they’re closer. But if you told me, hey, in the next month, Seattle gets Javian Clowney for a good team deal and then they find another defensive tackle on cutdown day to kind of supplant or put a little heat on Henkins. Like again, I already feel like this is a very good I feel like this is a playoff roster and if you told me, hey, Seattle can get 80% of 2023 Javian Clown in Baltimore, I’d be like, sign me the hell up, right? like and and it just takes so much pressure off Nuosu to get healthy. It just allows everything to kind of more smoothly flow through what is going to be a marathon. It’s not a sprint. And I just feel like those are the two moves that just make a lot of sense unless you get that blue chip that falls into your lap type of a deal. And I just, you know, until that happens, it’s I don’t think it’s very likely. Well, first off, Michael, I want to just clarify. Jerry Jones doesn’t even know that there is a Micah Parsons on his team, but there is a Michael Parsons on his team. So, maybe we can get him. Maybe we can get Micah because Jerry’s not sure of who he actually has on his roster. When I saw that interview and that whole thing, I couldn’t believe that you missed, you know, didn’t even call your player by his initial actual correct first name. you completely butchered that when you’re talking about contract extensions and how much he is an importance to the franchise. But a name that I saw thrown out on another uh Seahawks content creators podcast was uh Brian Nimhauser threw out the idea of Tibido being another potential guy they could look at going after out of New York because of the Abdul Carter draft pick this year and stuff. That’s an interesting one that I feel like almost in some respects is someone we’re not talking about that is someone that John Schneider could secretly be potentially looking at. So, um, but let’s get into some of these Q&As’s here, guys. The first one comes from Ryan Young, and he goes, “Is Bryce Cable in the competition for right guard? Dan, would you say he’s in it, or would you say he’s just there as a developmental guy?” No, he’s got no shot to start at right guard. It’s It’s Hannes, Bradford, or Sundell. And I think we’re gonna know a lot more about that um after the first preseason game. I think Mike McDonald seemed like anytime he’s asked about it this week, his tone is like although he did back off a little bit. Wednesday he reiterated uh the same tone that he did after mini camp where he said sooner rather than later. Like we got to settle on those five guys. Friday he said trust the process. Um, and they’ve now inserted another wrench into that, right, by moving Sundell into that competition as well. But I I think the reason Sundell is getting so much more so many more reps at Right Guard is because they’re going to move on from Bradford and I think they’ve already kind of made that decision. And so, um, I just I just hope whatever they do that by the second preseason game, which is when most of the starters play, that they figure it out. They’ve got their five out there. We know who they’re going to be. And then they they have those three weeks to get ready for the for week one because they got to lock that down. You got to get that chemistry. You got to get that continuity built. Here’s another one from I’d rather be flying an X-wing, who’s always in either your show or our show’s chat at some point, Dan. Um, this he goes, “Any chance we pick up another running back at the cut down?” No, we can’t even fit all the good ones we have on the roster now. Uh, even with Macintosh out, so I don’t I don’t think there’s any chance of that. I even saw good things from Jakardia right this week. Um, and he looks like he’s got some cool burst and I like the way he’s built. Uh, yeah, there’s no need for another running back unless somebody goes down. And I will say this, um, I know there’s a lot of skepticism around Ken Walker, but this is the best version of him we’ve seen that I’ve seen up close. Like, he’s I don’t think he’s ever really been this healthy and going full speed and 100% this early in camp. He looks like he’s operating on a different level. And it’s funny because perception is a tricky thing, right? It can really play the games with your mind. Damen Martinez is such a physical runner, right? We’ve talked about it a lot like 60% over 60% of his yards last year at Miami after contact. He is a brutally he’s been called kind of a mini beast mode or beast beast mode 2.0. When he stands next to Kenneth Walker, guess who’s more jacked, who’s thicker, who has bigger arms, bigger quads, bigger butt, it’s Ken Walker is more jacked and looks more like a powerback than Damen Martinez does. That’s one of the advantages you get from standing on