2026 Season Preview: Dave Boling & Mike Sando Segment

0:00But I can't wait any longer. I can't just sit here and talk to you by myself. I gotta bring in my favorite to people. Let's talk to Dave Bowling, Mike Sando. So great to see you guys on what is, I guess, a blue Friday, I don't know. How are you doing, Dave? Yeah, you just gotta kinda get centered here. Yeah, yeah, let's get to... You're gonna do some yoga for us here? Well, you get centered or what's going on? No, I'll do some snapping. We can all just kind of lean if that would make you feel better. I know, no, you're my guards. You're spacing coach Benton would be honest here. He would. He would struggle with where the guards, I can tell you that. Mike, let's start with you, man. The season's getting started, man. What's going on in the world of Mike Sando? So I did my, as you noticed, I did my check-ins for a last snapshot with people in the league. What do they think of the ASE and NFC in order?

1:01So the CX were second in that to the Rams that people are going with the Rams. We'll see if that holds up. And then I'm in the home stretch of, I've been working on a project a lot of the odd season that all I think we're gonna publish something next week. I usually do, there's usually something I'm interested in every year. And it does pertain to the Rams a little bit too. So that will be interesting. And then I'm gonna be at the game on Wednesday too. That'll be fun. I can imagine it's gonna be a very special article that you are gonna be coming out with soon. And Dave, Dave. Sure. Man, it's always fun sitting on the sidelines that practice with you or sitting in the press box and watching football. And I am curious. So people that don't remember, there's a great little viral clip of you on this show after rookie mini camp last year. This is before the season. And you saying this was maybe the most talented draft group

2:03you had seen for the Seahawks since at least the L.O.B. And you were absolutely right on and that draft class was instrumental in what happened last season. Obviously it's a very different year. A lot fewer draft picks, not as heralded of a draft class in general. But when you look at this 2026 Seahawks team, I'm curious where your mind goes. I'm really excited, not because I have equity, fan interest, but because I've covered this team since it was like before it was even a teenager and now it's middle age. So when I get excited, it's because I've seen a lot of garbage and some of those tough eras. I think this is a super bowl repeating team. I think this is back-to-back talent. Some of the problems that plagued the last time

3:04they tried to defend may be addressed. I think this is a deeper team if we wanna look back to that 14 team. They had so many entries in that secondary and that super bowl, like four or five of those guys wouldn't have been playing if it was any other game. And you see how they're addressing that. I think it's deeper and the part of the game that I really pay attention to on the line of scrimmage toward the end of last season. That was one of the best offensive lines in the NFL. My perception, they're all back. They're a year better. They've got everybody in place. The offensive and the defensive lines are both, I believe, gonna be NFL elite, top 10. And that's where the games are won. That makes Sam Darnal better. That makes the receivers better.

4:06It makes everybody better. And I think this should be the most talented team they've ever had. I go to the staff because if you go back to the offensive line issues that went back to then, remember they had Tom Cable who was a very good line coach over his career and all of that. But I think it also steered them in certain directions towards types of linemen that probably wasn't the best interest of finding the most talented linemen. They were looking for guys for him. And I think that they have made a switch in the last few years, last couple of years. They started listening to Steve Hutchinson who was being consulted with on the offensive line. And they got some real guys. I mean, I think, and we saw some of those, those bull rush metrics that came out, we're very friendly to Abe Lucas. And it's like, yeah, that's what we see when he's out there. He's a big, he's a big tough guy, like what you would look for in a tackle. So I think best set a tackle, save ever had as a pair. I'm a pair. Wow. You know what, you looked at me last year

5:08when I talked about JSN early in the season, maybe being the best receiver they've ever had. And you're going large and I know, but this guy was special. I think these two guys at this stage in their career are the cornerstones of that line. They are the pillars of strength on both ends while, and then you add Grace Abel and Sundell who was really on the rise as the season went. I'm not gonna say this is a better line than the Hutch Walter. I'm not saying that, but across the board, I think this has a chance to be one of the best. There was a little window in there when it was Walter Jones and Chris Terry where we thought, okay, that's kind of what you want. But Chris Terry just wasn't there for the long term. And so I understand what you're saying with no, I know how you know how great Walter Jones was. You're not saying that anybody's happy to throw the joke. You're just saying that the tackle's outlook looks pretty good. And I think if you were to grade the group,

