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TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live
No Point Conversion: Darnald It All
00:49:26
Luke and Andrew dust off the old No Point Conversion machine to discuss the whirlwind of Seahawks news that broke over the past couple of days.
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- [00:22]
Marshawn Lynch
You know you rock when you roll with the Seahawks. Marshawn lynch beast Mo with his dreadlocks. Wilson passes the ball to the end zone. Touchdown. You know we're gonna get the crown in the Super Bowl 2014. We get the ring, the bling. Listen to the crowd sing. Seahawks, Seahawks, Seahawks. We block that offense. To say we'll lose a such an offensive nonsense. We got the best defence. Being the other quarterback comes with the expense of the act of being sacked. I hope the Broncos have enough time to react to the level of game. The Hawks are bringing that evening a Super Bowl Sunday because they're gonna go all the way for the win starting when the game begins. All the way to the end of the game and to go down in fame as the super bowl champions of this year. This team should be fe. You better saddle up when you roll with Seattle Broncos. Seem like some old cattle left in the field after cutthroat battle to the Hawks. I just kick a beat, just run away and beat a retreat even if we lose.
- [01:16]
Luke Burbank
Hear ye, hear ye. Hear ye. We officially convene an emergency panel of the no point conversion. What did we call this? What was this called? No point conversion.
- [01:31]
Andrew Walsh
Yes. No point conversion. Yes, exactly.
- [01:34]
Luke Burbank
We. We did it on. On the weekly basis, let alone two years going by.
- [01:39]
Andrew Walsh
And I don't think we need to say this but obviously huge weekend in Kraken hockey. And that's why we wanted to kind of like put the old cans on, fire up the microphones, fire up the little ho. Get on the blower and talk about.
- [01:54]
Luke Burbank
The ice cracking hockey.
- [01:56]
Andrew Walsh
That's right.
- [01:57]
Luke Burbank
You know what is truly incredible about this theme song?
- [02:02]
Andrew Walsh
Is that as true today as it was.
- [02:04]
Luke Burbank
Well, there was a chance there was point on. On Sunday where the Russell Wilson reference in this song could have. It wasn't a. It wasn't what it was a non zero chance. Right? A non zero chance that Russell Wilson could have been a Seahawk. Sea yuck. Sea yuck. In other words, I'm just fascinated with the the specific mentions in the song and let the point at which everyone mentioned in the song will be dead and. Well, maybe that's a little. Maybe that's a little harsh. How about out of the league?
- [02:37]
Andrew Walsh
But the idea that there was even debt is harsh. Let's say brain damaged. Oof.
- [02:42]
Luke Burbank
Somehow worse death seems like the ultimate.
- [02:46]
Andrew Walsh
I feel like we need to as responsibly woke sports broadcasters. We have to acknowledge the inherent danger of the sport of which we speak.
- [02:56]
Luke Burbank
I'm just saying that like of all of the craziness swirling around the possible scenarios and the Seattle Sea yuks, you know, is it going to be Aaron Rodgers? Oh, by the way, DK going to the Steelers. But the Steelers now have maybe two quarterbacks and did they love Russell or was he just fill, you know, was he just the, you know, the best option they had at the time? Is there a chance that the Seahawks could pick Russell Wilson up again?
- [03:24]
Andrew Walsh
Were people asking that? Because the thought had gone through my head, but I didn't see any speculation.
- [03:29]
Luke Burbank
I don't think that any. I saw Richard Sherman saying it on his. His TikTok feedback and I don't think that there was a. A very, a super serious conversation about it, but it was theoretically possible. Because if I understand, I believe Russell Wilson might be a free agent again somehow. Like maybe he signed a one year deal. So just again to take it back to the important thing. K dude and little hoagie. It'll be a truly sad day when everyone mentioned in the song is no longer in the league. We've basically got Russell at this point of people mentioned in the song. We've also have old cattle. He's still starting for the Kansas City Chiefs. No, we have, you know, you know, Peyton Manning's out of the league. I believe he was the Broncos quarterback when this song was written. It's pretty much down to Russell Marshawn's moved on to greener pastures.
- [04:18]
Andrew Walsh
Hollywoo.
- [04:19]
Luke Burbank
Yep.
- [04:20]
Andrew Walsh
Specifically, yes.
- [04:21]
Luke Burbank
All right, let's get into the what everybody in America is tuning in for, which is an extremely confused take on dead Cap salary dead. Our favorite topics and something that we discuss often both in private and public.
- [04:37]
Andrew Walsh
What I lack in understanding this topic, I will make. I will make up with. With volume. Up for. With volume.
- [04:46]
Luke Burbank
Yes, exactly. So, okay, the. You know, let me just. Let's. Let's just set the table this way. From my perspective, like a week ago. I mean, first of all, last week on the actual podcast tbtl, which, by the way, welcome to the no Point Conversion. This is an off shoot. I'm Luke Burbank, that's Andrew Walsh. I don't know, maybe we've our way into some kind of a thing here, right? Where somebody who doesn't know what TBT is just like feeling about the Seahawks and they just land here somehow. Like, do we need to.