the sidelines sometimes being down on the field. It’s like that blew me away. Like just when you look at their arms, if you were to guess like who was the more physical runner, you would guess Ken Walker. It’s weird. All right, here’s an interesting one from Jen Maz. She goes, “The graphic backdrop looks like Dan is doing a Hulk pose.” Oh, it’s Leonard Williams behind you, Dan. Oh, your arms. Yeah, the arms of Leonard Williams is making you look like you look like the Hulk. That’s perfect. There you go, Dan. Perfect. Now you fit right in. Yes, the Leonard Williams arms have been morphed onto Dan V. Our tattoos aren’t exactly the same. That’s But it’s pretty close. That’s awesome. That’s actually I didn’t notice that till now. Thank you for that, Jen. That’s awesome. Uh here’s one from Pauly74. He goes, you know, talking about Bradford, he goes, “Does Bradford look different in person this year as far as movement, speed, and getting off the ball?” Yeah, he looks different because he’s going to be wearing either an Eagles or Saints jersey this this year. That’s why he’s going to look different. Uh, not really. Yeah. No, I I just again I’m I’m off the Bradford train. And if I’m wrong, I’ll admit it later, but I just I just don’t think he’s a fit. I’m in the same boat. if if they change their mind and keep him, I’ll gladly see what trying to find out what they’re looking at. But I think it is like you said Dan to Sundell moving over there even I think again if they do move off Bradford it is because I think also outside of Sundell they really like Cable in that potential thing and you still have Lamema who will be your backup left guard that can always swing back over if you need to. Bradford really is trying to beat three guys out for a spot that all have versatility at multiple spots on the line in theory because I even think yes cable can’t maybe be a full-time fourame starter at tackle but if you needed him in a pinch to play a game he’s got enough experience to be able I think to survive a game more say than a stone foresight did at the NFL level. But here we go with another one. Uh this one is from Rose. Hey guys, quick question. When watching camp, what is looking better, our defense or offense when they are playing against each other? Well, I think I can say this pretty confidently and Dan, tell me if I’m wrong. I think the defense is probably looking a lot better just because there’s, you know, 12 starters coming back, 13 starters coming back from last year’s unit, and this offense is still trying to figure their way out and and get used to what Kubak wants to do. No, you’re right. They they’re way ahead. I mean, you’re literally going against not just one of the best defenses in the league. We saw that the last 10 games last year, but but one of the most experienced like everybody’s back except for Draymond Jones. Uh like 15 players that started games last year are back on this roster. Plus they add Demarcus Lawrence and Nick Mmanry to it. They’re way out ahead. Um, but I will say this, it’s the best possible thing that we could all wish for in trying to sharpen this new offense because they’re not taking it easy on him. Like Mike McDonald is out there and he’s doing his sim pressures and he’s showing disguises and he’s switching things up and he’s throwing the whole playbook at him, which he’s able to do this year because these guys have all been in the system for so long and that’s only going to make this offense better. It’s only going to accelerate the learning curve. But that being said, as I touched on earlier, the offense is still figuring a out a way to make plays against this defense. And even if the defense comes out and they pick off a ball, like every time I saw a bad play or a PBU or an interception by the defense, the offense would respond and come back and make a play of their own. So, you know, I sometimes you can make too much out of out of practice battles just because you’re so limited in what you can do nowadays. But when you get to go up against, you know, one of the best defenses in the league every single day in practice, it can it’s only going to help you. So, I’ve seen enough out of the offense to really impress me because of who they’re going up against. Can I can I just say like an interesting thing that we’ll see this year that I hope is a big benefit is also Mike in this defense having to practice against this scheme that has kicked our ass in the division and has you know other than the Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl years has kind of ruled the NFC for a bit and so it’s just very interesting. I I hope that is something that I think we’re all expecting this defense to make a jump into the top not even 10, but maybe even top eight, top seven