6:10I think this is the best. And you build an offense around your tackle's if, you know what you're doing. But to me, that coaching component that you were talking about in the previous segment with the change that Mike McDonald made during the year is beyond the change itself is emblematic of an approach. And I think that he seems to have that staff kind of synced up to where there's not that one or two things that watching the team, you think that they'd be better off if they change, but they won't change because they do things for the wrong reasons. And most staffs who like that where you have head coach and maybe the system's totally ideal over here, but they keep with it anyway because it's easier than changing it. You know, I think that's a really important one to dig in on for a second. Mike McDonald's first season as head coach, they come in with, you know, late, it was a late hire, does not get as much opportunity to synchronize with the personnel department. They sign some guys to one year deals that they hope kind of fit, but they find out Jerome Baker,

7:11and Tyrell Dodson and Ration Jenkins and some other guys do not fit. So what do they do? They trade those guys, they release those guys, they bring in Ernest Jones, they like wholesale change, personnel on the defensive side. That defense goes from one of the worst defenses for a lot, a large part of that season to a top five defense for the last half of the 2024 season. What does he do at the end of that season? He moves on from Ryan Grubb. The first time head coach who could have easily have looked at that situation and said, well, it could be a me thing, or I need to give this guy more time. He has enough confidence in what he's looking for from the offensive side to know this isn't it? Moves on from Ryan Grubb. If he doesn't do those things, and then you get into 2025, and we talked about the change he makes in the running backroom, he is consistently shown the willingness and the clarity of mind to say, we're going to make a change

8:18at any point to make sure we are aligning to the standard and the vision that we have for this team. Mike, how common do you think that is that coaches, especially coaches that knew have the confidence to make those kind of choices? I think it's very uncommon. I think it shows alignment with the front office too, because you need to have that to be able to do those things. But I'll give you examples. I first started covering the Seahawks when Dennis Erickson was the head coach. They had a linebacker coach named Jim Johnson. Jim Johnson is one of the great, he was Andy Reeds defensive coordinator in Philly when they were going to five championship games, and the defense was really, really good. They briefly put him in the charge of the defense in Seattle, took off, Chad Brown looked like a new guy. You know what though, it just really wasn't comfortable for the head coach. He had his buddy Greg McMacchan, who ended up, he had a good career, but they wanted Greg to call the defense for the wrong reasons. Jim Johnson leaves becomes one of the great coordinators. If you talk to coaches, great coordinators have

9:20the last 25 years, okay? In Holmgren's era, Mike had on the staff, he's a great coach. Holmgren's a great coach, and we're talking about him for the Hall of Fame. But he had some guys on the staff, coaching offensive line at different places, or guys he went to grew up with in San Francisco, whatever, they're great guys, but were they the absolute best guys he could get? We knew better than that. And he lost so many along the way. Well, he lost so many. And then you go back to Chuck Knox and Tom Cofflin, one of the greatest assistants in the history of the league. Yeah, so I forgot the attention, but they work together. The politics of these staffs has hard to overcome. But I think if you are so outwardly about doing things for the right reasons only, it's not then it doesn't become personal. It's not personal if you're just always doing it for the right reasons. And so I think we'll see, because we'll see how that goes over the course of McDonald's tenure. I've said that, I think it's hard to do. Because he's gonna have some of these guys maybe

10:20for a long time that become, that he wins a lot with, and they become his guys. And then maybe for whatever reason they're not as good, then we'll see how easy it is to change. Because it's a little bit easier when you hear it Ryan Grubb, or you have somebody that wasn't your first choice anyway in your one in some of those cases. That'll always say your first staff is, your first staff should be your worst staff because you can't get everyone you want it usually. So we'll see how it goes over the course of time. I don't think that's a battle that's won forever, but I think it's been won so far. And I do think that to your question, Brian, I don't think that's totally common always. You know what I, as you were talking there, I love a little thread, is that the Jim Johnson piece, Mike McDonald's first project as an intern with the Ravens was pulling part third down on the defense. And one of the bigger inputs to his analysis

11:22was Jim Johnson's Eagles defenses. You know, so it's fun. I love the connections that I've been through here. Maybe they're getting Jim Johnson back now, that you know, because Dave and I think that Chad Brown could have been a hallfamer with Jim Johnson as his coordinator for his whole career. Absolutely. I talked to Chad actually, had him on the show, we talked about that era. It's funny when you talk to Chad Brown, he will talk about Dick Leboe and the Steelers coaching and their piece in the zone blitz and what came up. But anyway, that is going a different direction. No, maybe Coastalist may wanna talk some Steeler ball here. You know, we can talk about the Steelers. We will talk about the Coastalist. We will talk about the Coastalist. I wanna ask one more thing, and you Mike, before I come back to you, Dave, so you did have that thing that came out with, who people think is the best team and whatever and the Rams are on top and everyone thinks the Rams are the best. I'm not even arguing that.

