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Socrates, Aristotle, Kubiak: Philosophers of the Ages
32 Plays2 months ago
Tristan and Miles talk about the new Seahawks/Jets uniforms, the final two preseason games, and big changes thanks to Klint Kubiak’s offensive philosophy.
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Transcript
Origins of Labor Day and Transition to Football Season
00:00:00
Tristan Amundson
Miles, i want you to picture yourself in the late 19th century. the industrial The Industrial Revolution is growing. And as it grows, the working conditions of the average working class American is getting harsher and harsher.
00:00:17
Tristan Amundson
We're talking about 12-hour working days, working six to seven days a week, unsafe working environments, and low wages. The country was coming to a crucible.
00:00:31
Tristan Amundson
In 1894, after the violent Pullman Strike, a nationwide railroad strike that led to a deadly clash between workers and the federal troops, Congress rushed to pass legislation making Labor Day a national holiday as a gesture towards organized labor.
00:00:51
Tristan Amundson
President Grover Cleveland signed that into law. Today, Labor Day is a day that honors the American labor movement and the average working class man and woman that really make this economy grow and work dayto day to day.
00:01:11
Tristan Amundson
So as I sit here with you, Miles, i just want to say happy Labor Day weekend. How are you, my friend?
00:01:18
M dub
Tristan, what a pleasure. Of course, I always break out the miniature Pullman Railroad this weekend, move it around the house, you know, just just get the the circuits going to to celebrate Labor Day, as I'm sure you do as well, to celebrate this great day. It's great to be with you right before Labor Day, right before a 2025 season of Seahawks football.
00:01:38
M dub
Talking Seahawks football with you.
00:01:41
Tristan Amundson
Man, you can you can sense it in the air, right? I mean, summer is coming to its its close. Kids are getting back into school. Pencils are sharpened.
00:01:52
Tristan Amundson
The fall is, i mean, in Southern California, not quite here, admittedly, but you can start feeling, with fall is knocking on the door. It's time for us to transition, man. It has been and incredibly fast off season from my perspective.
00:02:06
Tristan Amundson
Here we are. preseason haze in the barn, right? we're We're done with all of that. We're ready to to move on and to really see what the Seahawks team can do.
00:02:16
M dub
From my perspective, it felt like a long offseason. I've been thirsting to get get back here on these mics and actually have some games to talk about.
Seahawks Preseason Developments
00:02:24
M dub
Since the last time we addressed the people here on the World's Only Seahawks podcast, a lot has happened with the team.
00:02:30
M dub
Second and third preseason games, a week of integrated practices at the Green Bay Packers facility, and a lot of moves at at the edges of the roster, but getting the the entirety of the 53-man roster in place.
00:02:45
M dub
and Seahawks have a nice long weekend. Pullman train cars, miniature rail sets, history books being hit ah before a week one game.
00:02:50
Tristan Amundson
Yeah.
00:02:54
M dub
The next time we talk to the people that will count in the standings hosting the San Francisco forty nine er
00:03:00
Tristan Amundson
I wonder if the players union kind of sends out a little memo to all the players kind of about the Pullman strike and and really the importance of of being able to have one single voice to ownership. Do you think that's a conversation that they often have kind of as the NFL PA is negotiating with the NFL?
00:03:20
M dub
um Yeah, I think that is something they they have a lot. I think a lot of brochures are being read. A lot of PBS video archives are being consulted around the NFL this
NFL Marketing and Rivalries
00:03:30
M dub
week. Hey, they have the weekend off, you know.
00:03:31
Tristan Amundson
There might be a nice Ken Burns documentary on that strike, and I would love to watch it if if that's available. um and And frankly, listen, you know, we talk about, I'm just going to take us down this rabbit hole really fast.
00:03:43
Tristan Amundson
I don't know if you saw the new Seahawks jerseys that they announced this week, but you know, if you talk about, more fodder for the labor union as the NFL continues to find new and exciting ways to take money out of your pocket and into their coffers um with, you know, silly new jerseys just to get us excited about absolutely nothing.
00:04:05
Tristan Amundson
um They're finding new revenue streams. We got to find new ways to negotiate with the man. So yeah, I, I ah I'm all in for the players union, you know, get that money.
00:04:17
M dub
Tristan, I did see the new jerseys and here's my take. ah You can't be playing against the Jets in these jerseys because this is this is a slight remix of a Jets jersey I saw online in the Reddit communities.
00:04:23
Tristan Amundson
100%. Yep. Yep.
00:04:30
M dub
I am not the first person or the last person.
00:04:33
Tristan Amundson
yeah
00:04:34
M dub
and And actually every person to witness these jerseys has has that same take. Yeah.
00:04:39
Tristan Amundson
any any good market Any good marketing person worth their salt will tell you, you really got to stick to the brand identity. you can't You can't just go too far off of that brand identity. We need to take a page from what Coca-Cola and Pepsi are doing. and Hey, here's a new logo, but it's going to look a lot like the other logos.
00:04:57
Tristan Amundson
I think, yeah, maybe they it's a slightly, but maybe a bridge too far um on this ah on this remix. Maybe they forgot some of the the basic um brand ah designs and, um you don't know what you call it, like foundational pieces. But listen, it's not, you know, not my business.
00:05:15
Tristan Amundson
I did see one funny thing, though. Help me make sense of this. and maybe this just feeds into our ego um as Seahawks fans, the rivalry jerseys.
00:05:27
Tristan Amundson
Do you know what game the Rams will be wearing their rivalry jerseys on? Like what, what player or what team they play?
00:05:35
M dub
um I can imagine every week is a rivalry week for the Seahawks, for the Rams. Is that? No? Wow.
00:05:41
Tristan Amundson
So, so, so we, So I think the way they're doing it, every team has one. They wear they'll wear this jersey one time. You have one rivalry moment where you wear your your jersey.
00:05:51
M dub
wow
00:05:53
Tristan Amundson
Right. Big importance. Right. Because you want to wear it against your rival. So the Rams will be wearing their rivalry jersey the same week we wear ours because we will be playing the Rams and the Rams will be playing us. And, you know, there it is.
00:06:07
Tristan Amundson
But you know who Arizona is going to wear their rivalry jersey against?
00:06:13
M dub
The Cardinals just have so many rivals across the NFL. They've won so many championships, made so many enemies in their 100-year history. One of the original and NFL teams predating almost every other single franchise.
00:06:27
M dub
I can't even imagine.
00:06:28
Tristan Amundson
Wearing against the Seahawks. Can you render a guess who the 49ers might be wearing their rivalry jersey against? And I'll give you a hint. There's a pattern developing.
00:06:40
M dub
ah Did every team make make a rivalry jersey? I thought it was just a handful.
00:06:44
Tristan Amundson
So it's just a handful, but they're kind of releasing them, um you know, I don't know, five or six teams, seven teams at a time. Long story short, the Seahawks get the honor of being apparently the 49ers, the Arizona ah Cardinals, and and the LA Rams rivals.
00:07:01
Tristan Amundson
Like we are. ah They're not – they didn't decide like, hey, Arizona can be the 49ers rival. We'll be the Rams. There you go. It's just – all going to be against the Seahawks, which I don't know if that's just how the NFL feels about it. Like, Hey, these are all their rivals. And so, you know, they all just have to, the rivalry is Seahawks versus the rest of the NFC West.
00:07:24
Tristan Amundson
I don't know.