of a defense. Like I think that’s kind of the expectations this year. And I I I I’m just fascinated to see what Clint brings on the practice that we’ll never understand or or know other than those that are there until it shows up on game day. It could be a huge like under the radar benefit for Mike McDonald and this defense. Yeah, it’s really funny you bring that up, Mike, because there was a point in our my conversation with Bobby Peters uh on the episode that we just released where he said what Clint Kubak does for this offense is it brings it its floor up from what it was. He goes, “If this offense is at its floor, it will be better than what you had with Shane Waldron and with Grub as a whole. it may never be a top 10, top five NFL offense. But he goes, there’s no reason it’s not a top 12 to 15 NFL offense and your floor is maybe 17 or kind of what you even saw to a point with the Saints last year where it wasn’t a bad offense. The injuries killed it when they were all healthy. It was rolling and humming along. I think that’s the biggest thing for me was hearing that, you know, there’s a good chance we our offensive, you know, floor is raised from where it was. And you make a good point like every single play caller in the NFC West comes from the same DNA, comes from the same tree. Like people might fans might not be all that familiar with Drew Pigig in Arizona, but he was on uh those Minnesota Vikings staffs with Gary Kubiaak and with Clint in a support role as well and coaching tight ends and receivers there. And so he’s and then he went and coached under Kevin Stfansky in Cleveland and and so his his version of the offense is slightly different, but you know, Shanahan, McVey, they all come from the same DNA and uh and yeah, McDonald gets to see it every day in practice. Now, so here’s another one. This is from Key uh going, “Dan, have you seen who is getting the third reps at inside linebacker? How have they looked? I know depth was a question there, but Drake had done some nice things before. Any clearer idea of how you feel about that spot?” Not really. I wish I had a better answer. Like, it’s just not a spot because there’s no contact that I wasn’t really watching that closely. Uh although if if I had to pick a fourth inside linebacker and we only put three on our roster, it would probably be the undrafted rookie out of Kentucky, Derek Jackson. I I I think I’m This is a complete gut feel on my part because, you know, I didn’t really see anything this week to back it up other than he was getting run with the twos. Um but just watching his college tape and how he’s built and everything else in the opportunity, like there’s some things I like about Patrick O’Connell. He always seems to be productive in the preseason and when he’s out there he’s making tackles, but I think Jackson’s upside’s a little higher and um and if they choose to go with the fourth inside linebacker, I think he has the edge right now. Okay. And so here’s one from Robert and thank you for the donation, Robert. Appreciate that. Trade targets or free agents? Clowny, Tibido, Giants Edge. We need more help with Chenna out. And I think we touched on that a little bit. it, you know, they could bring in Java Clowney. They could trade for somebody. And I think if they are going to trade, I think Tibido makes some sense because of his age, top, you know, first round talent kind of a deal. And I think probably fits Mike McDonald’s scheme and what he wants to do. It’s similar to what moments he had at Oregon playing in. But, uh, I definitely think they will be looking to add to that group, especially cuz I get the feeling, and I Dan, I don’t know, you could probably give some more insight on this, but I get a feeling there’s a chance China doesn’t play until maybe after the four weeks he could be on Pop going into the season. Yeah, it’s just it’s not that he’s not doing anything. It’s how McDonald talked about him Wednesday. Just the trepidation in his voice when he was asked about Chenna. It it reminded me very much of when Pete first had to start ask answering questions about Abe Lucas and he didn’t really know what was going on. And and that’s the concerning thing because you know you go back to right before the draft when Schneider uh broke the news on his GM show during draft season where he said, “Yeah, Chenna had a little knee cleanup thing, but he should be good to go.” Well, it sure doesn’t seem like that now. like he’s when McDonald literally says we don’t know a timetable right now like that tells me he’s going to start the season on the pup and they’re going to have to make a move there. Uh Tibido is more interesting the more I look at him. The only you know the money is pretty reasonable and the Seahawks are as