2026 Seattle Seahawks Preview: Roster, Odds & Win Total

Welcome to the acclaimed podcast The Deep Dive featuring your esteemed hosts and the monitor and drew Dinsic powered by Betts Burns. Welcome to The Deep Dive, Seahawks, Danny, your reigning champions of the National Football League, your reigning champions of the National Football League. The Seattle Seahawks are up on deck for us. Third team we're previewing here in the NFC West, which means they have the second choice despite the success being the one seed dominating on their road to a title. They sit behind the ramps right now in the odd sport and they sit behind the ramps. I think in most power ratings that said I think we're going to be pretty positive Seahawks on this podcast. My number two team I think a lot of what they succeeded last year was I would qualify as a head of schedule. I think the defense came together more quickly and more positively than really could have been expected with how quickly they turned over that defensive roster. The major question for me as we go into 2026 is if you're Sam Darnold and you're a superbowl winner now, is there a pressure off of your shoulders where your performance continues to just go in one direction? Is there a world where he's even better this year? And he is literally just playing without the pressure of accomplishment. He is like just lighting it up. Is that crazy? You're not willing. You're not ready to say it. Andy's signal got neutral when we started. Sir, he will be back. I don't usually use these headphones and I had a little trouble with the audio. But no, I hear you saying that's a weird way to phrase a Sam Darnold question. Nobody is buying Sam Darnold stock right now. And I know it, but it's a weird one. It's not like some quarterback who came in was good. You know, like this is your 10th Dan Merino and like the pressure is on to win Superbowl. It's like this guy's never been anybody. We had one season of Minnesota and I think a lot of people threw that the fuck away when he absolutely, you know, dicked around in those last two games, the final game of the season and the the playoff game where he really was the problem and then it's like, all right, Kevin O'Connell, he can only be the puppeteer, pull the marionette string so far. This is who he is. And then he goes there and it's another good offensive coordinator. It looked pretty good. He's still very, you know, I think he's still very good. I am knocking this team a little because, you know, they lost their offensive coordinator. I think that's probably my biggest knock on this team right now. There were some departures. There's some injuries, you know, you're shuffling around. You're going to start a rookie part of the time here in your running back room. And I think they obviously have high hopes for him, but there's there's some reasons to be pessimistic for a team to be able to repeat. And I think the biggest one was they weren't even the best team in their division last year. You know, still like, I don't think either of a, I liked them based on price, but neither of us, you know, going into the playoffs had them power rated ahead of the Rams. I don't think. And it was, but I mean, as far as win probability of the NFC, the Super Bowl, the buy helped. And, you know, that was factored into our numbers, but it's still a tough, tough road of hole and to do it again with the third year of a third straight year of new offensive coordinator for a young coach. Yes, the Oxford two nap point favorites at home. In that NFC championship game. And yeah, I mean, like we don't need to, we don't need to, I don't think we need to qualify. Any, I would say any, many, many, many championships depend on a little bit of luck. And the CX got theirs in the form of a two point recovery, which swung the home field advantage and got them on a path where, you know, they were fresher and less well traveled less well traveled less travel weary. And, you know, kind of primed to take advantage of the mistakes the Rams made in that NFC championship game and the rest of history they were, you know, it's a, it's a repeatable successful recipe, what they're doing defensively, which is scheme based, you know, kind of defensive manipulation of space, defensive manipulation of, you know, kind of quarterback judgment. It's affect, it's especially effective against, you know, kind of younger untested quarterbacks. It's, ironically, it's especially effective against the Niners, just because you're kind of specifically getting into their space. But, you know, it's, it's, there's no real reason to think that the defense is going to take any meaningful step back this year, even with the turnover of personnel. And I feel like the ceiling of this team, if they were to win another Super Bowl, it's going to be fueled by Sam Darnold in a new system, just kind of having more, more answers. And the longer he plays and the more his development arc continues to go up and to the right, like if he's just like a high floor quarterback all the sudden this year, like the Hawks are very, very live to win this again. Yeah. And some of it, some of it does stem from the, it feels like he's been around forever, but you talk about his development arc. He's not that old. It's 29. Yeah, he's just 4.2. I think he feels older because he's been on like six teams in where he's Niners, Panthers, Jads, Vikings, Seahawks. And just when you bounce around like that, it feels like, oh man, this gets been around forever. And he's not that old. So I'm with you there. I'm approaching a little more caution because the another offensive coordinator, you know, turnover we had here. And the fact that I really did like Kubiak, I think a lot of what he did was, you know, more of the reasons for success. At the same time, Darnold has to go out there and execute and he certainly did. He was great. He was great in the playoffs. He mattered a ton. And it was another stop here, same as Minnesota. We had some nice weapons. He took advantage of it. And it's funny because, because the Jets, you know, that makes it funny when a Jets quarterback doesn't succeed and then goes somewhere else and wins. So we kind of, before we get into some of the off-season stuff, I don't know what else there is to say about last year. So by the way, first quarterback