- [05:16]
Andrew Walsh
I. This is going to be in the TBT feed. I would find it hard to believe of all.
- [05:20]
Luke Burbank
Well, I'm sorry that I disrespected all of you by. By identifying who we are and what the show is.
- [05:25]
Andrew Walsh
Yes, it will be in everybody's regular.
- [05:28]
Luke Burbank
Feed, but it does as a scary monster and a sports podcast.
- [05:32]
Andrew Walsh
I wanted to ask you, this is one thing I almost raised with over the weekend. Are you and I somewhat responsible for all of this news? Did you have that thought, too? You know, we was. It. It was Friday, right? It was Friday.
- [05:46]
Luke Burbank
I was talking about maybe Fubo creating some sort of opening for me with the relationship between me and Seattle Seahawks football. Maybe I was becoming a little bit less engrossed and we had talked about.
- [05:57]
Andrew Walsh
That and then our personal relationship. I said, I think it's more about lifestyle for maybe both of us than Fubo specifically. But that's between you and your Fubo. Y but. But also it led to a conversation of. Of just like, where the team is. And I suggested, well, the team, like. And I even. I remember specifically saying, like, I like Geno Smith. I think he's an interesting guy. But we are definitely in sort of a transitionary period. We have, you know, a new coach is going to be starting his second season. I said, offseason football never really excites me that much. And it just sort of seemed like we're like, yeah, I don't know. It's just like football is fine and the Seahawks are fine, but neither one of us are, like, rabid about it right now. And then, like, more Seahawks news in the 48 hours after that than has happened in probably, I don't know, the past three or four years, I guess, with the exception of the coaches being swapped out and the QBs earlier. But anyway, I was just. I like to center ourselves in these things.
- [06:52]
Luke Burbank
Yes, we may have manifested this. I will say that, like, well, let me. Let me take it back a week ago or before, before the Tyler Lockett thing was announced. And again, that to me, like, Seahawks are not going to, you know, sign Tyler Lockett's contract or whatever. That wasn't a shocker at all. They owed him, I think, $18 million or something and they. Can we get Fresca to sponsor this?
- [07:12]
Andrew Walsh
I know you said, there's a couple.
- [07:13]
Luke Burbank
Of Fresca boys, you die.
- [07:15]
Andrew Walsh
I said, let's dial up for this. You're like, let me grab a Fresca.
- [07:18]
Luke Burbank
I was like, yeah.
- [07:19]
Andrew Walsh
Yes, sir.
- [07:21]
Luke Burbank
Brought to you by Fresca. Like, the Tyler Lockett thing wasn't shocking to me. But. But before any of this off season stuff, my. My thought about the 2025 slash, hopefully 2026, hopefully late into 2026 Seahawks was the following. Mike McDonald is a defensive minded coach comes from the Ravens known for their defense. And he did the thing that he did last season that most impressed me was he figured something out, you know, a few games into the season of picking up Ernest Jones. I thought he was DE Ernest Jones when he came in. And then I feel like we just went to Ernest Jones. We talk about the same guy. Did we have a dearnest Jones who then we dropped the D on. Anyway, we picked up. We picked him up from like the Rams, right? Like we picked up a linebacker from the Rams and it seemed to really kind of do something defensively for the Seahawks where we got a lot better. And it seemed like when things were really clicking for our team, it was more defense related than offense this season. And so my thought is like going into this, this coming season, it was like Mike McDonald's whole thing is like, let's just build a total like, you know, like a smothering defense. Allah 20. What was it, 2000? I can't remember. 10 Ravens. 2000 Ravens maybe when it's like Trent Dilfer was their quarterback and famously like that was the first time I'd ever seen a team go to a Super bowl and I think they won the super bowl with an obviously poor offense.
- [08:59]
Andrew Walsh
I think that would have been. Was that the. That was probably Flacco though, right? Are you talking about the time?
- [09:03]
Luke Burbank
I'm talking about Trent Dilfer.
- [09:04]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, okay. Not the harbor. Because I remember the Ravens also went up against the Niners and it was like the two hard.
- [09:11]
Luke Burbank
Probably the same principle. Although Flacco actually could put up some numbers. But no, like I remember specifically this Ravens team when, when their quarterback was Trent Dilfer, who was generously described as a game manager. And the whole thing with that team was you just smother the other team with your defense and have an offense that's not making it worse for you. You just have an offense that just like doesn't try anything ambitious but doesn't turn the ball over, moves the ball down the field, takes a lot of field goals and just kind of like allows your defense, your Ray Lewis led defense to do what it do. And like, I guess my thought was, well, that's maybe where the Seahawks are trying to go. You know, McDonald is a defensive minded guy. The defense seemed to work okay last year. He's got this quarterback in Geno Smith who's sort of maddening because you keep. They're always telling you that Geno Smith stats were gaudy. Like you're always fighting because you know he's like his, as I was saying in the text chain today, he like led the NFL in like getting passes out in under three seconds and stuff. Like. Or I think two seasons ago his QBR was number seven in the league, which is pretty high actually. Like, you're always hearing that like, Geno Smith is actually statistically a great quarterback. And then you're always watching him throw an interception from the six yard line. Like. So I guess my point is, my thought was maybe the Seahawks can kind of like figure out how to get one more good season into Geno Smith put together. I mean, he's 34 years old, but like put together one more unexpectedly decent season from him where. And maybe we get somebody, somebody steps up in the running back position. Maybe Kenneth Walker can like stay healthy for more than eight seconds and you, you have an okay offense and you build a really good defense and that's our identity. And maybe we, you know, the Rams fall off a little bit or something and maybe we, like I felt, I would say I felt out of like zero being totally pessimistic and 10 being like, we're going to win the Super Bowl, I probably felt like a six, which I would take. And then everything changed and they got rid of everybody, it would seem was relevant to the offense having any kind of success. And now I kind of don't know what to think.