we’ve talked about this in terms of Hendrickson or Parsons where they they’re as well positioned to add a superstar and their salary as any team in the league. But Tibido’s entering into the fourth year. He’s got the fifth year option. So, he’s got two years of control. If you’re going to trade for him with some of the productivity he’s had, 11 and a half sacks two years ago, like it might cost you a one. And I don’t know if if I want to trade a one for him. Trade one in a heartbeat. If Micah Parsons is involved, and maybe I’m wrong about Tibido, I could certainly see why the Giants would want to shop him. They just drafted Abdul Carter. He’s already blown up social media with some of the plays he’s making in in camp and everything and they, you know, they invested a lot in Brian Burns, both to get him and then to pay him. So, I can get it from their standpoint, but he uh they’re not in any hurry to get rid of him. It’s always good to have more pass rushers, but it might cost you a one if you want to go get him. Well, here’s a fun one from Hoop Craze. Question for the panel. What’s your game day food while the Seahawks are playing? Mike, we’ll start with you. What is your goto Seahawks game day food? You’re talking at the stadium or at home? Yeah, I think let’s go. Okay, we’ll go one of each. So, if you’re at the stadium, what is your go-to food first? Man, um if I’m at the stadium, uh typically I’ll usually hit Ivers, which yeah, I I’m a sucker for for the bread bowl. Oh, yeah. Um I I just you know and then you dip you dump the the fish in there. Um I don’t know if they do the Cajun style at the game, but I know down there at the warf you can get the Cajun style and like I would get I get nervous that like there’s going to be a big play or something and someone the guy next to me is going to jump up and knock my elbow or something and I’m going to people in front of me with chowder. So when I go to the game, I eat before the game. Like I get there early enough and I eat my Ivers before the game and then I’ll go get like a snack at halftime. And that’s like whether it’s like a dog and a beer or some popcorn or something. Like that’s what I’ll typically do. And if I’m at home, like man, it’s really hard not like for me, I’m a big Wingstop guy. I love wings. Give me that uh half lemon pepper, half Louisiana rub. Well done. And I’m a I’m a happy guy as I’m throwing them around and yelling at the our offensive line. All right, Dan, you’re up. Uh, at the stadium, I’m a I’m old school. Like, it’s hot dog. It’s a dog, you know. Um, and uh pretty traditional. I like the dogs they have at the ballpark there. And then I’m, you know, I’m mustard and ketchup and maybe if they have onions, I’ll put it on there. Um, so pretty straightforward. at home. Like trying to think, I’ll just whatever I feel like getting on Door Dash. But probably if I had to pick one pizza like it’s just so much easier to eat at home, you know, you don’t have to worry about like stadium. That’s why I like hot dog. It’s just so much easier to to it’s more portable and it’s easier to eat. Uh whereas, you know, some of the the more involved stuff, uh you know, I I like to I’m a little bit of an obsessive eater, you guys. I like to have my space, right? I like to have all my sauces and dipping sauces and stuff. Maybe two different beverages. Lots of napkins. It’s hard to eat at a ballpark sometimes. Okay, so for me, I got to go in a green at the stadium. I got to have the clam chowder. That’s like bread bowl clam chowder. That’s my thing. I love a good clam chowder. Can’t go wrong with it. And then garlic fries. I got to get me some garlic fries. Those are the other part for me. The garlic fries are never I’m a crispy fry guy and the the garlic fries always end up just becoming just a big pile of mush for me. If they keep if we’re taking separate cars then yeah, we can do that. But if we’re in the same car afterwards, like I don’t I don’t add a caveat to this though. There’s a thing for me though and it’s a buddy of mine, my best friend got me hooked on this. After any Seahawk game, we go to Al’s Gourmet Sausages that you know the yellow tents that are outside 40 bucks after the game. Yeah. And we go there and we get their version of a Seattle dog and it comes with everything on it. And it is like the pre postgame go-to. Every single time we walk out of the stadium, we find one really close, get our Seattle dog, and we’re out of there. And those are my like go-to food items when I’m at a Seahawks game. Um, for at home, I’m a wings guy. I love my wings. Uh, the other thing for me though, if I’m watching a Seahawks game, has got to be nachos. My wife makes amazing nachos and layers the cheese just right. So, it’s like constant cheese level, which