Halford & Brough in the Morning - Do The Seahawks Have A Prayer This Season?

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

In hour two, Jason Brough and guest host Josh Elliott-Wolfe do some Ask Us Anythings (3:00), plus they preview the upcoming Seahawks regular season with Seattle Sports Radio's Stacy Rost (24:54). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

you a gangster now you on the other side whole new ball game mike mcdaniel that's from iron eagle right yeah right i wonder if anyone listening knows that movie carly goes away yeah i mean it's it's a little obscure at this point i would say what year 93 90 oh there you go that is a long a few people do. I mean, it's a little obscure at this point, I would say. What year? 93. Oh, there you go. That is a long time. I was in high school.

I remember it was a pretty big deal at the time. Obviously, the cast is star-studded, but I don't know how well it did or how well it reviewed, so I'm not sure if it's one of those movies. But I think it's one of those movies where if you're making a top 10 list of gangster films. You'd put it in top 10, eh? Well, I don't know if I would, but I think it would appear in some people's. Yeah, that's fair.

Some people would. I put it in like the Donnie Brasco category where it's like it's a good, solid movie, but it's often forgotten about. You know, it's one of those ones. It is Halford and Brasco.

Donnie Brasco is a movie, by the way. Yeah, no, I knew that one. You know what that one is? I haven't watched it, but I know what it is. Older people, older gentlemen will have

Carlitos Way on their list. The way I feel about your movie watching now is I think the way Brough feels about my movie watching where he'll give me a movie reference that he just assumes I'll know and I won't.

He's like, how have you... I thought you were like a cinephile. I am, but it's just... But it's more just like kid movies or a lot of movies. You have a very specific category of 80s movies from like a three-year period, which are a little obscure now, but I guess that was your movie watching window.

You just assume are wildly popular. Like the Iron Eagle window. You just assume. Iron Eagle was a specific hot take that I had that I knew. It was people talking about Top Gun, and when the new Top Gun came out, I was like, ah, Top Gun. It was overrated.

Yeah, no Iron Eagle. And I made a joke, and I said, I was more of an Iron Eagle guy. Always one. But it wasn't because I was like, I hold Iron Eagle in high acclaim. But I hold some of the 80s movies that you don't, like, I'll reference, you know, Caddyshack or something. I've seen Caddyshack. Yeah.

You know they called it Caddyshack. Caddyshack. Caddyshack. Can you reference lines from it, though? No, I just remember the gopher. Well. Anyway. The worldpher. Well, anyway. The world needs ditch diggers, too. It is Halford and Brough.

I love that line, by the way. I should use that more often. See, no one knows it. Josh Ellert-Wolfe, Jason Brough. Halford and Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. Get your texts in. 650-650 lumber text line get your ask us anything's in uh with a pizza emoji the bridge street dumb bar lumber and latner has moved to progress way in tilbury's

industrial park more room more product more awesome details at dumb bar lumber.com we are coming to you live from the kintec studio kintec canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star google reviews sophie what are you waiting for kintec we go to the phone lines now it is aj uh aj's pizza on east broadway try aj's traditional new york pizza or sink into their famous detroit pizza only at aj's pizza order online at aj's dot pizza thanks for taking the time aj how are How are you? What is going on? First of all, I didn't even get on the show when you called me old

because I watched Carlitos Way last night. Did you seriously? Yeah. That's a stressful movie. It is, but that's one of Sean Penn's best. Incredible. He's awesome. Dave.

That's his name, Dave. That's totally in the top 10 yeah for gangster movies that is oh 100 i mean i mean every thursday is kind of my mafia night right i gotta i gotta kind of watch something but yeah i mean that's that's yeah it's awesome and that was a rough no that that line was great and to the other point i know the line from what was it yeah everybody needs ditch diggers yeah the best yeah the everybody needs ditch diggers. Yeah. The best. Yeah. The world needs ditch diggers, too. The best.

That's, like, amazing. Right. I do have an ask us anything for the whole show, and I'm sad that Halford is not on it right now. Okay. What would I have to do, like, as AJ, to convert the whole show to Yankee fans for the playoffs? I know.

For the playoffs? I mean, for me, it's easy. Lifetime supply of Detroit Ronnie. Lifetime supply? Yeah, lifetime supply. I don't really have a dog in the race. I don't have a dog in the race. I'll take, like, a small cheese pizza at this point.

Honestly, what teams do we care about? I kind of, like, every once in a while when the playoffs roll around, I'll cheer for like a sad club team and I think the Padres will probably make the playoffs so I wouldn't mind seeing the Padres,

you know, but I don't think they're going to win it. But I don't hate the Yankees as much as I used to. Let's put it that way. They haven't been good.

That's fair because they haven't won. They haven't won anything and I like Aaron Judge. I think he's an amazing athlete. I love watching him hit. I'll watch Aaron Judge in slow motion. Do you ever watch great athletes in slow motion?

You watch them on YouTube or whatever? Because you just want to see how they do it. It's amazing. It is incredible how he hits the ball. Yeah, it is awesome. And, Bruff, you had a nice holiday? Everything's ball. Yeah, it is awesome. And then, Bruff, you had a nice holiday. Everything's good? Yeah, it was good.

How's the summer been? Summer has been great. I mean, besides the fact my wife had to fight off a bear a couple weeks ago. What? In Gibson's. Oh, yeah, you were away for that. You don't listen to the show while you're gone. Are you kidding me?