00:07:24
M dub
it It is almost like they didn't think it all the way through and just pushed out another alternate jersey.
00:07:28
Tristan Amundson
What?
00:07:29
M dub
But um I know that's not what happened, but it almost makes you think that.
00:07:31
Tristan Amundson
No. Yeah. These are professionals. um Hey, You want to get into these games a little bit? Should we should we dig in a little bit to to this preseason?
Preseason Game Highlights and Strategies
00:07:43
M dub
I would like to, especially because the next game that the team played after our last episode, home game, second preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs, This one really got the juices flowing for me, especially in the first half.
00:07:58
M dub
We saw a lot of starters, not the big name starters on both teams, but we saw most of the starters on both teams out to start this game. And the Seahawks absolutely dominated the game ah the k for that but during that that time.
00:08:14
M dub
In the first 16 minutes of this game, And 16 minutes is the cutoff here because that ended with the second Seahawks touchdown to put them up 14-0. 16 minutes into the game, the Seahawks already had 120 rush yards.
00:08:28
M dub
They completed an 81-yard touchdown drive and an 85-yard touchdown drive. Those are long fields. On both drives, what you saw was just play after play of positive run yardage.
00:08:42
M dub
This was an old-school run yardage. Old-school would be three or four yards between the tackles. Bathering Ram. We saw Clint Kubiak, I think, in full flight. We saw, I think what we're going to see from this team is a lot of running, and a lot of that running is going to be outside the tackles, into open space, convoys. ah There's fullbacks and tight ends galore on this team. We we we see the roster.
00:09:05
Tristan Amundson
It's incredible.
00:09:06
M dub
there's There's fullbacks and tight ends galore. ah We have smaller, more athletic linemen on the offensive line in Gray Zabel and the promoted Jalen Sundell.
00:09:17
M dub
Those guys were getting five or six yards of pop all the time. Both of those drives went basically without interruption, without explosive plays either. And i wonder what the what the last time was that you saw such an exciting, like, ah to me, this was an A-plus preseason performance.
00:09:35
M dub
As the twos and the threes got on the field, as the rest of the game went on, the Seahawks did still dominate the scoreboard. To me, that wasn't important as that first 16 minutes just looked absolutely excellent.
00:09:47
Tristan Amundson
Yeah, and you look at the consistency of the run game during that game and and the underlying numbers, right? I mean, 48 carries, 268 yards.
00:09:57
Tristan Amundson
That's the the total rushing yardage for the Seahawks, running backs and quarterbacks.
00:10:00
M dub
you
00:10:03
Tristan Amundson
um That's a pretty wild number to get to, preseason or not. I like what you're saying, right? Because in a game like this, you know, we won the game. Well, throw that out. Who really cares? Like winning a preseason game there, there is no significance.
00:10:17
Tristan Amundson
So what is the point of a preseason game? Well, you want to see some of these guys, you want to see their raw athletic ability, but more than anything, you want to start understanding and seeing, and I think the second preseason game might be your only chance really to do it because man, short and preseason, right?
00:10:37
Tristan Amundson
What's the philosophy? And to me, that is what was screaming through the TV as I watched it. And I think it's what you're speaking to a lot of these outside runs.
00:10:47
Tristan Amundson
And frankly, you know, just a dedication to the run in general, to be able to see that dedication to the run, to be able to see, um i am just looking at the numbers right now. Damian Martinez, 50 yards, George Helani, 49 Jacaranda Wright, yards, Zach yards,
00:11:06
Tristan Amundson
that's That's a lot of guys with a lot of carries. And each one of them, you know Zach and George each had five carries. But you know between all those guys, um what you're talking, um i'll try to do some radio math here really fast. That's about 30 carries between those those four running backs.
00:11:24
Tristan Amundson
So just a lot of opportunity. for the offensive line to start meshing and and to really start um getting into their their game plan and how they want to attack a defense.
00:11:36
Tristan Amundson
So yeah, just incredible to see. um and then even you know the the quarterbacks getting involved in there a little bit. um Jalen Milrow continuing to show what he can do in his improvisation.
00:11:48
Tristan Amundson
yeah Really, really fun to see. But to me, like it was all about that philosophy, being able to see the philosophy show through from ah from Clint Kubiak.
00:11:58
M dub
For me, it wasn't just the runs also. I really appreciated the passes. We saw Sam Darnold in for one quarter. It seemed like a lot of his passes, there was just like an obvious open target.
00:12:10
Tristan Amundson
Yeah.
00:12:11
M dub
Maybe it was simple, but gosh darn it, it was effective. I'll take that seven or eight yard pass where it's completely wide open. The seas have parted.
00:12:20
Tristan Amundson
Yep.
00:12:21
M dub
and And yeah, no no need to make a complex 20 yard read down the field when they're, you know,
00:12:26
Tristan Amundson
Especially that.
00:12:26
M dub
Keep on moving seven or eight yards at a time.
00:12:28
Tristan Amundson
To your point, that first drive, everything um everything that Sam Darnold did just looked, I mean, you know four for four, 34 yards, but it just looked on time.
00:12:40
Tristan Amundson
And i that's, that's my so my I think, my way of saying the exact same thing, which is on time, first read, second read, one, two, three, going down the field, running I, I absolutely love and I man, it's the thing I hope I see the most this year.
00:12:58
Tristan Amundson
The under center approach is so refreshing to see it's it's similar to what we were talking about, frankly, when we talked about the 1970 77 or game help me with that the year.
00:13:09
M dub
77, what a year.
00:13:10
Tristan Amundson
77.
00:13:10
M dub
what a year
00:13:11
Tristan Amundson
What a year in Seahawks football. But a lot of that is old school football, right? It is. um It's um it's it's running downhill under center.
00:13:22
Tristan Amundson
Did you hear this um quote from JSN? um He I forget. I think he may have been on the Get Got podcast. And he he gave this quote about how he looks at the Seahawks offense.
00:13:36
Tristan Amundson
And he said, it's old school football with new school principals. And man, I mean, maybe we should just stop recording right there. Cause that, that is the phrase that you, I think if you want to talk about,
00:13:50
Tristan Amundson
um the the The philosophy that I would yearn for, it's that, hey, let's use some of this new school intelligence, right? Let's use some of this new school analytics. Let's understand the game at a deep level, but let's use an old school philosophy to represent that. And I just, I love that quote from ah from JSN.
00:14:11
M dub
Another thing I really like, Jake Bobo on the second touchdown at the beginning of the second quarter. Obviously, we we have heard the stories about how slow the 40-yard time is for a wide receiver.
00:14:22
M dub
Let me tell you what. In that red zone, you don't need the 40 time. You need a big target up in the air. Secondary can't get it. That's exactly what that touchdown was. We've seen in the last couple of years, the Seahawks not really relying on their biggest targets in the red zone.
00:14:39
M dub
Noah Fant included. And to me, it was really refreshing to see that. Don't need Jake Bobo to run a four three when you're at, you know, within the 10-yard line.
00:14:47
Tristan Amundson
but Yeah. 15 yards to go, whatever it was. Yeah.
00:14:50
M dub
Yeah. And a really tall guy. And yeah, can go up and get it where where the secondary can't.
00:14:56
Tristan Amundson
Yeah, no, it was, it was really fun to see. it was a, it was a good, um I felt like it was, it, per it was a good sign of things to come for, for hopefully philosophically where we're seeing this team.