of the 2018 class to win a chip. Wild 2018 doesn't sound that long ago either, but again, it's eight years. So yeah, we talked about the Niners game in the last podcast. They earned the buy. They absolutely dumped trucked the Niners. And then we had a really fun NFC championship game. And we were, we were banging the drums for this number is a little light and a Super Bowl. We both went to war with Seattle. It felt nice. Nothing better than going out of the season with the wins. So that felt good. A couple years in a row now, we've had decent conviction on the Super Bowl, which is always like, I hate doing it sometimes. When I don't feel it, because we're in the content space and it feels like we have to, like, we have to take a stand on the Super Bowl. So those years where it's like, I don't know, the numbers right? Like, what do you want me to say? For two weeks, I can't do that. I have to pick something. But a lot of couple of years, it's been, hey, this is, this is definitely a side I like. So that felt nice. It won by 15, 16 points. Was it that much? Rames are closed. Gap closed. What was the final score? Should we look it up? I was 29 to 13. Yeah, you're right, 16 points. 16 points. Nice win by them. Kenneth Walker Super Bowl MVP, no longer on the team. JSN was your OPOI. And basically bringing back most of the same team. And yet, here we are. And I still, I'm not like arguing that they should be behind the Rams. They should absolutely still be behind the Rams because not only were the Rams rated higher, but I think the Rams off season is a little rosier. Not that I'm saying Seattle had a bad off season. It's tough when you're in the spot and you have one of the best teams. You know, it's not always a, you got a great on a curve. You know, with these teams with a lot of cap space and a lot of missing pieces, like, oh, they had a great off season. Oh, you got to call too, which I think Candy kept them from spending that was weird to it. The sale of the team, which is funny. today mentioning that after seeing how much the Lakers are going to go for Jesus Christ. Didn't they just sell like last year? How the fuck is that? A very correct price. Like if the Rams are worth like a little more than that, but they have so far, which is like an all-time, I'm assuming maybe that's not part of the calculus, but yeah, that was correct. The correct price is what someone's willing to pay. Yeah, that's true. That's true. It's great to have the Lakers. Yeah, I really don't want to delve too deep into 2025, I guess. I don't have a lot left to say about them. We were, I'm glad you just have to mistake because of Darnel's Minnesota season. Once it started to look good, I just really. I got a couple things. We're happy. Go ahead. I don't have a. I thought the defense kind of met a baseline level of excellent pretty much throughout the season. And got better even as we got into the games that mattered the most. When they were up against a quarterback that was a little bit out of his depth. They were just such a fun defense to watch, just making guy a quarterback so he's miserable. The offense was kind of the more interesting part of the story for me. Clint Kubiak got a lot of credit. He came in and immediately kind of improved what Ryan Grubb was doing with this offense. I think maybe he's getting a little too much of the credit. I think JSN got a little too little of the credit. Obviously he was the offensive player of the year, so he got some credit. Don't get me wrong. I just think that his specific ability to consistently win against. Didn't matter what level of cover juice up against. He was consistently winning. I really think that was a huge part of their offensive success. Obviously in the Super Bowl, Ken Walker was the story and presumably will be missed. But I didn't think he had an especially huge role in their success last year, despite the decent numbers he put up. I kind of want to talk about Donalville a little more. His story goes back to when he was back up for San Francisco. I feel like he kind of got the. Put the pieces in place of how to play quarterback from just being in that room and gaining a different perspective on how to think about offensive football from being back up under Shanham. I think that that combined with a great situation in Minnesota was. This is why this guy was the third overall pick in 2018, ahead of Josh Shown, ahead of Lamar Jackson. It was like, "Oh, he has the skill set now he's caught up mentally." The end of the Vikings experience I thought was largely fueled by. He was in a very high-pressure situation of you must win these games. He was under significant duress because of weak interior offensive line performance for the Vikings. They had lost Darisaw too. It was just the offensive line was just a mashing. By the time we got to the end of the year, and that really kind of had him turn into a pumpkin when the lights were the brightest. I think coming out of that experience, kind of box you put him in is, well, he could be a great regular season quarterback, but Boyle Boyle. When the lights were bright, boy did he turtle. That was maybe the limitation that I think kept a lot of people from joining you and just firing into great numbers for Seattle last year. I think. This is what I want to ask you. Even betting Seattle and getting a great number, were you thinking I'm riding to the death with Sam Darnold on this bet? Or were you just like, hey, we're going to cap for serious equity and we'll figure out what we do with it later. It was always the we'll figure it out later until they got the win seed. It's like, all right, now we're just going to we're going to ride this. There were some thoughts about how tough that NFC championship game was going to be, but again, it was at home. It's like, we'll ride this to the wheels fall off and then obviously like to move the Super Bowl, so at that point went with it. I think you raised an interesting point. That was my only other real Darnold point I wanted to harp on was he spent a season maybe not playing, but getting to sit in the offensive meetings with Kyle Shanahan and then he got to spend a season with Kevin O'Connell, who comes from the recently from the McVeigh tree. Whereas the seasons before that were. This is a fun trivia. Can you name any