I check right out. We were in our house in Gibson's. Yeah, it was wild. I check right out. We were in our house and kids. Yeah, it was wild. Everybody's good. Dog is good. Bear is good. My wife is good. So, yeah, it's everybody.

The bear is good. He's coming over for dinner, actually. He's a good guy. He's a family friend now. We're going to watch Scarface and have some steak. So, yeah. AJ, what's happening this weekend at the pizza place? It's going to be busy. So, make, it'll be. AJ, what's happening this weekend at the Pizza Place? It's going to be, it'll be busy.

So, make a reservation. I mean, it looks like the weather's kind of turning a bit for the weekend. And then Sunday, happy hour all day. And then, honestly, I have to tell you, my favorite tournament is happening, the Little League World Series. It's been amazing. And I know, you know, I know Canada had a rough go, but man, are those kids good. It's just incredible.

We actually had the Wally manager on the show yesterday, Steve Young, and we talked about their experience down there. And he was able to go down there with his son on the team, which is pretty cool. He played for Wally when he was a kid. Oh, wow. Never got to the Little League World Series. Has been coaching the program. I think he started in his early 20s, and then he had a son,

and he was able to go down there and experience that with his son. I thought they did really well. I mean, they came up against Chinese Taipei, which is always tough, but they did get a win over Puerto Rico and then lost, I think, to Mexico? To Mexico.

No, and they played great. Yeah, yeah. All of those kids are just, I mean, it's? To Mexico. No, and they played great. Yeah, yeah. All of those kids are just, I mean, it's amazing watching. It's an awesome tournament. So that'll be on all weekend for sure. And then we got the FedEx. Isn't there a Staten Island team in there?

Yes, there are. What's Staten Island like, AJ? Everything you think. So every mafia movie that you watch. And my friends who live there will be so mad at me but they won't get it so it's okay yeah i mean staten island's everything from that coach i don't know if you heard any interviews from him is exactly staten island hey you know what's a good movie underrated movie while we're talking about it cop land yes amazing there's no way that's a movie cop land cop land is cop land is awesome and look at who's in it it's it's

a it's an epic cast yep stallone is it is legitimately is that it does that happen in a place like is it supposed to be like staten island there are there a lot of cops that live there and firemen yes yeah because it's because Yes, because it's 20 minutes over the bridge. And yeah, yes, that movie was definitely based on real life. Okay. Alright, AJ, this has been fun. Josh has been

completely lost, but that's okay. That's okay. At some point, in 20 years down the line, he'll be doing this to some young guy on the show. Alright, have a great weekend, buddy. Everybody have a the show. All right. Have a great weekend, buddy. Everybody have a wonderful weekend. Take care. All right.

See you, AJ. All right. There is AJ of AJ's Pizza. And by the way, keep your texts coming in. 650-650-DUMBAR-LUMBER-TEXTLINE. Hashtag AUA. And the best Ask Us Anything for the day, if you attach a pizza emoji to it, will win a $100 AJ's Pizza gift card.

Copland. I'm looking at it right now. It's actually $100 AJ's Pizza gift card. Copland. I'm looking at it right now. It's actually a really good movie. The cast looks really good. Sylvester Stallone, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro. I know those names. Oh, boy. Matt not on the island with an Ask Us Anything.

If you could be any Keanu Reeves character, who would you be? Neo, John Wick, Ted, Heaven? Who's Heaven? I don't know who that is. Yeah, I'm not sure. Okay. My mistake on that. I would be, I don't think I'd be John Wick.

Well, Neo can fly, so that's the obvious answer. John Wick gets, he takes a lot of punches. Yeah, he doesn't do so well. I mean, he's tough. He's just a few. He gets beaten up a lot. Yeah. Probably punches. Yeah, he doesn't do so well. I mean, he's tough. He's just a dog. He gets beaten up a lot. Yeah. Probably Ted.

Yeah. Or like Neo. You'd pick Ted over Neo? Neo's fun. Ted's a good guy. Yeah, but Neo can fly. Neo has a lot of stress in his life. You just want to be a good guy?

He has a lot of stress in his life. What about the goalie he plays in Youngblood? He flies in The Matrix, though, right? You realize he doesn't fly in real life, and that was a whole idea of the movie, right? Yes, I understand that. Do you want to have, yeah. Yeah. Well, but then we would just be like.

Wait a minute, that wasn't real. The Matrix was fake. The Matrix? It was like some sort of, they were living in like some sort of matrix. That's the whole premise of this movie. 650, 650. Kevin on the road. Josh, what lessons have you learned since working with Bruff?

I've noticed your cheerful demeanor has slowly changed. Has it? I don't think so. I feel like I'm more cheery than ever. I think I've been pretty cheery with you as well, too. That's good. So maybe I've done more for you than, well, probably not. No, it's summertime.

Yeah. That's all. I'm in a good mood because I can play golf. Mike in Richmond asked us anything. Would you put heat into the gangster category? It was on Craven. I was trying to explain it to my kids, and my description sounded very gangster. No, that's not a gangster movie.

That's a heist movie. That's a specific category of movie. What's the best heist movie? Heat's up there. Honestly, it might be Heat. I mean, it's like one of the quintessential heist films. I mean, the Maltese Falcon, if you want to go really, really, really old. I haven't watched watched Ocean's Eleven.

