You're listening to the Seahawks Insiders, getting you ready for Seahawks Football every Sunday, presented by Delta, the official airline of the Seahawks.

Now here's your host, Jen Mueller.

Oh, welcome back from the bye Although John Boyle I kind of extended the bye week, I am not back in our studio yet.

Too much fun to come back.

I know I miss being there, but we're still going to talk about football before we do.

I got to know how your bye week was because you decided to take really a truly massive undertaking on the bye.

Week we did.

We had three kids at Disneyland, which is both really fun and really exhausting.

But the kids had a blast, which is what matters, and it is pretty special to see that through their eyes.

You know, watching a four year old enjoy rides is pretty fun.

Were there any rides that got to be too much for them?

Or were they up pretty up for I couldn't talk him into the big roller coaster at California Adventure, but you know, they even the four year old love Space Mountain, which surprised me.

I thought that might scare but yeah, they were riding just about everything and having.

A great time, Well perfect, they were troopers.

You had a good time.

You probably need a vacation from your vacation, uh huh, And maybe football is going to be the way to do that.

Meanwhile, while the Seahawks were on a bye last week, Jaya said was still winning awards.

John It truly is incredible when you take a look not just at this season, but what it means for Jackson Smith and Jigba in terms of just franchise records and franchise history.

What he's doing.

Yeah, I mean, he is having a truly special season.

Just one NFC Player of the Month, which is all the more impressive considering a lot of the guys in the conference played four games in October and Jack to Smith that Jigwill played only three, but in those three he had over four hundred receiving yards three touchdowns.

And yeah, I mean he is off to you know, pretty like historic start.

He's right on pace with some of these great all time you know, nineteen hundred plus yard receiving seasons.

He's on tract to just to obliterate every Seahawks receiving record for a single season.

And yeah, I mean it's just the consistency that he's doing it with us so impressive.

I mean, is his quote unquote worst game, he still had seventy nine yards, including some big, you know, clutch catches in a win in Arizona.

So he's been outstanding in every award he gets as well deserved.

It kind of makes you laugh thinking about the conversations we had before the season started of how were they going to use him and Cooper Cup.

How can they coexist?

They're both slot guys that the NFL next Gen stats and stuff that breaks all that down, Like, he's just he's moved outside.

He's playing outside a ton and it's working just fine.

He's a great He's just a great all around receiver wherever you put him well.

And it makes me wonder what else could he do to improve for the second half of the season, because you know that while the Seahawks took some time off, they were also doing a lot of self scouting along the way, and there are always things that you can improve on.

But when you take a look at kind of those self scouting notes, Mike McDonald said, and don't look at the stats too much.

There's a little bit more to it than that.

Yeah, you feel like you feel like, it's really not the it's not the numbers, it's watching the tape and watching like if you go through and watch individual efforts on each play, there's there's some great effort out there and again in all three phases.

But you're asking about offense specifically, and you see that.

You see our receivers blocking, all of our linemen are trying to finish blocks for the most part.

You know, there's times where you want more from guys, but the effort and the selflessness is.

There, and that's really, you know, most key.

When we talk about their run game, we talk about all things this team has done well.

You know, they came in the season really wanted to hang the hat of the run game and the efforts there and the you know, the attempts are there, but just the overall production is not.

But what Mike's telling us and what they when they stated it is like they're not super far off from where they want to be.

They've seen glimpses of it.

It's you know, it's been really explosive productive at times.

It's just the consistency is not there yet.

So that's you know, I think, to me, for this team to go from you know, being a really good team so far to where they could really get in that truly elite companies if they get the run game where they want it.

You know, the interesting part of that conversation, specifically as it relates to the Commander's matchup, is the conversation with Washington is going the opposite direction.

You look at the rushing yards per game that the Commanders have been able to put up, and it appears that that is the strength of their offense just based on the numbers, it's like one hundred and thirty seven yards a game.

And yet all of the conversation coming out of the game against Kansas City has been how that run game is not like living up to the Stanzards it's said at the beginning of the season, And that could all come into play, John, depending on how that personnel ends up looking on the offensive side of things.

Yeah, on Frinday night, for sure.

