Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Have A Lot Of Depth This Season

Episode Date: September 13, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk the Canucks Young Stars lineup and if Lekkerimäki could make the NHL roster this season (10:00), plus they preview Sunday's Seahawks matchup at New England with ESPN's Brady Henderson (27:50). 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.

Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- Has to heave it, and it's intercepted. Coming the other way, and going for six is Jamarcus Ingram. A 30-yard interception return for a touchdown. Tua's third pick of the night. Springfield Police, Chief Clancy Wiggum speaking. How can I help you? People are eating dogs and cats in Springfield. Are they good? Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend.

Good morning, Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Alfred and his Brougham Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning. Good morning. Laddy, good morning. Hello, hello.

Alfred and Brougham in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North

Star Metal Recycling, Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Well, they pay the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of

five-star Google reviews. Soar feet. What are you waiting for? Kintec. You know what else I'm waiting for? This weekend. More sports get underway this weekend. For the first time in a long time, Jason, I can say it. Tonight, there's Canucks hockey. Brackets, sorta.

Too early for that. 7.30 tonight. 7.30 tonight. You can hear it on the Sportsnet 650 alt stream. That's got all of our controversial programming on it. It's like, oh, I only listen to alt 650. That's where we put all the opinion pieces and the editorials. As opposed to the regular stream, which is more like top 40 sports radio.

Yeah, we're going to be introed by the incel hour. No, it's not going to be that. What? It was like an alt-right stream. Oh, okay. Make radio radio work. It does. No, we're not going to be intro'd by that.

It's 7.30 tonight on our alternate stream. Go to sportsnet.ca forward slash 650. Brendan Batchelor and the crew are going to be up at the South Okanagan Events Center in Penticton for the Canucks' first game of Young Stars tonight. It is the Canucks and it is the Oilers. Note the start time, 730, and note that it is on our alt stream. The alt right stream.

That's right. You see how the Canucks stack their top line? Yes. For the Young Stars? The Ratu, Baines, the Karamaki? You were excited by that, were you not? That's going to score 50 goals. Tonight.

Yeah, the score will be 50 to 1. Have you ever actually watched the Young Stars games? No. No, I have. It's been a while since I've been really invested in them, but I do watch them, yes. So you're quote-unquote really invested in this Young Stars tournament? No, I'm not.

I mean, should I just? No, I am. I shouldn't act like this. Like, if you're excited, that's awesome. That's great. Maybe some of your excitement will rub off on me. I'm excited in the sense that it just brings me this much closer to Canucks hockey. And you're also excited about the alt stream.

Yeah. Can't wait to watch it. So that's tonight. As for the show today, guest list begins at 630. Brady Henderson, ESPN, NFL Nation, Seahawks insider, is going to join us. We will talk about the Seahawks and the Patriots live from New England on Sunday, 10 a.m. because it's in New England. Seahawks are three-point road favorites.

The over-under is a spicy 38.5 points, Jason. Well, Patriots fans after last night, which we'll get into, are probably suddenly thinking, maybe we can win this division or at least finish second. Do you know what they're doing on the weekend? It is the 10 year anniversary of the New England Patriots Super Bowl 49 winning team. They're all getting back together. I mean, if it were, it makes sense, right? You're playing the Seahawks.

The team beat Pete Carroll out there. No, they're all. So Brady's not her Patriots head coach. Brady's not mole. Brady's not mole. Brady's not going. Belichick's not going. But Malcolm Butler is going to be there. So that'll be fun.

So anyway, Seahawks Patriots. I will talk to Brady Henderson from ESPN at 630 about that. Seven o'clock. It's AJ from AJ's Pizza. We're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. The best pizza place in the world. We're giving that away to the best Ask Us Anything, because it is Ask Us Anything Friday on the program.

Hashtag it AUA. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. We have one already in the in-basket, so people are working hard. They're grinding. They want that pizza. 730 Moj is going to join the program. Again, brackets, we hope.

You never know with Moj on a Friday, right? You don't know what's going to happen. It's early in the morning. Sometimes his phone is on vibrate. It's a real adventure. It is, every time. Sometimes he's on the tarmac. Anyway, Moj is going to join us, hopefully,

because tonight, BC Lions, the 7-6 BC Lions, look for their third straight victory. They will take on Chad Kelly and the visiting 6-6 Toronto Argonauts. So we'll talk to Moj at 7.30 about that. 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall. This is his first hit, right? After a couple months off, his first hit

back in the saddle. Got a lot to get into with Dolly. A little rusty. He was very excited. I was like, so you want to join us when the preseason starts? He's like, no, let's go today! It's his first regular season game with us he's been on the show i mean he he kicked off all the stuff about uh thatcher down cohen and clark but moving forward rick will be our regular friday insider joining us at eight o'clock every friday and that

starts today at eight o'clock again i mentioned the 100 gift card to aj's for the best ask us anything so working in reverse on that guest list. 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall. 7.30, it's the Moj. 7 o'clock, AJ from AJ's Pizza and 6.30, it's Brady Henderson. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened.

Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened?

