SEAHAWKS SATURDAY: The Opener

0:00Good morning everybody welcome to another episode of HawkBlog mornings. I'm Brian Nimmhouser and you can find all that we do on YouTube and TikTok and Instagram and all the other places at HawkBlogger and it is a Seahawks Saturday which means we get to hang out with my good pal Jeff Simmons and Jeff man. Here we are season opener just around the corner. How you feeling? It still doesn't feel real yeah like I did a show with Rob stating for like 90 myths trying to get keyed up for the season. Started to get finally excited when my softball team got eliminated this week so it's pure football season. The next game would have been on Thursday anyway so I'm not that upset transitions perfectly. Then I did a fancy draft with Evan and your son and Josh Cashman and some of the real HawkDoc crew last night like I'm fully in now so it's like it's just still so weird the Wednesday you're gonna be the game.

1:01I'm freaking game on Wednesday. It is really really weird and it's weird I'm it's September early September and I'm wearing sweatshirts at this point it's already gotten a little fall weathery but this episode is brought to you by Pemko Insurance and it also is brought to you by PrizePix. Like you guys for sponsor in this show and Jeff man I had such a fun time yesterday doing this preview that it got to talk to bowling and sand oh and then Baldi and and Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lindsay Rhodes and they're all awesome and I could have kept going dude. Like I feel like there is there's that was a season preview conversation but what I really want to do with you is talk about this Patriots game man like it is a tangible game it's not a theoretical and where does your mind start when you think about these two teams in this matchup.

2:03It all starts to me with Will Campbell and Will Campbell was a disaster in the Super Bowl and he was coming up a pretty serious injury that I think the same injury is knocked out guys for four months at a time. Now there's already a question with Will Campbell whether his arm length was good enough to play left tackle. I know when we studied him for that draft Brian I remember you really liked him as a guard prospect and a lot of draft media and the online experts and his pressure rates when he came back from that injury last year almost doubled and so I think with them it's just such a big question this year can he hold up as a left tackle because was it the injury and I know it's kind of stupid to say with a second year player who was a highly-toweded prospect fourth overall pick but you saw like Armand Membu come into the league and look like a really good tackle Kelvin Banks come in a couple picks later really good tackle people still wonder should this guy because his arm length was more like Gray Zables who projects as a really good guard in the Super Bowl specifically he allowed what like 15 pressures or something

3:05it was like 14 15 pressures and he couldn't hold up so I think the whole game really starts with him because obviously Drake May was a bit banged out with the shoulders but when you can't block and we've saw with the see ox for years trying to block Aaron Donald or even the some of those inferior Rams teams would give Seattle trouble it all starts with Will Campbell can he make the second year jump is he a guard can he block Derek Hall can he block Noo Su I think that's just such a huge question about the Patriots but if it's for this matchup you heard like I heard sand on bowling on your show talking about see ox line of scrimmage like that's really what they are so in this matchup specifically like I think that matchup just says so much about how these two teams line up yeah at least via pf will Campbell was credited with surrendering eight pressures in that game and he that was a season high the the most he had given up in any other game was the first game against the chargers in the wild card round would give him five pressures so I mean it was almost

4:10double his highest amount of pressures surrendered and you know they've remade that offensive line a little bit you and I both were I think we liked Jared Wilson and they had him playing guard and he's just not big enough to be guard and that's the guy that Riley Mills trucked into Drake May for the sack but now he's playing center which is I think the right position and they've got a guy you like playing left guard in Elijah Vera Tucker who's I think his main issues have been injury more than quality of play so do you think that that's going to make a meaningful difference in in how new England was able to protect in this game yeah it really comes down to what kind of playing shape or what kind of and playing for your Tucker the beginning of the year he when he was coming out like he was as clean as a draft prospect as a god and early on in his jets crew he was really good but he had I think two season ending injuries at this point and we just don't know what kind of play reason I thought his free agency might be a little lower because of that injury history but I was wrong he got he got a lot of teams interested in him I

5:11remember throwing him out into one of my plans and you're like that stupid that's not gonna happen and it should prove to be true so I think it's good in one sense because it moves Jared Wilson to his natural position if you watch that Sam Darnold playoff game for a few years ago one of the things you'll see a lot was Garrett Bradbury who was at center just getting like bull rush into hell by Colby Turner and some of those guys Jared Versa at times and Darnold couldn't even get his feet set and they had him at center last year he's gone he's betrayed Chicago to replace Drew Dolman and now Jared Wilson the guy who I wanted them to draft the pick they took jail in Milro pretty badly he got yeah he got tossed like a rag doll like by Riley Mills and then he didn't hold up particularly well throughout that whole playoff so he's in his natural position now he was a prospect that a lot of us liked in a pretty bad center draft and then with Vera Tucker it should really up but it just seems like the kind of thing we said for Seattle these years for Justin Britt was bouncing around positions and we said okay we got these guys but Vera Tucker when healthy

6:11is a very good player I just don't know this I haven't watched New England practices they don't play their starters in the preseason anymore on paper the line those like left tackle left guard center right guard it makes way more sense they drafted low move in the first round I don't think he's gonna play I think he's more of a long term replacement for Morgan Moses but on paper their line is makes a lot more sense the last year yeah I was kind of curious about I had not yet checked in on low moves so what what have you heard there very little I think they looking at him is more of a project Morgan Moses a little bit older but he is like already the plays not like a developmental kind of guy like he was more of a guy who played at Utah he played opposite the higher drafted guy and I haven't heard his name really at all like it's kind of been like Colton Hood where I just haven't heard much about him and I think it's just probably because he's playing with the twos mostly I haven't heard he's pushing for a spot but we we will see we will see

7:13yeah what about their other draft choices any of the other draft picks that you have your eye on for the Patriots so gay yakis is a guy who we still kind of wondered where he fit into Seattle's board because he fits some of the aspects of Mike McDonald in terms of like edge setting and power and his size made a lot of sense but it took him a while to get into camp he was one of the last rookies to sign his injury delayed a little bit longer and I'm guessing they're going to ease him along like he was a guy that some people really came along to but I think he's had a pretty quiet camp a lot of their camp has just been focused so much on this Christian Gonzalez story and the fact that he's still on sign we don't know officially if he's even playing this week I assume he will but like so much of that news coming out of New England camp has been won AJ Brown and to what the hell is going on because most people in New England thought okay once Devin witherspoon signs

8:14it's gonna cue this Gonzalez thing right away same agent they Seattle set the contract it seems like it's gotten worse since then and like he was I think he was the best player on the field in the Super Bowl of any player like even Devin witherspoon I think there's a case Gonzalez was maybe the best player on the field in that game and again I don't know where his headspace is at I don't know what's going on it's been a pretty ugly negotiation yeah let's listen to Jeremy Fowler talk about where things are and that Christian Gonzalez piece well Patrick I'm here in Christian Gonzalez and the patrons remain apart on several key elements of this deal now here's why I could get done New England feels like it has worked hard on this they're prepared to make him the highest paid cornerback in the NFL that's above Devin witherspoon's $33 million per year threshold they feel like the guarantees are in a good place clearly Gonzalez does not feel the same way so they have a fundamental disagreement on several things that have to come together the

