Halford & Brough in the Morning - NFL Football Is Back, Baby!
Episode Date: September 6, 2024In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus they preview Sunday's season opener for the Seahawks versus the Broncos with ESPN's Brady Henderson (29:42). 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.
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You're listening to Halford & Brough.
You know, but he can, he has that all-around game, you know, he put that greasy style and, you know, kind of that big game player.
So, yeah, it's great to have him here.
Yeah, I like to shoot the puck.
I think that's one of my strengths.
But, again, we're a team.
This is probably the worst game we're going to play all year.
So, if this is the best that they got, I mean, good luck in the postseason.
People are so mean.
Good morning, Vancouver.
6 o'clock on a Friday. Happy Friday,
everybody. It is Halford. It is Brough. It is
Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live
from the Kintex Studios in beautiful
Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.
Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning.
Chad, good morning to you as well.
Good morning. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you
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No messing around today, everybody.
Listeners, dogs, Chad, Bruff, no messing around today.
No hijinks on the Alfredo Bruff Show.
We've got lots of sports.
We've got lots of sports time, all right?
This is serious business.
We're talking about sports all day three hours no hijinks no jokes no humor a dog no movies
no cereal no no for me no like where are all the great guitarists gone who cares we had that
discussion it's sports time now serious business guest list today begins at 6.30. Brady Henderson, ESPN, NFL Nation, Seahawks
Insider, Seahawks,
Broncos, Sunday.
Seahawks, one of the biggest favorites on the
board this week. Six point favorites
as they host Bo Nix.
Sounds made up. Bo Nix
and the Denver Broncos. We'll talk to Brady about that
at 6.30. 7 o'clock, AJ
from AJ's Pizza. I was at AJ's
last night for NFL kickoff
night. It was packed. It was
awesome. I had a lot of beer. It was
fun. I've read your notes, by the way.
Your prep notes about the game. I've got a bone
to pick with you. Okay. Okay.
That's just a little tease on what we're going to talk about.
Sounds good. Okay.
705 James Sharman is going to join the program.
Soccer analyst, OneSoccer,
Footy Prime Podcast, and Sportsnet.
Canada takes on the U.S. in Kansas City in a much anticipated game.
Jesse Marsh, revenge tour.
The U.S. kind of without a manager.
Pochettino hasn't taken the gig yet.
He hasn't?
No, not officially.
He won't be on the sidelines on Saturday.
They have an interim gaffer.
I don't know who he is.
Well, okay.
Well, we'll talk to James about that.
I didn't know that.
I thought he was the guy.
He's the guy.
Just the lowercase J's haven't been dotted yet.
The T's haven't been crossed.
All right.
But he will be the guy.
So we'll talk to James Sharman about that.
730, newest member of the Whitecaps.
Stuart Armstrong is going to join the program.
Yes, the 32-year-old Scott, designated player,
the newest designated player.
We can ask him about coming to Vancouver.
We can also ask him about Ryan Gould's debut yesterday for Scotland.
I'm sure Stu took it in along with all of the Whitecaps yesterday.
They were watching it on television.
They posted video onto their social media.
That was nice that Ryan Gould got the true Scottish experience
of a heartbreaking loss. Just a very
disappointing and underwhelming performance.
But he played well, apparently. He came on
late. Yes, he came on in the 70th
minute and then proceeded to be their most dangerous
player. So we'll talk to Stuart
Armstrong at 7.30 about that. At 8
o'clock, it's the Moj. Yes, it's
the Moj. I hope we can track him down.
He's probably, you
know, in the middle of a smoked meat sandwich somewhere in Montreal. So we'll talk to Moj at 8, we can track him down. He's probably in the middle of a smoked meat sandwich somewhere
in Montreal. So we'll talk to Moj at
8, set up tonight's game.
The Lions go into
the opposition's den. They take
on the Alouettes in Montreal, the 10-1 Montreal
Alouettes. So we'll talk to Moj about that at
8 o'clock. We can do some NFL stuff with
Moj as well. Giveaways today.
No, contests
today. We have not one
but two $100
gift cards to AJ's Pizza
on East Broadway. So the two best
Ask Us Anythings, each one
will get $100 to go to AJ's, the best
pizza place in the world.
That goes to the best AUA. Ask Us
Anything. Hashtag it AUA.
Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650.
Finally. Include the pizza emoji, please,
if you want to be entered into the contest for best Ask Us Anything.
Also, we are giving away a final four-pack of tickets
for the Vancouver Canadiens playoff game against Spokane
on Tuesday, September 10th at Nat Bailey.
That goes to the best what we learned.
Hashtag it WWL.
What emoji did they put in there, Jason?
The ticket emoji.
There you go.
I'm going to the game today.
I'm going to the Nooner today.
Well, this weather keeps being great.
It's very hot.
Yeah.
Had a hard time.
Well, I think it's going to be a perfect night for a ball game on Tuesday.
Yes.
So get your what we learned in there, ticket emoji.
I might send him what we learned in there.
I'm going to do a Seas game all year.
Am I allowed to win these tickets? Who is this guy? Okay, that's what's happening on the program
today. Chad, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.
No. What happened? I missed all the action because I'm... We know how busy your life can be. What
happened? You missed that? What happened?
What happened is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling.
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I'm nervous.
I'm nervous because you've already taken umbrage.
Yes, umbrage with my notes.
Okay. Let's get to the headline first.
Defending champion, Kansas City Chiefs.
Edge the Baltimore Ravens, 27-20.
Football is a game of inches, folks.
It's actually a game of Isaiah Likely's toes.
They were in the back of the end zone.
It's a game of toes, folks.
A little too much at the end.
Ravens had a chance to tie it late.
They didn't.
Chiefs take care of business.