I mean Jade Daniels he practiced fully Wednesday.

It sounds like he's probably getting back.

But yeah, when you talk about and when we saw it early in Russell Wilson's career, when you have our running back or a quarterback who can run like that, it really affects your whole running game, and so you know, if they're playing on lean on that run game the way they have it structured, the quarterback has to be part of that.

Now, Marcus Mariota can run as well, but you know, he's not quite the same athlete at the stage of his career that Jane Daniels is.

So I think when you look at Washington's run game and like how it can improve, probably the biggest thing for them is getting their quarterback back.

Yeah.

I think it was just sixty yards against Kansas City on Monday night.

Now the Commanders are leaning it sounds like, as you mentioned, George Dayton Daniels returning.

But even if he doesn't, Mariota is running something similar enough that the Seahawks shouldn't have to change any of their preparation this week.

The good news is they've run they they're running the same offense.

They don't have to change offenses by the quarterbacks.

I think both operate it really well.

Both have really great arm talent both and extend plays both really fast.

Yeah, I mean it's kind of like it's kind of it's a similar operation.

I guess that is what I'm trying to say, so you know, the touch of plays that are going to be practicing against and preparing for really wouldn't change based on who's playing.

Now, you gotta be ready for both.

You gotta be ready for both through every every week.

But normally you're just focusing on the starter, so that changes a little bit.

I feel like if you, you know, you get any coach in an honest moment, if if there's any question of who's available, like you're gonna prepare for the starter, you have to.

I mean, you can't just go, oh, we'll prepare for the backup and then the starter plays and you're not ready.

But to Mike's point, like they're not gonna change drastically what they do depending who the quarterback is.

It's just maybe there's a few more talents available if Jane Daniels is in there.

Or maybe not though because if he's coming back from a hamstring inch that is exact sideline.

You know that mobility becomes kind of a thing, and this defensive front has been really aggressive on that one, so I'm not sure that it is exactly the same.

Of course, you for all of those things.

I was listening to Cliff Kingsbury, who is the offensive coordinator for the Commanders and his biggest thing and John, I think this shows up when you watch their games.

It's just finding more consistency across the board.

They're not being able to put two halves of football together, They're not able to put the phases of football together.

And I think Washington just wants to see some sort of consistency start to finish in their games.

Yeah.

I mean, you could say that about a lot of teams, but yeah, I mean they they they're coming off a game in which they got off to a pretty promising start and then it kind of fizzled out against a really good team.

So yeah, I mean, I think just overall, what we're hearing out of there and hearing from dan Quinn like, it's it's been a frustrating stretch here.

That this is a team that came into the league, came into the season with very high expectations.

They were in the conference championship game last year with a rookie quarterback.

You know, they went out and made some moves that were very win now, you know, bringing in veteran guys like Von Miller, and it just for a lot of reasons, injuries, being a big part of it.

They've not been the same team this year, and they are a team that's really looking to get back on track before the season gets away from him.

Well, yeah, because they have lost three straight games and their schedule does not get any easier from here.

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We were talking about the injury to Jane Daniels and how that could affect the game on Sunday.

John, we already know that Terry mcclaurin is out.

He reinjured his squad on Monday night, and so you are looking at a again at a banged up unit and a healthier Seahawks defense based on the practice report early this week.

Yes, unfortunately, Julian Love did have a set back.

Mike mccon told us, so he's gonna be No, they haven't ruled him out, but the way Mike talked about it, I would think it's probably unlikely we see Julian Love this week.

But yeah, I mean hopefully Devin Witherspoon is back.

He was a full participant on Wednesday.

You've got Derek Hall, he was limited Wednesday, but you know, from what Mike said, there's a good chance he's back as well.

So starting to see that defense get healthier.

I'm really intrigued to see what they do with Nicki, min Worriy and Spoon on the field at the same time.

They are guys that physically don't look at all the same.

They're you know, ones a lot bigger, and but they play.

They both play very physically.

They're great box defenders, nickel guys like I'll be curious if you owned just one guy's you know, if they just want to leave Spoon outside and play a lot of big nickel th Theemn worri inside, or if they want to kind of switch them around it.