9:16length of the deal the structure of the deal all those things and we've heard him in that sound bite and also in his past press conferences he's clearly very frustrated he does not seem eager Ian to play as of right now so that was Jeremy Fowler talking about that listen to Christian Gonzalez himself talk about this game coming up we'll have any impression of whether or not the contract will get done before Wednesday thank you how do you focus on today with the contract still lingering I mean it's good for my job what in your mind sticks out when you think about a rematch with Seattle great team the working basically they've kept

10:28I'll leave it there but Jeff that didn't sound like a guy who's uh I mean I've done enough of those conversations at this point to know that sometimes guys just don't want to talk regardless and you're not going to get much from them but I have to admit I tar for me to believe this isn't just going to get done or figured out it's so silly I mean he's one of the best corners in football just pay the guy get signed move move on like I'll be shocked if he does not play on Wednesday yeah just like usually what happens is the deadline spur the action of these things and I'm guessing there's the deadline of week one and getting it done before the season and it just the weird part is there's just been no momentum at all if anything they've lost momentum some of the reporters are wondering if they're going to trade him or what's going on like Robert Kraft apparently had some comments early in the negotiation that pissed off the Gonzalez camp and they're still like lingering on that but yeah like I don't want to say you're going to get excited about the idea of Christian Gonzalez not playing I think if you're a C.O.T. fan

11:29usually just assume that he's going to play and this is all going to be probably wrapped up by Wednesday but I just wonder where his headspace is right now like he did a great job on JSN although Darnell missed a couple of those throws where like the story on him might have been a little bit differently if he had sheet over the top or throws it out to JSN a little bit more but yeah he just I wonder where his headspace is right now because that negotiation has just been like I think Darnell Revis was on hard knocks with the jets like I think it was early 2010s and they had like a very public negotiation like this it was on hard knocks they just got him signed at the end it was pretty contentious and I don't think he played particularly well after a lot of that so there's been times where that happened he ended up getting traded the Tampa a couple years later I don't think Christian Gonzalez is going down that path but I do wonder like where's his basis like he didn't seem very excited to talk about the Seattle game there no and I I felt like part of what he was saying there is they took care of their guy they're paying their players and you know they paid JSN

12:33top of the market they paid definitely the same top of the market and I have to admit having never been part of these conversations it's always a little bit bizarre I get when there's a guy that does not deserve to be top of the market that is up for a deal that that can be contentious if that player thinks he should be resetting the market and the team that's not what's going on here like Christian Gonzalez I doubt the Patriots are really making the case that he shouldn't reset the market that's what not what Fowler said so then is it guarantees is it some other like some weird it just feels it feels odd that these things drag on the way that they do and I like I said I'm not involved in the detail so I can't claim to understand but just it's it's confusing from the outside yeah like they don't have a particularly big group of young ascending blue chip players that guys one of them and he said a prone like premier position elite position they need that guy to make it work they have some older players on defense they've had a lot of interesting things around

13:37in their team in the offseason with Mike for Abel all of that story seems to be kind of buried these days I don't it seems like Diana Rousini is making her comeback anyway so seems like that's where it's not going to be lingering around the team like some people thought but when your best players young he's ascending like sort of what happened with JSM and with their spoon and you just saw the ease of the Cox getting those done and I imagine now the like the Rams are going to have to start signing a bunch of that 2023 draft class next year I imagine that's going to be pretty easy for them but there's a large volume of them but when the England they're so little like that picture fell in their lap like you ever remember Washington took Forbes over him which made no sense at the time Christians all should be on Washington but it's absurd that this is dragging out this to this point well you mentioned that other story the Rousini and Brabill story and obviously that's not really that much about football but you and I both know the way things work media wise someone's sitting on something related to that story that's going to come out right before like

14:44Tuesday Monday like they're going to use this game as an opportunity to come out with something new on that and it feels like you can almost feel the the the the boiling starting where those these reports of Rousini may be making a comeback and different outlets that she might work with and those report from the athletic came out about that she her reporting like was not affected by this but that it violated their you know guidelines or whatever I feel like someone's going to share like a story on that and what I was told was when New England did their press conference right after that story came out one of the reporters asked Brabill about his thoughts on it and apparently Brabill just pushed it off and apparently Brabill lost it on the reporter after the press conference at the side and basically tore into him so that's clearly bubbling under the surface and I imagine but I think that's a fair game question to ask yeah it feels like there's another shoot a drop because the athletic spent like well like six months to tell

15:46us something we all already knew and now like Rousini's campus started to work the like the guys who cover the media from the athletic and guys like that so it feels like there's something someone's going to drop something yeah and then when they do it like you said it's usually like the right before the game or like when that big SI story about the C-Ox came out I think it was right before the season opener but other team is just like falling apart and what happened and things like that it's usually timed very particularly so yeah keep your eye out next week we might see something you talked about the offensive line changes for the Patriots and we just talked about Christian Gonzalez in that situation that probably won't be different but it'll we'll see what are the other changes whether for the C-Ox or for the Patriots that you think are going to be worth paying attention to in this one that are different than what they were for the Super Bowl well we'll start New England they got meaningfully better at what I've received them they traded a future

16:46first round pick but AJ Brown is far better than anyone they had in the field the only guy who impacted the game offensively was Mac Hollins who got over Wuling a couple times Mac Hollins like a fourth he's a depth kind of player AJ Brown is like a premier number one receiver and there were days even like the joint practice where he was just torching Rick Wuling and torching Quinion Mitchell and I don't think he's quite the same as he was maybe two years ago but this guy is a big physical presence and Seattle does have questions at corner like who are who's the who is the Nehemiah Purchase going to be covering AJ Brown on Wednesday is it going to be Josh Job who's had us up and down the times like that's a big match up and Romeo Dubs is there now he's the probably the number two receiver and he's had concussion issues but when he's been on the field he is a professional he's a good route runner like some of those screenbait guys have given the C-Ox trouble we saw what happened a couple of years ago they're way better at receiver and Drake May is obviously was pretty banged up by the time they got through the playoffs so to give him a whole new better line potentially more weapons it's going to be interesting to watch that and that

17:49looks kind of lines up with obviously the biggest question about the C-Ox roster right now and I would say that's probably the cornerbacks so I think the safe bet is that Nehemiah Purchase is going to get a lot of snaps this week I don't think we're going to see digs we're obviously not going to see Julian Neal a ton the new guy they just brought in for the chargers I don't think they're just going to throw out there so that's a huge part of this game yeah I look let's dig in there for a second because I was sharing some stuff on the Patriots on my first look episode a couple days ago and just reminding people this was a dynamic passing offense it was explosive it was efficient it was the thing that powered them to the Super Bowl more than anything else like they were such a dominant passing team it overcame a mediocre run game it overcame a pretty much mediocre defense like maybe a little bit above average but not that great I got them all the way to Super Bowl and now the thing that really screwed them or at least impacted that was sacks

18:57Drake made took a lot of sacks himself yes the offensive line gave up a lot of sacks and then defensively their their past rush was not very good well the C-Ox pretty much bottled up their passing game in the Super Bowl they ended up with 295 yards passing but a lot of that was garbage time stuff yeah so how do we feel about the C-Ox opportunity to defend the pass both from a pass-rest perspective and from a coverage perspective given the changes there on both sides yeah I think that's why the high think the whole matchup starts with Will Campbell and that group because in the Super Bowl they just had no time to even like go through percussions it was all get the ball out quick he was on the move he felt like he was being rushed a lot like I was in the stands in that game if I didn't remember seeing open receivers I remember seeing like oh Mesh thrown to that guy it was yet to get the ball out so quick or he just he was befuddled by