What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Before we dive into the start of the Canucks young star tournament and the big top line they loaded up their top line we do need to talk about the National Football League last night Thursday night football a much anticipated matchup a clash of what we thought was going to be the top of the AFC East did not materialize that way you know we had Matt Vertoram on the show yesterday and he said the Bills have dominated the Dolphins recently and the Dolphins really

need to try and win one of these games because the Dolphins never show up against big teams and good teams well that's exactly what unfolded yesterday the Buffalo Bills routed the Miami Dolphins 31 to 10 and that scoreline actually took a back seat by the end of this game because the big story in the aftermath was Tuatunga-ailoa, the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins, suffering another very serious head injury, later diagnosed with a concussion. This is now the third or fourth one of his professional career and it does put questions about his future playing the game. Yeah, I don't know if this guy should keep playing football. I know that's easy to say about someone else's passion and someone else's, you know, I imagine for a lot of these guys, it's outside of family. It's their main purpose in life.

I feel awful for the guy. He's only 26, but that looked really bad last night. And it looked bad on, frankly, an innocuous collision. It looked that way. Like I know close up, it looked like, oh, his head went into Damar Hamlin's chest and obviously got knocked. It looked like Tua hit Damar Hamlin more than Damar Hamlin hit Tua. Well, that's because 100% what happened.

But it wasn't helmet to helmet. Tua just lowered his head and drove into Hamlin's chest, and Hamlin was just there. Hamlin was there too late because Tua got the first down. It was a fourth down, fourth and four, I think. Tua got the first down by what, two or three yards? Obviously, obviously in hindsight, he should have given himself up once he gained the first down or frankly, even before that, considering what happened, but maybe he wasn't 100% sure he had got the yardage required or maybe it was too late to slide or

maybe he just didn't think it was all that dangerous to go into DeMar Hamlin's chest like that and be the aggressor as opposed, like again, it's not like DeMar Hamlin smoked him like that and be the aggressor as opposed, like, again, it's not like DeMar Hamlin smoked him. Yeah, laid him out. Didn't come over the middle and just like hammer him. I think Hamlin realized like, well, he's got the first down, so I better not take a penalty

on this. Now, there is going to be a big debate about whether or not this guy should continue to play football. If you want to know the rules on all this sort of stuff in terms of how he gets paid if he were to retire, if he were medically cleared to return, he would not get what's remaining on his contract. Right. And that's a big deal because he just signed a big contract and it's worth a lot of guaranteed money. He's already paid. Now, he's already set for life unless his spending gets out of control. Right.

Because he's already received, I think, 43 million of the 167 guaranteed that he gets in this, that he just got. What was it? A couple of weeks ago? Just no Fabergé eggs. Got to stay away from the Fabergé eggs. But he, yeah. True. But he, like, he's still got a decision to make because he admitted last year that he considered retiring due to concussions

that he received in 2022 and received two of them and he said yeah I think I considered it for a time having sat down with my family having sat down with my wife and having those kinds of conversations but really it would be hard for me to walk away from this game with how old I am you know he was only 24 at the time. With my son, I always dreamed of playing as long as I could to where my son knew exactly what he was watching his dad do. It's my health. It's my body.

And I feel like this is what's best for me and my family. I love the game of football. If I didn't, I would have quit a long time ago. Do things change now, though? Do things change now that he's got a lot of money in the bank, that this is his third concussion? And again, some people are just more prone to these concussions. They get them more easily and with Tua's style too.

He's a mobile quarterback. With his style, I don't know. It's hard to watch because of, if anyone didn't see the visual last night, one of the recurring things that happened in, I think all three of Tua's concussions now that we've seen on TV is his arms end up freezing in the fencing position,

which is a sort of neurological response to suffering massive head trauma. He was later diagnosed with a concussion, quite obviously. I think that kind of went without saying. Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel was asked about this right away in his post-game media availability. So here is the question and answer period. We just took a snippet of it, of what McDaniels had to say about Tua Tungavailoa following Miami's 31-10 loss to the Bills on Thursday Night Football. Mike, obviously it's very early in the process with Tua. Do you foresee a trip to the injured reserve list,

or do you have any insight on that? You know, right now, you know, I'm not really, it's more about, you know, getting a proper procedural evaluation tomorrow and taking it one day at a time. The furthest thing from my mind is, you know, what is the timeline my you know i want to know um i i we we just need to evaluate and um and you know i'm just worried about my um you know

my teammate and uh like like the rest of the guys are but we'll take uh we'll get more information tomorrow and then um take it day by day from there. This is going to be fascinating to watch the decision that he makes. There have been players that suffered concussions early on in their careers and kept playing and it wasn't a problem. Sidney Crosby. There was talk that Sidney Crosby early on in his career, a lot of people saying, this guy should retire.

He's got a whole life ahead of him. Kept playing, and I don't know. It looks fine to me. Enter him in conversation, watch him on the ice, right? He took a long time away from the game, though. I mean, the issue with Tua is that he keeps getting the concussions. And, yes, he went through the entire 2023 season with that one. Yeah, he was fully healthy last season.

But the question now is... It's also a different sport. And this is so early in the year. We're talking game two. And you got to wonder... What does that matter? Is he done for the rest of the year? Oh, for the year.