Win 27-20. What in
my notes are you taking issue with?
Just keep going. Keep going. Talk about Lamar Jackson
and how great he was last night. I didn't think he was great,
but I think he did. No, no, no. Read
what you wrote in your notes. Lamar Jackson did everything
he needed to do for the Ravens to win the game.
It sounded like he was great then. He ran the ball
16 times for
122 yards. Amazing.
Well, he led both teams in rushing.
Keep going.
He went 26-41, passing for 273 yards and a touchdown.
He didn't throw any picks.
He only got sacked once.
Yes, he did turn the ball over, a fumble.
But overall, he went for nearly 400 yards
and was an inch away from scoring 27 points.
So he did his job and then some.
So he did his job and then some.
Wouldn't his job include hitting a wide-open receiver
when you need to right at the end of a game?
Is that not the type of clutch performance that the Ravens need from Lamar Jackson?
We all know he's great.
We all know he's incredible.
He can run.
He can pass.
The question for him is can he own the big moments like the greats?
He didn't own it last night.
I'm sorry he didn't.
The question that I had going into yesterday's game was,
in the big moments, is he going to continue to lay eggs like he had in the postseason?
That was what we were talking about yesterday,
that in the six playoff games that he's had, he's two and four,
and the team has averaged 10 points.
And he has turned the ball over 10 times in those six games.
So from that, I was trying to say, hey, you put up 400 yards of offense.
You run the ball as effectively.
Actually, you ran the ball really effectively yesterday.
He looks slimmer because he is slimmer.
It was a very exciting game.
I only watched the fourth quarter,
and I was kind of cheering for him to make that comeback.
And I was frustrated when he missed the, I don't know who it was,
he missed a guy who was wide open in the end zone.
And the receiver was like, come on, man, you got to hit me right here.
Right.
So if you missed the final play of the game,
it originally looked as though Isaiah Likely, who had a terrific game,
who looks like tight end one there over Mark Andrews,
catching the ball in the back of the end zone,
looked like they were going to have a chance to tie up the game.
Although, if you saw Harbaugh on the sideline,
he was ready to go for two.
Never mind this extra point nonsense for the one.
We're going for two and going for the win.
You know, Jason Brough at home was going,
he stepped out.
He stepped out.
That's not a touchdown.
He stepped out.
I got eagle eyes.
I got eagle eyes.
Oh, eagle eyes, Brough.
It was a good game.
It delivered on a lot of fronts.
You expect some of the rust and some timing was off.
But overall, offenses looked good, not great.
Mahomes was good.
He was solid.
27-20.
You got enough points on the board.
Taylor Swift was there.
Taylor Swift was indeed there.
Travis Kelsey had a very quiet game yesterday.
He's a little bit old.
Yeah, I know.
I've got him in my fantasy league, so I was like, come on, do something.
Do something.
I'm worried about him retiring midseason, by the way,
not even getting to propose to Taylor Swift at the end.
But I digress.
Derrick Henry made his debut for the Baltimore Ravens in the backfield.
He was kind of meh, scored a touchdown, but only got the ball, I think,
12 or 13 times and finished with about 43 yards.
So, Gurp from Surrey, I noticed he texted in about the football game,
but then I realized that he had another text, possibly from yesterday,
and he asked the question, where do you guys think Daniel Sprong fits?
Not sure if you guys have talked about it yet.
Can't be bottom six, can it?
Well, that's very interesting you asked that, Gurp,
although you didn't ask us, you asked someone else.
We'll take it.
You don't trust us?
We'll take it.
You don't trust us?
We'll take it.
Talk about Daniel Sprong.
Daniel Sprong and Danton Heinen were among the Canucks
that were skating in an informal skate yesterday,
I believe it was at UBC.
Heinen and Sprong each spoke.
Heinen is a hometown boy.
He signed with the Canucks.
He spent some time in Boston.
He has bounced around the league a little bit,
started in Boston, then ended up in Boston.
Now he's come to Vancouver.
I think he spent some time in Pittsburgh as well.
He did.
And his audio was kind of understated.
He's a good Canadian boy.
He's real humble.
What was funny was that the one time he got quasi-excited
was not when he was asked about himself.
And yes, he was a Canucks fan when he was growing up.
He liked Alex Burrows.
He liked the Sedins, y yada yada um but he gave a pretty good review of a guy that he knows and another
new Canuck and I thought this was interesting to play because here's Danton Heinen on Jake DeBrusque
yeah I know Jake's uh he's unreal he's uh you know he he can fly he gets up and down the ice fair like he said a shot he's got a knack for, uh, you know, he, he can fly. He gets up and down the ice fair,
like you said, a shot, he's got a knack for the net. Um, you know, but he can, he has that all
around game, you know, you put that greasy style and, um, you know, kind of that, uh, you know,
big, big game player. So, um, yeah, it's great to have him here too. So Daniel Sprong also spoke
and he was also asked a lot about his role and there's no secret that daniel sprung
is a good shooter of the puck the question is uh everything else
he can shoot the puck he can score goals everything else remains up in the air for
for daniel sprung he's not being facetious either. It's honestly everything else.
Here's what Dan...
Troubles with skating, is that what you mean?
Like, doesn't do line change as well?
Has trouble with the water bottle lid on the gateways?
Everything else, man.
Hockey IQ, getting along with guys in the room.
Take your pick.
Yeah, what you walk into the room is like,
Daniel, you got your skates on your arms.
You're in the game.
Yeah.
Come on, man.
It's tough everywhere.
Yeah, it's just...
Come on, get here this morning.
We know you can shoot the puck. He's like... Anyway, here's It's tough everywhere. Yeah, it's just, come on, get here this morning. We know you can shoot the puck.
He's like, anyway.