of Sam Darnold's offensive coordinators from the Jets? He was with the Jets from 2018 to 2020. There were. You know what, there was only two. So, pre-micle floor? The floor took over after he was gone. So, pre-micle floor, oh and. Post-chain gale, though. I mean, just they ran through some names. I mean, Chattonheimer, Brian Sparach, Gordon Wake, and anyway, it was Jeremy Bates during the 2018 season, one year wonder, and then Dowell Logan's. I don't see this again. I don't remember Dowell Logan's. And then he went. He didn't leave an impression on William Cannon, I think. And then he went to Carolina where he got the tail end, the Joe Svary. Was it the Frank right year? No, it was pre. I'm talking coordinators, so it might have been Frank, right? But he got like the tail end of Joseph Brady when he was kind of in the following up, and then his last year in Carolina was. Fellow with some slick back hair, looking pretty cool. He used to be a giant. Oh, man, Bob McAdoo. Ben McAdoo, dude. So, he went from McAdoo to Shanahan, as he switched from Carolina to San Francisco. Quite the stark transition, I think a lot of that played into his, hey, I finally have some people I can learn from that have been successful in slig, and hopefully that translates because he is going in with. and let's just go right into this guy. What do you know about Brian Flurry? I mean, I'm cautiously optimistic for some reason. I can't tell you why. He comes in with a good cover of. He was a quarterback back in the day, right? Sure. I think he played in college, and then he was big time Niners guy for a long time. So it's like, I think it's a guy he probably has a relationship when he was the backup in San Fran, don't you think? I think so. He was actually a defensive quality control coach when he started play or coaching in San Francisco, ended up moving to Titans and running. Coordinator, excuse me. He actually started his coaching career as a defensive coach in college and early NFL steps. So it's funny, but you would expect, you know, Shanahan type schemes, thought processes. I don't know. He's been, since he made the move to the NFL, he's been involved in some interesting programs and had a lot of different roles. He spent three years in the operations department for the dolphins, football research analyst and then director of football research. That's kind of intriguing to me. And then going from there to being on the coaching staff that San Francisco is fun. Like I just kind of look at his path and I'm kind of like, man, what if he does have some wrinkles and some stuff that's new and interesting that people are not prepared for that, to take the lead by surprise. And interesting, I mean everybody, the camp quotes that I try to dig up some info on him and the camp quotes are obviously, oh, we love this guy. It's been a seamless transition from Clintium. Like this has been great. Nobody's going to come out and be like, meeting San Francisco and you go say that to the. You're like, oh, we're missing Kuiak. Yeah, you're the backup titan. You go say that to the press. See what happens to your job. But something that did stick out is he really, really does want to get the running back. He's more involved in the passing game than what they were doing previously. So it's interesting with the young, the youngster on the roster and what they do with him. But I think the biggest takeaways for me are six years of Shanahan. And one of the worst things I think you can come into for a situation with. As being a new offensive coordinator, is having shitty offensive line. Not that there aren't some question marks here or there, but the cohesion is there. It's for the most part. Yeah, we're just kind of running it back with a lot of this offense. So being able to see how they operated last year and not having to make too many decisions on who am I plugging in here. I think it's a nice easy landing spot for him. So we'll see. It still is a big job putting a game plan together by, not by yourself. You have a team. But being the, where the buck stops for putting a game plan together, putting, you know, doing the play calling. So it'll be very interesting to see. I think that's the, for me, that's the biggest offseason question mark. Were they still did loose players? They added players, but I think this is more important than anything else outside of many. Maybe the rookie running back. That'll be interesting to see how they incorporate. And because it's instantly there's, there's a hole to fill there. Yeah, I, I guess um, like, to me, it's entirely just a question of how to, you know, yeah, QBOC. QBOC is the dial that either takes this team back to kind of middle of the pack contender or like, where we are not that far from the ramps. And so that's kind of the one you got to focus on most. I don't, I thought that their move, if we want to talk a little offseason, I thought that they basically made a choice between Rashid Shaheed and Kenneth Walker. And I thought it was fascinating that they went in the direction of Shaheed, who they had for less, a lot less time than Ken Walker. And I mean, it's a smart front office, obviously, like they're telling you know, that's signal to me. So, um, I think he's worth like, he's worth a few yards of special or of field position too. Of course, you know, it's nice to, it's nice to have a solid returner in the building as well. So yeah, let's, let's, let's pivot off season because yeah, you mentioned Kenneth Walker gone, he got paid 28,000 in Kansas City guaranteed. Good for him. Kobe Bryant, the safety, which is a funny one to bring up at the timing today, because he is out for a long time for the bears. Probably a regular surgery. Yeah, the whole regular season, which is neither here nor there. They did, they did lose him to the bears. The safety, uh, Rick Wohlen is in Philadelphia. We talked about him when we talked about the Eagles. He played 900 some snaps last year. He was a big part of this boy, Maffee, this a bingo. He essentially is replaced by Mr. Dante Fowler, who they brought in from Dallas, so kind of a swap there, which could be possibly even an upgrade if Fowler placed well on the other side of that line. And then some churned down below, Quadrigdig, Shaq Griffin, Derek Young, Camakers off the roster. Like I mentioned, we