19:57some of the stuff Mike was doing with Willerspoon and even Worry and that to the game I it seems like Nick's not gonna play I don't know if I'm breaking news there but I think Jeremy Fowler came out yesterday is probably iffy for the first two weeks I think that's what he said and based on what's going on the team he's still not running at full speed and practicing I think this he have turned around the Wednesday that'd be pretty shocking so that's going to look a little differently so that's where yeah if you can rush the passer even to like a percentile level you did last year it's going to be very hard for them but he has time and the old ones doing well and you need your corners to match up with this guy without Nick even worry yeah it's a question because Devon Willerspoon was just used as a weapon in that game to throw him off as his timing we didn't see a lot of like covered pure coverage wins he had a great game obviously but Josh Job was like incredible in that game there's one repurposed I think he has this is a big game for him because if there's more time I think they're gonna go after him I think they're definitely gonna go after me and my Pritchett and whoever's playing and if that's whether Spoon's playing a nickel the whole game it's gonna be interesting because that's a lot of Pritchett on the outside I don't know if it's

20:59gonna be Tyrese Knight the Anthony Bell is on on the team right now so they can't bring him up it's gonna be an interesting match up and there's a lot of areas where you can see in New England having more advantages than they did in the Super Bowl yeah that's that's where my mind goes in terms of the areas of potential concern and I also like it is still really bizarre to me that everyone's just assumed this is an easy win for the Seahawks I'm like they're playing a Super Bowl team that that I think got better and they got better in the places that they needed to get better at least offensively I think the run game is not better we'll talk about that in a second but anyway and the Seahawks have if they have some concern it's in the place where the the Patriots are gonna probably try to attack them not just in the past game but in the corner position but in size AJ Brown as a big receiver I don't know like that the Seahawks have the right guy to match up with that size we'll see if Josh Job can do it or whoever else and to your point with Nicki Minaj he's not he's almost certainly not gonna play in this game

22:04that would be shocked if he plays in this game and I think Julian Love I would expect him maybe to be used a little differently maybe he will play a little of Nick's role that could mean that you're gonna have a different safety getting some time here it could mean that Tyree's night is getting some more time here but Devon Witherspoon was all over that game and if they can't use him as a blitzer because they need him in coverage that also is a change material change to how they can defend this team so I don't think it's like the sky is falling or anything because the Seahawks seem to really have figured out some things about the Patriots offense last year but these are concerning differences when kind of evaluating this game yeah like Nick was even though Nick was not near 100% the Super Bowl to the point there his ankles still needed to get cleaned up later in the off season but the idea of where they had him and Witherspoon

23:07just blitzing off the edge and what it did to that offense and what it threw them off and what allowed them to do and one of the things Julian love I think suggested to the coaches and I don't know if he said this publicly or read an article but he suggested when they didn't know if Nick would play that he would play the role because they had Coppy Brian and Okato could play the deep roles they don't really have that guy unless it's Rodney Thomas coming down playing right away because Bud Clark has heard I don't know if he would have been ready to play in this game if he was healthy he looked like a two early in the off season and they don't really have another safety on the roster Rodney Thomas is probably going to get bumped up to play I'm almost done that's a roster management strategy he's basically on the team at this point he's certainly going to be up for this week but he's been insured himself so I don't know if you feel comfortable just throwing him out there and say okay you're doing you're being Coppy Brian today and Julian love he just sorry to interrupt he had a hand injury and got surgery and was wearing a club like cast for a while that's not what he's wearing anymore I think I think he's fine to play I don't think injuries an issue for him yeah

24:11like so that that's that would be the strategy I would guess they use Julian love still in the deep safety role I think with Tyrese Knight and some of the things they can do there with his size I think he matches up like covering tight ends and they do throw to the tight ends a lot but yeah it's going to be just interesting to see because Julian love like the famous clip from the Super Bowl was just him on the Mike Dupseg when talking about how Drake May was dictating his throws and he he can tell he had tells based on how his shoulders were going where the ball is going to go and then he picks off a pass so I think they're going to want Julian love back there I think it's going to be interesting to see what Jake May's like with another offseason is he a little more refined as a quarterback because his skill level pure skill level is incredible but like Julian love in that clip talked about the difference of playing like a mine reader like Stafford versus him and I think having love and his mind back there is just a huge asset to the C-ox and how they want to play against him well all this in my mind means one thing Jeff the C-hoc defensive line has got to bring it like that's it that is such an absolute key to this game if if Byron Murphy and Leonard Williams and

25:18Jaren Reed and Riley Mills and DeMarcus Lawrence and Derek Hall who had two sex himself if those guys can dominate the way they did in that Super Bowl then it won't matter the the C-ox will win it will be okay if if they are not able to get pressure then this becomes a loosable game yeah I think that's what it probably comes down to at least on that side of the ball what about offensively dude Brian Flurry's first game you know you've got I assume Tory Horton's not playing based on the fact that we haven't seen him at practice don't know what the deal is there still and then you know Jadarian prices first game running like a manual Wilson could be playing his first game like there's a lot of I don't exactly know what to expect as Elijah Rolio going to be a big factor or not how do you how do you feel about the offense in the match up there I I have no

26:18idea what to explain so one of the things I warned about it my show Thursday and I think well I think everyone just has to remember how bad Clint Kubiak's first game was last year and if you would have told me after week one after that game that that team would win the Super Bowl I would have thought you were completely insane completely insane and so if Flurry does have a dud like I'm not saying he that's gonna mean he's gonna be as good as Kubiak but it's not the end of the world we saw it last year so let's try to calm down but yeah it's a mystery it's a mystery never seen Flurry call plays with the starters you have it some practices but for the most of us and price this is his first game action didn't get a single snap in the preseason so I'm very eager to watch him the more I hear about him and the more I just I want to see what he looks like I haven't really seen him other than highlights really run the ball the thing that made the game so hard and the Super Bowl was they sent a lot of blitzes and the offensive line didn't protect super well and Darnell actually did a pretty good job even though he missed on some throws getting out of a few sacks that could have really hurt them but they're probably gonna have the

27:21same sort of plan hope Darnell turns the ball over but this is gonna be just a lot of first for us like they're gonna use Rashid Shaheeda differently I imagine in this game versus how they use him in the Super Bowl how healthy is AJ Barner I don't know I haven't seen I haven't seen him in the preseason he obviously scored the only touchdown in the Super Bowl he obviously looked really good in that game I think Cooper Cups a guy who can contribute there was the number of plays in the Super where Cooper Cup is wide open and either the wind or Darnell just mid Darnell just missed him like three or four times in a second half so yeah it's it's a mystery box because again we know what the Kyle Shanahan offense looked like we know what the clinkubiac offense looked like this is really the first time every indication is it's gonna look closer to a Shanahan offense of Ramegve offense then maybe the Gary Kubiak offense so I still think they're gonna run the ball a lot in early downs I'm hoping they still use a lot of play action pass but last year I would have said coming out of the preseason this is gonna be a heavy play action team and we want to throw what freaking play action pass yeah and I thought I got sold to Bill Goods and then they ended up with the Super Bowl so