12:24My question is, if the Rams had only added Trent McDuffey and Jalen Watson, and they had not added Miles Garrett and Aaron Donald, do you think those results would be any different? Yes, because I don't. No, I think it's been a tidal wave of those two guys. And then, so, and remember, I'm talking to these guys like the same days, they're getting Aaron Donald back. I think it gave him, I think it definitely gave him a bump. Now, you can look at the odds. Maybe the odds didn't change that much or whatever, but I just feel like it's been a gathering wave of momentum of expectations for them because of Garrett plus, we knew this whole time Donald was gonna be probably added to. I do think that, like, so what did Seattle get? Seattle got one number one vote, three number two's, a three in and out, liar six, right? The Rams got four number one votes and two number two votes. I think the CX get another one vote without those things.

13:24Yeah. Dave, my read is that there's a lot of folks nationally, who already believed that the Rams were the better team last year, and that adding Trent McDuffey and Jalen Watson made them an even better team this year and that it was a fluke that the Seahawks were able to get by them twice and win the Super Bowl. How did you see that kind of matchup between those two teams last year? Yeah, tough. Total respect for Rams. You know what I thought, especially as we're talking about staff and the differences down the stretch, how much better the Seahawks were at the end of the season? And I think in your prior segment, you brought up some of the actual numbers in there. And I think as it always gets overlooked, the impact of special teams really was huge down the stretch.

14:28I think Jay Harbaugh is gonna be a head coach. I think the job he did last year, particularly once they got Shaheed was game changing. And I think that as we look at all your EPAs and all the numbers, I think the teams sometimes get overlooked. When those plays are such huge momentum changes. And I think that's one part where maybe the Hawks, you know what happens with Jason Myers in the preseason, if they get this stuff ironed out, it's like a supercharged offensive play now. Kickoffs, fun returns, et cetera. And they've even added with Hortons back and Shaheed and the way those tight ends come in and start playing and the backup blind backers.

15:29And again, this is part of that 23rd guy to 53. Those guys influence how your teams perform. Absolutely. And you load up with backup blind backers and good secondary guys that they have. They know what they're doing, they've seen this. They know where the value of those guys. And it's not just, oh, he can be a good depth guy if we get somebody hurt. Those guys are ballers and they get after it and they pursue and they're not there trying to make plays and change the games. And I think that's a part that as you start looking at, you know, where is an offense and defense ranked. Those are big play players who have great value and maybe the difference under J. Harbaugh, how they end up winning games, particularly come December and January. And it's a great contrast in the rosters of these teams

16:29because the Rams are so top heavy with those big stars and names. I don't think that Aaron Donald and Miles Gerrard are going to be out there in the field on the punch coverage team. So I think the sheet, if they don't get Shaheed last year, do they win the Super Bowl? I say no. So that's a huge component that is important to the Seahawks and the Rams are playing catch-up trying to make it important. But can it really be a part of your DNA if you don't, if you don't come by it naturally? And I think the Seahawks do, and it's a big advantage for them. Do you and your wanders around the league? I assume you find some differences in how teams approach special teams. And I'm curious if there's like one or two things that stand out to you that you'd bring up, Mike. I mean, what does the head coach care about? You always say to understand an owner, you have to understand what it is about owning the team that makes it fun for them.

17:29I think when you look at head coaches, what is it about coaching the team that they're most interested in? And we know that some of these guys are, they're offensive play-colors. That's what they're interested in. And we know other guys are, you know, you could be an offensive coach, you could be Dan Campbell's, an offensive coach. You'll be the same as Sean McVeigh. He's got a visceral toughness component to his team that shows in the special teams and how they play. That some of that travel with Aaron Glan is bad as they were in the other phases. They were good in that phase. So I do think it is a lot somewhat organizational, but the head coach of the team sets the priorities of the team in a lot of places. And I think you see that in Seattle. You see that in the Rams. I mean, the Rams aren't trading McVeigh. You know, they put on a Super Bowl and they've been doing another one. They've been on the doorstep a couple of better times. So there's a lot of different ways to try to win the games, but the way your head coach, what's important?

