Uh, handicap their chances of, uh, reigning once again over the NFL.

Well, guys, Nicky Eveluori probably not gonna play tomorrow night, but including him, they've got 10, really 10 of 11 starters, 'cause Riq Woolen wasn't a full-time starter last year.

He rotated with Josh Jobe.

And Kobe Bryant at safety is the only starter, true starter they lost off that Super Bowl champion defense, the one that was number one in the NFL at points allowed last year.

That fact alone is gonna keep them in games even when they turn the ball over or don't move on offense, even when Jadarian Price maybe doesn't do what they drafted him to do in the running game.

The defense is, again, gonna be the signature card for this team.

Mike McDonald's got some new fronts, some new blitzes, some new places for Byron Murphy to come from tomorrow night, starting tomorrow night against the Patriots, that the league hasn't seen.

Uh, tell us, Arnold, Diggs, how much do you think they'll get on the field and, uh, how worried should they be about defending the passing game with the situation at corner?

Uh, tell me, what did we learn about them in Hard Knocks with regards to everything you just said?

Well, I, I think you got a glimpse of Mike McDonald.

I see it every day in his leadership and how he is and how self-deprecating he is and how vulnerable he is and breaking up talking to the team about O.J. Brigance, his mentor in Baltimore who passed away of ALS.

It, it, that's a side that the public doesn't get to see, so it was brand new to them, and I think that made Mike McDonald a national star and a coaching star and everyone wanting to play for him.

It was a great PR series for Seahawks to attract veterans from other teams to come out here.

Look how beautiful the weather, the flying eagles, the coach.

Wow, this place looks cool.

Uh, tell us, Arnold, Diggs, how much do you think they'll get on the field and, uh, how worried should they be about defending the passing game with the situation at corner?

How weird was that? We almost forgot about that.

Right.

Thanks for having me.

But they have made a conscious effort to get past that.

They did a Super Bowl ring ceremony.

I think the first episode of the Hard Knocks showed that was in June.

And that was to be the final chapter closing on last season.

Do you think they can be as disruptive as they were in the Super Bowl on Wednesday, week one against the Patriots? Not if

Uh, what can we expect to see from the Seahawks in terms of starters? What are they gonna do with the quarterback position to start this game a- and going into the second half? What's the plan here for Mike McDonald's team?

Well, hi, Scott.

As starters, none.

[laughs] I w- I don't expect any of the 22 starters to play.

Sam Darnold, I don't s- expect him to see the field.

Drew Lock to start, play the entire first half.

Drew Mil- uh, Jalen Milroe, second year from Alabama, will be in the second half.

[laughs]

fieldWhat about the rest of that offense, specifically in the backfield, Kenneth Walker out, where does that leave the running back position, Greg?

Well, they drafted Geraldine Price in the first round to take that job, and he was beset for about a week by a leg injury, so he just got back on the field Monday full go for the first time in more than a week.

But now he is definitely on track to be the one, the number one running back September 9th when they open against New England.

He's, uh, he has a decisive one cut and go.

He's so quick out of his cuts.

That's what they need out of outside zone.

He said it's his favorite scheme to run, and he didn't do it a lot at Notre Dame.

Did they lose much on that side of the ball, or are you expecting that to be a juggernaut again?

Mm-hmm.

And John Benton being back is to me the most important thing that happened to the Seahawks off-season.

More than anybody they signed, more than anybody they drafted, more than anybody they let go, getting John Benton to come back was the key to the whole thing.

And I talked to him in San Jose a couple days before the Super Bowl, and that's when he told me, "I'm a Seahawk, damn it," and he kinda laughed.

And I thought to myself, "Well, if I can believe him, th- that's the most important thing the Seahawks can do." And the fact that he already knew that enough to say that e- unequivocally meant that John Schneider and Mike McDonald specifically went to him by then and said, "You gotta come back.

Even if Kubiak leaves, we n- what do you need? You need an assistant head coach title? We'll give you that.

Pay raise that comes with it? Sure, we'll give you that." This is something the Seahawks haven't had in, what, f- four or five years.

Yeah.

Better, better comparison.

He just, he just checkmates, check, checks ma- checkmates and chess matches the hell out of offensive coordinators and quarterbacks, and he did it again last night.

Two weeks to prepare.

He told us this morning, actually, when Nick Eman Wari twisted his ankle in practice Wednesday, he said to himself, "We just lost the Super Bowl." McDonald did.

That's how central Eman Wari is to everything they do.

And Eman Wari was central to last night's plan for what I just mentioned last que- answer, the double blitzing.

If Eman Wari had been out or limited, all those guys that were picking up Eman Wari would've picked up Witherspoon, and now all of a sudden it's a different game.

Blake and I were talking through December, okay, is this a legendary defense, '85 Bears, the '86 Giants, 2000 Ravens, Legion of Boom, or just a very good defense in a year where that might be good enough, say, the last two Giants champions where they beat New England both times? Where, where do you fall now, Greg? Like, should we be talking about the '25 Seahawks in the realm of some of those great defenses that I just lift- listed off?

mean, if you had told yourself from week one that this team's going to win the Super Bowl, what do you think week one self would have said?

No, because I don't think the offense was matched to the level of their defense.

What ended up happening was they got a running – it took them a while, but they got the running game finally to the point where they could play complementary to the defense with the run and didn't rely as much on Sam Darnold in the past.

When they were relying so much, it was high bar, high output with the pass game, but also high risk and high turnover defensively.

Yeah, Jackson Smith and Jig was 1,800 yards, and Sam Darnold made another Pro Bowl, but Darnold led the NFL in turnovers in doing it.

So it was high risk, high reward.

That wasn't sustainable for when the Rams and the Super Bowl came calling, and that's what changed with the offense.

Where do you fall now, Greg? Should we be talking about the 25 Seahawks in the realm of some of those great defenses that I just listed off?

he woke up today feeling pretty

good.

Mike McDonald said the Seahawks fully expect him to play.

It's a low ankle sprain, which is the garden variety you turn on the basketball court in a pickup game, not the high ankle sprain that he got week one and missed three, mostly four games, the rest of that first game and then three more games.

That's the more ligament damage of the leg.

The low ankle sprain is what you and I do turning, stepping off a curb when you get above 50 years old.

So he's got that rather than the other, and that's a good sign that he's going to play.

From a New England perspective, though, where do you think the Patriots think they can exploit the Seahawks?

So reconcile all that for me.

Look at you giving Dugar love.

77 dropbacks in those two games with no sacks.

They're the only team that's happened against.

The secret to their success schematically on defense is they've been able to affect the quarterback with four.

And Demarcus Lawrence has been a revelation.

Yesterday, Julian Love said he's transformed the defense, and he has.

This is to decide who wins the Super Bowl, isn't it?

What is going on with the Seahawks quarterback?

Well, it was an odd day, guys.

I'm glad you referenced this tweet I put out yesterday as soon as the practice was over.

He came out with a Theragun, which starting quarterbacks don't normally do.

But he wanted us to see that.

I mean, it was obvious.

And he said, nothing to see here.

I just wonder about Sam Darnold, the guy in the aforementioned games we saw this year, the guy in the two games at the end of last year with the Minnesota Vikings showing up.