Here's Daniel Sprung on Daniel Sprung.
Yeah, hopefully, you know, I can show I can play in the top six,
but I know the last two years I've done a really good job playing in that depth role,
and those numbers show for that, but I think there's more to my game,
and hopefully I can bring it out here.
Yeah, I like to shoot the puck.
I think that's one of my strengths.
But again, we're a team and, you know,
the coach has an idea and a plan and, you know,
we got to play the system and whatever my role is going to be,
I'm ready to go.
So just so you know, we're going to get more of this audio
as more and more Canucks start to skate informally
and as they start to come into town
and speak with Batch and all the other jackals
that'll be at their skates.
Training camp hasn't started yet,
but it kind of has.
You know, like players come to town early,
they get to skate,
especially the new guys want to get to know
their new teammates.
As for Heinen and Sprong,
I do like the potential of each of these guys.
Sure.
But I'm not sure where it's going to go.
Heinen, the thing I like about him, he has speed.
He's fast.
Yep.
The Canucks need more of that.
Patrick Alvin recognized that at the end of last season.
He said, we need to get a little bit faster, especially up front.
And they did that.
Sprong can really shoot the puck.
He's got a friendship with Elias Pettersson.
Apparently they met a couple years ago on vacation
and they've stayed in touch.
And it sounds like Daniel Sprong wants to round out his game
so he doesn't find himself bouncing around the league anymore.
He doesn't find himself after July 1st going,
why doesn't anyone want to sign Daniel?
Well, yeah.
It sounds like he had a really good chat with Rick Talkett,
which helped convince him to come to Vancouver.
And I think Rick Talkett, knowing Rick Talkett,
probably said like, hey, man, why have you bounced around so much?
If you want to come to Vancouver, I'll try and show you how you can play
so that you'll gain the coach the the trust of of coaches so in seven
years since turning pro this is the like Daniel Sprung is a human suitcase he's gone Wilkes-Barre
Pittsburgh Anaheim San Diego Hershey Washington Seattle Detroit that's a lot of different places
to play hockey over a seven-year career where you were a fairly high draft pick right it was a second round pick and very productive in certain spots at the NHL level
including the last two years where he was 40 plus points and that one year in Seattle had 20 21 goals
it's interesting that him and Heinen spoke on the same day because you talked about Heinen's speed
and that probably lends itself and his style of game lends itself to more versatility.
He's a penalty killer, too. Right.
To steal from your notes, he could play up and down the lineup.
He could maybe masquerade as a top-line guy for a couple shifts,
could play on the fourth line.
Sprong probably isn't that.
He probably aspires to being that,
and that's what he talks about rounding out his game.
But Gurp brings up, it was Gurp, right?
Yeah.
And he brings up a good point.
Where does he fit?
Because he doesn't have the sort of jack-of-all-trades,
Swiss Army knife profile that maybe a guy like Heinen has.
Now, can he work on it?
Ideally, because one thing that everybody wants to be is versatile.
It gives you more options, gives you more guys to play with.
Gives you a longer career.
It doesn't have the coach looking down the bench and saying,
I can't put you out right now, or I can't put you out in this situation. You just sit
there for a while, right? And I think that's maybe what Sprong's
had. You're going in the press box next
game. You know where you're sitting. So it's
an interesting,
not a coincidence, but
it's interesting that Sprong
is well known by
Patrick Alveen and Jim Rutherford
and probably Rick Tockett.
I don't know how much Rick Tockett coached Daniel Sprong,
but Sprong was drafted by the Penguins when Jim Rutherford was the general manager there,
and I was doing a lot of reading over the last few days about Daniel Sprong's time there
and how it ended.
And it was interesting, and we brought this up before when Sprong signed.
Patrick Alveen, in his quote in the press release, said,
Bringing in another solid winger will be a boost for our club this season.
Okay.
Daniel has matured a lot as a player.
What a freaking boost.
Okay.
Daniel has matured a lot as a player and has shown he can contribute
offensively when called upon.
His addition up front will give us better depth and should help with more balanced scoring throughout our forward group so uh daniel has
matured a lot i know i made a big deal of this the last time the press release came out and a
lot of people were like poking fun of me like classic you know vancouver media parsing the
comments i'm like well why do you think he said that though? Because when Daniel Sprong was in Pittsburgh, there was a lot of talk that he was not Mike Sullivan's kind of guy.
There was a lot of talk that he was a little bit like,
why am I not in the lineup?
I should be in the lineup.
I'm awesome.
I'm Daniel Sprong.
I'm a second round pick.
And then eventually he gets traded and he gets traded.
I think it was for the defenseman,
Marcus Pedersen.
Yep. And Jim Rutherford was saying like like this was a hard deal to make for me but we need we needed some we need another young defenseman and he liked marcus petterson so they pulled the trigger on the
deal um and then he was asked you know was there conflict between mike sullivan and jim rutherford
or mike sullivan and daniel sprung and rutherford, or Mike Sullivan and Daniel Sprong,
and Rutherford kind of downplayed that.
But when I reached out to a few people in Pittsburgh,
the response they gave me was,
he was not Mike Sullivan's type of guy.
It's funny because...
And Sullivan had him healthy scratched a lot.
And that was a team that had expectations, obviously. They were winning Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh,
so you had to
have, you know, their young guys had to know how to play because the stakes were higher at those
times. Sprung leaves Pittsburgh. He bounces around the league. He does score some goals for teams
like Detroit and Seattle, and yet he finds himself after free agency,
a few weeks after free agency,
nobody wants him.
Nobody signed him.
Goal scoring is important.
Some people say it's the most important thing in the NHL.
So why was this guy not picked up?
He has this conversation with Rick Talkett.