28:23yeah well let's see what happens man like this is our first impression of flurry first impressions do matter but they do yeah it's it's it's right you know I'm looking back at the pf grades for the the Patriots defense for that game against the oxen the Super Bowl and Christian Gisala's gets his flowers as he should high grade there their highest graded defender was Amphorny Jennings their left end player who was a big big against the run apparently at least by this grade he's not on the team anymore but they did make some other changes like Dremon Jones right like yep old Fred they they brought him in and Kevin Bired at safety is new and you know I actually thought Jaylen Hawkins had a really nice season for them last year so I don't know how much Bired makes a difference one way or another um they signed a Kindle Vildor

29:24at corner I don't know how much of a difference he is gonna make other play yeah yeah probably not but you know and then you talked about Akis or Yakis or Havirins pronounced but um I don't know man how do you feel about the Patriots defense and how it matches up with the Seahawks offense yeah their whole defense really starts similar Seattle with those two defensive tackles in the middle Christian Barmore and Milton Williams who Milton Williams phenomenal last season Seahawks did an okay job handling those guys in the Super Bowl but they were under pressure a lot of their passing down and there was from Blitzes but just those two guys are really everything for them because their outside rush is not particularly strong uh Harold Landrieve probably their best at last year their best at Russia was Chason who signed with Washington and free agency which is why they gave pretty good money to Dremon Jones and what we know about Dremon Jones is he's not a very effective player against the run and it was kind of an odd fit because he doesn't really fit the

30:24Mike for it like we saw what Mike McDonald it was a weird fit Mike Vrable has that same like toughness and so I think they were kind of chasing a little bit they're a little softer against the run I'd say from last year Yakis hopefully will kind of counteract that but I don't know how much he's gonna play it really is just about those defensive tackles their coordinator does like to throw a lot of Blitzes at you they tried to use some of the ram stuff but didn't particularly outside of a couple passes early they didn't really force Darnell into a lot of turnover worthy throws but yeah those two defensive tackles are thrown around Jalen Sundell and Anthony Bradford and Zabel it's gonna be a tough game like it was last year because the corners are sticky Kevin Byrd's a very professional safety they're well coached typically on defense I think it just comes down to how the Sioc offensive line holds up I mean that's part of what I feel like gets lost in I mean yes the Sioc dominated that game they did now but the score wasn't

31:24that way I mean it was three nothing after the first quarter it was nine nothing at half time and then 12 nothing after three quarters now they were dominating like the Patriots offense but the Sioc offense was not necessarily like getting the job done and the Sioc ended up with 335 yards of offense you know 194 net passing yards you know it was not a standout performance in that regard one of the things that that I had done some research on last year I talked about it but I got the actual numbers for it and this is kind of I think this is interesting was how important everyone we talked about Jeff how much the running game changed last year for the Siocs I don't think we talked enough about how much the screen game changed for the Siocs in the second half and what turned out to be the case pulling this up is from weeks this is from FTN fantasies data by

32:26the way you can use promo code hbam to get your discount to get access to it as well the weeks one to nine the Siocs had a negative point four one EPA per play on screen play is average 3.8 yards all right so not good from weeks 10 to 18 they were plus 0.37 EPA per play and averaged eight yards so double the yards right and then the playoffs it was even better plus 0.46 and 11 yards so the screen game got significantly better as the game season went on now here's the part that I think is particularly interesting what changed was they had been running a lot of screens to your guy in the screen game Jackson Smith and jigba and that had not been working they started to shift it to Ken Walker and Ken Walker had a plus 0.96 EPA per play 15 yards per play in the screen game so

33:33this is something that to me I know Brian Flurry is going to be integrating the screen game I think Jadarian price is going to be good in it but I think the screen game in this game is actually a pretty big thing to watch and a lot of times the screen game is a real big reflection of coaching as a big reflection of details because you saw what happened with like the Siocs with Shane Waldron and Shoddy and felt like for a few years the Siocs couldn't run a basic screen pass and last year like you said finally it was better code Andy Reed where Ken Walker is now has been known as the pre-eminent screen guy because if you listen to like offensive line who's played for him they talk about Andy is specific to like the yard line or like the hash on the field where everyone has to be and for Brian Westbrook to LaShon McCoy to all these guys Andy Reed's been doing it for years even within fear of your players he's been able to get those buys and that's why I think you and a lot of other people like the fantasy guys like they think Ken Walker could be massive with Andy

34:36Reed screen game so yeah I do agree with you where the way those defensive tackles clog everything up and with the Siocs athletic linemen specifically like Zable and Brad Ferdin's Hundell getting those guys in space is a real advantage to how those could have been as complete because all five of them can move and so I don't think they're the kind of line that could always just blow you up at the point of attack I think getting those guys on the move especially in the zone game really makes them effective so yeah we're gonna learn a lot and like Shanhan's done that so well over the years where he's throwing off guys with screen games and you've seen Debo and McCaffrey even like he most stirred back on the day like guys just get free space in some of those screen games that's what we're gonna learn a lot about Flurry he's a run game coordinator's a tight end coach like these are the kind of details you'd expect from those guys but we have to see it get done against a professional team we have to see and I think that's a reflection of is this coaches messaging getting to the guys and they have the position coaches but yeah we don't know well Jaren Price hasn't caught the ball a lot like this is a new thing for him and especially at the

35:37speed of the NFL game he didn't get the reps and preseason so we're gonna learn a lot first week well so I spent my Friday night differently than you spent your Friday night I wasn't doing a fantasy draft and and I was I'm curious about this and this is all relates to Flurry by the way I'm curious about this notion of being a cubie friendly offense and I think one of the things that makes a quarterback friendly offense is how often you ask a quarterback to drop back into obvious passing situations where the defense knows you're gonna pass the the pass rush can get after you the offensive line has to pass protect in the hardest possible way right and so I did some research on this and found like some pretty interesting I think interesting stuff about that there's essentially these situations first and 10 and then second and long and in those

36:37situations you get a an opportunity to escape being in an obvious passing situation first and 10 isn't but second and long is and then second and long if you don't convert that to a third and short then you're back in another obvious passing situation so I want to share this data that I pulled together and this new metric that at least I'm coining calling it escape rate and what this is is on one axis here um you've got let me make it so you guys can see that a little bit better um oh that's why this is what we want okay there we go so um on one axis uh you've got on the horizontal you've got first down success rate and this is only first and 10s it doesn't matter if you're on first and 20 or you've had some penalty whatever and on the other axis the vertical one you've got second and eight plus and what that is is what percentage of times where you in second

37:38and eight plus that you get and converted that to third and four or fewer right and so first down is just basically a successful first down play second down is second and long turning that into a third and manageable and if you look here the rams are basically breaking the chart for last year they are way way above everybody else they're combined escape rate here is 50 is that 54 percent um the next closest is the patriots at 48 percent which is interesting but the other thing here is Seattle is at 11th the 49ers were at 12th so i don't know that this is an area that we can expect i kind of think about shana hand system as being very quarterback friendly and him taking care of quarterbacks quite a bit this at least for last year and maybe mac jones is part of that who knows but they weren't quite as quarterback friendly as i would have expected and you can see them

