Tag Archives: super-bowl

The Seattle Seahawks Will Be In Great Shape For Years And This Is My Final Post

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Friends, the time has come for me to call things a wrap on this here blog thingy-ma-giggy. I have been going at this for about eight years now, I believe, and I feel like it is best to move on, focus my time on other things, and just be a plain old fan of the Seattle Seahawks, and not think about writing musings anymore from that side of myself.

I don’t have any designs to foray into content creating on YouTube, or try to write for a more established online football content outfit. I just want to watch games, go see films, theater, and just be the best family dude I can be without my mind shifting towards what a next blog piece should be about.

After the Seahawks pulled off that unexpected run last season, and brilliantly kicked ass all over the New England Patriots team in Super Bowl LX, I thought about retiring this blog right then and there. The way in which the Seahawks proved a world full of skeptics wrong last season, righting a past wrong during the last time they faced the Patriots in a Super Bowl, and then beating them on division rival 49er turf, it just felt like that was right time to cap off this blog, and move onto other phases of life.

But then the team announced that it would be placed on the market for sale, and free agency happened, the draft happened, extensions happened, and there always felt like there was something else to react towards. Now, on the cusp of the 2026 season, I am ready to end things now with this here final post.

Before I expand these final good vibe thoughts on the Seahawks, I just want to take a little bit of time talking about this pet project blog thingy I created, and why I am a bit more than ready to move on. I realize that taking the time to explain why I started blogging and why I am moving off from it probably isn’t the most interesting material to throw into a final article, but I worked hard on this little blog for a number of years, and I feel like I have earned the right to state my case. So bear out this portion for a moment, and I promise the rest of this final article will be all about ball.

For everyone who has followed this blog along over the years, thank you for taking the time to follow along with me. While my writing style hasn’t always been the most polished, I truly hope most of my football thoughts were expressed well enough that you felt like you got something out of this along the way, here and there, at least.

This blog has functioned as a very tiny passion project of mine for a number of years. It was born out of years of friends messaging me during Seahawk games, wanting my quick takes in real time because I knew more about the sport than they did. Over time, I started to resent being messaged so much while I was trying to enjoy a football game. As an alternative, I thought it would be fun to put my thoughts out in the form of a blog, and I would just tell folks to read it afterwards instead of pinging at me during games.

At the time, I thought it would be a super fun thing to do, stretching out my brain muscles, developing myself a bit as a writer, and what could possibly be a more enjoyable topic for me to write about than none other than my beloved Seattle Seahawks, right?

Well, over long duration of time, that process grew less enjoyable. What started as a huge passion project started to feel more like a chore.

In today’s world of toxicity on social media and podcasts, and sports media, I found myself all too often choosing to react to what angry fans were saying, or what Stephen A Smith was spouting off about. To me, that is not a fun position to take as a writer, feeling like I constantly have to defend a quarterback that some dimwitted talking heads continue to diss on, or having to defend a front office because they didn’t pay a fairly injury prone running back $14 million dollars a year.

Initially when I started this, I thought maybe I would parlay these efforts into a sports writing gig at some point, but something held me away from pursuing. At first, I wrote it off as my own laziness. However, over time, intuitively, I started to feel that writing about sports as any form of work would erode some of the love of the game, and worse, erode passion away from the team I rooted most for. Sure enough, as I started to write more objectively about the Seahawks and the NFL in general, I could feel my fandom start to level off a bit.

I don’t like that feeling. I love being a fan of the Seattle Seahawks. I very much like to identify as a true Twelve. I have been devotedly on their bandwagon for decades, even through the lean Ken Behring years, and I yearn to return to the time where I was just a fan, and I could tune out the noise of naysayers. The easiest way for me to do this, is to simply stop this process of blogging.

I feel blessed to live in a great region in this country that has a vibrant city, beautiful mountains, waters to play in, and a kick ass pro football team to root for. Hopefully, we finall get the SuperSonics back, but that is a topic for someone else’s blog. For right here, right now, let me share with you some of my thoughts why I am very optimistic about the Seahawks heading into this season, and why I think we will enjoy years of sustained success with them.

Simply put, I see a very big deck of cards stacked in their favor. The Seahawks are led by the best front office in football, and they are aligned with one of the best young head coaches in the game. When you have top talent at the HC spot and the GM spot, and they have great alignment, good things tend to get routinely produced out of that.

Will the Seattle Seahawks repeat as Super Bowl champs this year? Who the fuck knows. Nobody does, and it is a really stupid question to ask, but yet that is what talking heads love to lead with around this team.

Unfortunately, we live in an age where sports media is run by super conglomerates. The Disney entertainment corporation now owns EPSN and the NFL Network, and I think that is a shame.

Going away are the smart football minds of those who either spent years playing the game, or covering it with boat loads of coaching and front office contacts to extract insight from. Sadly, they are being replaced by personalities who Disney recognizes as either likable or dynamic, and they simply fit a brand that they feel will draw folks in more who might not otherwise be the biggest of sports fan, on the whole.

I think there are negative consequences for this approach, but it is what it is. We live in a world where we are getting dumber and dumber cookie cutter takes on a daily basis.

Nowadays, football fans do not get nearly enough nuanced discussions about their favorite teams, they get people who present well for the camera, can recite some analytical data points and offer hot takes. These splashy new talking heads cannot offer other variables about the game because they just don’t know it well enough, and when their hot takes get proven wrong, they get a bit flustered.

Schadenfreude isn’t the greatest reason to tune into a sports show to watch host deal with how grossly wrong they were on a take, but that is just my perspective. Disney and those who control Fox Sports seem to think, otherwise.

The result of all these trends is simply that good teams in smaller markets get overshadowed by teams like the Cowboys, 49ers, Rams, and for some dumb reason, the Jets and Giants still get talked a lot about. This is why we see the Los Angeles Rams being built up in the media as the team that practically cannot be beaten even though there has not a single down of regular football has been played yet.

But yet with every headline regarding the Super Bowl Champ Seahawks on Sports Center, we get fed this “can the Seahawks repeat?” – garbage over and over and over.

Sure, they can. But they very well might not.