- [11:22]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I mean, for me, my response to all of this is, is very. I mean, you already sort of set the bar for this, but I just want to lower it even more. For me personally, like, the only things I have to say are sort of emotional right now because I really, I haven't been following the Seahawks as closely as I was back when we did this as a regular feature. And I didn't watch, you know, as many of the games last season as I would usually like. But for me, you know, without getting in the details of what this means, salary cap wise, generally speaking, I mean, we're talking about this in the text chain and your brothers were saying this. Your brothers know a lot about this stuff and others on the text chain. It does sort of seem like what the Seahawks are getting in return for the long term future health of the team. Makes sense. We had DK and Geno both asking for probably too much money than where the Seahawks are right now. I think I said Seahawks. Did I say Seahawks without the sea Yucks.
- [12:18]
Luke Burbank
And song has a way of getting in your brain.
- [12:20]
Andrew Walsh
It really does. And like, that all makes sense to me. Like, that's fine. Like I kind of have been hearing rumblings. I listen to a lot of just as background noise, a lot of like local sports radio. And I've been hearing this chatter about DK even before he requested a trade about like what are we gonna do about this contract? And Geno's always kind of a perennial question past several years since he took over the team. So anyway I. The thing about it is it sounds like it all makes sense. It looks like Sam Darnold now is coming into town to be our qb. And like I don't know that much about Sam Darnold other than like I am. While I think these moves are probably good for the team, like I'm just bored by the thought of him being our quarterback. Like I liked Geno Smith is the.
- [13:05]
Luke Burbank
Most interesting thing that's ever happened to Sam Darnold because it created the greatest sports chiron of all time where just set out with mono and introing a game and explaining where Sam Darnold was.
- [13:16]
Andrew Walsh
And I know he had an unusually successful year last year with the Vikings who I mean at one point look like they could almost going undefeated. But I don't know how much he, you know, gets credit for that stuff. And that's stuff that we can talk about. But the point is from a purely emotional standpoint, and I'm not saying that it's like, you know, my mood is worth millions of dollars of the Seahawks money, but like I just liked Geno. He was interesting. He look like he. He felt like. He felt avuncular to me.
- [13:47]
Luke Burbank
I'm sure half my friggin iconic he.
- [13:51]
Andrew Walsh
You know, and just his story of being sort of like, you know, like being much ballyhooed but then not living up to expectations in New York and then coming here and sitting on the bench for so long, but then really kind of having some good seasons and just showing some flashes. He's a fun guy on and off the field and I just had a connection there. And I don't know why I'm so negative about the idea of like having to root for Darnold.
- [14:17]
Luke Burbank
Well, I mean, darn. It's right there in the name. Yeah, doesn't help exactly.
- [14:20]
Andrew Walsh
Dangled.
- [14:23]
Luke Burbank
Like. Okay, so this is the narrative that I'm seeing online just today and in the last few hours with the announcement that the Seahawks now have locked down Sam Darnold is that the Seahawks, they got much younger at the quarterback position. Geno Smith is 34, Sam Darnold is 27. They signed Sam Darnold for less money than they were going to have to pay Geno to keep him around. And that Sam Darnold had a really good season last year. If. As long as you don't account for the last two games where he played really badly. But. So that's the theory.
- [14:57]
Andrew Walsh
Do you think getting sacked seven times in a game is bad?
- [15:01]
Luke Burbank
Was it seven?
- [15:02]
Andrew Walsh
What was the number? There was a six. I forget.
- [15:04]
Luke Burbank
But boy, you sent a piece of audio that showed me to my. Have you ever heard Criminals?
- [15:08]
Andrew Walsh
This used to be. Can I play the whole. I have a slightly longer. Is this a slightly longer version? The local broadcasters. This was against the Rams in that.
- [15:16]
Luke Burbank
Wild card game, what game they were.
- [15:18]
Andrew Walsh
Losing, just kept getting sacked. He kept getting sacked. And then the local broadcaster who ironically or not ironically, confusingly, I think his name is Paul Allen, has this call. Rams blitz. Darnold gets away from it, steps up in the pocket. He's holding it too long.
- [15:34]
Luke Burbank
Throw it.
- [15:35]
Andrew Walsh
He.
- [15:36]
Luke Burbank
I love it. I love an announcer just being like, I will not stand for this shit any longer. Like don't soft pedal it. Here's the.
- [15:45]
Andrew Walsh
Here.