He obviously has a friendship with Elias Pettersson,
and he decides to come to Vancouver, but not for very much, for pretty much league minimum, and for one year. So I think this guy's going to be interesting to watch because there's no doubt he has that shooting talent. And watching the Canucks last year in the playoffs, how many times watching their plow play were you like,
oh, God, I need to get a guy to get the puck on net.
So to confirm, Taka did overlap with Sprong in Pittsburgh.
It was for a grand total of 18 games.
And that was the year, actually, where Mike Johnson got fired.
Mike Sullivan took over.
And I do recall the player, because he debuted as an 18 year old which a lot of guys
don't get to do let alone second round pick he's got a lot of talent he does and it was in the
dynamic that you were talking about was interesting because i talked to a couple different people and
went back and read some of the articles that were written at the time and it sounded as though that
it was rutherford making the push for him to be on the roster and sullivan pushing back and saying
he's not ready.
Like, he's just not ready.
Nice hair, though.
And it was one of those things where I thought it might have caused
a rift between the coach and the general manager.
But ultimately, Rutherford sort of, I guess, acquiesced and said,
yeah, you know what, I'm going to defer to Sullivan here
because he's a good coach.
He's our guy.
He's a Stanley Cup winner.
And if Sprong's not ready by the coach's standard,
we're going to move him along.
So is he just not, like, defensively responsible?
Well, this was when he was 18.
I mean, this was almost a decade ago.
It's crazy to think the kid, he's not a kid anymore.
Yeah, he's not a complete player.
The teams don't pick him up right away.
Do coaches not trust him?
1,000%.
Yeah.
Well.
Yes.
Isn't that it?
I mean, it's as simple as that.
We've seen this story a million times before.
Why was he available this time of the year to the Canucks?
You could ask the same thing about Pew Suter the season prior,
because when he came here, I was like,
I don't see why this guy would have lasted as long as he didn't create.
Suter got a little bit more, though.
Sure.
But I'm just talking about the.
He got a multi-year deal.
I'm not trying to compare the player.
I'm just trying to compare the situation and scenario.
Like, it was a guy that was left over.
Well, I don't think the scenario was all that
the same. I think Suter might have been
asking for a little bit more. Maybe, yeah.
You know, like the Kevin Lankanen situation
where, well, why isn't this guy signed? Apparently he's a good goal.
I think he was,
he didn't want to go somewhere where he's going to
sign for one year in the league minimum.
Right. So Daniel Sprong ends up doing that
in Vancouver.
I don't know what role, where he's going to fit.
I mean, it might not work. He's going to have to work.
It might not work at all.
I mean, it probably won't.
Right?
He's bounced around.
Sure.
He's bounced around a lot.
Maybe he's a guy that if there's injuries, well, perfect.
We've got this offensive guy that can come in and help on the power play.
But are you going to have a line of Pedersen, DeBrusque, and Sprong?
I guess you could.
Here's the thing.
You could.
If you're going to look at one guy as a sort of cautionary tale
about not playing hockey the right way
or not doing the things that are non-negotiables for Talkit,
he plays in Calgary now.
His name is Andre Kuzmenko.
We've seen guys that are high
octane high offensive performers that you on paper it's like they can put the puck in the back of the
net with regularity but and you can have lots of conversations and be like oh okay i will commit
to that sure you can say that and also you have the same old conversation if the guy's only offensive
but he can't fit in the top six it's like well this guy doesn't belong in the bottom six because
he can't play defense so where do you put him that's why and he doesn't kill penalties that's why what do you do with them that's why i think he might be
right when he said like it might it probably won't work out i mean if you're making odds on it i'm
not i'm not saying that i don't like the deal because it is completely low risk it can be you
know it can be buried in the hl if you want it to be but i look at the depth of talent that they
have it forward the versatility that the certain wingers have. And it goes back to one central question,
which Gert asked off the top, like, where does he fit?
And it might not be that he, you know,
maybe he improves his game.
Maybe he can score,
but it's not necessarily what you're doing.
It's where you fit a lot of the times, right?
Where can I play you?
Or more specifically, where can't I play you?
I hope he does fit.
It'd be cool if him and Pedersen
have some chemistry together.
I think they've both been described as kind of like different cats.
And if you hear Daniel Sprong tell the story,
they met on vacation a few years ago.
I don't know where the vacation was.
And they ended up going out to dinner and they ended up
staying in touch. So maybe they can work together on some stuff. Who knows? But I think these guys,
I mean, we really are starting the hockey season when we're talking this in depth on Daniel Sprong
and Danton Heinen. There's lots of new guys that we're going to talk about and where do they fit and where do they not.
A lot of it will be based on how training camp goes,
how preseason goes, the injuries, et cetera.
So I'm curious to see how both those guys pan out.
But I think Danton Heinen is probably your best bet
to be an everyday player.
He may not be as flashy as a guy like Daniel Sprong,
but I think he's going to add speed i
think he's going to add penalty killing ability and i think he can go up and down the lineup
i do want to one final thing and what happened before we go to break we mentioned it off the
top i do want to reiterate and give kudos to ryan gauld who i you know my heart was broken when i
found out that he got the call to the scottish national team after nearly a decade away and that
means the dreams of him being Canadian were dashed.
He came on in the 70th minute yesterday.
We mentioned they lost 3-2 to Poland, but he came on in the 70th minute,
played 20 plus added and had the most chance creation per minute
based on the advanced stats that came out after the match.
And I really hope, I really hope that the manager,
Steve Clark takes a look at this and says,
what we're doing as a federation,
trotting out the same old guys in the same old spots is just getting us
lousy results.
And we need to try something new.
I took a chance by calling the guy up from Vancouver.
I took a chance,
giving him a cap after 10 years away.
And then I gave him an opportunity and he thrived.