Seahawks Defensive and Special Teams Analysis
00:15:11
Tristan Amundson
Um, I, I got to say, i guess I have, I don't know if you have a lot of um thoughts on the defensive performance. I have less thoughts on that. I think it's harder to see the defense from ah a philosophy standpoint in a, or at least my eyes seeing a defense philosophically in a preseason game. You don't see the starter, know, I don't know. Maybe a defense doesn't get into the same rhythm. I don't know if you had any thoughts on the defense. I really didn't, to be honest.
00:15:38
M dub
I didn't have a ton of thoughts. ah In particular, it seemed like Coach Mack was really holding back the defensive line. I wasn't sure if that was because of the, honestly, season derailing injury that Enchenna Nwosu had at the hands of the Browns in the last preseason.
00:15:52
Tristan Amundson
Yep.
00:15:56
M dub
So without that, you're not really seeing the complete picture. I did notice that, that so you're you're talking a lot of the twos and threes on defense, especially on the defensive line. weren't really generating a lot of pass pressure yeah on ah Chiefs passing plays.
00:16:07
Tristan Amundson
yeah
00:16:09
M dub
But yeah, I didn't really have a lot of thoughts on the defense either.
00:16:12
Tristan Amundson
um I'm looking at the stats right now and just trying to jog my memory. I guess maybe the two encouraging things um would be like Patrick O'Connell. and And I just mean this purely from that was a position. Linebacker was a position. You're kind of.
00:16:29
Tristan Amundson
All right, what what do we do after Tyrese Knight and Ernest Jones? You know, it it seems pretty thin. And it looks as though there's there's been enough growth with some of these younger guys that maybe we can um ah rely on them as kind of overall linebacker depth.
00:16:46
Tristan Amundson
it's ah It's a pretty unsexy thing to talk about in a podcast, linebacker depth. but We're talking like your third, your fourth guy. But that's good to see. And then, you know, I think probably just as I'm looking at the list right now, um just reps for Nick and Monroe. You know, we we need we need Nick to continue. I just need to really own saying his last name. E-Man role.
00:17:08
Tristan Amundson
E-Man Worry. I had like, listen, I'm not going to hide. Not the time to hide. I just had to address it. I screwed it up. Nick. And I mean, is it OK if I just call him E-Man? I'm hearing other people call him E-Man.
00:17:23
M dub
I think that's where we're going to want versatility here.
00:17:25
Tristan Amundson
Yeah, but I want him to know that I can say worry at the end of E-Man and that I can do it with my chin up in the air and and with some pride, you know, so...
00:17:26
M dub
Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:36
M dub
That's perfect. That's perfect.
00:17:37
Tristan Amundson
But having having i was even going to try any, but that doesn't work either. It's it's probably just either Nick or E-Man. um But but seeing his continual growth, because for goodness sake, that's a steal, right? I mean, that's a guy that that's a steal in the draft, but a guy that does need reps at this point in his career. He you know, he kind of seems like kind of a whirling dervish, so to speak.
00:17:58
Tristan Amundson
And so to be able to um get him rocking and rolling and give him more reps is, is I'm sure, you know massive to the team at at this just juncture of his um ah maturation.
00:18:12
M dub
One last thing from this game, i would say the biggest red one of the bigger red flags for me from the Seahawks over the preseason was coverage in the kicking game. Not a plus area at this point. Gave up a punt return touchdown ah to the Chiefs. That was one of their only scores when they got to 16 points across the whole game.
00:18:31
M dub
Did seem to be a weakness across the entire preseason. Of course, you're dealing with a lot of turnover at that position. you're You're returning a lot of the same guys actually deep in the roster to to to play these special team snaps. You're you Brady Russells, you're Drake Thomases, and so forth. So hopefully that improves in the regular season. But that was ah notable minus, I think, for the team throughout the preseason.
00:18:57
Tristan Amundson
I mean, and if I'm being honest with you, it kind of was all last season too, wasn't it? I mean, yeah you kind of, you look at, um i I'm blanking on his name, it's Harbaugh, right?
00:19:08
Tristan Amundson
Is our um our special teams coordinator, Jay Harbaugh.
00:19:10
M dub
Jay Harbaugh.
00:19:12
Tristan Amundson
And you can you see the name and you're like, oh, cool, that's going to be maybe a strength. And I'm not saying that Jay's done anything wrong. I have no idea what I'm talking about when it comes to is Jay Harbaugh coaching special teams correctly or not.
00:19:24
Tristan Amundson
But I can say, and I think most people would agree, special teams was not a highlight last year. Maybe it was okay, average, maybe, but it certainly, there were a few flubs over you know over the course of the year.
00:19:38
Tristan Amundson
um That has a lot to do with personnel. it It has a lot to do with young coaches. There's a lot of different things. But yeah I mean, i think I agree in that, man, that that's a part of the team we really need to see grow, right? I mean, that's, you know, it it's not one third of the game, obviously, as far as actual snap count, but they do say it's one third of the game, you know, at least in spirit.
00:20:01
Tristan Amundson
And ah it is something that we really need to to get clean.
00:20:05
M dub
Yeah, it's but you especially because both Jason Myers and ah Michael Dixon are above.
00:20:09
Tristan Amundson
Oh, yeah.
00:20:11
M dub
So your kickers are are above average and if you were to rank rank everybody in the league.
00:20:13
Tristan Amundson
Above average.
00:20:16
M dub
So ah hopefully you would say, oh that goes a long way to making the whole unit above average, and it just hasn't yet.
00:20:22
Tristan Amundson
Yeah, no, it's it's a really good point, right? yeah I think anyone would say top five punter, top 10 kicker, I think is probably fair.
00:20:29
M dub
I think that's good, yeah.
00:20:30
Tristan Amundson
I mean, that could not be more just off the cuff, the top of my mind, but I think that's about right. um And so, yeah, it it has to do with tackling and lanes and all of that.
00:20:41
Tristan Amundson
I do kind of love special team flubs in the preseason, obviously. Or I love big mistakes in the preseason um because I just every time I think it's like, well, this is the time to do it. Like if you were to really screw something up and make a big deal of it and it's like a massive missed tackle or, you know, an absolutely massive missed assignment in any part of the game, special teams or defense or offense, whatever.
00:21:07
Tristan Amundson
I always think to myself like, OK, this is Excellent. Like on Monday, they all get to watch this film and say, hey, let's never do this again. Like, here's a really bad mistake. So, you know, maybe that's that's the glass half full. This is the time to to get your mistakes on film and and to correct them.
00:21:25
M dub
Tristan, if I can transition us. Speaking of mistakes on film. Sorry, if we move ahead to the next, the third and final preseason game of August.
00:21:30
Tristan Amundson
Hmm.
00:21:34
Tristan Amundson
I thought you were just going to talk about my acting career, mistakes on film, a short story.
00:21:37
M dub
No, no, I would never.
00:21:39
Tristan Amundson
Okay.
00:21:41
M dub
Third and final preseason game. The team goes to Green Bay, has some practices with a lot of ones on the field on both sides, it looked like, against the Packers. I have... I'm not going to read into that at all. I don't know.
00:21:54
Tristan Amundson
Yeah.
00:21:54
M dub
It is kind of funny that they keep it behind closed doors and it feels more valuable to the teams. When it gets to the preseason game itself that was on TV that we could more easily watch, we are seeing the game start out with a lot of third stringers on both sides. And we went from there.