I'm just having a conversation about his career. Yeah, from the football side of things. And there is a football side of it. I mean, there's no other a conversation about his career. Yeah, from the football side of things. And there is a football side of it. I mean, there's no other way to look at it. For sure. The Dolphins, the year he got hurt, remember, still made the playoffs. And it was the guy with the replacement we saw last night, Skyler Thompson, that eventually came in. And, you know, he filled the spot, but it wasn't good.

And it was obviously not a long-term solution. Last year, with Tua healthy, they were 11-6. And remember, if it wasn't for that late-season swoon, they had a lead atop that division. And it looked like they were going to win the division. They finished second. And then, of course, they went to the wildcard game and lost in the wildcard.

So there were big expectations for this year for Miami. They were expected to challenge Buffalo for first in the AFC East. They were expected to be back in the playoffs. And they're a win-now team. Tyreek Hill. They could also easily be 0-2. Yeah. I mean, Tyreek Hill, Jalen Waddell, all the guys that they have in the skill positions.

It's been an eventful couple of weeks for the Miami Dolphins. Crazy. I kind of feel for Mike McDaniel, who is just trying to coach a football team at times, and he's got a lot of, how would you say, extraneous things that he's, and let's be honest, not equipped to deal with. You heard his answer with the concussions. I mean, he's very concerned about his guy. He was brought into Miami.

But he received criticism for the way that he treated Tua or treated the situation in 2022. Oh, I remember. People were blaming him for not protecting his players. So now he's got to be in a position where, you know, for the sake of his reputation, but mostly just for doing the right thing. Like, don't rush this guy back. So, I mean, the one question that was asked,

like, is it a trip to the IR? Everyone would assume yes, but McDaniel wasn't going to say anything publicly yesterday, but we'll keep an eye on it today i imagine more news will come out once uh he goes through baseline testing and everything else so let's uh turn our attention now uh to young stars because there was some news yesterday i guess the big story out of the camp is there a training camp for young stars let's just call it a practice shall we young stars training camp there you go uh we've got le it a practice, shall we? Young stars training camp. There you go. We've got Lekra Maki.

They're loading up the top line for young stars. I respect it. You know, you put all your best, young, brightest prospects on a line together. So Lekra Maki with Baines and Ratu. And we've got some audio here from the new head coach of the Abbotsford Canucks, former Canuck, Manny Malhotra. Greg, do we have this at the ready? Perfect. Let's hear it now on Lekera Maki being given the opportunity

to play with Baines and Ratu, hopefully starting tonight against the Edmonton Oilers. Well, the main goal for all these guys is to set them up and put them into situations where they're going to be successful and put their best foot forward. With all eyes of the organization on them, you want them to show well. So, yeah, by putting them with uh

putting him with rats and and bainsey it's it's going to put them in a good situation obviously two very offensive minded guys uh but at the same time they have the the wherewithal to to be smart defensively and make sure he's in the right spots and communicate with them they call them rats so i have a i have a question for A-Dog A-Dog questions Because A-Dog's A-Dog's the guy Who's excited about Lekker Mackey the most

Yeah And I'm He's gonna win The caller trophy There's a hot take button A-Dog's hot taking now Now A-Dog's scoring That is a

That is a double hot take Because For the first hot take That The first hot take would be That he's going to make the team Yes Well that's a minor issue And the double hot take because for the first hot take, the first hot take would be that he's going to make the team. Yes, well, that's a minor issue. And the second hot take would be that he is so good as a rookie that he wins the rookie of the year.

So, Adog, I have a question for you. If you've – because you've obviously thought this through, right? Oh, of course. You've obviously thought this through. I think everything's through, Jason. It's not just like – Off the cuff. Not any research whatsoever. 10-year- this through, right? Oh, of course. You've obviously thought this through. I think everything's through, Jason. It's not just like... Off the cuff? Not any research whatsoever?

Ten-year-old excitement, right? Well, if Lekker Maki makes the Canucks, where does he fit? Second line. Well, I mean, he can't be at the bottom. He's a top six guy, I mean, ideally. So obviously, if he makes the team... So who's he playing with? Oh, I don't know.

Well, Patterson would be great. Patterson and Nebraska? I don't actually think he's going to makes the team. So who's he playing with? Oh, I don't know. Well, Patterson would be great. Patterson and DeBrusk? I don't actually think he's going to make the team. Let's be clear. This is a bit. I don't think he's going to make the team. I would love it if he did. I hope he gets a bunch of preseason games at the very least.

Maybe he gets a few spins in the NHL. That'd be great. I don't think he makes the team, obviously. But if he does, he's a top six guy, so he'd probably put him with Petey, I assume. Could a line of Petey between DeBrusque and Leckermackie work? I mean, that's the dream, right? If Leckermackie's the real deal. The PLD line?

I don't know if he's the real deal. He's got an amazing shot. That's what he's got going for him. I think what you can clearly see by this is that the Canucks want Lekker Mackey to have a good young stars. Sure. And they want to catapult him into the training camp and maybe he starts training camp

up the lineup. Who knows? Because they were the ones who keep mentioning his name. And by that, I mean, Patrick Galvin. It's not the fan speculation. And they're saying, you know, they kept on saying, well, we want to see Lekromackie.