38:39like right next to each other in this chart so i am going to be watching this and i am i do think as much as i am a huge fan and believer in sam d'arnold i do think it matters how the the the OC sets him up for success yeah um i think like yeah for shana hand one of the things he does get criticized of it sometimes he runs too much on early downs and makes it a little obvious but he counteracts that really well with how he's able to scheme just wide open guys all the time and one of the things watching the nineers last year even the year before that is it felt like there were less wide open guys and i don't know if that was just the injuries they've suffered or i think they're going more shotgun and letting brock party do but like when they ran at offense 2022 23 you'd watch that team it'd be so frustrating because brand and i you could just be running crossers but wide open or juan jennings or george kittle and like everyone was just like why can't we have a coach like that are you'd watch the rams manipulate fronts and different things gouverkup stocks about it

39:39yeah i think some of the things i think the ciox ran early downs as high as a design rate as any team man fell last year i think sam rand siscoe is typically in that category so you're right i don't think darnold's the kind of guy that you ask him to drop back 50 times a game every week or you say go win on third and long every time like sort of what the ciox needs to do with bros or wilson i don't think that's setting him up for success i think he needs to be in a system that makes it a little more advantageous for him and i thought kubiak in the playoffs was way better at that like the way they threw against the rams and the way they scheme things up for him and some of the other games that was when they were at their best last year like the washington game they're moving the ball and dictating the personnel so i think that's a great metric to show like the rams last year the run game was historically efficient and it wasn't about their running backs it was about the way they called it their offensive line the scheme like their success rate and some of the things they were doing and that allowed them to even be bad on third down like i remember that first rams game when made it so frustrating from the ciox standpoint is was early drive specifically like they would stop them on third down and the rams are not a typical fork down go for a team and they were

40:42going for it on fourth down and then you have to stop them twice and then they would get it and they scored early touchdowns on that and historically big vay would always be conservative punt and it was a unlike him and it made it so tough to play in those games because they did it a lot of stop and that's even four days so yeah this is where again you learn a lot about your corn years like we saw like some of the russell Wilson stuff at the end where it just seems so hard on the quarterback and that reflected the infrastructure they put around him and it wasn't just russell it was and that's what kubiak got better at there was times where a lot of us were frustrated with them where it's still like a lot of you know the run run past stuff and that's the hardest thing on the quarterback and it's third and eight they go drop back and i don't think this line specifically is just like ask them to purely pass protect every time and win i think having the advantages and and so that's where his play calling and i think mike has probably been testing him on a lot but i think mike is going to be really i think ryan grubb made it really hard on the quarterback and really hard to the offensive line so yeah i think that metric is really interesting and you look who's at the bottom cleveland vagus either teams that couldn't pass protect or had bad coaching

41:46or a bad quarterback but who's at the top buffalo chicago some of the teams that have either really good quarterbacks are their their coach really well offensively so i think that's pretty indicative of what happened to me last year by the way while we were talking i pulled up how the patriots defense did against the screen game last year they were thirteenth in the nfl and defending it gave up uh you know four point eight yards per screens they weren't terrible but they were not great so um they did get better as the year went on but i i continue to think that's important i think the things that i'm looking for in this game from flurry jeff are i want to see the crossers i want to see where she'd she'd used effectively but i don't want to see it forced like i don't want to see some you know spamming of it but let's let's use his speed effectively i think it's a key component of this offense i want to see i like it would be great to see

42:50jidari and price put in space and put in situations to make some plays i think the explosiveness of this offense is one of the things that kubiak really did well and something that i don't know that that shanahan's always been the best at that he's like an intermediate guy um and so i'm okay if they can do the intermediate thing and stay on track but i really do want to see how they hold up and and and like the way that he utilizes the different weapons that he's got yeah and that's what made chanahan and mitsbe so good is that he used their personnel i thought kubiak did an excellent job at this for the most part there's times i was frustrated with some of the ways they'd use walker but once they had him unleashed in the playoffs like it was perfect but when kubiak was really good last year it was just like his usage of jsn his usage of cup a jbarner like there were a lot of guys where years like you look a Waldron how he used jsn is like

43:52a yak guy and a screen guy wasn't even playing into his strength and it drove me crazy i thought i was screaming against a wall because i'm like this isn't look anything like the player i know i think that's a very reflective of the coaching and sometimes at the quarterback like you need to that's what's gonna tell me telling about flurry like if you're asking jsn to just run verticals all the time and do things he's not good at or just like you said spamming shaheed when it's not third and a you just throw a deep ball hoping he gets it that's not the best use of it like they've tried that with jimmy gram and they can never quite figure out how to use him when they had something their other coordinators here and i think that was a reflection of coaching i think they never understood what they had they tried to make him a blocker like that was insane and now with the cox last year like everything everyone was used think you had questions about shaheed maybe when they got him we all want to see a little more but that was probably more of a timing issue than anything else i think that's gonna be a big reflection because shahanan and the coach he's been around for his whole career really and like you saw ben johnson he goes to chicago he's a premier offensive find all of sudden colston loveland and looter bird and some of

44:56these guys are just used to away that emphasizes what they're good at that's really what flurry has to take from clint and to make it better to be more like kyle has been and kyle's been better than clint's better than that of soul career i want to ask you in a second what you think success looks like what what is a realistic expectation for brine fluring is first ever called game before we do that let's hear from our sponsors if you have not already gone to dodo coffee dot co why not head over to do coffee dot co use code hot blogger 12 get 12% off coffee from Cooper cup and a cup Isaiah and the whole crew get some great dodo merch as well all that a dodo coffee dot co code hot blogger 12 you can also go to simply seattle dot com use promo code hot blogger 15 get your favorite see hawks gear get it now get whatever hat a shirt sweatshirt whatever it is use code hot blogger 15 for 15% off and obviously if you haven't downloaded the prize picks app in links

46:00in the description of the video use code hma play five dollars get a hundred and fifty dollars in bonus lineups if you win over at prize picks okay jeff back to you dude so what do you think in terms of what's a realistic expectation and how you be evaluating brine flurian is first game i don't know what a realistic evaluation is i think they have to just look competent i think they have to they look like a disaster i know you might just want to say it's his first game i think the things i'm looking to see is a does the sequencing make sense i think sequencing is a huge part of coordinators a lot of guys can like run grab could call really good plays but doesn't make sense sequence wise one are they playing to their strengths like the play action game like last year not using play action in offense that was designed to be zone run play action i think we're looking for that and i think we're looking for are they playing for field goals are they trying to score points are they playing aggressive but smart i think we can see a lot like you can see right away

47:02when people are playing to their strengths yeah they might call a trick player there but that's not good well i want to see is stuff that's repeatable i want to see stuff that's repeatable is that using players well is that good plays is that good structure if they're setting up trying to hope for 54 yard Jason Myers field goals i'm going to be pretty pissed off and i don't want them playing like that like some of the stuff we'd see with the carol regime by the end was setting up for long field goals especially with what's going on the kicker i don't want them to see what playing like that i want the offense to run through its best players i want to look efficient i want to look smart so first game it's a tough game he's going to be watched by everyone in america i think it's a tough asperin to like come out and expect them to be great i don't think that's fair but i think you want to come out and see like something that looked like what we had last year and a little more creativeness to it you know what i care about jiff or what i really want to see is the offensive line i i feel like this is a group that