It's I think it's gonna be a lot of fun for for Mike to figure out how to use both those guys together, because they're both just such special talents.

I wonder too, how many times, like their minds get blown when they're trying to draw this up and they're like, but we could put in gear, we can put it hear, we could do this, we could do that, And suddenly you've got sixty four options.

We could only use a couple on game day.

I suspect that probably happens somewhere along the line.

I also loved, first of all, Nick's confidence shows up in all the right ways, Like if our audience has not had a chance to listen to Nick imm and Worri talk to the media, it shows up certainly in the way that he talks about a game and his teammates.

But he told us back in preseason that he's got older brothers that really helped get him in line and pushed him and got him to be where he is.

And besides, if you don't stand up for yourself, you're not going to get anything with your older brothers.

But I loved how we came out and said this week again it was a great choice by the Seahawks to draft him, and I just chuckled that fell early proclamation and you're not wrong.

Ye us to talk to Nicki Minoorry on Wednesday in the locker room, and it was interesting hearing him talk about he really liked Seattle.

He felt like he was a great fit.

Obviously, Mike McDonald's has shown he knows what to do with a big, versatile safety in Baltimore.

And he said, you know, he wasn't sure what was going to happen when the Seahawks took grayz Abel.

You know, obviously he was projected by a lot of people as a first round pick, thought he would maybe end up in Seattle, and so once that pick made, he wasn't sure.

And then he starts getting phone calls early in the second round and he's like, who's on the clock.

He didn't, So he didn't know for a minute there that it was Seattle traded up to go get him.

So he was very excited and by all accounts, from what little sample size we have so far, it looks like just a phenomenal pick.

Yeah, and side note, greys Abel, pretty phenomenal pick too.

In fact, he has the highest run block win rate of any interior offensive lineman in the leak as, which I find.

Pretty really low pressure rate is a past.

I mean, he's he's Mike made a great point yesterday, like probably the best thing he says, we're not talking about him if at all?

Yeah, like never, Yeah, because he's played so clean, you just you don't furn into your alignemen to stand out a lot of times is a bad thing.

So for us to not even really be focused on him because he's doing his job at such high level, I mean, yeah, just just an outstanding player and really kind of a you know, just setting the tone being the type of you know, physical, nasty player that the Seahawks want.

Doesn't look like that when you see him in real life, but when you see him on the field, those are exactly the words that I would use to describe him.

And you know, I think when Mike McDonald starts talking about team identity, you gravitate towards the defensive side of the ball.

I think it's showing up everywhere, and the words that might comes back to as he's saying these, I picture exactly what's happening on the field.

I just I think that these are so great.

Let's see if you agree.

We say our stylves trying to be trying to be decisive, shocking, and relentless, and I think there's a lot of times we're there, but we know that's what we're striving towards.

I think it's clear on my front in terms of messaging, how about how we're operating.

But we want to be aggressive.

We want to be physically you know, without hitting, without hitting.

All the coaching buzzwords, you know, but that really is who we want to be.

We want to be attacking and unrelenting and playing exciting brand of ball.

I thought it was a really interesting when we talked to Cooper Cup yesterday, he was asked by Identity and he brought up the point of, like everybody talks about in July and August, wanting to be these things, you know, tough, relentless, it's not that easy to do, like it totally okay, everyone says it, but to actually become that, and you know, you can't be as physical as you want to be in practice that time of year.

So that's a big step to go from here's who we want to be to actually be in it.

And I think Mike and his staff have done an incredible job of bringing this team to where they want to be.

And he he talked earlier this week about you know, finding the identity, and someone asked, you know, were you there last week?

He said, you know, we're still looking forward at this time because it's just that's the natural progression with the new coaching staff of so to come out of the by at five and and feeling like you really have that identity where last year they were finding it as they went and then they're still able to finish strong.

I just to me, this sets up for a great second half of the season for the Seahawks well.

And I would say top to bottom too, right, you can see it in all three phases of the game.

You can see it with the starters, you can see it with the guys who come in for injuries or you know, just for depth on that one.

And I think that it is really clear that this is a team that causes a lot of problems and that there could be some mismatches on the field, which is exactly what our fantasy insider Scott Engel is looking at as he helps you set your line.