is a huge misnomer with nachos. If you don’t get cheese at every point, y it’s not nachos. And so, my wife does a fantastic job with nachos. Does she do when I make nachos at home? Does uh this is what I like to do. A chef taught me this that used to work for me. Uh does she use a combination of shredded melted cheese but also queso? Got to do hit some queso on the bottom so there’s something left there when you get to the bottom if there’s no ch. Yeah, if you do that’s that’s next level. Yeah. I almost said not for the ballpark because I’m a sucker for the fake cheese. I can’t do a fake cheese there. I can do I can do homemade like good homemade queso with some nachos. I can definitely get down with that. But uh this is an interesting topic. I enjoyed that topic. That was a good one. Great question. I’m thinking about I can always talk about food. I’m hungry. Yeah, exactly. That was literally went through my thought process there. I I got a sweet tooth. I got some sweets waiting for me. But uh now I feel like I need to order some wings. I might have to go out for dinner. Oh boy. Oh boy. I’m just looking through here. See if there’s I need cuz I need protein so I can like I got to keep these Yeah, you got to keep them them big cat arms, man. Yeah, you got to keep the big cat arms there going. Well, movie’s in agreeance to a point. Nice. Uh there is a little conversation in the comments that I just uh wanted to some people are talking about and what the the um ramifications might be if we were to just move on from them and cut him. Uh and there seems to be a little bit of confusion. We would lose money. It would cost it would cost $8.2 million in cap space just to cut him. Um unless they came to some sort of another restructure or something like that, but it’s because they kick the can down the road and kind of move some stuff into the future. Uh next year, uh next year’s kind of a unique situation where it uh we’re in better shape. It gains us about 11 million in cash. So, I don’t think they’re willing to take that uh that kind of hit this year. And and here’s the thing, too. Here’s the thing about Chennet. It’s I It’s frustrating as a fan. It’s frustrating. He can’t be out there. You want to see him out there. We know what he can do when he’s healthy. He’s still just 20 Well, he’s 29 years old now. I think even if he doesn’t play it down this year, you wait as long as you can to see if you can get him on the field. If there’s any way you think you can get him even for a half season, the roster’s good enough to withstand not having nou, uh, let him get 100% healthy. And even if it takes until like week 10, well, then you just went out and acquired yourself like a really solid rotational edge player that you can add to the roster when maybe some other guys are banged up and the season’s starting to get a little heavier. So, yeah, when he tells a good pass rusher, it’s it’s his on and off the field, our rush defensive numbers speak for themselves. like he’s worth holding on to as long as possible because he is a wall and if you can add him and Demarcus Lawrence together like and I know we were talking about Clowny as well like there’s a chance we like completely patch not completely but like do a damn good job of patching up our run defense issue this year and that might be worth one or two wins in itself just doing that and if that means holding on to him absolutely. I was going to mention that the Demarcus Lawrence signing this year doesn’t have me as worried about the Chenna factor as it would have if we didn’t have someone of Lawrence’s caliber on the, you know, staff. And he’s another guy you listen to Mike McDonald him talk about so far in training camp. Like he’s a guy that I think hits differently than what they were necessarily expecting. Another guy that’s like, yeah, he’s maybe not going to produce huge sack numbers, but his presence will be felt in other ways that are going to be massive for this defense. Uh John McGrath here. I know he’s always in Dan’s uh comments and channel as well as over here on the Hawk Zone. His go-to smash burger and garlic parm fries with a cold Bahama Mama with extra lime. I I that sounds pretty good to me. That’s very specific. For a smash burger. I haven’t. Now, John, have you tried Walter Jones’s or Cam’s Cam Smashburgers at the stadium? Because I haven’t. And Yeah. Yeah, I’d like to check that out, though. So, let’s go to this one from Ian Victor, who’s one of our loyal guys on our show here and does a good job of monitoring the chat for us and making sure topics stay on point. Thank you for that, Ian. So, he goes, “What is your thoughts on Sam Darnold saying going against our defense in practice?” So, what I think he’s talking about is what Sam did