We're willing to give him a shot. And if you think of the top six, there's no guaranteed winger to play with Miller and Besser. Now, I don't think that would be Lekromackie's spot because Miller and Besser get so much of the tough matchups. But don't forget the Canucks have a really good bottom six. It's weird to say that still, but they do. You could argue it's one of the best in the league.

If you've got, let's say, Bluger back with Joshua and Garland, there's a line that can take tough matchups. And the fourth line could be a checking line too. In theory, you could say, all right, well, let's put Petey, Petey's line out there. Let's say you're at home. Get them the softest matchups possible, and you've got a rookie with a really good shot,

and then you've got Pedersen and DeBrusque together. That's how it would work in theory. Because the candidates to play with Pedersen and DeBrusque together. That's how it would work in theory. Because the candidates to play with Pedersen and DeBrusque, it's not like they're super obvious. We've been through them. Yeah, Heinen is probably like the most likely. Heinen would be the safe. Yeah.

Heinen would be the safe option. I mean, I guess Sprong, theoretically. Sprong, Hoaglander. Hoaglander played a lot with Pedersen last season. Hoaglander's probably on the top line with Bestner. No, he is not. Miller. No, he is not. Miller. No, he is not.

Well, who would you put with them? Suter. Suter? Oh, yeah, I always forget about Suter. I just always think of Suter more as a center, though, like the third line. He could be. Yeah, Suter's weird. But that could be Nils Amon.

That could be Nils Amon. Do you want Suter on the top line with Bester and Miller, though? I mean, I'm sure he'd be fine. Who else is he going to be? It's not going to be Hoaglander. The coach doesn't trust him. That's true. Defensively, you're going to put him out there.

I guess it would be Suter, yeah. A McDavid's in town. Here's a, you know, like Miller's out there and Hoaglander's all over the place. You know, that's spinning everywhere. Everyone on the Miller line, in my opinion, unless I'm missing something, unless Tuckett is completely rethought

of the way he coaches, everyone on Miller's line needs to be defensively responsible. Well, then Hoaglander completely rethought of the way he coaches everyone on Miller's line needs to be defensively responsible well then Hoaglander is like one of the more likely candidates with Pedersen then right I mean assuming yeah he doesn't make the um I think there's I think there's like three or four candidates to play with Petey one of them is Lekromackie though if Sprong doesn't show what he needs to show, if Hoaglander doesn't have a good camp, if they want Heinen as a possibility to play with Miller and Besser, he's a very versatile, defensively responsible guy.

I think he could bring some speed to that line. It's not like Besser's a burner on that line, so maybe Heinen plays with those guys. This is the fun part of heading into training camp, by the way. There are a lot of good players among the Canuck forwards, but we're not quite sure how it's all going to fit. So it's like there's too many options. No, there's not. There's not.

No, no, no, no. There's not too many options. No, no, no. It's a gift of the overall lineup. So what? So Kiefer Sherwood and Sprong and, like, theoretically, who is the fourth? Like, the fourth line is going to be.

They've got good depth. It's crazy depth. They've got good depth. I'm glad you mentioned Sprong because there is a historical context here with Leckermackie that we have to at least consider if past behavior is indicative of what's going to happen in the future. So when they drafted Sprong in Pittsburgh, and this is the Alvin Rutherford duo, and Rick Taka was around as well,

they forced Sprong into the lineup as an 18-year-old. Well, management did. Coaching staff didn't want it. Exactly what I just said. Yeah, yeah. And that was predicated on the fact that Sprong had an NHL-ready shot. Yeah. And that's interesting because the one thing, like Romacki has,

is an elite-level shot. Yeah, that's his thing. And I think that they – and it didn't work in Pittsburgh, so maybe it's going to be one of those, it didn't work in pittsburgh so maybe it's going to be one of those like well we learn from our mistakes type things but they saw an opportunity to put a finisher in the lineup and that would sort of um make up for the fact that the other parts of his game weren't rounded out it's like well but he's scoring goals and that's what we need because scoring goals is hard at the nhl level so i'll give it a sliver like a very very tiny sliver of hope that that might somehow open up an opportunity

for lechermackie but let's be real the general path since this management group has arrived in vancouver has been put these guys in the american league where they can learn and they can grow and they can get better realistically he's probably getting a couple seasons in the hl you'd assume so the second line was max sasson a guy who I'm going to be looking for more at the actual training camp and maybe hopefully some exhibition games because in my mind, he's a candidate to be the 4C as well. He brings some speed. But I'll be honest with you, I haven't seen him play.

I've just heard the Canucks talk him up a lot. He's a guy at the end of last season who the Canucks talked up a lot, so you listen to those things. He's going to be playing with Riley Patterson, who we talked a little bit about yesterday as one of the young guys to watch at this tournament. He's also going to be on the line with Klamovich, and I feel like...