And guess what?

For all the big splashy moves the Rams have made, they might not get done this year, either. This is just a fact about the game.

Football is a hyper violent sport and it was way more complex than what a lot of people want to give it credit for. Spread sheets don’t read vibes within a locker room, and can’t predict how depth players might step up.

Therefore, what I am usually much more interested in is listening to someone like Albert Breer, or Mark Schlereth who can offer nuanced reasons why a team that not a lot of people are considering could get hot this year, and make it a serious run. Last season, these were guys who were looking at Seattle and were willing to talk them up whole heck of a lot more than the likes of Mina Kimes or Stephen A Smith were, and that is a fact.

I think the reason why Breer and Schlereth were willing to talk them up was because they had really good insight into the front office of Seattle, the coaching staff, schemes, and players, and they never made themselves slaves to data points, and past narratives like Kimes and Stephen A Smith tend to always retreat towards in front of cameras. People that really know ball beyond the data points can see and talk real football, but that is something the EPSN and its evil twin Fox Sports simply are not very interested in these days.

These Seattle Seahawks, however, are a real proper NFL football team.

They have placed a massive emphasis on building up their defensive tackle rotation into being tops in the league, and they are very committed with the newly minted Leonard Williams contract extension to win by controlling the A and B gaps for years. They are building a talented young offensive line with all five of their starters returning, and it feels like there is interested depth players being developed behind them. Their linebacking group is deep and talented. They are strong at tight end and receiver. Their secondary remains filled with talented young playmakers. Perhaps most of all, they have good stability at quarterback again, finally, with a guy who has been in the league for years, and still hasn’t even hit 30 years old yet.

Folks are free to have whatever view they want to have about Sam Darnold, but it is not disputable as to whether he is good enough to win you a Super Bowl. He most definitely can. For my money, he is a top ten quarterback in this league, and I suspect he is going to play 2026 like one, coming back into the same system with the same offensive line and receivers and tight end, but if you want to argue something against that, fine by me.

I could give two squats if someone wants to label him the fifteenth best QB in the league heading into this season. If you like Justin Herbert or Caleb Williams more than him, cool. I will am fine taking the guy who just won the Super Bowl, only just turned 29 years old in June, and was talented enough in college to be taken third overall in the 2018 draft class.

For my money, Sam perfectly fits what Mike Macdonald wants out of his quarterback. He is big armed, moves well under center, and is deadly good downfield in play action, which isn’t the easiest thing to ask many of today’s quarterbacks to be. Most of all, he is a dude who the players love, and the coaches, and the front office admires, and I think that is very important to the no drama and bullshit free stylings of Macdonald.

When I look at the tea leaves, I think Sam Darnold is poised to be the franchise quarterback of the Seahawks for a good number of years. If Fox Sports host Jason McIntyre wants to label him a deluxe version of Trent Difler, that is fine, it’s just another silly take. For me, more accurately, I think Sam is a deluxe version of Matthew Hasselbeck, and for those of us older Seahawks fans, I think most of us would be perfectly happy to continue taking that here for a while.

In the bigger picture of this Seattle Seahawk thing brewing in the PNW, aside from all the bright young talent spread throughout the roster, is that I see talent and alignment between the front office and coaching staff, and I see talent and alignment at quarterback. This is the big three headed monster that you want your football organization to be right in alignment about. This is the truth about the Seahawks that will not be talked about much on Sports Center or First Take.

Another big truth about this team is that they are strong where you want them to be strong if you want to root for a legitimate ass kicking football team. This is a young ball team that is constructed to beat yo’ ass in the trenches, and my goodness does it feel good to write that out with some conviction.

Seattle has a superstar tandem in the making at defensive tackle between Big Cat Williams and Byron Murphy, and they have lots of talent behind them, and around them on defense. They might feel a little thin at corner right now heading into the opener against the Patriots, but one way or another, Mike Macdonald will have that straightened out. They might feel a bit dangerously thin at running back right now, too, with Zach Charbonnet not being ready for the first four games, but I would rather feel thin at running back for a bit than weak at offensive line and defensive line.

We shall see how this season unfolds. Right now, I would give the Rams a proper edge in the division with all their splash moves. I kinda genuinely like Seattle being doubted and even thought be the underdog team again. I like the motivation this can bring to them. Let the chips fall wherever they may.

I see a window to get back to the Super Bowl and win other one, or two fairly big. They still have one of the youngest rosters in the league, and it stands to reason that many of their core players haven’t played their best ball yet.

Big Cat Williams is regarded as a top defensive tackle in the game, but what if this season Byron Murphy takes a big step forward in his growth and becomes even better than him? That won’t make 49er and Rams fans happy.

What if the team is just scratching the surface of potential in Nick Emmawori and Devon Witherspoon together? What if JSN has another gear in his growth and so does Rashid Shaheed, and Jadarian Price plays better than expectations as a rookie?

What if in a contract year, Anthony Bradford has a great season, and is a guy fans are desperate to see the front office hang onto?

What if Ty Okada emerges as the next great diamond in the rough Mike Macdonald defender?

Finally, what if the Khosla Family really are coming into Seattle ready and willing to be the best most supportive owners that they can be, and all this silly talk about Vinod being a Steelers fan is just goofiness that Mike Florio needs to milk daily because he is nothing more than a bitter Vikings fan who also happens to be a major football talking head?

This is the final thought I have for you Seahawks fans who have been following this blog over the years. I have a genuine good vibe on the Khosla Family. I have tremendous gratitude toward the Allen Family and the ownership style they led with, but I am kinda excited a bit for the Khoslas.

I know this change in ownership can be fairly nerve racking for many Seattle sports fans with the somewhat unsatisfactory state of Mariners ownership, the painful Sonics history, and the really horrendous Ken Behring era of Seahawks football, but I see signs around the Khoslas that give me some faith in them. I think they are coming in this sincerely wanting to be good stewards of this team and to build off of what the Allen Family so greatly achieved with owning this team. They way the operate in the tech world gives me this optimism.

I sense that Jody Allen wanted to sell to this group, and it has been reported that the coaching staff and front office were pulling for this group to buy the team, as well. I think they met, they talked, and they all felt the vibes.