say in his press conference about going up against Mike McDonald’s defense and how challenging it is and but how much it’s making their offense better in the long run of things having to play against it every day. You know, it’s funny when I watch him in practice this week, it reminds me of the film breakdown you and I did on him about we did uh we broke down over on the Patreon all of his interceptions and then we did his red zone touchdowns, of which he threw 26 of them last year. And you know that the knock on Sam is he’s a gunslinger and every once in a while he’s going to throw a ball that makes you scratch your head and you think, “What was he seeing there?” or you know he he just where he tries to fit a ball in uh because he has that much confidence in his arm talent. Um and he and he he made a couple plays the the pick to DeAnthony Bell and then he got picked again on Friday on a similar similar type of concept by Julian Love. Um but it’s the way he bounces back from that. Like I can live with the the negative plays. You’re always going to get them. You’re going to get them even if your name is Mahomes, right? You’re going to get negative plays. It’s how do you respond to that? bounce back from that. And uh and I felt like we saw him do that even in practice. Like I never Friday was the roughest day for him that I saw, but it never felt like it got the best of him. Like he just okay, next play, turn the page, and then he came back and found a way to make some positive plays as well. So I think it can only be a good thing that uh that the defense is pushing him as hard as they are. Uh I say two weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago, uh NFL Network was running their America’s Game Marathon, which is just, you know, if it’s on, man, I’m just I don’t care what team it is. I love watching those things and just the stories of Super Bowl champions. And I just happened to turn it on and and it was the 2000 Ravens, which for our Lob Seahawks, like it’s them, it’s the O2 Bucks, 85 Bears, 2015 Broncos. Like that’s kind of our that’s that Mount Rushmore, that holy grail of those alltime defenses without, you know, can’t forget about the 70 Steelers. But like when Trent Dilper was getting nasty, he’s like, you know, going practice against that defense, they kicked our ass every single day. But it was great for us because it was such a relief when we got out on the field that we just felt like, oh my gosh, at least we don’t have to face those guys. And it was almost like a confidence boost even though practice was tough because Ray Lewis and and and uhhuh Rod Woodson those guys never made it easy on that on that offense and that wasn’t a great offense and obviously you know Trent Dilford you know had a unique season that year but it’s kind of just reminded me of like that’s what I want to hear like even if you’re going against the best defense in the NFL like I want you to welcome that challenge like again it kind of leads into that guner mentality and if you can blend that mentality with this offense like you might be getting the very best of Sam Darnold, which is what we saw last year for 16 games was probably close to the best of Sam Darnold, which up until then, I think anyone if you told anybody after week 16, if you told anybody after Seattle, after Minnesota knocked Seattle out essentially here, hey, would you be surprised if if Minnesota’s in the Super Bowl? I would have said no. I said I would have said that team looked like they could make the run and stuff and then just the wheels fell off on the offensive line the last two games when it mattered most. But that’s that’s what I want to hear from my quarterback. I don’t want a quarterback that’s going to shy away from the moment. I don’t care what who’s on the other side of the football. We think we can move it down the field and and score it. All right, guys. Well, we’ve been on here for almost two hours, so let’s wrap this up here. So, you know, been lucky enough to have Dan Vens and Michael Thompson join me on tonight’s episode of the Hawk Zone Rundown. But Mike, I’m going to start with you. What do you have coming out at Field Goals? Because I know you’re over there working as a writer. So, what’s coming up on your docket over there? Yeah, I’m just going to keep bugging Mookie for uh Mike Parsons and Trey Hendrickson trades. Pretty much a different trade every single day. No. Uh you know, just looking at how we’re looking at with preseason. Uh got our first game is not too far away. Um all the the interesting things. Clowny coming up. There’s a lot of things to be talking about and it’s just exciting, man. I I’m so excited to have us back. And then this week, like I’m so excited to see these things with pads. It’s