Whether it's the original or the remake is very famous. I think the remake was better. Italian Job? Probably, yeah. The Italian Job was pretty good. I think heist might be. That's the one a lot of people think of first when they think of heist movies. Does Weatherboard Dogs count?

They show everything but the heist, but there is a heist. I don't think of it as a heist movieist I don't think of it as a heist movie I don't think of it as a heist movie I watched a bad heist movie the other day Which one? And I was really disappointed in it Iron Eagle 4, the heist The heist, yeah

They're like, oh, these planes are doing outside the bank This is gonna Not very secretive A lot of attention coming here Yeah It was with one of my favorite actors, Jake Gyllenhaal Ambulance Oh, I haven't seen that

It was a Michael Bay movie Oh,, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ambulance. Oh, I haven't seen that. It was a Michael Bay movie. Oh, that's already a good one. And I'm like watching this, and I'm like, is this a parody? It is. You know how you do have to suspend your sense of belief when you watch a lot of movies? Well, especially if it's Michael Bay. I mean, that's kind of his thing. But he went to the extreme with this.

Yeah, he's nuts. And it was so disjointed, and you're kind of like, is this supposed to be funny or serious or hardcore? And I had no idea at the end of the day, and I was pretty disappointed in it. I watched the whole thing because I don't have much going on in my life, but overall I was disappointed in it. I think it's on Netflix if you want to waste your time on it. One of my favorite Michael Bay things is that, I don't

know if you ever watched director's commentary of DVD. They don't really have them anymore because everything's streaming now. It's one of the big losses of physical media not being much of a thing is that physical media often would come with director or actor commentary, which you could play under the movie, and they pretty much would just tell stories in the making of the movie, and a pretty much would just tell stories in the making of the movie.

And a lot of times it's really entertaining. And one of the best commentaries ever is on the movie Armageddon, which is a pretty, well, it's a fun, stupid popcorn flick. It's a Michael Bay movie about how a bunch of, I guess, miners have to go into, or sorry, oil drillers have to go into space to stop a comet. You remember that movie? And so the actor commentary was Ben Affleck. I don't want to.

Yeah, exactly. The Aerosmith song. I don't want to close my eyes. Yeah, exactly. And Ben Affleck was doing this actor's commentary, and the entire thing pretty much was him just ragging on the movie, saying how stupid it was, how this would never, ever happen. And he tells a story of how he even brought this up to Michael Bay on set.

Like, this is so dumb. No one would ever do this, and Michael Bay pretty much just told him to shut up. It's a movie. Shut up and act. Yeah, lighten up. Oh man, it's such a great comedy. I actually enjoyed Armageddon. I mean, yeah, it's fine. Yeah, at the time, but if I watch it now... It's just to turn your brain off,

popcorn flick. Don't take it seriously. Have a good time. It's got a good cast. So let's go back to that question from Kevin on the road. Ask us anything, Josh. What lessons have you learned since working with Brough? Man, let me tell you. The like, so many. The amount of like, and Jamie and I kind of like told people this last week,

but the amount of prep work that you guys do compared to some shows is, it's, it was eyeopening, I guess. And, and like the, the, and that's a lesson you've learned prep.

The station has a culture problem. Apparently the station is a country club, man. Apparently you got to do this thing called prep. So like for other shows, like obviously we do prep and I've gone through shows with no issues and like I feel well prepared for shows. I'm now a little worried about the other shows. The other shows are fine.

They're not prep. What do they do? What do the other shows do? They're just going to be like, what do you guys want to talk about tonight? Canucks? All right. Well. So when the other shows are called Canucks Talk and Canucks Central.

I'm glad we're not pigeonholed like that. Yeah. You're kind of boxed in. Yeah, you're boxed in. So it's like, hey, what's going on with the Canucks? And then you just talk about that for two hours. Unsigned, ask us anything. Why are the Blue Jays and Raptors accepted as Canada's teams or Canada teams?

Well, they're in Canada, but Canada's teams. I would rather any other team win than them. I actually hate them more than random teams because they are from Toronto. I can see hating the Blue Jays, sports hate, if you're a Mariners fan. And I suppose if you've got another team that you cheer for, if you're a Red Sox fan or a Yankees fan, you would get frustrated with all the coverage that the Blue Jays get, but you know,

Rogers owns the team. So they're going to put a few things on TV. Yeah. Um, the Raptors, I don't think they've been as adopted as the Blue Jays. I don't think so at all. I think, I think people were,

I think people were, um, into the Raptors when they won the title, but did that create lifelong Raptors fans, you think? No. I mean, that's a question for young people. People around my age, I think there are. Are your buddies Raptors fans, or do they all have their own individual NBA teams that they cheer for? I would say the majority, maybe not the majority, but the team with the most number of fans in my friend group would be the Raptors.

But I don't think they're even at like 50%. Yeah, I mean, Halford's a Raptors fan. Is he? Yeah, like a pretty big Raptors fan, which I don't respect a lot because he was a Grizzlies fan. Yeah. But then, I don't know. I because he was a Grizzlies fan. Yeah. But then again, I don't know. I've always been, I'm just waiting for the Sonics to come back and then I'll actually have

a rooting interest. What brought me back to the NBA was, and I didn't even really like cheer for the Warriors. I just liked watch Curry play. Yeah. It was, I remember the first time I started learning about this guy and then when he really took off,

I couldn't believe really that anyone could shoot the ball like that. And before then, it was probably cheering for Steve Nash. Right. Not that I was a huge Suns fan or even a Mavs fan, but I wanted him to do well. That's the – and I think the new thing for a lot of NBA fans especially is you have a player and you cheer for the player. And you don't really focus as much on the team.