I sense that Vinod is a very sharp business man, and when he sees good potential in something, he is aggressive to go for it. I really like that he and his son Neal are big sports fans. I would rather have owners who are fans of the sport than owners who are only looking at the investment and returns.

Could there be some refurbishing of Lumen Field being asked for down the line with this group, or more? Sure. I would almost expect it. The stadium is over a quarter century old, and many newer stadiums offer owners better revenue abilities. It stands to reason that the Khoslas will want upgrades, at the very least.

But let us be clear about this one very thing. The league very much wants the Seahawks to stay in the PNW. They want their footprint to remain in this region having a team that draws fans from Canada, Alaska, Idaho, and Montana, not to mention Washington and Oregon. The Seahawks are not going anywhere, and the Khosla Family knows this.

I suspect it will be Neal Khosla who will ultimately transition up here, and be the eventual long term controlling owner. The sense people have about him is that is a very bright dude who knows the value in learning, and isn’t a big ego tech fella. This feels like the right sort of person to own this team for decades moving forward.

We shall see, of course, but as of right now, I see no reason not to trust this family, and have some faith in them. You do you, but for me, I am intrigued to see what insights they will bring from their tech world to help this team take better steps forward into tomorrow. I am actually pretty excited about that.

These are the final thoughts I will leave you with before I retire this project for good.

Football is not a contact sport. It is a blood sport. That is why we love it. It feeds our ancient needs to see Davids prevail over Goliaths, and Heracles to kick the crap out of a lion and then wear his skull attached to fir as a menacing war hat in combat.

Life is beautiful, and it is terrifying, and no team sport exemplifies beauty and terror better than American football.

Football shows us the badasses that deep down we want to be, and elegant gazelles we can also be. This is why we watch it. There should be no shame in that even in the face of knowing that many of these players will be cutting their lives short playing this game.

And this Seahawks team, this Seahawks organization embraces all of that fully. Enjoy this time, Seahawks fans, and bring on the Rams. Seahawks are here to stay, Baby, and they want to put belt to ass each and every game they play. You can take that check to the bank anytime, and cash it in.

Go Hawks.

Why The Seahawks Extending Big Cat Williams Is Huge

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Of all the news around the Seattle Seahawks this offseason in through training camp, no news has filled me with more joy than the news that broke yesterday of the team reaching a 3 year $90 million extension with defensive tackle Leonard Williams. With all respects to JSN, and Devon Witherspoon reaching their extensions, Big Cat Williams, for my money, is the one Seattle Seahawk I have felt all along that the team could most ill afford to lose in free agency.

In fact, if we are to take away the importance of the quarterback position, I would argue that no position in football is more impactful for a team than a defensive lineman who can both be an impactful pass rusher, and run defender. For example, if Seattle were to have reached negotiation stalemates with either Jaxon Smith Njigba or Witherspoon and decided to move on, it would surely set panic amongst the fanbase, but there does exist a reality that receiver and cornerback are fairly easy to replace positions in the college draft. Drafting and developing quarterbacks is significantly harder, and I think finding top end defensive tackles through the draft is, as well.

For all the fanfare that JSN rightly has, and Witherspoon has, and hybrid defender Nick Emmawori will surely have, football, real American football, to it’s core, is a game won and lost inside the trenches. I know that I sound like a cliche narrator off of an old NFL Films piece shot in the 1980’s by stating this, but it is a truth that simply cannot be denied. For anyone who would push back against this fundamental truth, I can simply point to this team in Seattle who, last season, stole glory away from the hyped up LA Rams, and beat the crap out of the Patriots in Super Bowl LX.

While dipsticks these days like Fox Sports host Jason McIntyre get caught up in dumb arguments about whether or not Sam Darnold is a top ten quarterback this year (he is), and fantasy football enthusiasts geek out over receivers and all purpose running backs, the teams that can consistently win the battles inside the gaps between guard and center, and guard and tackle will be in the strongest positions to win a title almost always. The Seahawks proved that last year, the Eagles did, as well, the year before, and the year before that, so did the Chiefs.

Looking at the Seattle defense in particular, the uniqueness of their domination completely starts up front. In a nutshell, Seattle’s Dark Side D is basically a 4-2-5 defense that operates with two safeties who will work deep, and a 6-3 220 athletic freak who works the slot as a defensive back in a linebacker’s body. This look essentially invites offenses to run the ball. From a football 101 standpoint, if you only count seven defenders in the box up front, you should want to run against that, and against Seattle’s defense last year, offenses tried and failed something quite miserably at it.

Seattle’s starting defensive tackle tandem of Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy Junior proved too dominant in their unique strength, and athleticism, and skill to run against. The depth of players such as Jarran Reed, Brandon Pili, and much later on in the Super Bowl, Rylie Mills made it very difficult, as well. If you can have a defense where the defensive tackle rotation is so strong that you can play most games out of nickel and offenses cannot get the run game going, that is a MASSIVE advantage for your team.

The Seattle Seahawks are built to win games because they are built to win the A and B gaps inside. I believe this is a very intentional vision under head coach Mike Macdonald. Just look at the first two drafts under his leadership. 2024, DT Byron Murphy was the first pick, and guard Christian Haynes was the second. In 2025, guard Grey Zabel was the first pick, and hybrid safety/linebacker Nick Emmanwori was the second.

Shoot, even this year in 2026, they took a running back in round one, and another safety in round two. It remains to be seen how impactful Jadarian Price and eventually Bud Clark will be, but all of these picks, in one way, or another exemplifies an emphasis on building strength up the middle offensively and defensively.

By locking up Big Cat Williams for the next four seasons, it shows a high importance commitment from Seattle to dominate inside. This signing shouldn’t impact their ability to extend Byron Murphy to a very similar contract in a year, either. With the fifth year option being available to use on Murphy’s first round rookie contract, his extension dollars wouldn’t kick in until year three of Big Cat’s deal, and I believe this is all very mapped out by the front office.