00:22:10
Tristan Amundson
Yep. Yep.
00:22:10
M dub
Not a lot of of projected starting players getting snaps. And for the Seahawks, this game was entirely about Jalen Milrow.
00:22:19
Tristan Amundson
yep
00:22:20
M dub
And for everything we said after the first preseason game, which I would still hold is true, special stuff that you don't always see, one of the most unique players in the NFL, this game was also the reason why he is third in the quarterback chart at this point.
00:22:36
M dub
Seahawks do lose the game 20-7, so we only have that one touchdown drive across all four quarters of play. which is an issue. To me, though, the bigger issue was ball security. Milrow fumbles the ball three times in the game.
00:22:51
M dub
We did see, well, we didn't even talk about this from the Chiefs game. They bring him on for a brotherly shove type play, which works.
00:22:56
Tristan Amundson
Yep. yeahp
00:22:59
M dub
So that gets you excited after the Chiefs game. Then seeing him lose the ball three times, you often in close quarters types of plays like this. i wouldn't say any of them was a huge, like an obvious blunder, but they were all kind of in in tight court. One was a bad snap. One was a weird snap.
00:23:18
M dub
Two were in kind of close quarters type situations. That makes me very nervous for the efficiency of the brotherly shove. It doesn't really matter if you get the first down, if you're not holding onto the ball.
00:23:30
M dub
when you get there. So I do think it does seem like Jalen Melrose, the type of guy who's really going to study and learn from this and and grow. And Hey, this guy's under contract through 2028.
00:23:42
M dub
That's your four seasons of your rookie deal.
00:23:44
Tristan Amundson
Yep.
00:23:45
M dub
ah But I think, i so I think it was a really valuable exercise for the Seahawks, but ultimately it's like, well, this is square one that we need to grow from.
00:23:56
Tristan Amundson
And I would point to what I just said, which is what an awesome opportunity for the coaches to get multiple fumbles on film with Jalen and to have to sit down and soak in that and own it and look in the, you know, be in the room with everyone else and, and talk through ball security and the importance of it.
00:24:15
Tristan Amundson
um And really emphasizing that, Hey man, like, You're super talented in the NFL. One fumble a lot of times makes all the difference. I mean, the the margin for error in an NFL game is so incredibly small that I think it's great. ah Again, I will look at this very much as a glass half full.
00:24:37
Tristan Amundson
He was able to, in three preseason games, put some really cool stuff on film, especially that first game, right, where he had that scamper for, I think it was about 27 yards on the right side. That was really fun to see.
00:24:48
Tristan Amundson
So we got to see, maybe to your point, the best of Jalen, the brotherly shove, like, hey, here's some excitement. um But I do, honestly, I do love the idea that he made some major mistakes, hopefully some mistakes that are fairly simple to fix.
00:25:04
Tristan Amundson
You know, ball security. Hey, this is how you should approach this. We really need to keep the ball close to, you know, close to the chest in these scenarios. A sack is better than a fumble. You know, just kind of some of these basic, basic things.
00:25:15
Tristan Amundson
And he can learn from it. I, the more... the more we kind of absorb this Jalen Milrow draft pick, the happier I am with the outcome.
00:25:27
Tristan Amundson
Because, man, what in like he's shown us what he can be. And what a perfect environment for him to just sit and learn, right? And I'm so happy for him that he has the opportunity to be in an organization where he is not going to be called upon.
00:25:45
Tristan Amundson
You know, i maybe there's an outside chance he starts one or two games this year at the back end of the season because, you know, other other outside forces have caused that.
00:25:56
Tristan Amundson
But by then, at least he would have had time to to to mature. But most likely, he won't start a game until you know next year at the earliest.
Rookie Quarterback Development Across Franchises
00:26:04
Tristan Amundson
If you compare that to just the absolute um clown show of what Indy did with Richardson and and just ruining...
00:26:15
Tristan Amundson
you potentially a yeah ah really good, exciting player by throwing him in the deep end immediately for no apparent reason. Like, hey, what we're just going for it. Even though we know you're super young and not ready.
00:26:25
Tristan Amundson
um It makes you and makes you grateful because not all NFL franchises are created equal. And not all these front offices have the same level of patience, brain power, discipline, you know, whatever the the magic um concoction happens to be.
00:26:43
Tristan Amundson
And so I am grateful that that the Seahawks seem to have that intelligent people running the show. um Because I mean, listen, I don't know what If we were to bring the front office and the coaching staff of Indy onto this show and ask them, like, why in the world would you throw one of the youngest quarterbacks ever to come into the league that you knew was a project as your week one starter his rookie year?
00:27:08
Tristan Amundson
it's the I mean, like, on its face, it's one of the dumbest things ever. So ah taking it back to the Seahawks, I'm grateful that Jalen's not in that asinine of a position, um you know, playing for clowns.
00:27:22
M dub
yeah Yeah. all right Well, yeah.
00:27:25
Tristan Amundson
I don't even think that's a hot take. I just think like these like.
00:27:27
M dub
No, it's not. It's really not. It is. Yeah. I'm really curious to see how it develops. Because this is, I think it's very rarely that you have such a deep back burner, I think, story developing on your roster ah for the deep future like this.
00:27:41
Tristan Amundson
Yeah. i what I hope for him sincerely is that. you know, week one, week two, whatever. Maybe we see one or two brotherly shoves, maybe one or two little packages.
00:27:55
Tristan Amundson
But it would be so cool to see by wait like week six or eight him getting involved in four or five, six naps a game in very specific, you know, kind of, ah ah you know, Jalen experience kind of moments.
00:28:10
Tristan Amundson
um I think that I just, again, as a fan, like what cool excitement that adds, if he is able to kind of add his little piece in um as, you know, maybe,
00:28:21
Tristan Amundson
yeah Which which begs the question, and I've heard some other folks talk about this. Does that mean that technically he's your number two quarterback so that he's eligible to come into the game on some of these kind of extra package plays?
00:28:36
Tristan Amundson
And then Drew Locke is your emergency quarterback. So that if, you know, if in in case of emergency break glass, right? So Drew Locke is available as your emergency QB.
00:28:49
Tristan Amundson
And then Jalen is your second QB, quote unquote, even though in actuality in the pecking order, Drew is your second. Does that make sense?
00:28:58
M dub
It does make sense. ah Whatever the Saints and Mr. Clint Kubiak did with Taysom Hill last year, I think, is is your answer. Right?
00:29:05
Tristan Amundson
but Was Taysom, I think he was technically, he might have been a tight end, like on their depth chart, like technically. I could be wrong. i could I'll have the research department um start looking this up.
00:29:18
Tristan Amundson
I'm pretty sure Taysom Hill was a tight end last year, though. Like that's how they did it. and that But also, obviously, he's a quarterback.
00:29:26
M dub
I think Taysom Hill is a great outcome here, even if, you know.
00:29:28
Tristan Amundson
Oh, yeah. If that's the ceiling, that's insane. Yeah.
00:29:32
M dub
Yeah. Yeah.
00:29:33
Tristan Amundson
And hopefully it's not. Hopefully the ceiling is something like Jalen Hurts and the floor is something like Taysom Hill. I mean, if that's if that's your outcome, ah congratulations, you just killed it. Like, I mean, that's and he's somewhere in between. That'd be incredible.