- [15:46]
Luke Burbank
Okay. I'm going to give you. I'm going to give you the under informed like best case and worst case scenario with Donald as a Seahawk. Okay? So the. Let's start with the. The worst case. The worst case scenario is that Sam Darnold has never stopped being Sam Darnold and that last year was an aberration. And part of why it happened was because Minnesota had a crazy good defense and Sam Darnold had like Justin Jefferson and like two other top level receivers to throw to and a good offensive line. And with all of that, his quarterback rating was 14. Now that's not bad. That puts him somewhere in the middle. But it wasn't number four one, number five. Like I said, Geno's highest QBR with the absolute chicken wire and paper mache that is the Seahawks line. He got to 7 on QBR. So like Sam Darnold is yet to achieve the heights that Geno achieved with like almost no protection, etc. So the, the worst case scenario is Sam Darnold succeeded and also he had Kevin O'Connell as his coach who is maybe a quarterback whisperer. Like the worst case scenario is Sam Darnold comes to the Seahawks and he just regresses to the Sam Darnold that he's been everywhere else in the league except for last season season and the Sam Darnold he was when teams managed to get pressure on him was the last two games. And so the Seahawks then are like oh great. We got younger with Sam Darnold. Well, we're not, we're not trying to grow old with Sam Darnold if he's not playing well, you know, this. I like getting a 20. To me, getting a 27 year old Sam Darnold isn't like getting a 27 year old, you know, Russell Wilson even, or Baker Mayfield. By the way, the. This, there's. This is where I really don't understand the math of all of it. People keep talking about how this and the Baker Mayfield trade are. They're not obviously literally connected, but there's some spiritual connection between them because I guess we're giving Darnold a similar contract to what Tampa gave Baker, and it's incentivized in certain similar ways, et cetera.
- [17:43]
Andrew Walsh
For his first year. Because now I think that Tampa Bay has locked him down for a few years, I think. But, but you're talking about when they were kind of giving him a flyer at first.
- [17:51]
Luke Burbank
Well, I don't know because, I mean, Darnold's three years, so I don't know.
- [17:55]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, okay.
- [17:56]
Luke Burbank
But, but what I can say is that seemed to work out pretty well for the Bucks. And you're a, you're a, a, A Baker appreciator. So maybe, I don't know, like, because Al also, by the way, there maybe is a similarity too, in that Baker, who was sort of, it seemed, as a Brown, and again, you know more about this than I do. Like, he's so much better as a Tampa Bay Buck than he ever was as a Brown. Right. Like, he, he was, he had moments as a Brown, but didn't it seem like he was never quite getting to his potential or whatever?
- [18:28]
Andrew Walsh
Never ask me questions about football. I don't know that I can compare his time with the Bucks to Cleveland. I was a big fan of him in Cleveland. He did some really great stuff. He was really injured in his last year, but he played through a lot of injury, which, as a fan at the time, I did not think was actually the best thing for the team. Him maybe taking a couple of games and sitting out might have helped in the long run if he could have gotten more healthy. But, I mean, I know him as the guy who took the Browns to the postseason for the first time since I was rooting for them in forever and won the first game of the postseason, beat the Steelers twice in a row to do those. So, like, that's really good. And they did the. And he took the Bucks to the postseason at least once as well. So I think Maybe his time might be comparable in both.
- [19:16]
Luke Burbank
Maybe it's comparable, but I don't know. I think I was underestimating his. His Brown success and maybe overestimating his Buck success. But all that is to say, I do feel like we are in an era of quarterbacks that were kind of sort of written off, doing, you know, better than expected. I mean, last year, my. I hope last year wasn't the apex of that because last year you basically had Geno Smith, which is a great redemption story. You had Baker Mayfield, which you may not agree is a redemption story. And you had Sam Darnold, which was a redemption story. You had this weird thing where it was like, quarterbacks who people thought weren't good if they got in the right system, they turned out to be pretty competent and pretty good. So if that pattern holds, I guess there's a chance. So anyway, worst case scenario is that Sam Darnold is a guy who has a really, really hard time behind a not particularly improved offensive line with no one to hand the ball off to. Of note, again, if Ken Walker III can stay healthy, he seems okay sometimes. I don't know what's in the water in Seattle. Oh, it's not the water. I don't know what's. I don't know what the deal is in Seattle where, like, we have not had a running back who can stay healthy since, like, Marshawn Lynch. Like, I feel like we've always got a Chris Carson. We've always got a. There's always a new guy who's showing some flash and we're like, this is the guy. And then he just always has, like, a vague neck problem that we can't get to the bottom of until he just kind of, you know, slides off into obscurity, like. Anyway, all that is to say the worst case scenario is that Darnold is. Darnold is. Goes back to having some trouble. Here's the best case scenario. Sam Darnold, like, actually got some comp. Some much needed confidence last year, much like I did when I shifted from paying playing little league baseball for the Greenwood Boys and Girls Club, where I did not swing for an entire season because I had some kind of mental block. Then I went and played softball for, like, just a summer softball team at the local community center. And it was like a very, very low competition environment. I was the only kid who'd ever even played an organized sport, meaning I was the best player. Meaning I was the star pitcher, the shortstop I could hit because this was not a competitive thing. It was just something for kids to do. And I'll be darned if the next year, when I came back to. And everyone's talking about this, the comparison is so obvious between me and Darnold. When I came back to play for Domino's Pizza, I was really good because I had. Something had shifted in my brain about confidence. Like, I just was realized, oh, I could actually do this. Maybe Darnold. Maybe something shifted in Darnold last year to win 14 games. That's not nothing.