The Eagles have placed a heavy commitment on having two high priced defensive tackles along with a high priced quarterback, and it feels like Seattle is poised to do very much the same with a likely Darnold extension looming next offseason. This is as good of a way as any, in my view, of sustaining a proper contending team.

I will state again that it is really difficult to draft and develop proper NFL quarterbacks, and do everything defensive linemen. When you have veteran players that fit these molds on your roster, you tend to want to hang onto them, so yes, I am projecting that Darnold will be most likely the next big extension to happen for this team down the line, and probably we see that Murphy extension happening around the same time, as well, in 2027.

In the meantime, Seattle will soon enough have real games to play again. From my vantage, I think it is perfectly fine for folks to have questions about this team regards to whether they have enough at running back, edge rush, and maybe in the secondary. While I think there is every chance we could see a productive rookie year out of Jadarian Price, the proof will have to be in the pudding. In terms of the edge rush group, and DBs, I am going to really trust Macdonald on this one.

After tonight’s game, I could see a front office move or two to shore up these areas a bit more on defense, or even at running back. I could also see Seattle being perfectly comfortable rolling with what they have.

Last year, at this time, I was not super comfortable with what Seattle had at middle linebacker behind Ernest Jones, and I did not see Drake Thomas emerging to have the year he had last year. Now, I see Thomas as one of the team’s best defenders. I also didn’t see safety Ty Okada’s play coming, and today, I feel very comfortable with him as a replacement for Coby Bryant. Perhaps behind Price, and eventually Zach Charbonnet coming back, they really do like Jacardia Wright quite a bit.

All I know is that with the commitment to Big Cat, the Seahawks are showing us how they intend to continue winning. They want to continue owning the trench battles inside.

I have no problem seeing them give a 32 year old man a big extension like this, either. Big Cat, who ESPN rates as the best defensive tackle presently in the game, feels like a player akin to Calais Campbell, long, and lean, and grown man strong who can play this game at a high level well through his thirties. Best of all, he is so uniquely built and skilled that you can move him anywhere on the defensive line to create mismatches. Like Witherspoon in the secondary, he is Macdonald’s ultimate chess piece player up front. You can put him at nose, three tech, or end, and he will whoop ass.

As we have seen through these episodes of Hard Knocks, he is a pretty special dude off the field, as well, and inside the locker room. He is quintessentially a Mike Macdonald “warrior in the garden” sorta player. He is the very fabric of what the coach wants as a Seattle Seahawk, and he is a massive reason why this team rightly won that Super Bowl last February.

For these reasons, I love this extension. I am super excited about it, in fact.

Go Hawks.

Sorry Skeptics, The Seattle Seahawks Still Look Really Good

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As I sat and watched the Seahawks practice on Saturday in front of all the HBO Hard Knocks cameras, and crew, my mind could not help but shift to a thought I have been having for a while about them, but have been resistant to write about.

There are two types of people in this world. There are those who saw the Seattle Seahawks last year, and recognized a really good football team capable of wining a championship, and then there are those who were doing everything within their psychology to resist that recognition.

For those who were into the Seahawks, they saw DVOA analytic numbers that suggested a championship worthy team that was spearheaded by a menacing defense, and that was convincing enough. For those who refused to buy in, they were likely stuck on prior beliefs of Sam Darnold, and the simple fact that Seattle lacked the star power that they are accustomed to gravitate towards with other teams in the league (see Skip Bayless and his old buddy Stephen A Smith).

Even in the wake of Seattle kicking this holy snot out of the Patriots in Super Bowl LX months ago and embarrassing them, these lines of division remain very active today. On podcasts, on national syndicated shows, and other forums, we will have those who will either say “hey, don’t count out the Seahawks” or they will say “I have serious doubts about Seattle.”

The common view is that Super Bowl LXI is the Los Angeles Rams’ game to either win, or lose this year. It is understandable with the aggressive moves they made in the offseason to strengthen their defense, especially when weighed with the fact Seattle chose to kinda hang tight, draft a running back and reload the secondary via the draft, as well. There was no splashy trade for Maxx Crosby, or free agent signing of Joey Bosa for Seattle, and the Rams went big for Myles Garrett, and there is talk that they are coaxing Aaron Donald out of retirement, as well.

So, I am not going to get upset if folks on Sports Center are into the Rams. When my eyebrows get raised, it is when someone boldly questions whether the Seahawks, who just won the Super Bowl with one of the youngest rosters in the league and is walking them all back outside of a couple starters from last season, can be a proper contender again. When Bucky Brooks goes bold and predicts a 7-10 record for the defending champs, he gets my attention.

Mind you, not every well paid member of the sports media is dissing Seattle. Albert Breer spent a day at training camp last week and saw what I recently saw; these Seahawks are going to be a badass team to contend with again. Rich Eisen kept doubting them a bit last year, and is refusing to do it again this season. Sam Darnold enthusiast Colin Cowherd remains high on them. Pat McAfee digs them, as well.

But then there are these others, like Brooks, Jason McIntyre, Warren Sharp who are outwardly choosing to remain very skeptical. With some of these folks, it is as if the success of the 2025 Seattle Seahawks came down to two names; former offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, and former RB1 Ken Walker. Without these two involved, how can Seattle truly compete?

For me, at look at these takes, and I don’t think they are coming from dumb people who don’t know football. I just think they are coming from people who really are not paying near enough attention to Seattle for one reason, or another.

In truth, I think there are those in the national media who probably, at least a little bit, get annoyed whenever Seattle surprises and plays higher than their expectations of them. They aren’t a big market California team on the West Coast, or a storied franchise in Texas, and they aren’t an East Coast team where the majority of football viewers in America reside. It will not boost their ratings talking about the Seahawks on Sports Center, and their starting quarterback busted out of the New York market years ago when he had to play against peak Bill Belicheck and Tom Brady.

For those who will remain skeptics, they will point to history being against Super Bowl champs repeating, and they will choose to remain skeptical of Sam Darnold with the belief that the loss of Klint Kubiak as a play caller, and the loss of Ken Walker as a running back will be his downfall this year even though Seattle still possesses that Offensive Player Of The Year in receiver Jaxon Smith Njigba. Even though there is sound reason to believe that going into the second year of the same offensive system with the same starting offensive line, same group of receivers and position coaches, Sam has every opportunity ascend further as a quarterback, there are those who will simply have their blinders on simply because of the name on the back of his jersey.