Oh, yeah, that guy. This has got to be it for but we we should have put him in make or break he didn't make the make or break should have been in the make or break conversation because um it might just be that this guy isn't a player I think that's very likely I don't want to say I guess I gotta say like well it is likely it is likely. It's likely. Probability-wise, it's likely. Well, he's also a—it was a reach of a pick from the previous regime. And they probably didn't develop him the right way. If we're going to be honest, he probably should have gone back to junior hockey instead of going to the AHL. You know what I mean, right?

It's not like he was a holdover from the previous regime where everyone was like, yeah, this was a great pick. It was speculative at the time. And now you're looking— He wasn't a first-rounder. Right. And it was high for where everyone was like, yeah, this was a great pick. It was speculative at the time. It wasn't a first-rounder. Right, and it was high for where he was. Taking 41st overall, that was considered high, and it was largely based on the strength of one tournament. When you look at it, if you're coming in to clean up

the previous regime's mess, because that's part of your job when you come aboard, you're probably going to look, first and foremost, at the most egregious mistakes or the biggest misses or you know the biggest errors and that might be one of them so I would definitely put him in the category of make or break for this season and I mean for him

it's not at the NHL level it's going to be at the American Hockey League level where the team's depth will have a trickle down effect and there'll be competition for minutes and spots on that American League team okay we're up against it for time before we go to break i need to tell you about tile town mom dad can we go to tile town sure we can as bc's favorite hockey team kicks off a new season receive 20 off any regular price stock tile in stock visit my tile town.ca for more details

coming up on the other side we're going to talk to Brady Henderson, ESPN's NFL Nation. It is the Seahawks in New England to take on the Patriots, the 10-year anniversary of the Super Bowl win that the Patriots had over the Seattle Seahawks. But aside from that, there's a football game to talk about. Brady Henderson joins us next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. 632 on a Fiesta Friday here on the Halifax and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Sports this weekend, muy caliente. Young Stars gets underway tonight. It goes all weekend. So while our quote-unquote alt stream, you'll have to tune in to that one to see what it's all about, is going to air the first game tonight, the remaining two games that the Canucks are going to play up at the South Okanagan Events Center are going to be on Sportsnet 650 regular. Brendan Batchelor will be on the call.

All your Young Stars action, you can find it right here on Sportsnet 650. Also this weekend, a bunch of football action, including Sunday morning, 10 o'clock our time. It is the Seattle Seahawks going to New England to take on the Patriots in a battle of 1-0 teams. One of these two teams is going to get out of this game with 2-0. Unless there's a tie. Unless there's a tie. There's always the possibility for a tie.

What's the spread? Seahawks by three? Seahawks by three three point road favorite now i'll say this um i don't think any two teams underwent as big a radical shift as the patriots and the seahawks did this last offseason because of course pete carroll gone from seattle and bill belichick gone from new england big storylines going into this one also the 10-year anniversary of superbowl 49 you guys remember that one right so there's a lot to get into without further ado gone from New England. Big storylines going into this one. Also the 10-year anniversary of Super Bowl XLIX. You guys remember that one, right?

So there's a lot to get into. Without further ado, let's bring on our next guest. Brady Henderson, ESPN NFL Nation Seahawks insider, joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Brady. How are you? What's up, fellas? Happy to be celebrating a Fiesta Friday with you guys. How you doing?

Oh, we're great. We love a Fiesta Friday. We love a battle of 1-0 teams. I don't think anyone expected these two teams to be 1-0. Maybe the Seahawks, not necessarily the Patriots, but here we are. And then there's the whole backstory thing. Like I mentioned, this is going to be the 10th anniversary of the 2014 championship where the Patriots beat the Seahawks. And they're bringing out Malcolm Butler. Everybody remembers him and 20 of his former teammates.

So Brady's not going to be there. Belichick's not going to be there. But there's going to be a lot of memories and rekindling of that very infamous game. Jason, do you have something? Well, I was just going to say Drake May is getting a lot of first-team reps at Patriots practice, too. So maybe we'll see Drake May. Brady, on the Seahawks front,

what's the biggest story heading into this game? To me, it's whether or not Ken Walker III plays. And obviously, they've got a talented backup in Zach Charbonnet, a guy that they drafted in the second round last year, knowing that Ken Walker III and basically every other running back, it's just a tough position to play and to last for, you know, 17 games. And so, yeah, he did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. We'll see what he does today. I just go back to the fact that if you watch the replay of the play that he went down on, he sort of, it's almost like he gets stopped in

his tracks immediately and he falls down and he up, and he immediately points to the side. It looked a lot like the injury that he suffered last season. Remember that game down in L.A. where they lost? And he went down in that game, and it looked very similar. And he ended up missing a couple games. And so I know Ken Walker said that after the game he said, I'm good. But I think we just have to see because that the the reaction looked all too similar to me to what he what he suffered last year what did the new oc uh

ryan grubb have to say about this because i mean the first half of that opener against the broncos the offense was awful and then the second half where it started to get on track a big reason why was kenneth walker the third so what did grubb have to say about all this yeah they they really And then the second half where it started to get on track, a big reason why was Kenneth Walker III. So what did Grubb have to say about all this? Yeah, they really did. They pounded Ken Walker III on that first drive of the third quarter. I think between that and the tempo that they started running or started mixing in at least, that really had a good effect on the Patriots' D-line and it really slowed those guys down.