00:29:51
M dub
Tristan, should we move on? in that a few weeks A few days passed in the land of the Seahawks, and then they had to do I would think this would be such a tough part of the job.
Seahawks Roster and Free Agent Challenges
00:30:00
M dub
Cutting the roster down to 53 players...
00:30:03
M dub
ah saw You see these documentaries about how there's the guy who walks around and like, yeah, you need to bring your playbook to the office. I always thought that was so cruel. As time goes on, though, there's just so many guys coming in and out.
00:30:15
M dub
To me, it kind of makes sense.
00:30:15
Tristan Amundson
Yeah.
00:30:16
M dub
You just have to do it that way. The most notable cut that the Seahawks made was was cutting wide receiver Marquez Valdez-Scantling just a few months after they bring him in as a free agent.
00:30:28
M dub
Zero regular season games played as a Seahawk. Leaves a $3 million dollars cap hit. $3 million of his $4 million dollars contract was guaranteed. I remember personally being excited about this signing when it happened because he had just come over from ah very quietly productive second half in the season with New Orleans last year with Clint Kubiak.
00:30:49
M dub
you could kind of see the foreshadowing happening because in the preseason, we were seeing players like Robbie Outz and Jalen Sundell being played with the ones. Marquez Valdez-Scantling played the majority of this game but against the Packers, against the other, ah with with kind of third stringers on both sides.
00:31:02
Tristan Amundson
Thank
00:31:09
M dub
This now, it it is kind of a, it is becoming a bit of an issue that the Seahawks are signing free agents against who they very quickly are turning around and either trading away, cutting, releasing, or somehow having to move on from. It's been a pretty tough 18 months in terms of ah completely opposite to the draft, by the way, which has been going excellent, but identifying the veteran talent around the league that will that that really helps fill out the roster and just adding winning contributors to the team. It's it's kind of becoming an issue here.
00:31:44
Tristan Amundson
plug and play, right? I mean, that's what you're looking for. You're looking for a few key guys you can plug and play into the offense or defense. um Tell me, I'm genuinely curious if this is your first takeaway.
00:31:57
Tristan Amundson
My first takeaway when I hear this is, they're seeing enough from Torrey that he is, his the upside and maybe even the floor of Torrey is greater than Marquez Valdez. And so it's like, we're we're just going to go ahead and and go for the younger guy because we've been so impressed. And like, hey, he's coming.
00:32:21
Tristan Amundson
he's He has recovered enough. Like, he he looks healthy. We're happy. We're we're good to go with... with with saying, ah you know, Torrey Horton is of greater value to us, higher upside, hopefully higher seat floor than MVS. Is that kind of your takeaway when you when you look at this this cut, Miles?
00:32:44
M dub
It's definitely an optimistic way of looking at it. And I think we saw Troy Horton have a preseason that exceeded his fifth round draft grade.
00:32:51
Tristan Amundson
Yeah.
00:32:52
M dub
When I look in the Seahawks, Seahawks.com did a really nice graphic roster of the 53, a graphic of the 53 man roster broken down by position. I feel really confident looking at almost every position.
00:33:07
M dub
Wide receiver, ah feels thin. It feels thin to me, especially if Jackson Smith and Jigba or Cooper Cup, if if either of them miss one game, which especially in the case of Cooper Cup, you're going to think is going to happen,
00:33:21
M dub
very quickly you are giving starter level snaps to Tori Horton, Jake Bobo, Cody White. Those are kind of your next options who we've all seen great moments from, so but but in very limited very limited moments. you know that they don't have...
00:33:39
M dub
They don't have starter level snaps on their resume in the NFL yet. So it could work out, but you could also...
00:33:43
Tristan Amundson
Yep.
00:33:45
M dub
If there's some sort of long-term injury, you could see the Seahawks really needing to make some sort of midseason move out of desperation for a wide receiver. Even if Troy Horton is coming along very well, I still... ah still... I mean...
00:34:03
M dub
It would it be nice to have another starting caliber wide receiver in there. Looking at the available free agents, though, teams definitely hold on to their wide receivers. ah Not very mind many wide receivers get to free agency because it's such a valuable position.
00:34:17
M dub
So ah it's it it would be a hard thing to solve midseason. And it's it's a harder thing, I think, that we give credit for because there is so much depth at wide receiver across the league. But it's so valuable. Teams hold on to those players. They don't really get to free agency.
00:34:32
Tristan Amundson
That's really interesting. um That's a really interesting way to look. at i So I'm looking at the depth chart right now. And one thing that that stands out is the kind of receivers they kept.
Offensive Strategies and Season Predictions
00:34:45
Tristan Amundson
um If I look at what I know about Cody White, Jake Bobo, and Drake Young, those are all pretty physical wide receivers, which I think is interesting. um i think those are all guys that are willing to get there their nose dirty and and and be willing blockers.
00:35:02
Tristan Amundson
So that's kind of my first takeaway is it seems to me like your're your depth, that wide receiver, is is more of an emphasis on... on solid athletes that can block than like dynamic wide receivers that are going to tear the, you know the top off.
00:35:17
Tristan Amundson
Um, it's interesting because even, I mean, if you look at like Cooper cup, JSN and Tori, if those are kind of your, your three top wide receivers, um, Those guys all kind of have an an interesting game too.
00:35:30
Tristan Amundson
I will say it doesn't it doesn't feel as though we have a burner on this team. I will say that. Like at wide receiver, it doesn't look like you have what we've had for years with DK, where it's like, yeah don't let him get behind you because there is an elite athlete that is going to rip the, you know, obviously there's not a lot of Tyree kills in the world, but you know, those kinds of guys that are really going to test a defense um from that perspective.
00:35:57
Tristan Amundson
The other thing I'm looking at, though, is we're having this wide receiver conversation um is the tight end group. The tight end group. Holy moly. I mean, that is very deep and and interesting to see.
00:36:09
Tristan Amundson
And so I wonder if if I'm looking at this. We love A.J. Barner. We think Elijah Arroyo is going to be a really interesting player for us from an offensive threat. So I guess going back to that philosophy conversation, i wonder how much of this not keeping a guy like um MVS, maybe it speaks to confidence in Torrey, but maybe a better way to look at it is it speaks to like an overall philosophy of like what Clint wants out of this offense, which is again, maybe going back to our Kansas City conversation.
00:36:45
Tristan Amundson
we're We're really like we're really looking to punch you in the mouth like that is like number one of number ones. We want to be a punishing offense more than an explosive offense. Both good things.
00:36:56
Tristan Amundson
Does that how does that sit with you? If we if we reframe philosophically the idea.
00:37:01
M dub
I think that's right. i That was the excitement of signing MVS, though, in the spring, was it was like, oh, now now we get to have both, because I think it was ah trending in this this kind of blocking-heavy direction. Then except for MVS, you're going, oh, okay.
00:37:15
M dub
at least have one deep threat, and and now that's gone.
00:37:16
Tristan Amundson
Yeah.
00:37:18
M dub
I do think that Clint Kubiak is... is So there's I think the Seahawks are going to be like last in the league in terms of like five wide sets or even four wide receiver sets and really first in the league.
00:37:27
Tristan Amundson
Oh yeah. Yeah.
00:37:30
M dub
I mean, Tristan, we talked a lot about three tight ends two years ago. We got a whole new set of three tight ends in here and I think it's going to happen a lot. I think Eric Saubert, tight end number three, I think he's going to be on the field a lot more than your other third tight ends in the league. He was on the field for at least one of those touchdowns against Kansas City. It was a three tight end set.
