00:00It's going to be the champs, the Seattle Seahawks are your defending Super Bowl champions,
00:04and I think the schedule opens up quite favorably, Joe, for this football team.
00:09They will start, I think, as favorites in each of their first five games
00:14with the shortest number potentially being the home opener against New England.
00:21They'll get a mini-bye into a road trip to Arizona.
00:25They will then go play your boy Jaden Daniels in Washington
00:28before hosting the Chargers as well as then the San Francisco 49ers.
00:35I think it's a nice little jump-off point here for a Seattle team
00:39who will be battling completely different preseason expectations.
00:46Oh, absolutely, Kevin.
00:47And again, they're going to have their bullseye on the back each and every week
00:50when the Super Bowl champions come into town.
00:53And can this team be built for the long haul, just not from a physical standpoint,
00:58but from the mental aspect of just repeating, right, that pressure of not being able
01:04to walk through the motions when you see a team like Arizona on the schedule week number two, right?
01:09That's where you say, like, the Kansas City Chiefs have potentially done it better than anybody
01:15of keeping their mental resolve and being able to pull these games out throughout the last decade, right?
01:21Can Seattle do it?
01:23Yeah, on paper, they can.
01:24We know that if the defense steps up and lives up to the expectation that they have last year,
01:29this team is going to be there in almost each and every ballgame.
01:33How big of a loss is Kenneth Walker to this football team?
01:36That's the major question mark.
01:39Sam Darnold obviously answered the critics last year.
01:41They have the highest paid wide receiver in JSN that looks like he could just take off
01:46and be a Hall of Famer in 2026.
01:50And again, defensively, they're opportunistic.
01:53I think right now, if I had a bet, I think I would take their shot for an NFC championship,
01:58asking them to potentially repeat as Super Bowl champions.
02:02I'm not willing to take that shot.
02:06Division championship, that's always up in the air when you have the Rams
02:09and you have the 49ers in the division.
02:11But I'd be taking a shot right here, right now, on Seattle with Sam Darnold in year number two.
02:19Yeah, I think the schedule, again, has lined up pretty nicely for Seattle.
02:26But I don't think, you know, 10.5 minus 135 is a pretty good price on it, right?
02:32It's not as if the books have...
02:35It was very noteworthy to me when the Super Bowl ended
02:38that they put Seattle as the preseason Super Bowl favorites.
02:41Now, I immediately said that number wasn't going to stick, and as right as can be.
02:48It took little to no time for the Rams to not only move in front of them,
02:52but to create actually a bit of separation between them and Seattle.
02:55There's a $3 gap between the Rams and the Seahawks, and everybody else, for what it's worth.
03:03The questions for Seattle are about change in belief, right?
03:09Kubiak is gone.
03:10Do you believe in Sam Darnold?
03:13Darnold has had two seasons in a row that you're very happy about.
03:18If you are, you know, Sam Darnold, if you're a Sam Darnold backer,
03:25he also very oddly kind of dropped off at the back end of the regular season.
03:31And I think it felt like Joe in every game other than...
03:35And it was the most important game you could argue they played all season.
03:38The NFC Championship game against the Rams,
03:40the whole idea of the Seahawks was don't let Darnold beat us.
03:45Seattle's thought was don't let Darnold beat us.
03:47Defense will handle it, play smart football, no turnovers.
03:50We're going to be just fine here.
03:52So I do think Darnold is...
03:55Like, Joe, do you think Sam Darnold is a guaranteed top 10 quarterback
03:59in this league coming into this season?
04:01No.
04:02I mean, do I believe in his ability?
04:04Yes.
04:05Do I believe that he could potentially fail?
04:07Yeah, absolutely.
04:08I think when you look at this team right now, Kevin,
04:12the biggest question mark is Kling Kubiak.
04:14It is the offensive scheme.
04:16How does it change?
04:18You know, we talk about coordinators being in a rhythm.
04:22Quarterback to wide receiver relationship.
04:23The ability to understand talent, how it responds in game situations.
04:29You know, that's something that I think you have to keep an eye out on.
04:33And outside of JSN, there is the ability of a drop-off at the wide receiver position.
04:38Shahid never got involved as much as we would have liked.
04:41Cooper Cup was aging.
04:42And again, they lose Kenneth Walker.
04:44So there is the ability to have this offense drop off significantly.
04:48We'll have to see exactly what transpires.
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