- [21:46]
Andrew Walsh
No.
- [21:46]
Luke Burbank
And now he's like. And of course, John schneider and Mike McDonald, like, they're not. I don't think they're dumb. They are like, presumably what they're doing right now is trying to sign Jorge Polanco. Now what they're doing right now is trying to build the environment around Sam Darnold that Minnesota had managed to build or that Sam Donald came into and. And. And basically get. Have him playing next season the way he played last season, which, again, if you take out the last two games, pretty good. Pretty good. And he's 27 and he's cheaper than Gino, so. And we have a. We have a more. We have more cap room, I think, than we've had in a long time. Now. This is also where my knowledge really hits up against. I don't know, the wall of my own being uninformed because I don't really know enough about the free agent market to know who's out there. Like, who are the receivers that the Seahawks would go get? I think DK Metcalf would be great. Is he available? Was he the big free agent?
- [22:43]
Andrew Walsh
I feel like I just read something about him.
- [22:46]
Luke Burbank
Like, it's like, I don't know. I don't know who we go get. I mean, we have Jackson Smith and Jigba and Jake Bobo are the two big returns. And by the way, Jackson Smith and Jigba's been great.
- [22:55]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [22:55]
Luke Burbank
I wonder if some of his. I mean, part of what's great about Jackson Smith and Jigba or what maybe worked was they had to focus on DK so much that you let Jackson Smith and Jigba get loose. And the kid's really good, so he was really good.
- [23:07]
Andrew Walsh
Didn't DK miss two games?
- [23:09]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, you know what, that's a good point.
- [23:11]
Andrew Walsh
But, like, did really well. Yeah.
- [23:12]
Luke Burbank
Yeah. As the number one. And I'm sure that they're, you know, know, factoring that in. But, like, the best case scenario is our defense continues to get better, and it was improving, I think, pretty much throughout the season. We get a real lockdown defense. We use all this cap money. We now have to go out and get, you know, these missing pieces that we need. And we give Darnold a good line to work behind. And I don't know, maybe we're. Maybe we're better next year. Like, Gino was always a question mark to me. Like, I, I could see a world in which Gino would have been a more successful quarterback for the Seahawks next season. And I can see a world in which we, we're just seeing highlights from the Las Vegas Raiders where he's just throwing stupid interceptions because he really did contain multitudes. He really did have the ability to throw some truly awful passes at the worst possible time.
- [24:03]
Andrew Walsh
And as you said before, and I'm just echoing things that other people are saying and writing and texting, but it sounds like you really have to emphasize rebuilding the O line because as you mentioned earlier, Geno was really good at getting rid of the ball quickly. I mean, the irony. I saw Nina Kimes post this on Blue sky over the weekend. Like, the irony is before we knew even Darnold was coming here, like, okay, you're getting rid of this financial obligation, so now you can work on the O line. But the irony is if Gino could have been behind a good O line, we could have seen so much better stuff from him. And I think people generally like him, you know. Well, I guess it doesn't really fix the interceptions. Well, except for maybe like not feeling comfortable back there and having to get rid of the ball quickly.
- [24:48]
Luke Burbank
I'm also wondering, though, if Gino was a particularly good quarterback at three second drop backs, but not at five seconds. I don't have any. Like, I don't have the data in front of me, but like, it could be the case that what Gino was really good at was at the line figuring out what the defense was going to do and how to cover for his generally terrible offensive line. But that, you know, if you get it right, like, if you can, if you, if you now have the money to get a good offensive line, I don't know, you might get better results. Like, in other words, if you would have given Geno five seconds back there, does he make better choices or is he just really good at quickly getting rid of the ball, you know, and trying to minimize the harm of the rush? I mean, I, I guess we'll.
- [25:30]
Andrew Walsh
Is it.
- [25:30]
Luke Burbank
I guess we can't know that.
- [25:31]
Andrew Walsh
Isn't it kind of conventional wisdom, though, that he's. If you don't have a really, really solid O line. You're better with Geno there than Darth from it steps up in the pocket. He's holding it too long.
- [25:43]
Luke Burbank
Throw it, man.
- [25:46]
Andrew Walsh
I said that to make you laugh. But also it is true though, right? Like that. Unless you really take this opportunity now you have some cap space or whatever it is and you can work on an area, you better make it the O line because Sam Darnold's going to be really dead back there otherwise. That was understanding.
- [26:03]
Luke Burbank
I mean the other thought, I think I said the worst case scenario is Sam Darnold is bad. Maybe that's not even the worst case scenario because maybe it is. He is bad. But it's a rebuilding season, which is just. I can't like with. I only have two pro teams that I care about and it's the Mariners and the Seahawks. And I like, I can't have the Mariners not like aggressively trolling the fan base by not getting a bat. And the Seahawks aggressively trolling the fan base by not trying to win next season because they want to get, I don't know, in the front of the line for like a quarterback pick in 2026 or whatever. Like, I can't emotionally, but there's not enough FUBO in the world to fix that for me.