18:29Your head coach is really going to be a lot of what you're about. Well, I think the interesting piece there is, if Mike McDonald had come up under someone other than John Harbaugh, who is a special team's coach in the day, does he value it the same way? Does he run things the same way? I don't know. So you are a little bit of the product of who raised you. And I think that's shown up to some extent here. You guys have mentioned the Coastal as a couple of times and the ownership. And we should touch on that because we did a show, the three of us, we talked about ownership through the decades. If you guys, by the way, anyone listening, if you missed that episode, look it up. It was awesome. And I'm not saying that because it was on this channel. It was just great, great stuff from Dave and Mike about the history of this franchise. And how ownership has shaped things and some what ifs about Bill Walsh and all sorts of amazing stories. So I highly recommend you check out that episode.

19:30I've watched it myself a couple times just to listen to you guys talk. But Dave, it is talk about a different era. I made the observation that we heard more from the Coastal as in 24 hours than we did from the Allens in 30 years. And that has not stopped. They are tweeting both the node and neo. They're tweeting regularly. They're tweeting about their new dog whose first name is the letter C and his last name is Hawk. They are interacting with fans. And I guess my first question for you is, how much do you think ownership will be a story this year? You know, that's a great unknown. It's really hard to predict. We don't know those people. They operate in different circles. That's for certain. I don't know their business history. I haven't studied that.

20:31I don't know where they are on the Forbes 500 or whatever. They're successful people. Sometimes those people are jerks. Sometimes they don't know how to run an organization. Sometimes daddy gave them the money. There's all sorts of things that we just don't know. And it's a different era. What would Ken Bearing have been like if he'd have got on social media? My God, it's horrifying what the possibilities could have been. Or you know, it's just really, it's just really, really hard. We look at the history. The Nordstrom era was a big success. They were local. They had, they were community minded. They were well enough capitalized. It's not like these guys. It's not like the new ownership. And you look around the league and might could testify better than I, which, which teams, which franchises have good ownership?

21:35Does it make a difference? Absolutely. First of all, do you have enough money? Can you do it? Are you willing to? I don't care if you're a fan. You know, it's interesting with Paul Allen. He would sit on the, in the front row, under the basket at the trailblazers games. And then you'd never see him at the Seahawks. He was a great owner for the, for the Seahawks. So it remains to be seen. I wouldn't, I don't see red flags. I don't, I don't sense that. Yeah. Yeah. So, so some of what, yeah. Some of the lessons I've seen is I think, you know, owners can get better as they go along. Like you learn, you know, you learn from some mistakes. I think that, you know, I have no idea. I don't know what's going on behind the scenes in Carolina. But we haven't heard from David Tepper for a while. Right. We used to hear about him all the time. The owner there. He came in. You know, it had been very successful in hedge funds. And, and boy, he was kind of a mess there for a while. Right. Where you're like, what is this guy's a terrible owner?

22:36Well, they must be managing him better because you never hear him. You never hear of him anymore. Right. So things can evolve over time. We should talk to Dave Wyman, Stanford guy. Right. I mean, we know the coasts those come from sun micro systems. Right. We know sun stands for standard Stanford University network. I mean, we need some, maybe Richard Sherman and Dave Wyman on here to talk a little Stanford for us. But I think most of us would say the best owners are, kind of in the background to the football operation because most of us look at it in terms of what's best for the football operation. Right. Well, we're not as much into like what's the business ties and how much money they're making. We look at everything through how do you win the games and not every owners like that. You know, that's not always, I mean, that they all want to win the games. But sometimes they're in it for the business component of it, right. As much as anything. Obviously Jerry Jones is an extreme there. And he's a football guy. Obviously played football, but he's a business guy almost first. So I think that, you know, seeing them out and social media and all that stuff, it's a honeymoon period.