00:37:49
M dub
And yeah, I do think that's the philosophy. That is a philosophy. they're They're definitely not choosing randomly. we'll We'll see how it works, though, because there doesn't feel like a lot of explosive options.
00:38:03
M dub
So it's it's more about dominating that 10 to 20 yards in front of the line scrimmage.
00:38:08
Tristan Amundson
You know, it'd be fun. um And we typically don't do this on the podcast live with an audience. But the idea, if we scripted out or i'm not not scripted out, if we looked at the game scripts of week one last year compared to week one this year, purely by formation, right? And purely by like volume in each formation. So how much, for instance, are we going to see 13 personnel? How much are we going to see 11?
00:38:35
Tristan Amundson
How much are we going to see eye formation? um how much are we going to see, um you know, a fullback in the game? Obviously that, that will be an outlier. I think no matter what, um, it would be interesting to compare that. Cause I do think that the, the difference in offensive philosophy is going to be start from last year to this year.
00:38:54
Tristan Amundson
And so that might be, um, I might, that might be a little, uh, um, section of the podcast for week one but as we kind of dissect the week one game that that I'd be interested to dive into. Just looking at um yeah those those those um ah those formational volume metrics and seeing like what what it looks like this offense wants to indeed major in and how that compares to last year.
00:39:22
M dub
A lot of the moves the Seahawks made this offseason were about the offense. There was a lot of change on offense. That's all I've been talking about. I do want to point out, I don't think people, I don't think there has been a lot of discussion about how much continuity this defense has.
00:39:37
M dub
Last year, especially in season, the team was making a lot of defensive moves. And it does feel like Coach Mack kind of found his guys on defense. So Tristan, I went back into the snap counts from last year.
00:39:50
M dub
The Seahawks are returning their top eight players on defense who led the team in snap count. Number nine is Draymond Jones. That's the first absence. Those top eight players do not include Boye Mafé, Tyrese Knight, Byron Murphy, or Cheninuosu.
00:40:07
Tristan Amundson
Wow.
00:40:07
M dub
So we got the top eight, those four, and then the additions of Demarcus Lawrence and Nick Emanwari all on the team.
00:40:13
Tristan Amundson
Well done. well done
00:40:15
M dub
Tristan, that defense, despite all the shuffling parts, you know, but both the starting linebackers from week one were gone from the team by week 10, still was 11th in the league in points per game. I think this is easily going to be a top 10 defense.
00:40:30
M dub
I don't think it's really been discussed around NFL circles this year because almost nothing has happened. They really kept it kept it pat, but that
00:40:36
Tristan Amundson
Yeah.
00:40:39
M dub
Does feel like the right thing to do. Coach Mack would have made the moves and changes if he wanted to, but he didn't. He really feels like he's found his core, found his guys, and and I do expect it to be ah top 10 defense this year pretty comfortably.
00:40:53
Tristan Amundson
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and then you think about um the maturation, right, of young players on that defense last year to to this year. Right. You think about Spoon going into year three, correct, for Spoon, um which is kind of wild to think about.
00:41:10
Tristan Amundson
But a year three version of Spoon is a pretty exciting thing um to see. ah I'm totally this is listen, I got to be honest with the audience and this happens sometimes when you're recording.
00:41:23
Tristan Amundson
I am completely blanking on our defensive tackle. That was our first round pick that I spent an insane amount of time talking about last year. This is very embarrassing. and
00:41:33
M dub
Preseason snaps for everybody. It's Byron Murphy.
00:41:35
Tristan Amundson
Byron Murphy, the, the, the um opportunity for Byron Murphy, right. To do the thing that Pete Carroll talked about all the time. Year one to year two is the biggest moment for any player that, that, that is going to be your, your biggest jump in, um in productivity.
00:41:54
Tristan Amundson
That's really exciting to think about like Byron Murphy, 30% better, whatever it happens to be. We saw the same thing with Boye, by the way. um So to be able to see that big jump for Byron is incredibly exciting. but Think about that. There is potential.
00:42:09
Tristan Amundson
You're totally right. This is a top 10 defense. What does this defense look like? If Byron Murphy is who we know he is, like if Byron Murphy clicks into elite level playing like that's,
00:42:23
Tristan Amundson
it's' it's pretty exciting to think about Byron Murphy and big cat, just dancing on the line together. I mean, that, that could be an incredibly dynamic look. So yeah, I totally agree with you. I think this defense going be exciting.
00:42:34
Tristan Amundson
All of that continuity is just going to add to it.
00:42:37
M dub
Right. And they're they're in position for that defensive line to really rotate in ways. If you look back at 2013 Super Bowl winning year, a lot of those D linemen were playing about 50% of the snaps. They kind of had two complete defensive lines.
00:42:51
M dub
And they're actually pretty close to that situation this year as well.
00:42:55
Tristan Amundson
It's very cool. It's very cool. And then let's really quickly just talk through this offensive line, because I think it's a good thing for us to touch on at least quickly. We've seen the carousel of offensive line for the last few years.
00:43:10
Tristan Amundson
You know, hey, coach, who's your starting offensive line? ah You know, it's still a competition. We're going to see about X, Y and Z positions this year. Really quickly, we kind of knew, hey,
00:43:22
Tristan Amundson
yeah At least three, but really it looked like for most of this offseason, four of the positions on the offensive line were pretty well locked in. um Anthony Bradford, I think maybe there was a little bit of a back and forth, but but I think he kind of locked down even that right guard position fairly quickly.
00:43:38
Tristan Amundson
um Don't know if you agree with me on that, but I think that's true. So it really was kind of who's going to win the center position. And due to injuries, Jalen Sindel, it kind of ran away with it. I love the idea that we have this offensive line group locked in and they have basically had all preseason and training camp together.
00:43:56
Tristan Amundson
And now we're going to continue that continuity going into the regular season and extremely young offensive line. But I feel like they've had a little bit more continuity to date than we typically see from offensive lines over the last couple of years. So I think that's that's kind of exciting.
00:44:13
M dub
I think it's continuity for the Seahawks.
00:44:16
Tristan Amundson
but Yeah, maybe, maybe, yeah.
00:44:17
M dub
Yeah, some of these lines have really been together for several years. you look at the Eagles, those guys have all known each other for 10 years. For the Seahawks, I think it went pretty well. I think the decision to start Jalen Sundell...
00:44:30
M dub
It really came out of nowhere. This guy had 116 total snaps for the team ah last season after being an undrafted free agent. But I think there's a great... He was collegiate teammates with Gray Zabel at North Dakota State.
00:44:42
Tristan Amundson
Yep.
00:44:43
M dub
And offensive philosophy, a theme we're coming back to a lot. it It really does feel like he fits Clint Kubiak's philosophy of being fast, blocking in space.
00:44:57
M dub
That said, 116 total in the career. I mean, it really came out of nowhere.
00:45:01
Tristan Amundson
We'll see what happens.
00:45:02
M dub
It's not something we were predicting. It's not something we were predicting, but you can at least see what the Seahawks were thinking. They made a couple of intentional moves, including a surprise trade of Anthony Jarrell to the Atlanta Falcons, the sixth rounder from 2024, moving Satau Alamea to the practice squad.