And sometimes, hey, you adopt the team that that player is on after a while because you've watched so many of their games. But oftentimes, there's kind of like a feeling of apathy when a player leaves a team that you thought you were into and then all of a sudden you're like, ah, I was actually just into that player. Do you think the NBA is worried at all about the next little while

in terms of the superstars and the fact that there are, you know, Curry's going to be out of the league eventually in the next few years. So is KD. So is obviously LeBron. LeBron might hold on forever, but, you know, he's only got a few years left is katie so is obviously lebron lebron might hold on forever but um you know he's only got

a few years left uh in the league and then who are you turning it over to that's american anthony edwards i think is the main one he's the guy he's the guy but does he feel like the type of guy that can reach the level of a steph curry i think so yeah and at least to me from everything because it's not even about like obviously you have to be supremely talented to to kind of reach those heights and and kind of have that recognition from around the NBA but it's more of like the aura you know yeah I think does it hurt him that he plays for Minnesota probably yeah I wonder if there's a moment or there's a time that comes in his career where he's not playing in Minnesota anymore.

Because I think he wants the spotlight. I just think it's really important for the league. I know they want to be more global. Every league does. I know the NHL was talking about having more games in Europe. Bill Daly was talking about, oh, maybe we'll go back to Australia and have some actual regular season games there. I want to do another game in London. I think about 20 years ago, they had some regular season games in London. And obviously the NFL is in London, but the NBA,

it seems more important to be global to the extent that it is for like the Premier League or any of these big soccer leagues around the world to be global but the home base for the nba is still in the united states and they've got a lot of mvps that are not american and i think it does matter like for me the comparison is and this is uh maybe a bit of uh too much of a stretch because boxing had other issues as well and many issues in boxing but when mike tyson was a heavyweight champ when evander holyfield was a heavyweight champ i remember george foreman was a heavyweight champ boxing was front and center in the biggest sports market in the world and that is the united states now it's kind of like who is the United States. Now it's kind of like, who is the heavyweight champ? Yeah.

Like, I don't even, I wouldn't even be able to name. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, it's just so disjointed in boxing, but I'm not, obviously not saying that the NBA is going to get there. And I'm sure there are tons of talented young American basketball players that we haven't even heard of that are going to come up and take that mantle from the likes of KD and Curry and LeBron. But that Olympics was kind of like, I think a lot of people thought, oh, wow, these guys aren't going to be here forever.

Do you think that's like, so you think it's an issue, I guess, that there's not- I think it's something worth to monitor for sure. My thing is I don't think it'll something worth to monitor for sure. My thing is like, I don't think it'll matter if the international superstars have personality. Someone texted in, we're going to be watching

the greatest basketball player of all time by the end of it all with Wim Benyama. Yeah. I mean, that's a high bar. Yeah. And he's certainly got talent and he's got height. That helps in basketball, I've heard.

He is very tall. I mean, he is – it's incredible. It's a tantalizing prospect. But now maybe there's a really, really NBA player that became like absolutely beloved by the American populace? Like he is a hero. I'm putting you on the spot here. Dirk Nowitzki? Dirk Nowitzki?

That's a good one. Yeah, yeah. That's a good one. I mean yeah like does Steve Nash count I don't know if he was like loved loved at that level Dirk is definitely a better better answer yeah I think right now like but did Dirk sell like did he sell whether it's tickets or marketing or or whatever yeah I I think your best chance right now is Luka. Someone texted in Hakeem Olajuwon.

That's a good one. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. But Luka, I think, is your best shot at that because he has the swagger that... That's kind of the usual thing that Americans kind of gravitate towards and that most American players usually have that the international players kind of lack

is the swagger on the court. Yeah. And L and Luka has that. So I wonder if he is, and he's obviously part of this new wave, if he's the guy that Americans kind of latch on to. Yeah. Sean texts in that ESPN has a list of the top 10 players in the league you would start and build your franchise around today. The top five were international with Anthony Edwards coming in at six. And Sean concludes the American NBA player thing is a big deal. Someone texted in Larry Bird. I was like, I know he's from Indiana,

but that was still in the United States. Might be the most United States East state. There is middle of nowhere. Still counts as 650 States. Yeah. 650-650. Keep the text coming in on the Dunbar Lumber text line. Again, it's Ask Us Anything Friday, so if you want a chance at winning the $100 AJ's Pizza gift card,

throw a pizza emoji on it. At the end of the show, we will pick the best Ask Us Anything or our favorite Ask Us Anything, and we will award them the gift card. $6.50, $6.50. It is Halford and Brough. I am stalling because do I have a read to do here? I don't have a read to do here. Look at us.

Stalling for no reason. Anyway. Well, my buddy texted me and said the Keanu Reeves answer is obvious. It is Johnny Utah from Point Break. And the other heist movie you guys are missing was The Town with Ben Affleck. A lot of people are saying Inside Man as well with Denzel. Really good. Does Baby Driver count as a heist movie?