- [26:46]
Andrew Walsh
Weirdly, I trust the Seahawks actually have a plan and to go.
- [26:50]
Luke Burbank
Oh yes, I do too for it.
- [26:51]
Andrew Walsh
Though than I do. I've lost all faith in Seattle ownership to be anything but greedy.
- [26:56]
Luke Burbank
And also that's one more thing about John Schneider, our GM is he was. Presumably he and Pete Carroll were the people who went out and got Geno Smith at some point and who then promoted him to starter when I thought that was a terrible idea. So like the. John Schneider's track record for kind of like, like, I guess I would say if they were. If they were admitting openly, like if they were like, okay, we're just. We've been cruising along at like eight wins or whatever for the last four seasons and we need to just like blow this up, start over and build something. I would. It would really hurt my heart, but I guess I would respect them. But also they wouldn't be going and getting Darnold for $110 million like Darnold was. I'll get. I'll give him at least this much. Darnold is the agreed upon, most attractive free agent quarterback that was available.
- [27:44]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, it was.
- [27:45]
Luke Burbank
That's what everyone pool, very small pool. But still they didn't go, you know, they didn't go like just. They didn't promote Sam. What's his name? Who's the, who's our backup?
- [27:56]
Andrew Walsh
Howell.
- [27:57]
Luke Burbank
They didn't promote Sam Howell at least yet. You know, maybe he'll have to compete. But like. Because that was one of the things I was seeing was like do they just bring. Do they. Because Sam Howell had a kind of a interesting half a season with the commanders. Like it was kind of a. He was kind of a meme for a minute. Like they didn't just, like they didn't just go, we're going to go with Sam Howell and we're going to really emphasize our defense. So in other words, I don't think that they're tanking because I don't think they'd go buy, you know, they'd go buy the most expensive presumably and highest. I never thought I'd use the word highest profile and Sam Darnold in the same sentence. But they went out and got the. Who the person who's agreed upon to be the best option out there. We went and got him. Like Pittsburgh was apparently going in trying to get him and like so which.
- [28:40]
Andrew Walsh
Would that have given. So is Justin. Well now I'm asking you about contracts on other teams. What's up with Justin Fields over there? Is he.
- [28:46]
Luke Burbank
I, he, he must be a free agent because I, I was see name bandied about as a possible Seahawk thing.
- [28:52]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [28:52]
Luke Burbank
I don't know if the Steelers have both of their quarterbacks in free agency right now, Russell and Justin Fields or what. But like I will say that for whatever the conventional wisdom is worth, they went out and got the person that the conventional wisdom says is the best person and available.
- [29:10]
Andrew Walsh
Again, speaking just as somebody who hopefully will be able to watch a bunch of these games and have some feelings about it. Like the other name and maybe even the higher profile name but for all the wrong reasons was Aaron Rodgers. And I saw that bandied about a bit this weekend and I was pretty doubtful about it. But I also don't know anything about this topic. But like I was like, I just don't see that. Like I think most teams, unless you're like super, super, super desperate, most teams see him as a pretty toxic.
- [29:42]
Luke Burbank
Oh, like a, like a vaccine.
- [29:44]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, right.
- [29:45]
Luke Burbank
Entertain it into the body, into the organism and you just don't know what kind of shit's gonna happen.
- [29:49]
Andrew Walsh
Most are not knock inoculated against his toxicity is what I'm trying to say.
- [29:54]
Luke Burbank
We do have herd immunity. Yeah, we achieved Aaron Rogers.
- [29:58]
Andrew Walsh
No, dude, here's Most people would see him as like, oh God, if we bring him in, like, he's going to be just a problem in so many ways that I think you'd have to be a really faltering team willing to do like one year with a quarterback with that reputation, with his off, you know, field and locker room bullshit. And so I was just like, I would literally root against the Seahawks. I mean, hopefully not in a, not in an obnoxious like, on the text chain to make you guys mad. Like, that's, that's not a fun way to be a friend. That's not a fun way to be a friend. But I would personally just root against him. I just want the worst for him. Even if that means a bad couple of seasons with the Seahawks in which I root against.
- [30:38]
Luke Burbank
Well, this is something you've got a lot of practice in, being a Browns fan with desean Watson. But like, I, I, here's the thing. I'm so, I'm so shell shocked by the just larger political world that, like, when I heard, oh, you know, one of the names is Aaron Rodgers, I just, I honestly, I think out of a trauma response, I thought, well, that's probably who it's going to be. You know what I mean? Like, it just seems like, oh, if you just, if you ever give me the worst timeline on something now and I'm not this kind of person, man, this shit has broken me. Like, I, I'm like, I just don't go towards the worst case scenario most of the time. And I'm kind of, of, I'm there a lot of the time now, unfortunately. And like, when I saw that being bandied about, I was like, that's what they're gonna do, isn't it? And then I have to, like, then I can't even root for my foot. Like, I have, yeah, I have nothing, I have nothing in the sports world anymore. So I, I am glad that it's not him that would have been. And in fact, maybe that's a, maybe that's a good thing to keep remembering because, like, for whatever the potential frustration around Darnold might be, you know, and just whatever the Seahawks do, they're not hiring an obviously toxic, anti vaxxer, anti science, anti everything, smug, selfish. And I'll give you credit, Andrew, you were very early on this train when I was kind of agnostic towards the topic of Aaron Rodgers. You were very, you were clear and you were resolute. And now I think your suspicions have been borne out.