23:41It's pretty, I think it's pretty harmless. But as you go along. And it starts if it were to continue in the vein of wins and losses and reacting. I don't know. We magic Johnson reacts to the commanders losing a game. You know, is it that big of a deal? I know this. The football people wish he wouldn't do it. Right. So I think that'll be a test for anybody who has the ultimate power. You own the team. It's your team. You can do whatever you want. You can say whatever you want. You're maybe invested on game day. And you may not be happy about a decision they made or you may have questions about it. To the extent that any of that is visible or trickles out, I think it's not helpful for the football people. So that'll be just. It was a great humor component to the latest hard knocks, which really was a wonderful insight into the into the franchise. And and particularly for fans who haven't been around the team that had quarters the behind the scenes.

24:42I thought that was a real interesting look. And when when Schneider and McDonald looked at each other. It's easy. Just went some more super balls. Dave, that that to me is that's part of the story here. And why I think this could be bigger a bigger story than most transitions, even though a NFL franchise telling is always a big story. Because you've never had an NFL franchise that just won a Super Bowl. Just had the executive of the year. Just has like the young hot coach that everybody is Gaga over and a young core. And have them be sold like that's never happened. So you're in one hands like the storyline has been wow you've got this turnkey organization that you're taking over on the other hand. And I've seen this we've all seen this in business let alone sports. I always liked taking over products and businesses that were in terrible shape. Because it was not going to get worse and everything I did was going to be making that line go up.

25:47And I looked fantastic right. You take over something that is humming and is accomplished one of the hardest things to do in sports. People assume this is going to happen again. The Seahawks may never win another Super Bowl. And I'm not saying I want that to be an outcome. But that's how hard it is to do it. Someone could clip in that audio but you're going to hear that a lot now. I'm sure I'm sure. But this is we know what do they call it in real estate a turnkey. Right. Property. Right. Absolutely. It's a push button car. But if it doesn't perform to that level, if they do have just keep in mind the first like most like the tepid most tepid criticism that came out which was Vinod talking about being a Steelers fan. He couldn't resist clapping back to what people said about him in that like very innocuous moment.

26:50What happens when somebody comes after them for a losing streak for a bad plan. When he didn't work when the ownership wanted to capitalize on the team's name to build his real estate business. That's not what these guys are about. No, no, I don't think that's their money. They don't need this to make more money. I don't see like money. Everybody that's got everybody wants more money no matter how much you have. It's just the way most people are why you would really have to trip on sensitive body parts to follow this up. The way it stands. Look, I think we're also capable enough to know. Well, okay, let's just say they didn't win a Super Bowl for the next 10 years. You'd be able to know if what real ownership probably played in that if it did something dumb, right? I mean, or if they couldn't get the resources or they wanted to do this or go in the direction there.

27:54Those are all the fingerprints of ownership are not that hard to see on when a ship gets certain steer to different way. I got to jump in because you're making me think about something else and I'm not going to bring up this person because of why he was in the news recently. But how do you think Jed York is viewed as an owner before this whole off field thing, but taking over from the department, like taking over from all the championships and then 30 years of never winning one, but going to the Super Bowl quite a bit, generally having some success. How do you think he is viewed? Well, to me, he's viewed as somebody who was in over his head when he first started and then got better. I think, you know, yeah, they didn't win a Super Bowl. They were leading Super Bowl by double figures in the fourth quarter. I think it's not his fault that Patrick Mahomes on the other side or whatever, right? I mean, I think they've been very successful the last 10 years or so with him.

28:54I think he's improved from where he was before. You know, now he's probably compromised obviously. I mean, that doesn't help him, but I think that would be an example like there's a lot of people that would have owned the 49ers worse than he did the last 10 years, I think. From another perspective, not so long ago, I think there was a portion of the constituency who would have loved to have a Steve Balmer by the Seahawks as a local guy. That maybe his connections to Paul Allen and the similarities that maybe we need a local guy who is highly capitalized like Balmer. He might be a great owner. Salary cat management, you know, could be really good. New way of doing things. A native ownership that win a skew.

29:54Not everybody knows the story you guys are talking about. It's for people that don't follow the NBA closely or what's gone on there, but Pobletori deserves. Has gotten some great credit for breaking a story about how Steve Balmer and the Clippers kind of circumvented the salary cap or how they calculate things there. Paying, you know, paying quite Leonard under the table essentially. And now Steve Balmer has been, you know, has a lot of repercussions. I think a suspension. I think they lost five draft five first round picks. There's like all sorts of stuff. It's a pretty historic reprimand for an owner where, look, you know, speaking of the Jed York thing and, you know, you look at what happened to Robert Kraft when he had his issue. Absolutely nothing. There was literally no repercussion from the league for what he did. What happens with Jed York? Probably absolutely nothing in the NFL. I don't know of many situations where there's anything that comes back to owners as repercussions.