I think there was also just some technical, like mechanical adjustments that the offensive line made that helped them out in pass protection. But you just saw what kind of a difference maker Ken Walker is on that drive. He had the nice touchdown run, also had another touchdown run that was called back by holding penalties. So the comment from Ryan Grubb was that you know charbonnet does a lot of the same things that like very similar skill set he catches the ball out of the backfield really well um i think he is a different player in a couple senses one he's you know more of a

physical runner obviously he might be a better pass protector which is why you see them go to him on third down quite a bit um he doesn't have that fifth gear that Ken Walker has. And Ken Walker can take a 10-yard run and take it to the house, whereas we just haven't seen Charbonnet as a bigger, more powerful back have that top gear. So he said that Grubb said that they really would have everything in the game plan available to them running game-wise if Walker can't play.

And they do have a lot of similar skill sets, but there are some differences. And the one being that Ken Walker III is a home-run hitter, as we've seen several times over the last couple of years. Well, let's check in with the offensive line. How's it doing, Brady? What are the injury updates? What's the coaching staff saying about, well, especially that first half performance? Yeah, well, one thing we're learning about Mike McDonald is that he is not going to be nearly as forthcoming on injury situations as Pete Carroll was.

And I think that is, you know, Mike McDonald taking his cues from John Harbaugh, who really doesn't give a whole lot to reporters there in Baltimore on injuries. And sort of the, you know, the word for McDonnell this week on Walker and George Fant, the right tackle, has been to not really say much. He sort of said that they're taking it day by day with those guys. And he basically just said, you know, all I'm going to tell you these are not his words, this is just my interpretation of what he says all I'm going to tell you is what's on the injury report basically so you can wait to see his status when the injury report comes out every day

and what the injury report showed was that Vance did not practice yesterday or today, I also saw that he walked off the field with a very heavy – actually, he couldn't even walk off himself. He had to have help on either side of him.

And then he was very quickly ruled out for the rest of that game, which is usually not a good sign when a guy is quickly ruled out. So they haven't made a move with him in terms of putting him on IR, but that's not to say that they still couldn't do that before Sunday. And so my guess is that I kind of feel like you're not going to see either of these guys. And that's a tough spot for the Seahawks to be in just because we all saw that movie last year with Stone Forsyth and other guys in there. Now, I think they are a little bit better prepared because, you know,

they don't have Jake Curran there. Jake Curran just could not play. And you saw they didn't even try to keep him around on a minimum salary deal. They were pretty much done with Jake Curran just could not play. And you saw they didn't even try to keep him around on a minimum salary deal. They were pretty much done with Jake Curran. And then they also had Jason Peters at 41 years old. So I think Stone Forsyth, with that experience, might be a little bit better equipped to handle himself this year than he was last year.

But you're still talking about a backup player, really their third string tackle at this point. And so what I think that would force them to do is really lean on the run game, really mix in the tempo like they did, but also really rely on the quick passing game that was the bread and butter of that offense for the last six weeks of the season last year. Remember, they reached a point where they said they realized they could no longer have Geno Smith drop back and take these five, seven-step drops and expect that overmatched offense.

It was a one-step drop. Yeah, one-step drop. Yeah, and they really thrived in that. Geno Smith, as soon as they made that switch, basically, he had the best QBR in the NFL over the last six weeks. So they've seen that they can thrive in that style of play, and I wonder if they may have to switch to that again. So I know a lot of people were already out of their survivor pools

after New England went into Cincinnati and beat the Patriots, and one of the big reasons that New England was able to do that was that they ran the ball down the Bengals' throats. I think they had about 170 yards on the ground. Now, we all know that the Seahawks' defense under Mike McDonald looked pretty good against Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos. Is this going to be a tougher and different challenge

against the New England Patriots on the road, no less? Yeah, because I think that facing Bo Nix, a rookie quarterback, albeit more experienced than your average rookie quarterback, I think he's 24 and started a ton of games in college, but he's still a rookie making his NFL debut in one of the toughest venues to play in in the NFL. That was kind of a dream scenario for the Seahawks. And look, when you go to Jacoby Percet, I don't think anybody would, you know, qualify him as a top 15, probably not even top 20 NFL quarterback. But he is a veteran guy who's been in the league,

what, almost a decade now, and he's playing at home. So there are some similarities with the challenge, you know, both you're playing teams that don't have, you know, superstar quarterbacks and also offenses that don't really have a lot of household names weapon wise. I don't think a lot of people could name, you know, three or four skill players on the Patriots offense other than Ramondre Stevenson, who's their running back and a guy that they leaned on in week one. And yeah, the Seahawks had a lot of success against Denver's run game. And the majority of it really was Bo Nix scrambles. And now you face a quarterback who he is more experienced, like I said, but he doesn't have the same mobility that Bo Nix does. And so I think they're going to be able to really focus their run defense on

Ramondre Stevenson, who went, I think, over 120 yards and a touchdown last week in the opener. So I think it's pretty clear without a lot of big-name wide receivers and a quarterback who is not really a superstar kind of guy, I think it's pretty clear to everybody what that offense, how that offense is going to try to attack Seattle. And so I think that's a benefit for them is really knowing what they have to stop on Sunday.