We got a couple texts about that. Yeah, it does. I think so. That might be one of my favorite movies. Yeah, that was a good flick. Yeah. Yeah. It brought attention to the problem of tinnitus.

Yeah. It's a big issue for us in radio. I'm changing my Keanu answer, by the way, too. I want to be Duke Caboom. From Toy Story 4? From Toy Story 4. Yeah. See, I get references sometimes.

Yeah, I knew you'd get that one. I wouldn't mind being Johnny Utah just because then I wouldn't be so scared of heights. Right? Yeah. We're taking on their personality, right? Right. So, yeah. The skydiving and the surfing.

Right. Okay. Yeah. All right. And, you know, he had a fun life. Did a lot of skydiving and surfing. Yeah. Not John Wick.

He's not going to. I imagine robbing a bank, though illegal, is quite a rush. Yeah, not John Wick. He's not going to... I imagine robbing a bank, though illegal, is quite a rush. Yeah, probably. Yeah. On the other side, Stacey Jo Rost is going to join us.

We will talk about the Mariners letting go of Scott's service and we'll also talk about the Seahawks and how their preseason is going, how they're shaping up for the season. It is Halford & Brough,

Josh Elliott-Wolf, Jason Brough, Sportsnet 650. Welcome back to Hoffer to Brough. Josh Aleowold, Jason Brough here with you, coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Continue to get your texts in on the 650-650 Dunbar Lumber text line. Get your What We Learns in. Ask us anything's in.

Throw a pizza emoji on it if you want to win the $100 AJ's Pizza gift card. Hoffer to Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. We go to the phone lines now. It is Stacey Jo Rost, host for Seattle Sports Radio, joining us. I appreciate you taking the time, Stacey.

How are you? I'm good. How are you guys? We are doing well. We originally wanted to talk Seahawks with you, and we'll get to that. But yesterday, the Mariners make a big move. They fire manager Scott Service. Were you surprised? Was this just a matter of time?

What are your thoughts on that? Not surprised. I mean, typically, this is an organization that doesn't make moves. They're very risk-averse. They stick with a lot of their own people are incredibly loyal, but once earlier this season, they fired Brent, uh, Brent Brown, uh, essentially like an almost offensive coordinator that, that they had hired on. Um, people thought, wow, that doesn't feel very Mariners. And, um, once they hit the trade deadline, acquiring the best bat, Randy Rosarena, even though it wasn't a super aggressive move compared to some other teams, you know, like the Padres,

it still was a move that for the Mariners felt like really going for it. So I think people looked at it as a season in which certainly Jerry DiPoto, but also Scott were really fighting for their job. So there was already this undertone of they're entering into the final year. They really can't mess this up. Then there were rumblings. Maybe I would say with that first loss of the Dodgers series, there were rumblings that something could happen. And then we opened the show.

So we opened 30 minutes before the news broke from Ken Rosenthal, so not the official confirmation. And we literally opened our show by saying, hey, elephant in the room, are we going to see moves today? So I think the entire city was kind of anticipating it could happen. I still think, though, that there was a good chunk of people that were surprised it actually did, just because for this organization, that's a pretty rash move. So what's the number one objective of making this move?

Is the season, do the Mariners still think they've got a chance to make the playoffs? Or is this just we had to do something? I mean, I'm sure they still think they have a chance to make the playoffs. And let's look at it. If it wasn't the Houston Astros, if it was, oh my God, I don't know, a team with even more weaknesses, though this is probably the worst Houston team that we've seen in a couple years, even though there's still a stellar offense, you'd be looking at it going, oh, you're five games back, six games back,

you know, 30 games to play, anything could happen. It's just that for some reason, a five-game deficit behind Houston feels more sure than Houston being 10 games back of you. For some reason, that felt more surmountable for them. So there's certainly a feeling around the city. We see it from listeners that the season's over. But I don't think that the front office or certainly ownership makes this move unless they feel like there's something to salvage.

That being said, Dan Wilson has no experience. I think it's just hoping that a change in voice might, I don't know, motivate guys, get guys to rally around them, but you're not adding a bat and ultimately your problem is your roster. Yeah. And I'm just wondering, you know, is this, is, is Dan Wilson just the interim? Is that, have they confirmed that? No, no, he is the new manager. Oh, okay. Did you find that interesting? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, he has no managerial experience. He is a fan favorite. And so one of the critiques that we've heard

locally is, oh, is this just an ownership group or a team that's leaning on nostalgia for 1995, right? He's bringing Edgar Martinez onto the staff. And there's already been critiques that this team just kind of hangs on to like, oh, wasn't 95 fun rather than really, really go for it to be aggressive and add. So I don't know that this is that. And like, I don't think the ownership group thought, let's get a fan favorite as a manager. You know, the way that Roger Goodell hides behind kids when he gets on the stage so they don't boo. I don't think it was like a shield from criticism. I think that Dan Wilson is just widely respected in that organization, knows the organization and the community well, has a great relationship with the team, and is someone they trust. And even though

when an organization consistently struggles, it probably needs outside voices. This is also an organization that really leans into trust, not unlike some others. And so I think that for them, Dan was someone they trusted. What did they do this offseason? Let's say they don't make a miracle comeback and make the playoffs and they just kind of peter out and they finish the season and everyone's like, ugh, we had good pitching.