- [32:09]
Andrew Walsh
By the way, I wanted to bring this up earlier and then the moment passed and I Should have let it pass, but this is something I've been wanting to mention to you, on or off. He's holding it too long. He's holding it too long. He's holding this idea for too long. It's going to leak out his face. Did you see, Speaking of my beloved Tampa Bay Buccaneers, of course. Do you see that they welcomed Jon Gruden back into their ring of Honor because, oh, the world is just terrible. Oh, yeah, the guy who, like, literally wrote just like, not, not like.
- [32:42]
Luke Burbank
And homophobic. Yeah.
- [32:43]
Andrew Walsh
Oh, you could look at this as racist or, you know, like. No, just outwardly old school racist, homophobic stuff written in letters, no question about it, becomes disgraced for a little bit and then Trump is in office for two or three weeks and then they just release this thing. He's welcome back into our ring of honor now. And it's just kind of like, wow, I guess, like, it's just working for him now. Like, all these. It's just all the awful. They're like, oh, we can be. We can be awful now. Like, it's just, it's just.
- [33:15]
Luke Burbank
I didn't know.
- [33:15]
Andrew Walsh
That really bums me out.
- [33:17]
Luke Burbank
I'm super duper unsurprised. I'm super duper unsurprised because the sort of like, it started with barstool bringing him back, and it's just been kind of like reintroducing him into the conversation in a way that. And you know what, it's actually very Trumpian in this way that, like, somebody goes from being a person who does something that's really awful and like a good section of the population is kind of horrified by it or really turned off. And then it's. You just start kind of normalizing them and treating them kind of like a character. Suddenly it's like, oh, that's just Trump being Trump.
- [33:50]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah. Yeah.
- [33:51]
Luke Burbank
Coach Gruden's at it again. And you start to back slap a little bit and laugh and, and kind of like just. And then suddenly it's like, it just fades into the background that they had done a bunch of really bad that they, you know, never owned or apologized for. And that's exactly what's happened with Gruden now. Yeah, it's really. Which is, in fact, it kind of makes me sad because I don't know when this interview was pulled from, but I saw, like, Dan Patrick interviewing him recently, or at least I saw a clip recently of him being interviewed by Dan Patrick, which I was like, surprising.
- [34:20]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, yeah.
- [34:21]
Luke Burbank
Because I feel like Dan Patrick, you know, I Don't know what his politics are, but I don't see him doing a bunch of super, like, stuff.
- [34:28]
Andrew Walsh
No, I don't think of him.
- [34:29]
Luke Burbank
But anyway.
- [34:30]
Andrew Walsh
So, anyway, sorry to derail us with that, but it's just, again, one of those things while you were sort of talking about the world being such a terrible place and of course the bad things are going to happen. That one to me was weird. Like, oh. Where we're actually reinstating an awful person. Like, it's just like, okay. I could maybe even understand being like, you know, during this period where a lot of people were, like, very, very cautious not to step, you know, step in it or whatever the word is, you know, maybe looking back and saying, hey, we acted kind of quickly on this person or that. I don't want to, like, list examples, but, you know, some people might think that way, but, I mean, in this case, it's not even. Like, it's not a subtle thing. And also, like to say, like, no, no, you're welcome back now. It's just. It's so. It's so banana. It's just so bananas to me. Me.
- [35:11]
Luke Burbank
So here's the question, I think, to kind of, like, wrap this up. Are we. I don't. Excited might be the wrong word, I guess. Intrigued, I guess, to quote whatever movie that's from. Are you not entertained? Are we, like, more.
- [35:29]
Andrew Walsh
I want to say, are.
- [35:30]
Luke Burbank
Are we more intrigued? Like, I think we've gone from being a team that, again, I expected the Seahawks to probably get. Get like eight wins would be the likelihood. Ten wins would be, like, wow, things broke our way. Four wins would be meh. Things did not go well. Likelihood. Eight wins now. I don't know. I could see two wins or 12 wins. I. I feel like the. The sort of volatility of this team has now shifted because, again, John Schneider is no dummy. He's got a bunch of money to work with. And like we said, in a certain way, you could say that. That. That Darnold is an upgrade, at least in terms of age and stuff. Like. And I think we both agree that, like, DK was not worth. I think my brother Sam says in the text chain, or maybe it was David that, like, you know, DK had. Has had some great seasons and watch, he'll go have an amazing season in Pittsburgh. But, like, he had five touchdowns last year. I think he had five touchdowns. I mean, he was injured, but still, it's like, are we going to pay him as he's. I think he's being paid now. Like, in the top five of receivers by Pittsburgh. And, like, were we. Should we have been paying him, like, one of the top five receivers in the NFL when he had five touchdowns last year? Probably not. Not so, no.