00:45:21
M dub
So there was ah a little a little bit less of a scramble and more of an intentional pick, but... Still wouldn't mind a little more roster resources in 2026, but i do there.
00:45:32
M dub
It does feel like Clint Kubiak will be using the line a lot more intentionally this year.
00:45:36
Tristan Amundson
Agreed. No, agreed. i But yeah, I think that's a really good point. I think it's great continuity for the Seahawks. I think that's a really, it's a slap in the face, really, really strong point that, that like you do have to take a step back and have the broad broader um perspective. And you look at the continuity of teams like the Eagles and it's like, okay, yeah, that's, that's what we're striving for. We're striving for year three. It's the same guys all together for two or three years in a row, which incredible.
00:46:07
Tristan Amundson
It takes a while. So yeah, it's a point well taken. I like that a lot.
00:46:12
M dub
Tristan, I have said a lot of incorrect predictions on this podcast over the episodes.
00:46:17
Tristan Amundson
You sure have.
00:46:18
M dub
I remember being very pessimistic about the Eagles' chances at about this time last year. Tristan, one thing that I know, you can check the tapes, one thing I know that I got right was that this time last year, Las Vegas said the Seahawks over-under was seven or seven and a half wins, and I said this is going to be a 10-win team.
00:46:39
Tristan Amundson
boom
00:46:40
M dub
And I got it. this long off season, was wondering, I was wondering, could I do it two years in a row? Could I do what, what where where would I go? Optimistic, pessimistic, you know, ah all these players developing all all these helpful second year, third year, eventually it's got to come down to a win total, right?
00:46:59
M dub
ah You got it. you You're going to end with a number of wins at the beginning of January.
00:47:01
Tristan Amundson
ye
00:47:04
M dub
What's it going to be?
00:47:05
Tristan Amundson
It's an outcome business. It's an outcome business. What what what are the numbers?
00:47:09
M dub
It's an outcome business. Here's my personal number. yeah And it's a little complicated this year. So and when you listen to season previews, what you're hearing a lot is the San Francisco 49ers have one of the easiest schedules of the decade, which is true.
00:47:24
M dub
Another team that also has one of the easiest schedules of the decade is the Seattle Seahawks. We are playing the NFC South and the AFC South, the two clearly weakest divisions in football.
00:47:39
M dub
In the 2024 season, in the 2023 season, there was a month in the middle of there where the Seahawks were basically forced to play playoff football. There was a four-week gauntlet. That is not here in 2025.
00:47:51
M dub
So I think the Seahawks this year are nine-win team. but But this schedule is so easy.
00:47:56
Tristan Amundson
Well, okay. Well,
00:48:01
M dub
i think I think that's worth two wins. So I think i think this is going to be nine-win team in 11-win teams clothing. And let me tell you, one of the biggest mysteries of the preseason is if Matthew Stafford can play football or not.
00:48:16
M dub
that
00:48:17
Tristan Amundson
it's a big deal.
00:48:17
M dub
It's a pretty big deal.
00:48:20
M dub
If he can't, I think that's worth another win. So I do think that that at the end of the year, the Seahawks' win total will be a little inflated from their true from their true ability as a team.
00:48:32
M dub
But man, this schedule is easy. I mean, we were just talking about the c Colts, the Saints, the Panthers. but yeah There's a lot of teams that... there's there's no There's not that month gauntlet.
00:48:45
M dub
And and it it is interesting. I mean, first-year coach, two first-year coordinators last year, 10 wins. Really interesting. There's ah huge pessimism around NFL circles about the Seahawks.
00:48:57
M dub
And think a lot of optimism inside our nest here. I think because and think because the people are paying attention to the the intentionality of the offensive line and not just...
00:49:01
Tristan Amundson
Yeah.
00:49:08
M dub
If you're a national reporter and flying way overhead, you're just kind of realizing the two most recognizable names, Geno Smith and DK Metcalf, are gone. That is far from the full story of this offseason. So I'm going go 11 wins on the team with with the strength of a nine-win team underneath it
00:49:26
Tristan Amundson
I think that's a really, i think that's really well said. I don't have much, much more to add than that. um I think that to your point, what this hinges on, right? If I, if I was tree topping this, I would say, we know the defense was good last year.
00:49:44
Tristan Amundson
We have no reason not to believe it's not going to be better this year, right? So, okay. Defense trending in the right direction. Certainly top 10, maybe top five. Okay. Check. and And I've heard a lot of national folks um agree with that.
00:49:58
Tristan Amundson
Okay, fine. So this really hinges on the offense and it hinges on the offensive philosophy and how that can complement the defense. so So what's that look like?
00:50:11
Tristan Amundson
The wild cards are really obvious, right? Sam Darnold has six years under his belt. He has one year of magnificence and then a lot of years of mediocrity. Who is Sam Darnold? That's the question that the national media wants answered that no one feels quite right about.
00:50:29
Tristan Amundson
But you'll hear people say over and over again, You know, man, and I just the last that last those last two games really put a bad taste in my mouth with Sam. I think about it.
00:50:40
Tristan Amundson
What if he got a little ankle tweak the week before he had his collapse? Right. And he just couldn't play those last two games because he had a little ankle injury or something like that. that the The commentary about Sam for 14, 15, 16 games of last year would be, this guy is a top, I mean, this guy's unbelievable.
00:51:00
Tristan Amundson
And look, he did it almost all year. Like he, it's not just like he was good one or two games. He was good for, you know, a while. So, so I think so much of this, like anything hinges on that. You're totally right.
00:51:13
Tristan Amundson
You lost at least a star in DK and a good player in Geno. Um, It is there there is unknown to this offense. There's no doubt about it.
00:51:24
Tristan Amundson
Right. I mean, i just was saying how great it is to see continuity. And I meant like four weeks of continuity on the offensive line. So that's pretty telling that that there's some skewed perspectives in in our little nest here. So it's it's well taken.
00:51:39
Tristan Amundson
But it to me, it certainly it hinges on how the offense can develop and grow and if it can play complementary ball with the defense. I think if they do what they say they want to do, and all we've seen so far is a commitment to that, which is running the football, man, I think there's some good complementary defense. And then you're putting yourself in position to let a guy like Spoon, let a guy like Big Cat, let a guy like er Ernest Jones um really start affecting the game.
00:52:11
M dub
Speaking of quarterbacks and the unknowns, so the Arizona Cardinals are getting a lot of... They're they're getting picked into the playoffs a lot this year.
00:52:17
Tristan Amundson
greatest, greatest team in the world for the last three years. Absolutely.
Quarterback Comparisons and Historical NFL Anecdote
00:52:21
M dub
And I will say, I do think Kyler Murray is actually a pretty cool guy. I've seen some some footage of him online playing chess against people in the park. I do think he's a really cool guy. But he's he's had a six-year career in Arizona.
00:52:34
M dub
He's had one winning season. one winning season One season of more than 25 passing touchdowns. They were not the same year. And he has had zero 4,000-yard seasons. Geno Smith did all those things in 2022 while he led the league in passing accuracy.
00:52:52
M dub
And Sam Darnold did all those things last year with 14 wins, over 4,300 yards, and 35 touchdowns. And in the league-wide cap hit rankings, Kyler Murray is number five.
00:53:06
M dub
And Sam Darnold is number 119. I
00:53:11
M dub
i'm a i think offseason was a little too long, and that's why the Cardinals got some momentum here.