We did not have good hitting. Yeah. I mean, I think ultimately, so I think there's two problems with this team. I will say service isn't innocent. I mean, you had a 10-game lead. You lost it. At the end of the day, while he's not at the top of the list of reasons for that,

you're the manager. Anytime there's a head coach, heads are going to roll, and there are consequences to losing like that. So maybe a change is needed. That's one thing that they solved, so they've got that checked off. Ultimately, there is, as you guys know, an incredibly positive, strong correlation between spending and postseason appearances, and people can point to the Orioles or they can point to the Brewers

or a number of other teams, sometimes Cincinnati, and say, well, they don't spend and they've been competitive. But how many of those teams have won World Series in recent years? I mean, we had Kyle Glazer on the show recently who pointed out and he's done studies on this, that of the last 30 World Series teams, something like 27 of them had been in the top half in payroll. So this is a very long-winded way to say what I hope they do ultimately this offseason is add $40 million to the payroll rather than just kind of keep it even. And I think that's what they're going to need to do to be competitive. Outside of that, as a very quick answer, I think that maybe there's some evaluation issues that you want to look at. You've been signing kind of older players or players that just don't have anything left,

kind of hoping that you can tap into something. It hasn't been working. So what other approach can you take? That's for Jerry and Justin to figure out. Is there any team in Seattle that does not have a new head coach or manager? It's a great question. I mean, the storm. Right, okay. Yeah, so for all the male teams barring, you know, I don't know. It's been crazy. I mean, you have a new, and it extends to college with the Huskies as well, obviously losing Caelan DeBoer to Alabama.

It's been the most turnover I've ever covered. Let's talk about the Seahawks and the new coaching staff. I was going through it yesterday. I just Googled Seahawks coaching staff. I'm like, these guys are all new. Is anyone a holdover from the Pete Carroll era? Yes. So they do have one holdover. Oh, God, I'm totally blanking on his name. His last name, of course I am. His last name is Smith. He was one of the defensive backs coaches.

Okay. The DB's Everyone else is there. And I'm sure plenty of John Schneider staff. So among the coaches, there's a one DB coach. Okay. Well, let's start with that. Oh, all right. Okay. Thank you.

So that's confirmed. He's like, they had to keep one guy. So the new is way around the training camp facility and everything is like, oh, here's where the bathroom key is. Right. Yeah. Showing them around. Yeah. Um, so let's start with the defensive side of the ball because mike mcdonald's is

essentially their defensive coordinator although he's also their head coach um what have you seen in the preseason or heard from them that said that suggests things are going to be improved this season because even though p car Carroll was considered a defensive mind, the defense was no good. And it was very hard to watch this team stop the run. In fact, it was infuriating. Adding the caveat, obviously, that it's the preseason to all of this.

So there's only so much we can take from it. I would say that it's just looked cleaner and a little more disciplined. And while this team, there is a talent gap between the best defenses and this team, which is going to happen when you don't have, you know, a top 10 pick as often as some others. There was also an execution gap. This was not a team that came out and punched you in the mouth. This was not a team that had sound tackling. And those are things that you

don't need to be a first overall pick to do well, right? We've seen late round picks succeed with really great sound coaching. And this was a team that was frankly at times sloppy and struggled with miscommunication. That doesn't mean these players are incapable of that. And it certainly doesn't mean that Pete Carroll is incapable of that. We saw him coach up one of the best defenses we've ever seen in NFL history and take this team to its first Super Bowl. I think that there had just been 10 years after that, by the time he was in his last season, some breakdowns in communication between he, position coaches, and players. Like somewhere along that line, something wasn't being communicated and there was, it seemed as though a lack of discipline.

So the one thing I can say about the early preseason games, and this was especially evident in the first quarter against the Chargers when you actually saw the starters, we'll see them again against the Browns, was just that things looked clean. You know, you saw tackles made. You didn't see very clear miscommunication issues. And the one thing I've heard, I haven't been an observer of this, it's just something I've kind of heard through the grapevine,

is that they really, really focus on reps and really, really focus on ironing things out, that he's notorious at times for having very long practices. And I think that comparatively with Carroll, there was a little bit more of maybe a trust of like, okay, these guys are going to figure it out. So I think that there's more repetition so far under Mike McDonald, and you're seeing that play out with fewer mistakes very early. Again, it's early. Okay, let's talk about the offensive side of the ball. What is the current status of the offensive line? Oh, God.

Great question. So they brought in Connor Williams as a free agent who graded out as the second highest graded center last year year with Miami, obviously, he's coming off of a torn ACL, suffered in December. So they're really easing him in. The hope is that he will be your starting center week one. They have not committed to that, though. It's tough to come back from ACL, right? So they're taking it easy. The fact that he went all the way through a walkthrough the other day, I think, is a very promising sign.

I wouldn't expect to see him, though, on Saturday. So he's maybe in addition to Charles Cross, what I feel most confident about with the offensive line, he very recently was a very good center. And so for a team that's been looking for that for a couple of years, that's really encouraging. There's a big question mark at right tackle, even though George Fant has obviously been a starter at one point with Seattle, then later with the Jets. There was really hope that Abe Lucas would be able to recover from what is a very confusing

knee injury. I would wager that he starts the season on the PUP list and George Fant's your starter there. So you have a question mark there. The interior of the line was always going to be a question. Lakin Tomlinson is a veteran. That's encouraging, but obviously new with your team. On the other side,

you're just rotating into rookies, and right now it looks like Anthony Bradford. So to answer your question, I think this remains, in addition to inside linebacker, the biggest question mark with this team.