He went out there and it didn't just fill the numbers.
He made things happen.
I hope he starts on the weekend.
They play Portugal, by the way.
They play Ronaldo in Portugal and Ronaldo scored yesterday.
It's Nations League going on right now.
Yeah, yeah.
It's UEFA Nations League.
So I hope that Ryan Gould, now that the Canadian dream is dashed,
he becomes a fixture of this squad.
I'm going to put you on the spot here.
Great. How much did Stuart Armstrong play for Scotland I'm going to put you on the spot here. Great.
How much did Stuart Armstrong play for Scotland?
Yesterday?
No, no, no.
No, just in general.
Oh.
How much has he played for them?
He's been capped, right?
Yeah, like 50 plus times.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But he barely played at Euro, but it was partially
because his last season at Southampton, he finished
with an injury.
He basically focused on trying to get fit for Euro.
He came on as a substitute in one match in the group stage.
Do you think he'll be honest about the state of Scottish soccer?
If we ask him?
I was thinking about that.
I was thinking like...
You should ask him, right?
Yeah.
Because in some ways, people are...
My gut answer, and I have to tell you...
It's not as low as it has been.
But my initial instinct would be like,
he's not going to say anything detrimental
because he still wants to get back into the squad.
Steve Clark's going to be like, did you trash us on Vancouver radio on Friday?
And he's like, yes.
But he would be more Steve Clark's type of player, wouldn't he?
Yeah, because he's been around for forever.
Clark's capped him like 50 plus times.
And he was a fixture prior to this Euro.
You know, they call him a box to box midfielder.
Yes, he's a chance creator like Ryan Gold. And then one year he scored a ton of goals. You know, they call him a box-to-box midfielder. Yes, he's a chance creator, like
Ryan Gould. And then one year, he scored a ton of goals.
You know what? I was asking
a guy who follows Scottish football
far closer than I, and he said
he's got
a great profile for Vancouver.
He's going to be the kind of guy
that will create a lot of things
from that midfield position,
allowing guys like Gould and White to have more chances to finish
as opposed to maybe you don't need Gould to be as creative as he's been.
He can put on his finishing boots, as they say,
and maybe score a few more goals.
Anyway, congratulations to Ryan Gould.
Didn't go well for Scotland,
but he had an impressive debut for Scotland yesterday.
Brady Henderson is going to join us next to talk a little Seahawks.
Seahawks are in action against the Denver Broncos on Sunday.
It's a new era of Seahawks football.
No more Pete Carroll.
And it's the Mike McDonald era in Seattle.
Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions.
They're in action tonight in Montreal, but if you want to see them at home,
the roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions 70th season.
Get your tickets now at BCLions.com.
You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. 6.33 on a Friday.
It's a Fiesta Friday here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.
Chad is muy caliente this morning.
Good job, Chad.
His name is Zach.
It's Chad.
Okay.
Our program manager, Cam Barra, was thoroughly, thoroughly amused by the fact that we gave Zach a nickname that is just another regular name.
Top five worst nickname of all time.
What's your nickname, Bart?
He's like one of those European hockey players that comes over and everyone's mispronouncing his name, but he's just too polite to say anything.
Those are the best.
And Zach now is just like, I will live my life as Chad.
It's pronounced Chad.
Do you remember former NHL defenseman Nicholas Grossman?
I can't say I do.
Okay.
He bounced around.
I think he played in Philly and he played in Arizona at the end.
And there's a great anecdote, which is what Bruff is talking about,
is one day one of the staffers looked at his passport
and realized that Grossman was spelled with two Ns at the end.
And he had gone his entire NHL career as Nicholas Grossman with one N.
And he just never said anything because he's like, well, nobody ever asked.
And they're like, but your name was spelled wrong on the back of your jersey for years.
And it took a guy to look at his passport and be like,
we're going to,
you know what we're going to do for you.
We're going to spell your name.
Right.
There was also,
um,
Connor Sherry for like five years,
never told anyone that his last name was pronounced Sherry because he,
he didn't want to make a fuss,
which was great.
I'm like,
Shorty's always quite, um, not obsessive, but he really wants to get the names right.
So he'll often, I think he was one of the first to call him Sherry.
He's like, what do you call him Sherry for?
His name is Connor Sherry.
I know.
Real professional broadcasters do that, as opposed to us.
We guess.
And then when we get it wrong, we like ah it's fine it's chad
brad marshand for 20 years he's like actually it's marshand like what okay uh screw you nose face we
said no messing around today because we got a lot of sports to get into and we got a lot of business
to take care of brady is waiting patiently very quickly before we get to brady this show is brought
to you by vancouver honda vancouver's premier destination for honda customers they have a
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We are in Hour 1 of the program.
Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling.
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To the phone lines we go.
Brady Henderson, Seahawks reporter for ESPN,
joins us now on the Halford & Breff Show on Sportsnet 650.
Good morning, Brady.
How are you?
What's up, fellas?
Good to talk to you again.
Just for the record, it is Henderson,
and there's only one N at the end of it.
Just want to set the record straight on that.
You guys had it right this whole time.
There's no umlaut over the O, and there's no accent over the E.
Okay, good.
Brody, are you excited for the Seahawks this year?
Yeah, no tilde over any of the Ns in there.
I'm very excited, yes.
And I'm excited to be talking to you guys again.
There's not that much, not that many things that will get me up at 6.30 in the morning
other than, you know, a flight and a tea time and maybe my bladder sometimes.
But talking to you guys is one of them.
So it's really good to be back on the airwaves with you guys.
It's nice to be an elite company with those three.
So that's good.
We are very happy that you're joining us.
So here's the thing.
We've been talking a lot about this season and I'm going to just say it.
We don't share the same level of excitement because we don't know what the
Seahawks team is going to be.