had a Dante Fowler, the edge piece from Dallas. And then you brought in some other corners and safeties because you need to back fill a little Rodney Thomas from in the, he was a decent coverage safety from for the Colts. He'll be kind of backing up. He's your third safety in the room, but it's nice to have a third safety nowadays. When teams do a lot of playing three safeties and you also brought an Anthony Bell, another safety from Carolina, Noah got him bad at this guy's name. It bit a bit away cornerback from Washington, that hopefully depth because he doesn't have, he doesn't create as well as some of the other guys. He's going to be depth on the outside, possibly nickel brought in Bobby Hart from the Chargers, no offense of tackle. Another one where you hope he doesn't have to play because he's a big step down from your guys on the end of the line right now. He is a swing tackle insurance piece kind of the same thing with Harrison Bryant tight end. That's a blocking tight end depth manual Wilson running back, which maybe isn't super depth at this point based on the injuries and the departure from running back room and then Charles or excuse me, Irvin Charles, who is a miss. I think he missed all of last year. He's a wide receiver for the Jets, probably a special teams guy, but I don't have a lot of grades on him because he towards ACL didn't play last year. And then like you said, we really signed Shaheed, JS and get his contract. You're able to keep Derek Hall in the building. Josh Job Ernest Jones is back extension. So whether spooning. Yeah, the weather spoon. And then the draft, Jadarian price will get, we'll talk deeper on him. I want your opinion. But then real quick, second round Bud Clark TCU safety. He might push for the free safety job with the Cata and front of him. Julian Neal from Arkansas cornerback. More depth pieces and pieces you can plug in. Hopefully at some point in the secondary. They lost like we mentioned, you lost Willen Bryant digs, Griffin, you needed some extra pieces here in the draft. They grafted a guard from Iowa and the fifth round. Again, another guy that's probably not starting, but Anthony Bradford is your weak spot on that line. And you drafted somebody who's probably backing them up. White receiver from Kansas, another depth piece. I don't know if this guy makes a team because you have not just Shaheed, JS and copy a Jake Bobo, Torrey Horton. So we tough for you and we're see where to make the room better. Get good at free, good at special teams guys. And then a few other defensive pieces. Two more corners, though, interestingly enough late, late in the drafts was a nose tackle for Minnesota, who is I think just come off the pup week or so ago. Some of these guys were, yeah, Eastern was injured, but he's off the pup now. So tough, tough off season to grade because when you are the man, the beats, the man, you're going to lose some pieces. And I often wonder about that with free agency decisions. I know there are some guys who nothing matters more than a title. And if they get that title, nothing matters more than the next title. There's nothing they want to do more than when the Super Bowl every year. And I get it, but I think in my mind, if I had that monkey off my back, like, hey, I have a Super Bowl ring. They can never take this away from me. And there was money on the table somewhere else. It makes it a little easier to be like, I don't take the money. You know, I'm willing to play for a shittier team or maybe a, you know, worse situation for like 10 extra million dollars or, you know, a better, better guarantee fund here. So I'm doing that. So with these teams that win these Super Bowls, as I was from wonder about that, as you see the free agency kind of go against them a little. I feel like this year's Seattle experience was like exactly the way it should go. If you're a tier one player on that championship team, you get compensated to stay in house and they build around you. If you're a tier two player on that championship team, you know, your role is not going to get expanded. You are not going to get the, you know, as big a payday, you see greener pastures elsewhere because that is your buy, that is yourself, as you are selling high on yourself. And I feel like that's exactly what happened in all of these examples. The Kenneth Walker one, maybe the best because like a good GM, like in the same, in the same division as we were, what the fuck are you doing? Montiocin for wasting the third pick on a running back? This was a classic John Schneider gets it. You let the running back walk. You're going to get draft compensation for that. Yeah. And then using a first round pick on an elite running back, presumably, is where we would be a luxury for, you know, it's a luxury for you compared to your divisional opponent who has holes everywhere and is going to ruin that guy's prime. So now you're going to get to get, you know, take, take a guy out of college, have him in his prime through his, his rookie contract. You may get better production out of price in his rookie contract. Then ultimately year three, four, five of wherever Walker plays next. And it's, it's just, it's just sound decision making that I think should be applauded. Whether it works out or not, I don't, you know, have a strong opinion, but I definitely feel like the process is excellent compared to what we see elsewhere in the NFL. I think price is probably the only guy of any of the guys you mentioned that sees the field for a meaningful amount of snaps up without there being an injury this year. Yeah. That would be the hope, as I mentioned, like you don't want to start this backup guard unless Bradford's just that bad. Yeah. Kobe Bryant is maybe the one guy of all the guys you mentioned to, I was kind of like, I could heard him. That might sting. You know, I, I, I, because who's his backfill tie, Okada? Yeah. Then that's why I mentioned like, Tai, Tai, Okada might be depending on this Bud Clark looks and camp and I don't have a lot of info on him yet. Might, am I pushing a little Bud Clark, great name. Like Clark TCU safety. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, it felt like, um, way Maffee walking out the door, your backfill there is strong. No, no, no. So it's, it might even be an upgrade. Yeah. Um, Dante, Dante Fowler. Who's the corner that went to Philly that you mentioned? Requion, Requion backfill there is strong. You'd no step back in your secondary. Um, uh, and yeah, I mean, Kenneth Walker could probably presumably he's going to get get the type of role, expanded role in Kansas City that's going to make him live for offense player of the year. And I'm glad he got paid. But I don't think that that meaningfully changes my not. Yeah, I'm not it does not I'm not turning down my knob on the Seattle offense because of that loss and judoian price stepping in. Sorry. That's just the way that running back value works as far as I can tell you. The yeah. So yeah, off season grade, they get an A for me for process. I think John Schneider is proving to be one of the sharper men in football with the way he is handled the transition from a very steel Pete Carroll regime to what they have going on in Seattle now, which I think is perennial title, you know, title, you know, pursuit. I mentioned off deed very top. I thought that Seattle got the Super Bowl a little ahead of schedule with this defensive nucleus of talented players and what Mike McDonald is doing scheme wise, which to me looks very, very challenging to solve. I think there's a world where, you know, Seattle is, you know, we, you know, I think they score more than one Lombardi out of this mini mini chapter in their franchise. So let's get it's a it's an A for me. They did same defense coordinator. I guess we didn't mention that there wasn't turn over there, but it is McDonald who does call the defense anyway. So not a guy that gets a lot of love in Aden 30 third, 30 30 J Harboss special shoes coach. That's John or Jim's kid. It's the right name. John or Jim's. I do not know. I sometimes get Jim's kid. Could be wrong. John Harboss. It's one of their, it's one of their nephews. Oh, it is. Well, if it's one of their kids, it's one of their nephews. Oh, yeah, that's the great. It's Jim's son, grandson of Jack Harbaugh and nephew of John Harbaugh, also related to Mike Cree. Okay. All right. Let's move into ratings. But before we do, thank you to Circa, who sponsored this podcast sign up for the super contest sign up for the super contest, sign up for millions sign up for the pro football contests at Circa. The expectation right now is that survivor will will crest 20 million this year. There are very few opportunities to build your models looking at 25 million. It's like a weather report, Joe. But I mean, there's some people that they're saying, they're saying 25 million. Yeah, that would, you know, over 20 million in a contest that's as well run. And as I don't really want to poke their competition, but like there's some shady business with the other, you know, opportunities around in my opinion, the way that the guys get filled, the way that they take a break. Yeah, there are some, there are some eyebrow raising aspects to the other contestants sports. There is nothing eyebrow raising about the way Circa runs their pro football contests. So get involved millions survivor split up your your lot of tickets however you see fit and go in a million bucks. Raidings we got to focus on quarterback OC as I mentioned, this is going to drive your rating between I think plus two and a half and plus six somewhere in there. You're going to fall, depending on what you decide to do with your quarterback number. As you look at the efficiency stats from Sam Donald last year, he was good, not great. And most of the kind of things keeping him from the rare air performance wise were the turnovers. If you remove turnovers, he was your third best quarterback in the NFL by EPA per play and, you know, any type of composite rating you want to do when you include turnovers in your evaluation, he was more like nine or 10. That's nine or 10's fine. If you have a defense that's one or two. And I think it's kind of noteworthy that a lot of what he did and when he made mistakes, I didn't feel like it affected his confidence or his kind of next drive out there was a short memory form, which was again part of like the growth of playing quarterback. I think and, you know, honestly, like a lot of the mistakes he made were not like the like absurdly dumb. This guy doesn't get it type of mistakes. In my opinion, they were just, you know, he's he was being aggressive at times pushing the ball and, you know, found a found a safety or a deback. So those things happen. Matthew Stafford used to be that way. And he had a season last year, where he threw with what five, six interceptions. And that was all the sudden. He's now got an MVP and he ended up with eight interceptions. But yeah, I mean, you know, if you, if you're just getting interception luck one year as opposed to just kind of specifically turnover where he plays, a good turnover where they look, the season for Sam Darnold with JSN in, you know, in that wide receiver room, people are not talking about him as potential MVP. And it's probably wrong. Yeah, you know, there has to be so much context. Not just with quarterbacks, but quarterbacks and receivers. And then also on the flip side with the, the defenses when we're starting to look at these, we're starting to look at these, these turnovers. It's almost like remembering Madden when it would say user pick. It's, it's, you actually took the, the defensive player and like, made the interception because it would just throw in interceptions. Sometimes if the other team made a bad throw once a while, it would be an interception. Nothing you did would change that. But it was like user pick because like you mentioned, there are different levels of interception where it's like, hey, the receiver ran the wrong route and on a timing route down the field. And it was basically catching a punt. And I don't think that was like a bad decision on the quarterbacks part. Where is like, hey, this quarterback just didn't see a linebacker and he's bad at his job. You know, but and it's crazy how you mentioned that because I was thinking a little about that with Darnell trying to grade out some of his stuff and with Stafford, where it's like, what was there to grade? It just didn't throw picks. He, he's throwing his playoff games. It was like 55 touchdowns, 10 picks, or something, just a scene kind of. Yeah. Both guys were