So that's quite a job for, well, the new offense coordinator, Ryan Grubb, and he also brought his offensive line coach, Scott Hoffover, from the Washington Huskies, which is a pretty interesting story in and of itself.

And we all know that the Huskies had, well, maybe not everyone in Vancouver, but the Huskies had a good offensive line last year, and it was a big reason for their success. What do you think about the challenge for those two in creating running holes, protecting Geno Smith, and taking advantage of the obvious weapons at the skill positions that the Seahawks do have. Yeah. I mean, one of the challenges ultimately is that, unfortunately, you're not going to be facing a bad USC defense, right?

Every single team that you face is not a Pac-12 defense. They're instead going to be full of some first-rounders and really good players. The worst defense in the league has a really good player on it somewhere. And so that's why the margin for error is so slim in the NFL. You rarely see giant blowouts. So one of the big challenges they're going to have is just the quality of defense they face.

Is it going to allow them to do some of the things they want and to maybe take some of the risks that they want? Conversely, one thing I'll say about Ryan Grubb, and this is courtesy my co-host Michael Bumpus who pointed this out to me, is that Grubb has almost a decade of being an offensive coordinator. And so even though it was at the collegiate level, he's had to learn to adjust and learn to adapt. And that was something that Shane Waldron might have struggled with,

even though he was an NFL offensive coordinator. It was his first stint, and he was three years in after having been a passing game coordinator and a tight end coach. So I know you look at it, a fan could look at it and think, oh, Ryan Grubb, first time in the NFL. But he is technically more experienced than their previous OC. So we'll see what that looks like on the field. He's got great weapons to work with.

I'm expecting a big year from Jackson Smith at Jigba. What are your expectations for the team as a whole? Like, I don't have Super Bowl dreams. No. I have maybe playoff dreams, if you can call those dreams but i'm just wondering like is this is this maybe the season where you're setting the new culture because pete carroll is no longer there um maybe mike mcdonald is going to run a tighter ship there's just going to be a different way of going about doing things. But also you might imagine that

there might be some growing pains with the coaching staff and a couple of games you might watch. You'd be like, what are these guys doing? Is that kind of the season you're expecting? It is. I've been likening them to what I hope is a season much like Detroit had a couple years ago when they knocked Green Bay out of the playoffs and allowed Seattle to back in as a wild card. That was a team that I believe in their final 9-1-7. You just saw them really start to take off and figure things out. And the most important part of that and the reason that I always make that comparison when I say, God, I hope it's something like that,

isn't because I hope they don't make the playoffs, which Detroit didn't, nor that I hope that they struggle early, which Detroit did. But it was clear that Detroit really bought in. Those players really started buying into a new identity, a new coaching staff, an idea of who they were, and you could feel the cultural change with that team. And obviously that's translated to increasing wins every year with them making an NFC title game appearance last year. So that's what I hope we see from Seattle is that it improves over the course of the year.

And most importantly, that they feel like a team that's confident. That didn't feel like a Lions team that maybe you or I remember as just being god awful. That felt like a Lions team that despite being out of it by the time they played Green Bay, was really aggressive and really getting after it and really believed in themselves. I really hope I see that from this team because they kind of need that confidence. What are your thoughts about the future of the quarterback position in Seattle? So I'm actually, I don't want to say like really high on Geno, but I would say more confident in Geno Smith than would be maybe our average listener,

at least based on our own text line and kind of the feedback that we see. But Gino Smith is in his 30s and obviously is not a draft pick by Seattle. And you look at the AFC and feel envious of the young quarterback talent there and wonder what it would be like to have a Joe Burrow, a Josh Allen, a Patrick Mahomes. All of those guys are also early first-round picks, and Seattle is not looking at that or has not been looking at that. The only time was number five. We all wondered if they would take a quarterback.

I think Devin Witherspoon was the right move there. So they're in a really interesting spot. You've got an interesting free agency class coming up. There's a question about whether or not Dak Prescott will be one of those free agents if he doesn't get a deal done with Dallas, though I would question whether spending a ton of money is the right move for this team. It's not an especially strong quarterback class. So to answer your question the way I'm looking at it is,

in an ideal world, Geno gives you two years and is able to play out his contract because it doesn't look like next offseason is really the ideal time to replenish at that position it's it's always hard though when you're in this situation because you know even like I I like Gino Smith but I don't think he can help win a Super Bowl and I think that's always a tough position for fans who do believe that. I mean, I could be wrong. I've been wrong lots in my life and certainly in my sports analysis. But, you know, you're just looking for – and I think you know it when you see it,

when you see like a really special talent at quarterback, right? I mean, I know there's a lot of people that rip Russell Wilson now, and I'm one of those because, you know thought he just his ego just got out of control yeah it is easy fun right but like he made and you look back on some of the wins that they had and of course they won the super bowl but on the way there he made incredible things happen you know and i think the problem russ has is he still thinks he can do those things and like he's not as mobile as he used to be and he maybe thinks he still is but anyway that's another story you know when I guess the question is and nobody can answer this is when will the