We spent all week trying to figure out why we weren't excited. I think we finally came down to it. It's like, we don't know what this Seahawks team is going to be. We spent all week trying to figure out why we weren't excited.
I think we finally came down to it.
It's like, we don't know what they're going to be.
It was kind of outside of that one big scrap.
It was a pretty understated training camp.
We don't know a ton about Mike McDonald.
We really have to see the product play out on the field, right?
So you've been around this team all preseason and all training camp, Brady.
What do you think this team is going to be all about?
I think they're going to be kind of about what Pete Carroll wanted to be about,
which was defense and, you know, running the football.
Okay.
And having everything being built around that.
Obviously, the Seahawks were.
That was their style of play for a long time,
and then they really lost their edge in both of those,
and that's why Pete Carroll's gone and Mike McDonald is here.
I mean, this is very much going to be, you know,
a defensive-minded team that wants to run the ball
and that wants to, you know, kind of build its offense around,
you know, running the ball and then play action
and exploding in the passing game, which is a lot like Pete.
I mean, I think it's going to look different.
Like their defense is definitely stylistically and scheme-wise
going to be a lot different than Pete's. But I think sort of approach-wise it's going to be the same and
in terms of how good they're going to be it's hard to say I'm a little more optimistic after
seeing them in training camp and just seeing how good Geno Smith looks um they kind of feels I mean
the number that keeps popping up into my head is 10-7.
And obviously, you can never predict, you know, what happens if there's just major rash of injuries.
But assuming, you know, a typical reasonable amount of injuries, they kind of feel like a 10-7 team.
I think they just have a scheme advantage that they did not have in years past.
And that was just such a detriment to them is that they just weren't,
you know,
the coaching staff really was not giving them any sort of edge the last few
years. And Mike McDonald is going to do that.
I think Ryan Grubb is going to do that.
I think they made some nice personnel upgrades in a lot of places.
The offensive line is still a big question mark.
And I think the other question mark, I think you've got to be realistic
knowing that you've got a first-time head coach at 37.
You've got all the newness on the coaching staff.
I think there's going to be, you know, maybe some growing pains
to work through with a new coaching staff and with the offensive line.
But 10-7 just feels like kind of where it's at.
But I could see, you know, 11-6.
I don't think they're going to bottom out.
But 10-7 just kind of feels like what this team is going to be to me.
Brady, tell us more about these new schemes.
Are these like secret schemes that Mike McDonald brings over in a briefcase
that's handcuffed to his wrist? i i'm just curious about this stuff i've always i've always wondered
um you know what makes a great i know he's not the defensive coordinator but he's going to be
the defensive coordinator he's calling all the defensive plays what makes a great coordinator
where if it's you know if it's offense or defense, it doesn't really matter.
Is it the plays that are designed or is it how it's coached?
Yeah, that's a good question.
And everything I've always heard is that it's more of the latter.
And I'm sure you've heard players and coaches talk about how everybody in the NFL is sort
of running the same plays, but the difference between one scheme versus another is how it's packaged
and how part of their defensive package might complement another.
And Mike McDonald is a very humble guy, and he's even said,
he sort of pushed back at the notion that it's quote-unquote his defense.
And I think he is sort of being humble there, and there is some truth to it's quote unquote his defense. And I think, you know, it's, he is sort of being humble there.
And there is some truth to it, that it is his defense.
And I think he sort of came up with it along with a bunch of other guys or a
few other guys, at least while they were at Michigan a few years ago.
But the fact of the matter is that defense is sort of taking the NFL by
storm, kind of the way the Vic Fangio scheme did a few years ago I think you've got
five different teams running this you know some version of Mike McDonald slash that that Baltimore
defense and so it it kind of picks it kind of pulls from different you know defenses like
you know the pressure package is the the Jim Johnson pressure package that the Eagles were
running back in the day and there's other you know parts of it that just pull from different
things and again I don't know if he's necessarily devising plays that have never been run it's just
you know picking apart and kind of melding together and having different parts of the
defense complement each other but it's picking apart things that have already sort of been done by other
defenses.
And so,
and then,
you know,
that's not to say that he's just copying everything that other people do.
It's sort of how you teach it and how you,
again,
how you package it all together.
But I think that the main thing that it really tries to do is confuse
defenses.
And you see a lot of late movement,
not just right before the snap,
but right after the snap as well.
And the whole thing, I think, is built around trying to make it
as hard as possible for the quarterback to know what's coming.
And another interesting hallmark of it,
and you really notice this when you're watching practice,
is players are communicating very loudly up until the snap.
And it seems like pure chaos, and it seems like everybody is just yelling
just when you watch it kind of from the sidelines.
But it's very intricate in how they communicate.
And you hear players talk about, players from other teams talk about
how well this defense communicates and how much they're on the same page.
And that's a very big deal to Mike McDonald.
And I don't know if that's necessarily specific
to this scheme I don't know if it's so much about the scheme that requires communication I think
Mike McDonald will tell you that every great defense communicates well and and he is really
big on that so if you watch these guys during practice I don't know how much you would hear
it during the game maybe you could see it pre-ap, but these guys are all talking to each other
and trying to get on the same page before the snap.
How impactful will their first-round pick, Byron Murphy, be this year?
Yeah, I think very impactful.
I think he has got a chance to be very good.
And they're so deep in their defensive line rotation
that he technically might not start.
I mean, he might not be out there for the first play of every game,
but don't think that that means that he's just some backup in a reserve role.
I mean, I think that you just see flashes of dominance.
