2024 Seattle Seahawks: Updates on Preseason and Tactics
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00:00It's always good to catch up with our buddy, Greg Bell.
00:05The Tacoma News Trip covers the Seattle Seahawks for us out in the Pacific Northwest.
00:12Greg, my man, always great to have you back on the show.
00:16Let's start with, I was just looking at this guy, Gino, and his problems and, you know,
00:25they're not that serious, right?
00:26The hip and the knee and everything else, like they said, he's fine.
00:29But talk about the quarterback room, because it's like, Howe backing up Gino, is that about
00:35right?
00:36Sam Howe?
00:38By a lot, yes.
00:39They got Sam Howe in a trade of swap of draft picks, plus Howe in the spring to be the experience
00:44backup the last couple of years, Drew Locke was, and then Drew Locke signed with the Giants
00:48on a one-year free agent deal.
00:49So they wanted someone with experience.
00:51Of course, Sam Howe just started last year for the Washington Commanders, 4-13, 21 interceptions
00:56led the league.
00:57So 612 passes than anybody, because the Commanders were always losing, 612 passes.
01:01Scott, he is as far from competing for the starting job as you can imagine.
01:06He is actually closer to competing with PJ Walker, the former Cleveland Browns and Journeyman
01:10eight-year veteran, for the second job than he is with Gino Smith for any meaningful snaps
01:15this year.
01:16But he did run the offense for four days last week when Smith had the knee and hip issues.
01:20He might run the offense Saturday when the Seahawks and Chargers play the first preseason
01:24game in Inglewood, because they might be cautious with Gino Smith just coming off the
01:29knees.
01:30Today will be his fourth practice coming back from it.
01:32Mike McDonald, the new coach, said he is going to play most of his starters against the Chargers
01:36on Saturday, though.
01:37But yeah, there is no competition at all out here.
01:39It's Gino Smith, clearly.
01:41Yeah.
01:42I was looking at some of the guys that were listed that are banged up already, possibly
01:50for this game on Saturday in Lipstick City.
01:55Noah Fant, my boy Jerome Baker, who they got from the Dolphins.
02:02I love that guy.
02:03I think he's a player.
02:04I thought that was a steal, if you ask me.
02:08And then Mike Morris and Draymond Jones, both edge guys, right?
02:15Are all those guys out of that game?
02:16What are your thoughts on what Jerome Baker brings to that team?
02:22I think Mike Morris will play in that game.
02:25They want to see what versatility he can give along the defensive line.
02:28Mike McDonald is having his defensive line all kinds of different positions.
02:34Leonard Williams, former Giant Jet, said he's playing six different positions along the
02:38defensive line right now.
02:41The chance here for all defensive front guys, and in Baker's part of the front seven, is
02:47this versatility piece and confusing offenses.
02:50Mike McDonald's beauty in the Baltimore Ravens system when he was the defensive coordinator
02:54last year was confusing offenses, showing him something before the snap, jumping to
02:58something else at or after the snap.
03:01Baker is playing inside weak side linebacker.
03:03When he's been on the field, he missed all offseason practices with a wrist injury and
03:07surgery he had from the Miami last season.
03:10And then now he's got a recent new injury, a hamstring issue, that's had him out the
03:14last four days.
03:15So he may not play against the Chargers, but it's going to be Baker when he gets healthy
03:20and Tyrell Dotson as a new inside linebacker.
03:23Dotson, the play caller, replacing Bobby Wagner, who's now, of course, in Washington.
03:27And they let Jordan Brooks sign with the Dolphins, which is why they had to go get Jerome Baker.
03:31Baker has a chance to be a real every-down guy.
03:34They'll keep him on the field because of his speed in the past game.
03:36He's just got to prove he can stop the run.
03:38This team was 31st in the league, Scott, last year against the Reds.
03:42It was like bulls running in Pamplona when teams ran the ball against Seattle last year.
03:47You're a boy, Greg.
03:50So what is it like to go to a camp without Pete Carroll there?
04:00It is different, Scott, for sure.
04:04Mike McDonald is almost the opposite personality-wise of Pete Carroll.
04:07Carroll was really loose and free, and everyone knows his persona,
04:11not to mention he was the oldest coach in the league at age 72.
04:13Mike McDonald is the youngest, just turned 37.
04:16McDonald is very direct.
04:18I saw a scene of players after a practice.
04:21Ten young players go straight into the locker room after they adjourn practice,
04:24while the rest of the veterans go signing autographs for fans at training camp.
04:28And McDonald angrily told one of his assistants to fish those ten guys right back out of the building.
04:33They did.
04:34They ran out to McDonald.
04:36McDonald gruffly said, go get on the wall to the fence where the fans were getting autographs from players.
04:42That was the standard.
04:43He said, as everyone does it and nobody gets out,
04:45he wants to be very consistent and disciplined on those type of messages, even down to that level.
04:50Pete Carroll would have put his arm around those guys later inside, away from everybody,
04:54and said, hey, come on, guys.
04:55You need to be out there for that.
04:56You know how it goes.
04:58This whole fight thing you may have seen yesterday,
05:00GK Metcalf flinging a helmet at a teammate and Jake Bobo getting an uppercut from a teammate.
05:06Well, it was Mike McDonald who set this tone from the first day the pads went on.
05:10He wants them to be tougher and physical.
05:13And this camp has been both.
05:15And then it culminated in yesterday's practice.
05:17Scott, yesterday was the first time I've seen a practice at the Seahawks look like the Legion of Boom days in ten years.
05:23I thought Richard Sherman was out there beating up an undrafted rookie wide receiver again,
05:27like it was 2013 when the Seahawks were the number one defense in the league.
05:31I'm not saying they have the talent for that, but McDonald's trying to get them to get back to that mentality.
05:36Tougher.
05:37If it causes fights, so be it.
05:39They finally drew the line yesterday with throwing a helmet or swinging a helmet at a teammate.
05:45McDonald brought them all together in the middle of the field and said, no more of that.
05:48Then there was a fight between two linemen in the pass rush drill,
05:50and he kicked them out of the practice field and put them in the locker room for the first time all camp.
05:56Make a mistake.
05:57Mike McDonald wants it this way, and he wants them to push the envelope.
06:00But if it causes some fights, so be it.
06:02Starting Saturday, they can go do that against another team for a change.
06:06Respectfully, I have a minute.
06:08They obviously, I think, made the right choice.
06:11I think that guy can flat out coach, and his defense was sickening.
06:17And I'm a Steeler fan.
06:18I hate the Ravens, and I know how good they are.
06:21They're our arch rival, and that guy was a pain in my ass.
06:25The other thing I'm worried about, though, is, frankly, to have Metcalf, to have Lockett, to have Njigba,
06:31to have that much talent at receiver, even tight end.
06:36And then I just don't buy that they have, frankly, a good enough quarterback to light up that kind of talent.
06:44They have all the talent in the world catching, and I don't believe they have it throwing.
06:49Eventually here, I'm going to run out of time, Greg.
06:52So I just want to say I'm excited that they got McDonald.
06:55It's going to be interesting to see if they win with him here in this first season
07:00and if Geno can get going again.
07:02They got a lot happening out in Seattle.
07:05Nobody thinks they're going to do anything, so I think it's going to be fun to follow him.
07:09We'll catch up again, get you back on the show as the season starts and progresses.
07:13Always good to see you, Greg Bell.
07:14Thank you, my man.
07:15Yes, sir.