Seahawks get that special type of quarterback again all I can say is it doesn't look right now like it's Sam Howell. And so I know from the outside, people are kind of hoping that it's that young guy that they already traded for. But Sam has had a really kind of up and down camp. And I wish that people could see that he's still quite a bit behind Geno. It doesn't mean he doesn't have a million weapons, right? And tools and resources and ability to grow. He's very young. So this isn't me putting a ceiling on Sam Howell. It's just me saying where he is right now is he's not going to come in and save the season. We had on Robert Mays of The Athletic and asked him about

Geno. He's a big Geno fan. And I had a very similar question where I was like, hey, Robert, I kind of don't see Geno as like a face of the franchise guy, but some recent quarterbacks, whether it's Brock Purdy or even Matthew Stafford in a second stint, I know he was a former number one overall pick, but still has made me question, you know, what it means to find that quarterback, what that quarterback, how great he has to be, where he needs to come from.

Like we've seen examples of teams that have found some success finding that quarterback in surprising ways. Does it always have to be, you know, number two overall young guy figuring it out with you? And he was like, you know, I really think that we're seeing a benefit in some older quarterbacks, and we're seeing that second win for a couple guys. And he felt like he was starting to see that with Geno,

where he put Geno maybe like a top seven passer in the league, throwing one of the better balls he's seen. It could be that Geno's just, frankly, not mobile. He's not really a mobile quarterback. And so he doesn't have – there's not that electricity and excitement that you see from a Caleb Williams that comes in and you go, oh, my God, like the Bears might've found something really, they might have their first 4,000 yard passer.

Or a young Russ, you know, like, yeah. Exactly. It's someone that can make something happen. Gino doesn't quite have that. He does have a beautiful pass. He does have pretty nice command of that huddle and a pretty good understanding of this offense. I think that Seattle's in a place where they just kind of have to win right now, potentially even next year with that unconventional guy. So I know that that's kind of a cop-out answer in a way.

I agree with you is what I'm saying. Like I don't feel that spark of finding the next guy. But I also think that you can win with Geno if you just improve the rest of your team. And other teams have shown that they've been able to win with more unconventional quarterbacks. So, Stacey, as you might imagine, people in Vancouver have a very confusing relationship with the Seattle sports scene because, you know,

I, for example example am a huge Seahawks fan um I was never really a Grizzlies fan because I was always a Sonics fan and I can't wait for the Sonics to come back nice um I support UW football UW basketball when it's good and um but I don't like the Kraken because I'm a Canucks fan. In fact, like one of the things that we've been saying a lot on the show this week is like, are the Kraken the most boring team in the NHL? And I'm wondering if there's any feeling about that in Seattle.

Like what, what do hockey fans in Seattle get? The team is there now. So the honeymoon is kind of over, right? You guys had that first round so the honeymoon is kind of over, right? You guys had that first-round win over Colorado a couple years ago, but the star power on that roster, I don't know if there's an elite player, like a truly elite player on that roster.

You added a couple, we call them Chenandler, Stevenson. You got him, Brandon Montero. Those are good players, but I'm just wondering about your sense of like where the Kraken team is in the market right now because the Sonics are going to come back and then all of a sudden it's already a crowded market. It gets even more crowded. Yeah, I mean, culturally, hockey just carries a little less weight. And that's especially true for a city that hadn't had professional hockey in what, like a hundred years.

So there was an underlying kind of culture of like Thunderbirds fans. And, you know, you had, you know, like, what is it? The Western Conference League or whatever. Yeah, the WHL. Yeah. WHL. WHL. Obviously I did not cover it as a beat

reporter or i would be the worst ever at my job um but uh so there was an existing fan base that were like diehard fans um that have translated to that uh to the kraken but it is by no means you know taking command of the market. I hope that changes. I experienced playoff hockey for that matter, playoff baseball for the first time very recently. And it was really, really, really fun. I also think that, and this is not unfamiliar to you guys, hockey is just better in person. And so that's something that people are still getting out there to experience.

But no, I think, look, if the Sonics were to appear here next season, which they won't, but if they were, they would immediately take command of this market. The Kraken are still trying to grasp that. I do think there's room for growth there. They just need like two more Matty Beneers. Like they need, you know, like a young star. They need something more than him.

Yeah, yeah. Well, exactly. I mean. With all due respect to Matty, he's, like a young star. They need something more than him. Yeah, yeah. Well, exactly. I mean. With all due respect to Maddie, he's a good player. Yes. Well, and look, maybe you guys can answer this for me. It feels like with hockey, more so than maybe any other sport, there are the haves and have-nots in terms of overall talent or top-level talent.

Is that true? I wouldn't say that just because it's such a hard salary cap. Right. But, yeah, yeah, I wouldn't say that just because it's such a hard salary cap. Right. But yeah, yeah, I wouldn't say that. But we'll have to continue this conversation at another time. We got to get to Moj because Moj is apparently boarding a plane. Oh, he's going to Ottawa for the... Do you want to talk some CFL with us?

No? Okay, fine. Stacey, let's do this again another time. I had a lot of fun chatting with you. Definitely. Thank you. Definitely. Thank you so much. Stacey Jo Rost from Seattle. She was awesome.

She's great. She is great. She should be a regular. A lot of people texting in saying they enjoyed that interview. We got to go. Moj is on a plane. We got 10 minutes with Moj. Then get your What We Learns in.

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