00:53:13
Tristan Amundson
What do you even say? Yeah.
00:53:17
M dub
for I think, i think ah man, I feel so bad for... ah we where There's a Geno Smith podcast. We love Geno.
00:53:24
Tristan Amundson
We love Gino. Good guy.
00:53:25
M dub
And, you know, as Geno Smith and Sam Darnold, the the reputation these guys get are just so out of so out of whack from the actual, you know...
00:53:34
Tristan Amundson
Yeah. What's actually going on in real life.
00:53:36
M dub
ah know how these reputations get built, but it it it feels unfair.
00:53:36
Tristan Amundson
It's so interesting.
00:53:40
Tristan Amundson
It does seem like Kyler Murray, as far as like his reputation in the league, has somehow just won the lottery and like kind of has this this like elevated sense of of who he is versus what we've actually seen.
00:53:56
Tristan Amundson
And I think, yeah, to your point, I think he's, listen, I've seen some great, maybe, maybe that's what it is. When you have upside like Kyler Murray, it just gives you a lot of extra leash because the upside is so dynamic and it's so insane. It's so fun.
00:54:11
Tristan Amundson
And maybe you only need to see two or three of those games to think like, Holy smokes, if he puts it together, he's going to wreck the NFL. So maybe it's just that simple. But yeah, you would think after about six years or so, we have enough of a sample size to say, all right, well, maybe that upside is also a little limited. But um pay more power to him. Get paid, young man. Enjoy.
00:54:31
Tristan Amundson
Just, you know, send a note to your labor union on Labor Day weekend is what I would recommend him do because they negotiated their butts off for him.
00:54:42
M dub
Tristan, it is the fiftieth this we're starting the 50th year in Seahawks history, the 50th season.
00:54:47
Tristan Amundson
Woohoo!
00:54:49
M dub
Last week, I started our our journey through 50 seconds in Seahawks history. Tristan, the time starts now. It is the preseason of 1989, and the owners vote that it will be a penalty on the home crowd if they are too loud.
00:55:06
M dub
that the opposing offense cannot hear their play call on the huddle, on the line of scrimmage. The home team will get their timeouts taken away if they are too loud. Don't cheer at these games. 21 of the owners voted for this.
00:55:21
M dub
The 49ers come to town. Steve Young is trying to get the ball into the end zone on the goal line. The 12s are too loud. Steve Young complains to the referees. The Seahawks get three timeouts taken away because their crowd is too loud.
00:55:36
M dub
In a preseason game, the next day, Commissioner Pete Rizal has to pretty much admit this is ridiculous and says, ah ah technically, this is going to be up to the referee's discretion from here on out, which effectively ends the rule.
00:55:51
M dub
But technically, it stays on the NFL books until 2007, almost 20 years. It was technically, by the rule, a penalty if the home crowd was too loud.
00:56:02
M dub
What an odd, weird moment in NFL history. These owners, come on, you're you're your crowd could be the home crowd. that gets that Don't you want to be that home crowd that makes it a problem? i I can't believe the owners ever voted for it.
00:56:16
M dub
I can't believe Steve Young complained and that it worked. too that's That's the craziest moment in Seahawks preseason history, if you ask me.
00:56:23
Tristan Amundson
I just imagine one owner, like some English dude in like a three-piece suit and like just a little cup of tea on a saucer in front of him at the owner's meeting.
00:56:36
Tristan Amundson
game is too loud. We must have order. We can't have these people going crazy all the time. This is terrible. Have you ever been to a cricket match? There is structure.
00:56:48
Tristan Amundson
We must change the game. And um ah luckily that that shrilling voice did not continue to have um you know a presence. It is hilarious.
00:56:59
Tristan Amundson
I guess it ah one thing that's great about that is that they adapted really quickly in the preseason and are realized we're idiots. Let's just scrap this whole thing. so think So I guess thank you, Steve Young. Is that the moral of the story for for complaining?
00:57:13
M dub
I say thank you, 12s. I say thank you, 12s. And i think I think that's what the owners need to realize as the the brotherly shove was up ah for a vote this offseason.
00:57:20
Tristan Amundson
Yep.
00:57:21
M dub
hey Hey, guys, you could be the next one with the right personnel. your Your team could be the one to figure this out. You're taking this away from yourself, you know? And how about just win the game fair and square?
00:57:32
M dub
The Eagles are the only ones to do it. They have not broken the game. They've just figured out something. And same thing with having a loud home crowd. That's 21 owners saying, Our crowd is not going to be loud enough to make a difference in the game.
00:57:44
Tristan Amundson
Yeah, no, it's really well said, really well said. um And yeah, I mean, yeah, it's something that makes football special and fun. And it's a variable, right? Variables make life fun. And it's one, and variables that are out of everyone's control make things even more fun and chaotic, which is part of the joy of this silly game we call football. the the The football itself is not spherical.
00:58:11
Tristan Amundson
It's not, it's it's designed, by choice that when it lands on one of those little cone edges, it suddenly takes a weird bounce and it bounces and you have no idea which way it's going to bounce. And that is the beauty and chaos of football that we love.
00:58:28
M dub
Absolutely. i There had to be that type of English owner in that meeting. I feel like you, that's the only way this gets to the table, if if if that guy doesn't have a commanding voice in the room.
00:58:39
Tristan Amundson
Yeah. Yeah. I, yeah. um There must've been something, something like that. Some, some dumb owner, but listen, they, I, I do. I, I, I, I appreciate when, um, when someone or a group of people make a decision and they can pull back on that decision real fast when they realize they were idiots. Like that's, there is actually something really cool about that idea that it's like, Oh, nevermind. We were wrong. Sorry.
00:59:05
Tristan Amundson
it Scrap that.
00:59:07
M dub
Well, it was all the owners voting for it, and then the commissioner just kind of steps in and goes, yeah, okay.
00:59:11
Tristan Amundson
Yeah.
00:59:12
M dub
I'm sure he was like just waiting all summer for like, yeah, this isn't, we're not getting to week one with this. I know you voted for whatever, but you know.
00:59:20
Tristan Amundson
It's probably all collusion. He probably went to the Northwest. He was probably incognito. And he like whispered in Steve, yeah Steve Young's ear, like, hey, they're going to get loud and I need you to complain about it.
00:59:30
Tristan Amundson
Just trust me.
00:59:33
M dub
I work all the way down.
00:59:33
Tristan Amundson
Candlesticks. Yeah. Candlesticks loud, too. I promise they'll work out for you. um That's great. No, I love that. So we're we're going to get a taste of those once a week. Is that the idea? a little Seahawks history?
00:59:44
M dub
There's a lot of Seahawks history in there. we We definitely got one for every week.
00:59:47
Tristan Amundson
Nice. Very good. Any concluders before I think the next time we talk is going to be, I'm assuming is going to be to recap week one, correct? I mean, any anything to say before that?
01:00:01
M dub
um I did have one thing that I was thinking about saying.
01:00:04
Tristan Amundson
Okay.
01:00:05
M dub
This is be a message to the owners, to the commissioner, to the San Francisco 49ers organization, to To the nest of Seahawks fans from from Washington to Vancouver to Idaho, Montana, and here and in Oregon and California, in Germany, elsewhere, I would say Hawks.
01:00:23
Tristan Amundson
In Germany, where we know there's a lot of them.
01:00:32
Tristan Amundson
Go Hawks.