In fact, I think we can narrow down your belief or disbelief in the Seahawks this year to this one thing; Sam Darnold. You either believe that he has now turned his career around and is one of the better young quarterbacks in the league, or you are still hanging onto your priors, and you want to think that the last two seasons of his career have been a big fluke. It is as simple as that.

Well, I sat on the berm of the Virginia Mason Center’s practice facility in Renton, Washington on a Saturday afternoon, and I am here to tell you folks that what I saw on the practice field was a very good Sam Darnold going against a very good first string Seahawk defense, and it was, in all honesty, one of the best displays of quarterbacking at the VMAC that I’ve seen, and I have been annually going to these practices for well over a decade. Sam looked really good, y’all, and it was noticeable in comparison to Jalen Milroe and Drew Lock who also had their bright moments, as well.

With Sam, I just saw a confident and in control field general QB who looked sure with his feet and mechanics, scanning through his progressions, and layering his passes downfield with great velocity and accuracy to his receivers and tight ends. In a number of his more impressive passes, it felt like he was looking off his safeties and setting things up for where he knew someone was about to break open. I think Jalen Milroe, in particular, showed some interesting growth and skill, but I didn’t get this same sense from him, or Lock when they were taking their reps. Sam just felt different.

I won’t go into specifics with routes, and packages, but I will just say that for Seahawk fans who are worried about how this team will transition on offense with Brian Fleury now calling plays, I saw lots that gave me grounds for optimism. They were using Rashid Shaheed some interesting ways that felt different from last season, and the connection between him and Darnold was obvious. Both the downfield and quick game concepts to JSN were also very present, but it was the use of the tight ends was eye opening.

I came into practice expecting to see AJ Barner be a major focal point at tight end, but I was left a bit blown away with how good Elijah Arroyo looked as a big quick target downfield. Arroyo came out of Miami last year with high expectations as big freakish athletic tight end, but he didn’t catch on as one would have hoped, and it didn’t seem like Kubiak was much interested in seeing if he could find ways to get him going. On Saturday, it felt like Fleury was showcasing him against the first and second string defenses, and he was taking advantage of his freakish size and speed and footwork downfield. I am a big Barner fan, but if this is a sign of things to come in 2026, I think Seahawk fans could be in for a big treat with Arroyo.

As for the running backs, and concern there, I was left with the thought that Jadarian Price moves as number one running back should move in a zone blocking scheme, and Emmanuel Wilson looked surprisingly decisive and made great play downfield catching a pass over the middle by Drew Lock that would have probably been a long touchdown. George Holani seemed fine but didn’t stand out like Price, and Wilson did, but I suspect he does things as third down back that the coaches really like. If the Seahawks get Zach Charbonnet back in the early portion of the season, as some think they might, it feels like Seattle has a pretty decent collection of runners that could end up being a surprising strength of the team.

As for the offensive line, the starters kept Sam pretty clean all afternoon, and he was able to move and survey. In a padless practice, the defense wasn’t allowed to hit, but you could tell what would have been a tackle for loss or a sack. I thought the starters kept the QB clean, and gave pathways to the runners, and the depth players got more exposed to the point where Milroe would have been sacked a couple times, and there would have been a few TFLs given up.

The starting defense is fast flowing to the football. On Saturday, the offense definitely had a day, but you could still feel the speed and efficiency of the defenders.

Watching from the berm, I had no worries about the Seahawk defense in the face of Darnold and his receivers having a big afternoon. If the pads were on, and these guys were allowed to hit, it likely would have evened things out quite a bit.

To understand the Seattle Dark Side defense, just rewatch The Lord Of The Rings films. The Seahawks defense are a pack of orchestrated hungry orcs, who will swarm you in waves, and you cannot feel their true nature until the pads come on. I think we will see this through the preseason games, and from what I watched during practice rookie defensive backs Bud Clark and Andre Fuller feel like Mike Macdonald fits. Seattle seems to have a defensive back type under Macdonald plays sticky and scrappy and kinetic. You can just feel them.

While I recognize this is my own personal projection on Seattle, I cannot shake the sense that so long as Macdonald remains this team’s head coach, Seattle’s defensive backfield will reload with these type of defensive backs, and not miss a beat. They will for sure pay Devon Witherspoon, and I would assume that they will pay Nick Emmanwori when his time is due, but I can see them adding guys like Clark, Fuller, Ryan Neal via the draft, and not feel the need to spend big in free agency to keep this Dark Side Defense thing intact. They will simply keep producing and cultivating more angry, hungry orcs.

From my vantage point on Saturday, seeing the defensive tackle tandem of Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy standing side by side, and then seeing the likes of Jarran Reed and Ryllie Mills rotating in gave an impression of brutish physicality that will continue spearheading this impressive side of the ball. It should not surprise that they are in contract talks with Big Cat Williams. It would not surprise me if they spend a high round pick next Spring on a defensive tackle when there is some expectation of them drafting at another position. For as impressive as Seattle’s defensive backfield is, I think their true superpower exists at defensive tackle and that will always be a point of emphasis for Macdonald. This is a very Baltimore Ravens style thing.

This team, in fact, now truly represents a peak Baltimore Raven style machine. This will run contrast to the Rams, 49ers, and the Cardinals who have shifted to a Sean McVay coach running their ship. While the other NFC West teams will look to orchestrate offensive highlights sure to excite fans watching Sports Center, the Seahawks will look to drag these teams into the marshes like massive alligators and suffocate them into submission so that the orcs may feast.

Seattle just doesn’t want to out scheme you defensively. They always want to kick the pants off your body. Just rewatch Super Bowl LX if you need a reminder. They want to wreck the foundation of your offense, and then they want to rip apart the will of your skill players. This is the Seattle way, and this is a direct descendent of the peak Ray Lewis led Ravens.

This is why I think it is folly to discount this team this year. From what I watched on the practice field, Sam Darnold looks better than ever. The offensive line feels in sync. The offensive skill players feel impressive.