48:02it was ahead of schedule last year they were young they were effective they played a lot of snaps together in a new system with new coaching and now they got the same coaching staff you know john benton still here they've got all that they've got the same starting lineup this group it's it's they don't get to claim youth or inexperience anymore and they now need to be a foundational part of what makes this team go and this is not the toughest matchup i think christian barmore and milt and williams are good players milt and is very good as a pass rusher that's fine but this is not the scariest pass rusher you're going to see this year so i would like to see them show up not just as pass protectors but i'd like to see them show up and show that the run game progress that was made last year late in the season was not just a ken walker thing but was an offensive line thing and those guys kind of jelling and coming together i think i think the

49:04offensive line man like i'm going to be watching that carefully i expect that to be not necessarily as dominant as i would look for the cx defensive line to dominate the the patriot's offensive line but they need to be part of the equation for winning the trenches in this game it's not just this game i think really if you're trying to look at like how does this team repeat has this team contend with the rams how do they kind of really get on the course to repeating i think the offensive line maybe you can make the argument the quarterback but i think really the offensive line has to be a thing that raises their ceiling because i think with the whole group coming back same scheme same o-line coach i think the floor is pretty comfortable unless bearing an injury where something goes out and like they just can't replace those guys but for them to get better like i think greys able has to take a step i think jalen sundale has to kind of lean into the guy he was in the playoffs last year he started getting he performed a lot better i think the super bowl gets a muggly grades but he just looked aesthetically like a better run blocker like that san mrs isco week 18 game those guys were tossing those guys off the line of scrimmage it looked incredible

50:05thing a blookis second year you got it if he can be healthy another year in a row i was listening to your show this morning i was kind of half awake and i was just trying to get ready for this show and i heard day bowling who when i he talks about offensive line i'm listening he said the tackle group could be as good as anyone in franchise history and i like perked out of my bed i was barely awake at that point i was like wow whoa i'm thinking of Walter Jones even i don't care if you put beside him but right for take bowling is not a uh exaggeration guy when he says that you got to listen to him and when he talks offensive line you got to listen so i think the whole team obviously beyond this game i think that's a huge part they brought the whole group back through at the right age where they should be getting better like they're offensive line build like all these guys under 27 years old they're set up to be together four of the five guys i think are going to certainly be back next year so this is so much about their offensive repeatability and this is not a group master where you're paying like you're not playing air and donald and miles carried in this game they don't have a good edge rusher you got to hold up but yeah i'm with

51:05you i think they're that's so big to what they want to do so big to price so big to donald i think it's everything honestly we always talk about jeff we'll get to twitter patrol here in a sec we we we always talk about week one is a liar right and yeah you you can't go get too higher too low but what do you think would be the best things that could show up for the seahawks offensively in week one and actually i'll i'll i'll broaden it but let's start with the offense um but what would be the most encouraging if you saw it happen i think the offensive line dominating in the run game would be the most encouraging thing for me where i got like prices just like gash on them on big plays there's big holes they're clearly moving them off the ball i think complementing that with the defense that they should have even though there are a lot more questions probably than last year i think that's a lot i think darnald not having like the goofy turn over and looking a fit i like looking like he's looked at camp where he's efficient but i really think the offensive line is the number one thing obviously jahririan price looking good but i

52:09think that might have more to do with what's blocked in front of him but i this is going to be an interesting but can he catch the ball i think obviously jsn jsn has to look great for the stopffens to look great so i think jsn's their best player on their whole team i think if he plays great i think this offense is going to be at least have a pretty good floor and i think we all want to see darnald take a step it's he's in the same basically he's in the same offense it's a different variation of it but he's in the same team for the second year in a row i think him getting better than he was you saw what he did when he had a great game in the nft championship and i think i just avoid those goofy turnovers like you don't want to see two really stupid look and turnovers from darnald and week one and i think that honestly and as as i'm knowing to say this might not be often it might be special teams but we can't have a few of those jsn miders dumb looking misses again because i think if he misses a kick i think the air is going to come out of the stadium i think everyone watching the previous season i know what he did last try i know what he did in the super bowl but i think everyone's pretty much on edge with him right now and i think if he has like

53:13an ugly miss on an extra point or like a chip shot feel goal i think that's going to be really tough look to swallow yeah yeah i feel like the run game for sure that just changes the entire equation if you can move the ball on the ground it just takes so much pressure off the defense off of the passing game up like and it often doesn't show up that first week and so i don't know like that would be that would be certainly the most encouraging i think alijah rollo having a big game would be really encouraging like we're sheet sheet having a big game would be encouraging but i also i'm like okay i kind of expecting that to show up at some point this season we still don't know yet with alijah rollo what's realistic to expect from him and i think his his talent is bigger than what his impact has been so far and then i mean i don't think a manual willson can do something that will totally change things but i'm high on a manual willson if you get to play in this game and shows what i think i've seen that would be really cool but that's also a little bit related to the run game and then i think it would just be does flurry make good choices that seem logical

54:20is the operation solid are are they running a professional system i would probably get a little over my skis excited if we were seeing guys scheme to open and him showing off a little bit of his defensive rule breaking you know prowess that would be kind of exciting but yeah i think it almost all comes back to the run game and then maybe a little bit of alijah rollo for me yeah because week one is typically really like you look at these two teams last year they both were in the super bowl let's go through week one see i don't have one of the stupidest offensive games they had all year where they called one play action pass they ran off and said look nothing like and new england on the other side they lost to the raiders who finished dead last in the league and new england made the super bowl so week one tends to be sloppy it tends to be a little goofy and so yeah it's hard to know what we're gonna see but a rollo's good call because like he just adds a level to athleticism and down the fields like seamstretching one of the things i loved about him and you saw even just the glimpses in the prais season what he can do and what how he moves

55:22how he can make the offense just look clean and like that series intended seabird they're just spamming those play action passes to him or the seamrats to him it just opens up everything and like having a guy like that on top of what they have a wide receiver and an offensive line we think submerging just makes this a really not offense to cover so you're right i think a rollo's guy like he had a mix he had a mixed bag of a preseason i thought at times when he looked he only looked really good but as a blocker and there's just time for he's playing against the twos and he just wasn't flashing and i'm like what's going on here so i think seeing him against the ones in the real games it's gonna be really interesting hey how they use him be is he a part of it because he flashed a little last year but he was kind of a like tertiary player at best when he was playing so yeah that's that's massive because with this game the sea ox just have way more skill talent like top to bottom i don't know if traviant Henderson's gonna play for him and he's been banged up as well i think he's one of the he's one of the more talented players but he can't pass protect so they don't know i don't know what price is passed i also don't want to see them just like try to spam

56:25george holani in the red zone and try to do that like i i would like to see i get the i bet the whole year everything big price needs more than 10 carries like i know they're probably gonna ease them in but i don't want to be like too like travis home rush yeah yeah that's a good call well before we go we should get a visit from our favorite officer here on twitter patrol all right sir what is on your mind this week well i'm sure everyone's seen this clip by now and they even brought this guy on the damn Patrick show to kind of justify it and this might be a little personal for a lot of us but dan or loftsky came out this week and he went on one of the usp on show i think it was like get up or one of those shows and he said if not i think as he said if the Rams win the Super Bowl and Matt Stafford is mp or wins another Super Bowl at the Rams this year