consistently ahead of schedule and didn't face a lot of pressure either, which helped. Yeah. Good, good, great offense of lions. Definitely help with the quarterback. Where is your quarterback OC number to start the season? Okay. Obviously some question about the OC, but again, cautious optimism here. Seattle and Darnell are going to come in ranked number 13 for me with a 7.2. So expecting good things. Expecting to land kind of right around that top 10 again. When I did all my OC numbers, I kind of set the standard on where I'm doing it. So I had to keep it a little steady and I put flurry ahead of like David Blow, but not by much. And he did drag it down a little. So I'm at a 6.5. That said, I think that's a number that I'm going to have my, you know, my finger on a little bit with with the preseason and see how some of the stuff looks coming out of camp. I like it. Skill position group led by JSN is going to be great. I love Rashid Shaheed as a player. Cooper Cup is probably the weak link among the guys who were expected to start. I would expect that bad grade. I need my good bad. I did too. I don't think he ultimately has a ton to say about the success or failure of the Seattle offense this year. I think there's some interesting younger guys who will get some run. I would love to see a healthy Zach Sharbonne to go along with the Jadarian price. So you have a little bit of, you know, multiple looks there. I would love to see AJ Barnard be a more impactful player for you. I think Tide ends clearly becoming a very important part of the best, most successful offenses in football. And this guy's coming from San Francisco where Kittle, you know, was running some of the best routes and all of them on all Tide ends last year. So I think the expectations are going to be high for the Tide end room to take a step forward. But again, you know, as long as you get 10 targets of JSN every game, this has to start with a six. And for me, with the cautious optimism of the running back, you drafted. I'm at a 6.8. My number is going to come in lower than you. I did start a little lower here as well, just because of everything we said. I'm at a 5.8, but I don't think that's the number I go into the season with. Mine is assuming no sharpening, assuming a rookie really trying to figure it out to start the season. I have a pretty dusty the last thing number on Cup. Basically, we made this joke with another team, but it was only JSN out there by himself. And everyone knew he was getting the ball. I'd still give this skilled position group a 5.5. Because he's such a big part of it. I did look into that a little too, as far as guys who had such a big target share. That can be a problem year after year, because defenses can start to just scheme that out, especially if you don't have a good wide receiver to-- I'm looking for some of the other guys to step up, as we mentioned, the receiver depth. I think the receiver depth is decent with Bobo and Horton. Some of those guys being a little more involved and maybe less cup is important. I don't love the tight end room, but I think it's because they how they used it. Like you said, it'll be interesting to-- It's not bad. I'm just saying I'm not giving them pay a high grade on the tight end room. So I'm a little lower in start, just based on what they're going to go into the season with. Basically, hey, your RB1 is the guy who's never placed now. Jason is a wide receiver too, I think, for me. Let me see. He is. He's so much of this grade. And I didn't knock him too hard for this, but he was a part of the office. Your fullback, Rabi Uitz on the IR. Hurts. Inchert. Yeah, great. Yeah, I think it's-- I think it's a decent entry. Yeah. All right, well, offensive line for me is a little bit below average. And it's mostly because I don't grade-- who's hurting them? Sorry, I didn't bring up my full offensive line worksheet to see who's dragging Bradford down. Is that who's dragging this down? I actually don't really love Sundell either. No, the entire interior is-- Sundell's a little worse in your average center. Bradford's a minus. Big minus. Crossable. Crossable, Lucas. Second year, let's give him a little grace because it was his first year. He didn't grade poorly, but like crossing-- crossing Lucas great, very weak interior. Especially on the other side. I had a pretty good number for his able. For him. Lucky, I have him above average. Lucky, I had a very good. He's no Quintanel center, Tyler Smith, but he's a very good-- no Joe Thuney. But he's in like the upper middle class. Based on his draft positioning and how he played last year, I gave him a little bit of-- I expect him to get a little bit better, where he's not an elite right guard, but he's definitely going to be above average. Or excuse me, left guard. The right side of the center, the tackles are good. I'm at 4.4. I was disappointed in Zables' run blocking. I was really impressed. I'm sorry, I'm disappointed in his past blocking. I was really impressed with this run blocking. OK. All right. What did I say with my number? I'm at a 4.7. Yeah, we're pretty close here. I'm at a 4.7. That makes you-- A lot of people are mentioning hard knocks. I don't remember the last time I went to hard knocks. It's not even because it's not good. I just don't have the time to watch a TV show that long about one team. I'm going to need to check it out. It's rare that you get the super bowl defending super bowl champion and that kind of a spotlight. All right. My Seattle offense is 10th in the NFL, 65th percentile. And that's actually not that different than they finished last year. If I remember correctly. I mean, take a look. Yeah, at the end of last year, I'd see at all of my ninth best offense. Now they're 10th. Unless the wheels fall off of Darnold or if your new offensive coordinator, Brian Flury, poops the bed. I think that this is going to be an offense that scores against the bad defenses. Defense. How do you go with some of these? Is this kind of the key question, right? I was the lowest number of these three. My lowest number of these three is going to be pass rush. Really? Yeah. And it's still above average. It's a good-- and it's because I have such a sick runstop number. And I'm still high enough on coverage because some of the guys they left graded out worse than