Thanks Jenn and John and welcome back from the bye week.

Here we are Week nine and fantasy football a lot of maneuvering to still do as four teams are on a bye.

In NFL Week nine, we start a quarterback with Sam Darnold of the Seahawks putting up great numbers, connecting with Jackson Smith the JIGBA this season the Washington Commander's twenty ninth in at wowing fantasy points per game to opposing quarterback.

And how about the job the Seahawks offensive line is doing for Sam Darnell nine sacks allowed, that's the least in the NFC so far this season.

Also, Daniel Jones gets a very good matchup against Pittchburg.

He is a must start this week.

The Steelers allow the second most fantasy points per game to opposing quarterbacks.

Let's go to running backs where Camanie Vidal of the Chargers is becoming close to a must start if you have a tight lineup decision between Vidal and another player, go with Vidall great matchup against the Tennessee Titans.

And in a high scoring game between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs, Kareem Hunt can give you more touchdowns.

Very playable for a second straight week.

We mentioned him last week.

Could be won maybe two touchdowns.

The Jaguars are also coming back from a bye, and before the bye, Travis Hunter had best game of his rookie season.

Good matchup against the Raiders this week.

Start him as well, and also Jordan Addison of the Minnesota Vikings quite underrated for fantasy perspectives.

And no team has allowed more fantasy points per game over the last four weeks to wide receivers than the Detroit Lions.

And here's a good streaming play at tight end.

No team has allowed more touchdown passes to tight ends than the Cincinnati Bengals, who have allowed ten.

The next closest team has allowed six.

So it's time to get rookie Colston Lovelin into your lineup.

For more from me, check out the Week nine Fantasy Football Guide on seahawks dot com.

Covers all teams, all positions.

NEWSTAB fantasy insider.

Also check me out of rollaboller dot com with my lineup rankings and my fantasy football lineup spotlights on Sunday morning.

Back to you Jen and John for Week nine Sunday Night Football.

For this thank you, Scott, Okay, John, So we have talked about all of these different phases of the game, you know who we have not talked about yet, and I specifically saved the best for last, as in one of the best to ever do it.

We get a chance to see Bobby Wagner on Sunday.

Yeah, I mean, obviously the Seahawks are going to go out and try to beat Bobby Wagner.

But man, anytime you get to see him play football, just what an incredible career he's had.

And obviously he's going to go down not just as an all time great Seahawks but an all time great player and linebacker.

Just what he's been able to do both production wise, you know, awards wise, and then longevity wise.

It's amazing.

He is an eleven time All Pro.

He is closing in on fourteen straight seasons of one hundred or more tackles.

He's at eighty five right now, eighty three right now.

The only player in the NFL with more tackles than Bobby Wagner his former teammate Jordan Brooks.

Yeah.

Mike McDonald had a fun story about just kind of meeting Bobby for the first time when he came into Baltimore actually when he was looking at signing there.

But in terms of just what Bobby has done well, coach is certainly impressed.

Yeah, I think I think you're just speaking to his his resume, which is probably you know, rival by maybe me and a couple other people in history of the game.

It's probably big of a comment I can give them, you know, just how like to me, it's a meticulous attention to detail, a maniacal like way to prepare for game.

You know, it takes a lot.

Now it's a toll in your body.

It's probably the most impressive thing, honestly.

I mean, his mind is obviously as sharp as ever, but to be able to still play all those plays is is really impressive.

And that last part that Mike brought up is, I mean for everything Viorator has done just production wise, and I talked to Ernest Jones about this yesterday too, is like that position is so physically demanding.

And he has played thirteen thousand, four hundred and sixty seven regular season snaps.

He's been on the field for ninety six point six percent of the defensive snaps in the games he's played in his career, and to do that, and you know, he's had a couple injuries here and there, but he's been remarkably healthy throughout his career.

That's that's hard to do for a couple of seasons in the NFL at any position.

To do that at middle linebacker for well over a decade, that's just pretty insane.

It is also a reminder that I need to use the word maniacal.

Good word.

That's a really good word for this.

That's a really good word.