57:26he vaults himself up to a top seven quarterback of all time and let's go let's give you the first let's first say or loftsky and staffer are our friends like they played together in Detroit or loftsky is known for going on the air and trying to pump up his buddy and i'm gonna start by with the cavi is also saying like i don't think there's a player in the NFL who's impressed me more over the last two years than Matthew Stafford like 2024 i didn't think that team would be good at all and he carried them on his back and then after that he faded a little bit down the stretch i had the back injuries i'm like okay this and he would ever see a fan knows how good Stafford was last year to say that one Super Bowl win with the super team could make him a top seven quarterback ever it's just lunacy it's lunacy like the first 10 years of his career he was good but he didn't really do anything but is he even a top five quarterback in the last 20 years like manning brady brie's air and rogers there's been like incredible quarterback play in the last 20 years top

58:31seven ever that's nuts that's completely crazy and you know it's nuts about it he's trying to like prop up his buddy and do it better and again there's a great way to sell what Matt Stafford's done but it's so funny by doing that he's actually got everyone to talk about how he's not deserving and he's actually got people to tear down his buddy and so it's just it's just a crazy take like there's no reason for you to say it there's no really it's just it's goofy it's silly and i think that's kind of what our loss he's role as an ESPN like he does the work and he does the film work and he studies and he does have good takes but i feel like him just saying something to go viral is like kind of his role now and brady talked about that we talked about this last week it just seems like people that's part of their job like seems like that's ESPN's model the people they have paid they haven't paid the steve and a smith at the top magnify and then he goes on the mac if he showed it defended it's it's just stupid like there's no argument that you would say this guy's better than Joe Montana and John L.A. and Dan Marino that staffer really he's had four like great years

59:32before the last four years of 2021 would you even say this guy's like a borderline hall of famer i don't think anyone would so put him top seven of all time it's just stupid yeah he had another take as well i think this is what i think i am looking back in my list because i had it somewhere on here where he doubled down on a stupid take i should have already looked this up but i mean he's i always say this i usually like orlovsky i like i appreciate in some case like he was a guy that ended up you know defending sam d'arnold after the Vikings game and i thought he was crazy for doing that and he ended up kind of being right to do it and so i don't know man i i think he's had some really wild takes lately and i don't know if he's just looking for like i

1:00:33will tell you this when i sent out my tweet saying that he doubled down on a bad take um i got a text from a couple people who are like he's been muted for me and these are people in the media like he's been muted for me for a while so maybe i've just missed out maybe he's always been somebody to ignore i don't know so i put out a take last year i think that said that i basically disagree with every day every opinion dad our lovsky has and the funny part is like yeah like when he actually goes through the film and goes through the illustrator and goes on there and talks about why things are happening i think dan's really good but there's a part of them that just like wants to be loud and different and he's i think she's trying to raise his profility spand you see and he just comes out and says these things it just feels either disingenuous or click baity and when he's doing it to with his friend like that's the stuff that's bothered me about Peter shrigger over the years i think Peter shrigger he's doing his own show now and he

1:01:33start to actually start to become the mic mcdonald guy all of a sudden it's going to be a new relationship with Peter shrigger now for see how fans because mic mcdonald's become one of his guys and he's he's already even kind of trying to pour water on the ramps and everything it was all out of whack but yeah i've had issues with our lovsky when he does stuff like that because they'll just say shit sometimes that's just so outrageous i can't take it seriously yeah this was this was i found the tweet this was he said the air and donald going to the ramps was quote this is breedy going to the bucks and then he quote tweeted his own take saying the final piece and i'm like that's like a terrible take on top of a terrible take like yeah what how is like mat staffer was already the MVP they didn't need tom brate like this wasn't like they were rescued by a quarterback and miles Garrett was already on the team they didn't need a final piece they already added like multiple final pieces and then air and donald as analogous to tom brady like what are

1:02:36you talking about like there's nothing about that that makes any sense not only did he say it once but then he's like yes that was it like yeah that was he's he's had some bad takes dude he's had some really really bad takes so he's been a frequent visitor on this segment before we get to your next one did you see Peter Schreger loving up on grant cone this morning no see i'm telling you Schreger's trying to expand he's the national guy now he uh he was like he quoted grant going after like a rugby match and like say that grants rugby post game shows have been like one of his favorite things of content in this thing actually if you haven't watched grant it's unbelievable he seems like he knows what he's talking about which i'm pretty sure he doesn't which makes it all the more impressive and someone else wrote today i know i'm this is all twitter segment but um i don't know keep going that's that the Rams who are the the home team so to speak and the

1:03:37the marketing like they've given us to be given australia to market it is kind of interesting the 49ers are going there for the full week and being ambassadors and the Rams are going to be there for like a day and are giving australia really nothing like it feels very Rams-ish yeah that sounds like how the Rams treat the rest of us and how right their fans exist within the NFL landscape how there's a lot of big fans that are there every day and the Rams just kind of show up for one day act like they run the world and it's kind of how they are they don't go to the combine um they don't send their guys to the team pictures it's kind of just how they are so it's kind of weirdly i was watching grant analyze a burrito this morning so i said like it might have been like the greatest thing of content watching weeks and it also made me hungry but like him breaking down the burrito in australia like if you haven't watched that go watch that i was laughing i was hot it was incredible all right i interrupted your segment and you have another twitter patrol well this is nitpicky but Ben Solak did an article this week and it was about like all of the key questions

1:04:42are all the key x factors for the team and like most of them i read were pretty fair and the cx factor he had was tio kada and tio kada was a guy who shocking breakout last year like so much to do with him mcdonald uh Carl Scott like you're gonna told me at this point last year that tio kada would be a breakout player or the left even when we saw him in that bucks game for the first time even or the niner's game was like it's and he played great he played great and the thing that bothered me was just like do your research so he wrote in there that the siox works expecting bud Clark to come out of the gates and pay koby brion's rule and he got injured so now okaah has to play and he's a big and like dude come on like you've been doing this for two years now and the whole thing was bud Clark was not gonna come out and take his role he was gonna be used as like the rotational safety everyone and anyone to fall fall this team thought this was like a pretty obvious thing for

1:05:43okaah unless bud Clark had like the camp of his life and to read that was just like do come on like it's been two years of this now like you're missing details like this doesn't take a lot of research tio kada played he played well which he acknowledged by the way but go read that article he said bud Clark was expected by the siox when they drafted him to take koby brion's role and it's just not true so that's a bothers me like it doesn't take much work like i know bend and mean i like that could have been one taxed amina like that could have been resolved so fast so that's it's so small and it's so nitpicky i could see it bothers you a little bit but oh it does tio kada like he's been the starter from a moment koby brion left and the reason it bothers me is because you've got a big bullhorn you know you've got a big platform you're you're speaking on and you're spreading bad information and you're spreading it from your chest you're like you're saying that with confidence and you're wrong and so if you're going to base your analysis off

1:06:45of incorrect information and you're going to be known as an analyst that's frustrating man like this is the super bowl champs it's not even like if you got something wrong on i don't know the Indianapolis Colts or you know maybe the Cleveland Browns or a team that that is not as prominent fine this team has been like they won the super bowl last year get their shit straight like come on all right that's a great one last one okay one more good this is a friend of both of ours and this isn't a tweet or a video this is something that happened last night our fantasy draft our friend Evan Hill who spent the entire prediction show bagging on the 49ers shitting on the 49ers arguing with you about it even though he made some pretty intelligent points he drafted Christian McCaffrey in the first round of our draft last night and then went on to draft Dejohn Stribbling after shitting on the 49ers not even knowing who he was