30:58I think a big difference, though, is that York was convicted of something, you know, and and crack was not. So I think there could be something for York. We'll see it. Maybe it's not going to affect the football product. I wouldn't think. But, yeah, you know, you're, you're, you're right on that that. I think, I don't know the NBA as well as the NFL, but I've always. I felt like David Stern, especially like a Randall league more than the owners. I feel like the owner is sort of run the league in the NFL. Well, and this is, this is definitely departure from a 2026 Coxies and preview episode. But I do just. It brings up to me the other story that was really big yesterday, which is about what's going on with Bill Bellicek. And North Carolina. I don't want to go deep here, but I bring it up that. This is a guy that was considered the best coach, maybe ever. Then lost his quarterback. Didn't have success. Seemingly couldn't get a job in the NFL, which was also interesting.

32:00And then did not do well in the college ranks and now is covered in scandal on and off the field. I just think it's a, it's a human story of people think you can reach greatness and that that is something that endures. But man, that's not how life works. Like you have to sustain who you are in order to maintain. Every day, it's the message is get out of the hawks, the process. It's an everyday thing. You know, you don't excellence is a habit, not an occurrence. And maybe that's what it is with Bellicek. You know, you lose your way a little bit. You forget what your principles are. What got you there. You know, probably human nature, who, you know, who are any of us to judge. That sort of thing. You can just see when it works and when it goes off the rails.

33:01I mean, you know, absolutely, I always say absolute power corrupts absolutely. And I think I think it helps to have some kind of checks and balances for all of us, right? Anybody who has the power to do anything. You know, the worst parts of human nature are going to be part of that. You know, what worked well in New England with a complex, you know, tension between Brady and Bellicek and craft looks different when you pull one of those things out of there or another one out or someone gets to do it, whatever they want to do. And so, you know, I think spinning it back to the sea hawks to just be interesting to see how it works here because the perception has been. I think the reality has been that, you know, when Paul and bought the sea hawks, his net worth was enough to buy every team in the NFL. And so the sea actually were relatively small part of his empire, even though important to his heart all that he padded with stadium after you know, ask you say it in where you watched games with his dad all of that I get that.

34:04But that's not the way you know, that's not the way it is now when you buy an NFL team. It's a bit usually it's a bigger part of your portfolio, so to speak. And so you're probably going to have the owners be more hands on with the running of it. And I don't think that that can be a good thing. I think I think it's been so great that set up the way that it has been that. You know, the perception has been that it can't get better. Would you agree with that that it's not going to be better or whatever it is. There is a consistent element that's really easy to pinpoint from back when Pete started, which is a pretty long. What are we looking at 16 years and three Super Bowls is John Schneider. In a case where you have a guy who has proven there was a little dip in there, no question. But for the success has been John Schneider. And as long as he's here, I think his influence among from the team to the ownership to the staff to the players is going to be pretty well locked in.

35:16Yeah, it's I agree with you, Mike, that I think that it's going to be hard for it to be better. I think there are places where it can be better. But that's where I kind of want to start closing with you guys on as I know you guys have places to be and fun stuff to do. When you look at this 2026 Seahawks team, Mike, for you first, what's your biggest question and what's your biggest area of confidence around this team going into this season? I think the biggest area of confidence is around the head coach for me. I think Mike McDonald's proven to be really good. I haven't seen anything that concerned about him only encouraging. I think he's come a long way too from the beginning there. I think he's developed more of a public confidence about it just from doing this and knowing he can do it. That's probably where the strength is. I mean, look, their behavior around the cornerback situation, cornerback situation suggests there's some worry there.