And I know the Aaron Donald comparison is,
it's a dangerous comparison to make there, but just with the stature,
you know, kind of being a small like a
shorter defensive tackle kind of lower center of gravity guy but the quickness and just the ability
to dominate people look he's and I don't think anybody will ever be Aaron Donald but you see
some of some of that just it kind of reminds you of it just with the body type and the quickness
and the ability to just get underneath people and completely drive them back. I mean, he, he makes plays,
he made plays in training camp,
especially during the one-on-ones where you just,
you just watch it and you're like, wow, you know? So, um, he's gonna,
he's gonna make an impact.
And I think that even in sort of a rotational role where he may not start
every game, he may not play you know 40 snaps a
game but i don't see any reason why just based on what i've seen why he shouldn't be you know
give himself a legitimate shot at defensive rookie of the year you just got me 20 more excited for
the seahawks season we are speaking of brady and also i'm very glad that aaron donald stay retired
uh we are speaking you got to see it in practice, man.
It really is something, the way that he just overpowers people.
Awesome.
How badly have they needed a guy like that up front?
Yeah, very badly.
And you've seen them really try to make a lot of moves to try to do it.
I think they would tell you that that position,
like a really impact defensive tackle, is hard to find. And there's some spots that are easier to do. I think they would tell you that that position, like a really impact defensive tackle, is hard to find.
And there's some spots that are easier to find.
You can find a good wide receiver.
You can find other positions.
But for whatever reason, it's just hard to find really good guys at that spot.
And that's why you saw, you know, they spent the first round pick on.
And, look, there were only, I think,
two defensive tackles that went in the first round this year.
And the first guy didn't go until 16 when Seattle took Byron Murphy.
And so I think they were very fortunate just knowing how hard it is
to find that guy.
I mean, they've tried to, you know, that's why they took a gamble
on Malik McDowell, why they traded for Sheldon Richardson after that.
I mean, it made a number of moves why they, you know,
gave a second round pick for a 29-year-old Leonard Williams
with half a season left on his contract.
I mean, they've really been trying.
Obviously, Williams and Byron Murphy are much different body types,
but just the same idea that an impact defensive tackle is pretty hard to find,
and they feel like they've got one.
They feel like they've got two of them, actually,
with Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy.
We're speaking to ESPN's Brady Henderson here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. they got one. I feel like they got two of them, actually, with Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy.
We're speaking to ESPN's Brady Henderson here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.
Brady has a presentation of the Clayton Public House
pregame to postgame.
The Clayton Public House is your home of football.
Catch all the action on 15 screens
and two giant projectors.
Visit them online at theclaytonpub.com.
Brady, yesterday, Geno Smith confirmed
that his camp reached out to the Seahawks about a new contract.
What did the Seahawks say in response or what have the Seahawks said in response about an extension for Geno Smith?
Yeah, I imagine that conversation went something like this.
Like, look, sorry, we love Geno, but there's a pretty longstanding policy of, you know, that they don't renegotiate contracts.
At least they don't do that in players' favor when they have more than one
season left.
And so I think the conversation probably went something to the effect of,
look, you know, come back in a year and maybe we'll talk at that point.
And, you know, at that point,
Gina would only have one year left on the deal.
And so I think Smith is in a fascinating situation he's sort of
in this weird case of extreme limbo where he's playing for a team that clearly has not really
seemed sold that he's their franchise quarterback you know you heard the non-committal comments from
John Snyder and Mike McDonald early in the offseason where to me I really got the impression
that they were keeping the door open to possibly
trade him and then it wasn't until you know they traded for Sam Howell that they finally said that
Schneider finally said yeah Geno is the guy and I don't think it's coincidence that that only came
in March you know right in the start of free agency when the the most likely window to trade
Geno had already passed so I think they got to that point realized they weren't window to trade Gino had already passed. So I think they got to that point, realized they weren't going to trade Gino and said, okay, yeah, now,
now that, now that that window has passed,
that they'll name him the starter. But even then, you know,
they acquired Sam Howell with the thought that Howell could end up being
their starter, their, their, you know,
replacement if Gino Smith were to falter.
So you've got an organization that doesn't seem sold on Smith and you've got
a quarterback who thinks that he's underpaid
based on where the market has gone.
And here's where this story kind of gets interesting to me.
Remember the four days that Geno Smith missed
or the four practices he missed while he was getting tests
on the hip and knee injuries?
This is just me speculating here.
I'm not reporting this, but I think that some of that was contract related.
I think that he got banged up in practice,
and I think he sort of took his time getting back,
knowing that he doesn't have any guaranteed money left on the contract
after this year.
And I think he also saw the same thing that I saw
and every other reporter at training camp saw,
which was that there's a very big gap between him and Sam Howell.
And I think that he was, you know,
I think that he maybe used that as an opportunity to say, look,
I'm going to take my time getting back from his injuries.
I want to make sure everything is right before I get back out there.
And in the meantime, you can see what life is like without me.
And you can see what life is like with,
with this quarterback who is not nearly as good as me.
And so, again, that's me speculating.
And I feel even more strongly about that after hearing Smith confirm yesterday
that, yeah, his side did reach out to the Seahawks wanting a new contract.
I don't think that conversation went anywhere.
But I think that's something that Geno has wanted.
And just remember, this all came after Jared Goff got a new deal, I don't think that conversation went anywhere, but I think that's something that Geno has wanted.
And just remember, this all came after Jared Goff got a new deal,
after Tua got a new deal, Trevor Lawrence, Jordan Love.
I mean, if you look at where Smith ranks now, his $25 million per year average has fallen all the way to 20th
in terms of quarterbacks, APY.
Well, he's 11th in total QBR over the past two seasons.
So he's got a legitimate case to feel like he's underpaid.
And Trevor Lawrence and Baker Mayfield and Kirk Cousins
and a bunch of guys who are getting paid more than him
are all well behind him in terms of QBR.