1:07:46basically telling you he won't play because he's a rookie and your son put a huge text with capital letters like Stribbling like he took him early so for Evan to take Christian McCaffrey of all people after shitting on this team in the first round and then he took Jason Myers by the way so if anyone you want to play anyone he did take Jason Myers so but no one cares about other people's fantasy leaks to be fair however if you want to give anyone shit and I'm gonna use my Twitter control do not let Evan get away with the fact that he drafted Christian McCaffrey in the first round he could have passed I would not have drafted Puka under any circumstance I haven't suggested the whole league we should all just leave Puka on waivers the whole season but that did not work someone drafted how early did you get taken but Evan Hill took not only 149er in the first round 240 Niners in his top six picks give him some crap everyone if you can I love it I love it that was

1:08:47Twitter Patrol all right we got a couple super chats then we're gonna head out here Michigan Seahawker with the W Chris CRHT with the Go team we've got Al Shallaway who says well no one has mentioned is how much better the SH defense SH defense repoints will be with Sam not returning Seahawks defense maybe yeah I'm gonna read that we'll be with Sam not turning the ball over so much if that's true great I'm not I am not of the camp that just believes Sam Donald all the sudden is not gonna turn the ball over if Sam Donald throws two interceptions in this game I'm not gonna lose my mind and think the sky is falling I think no I think it's part of his game actually yeah I think it's part of his game I think he's gonna have Guppy look and turnovers I think that's just who he is I think in the big moments you saw it go away but I think over 18 games I think

1:09:50he's still gonna make a lot of great plays I think he could limit them but I'd be shocked if that what we saw in the last three games just all of a sudden becomes who he is that'd be pretty surprising yeah uh Al Shallaway's back says tired to talk about the Rams having the best players is about having the best team Mike has a system no one else has that gets more out of individuals ours is underrated anyway go ahead they're pretty good at that too as much as I want to shit on them but yeah I think with the Rams it comes down to like age health like they have a lot of core players that Stafford Devante Adams Aaron Donald like they don't really have a third receiver if Devante Adams gets hurt or but I don't know if you'd say like our system gets more out of our players than they do like historically they've been pretty good with getting offensive linemen to play really well and guys go elsewhere and kind of shit the bed I think they're pretty good at that too I think for the Rams it's do they just ignore special teams again I know on paper they say they don't but we'll see what happens when the game starts the C-ox made what made them great was

1:10:51they were great in every phase of the game last shoot and then we've got taker 6 10 here with the last ones I hope we don't see last minute goofs that cost us wins like in the week 149ers week 5 backs last year I think we had some jitters we don't have this year yeah I mean one thing like I predicted in our prediction show that C-ox would drop this game I don't know if I'm going to stay with that when we get the real hawk talk predictions on Monday night or Tuesday night I guess but actually is it Monday night I think we're doing Monday night yeah yeah um so I don't know but I think it's possible I really do week ones are tough but I guess my mind goes two ways with this Jeff either the C-ox come out kind of like the 2014 C-ox where they just blew green bay out and they're just like we are the best and we're gonna really show it again I could see that I could also see it being a really frustrating offense that can't quite get untracked the defense does not

1:11:52look as good as it did last year Drake May and AJ Brown and cause some trouble and you're walking out of there like oh no maybe this isn't gonna be like last year like I could see both so can I and there's two scenarios going through my head because I think we haven't really talked about is the game didn't see out all this time and I think that crowd's gonna be pretty nuts good point raise it like I don't know how that team will handle you saw that team fold pretty fast last year variable still got some like weird vibes caring with them they could if the game spirals early it could get out of hand but I could also see a game exactly like week one in San Francisco last year where the C-ox should have rolled that team and that was a team that most people just thought they would rule because of all their question marks on defense and it was became that kind of uncomfortable annoying type game that the C-ox ended up making more mistakes and fumbling the ball and Rick will unscrewed up down the stretch and they lost and that's what a lot of week one games look like unfortunately and there's been a lot of games like that were just it's a struggle

1:12:53and whoever just makes that play at the end wins the game and when that's up the air with the C-ox questions at some of the key spots we talked about if it gets like that that's a perfectly reasonable scenario it could go either way and that's what week one is a liar it's tricky and it's sloppy and you don't see the stars anymore we're we're seeing them all on Wednesday so who knows what we're can I I got to show this to you this is this is from NBC sports Boston I saw this on TikTok and it made me laugh but this is just an example of how scared they are about this game and one sec so what do you think the pack do you think they're ready for this moment no no no no no I don't think they're a good enough team I don't think that really if they're depth is good enough and I think I think Seattle's better here I think they may be ready but I don't think they're ready to go on the road at Seattle in a banner unveiling for a team that's already pissed off about what the Rams did and what the Niners did who's a super bowl favorite in front of the one of the most hostile gang groups in America I think you have a lot of guys you lie rarid and gay back is Caleb Lomo they

1:13:57could be on the field that night I disagree I disagree I think they're I think they're already to be competitive I said I'm not going to pick them to win this game I'm not I just think the C-hawks are better but they're going to make it a competitive game it's going to be a close game on the road against what I think might be the best team in the league I just think the Patriots are going to be they're going to end up this year as one of the best teams in the NFL I think I think the Patriots will be one of the best teams in the AFC I think they're going to win the AFC East I think they're going to one of the best offenses in football and I think the defense will be good enough I don't think the defense is great but I think they'll be good enough for them to be a really really competitive team so to me the depth that Tom is talking about that shouldn't come into play week one yeah I'm really healthy if Christian Gonzalez plays they have a really talented starting group I think on both sides of the ball they should be competitive I don't think they'll win but it should be a good game so where do you think the pack do you think they're ready for this moment? So Jeff I mean oops hold on sorry stop okay uh so you could hear from them they're not even convinced that they could do this they're

1:15:00not expecting the Patriots to be able to do this I thought the face that guy made was really funny too. Look I actually picked them yeah exactly but yeah Tom Kerns the guys but cover that team for years he's not like a guy who's trying to get viral clips like he believes that and so that's pretty telling of probably how much that game last year impacts them and yeah I don't think New England on paper is one of the best the most talented teams in the league I think they have a lot going on that's good for them but it's a really tough environment to go out and go and I think I don't know what the pricing's like or what the crowd's going to be like but if it's like what it was in 2014 like that crowd was so energetic and if they turn the ball over earlier they get a strip sack like I think that place is going to explode yeah that was the Ariana Grande National Anthem game I remember that so all right uh Jeff man thank you for coming on and uh we will catch you again on Monday all right that was Jeff Simmons with us for

1:16:01C.O.X Saturday tomorrow folks got a show that is going to be fun um going to be having talking with Doug Hyde from the Boston Herald in the morning I'm going to be going to C.O.X practice here in a little bit talking to Mike McDonald first I think then we're going to do uh the locker room so I'll talk to the guys in locker room might have some audio there you're going to want to go to patreon.com slash hawk blogger that is where all of that will get uploaded as well as obviously audio podcast wherever you are um practice tomorrow as well Sam Darnal to be up to speak on the podium the the coordinators will be up to speak uh and then Monday we'll have practice as well so there's a bunch of stuff coming I'm going to try to get as much coverage for you guys as possible and as part of that uh want to really encourage folks who have not yet uh to support our responses and this one uh is one that I've talked to you guys about that you know is participating with me in a charitable way they are donating 500 bucks to Spokane Fireleaf at the end of the month I'm going to

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