the guys that stayed in the secondary. And I'm fine with some of it. So I'm about neutral on-- neutral on coverage from last year to this. I'm same thing with runstop. It was an amazing runstop. And then pass rush is just-- we have to see it happen. I like, as I mentioned, the backfill. But it's got to happen first. Yeah. Linebackers for me graded a little week in the run game. Dexter-- I'm sorry, not Dexter. To Marcus. To Marcus, to Marcus Lawrence was surprised. He was a very high number for me with both of his contributions. But his run-defence rating for an edge, I think is close to as high as any edge. Leonard Williams is a monster, obviously. And Biomurfy is very good and in young and improving. That three-- He's the weak link, but not really on run. That's not the on pass rush. I mean, he's like the weakest link in the runstop. But it's still like a good grade. It's like you're just not as good as all these elite, elite players. And then you start throwing in some of the secondary pieces who-- you know, with their phone playing up in the box. That has to be a small part of it and some of the other players that come up, because it's not just front seven. Yeah, my run steps 8.2. I think it's the best. OK. I had bad-- so I had questionable numbers. Questionable numbers on Ernest Jones and Nguu Su. Drake Thomas is your best runstopping linebacker. And he's not great among. But it may not matter. Because you're never going to get to the second level. All right. You're at 8.2? 8.2. I'm only at 5.8. So it was all the same guys wearing what they better against the run last year. Oh, they were the best. They were the best. He's still a public last year. So here's the thing, Drew. I ran into a weird part because when I start doling up my numbers, I have to look at who was responsible for runstop last year, who made the tackles, who was responsible. And when you start to see something, where it's like, man, a lot of secondary tackles. That's not good, right? But when you start to see a team where the secondary makes a lot of runstopping tackles, but the run success rate is still incredibly low. It's because they're making the tackles up in the box and because they're moving up faster, they were already there. So that was something I had to square away with how I was waiting it because there's a few teams where it's like, man, you're free safety. Man, a lot of tackles in the run game. That's not great. But if you have a low success rate again, switch they did, it means they weren't getting to the marker. They weren't getting to the spot on first down to make it a successful run. So overall, yeah, it's just a super high number for me. I'm at 5.8 and I'm apparently low. I don't have very glorious runstop numbers across the NFL. So 8.2, to me, sounds high just from what I would even consider. How high do you go? How good is the best? But yeah, I'm probably low here. I got to figure out if I made a bust of my composite somehow to get 5.8. I wonder because it feels a little lower closer on everything else. I mean, there are numbers from last year. We're flipping ridiculous. I'm wondering if I took a two-year scene. I tried to wait this over two years instead of one just because I was a little bit concerned again. Like, I don't have them all that different from Texans and Broncos. Anyway, PassRush for me is good. I do like this PassRush. I have them at a 6.6. That is on the higher end for me for where I'm going. And it's mostly trying to marry talent and scheme. Your best pass rushing comes largely from Leonard Williams, Derek Hall, Demarkis Lawrence. These guys are all well above average, Byron Murphy, well above average. The depth is maybe the only problem. I don't know. What do you think? Yeah, I knocked them for depth a little. Boy and Mafia was 10% of the PassRush snaps in a hole out of all of them last year. So you do have to assume that five-year pass. I know it's good. I'm a little lower. I'm going to fight for eight. I did ding them a little for age. Lawrence, Lawrence. I thought Boy and Mafia was clearly their fourth best edge. [BLANK_AUDIO] I don't know. Got the signal you let walk out the door, obviously. Yeah. All right. It is. Six point six for me is pretty rare. Seven point four for me for coverage. This is really where the sea ox in my opinion shine. Whether spoon, manwari, job. These guys were elite coverage pieces and you add that to that, the scheme that McDonald brings where he is utilizing space and simulating pressures and confusing quarterbacks so that they can't make up their mind about what they want to do before the snap the ball is good. And I don't know how anyone solves that. I really the only solution to what the sea hawks are doing, I think is what the Rams are doing offensively where they're running attack is so flipping effective against the Seattle's run defense. But yeah, coverage for me is very high number. Seven point four. What about you? Six point eight just because of the turnover. And this is another one where it probably doesn't matter. I mean, it's just it's one thing if you lose one guy who was like a meaningful player that played in the defense. But there was a there's a bunch of turnover and granted none of it was none of it was wither spoon, which matters. Also a little thing because mountain warriors and that 100% healthy. If he looks good and he's fine, it looks like he's going into week one, 100%. We'll bump it up a little bit again. So I'll come closer up to your number. What's your what's your current split on hill play week one? Because I was like 2080. I'll play. So he's he's off the pup now, right? He's available. He's he came off yesterday. So that once you come off, you can start to do some, you know, work on the side and then get yourself acclimated. I'm like 50 50. We'll know a lot more in the next week. Like that number could go to zero or a hundred in about a week once we get a little bit of a feel for a amount of worries. Availability. I like love. Akatas. Job is good, but not weather spoon. So it's a good secondary that can get better if it's 100% healthy. Well, going into the season, they'll be rated my third best defense with a 66% tile for me. Intangibles 5.3. Some of that is dragged down because I need to see what the offensive adjustments look like under flurry. Special teams for me is 6.5. 