And the Dark Side defense is still a thing that will have to be reckoned with each and every game, and best of luck with that.

If you are the doubting type, doubt away. If there is one thing that Seattle revels in, it is proving the likes of Skip Bayless, and others wrong, and they seem well positioned to do it yet again this year.

I am excited to see it. I’m ready for it.

Go Hawks.

Why I Like The Khosla Family Buying The Seattle Seahawks

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Like many, if not most diehard fans of the Seattle Seahawks, I have been living a bit of a pins and needles existence over the past several months since Jody Allen put this team on the market. Almost daily, I have been checking my feeds for updates or news of potential buyers, and, at times, I felt the weight of the uncertainty, and speculations beyond exhausting.

The Seattle Seahawks are my favorite team in all of sports, and it isn’t close. Twenty years ago, the Seattle SuperSonics were a close enough number two, but alas, they are long no more as organization, and the nature in which they were ripped out of Seattle is still very scaring for me. So, it does stand to reason that I might carry a certain degree of anxiety about this whole Seahawks sale biz over the past few months. I am sure that I have not been the only anxious Twelve out there.

In this time, I have been hoping, and praying that someone high profile and controversial would not end up with the team, running the risk of seeing what has grown to become a very stable NFL franchise being reduced to a toxic circus act. Personally, I really did not want Elon Musk to be the surprise buyer of this team, and I wasn’t super thrilled about Jeff Bezos, or Mark Zuckerberg either, as prospective owners. Culturally, they would have felt opposite of what this team has been for a decade and a half with John Schneider as the general manager.

I have also been hoping and praying that whoever ended up as the new majority owner would resemble enough of the fabrics of what made the late Paul Allen and his sister Jody great owners of our prized football team that sits in the Pacific Northwest. I wanted someone who had deep enough pockets with an analytical driven mind to strive for success, and I wanted this person (or people) to not be inclined to meddle in the decision making of Schneider and his front office.

For these months, I have been of the belief, albeit a very hopeful one, that Steve Balmer would probably end up being that person. To me, I just always circled back to him even with the news of the Wyc Grousbeck Boston Celtics group being interested, and then the news that minority owners of the San Francisco 49ers were interested, as well. In hindsight, this was probably fueled mostly by a lot of wishful thinking, but I was really thinking that Balmer was probably going to be one who needed up with the team.

It just made too much sense to me, and when Gregg Bell of the Tacoma News Tribune and KJR Sports radio talked about a big local whale sitting in the wings watching bids come in before making his own in the end, it felt as inevitable as Thanos snapping his fingers in the MCU. Of course it’s going to be Balmer, right? Has to be.

Lo and behold this big local whale never came, and when news broke on Saturday that the 49er group also known that the Khosla Family, I was as shocked as any other Twelve out there. Because of the 49er connections, I just did not take them seriously enough as bidders, and as the dust settles down on this, I honestly think this might be one of the most Seattle Seahawk things ever.

When David Krieg stepped in to replace franchise legend Jim Zorn at quarterback in 1983, as a grade school kid who had only ever known Zorn as QB1 in town, I didn’t think this un-drafted quarterback from some small college in Wisconsin would ever amount to much. All he did was lead the Seahawks to their first ever playoff run, and make pro bowls, and playoffs for year later. To this day when folks bring up favorite Seahawk players of years past, I almost always mention this guy affectionately known at the time as Mudbone.

I also initially didn’t think much of Matt Hasslebeck being brought in as a quarterback years later, and all he did was surpass Krieg’s achievements, and lead Seattle to their first ever Super Bowl appearance. When he came in and struggled, I was as glad as anyone to see replaced by Trent Dilfer, but when he finally got his shot to start again, all he did was prove me wrong, and then I quickly became one of his biggest fans.

I super did not expect Russell Wilson to be anything of a starting caliber QB when Seattle drafted him in the third round back in 2012, and I winced at the idea years later of Geno Smith beating out Drew Lock to replace him. For me, Russ was too short to be a long term starter, and Geno was a scrub player who was simply Pete Carroll’s pet. Both guys vastly proved me wrong.

In 2024, I deeply wanted Mike Vrabel to be the hire to replace Pete Carroll over Mike Macdonald. I was just a bit too nervous about that move of going with an unproven young coach over someone more established, proven, and available. Nowadays, for very obvious reasons, I am incredibly grateful Schneider preferred Macdonald.

So, when I was looking at these reported interested parties, I really was not considering Vinod Khosla and family being serious front runners. Like I said, it was probably due to those 49er connections, but for me, I was choosing to warm more up to Wyc Grousbeck and his wealthy buddy from India because, frankly, Wyc had a great track record as the former majority owner of the Boston Celtics. He stayed out of the way of front office decisions, but was an eager spender in bringing in talent to win titles. This sounded very Paul Allen-esque to me. Even in that, though, I just refused to not circle back to Balmer simply because of his local ties, and vast wealth, and his known willingness to spend.

The thing that I have really learned about myself through this sale process is just how much I am apt to strongly gravitate towards known commodities. As someone who runs his own little Seattle based landscaping business, I always buy Stihl power tools and Ford pickups. An Echo trimmer might be just as effective, and a Chevy might just as reliable, but I just have a very firm belief in the German engineering of Stihl, and the Ford F-150 being the top selling truck of the USA for a very good reason. I get lulled into security going with the known.

Before Saturday’s big breaking news, I didn’t know much about the Khoslas. I knew that Vinod made his wealth in tech and venture capitalism in the Bay Area. I also knew that he was very much sort of an Anti Elon Musk type down there, driven more towards the philanthropic aspects of being ultra wealthy, and I did like that about him as a potential owner.

The more I have read up on him, though, as someone who identifies a bit more with the traditional values of old school blue dog democrats, I also very much like the fact that Vinod has stated in recent weeks like his has no problem with billionaires paying more taxes in America. You can have whatever views you want to in favor of or against this issue, but you cannot deny that this view of his feels pretty lock step with current trends of Seattle politics. I take that as a positive.