We're speaking to Brady Henderson, our Seahawks insider from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Brady is 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, I mentioned off the top that one of the major narratives and storyline drivers in this one is new head coach in New England taking over from the legendary Bill Belichick, and that's Gerard Mayo.

New head coach in Seattle taking over from the legendary Pete Carroll, and that's Mike McDonald. I know you wrote earlier in the week, and the headline of the article is, how did Seahawks coach Mike McDonald do in his debut so for our listeners answer that question for them how did McDonald do in his debut well I think you saw that this was a very well prepared team and I think that was the best thing that you could say about Mike McDonald in his debut and obviously look the defensive scheme we know how how difficult it is and we know that the scheme is going to give them an advantage.

But I think sometimes we tend to only look at a defense's effectiveness or an offense's effectiveness, and we look at it as, okay, what talent do they have and what scheme are they running? I think the other big component to that is how prepared they are. And what you saw in that game was a very well-prepared team on both sides of the ball. And I'll take you into training camp, and something that we saw Mike McDonald do every day,

and apparently he's still doing this in the regular season, is he dedicated one period of every practice to what he called a mystery situation, which is the situation that he would spring up on the team. He wouldn't give them a heads- up on what it's going to be. Geno Smith has gone missing. What are we going to do, boys? The murder mystery.

Yeah, right. No, not like a Hardy Boys type thing. A mystery situation where it could be like, okay, offense is backed up against its own goal line, needs a couple first downs just to get out from the goal line, or maybe it's a two-minute situation at the end of the half, four-minute situation at the end of the game where you're trying to ice the win,

or a sudden change where all of a sudden your offense turns the ball over and your defense has got to hurry back out on the field. Well, guess what? You face two of those exact situations, you know, in this game. And that's something that they worked on like situational football every day in practice. And you saw them very well prepared to handle that sudden change. You know, when Geno Smith throws an interception, you have two plays into the game and the defense has to come back out with Denver taking over at the 20 yard line. And they held them to a field goal, did the same thing when Dee Williams muffs the punt at the 9-yard line.

Keeping Denver out of the end zone both of those times with very short fields, that's a pretty good accomplishment, and I think it's a testament to the work they did preparing for that exact situation. And then the same thing at the end of the game when they put their four-minute offense out there trying to ice that win, and they got it done. So between that, between how good the tackling was, which is something that they worked on more than they have in the past,

you know, they worked on that every day in practice. Obviously, you're not live tackling every day, but, you know, they did it with, you know, sort of like, you know, bag drills, and they worked on it every day. And you saw that was a very sound tackling performance, especially considering that tends to be pretty sloppy in Week 1 because teams aren't fully practicing it live in the summer. And then the other part of it was they clearly had a very good game plan

against Bo Nix, knowing that he would try to attack them with short throws, which was the case, and they were ready to defend those. And when he did try to test them deep, they made him pay. So everything about that performance looked like a team that was very well prepared to play. You just couldn't always say that about Pete Carroll's teams. And I got a feeling, guys, that, look, it's only one game. I'm not crowning Mike McDonald, nor am I diminishing what Pete Carroll did. But I got a feeling that this season could end up being kind of an indictment

on how poorly coached they were the last few years and just how much more well-coached they are now. There's a lot to unpack there. And I do – that's really interesting about the preparing for certain individual moments of games. And then collectively, maybe the indictment, jason's mentioned it a few times you know you felt that pete might have lost the team or lost the room to a certain degree over the last little bit with you know bringing in the guys that they brought in and then maybe some of the way the guys talked

about them yeah like it was almost dismissive with dk's comments and jamal adams comments you know it's like they didn't they weren't they didn't feel that he was in charge. Would any part of that be the fact that maybe the guys felt that they weren't prepared well enough? You know, I think with the DK, I think that they have always had those types of situations. You know, go back eight years ago. Remember Richard Sherman was yelling at Chris Richard on the sideline and sort of talking dismissively about some of Pete's coach a team compared to somebody like Bill Belichick, who it was Bill's way,

and Bill was going to run that program with an iron fist, and everybody was going to fall in line. Pete did it a different way where he felt like, okay, you get the most out of players if you let them be yourselves. That means giving them a lot of rope. A lot of players would a lot of times test that and they would, you know, sort of very, very much would hover right on that line. And I think that's really what you saw the last few years is DK Metcalf kind of doing that with, you know, being dismissive of what Pete Carroll said about,

you know, when he tried to hold DK accountable for all the penalty stuff and you hear DK in the press conference sort of sound, you know sound defiant of his head coach. I don't know if that was specific to the last couple seasons. I think that was really something that we've seen, and it was sort of a product of the rope that Carroll would always give his guys. So what do you think happened then? Did the game pass Pete by?