going to feel a little bit more real. And again, like I think what are we six weeks away? I think we’re six weeks away from today, right? Yeah, maybe I’m off by a week. Six weeks from today, we are playing the San Francisco 49ers for first place in the NFC West. Let’s go. Dan, what about you? What do you got cooking this week? I know you’re going to be out as probably as many camp practices as you can be and then obviously we’ve got our thing which we’ll plug here at the end, but uh what’s coming out on Seahawks Forever? Yeah, I’m going to try to get to as many practices as I can this week. I’m going tomorrow, first day of pads. I don’t know if it’s going to be full pads or just just shoulder pads that come out. Um, but it still be able to to glean a little bit more from uh from what happens during the the contact periods. So, I’ll be out there tomorrow with those guys. Going to catch up with Curtis Allen of the Seahawks draft blog tomorrow. So, I’ll get his comments after practice uh on the show. And then uh also going to practice Thursday and Friday. You guys will be out there. Bryce, I know you will on Friday. And then uh we’ve got the live show. So, Friday at Fair uh Fair Fashion uh brewing on 1 Avenue in Sodto. Uh I’ll announce the exact time when we get closer to the event. Uh there’s going to be some, you know, I’m going to be coming from practice and then have to get everything set up and and uh troubleshoot, make sure it all works. And then Saturday, we’re doing the big live show from there two to four with you and me and Brandon Kane and the Hawk Nest and Mookie and Corbin Smith. And then we’re going to go over to Football Fest and uh react to that afterwards as well. So big busy week, man. A lot going on. Yeah, I know it is going to be a lot going on and I can’t wait to get down there with you guys and be there for Seahawks training up. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Hawks don’t run down on this side, guys. We just dropped a special episode with Bobby Peters, guy that’s done uh alert the post.com. He also has written a bunch of books on different NFL offenses starting with Shanahans, McVey, everybody’s in that, right? So make sure you go over and check that. Oo, Michael looks intrigued. I’m not sure what he’s intrigued by at that point, but um yeah, so we got that coming out, guys. It’s out right now. So, make sure you go over and look at that one. And then we’ll also have some of our inner division breakdowns. Uh we’ve got Blaine from Turf T or Turf Time Show. He’s coming on to do one with the Rams that’s been recorded and it’ll be out here shortly. As well as Jason Aanti from SP Nation for the 49ers that will be on doing one for the Niners breakdown. So, those will come out to the members only and then we’ll roll those out. So, make sure you guys get into that member only channel part for us and click that join the membership for the Hawk Zone rundown. It helps us out a lot and you get access to some pretty cool things. As always, everyone subscribe to the channel both Seahawks Forever and Dan. He does daily content all the time. Go over there and subscribe to Dan. Help him out over there and check in on the Hawk Zone rundown. We’re on field goals as well with Michael Thompson and Mukie Alexander over there. So, make sure you guys go over there, check out all those things. But other than that, guys, I think that wraps up tonight. So, training camp week two starts. Hopefully, we have no more serious injuries with the Hawks and we get to see, you know, Thursday. Theoretically, we have real football back. It’s a Hall of Fame game on Thursday. So, almost here, so it’s going to be pretty exciting. But, uh, with that being said, guys, everyone have a good night. Thanks for joining us. And go Hawks. Go Hawks. Go Hawks. [Music]
Tune into my appearance on the Hawkzone Rundown Podcast while I share my observations from the first week of Seahawks training camp.
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6 comments
Just a side question, has anyone thought Michael Thompson looks like Patrick Mahomes?
Any rookie QB ideally should sit ideally, but especially when they have some strides to make. Very encouraging to hear about the mechanics development has unlocked a new level of accuracy. Those are exactly the type news blurbs that has lead to successful development. Keep up the good work all around fellas.
Sundell, or someone as a long snaper. Find Cifff Avril and/or Mike Bennett 2025. It worked last time.
You guys rock awesomeness!
Richman > jones
Waxter > Griffin
Rickey White > Sims
You three have a combination of humility and knowledge that is really enjoyable to take in. I listen to a lot of commentary on my Seahawks, radio and otherwise, and you are the best, imo