When you look at that commander's defense in general, though, and there's some big names on defense, they are still really struggling when it comes to total yards given up during the game, which I would think bodes well for kind of what Seattle can do.

Plus, they're playing on the road, and before I would have looked at this stretch of three of the next four games on the road and think this is going to be a problem.

And John, while I think it might be a problem of sleeping on a plane or getting back, my wife's not gonna love it.

I'm zero concerned about what these guys are going to do on the field.

It is crazy, the run of success that they are on on the road.

No, it's it's really remarkable.

And I know we've made this point before, but it's like you're the most geographically isolated team in the NFL.

You travel every year more than any team other than maybe somebody leave in the country, and to just go out, fly across the country, make these long trips over and over again, and then play as well as they do, it's it's really something special.

And you know, Mike McDonald's been the first one to point this out, this pre dates him.

I mean, they've taken it to an even higher level under McDonald, but like, this is something that you know, with Pete Carroll, John Shider, they got going.

You got to give a lot of credit to the support staff that helps make these trips go smoothly.

But yeah, I mean this team has really taken attitude of like, hey, we can go go on the road, go cross country and win anywhere.

And it's it's a great, great thing to have in your pocket.

Obviously in the regular season, but then you know, if you're fortunate enough to get to the PLA playoffs, you're not going to be worried about Obviously, you want home field.

That's great to have, but if you don't, it's not going to feel like a hindrance to your ability to win.

Right, And it's not going to be one of those storylines because it's already going to be something that works in your favor.

But for to to work in the Seahawks favor, John and I have to give you the two things we need to see for a Seahawks win.

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Okay, John, do you want to go first this week?

Shall I be kind?

I'm going to refer to you.

I want you go Jenya Okay, here's what I am going to say, regardless as to who is at quarterback, I want to see that pass rush continue to dial up the pure maybe not as many as the seventeen that we saw earlier this year, but you know that he is not going to be at full strength.

Here's the other thing.

We know the commanders have been dealing with a makeshift offensive line.

They just keep rotating guys in and out.

The only steady forces it's one of their tackles and one of their centers, so there should be some opportunity up there.

I would like to see a number of pressures, probably three sacks, and just complete flustered look by Jadon Daniels on the other side of it, I suspect you were going to talk about the run game.

Look, Washington is giving up a lot of yards in that defense, and if you've done some self scouting and made those couple of tweets, I'd like to see Seattle go over one hundred yards rushing.

I don't care how that goes, and I know you're probably going to tell me to get greedy, but I'll let you do that.

I don't care how those carries get distributed, but i'd like about twenty five carries and over one hundred yards.

I am going to get greedy.

I was going to talk about the run game.

You're right, and I want to see a hundred fifty not just because that's gonna mean they're productive on the ground, but that's probably gonna mean they're winning, you're not probably gonna get you know, if you're playing from behind, if if it's a really back and forth game, you're probably not gonna get all the rushed to him.

So I want that to be sort of a product of a team that goes out coming out of the by and really just gets after it.

And then I can stick with offense.

Just get the turnovers out of the game, because man, this offense, when it stays out of its own way has looked pretty unstoppable the last few weeks.

The only time we're talking about the offense struggling is either a penalty or a turnover.

And so just play clean on offense, don't turn the ball over, Maybe get some of the you're gonna have a few penalties, that's gonna happen, but don't have as many as I had last game.

And if they do that, I love what this offense can do.

They've been so good.

You know.

Obviously we talked about JSN and if I can detO a real quick back to Jason.

One more point I wanted to make when we talked about what he's doing.

I love that he has Cooper Cup here with him to go through this season, not just because Cooper Cup is like a great veteran leader, but he's one of the very few guys who knows what Jackson Smith is in Jigba is doing this season and just how hard that can be weekend, week out and teams focus on you.

And he's been that you chasing a record pace type receiver.

So I think that's just gonna be a really valuable asset to JSM throughout the season.

Yeah, and it's something we're going to have to start tracking now that we're past the halfway point to see if he can close in on a few more of those records.

Well, we have said our piece that is how we would drop a Seahawks win.

We will see how we did when we rejoin you next week for another edition of the Seahawks Insiders podcast.