That said, I was also aware that he is not without controversy as someone who apparently developed a popular Bay Area surfing beach into a playground for the wealthy, and that has pissed off a bunch of folks in that region. Seahawk fans will forever reflect kindly on the late Paul Allen, but he, himself, was not without similar controversy in Seattle with his real estate developments in and around South Lake Union that reshaped downtown into something that has pissed off numerous folks over the years.

Billionaires, like the most of us, have both good traits, and then they also have traits that will inspire ire out of folks, especially today with so many Americans that are struggling and generally unhappy. It is what it is.

While I get people’s frustration with the ultra rich these days, I will not entertain a holier than thou wrath against the Khosla Family like some reactions I have seen since this news broke. You can have whatever views you want to have about AI tech for which the Vinod as been a major investor and champion of, but the reality of their story is that they are a family of Stafford smart people who have used a lot of their well earned money for philanthropic good as it pertains to the environment, food, education for the needy, and affordable health insurance for all, and you are welcome to look those facts up.

I might add, for those of the Seahawk fanbase who were opening that MacKenzie Scott would be the big local fish stepping up to buy this team in the end simply because of her altruistic philanthropic motivations, you should probably like that fact this it isn’t Vinod himself who will be the controlling owner of this team, but his wife Neeru, who has worked as an educator, and has championed STEM education availability for children of all tax brackets. Like Ms Scott, she is very much driven to helping lower class kids get proper education. If you want to get more of an idea of what she’s behind, I encourage you to look at her CK-12 Foundation.

Personally, when the news broke that it will be Neeru as the controlling owner of the team, I could not control the smile forming on my face. If this news is true, the Seattle Seahawks will stay female owned, and I like that a lot, frankly.

I think Jody Allen served as a fantastic active owner of this team in the aftermath of her brother Paul passing on, and she did so with a lot of online, radio wave, and print material bullshit piled her way, at times. She made the right calls on moving on from Russell Wilson, and Pete Carroll, she trusted the sharp football mind of GM John Schneider, and she did this without an ego that put herself at the forefront of the team. She was an absolute fantastic steward of this organization, and I will forever be thankful of that fact. If Neeru demonstrates any of the patience, and intelligence, and intuition that Jody provided over the years, this team will stay in strong hands. I am very confident in that.

In a short statement to the fans, the Vinod referred to his family as new stewards wanting very much to keep with the winning traditions of the Allens. I trust that this is how they think of themselves, as stewards, and the fact that it will be Neeru as the active owner out of their family, and not Vinod (or their son Neal), I think sends a pretty strong message that these will not be ego based people running the franchise.

Big egos build rockets for the rich to venture into outer space. The more altruistic wealthy will look for ways in which to nurture and preserve what is already on this planet. On the face of what I have dug up, I just do not sense that this family are big ego people. I do not see it, and that does feel like a big relief.

I think this shows that they are perhaps people who will not likely look to meddle with what is working well, but will rather want to help in whichever ways they can as new owners, and learn from John Schneider. Vinod, himself, has stated at age 71 how much joy he receives from still being in the process of learning.

In years to come, Neal will eventually end up as the long term owner of the Seahawks given their ages, but even he does not seem to be a narcissistically driven tech baron as his capitalist endeavor is providing affordable AI driven healthcare for all people, of all things. If anything, I suspect this purchase agreement was ultimately made for him to eventually be the owner, and at age 34, he will have ample time to truly learn the ins and outs of what it takes to sustain a successful NFL franchise. I consider this a positive.

So, yeah, on all these aspects of who the Khosla’s seem to be, I am feeling pretty much better about this purchase agreement. I am pretty hopeful, anyways.

Does any of this initial insight into these people guarantee that they will be good NFL owners? No, not really, but I do like how Vinod grew his little empire of wealth down in the Bay.

He is described as being very analytical driven with a long history of surrounding himself with smart talented people, and allowing those people show forth their talents and ideas as he works to assist, and push forward. He feels classically like a think tank techie, and that is very much who Paul Allen was in that world.

On Saturday night, Brian Nemhauser of the Hawkblogger podcast released an excellent reaction video detailing these aspects of Vinod, and why they extremely important traits in the tech world, and how this can positively carry over to the Seahawks, who under Mike Macdonald’s coaching style are more analytically driven than ever. He also reported in his podcast that the Khoslas had folks throughout the Seahawks organization expressing a rooting interest in them ending up as the group purchasing the team. This is probably the biggest reason why I am more than okay with this group winning out, and am now genuinely excited about them taking over.

The Seattle Seahawks are an extremely culture driven franchise. John Schneider has taken painstaking steps for years laying forth all the building blocks to building up this culture, and maintaining it. He made tough calls moving on from popular players who were no longer fitting the culture. Mike Macdonald was his preference to replace Pete Carroll over other popular coaching candidates in part because of how he felt Macdonald would carry forth the positive culture that was built up.

If John Schneider and others in his front office, and Mike Macdonald and others on his coaching staff feel very good with the Khosla Family becoming the new owners, then I am very much okay with it, as well. I will just leave it at that.

I will also not entertain much of the fact that they are from the Bay, have recently been part owners of the rival 49ers, and were season ticket holders for that team for decades. Pete Carroll grew up a big 49er fan and was their DC on a couple of their Super Bowl teams. Mike Holmgren was a famed coach for them, as well. Sam Darnold credits his brief time on their team as the big necessary step towards reviving his quarterback career. I think it is ludicrous paranoia to entertain ideas that the Khoslas are some sort of 49er driven plant to come up here and ruin our stable franchise.

And no, I do not think they will ever have designs of moving this team, ever.

The Seattle Seahawks will stay the Seattle Seahawks. This is a strong market, and the league will not allow them to move out of this region. So, I will not enterain any thoughts on that, either.

Could we be looking at a new or upgraded stadium down the road, at some point?

Sure, maybe.

We will see on that front, but that is probably years away from being a thing, but if that does ever come up, I would rather have municipal leaders deal with the likes of the Khoslas than I would an Elon Musk, or some dude who lives in London and owns mines in India. That is just my own vibes on that front.