So from the Seahawks' standpoint, I think their case is pretty simple,
that, look, they don't renegotiate deals with more than one year left.
And, look, when Geno Smith signed that deal last March,
that was basically the league was telling him,
look, that's what you're worth.
The sort of market showed that, yeah,
he wasn't going to get paid more than $25 million per year.
So I think both sides have a case here,
and I think you've got to see what he does this year
to really figure out where it goes from here.
But I think it's pretty clear that the Seahawks weren't going to do anything,
weren't going to give him a new contract
when he still has two years left on the current one.
Do you think the DK Metcalf contract situation could get spicy,
not this season, but maybe next offseason
yeah because he'll be in the same position as Gino and he's got two years left on his deal so
even if he wanted a new deal right now just based on where the wide receiver market has gone
I think that would similarly be a non-starter but again you know after this year he'll have
one year left so so he'll be in position for one i think the the two situations are a little bit different just because dk
is paid right now he's even with where that wide receiver market has gone i would still say that
he's paid um you know appropriately based on his production you know like i don't know where i
can't remember where he's at in terms of wide receivers but i still think it's pretty close to how he's produced over those last two seasons
whereas gino smith really has an argument of you know he is he is out you know he's he's not making
enough relative to what other quarterbacks are making and how he has played compared to them but
yeah i i think it'll get interesting with gino sm. Metcalf next offseason just because where that wide receiver market has gone,
where the top of that market is, what, now $35 million,
whatever Justin Jefferson is making, whatever that figure is.
So, yeah, I would think that that situation is going to come to a head
next offseason, but again, I don't think anything would come of it
this offseason when he's still
got the two years left on the deal.
The Seahawks are one of the biggest favorites on the board
this weekend. They're a six-point favorite
at home against Bo Nix
and the Denver Broncos at Lumen Field on Sunday.
Brady, thank you very much for doing
this today. We really appreciate it. You got us
excited about this weekend and the Seahawks
season. Enjoy the game this weekend. We'll do
this again next Friday.
Sounds good, fellas. Great to talk to you again. We'll talk
to you next week. You too. Thanks, Brady. Brady Henderson,
ESPN, the Seahawks insider here
on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. See,
I feel I'm getting excited.
It's been a while since we started doing our
weekly hits with Brady, and that's
one of those early signs
that sports are back.
We're getting excited for the weekend.
There's a full slate of games to go watch.
I put together my list of five games that we're going to break down
when we do our sort of pseudo locks of the week here.
Things are back.
Nature is cyclical.
Sports are cyclical.
It's good.
I'm excited for it.
And talking to Brady, the intrigue level did go up a little bit for me with this team.
Very interesting, the offensive side of the football with Ryan Grubb as the new offensive coordinator.
I'm more than happy that the Shane Waldron era is gone and went out the door with Pete Carroll.
They needed to do a complete house cleaning of the coaching staff.
So there was two things that stood out for me in doing all the training camp and exhibition preseason stuff.
One, Grubb came in on the first day and told the entire offense,
and DK Metcalf relayed this story midweek.
He told them, like, here's our identity as an offense.
We're going to be a run first team. We are going to force
the opposition defense to
stop our run. And then
if they can't, great, we're going to keep running the ball
down their throat. And when they have to adjust
to stop our run, that's when the passing game is going
to open up. And he said that
clarity made it real easy for
everyone to get on the same page because they knew exactly
what they wanted to do and they knew they had an identity.
And then the other thing that I didn't realize
that a lot of people were griping about last year
was that there was some suggestion that Waldron did a lousy job
of putting Smith and Jigba in different spots.
They kind of used them as just a slot receiver.
And they're like, I think you're mismanaging a very talented guy.
Remember the one highlight reel catch he had?
I think it was in the Drew Locke game, actually.
Locke threw a fairly decent ball into the end zone,
but Smith and Jigba made a one-handed grab.
And it kind of showed like, no, you can split this guy out wide.
You can put him on post patterns.
You can throw the ball up and let him go jump, right?
Those kind of things.
And they did that a couple times in the preseason.
So I'll be real excited to see if that happens as well,
because then you get what I think should have happened last year
where Metcalf's your number one option,
but JSN is the two,
and then Tyler Lockett, who's in the twilight of his career now,
he becomes still pretty good.
Still pretty good.
If you have three guys clicking,
that offense could be real fun to watch.
So we had our Seahawks talk.
We've had some NFL talk.
We'll have some NFL talk later on in the show.
But for those of you saying, hey, don't the Lions have a big game tonight?
Yeah, they do in Montreal.
It's going to be a good one,
especially if Nathan Rourke can keep progressing
as we've seen in the three games that he's played.
The first, no bueno.
The second one, meh.
Third one, pretty good.
Muy bueno.
So the fourth one is going to be incredible.
And the NFL is going to come calling for that guy
he's going to be so good
oh not this season
but we will talk to Moj
at 8 o'clock
previewing tonight's
big Lions-Als game
from Montreal
I think the Alouettes
are the undisputed
best team in the CFL
they're the defending
Grey Cup champs
they have barely lost this season,
just one loss. Playing at home is going
to be, playing in Montreal is going to be
hard. It's going to be sold out in
Montreal tonight. So we'll talk to Moj
about that. We're going to have a little
soccer talk coming up with James Sharman
and the newest white cap, Stuart Armstrong.
Also, we're going to go into the Dunbar
Olimber text line throughout the show, if
we have time.
Text in your Ask Us Anythings and include the pizza emoji if you want to be entered into the contest for Best Ask Us Anything.
$100 gift card to AJ's on the line.
Check that.
Two $100 gift cards to AJ's on the line,
since we did not give one away last week.
Lots to come.
Two hours left.
Halford & Brough, Sportsnet 650.