If this season is going to be an indictment of sorts, if it plays out like this theory suggests, I mean, it may not, but what do you think happened? Well, I've talked to somebody in the organization and a couple people who have made the point that they felt like Pete's staff really led him down. And one theory, and I don't think anybody would say that this was literally the only thing, that this was the entire undoing of the Carroll era,

but one factor that I don't think a lot of people have talked about is something that I've heard from inside the organization, which is that they felt like there was a little bit of complacency on the coaching staff, not Pete himself necessarily, but of his assistants. And so the thought was that kind of this mindset took over that you've got this very long-tenured head coach, Pete Carroll, the most successful coach in franchise history who was on a long-term contract. And the feeling inside the organization that I've heard is that

they felt like some of those coaches got a little too comfortable, a little too complacent. And they always, the mentality crept in that, you know, whatever problem arose, you know, Pete would fix it. Or that, you know, they just felt like there was always had, they always had security in the fact that, you know, Pete was always very loyal to his assistants. And that you had this, you had this very successful coach, very tenured guy, and they just felt like there was always security.

So that is one factor, and I think that could speak to the idea that this was not a very well-coached team the last few years. I don't think that was necessarily all on Pete. I think a big part of it was the fact that Pete did not hire the right coordinators, and he whiffed on a few of those. And we've seen that over the last few years. They just, you know, look at how many guys that he hired coordinator-wise that have been promoted to head coach.

The only one, actually this wasn't even a coordinator of his, it was Dave Canales, the guy he passed over when he hired Shane Waldron as offensive coordinator. But you haven't seen any of his offensive coordinator hires since, I think, like Dan Quinn almost a decade ago get hired as a head coach. And you just saw him hire a few different guys. I don't think any of his coordinators lasted more than a few years because those guys just weren't getting the job done.

So that's not to absolve Pete of this, but I think the thought in the organization was that his assistants just kind of got too comfortable and let him down. Real quick, before we let you go, I know it's only week two, but how important is it that the Seahawks get a win this weekend? Because if you look at all their games before they're by in week 10, it's not an easy schedule from here on out. They've got the Dolphins, although that game kind of got thrown into arrears

last night. Detroit, San Francisco, Buffalo, L.A., the Rams, all before the bye in Week 10. So how important is it to get a win? I know it's only Week 2, but this weekend in New England. Yeah, it's only Week 2. It's a non-conference game. Obviously, the NFC games are going to count more in the standings. But I think it's a really good opportunity for them to go 2-0 and then, look,

Tua got hurt and suffered a concussion last night. I've got to imagine he's not going to play in that week three game. So now you're talking about facing another backup slash lower-tier quarterback. Presumably that would be Skylar Thompson in week three. That's a very good opportunity to really make hay against some of the lesser quarterbacks in the NFL before the schedule really starts to get tough. You've got Jared Goff and the Lions in Detroit week four.

You've got a couple games against San Francisco. And then Kirk Cousins, not that Kirk Cousins is a truly elite guy, but the quarterbacks are going to get harder. And so this is an opportunity for them to really pad their record until the schedule starts to get tougher. Brady, you're the best. Thanks for doing this, as always. Enjoy the game this weekend.

We'll do this again next Friday. Thanks, guys. Talk to you then. Thank you. That's Brady Henderson, ESPN Seahawks insider, here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Very interesting. Very interesting how often the Pete Carroll era gets relitigated

in the wake of every time Mike McDonald does something else. I heard this stuff in training camp about Mystery Friday or whatever it was. What are we having for lunch? But it was more like, okay, guys, here's a scenario. It's tater tots. Also, it's fourth and one from your own 12. I think there was a sense, and I got a feeling it has a lot to do with age, tenure.

Those things often lead to complacency. I heard the complacency thing a lot. Like, the team just wasn't ready to wear a lot of these other, and let's be honest, younger, hungrier coaches come in and really drilled down the specifics and the nitty gritty that maybe Pete had glossed over. I'm going to withhold any judgment.

I have time for the theory. It is now in the brain. Okay. Part of the narrative of this Seahawks season. Let's see how the season plays out. Sure. Because it might be that the Seahawks go into New England this weekend and the Patriots run the ball down their throats

and we're all sitting there going, maybe he hasn't fixed the defense. This is a great opportunity to see if the very solid tackling from week one is real or a mirage because they're going to run Romandre Stevenson like 30 times at this group. Right? And if they can do it again. And they're just going to say, if you can stop it, we're in trouble. If not, we're probably going to win.

Do you remember the Pittsburgh game last year? Right? Yeah. Warren and Najee Harris ran for 230 yards, and so much of it was after first contact. Adog was at quarterback. Yep. He didn't just hand the ball.

It didn't go well. No, it did. It did go well for you. It went great. Really, you think so? Yeah, yeah. You didn't have to throw the ball once. Oh, that's true.

Okay, we've got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Hour 1 is in the books. Hour 2 is coming up. We're going to talk to AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway on the other side. We're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway for the best Ask Us Anything. I've been told that AJ hasn't asked us anything for us as well.

And a reminder to try and get there at some point this weekend because there's a ton of sports. And it is a great place to watch, especially NFL football on Sunday. Also, in the 7 o'clock hour, we are going to talk to Moj. We're going to preview tonight's game between the Lions and the Argos at BC Place. There's a lot to get into. Also, in the 8 o'clock hour,

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