Finally, I will also say this to those whose instant reaction to the news of the Khosla Family being the buyers was filled with toxicity against them. If you can manage it, try to be a bit more open minded, especially if you are a diehard fan of the team. We simply have to be realistic about a number of things.

Aside of the Green Bay Packers being publicly owned, there are no other sports franchises in North America that follow that model. The leagues will not allow it, and the situation in Green Bay was grandfathered in. This is a statement of fact.

The price tags for teams in the NFL, NBA, and MLB are becoming so incredibly steep these days that the number of people on this planet that can afford to purchase them is rapidly shrinking. The billionaire class that is increasingly becoming hated on in these struggling times, is a very small demographic, and most people who have become members of this class probably have some unappealing skeletons or two in their closets. Therefore, aside from possibly MacKenzie Scott in these parts, anyone who was going to end up the majority owner of this franchise was destined to have something about them that feels unappealing to some.

If you hate AI, and don’t love the fact that Vinod took a popular beach away from stoner surfers in the Bay, you are more than welcome to trade in your Seahawk fandom card. I won’t have a beef with that.

If over the years, the Khoslas prove to be very much like the Allens in their stewardship of the Seahawks, and they help keep this team within championship contention, the bandwagon will always welcome your return at a future date, if you choose to change your tune, and climb back on board it. I will be here waiting for you.

For me, as I looked into these people a bit more now in the wake of the announced sales agreement, I am feeling significantly better about this situation more, and more. In fact, I think the feeling I feel now is more relief than anything else.

But if you are not right here with me, for whatever reason, that is okay. I trust in time all of this will be perfectly fine.

Again, I don’t sense it is likely these people will be meddlesome, and difficult, and on the spectrum driven by intense egos. That is not my read at all on who they appear to be, at all, and I am confident that Schneider and his front office probably have a very similar read, and maybe, just maybe this is why we didn’t see Steve Balmer step up in the end. Just saying.

We shall see.

Go Hawks.

While The Rams Go Big The Seahawks Go Hall

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The titanic move that the Los Angeles Rams made on Monday to acquire Myles Garrett is one that will be talked about for days and weeks heading into the 2026 season this Fall. It is a move that seismic in the NFL, and if they are now able to coax 35 year old Aaron Donald out of retirement for a chance to earn another ring, anything short of a Super Bowl victory this year will be seen as an epic failure for their organization. It is very literally Lombardi Trophy or bust for them now.

The Seahawks, on the other hand, as I suspected in the piece I wrote yesterday, are focused on taking care of their own. Yesterday, in a retaliatory move against the Rams acquiring Garrett The Great, they came to terms with youthful edge rusher Derick Hall on a very affordable 3 year $42 million contract with $21 million guaranteed. This move will be a snort little paragraph in any Monday Morning Quarterback style NFL reporting in the wake of all the bigger NFL news in this cycle, but from a Super Bowl Champ Seattle perspective, this was pretty big news.

The Seahawks managed to extend one of their bright young players on an astonishingly team friendly deal. On a national level, this news will have “meh” vibes attached to it, but from a Seahawks perspective (the only perspective that matters), this move is big.

They are keeping a talented young pass rusher, who during the course of Super Bowl LX, one could have easily argue his case for Super Bowl MVP with the way he was wrecking New England’s offensive line and effecting Drake Maye in the pocket, on a very team friendly contract. This is absolutely going to help them get other deals done around the corner for other key players they will look to keep around. In short, Derick Hall, who is a more complete player than Boye Mafe, will be making $6 million less per season for the next several years than him.

Frankly, it is quite astonishing that Hall would have agreed to this contract right now. It clearly shows that he just wanted to remain a Seattle Seahawk, and he had probably told his agent to just get this deal done as opposed to what Coby Bryant did last Summer when Seattle was trying to work out an extension for him. There are not many young players in this day and age of big free agent NFL dollars who are willing to do this.

Hall is a young player on this roster who I have been circling this offseason as a player to watch this Fall who is most likely to take a big step forward. Mike Macdonald had favored him over Mafe in the rotation of edge rushers, and without the presence of Mafe in the rotation, it just feels like things were aligned for him to have more opportunities to go after quarterbacks on what I was anticipating would be his contract year.

Now that he is secured through 2029, I think he can just settle into being a true Mike Macdonald style edge player, and young leader. A guy who will step onto the field determined to set strong edges against the run, and look to earn the right to rush on third and longs. This is the type of player that Macdonald prefers at the position.

Hall will likely never be in the class of edge defenders that Bosa, Garrett, Maxx Crosby, TJ Watt are, but I think his reasonable ceiling is DeMarcus Lawrence, who Seattle brought in last year to help them win a ring. In fact, I would estimate that Hall is the heir apparent to D Law once he decides to hang them up, and that is pretty damn good. Seattle has somehow managed to keep him around on a heck of a deal, and it cannot be underestimated how good that news is behind the scenes.

What I would expect around the corner is that they reach a deal with Devon Witherspoon during training camp this August that will make him a very wealthy young cornerback, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they reach some small extension with Big Cat Williams to keep the talented defensive tackle around for a couple more years, if he wants to keep going after it. These feel like two very obvious moves to perhaps happen next.

While the division rival Rams are dead set on taking massive swings from outside adding to their roster that narrowly lost out on a chance for the Super Bowl last season, the Seahawks will look at keeping their core players together, as much as possible. It is a less exciting philosophy than the “fuck them picks” mentality that the Rams are expressing again, but it is a philosophy that has a lot of merit.

The Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks remain one of the youngest rostered teams in the league. Many of the core players that helped them along last year haven’t touched their peaks as players yet. While I would not argue against a splash move for a Maxx Crosby, or whomever, I think earmarking core young players and committing to them might be the better overall play for this particular team that has drafted exceptionally well in recent years.

As a fan of the Seattle Seahawks, I really liked seeing the news come out yesterday that they reached this sort of deal with Hall. If the national takeaway is “meh” with it, I do not care. I know what kind of potential Seattle has with Hall, and I think his best games are ahead of him, and Seattle has kept him for a steal of a deal. This should be commended.

Go Hawks.