4.8. Yes, seven on special teams. Intangibles, I'm right there with you at a 4.5. Some of the I do a little bit more of a two year sample when I'm looking at intangible stuff. If the coach has been there that long, they cleaned it up last year. McDonald's first year. They were pretty good. Yeah. They did a better job of that last year. It's easier when you're in a winning position in the game as well though. So I'm not too far behind here. I'm a little lower. And as I mentioned, I have like six numbers that I'm probably moving the levers up on over the next month before you to week one. Okay. I'll be closer to that. You're in a 64th percentile team at about 60. I'll probably be at 62, 63. And these are plus three. I'm a plus 4.2. Well, market Andy. 4.46. So hot off the presses. Andy is fading the Seahawks. Oh, no. Seahawks. Andy hates the state. My favorite team. I'm the buy at the bottom and he's calling the top. They won the Super Bowl. They can't have the they can't have the hangover. The hangover comes from the loser. Well, there's one other thing that's going to prevent hangover Andy. That is a liquid ivy. That is the softest first 10 weeks that they've ever given a champion. What the hell is this? Yeah. There's a there's a lot of winnable games there isn't there, especially with the matchup this team is going to have. Like we said, you got tackles that can neutralize some good past rushing edges. You have JS and who's going to just, hey, guess what? You're going to get 15 targets today, buddy, such as life. And you're going to you're going to you're going to eat Arizona alive. You're going to eat what like some of these secondaries that they have to face granted Denver is amazing. And you know, there are some good defenses. You're going to have to face here, but there's a lot of bad ones. There's a lot of secondaries that like Chicago who just had a player get hurt and Arizona twice Vegas Washington like man, Kansas cities is kind of rebuild rebuild at this point. It depends how you feel about the chargers. We'll get to them. But there's some there's some spots where it's like, hey, Donald's going to have a big day because guess she's going to be open. And if you get anything out of this running back room, 31 points guys. And maybe maybe in the only reason they don't score 31 because their defense held the other team down enough where they aren't going with any sort of tempo or urgency in the second half at all. Yeah. You're home for six of the first nine weeks of the season. You're only real serious trip. And the first half of the season is going to the Washington commanders week three. You are favorite a lot until coming off your buy where you will be at San Francisco. Really no world where I would say with high confidence, you're going to be dogs in that game. That's very much that could be a part of the schedule where San Francisco has been downgrade. You've been upgraded and you're a small favorite filly. And then Dallas is actually at Dallas is a fun match up for you because they actually do have the kind of weapons and the kind of running balance that could make things really tough for your defense, I think. So that Monday night football game 12 7 if we're talking about and we are about to you probably kind of have to buy Seattle today. Like like now right right now. You want to play you want to giant price you want to as good a price as you're going to get on these guys, I think you kind of have to take it now. And the sell point if you're just going to try to accumulate some equity on that or just partial equity, I think is probably that Monday night football game against Dallas. That one's going to be good. The filly game is going to be fun. That looks like a defensive square off who knows who wins. But the important part of the schedule Andy is that you're two most important games come week 16 and week 18 when you play the Rams and then you play the Rams. So no Rams to Christmas. Yeah. You play Arizona a couple of times right after the bat. You get the Niners early and then right kind of in the middle there. But yeah, both Rams games are Christmas and then the 10th of next year, the 10th of January next year at the Rams to close the season possibly probably maybe for the divisions. That could be a standalone banger. Whoof. A couple of the notes three straight prime time games week six seven and eight. If you are winning, winning, winning to me that puts wind in the sales for a who can believe it. Darnel Ches is the MVP favorite. I kind of like him at price. And we'll be selling at some point before we get to the final stages of the season. But that Denver game is going to be very, very, very, very fun to watch. Did you see they're going to do the throwback uniforms with that? Yeah, that is if you haven't seen that yet, there's a tweeter to about it. All time Jersey game. They're going to like the early 90s Seahawks jerseys and the orange, the good orange blue Denver ones. Like Jersey game of the century. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, I can't put them in this out loud, but Darnel MVP, I think is work putting your pocket just in case. I don't know that the Seattle Seahawks get the one seed. I don't have high confidence in that at all. But I do know that they are going to be shorter to win the Super Bowl and win the West. Once they get into that home stretch against the Rams, Carolina Rams. And so for those reasons, from a strategic betting perspective for the Super Bowl, for the conference and for the division, I think, you got to have Seahawks. Find out that there's another half to this conversation that we will get to in just a minute. But how about we wrap this up? Final thoughts? Yeah. Final thoughts. Yeah. If you want to bet the Seahawks. As Drew said a few times. The time is nay. It is now. You got to get after it. So we will talk about the the other half of the way. I guess if you think that the Patriots are going to get revenge on them and the opener, then maybe the time is after that game. Do you have an opinion on that one? Yeah. Probably going to be in Seahawks. Yeah. I'd still be in Seahawks there. We kind need to know about a man of worry, I guess. All right. Well, let's talk Rams and get to the half of this conversation of who the best in the list is right now.