36:18I think the head coach can overcome some of that, but that's probably it. And I think a bigger worry is just not really a worry, but you spend the whole off season talking about why this team is going to be different. From all of the other teams that have success at the highest mountain top, right? Oh, they're doing this and that. And you buy all that stuff for the whole off season. But it's just human nature that you're not immune to the things that have affected every other team, right? You think you're going to be different as a parent than all of the other parents in the history of parenting, right? You think you're going to do this different. You're not different. So you just won the Super Bowl. You can say that it's a new year and all that stuff. You just won the Super Bowl. There are people that want, you know, credit for that or this or that. That's, you can't say that that doesn't exist for the first time in the history of humanity, right? So they're going to have some of those challenges of having an X on your back. You won the Super Bowl. Hey, you won it last year. Is it, can you be as hungry after a great meal?

37:21You and me, me, Dave, they even I probably can we can eat a lot. But, but you know what I mean? You did just win the Super Bowl. You you you summoned the mountain. Yeah, it's a place every year. You can say you're still as hungry. You're that's there's a list of that that may not make it easier to be as hungry. Dave, this is a great like football thing and a humanity thing because I've asked this question before, which is one, you know, to my point, I've made this taste like you can only be so thirsty after you drink glass of water same same concept, right? You can only be so refreshed after however many naps, you know, like all those things. But at the same time, when you had your first kiss, was that were you done after that? Did you never want to have another kiss after that? After you after you experienced your first concert. Yeah, keeping this PG. Okay. Yeah, like, yeah, complacency is a very real thing and it has to go down to the inside of who you are. And I think Pete did a great job with Schneider when they when they started judging that grit.

38:37What if guys bit fought through what what did it take them to get here? And one of the biggest things that nobody's ever been able to figure out is how is a player going to perform when he's been given a contract of more money than he ever thought he would ever have in his life? Is he going to put in the kind of work that it takes to climb to the top? Everybody deals with that. You beat that by the kind of person you get. You look at a you look at a Leonard Williams. He's made all the money in the world. He's a better player now. I suspect he'll have another great year. Demarcus Lawrence could have retired. He wants to come back. He wants more. You know, tell me when he lines up, he isn't going to be roaring off that ball. That's the kind of guy you have when you have leaders like that in that room that everybody loves.

39:38And you see when money starts getting handed out that everybody else in that locker room is happy about it. I think that's how you overcome what we call human nature because your human nature is defined differently. I know I, hey, nothing personal, but I was at Laosie offensive. I got my ass kicked day after day playing football and you get the what is your choice you get up and try to figure out a way to win. I think a guy who comes through that sort of experience are the guy you're going to want on December 30th when it's cold and you've got broken bones and you're having to win a game in the fourth floor. Yeah, and you'll have thing. We don't know what the big challenge for this team is going to be. We know in retrospect, you know, the Super Bowl winner, you know, the Pete Carroll Super Bowl winner team, you know, had the disaster of the of the next Super Bowl, you know, where they were it turns the strengths of the teams on against itself. You know what I mean? That was a lot.

40:47But also the entire secondary was injured to the point that they shouldn't have been playing in that game. And we talk about the last play. Well, that they were in in real control of that game. And in the favor of getting her really good. I'm not really sure if it's going to be a good game. But yeah, but you just don't know what I'm saying bigger, more bigger picture than that. You don't we don't really know yet what the big challenge of this team will be. You know, are that a year from now are they resigning Sam Darnold or you know, there's just a lot of ways the team could could change. You know, that creates a challenge or or like you should paying a lot of people. And now, you know, now you don't make the mid season trade that could help put you over the top or whatever. I'm going to be greedy and try to get in one more question in last couple of minutes here. One thing. What's the one thing for each of you that has to go well for the Seahawks to have a chance to repeat as Super Bowl winners. Mike, you first.

41:48Yeah, I'll go with the offensive coordinator. You know, I think that Brent Brent flurry seems good. We've heard great stuff about it. But he hasn't done it before. So I think that component of it would would be hugely helpful because it's a little bit beyond the specific control of the head coach. We have a ton of confidence in and it's a very important position as we know from two years ago. So I'm generally optimistic about it. I'm excited, you know, excited to kind of see what are you going to do. But until it happens, you really don't know. Totally agree. It's in the absolute number one unknown. And you know, how many do you try a package with Jalen Milro throwing a pitch on the goal line? You know, there's. They're going to come plays where we scratch our head. If those are minimized, I think they've they're loaded and set to be a top contender.

42:51Yeah, love it. Amazing stuff from Mike Sando and Dave Bowling. Thank you guys so much for joining. And we'll be doing this a lot more during the season. Take care guys. Thank you.