- [36:37]
Andrew Walsh
And it's funny because he's such a physical specimen. Like, oh, my God, I.
- [36:41]
Luke Burbank
Forget it. I think about him at night sometimes.
- [36:43]
Andrew Walsh
And you're not the only one, buddy. On a quiet night, you can hear.
- [36:49]
Luke Burbank
A man, a young man's thought starts to decay at the combine.
- [36:52]
Andrew Walsh
I mean, but I will say this, and again, I just say everything from sort of an emotional standpoint here, but something does sort of switch in me. Like, usually, like, I'm rooting for Geno to do well in Vegas, right? And, like, because I just have good feelings about him, you know? One thing we didn't state here, although it's been said many times, is what a weird world where we could have Pete Carroll coaching Geno Smith.
- [37:18]
Luke Burbank
I literally was about to ask, who's the coach of the Raiders and Russell.
- [37:21]
Andrew Walsh
Wilson throwing the DK Metcalf in Pittsburgh. You know what I mean? It's so. It's funny to see, like, these little bits of Seattle. Seattle legacy sort of sprinkled around the league or whatever next season.
- [37:31]
Luke Burbank
Seahawk diaspora.
- [37:32]
Andrew Walsh
Exactly. Having said that, this is something that is really. This is something that I'm ashamed to admit, but I, like, you were on.
- [37:42]
Luke Burbank
That text chain with Jon Gruden.
- [37:43]
Andrew Walsh
I was. And I said, jon, speak up. No, no. But I like having a good feeling about a player and then rooting for them later. You know, when Russell left, I really wanted him to do poorly. And guess what? He did. And because I thought he was left because he was high on his own supply, he felt like he was underappreciated. And I wanted him to feel like, no, you were appreciated about properly. And if you're gonna leave with this big head of steam of thinking like, you're the best in the world, I kind of wanted to see him knock down a peg, which he was. And then after that, I was kinda like, I wanna see him do well in Pittsburgh. Like, I kind of turned around on him. Like, he's not a bad man. You know, I wanna see him do well. Right now, where I am with DK is. And this is what the shameful thing is. I'm kind of rooting against him now. And it's not because, like, not that way about Lockett. I'll root for Lockett no matter what. Right. But if it was DK was sort of like, I. You know, I'M requesting a trade.
- [38:37]
Luke Burbank
Agitating for sure.
- [38:38]
Andrew Walsh
Was agitating for it. And then you think back about his general tude, you know, like always. And I know that in the Pete Carroll era, I liked Pete's attitude about, like, kind of often defensive penalties being like, well, that's part of the. That that's the price you pay for the kind of game we play, which is very aggressive. And it worked well during that Legion of Boom era. And if you had to have some penalties go against you. But dk, with his immature penalties, he.
- [39:02]
Luke Burbank
Picked up a lot of dumb penalties, and he just riled up DBs so that they, I think, actually played their best, probably, and they were extra mad.
- [39:11]
Andrew Walsh
And I don't know if you. How much of this you would have caught. This is like me just listening to kind of like bullshit radio in the background all the time, but then like, him taking, like, either in press conferences or at the podium or whatever, maybe in the locker room, people saying, well, what about this thing about all your penalties? Apparently his name was on the whiteboard in the locker room, I think, maybe two seasons ago. And they were, like, trying to, like, like, specifically call out his penalties and get him to, like, chain kind of change his. His approach to the game or whatever. And he basically said, no, screw that. Like, you know, he basically, this is still the Pete Carroll era, so this must have been the 2023 season. He's like, no, I'm not. I'm not changing. I play the kind of game I play, and it's kind of like. Just kind of like, I don't know, what is it? Thumb in the face. It's not thumb in the face.
- [39:52]
Luke Burbank
Thumb in the eye.
- [39:53]
Andrew Walsh
Thumb in the eye of. Of your coach, of your organization, saying you will. He did not seem like a team player. And then he requests a trade, and he's really high supply. I gotta say, I. He's not one that I want to go see really dominate next year. I would love to see him knock down a peg.
- [40:10]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, I don't have. I probably don't have quite the same negative feelings that you do about that kind of part of his time as a Seahawk, but just purely as a. Like, the brinksmanship of this, or you might even call it the gambling of all of this. I. I honestly. And again, I don't hate on this guy at all, but I kind of want DK and Gino to have bad seasons because then I feel like the Seahawks made the right call. Yeah, of course, you also can't know because there's Bad. If they have a bad season, it might just be the new environment they're in. Maybe they would had an amazing season of Seahawks but like purely from a lake. Did the Seahawks do the right thing? You kind of do. I do tend to want to see people do poorly in. In in if when they leave the team at least long enough to feel like that was the right call.
- [41:00]
Andrew Walsh
Yes. You know, definitely.
- [41:02]
Luke Burbank
So I, you know I don't, I don't really wish. I certainly don't wish Gino any ill. I don't even really wish decay. But like what I don't want to see is both of them go have career years.
- [41:12]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [41:12]
Luke Burbank
As non Seahawks because they didn't have and have Darnold out. Lack of offensive line. You can't see this when I'm acting out Sam Darnold in the intro package of a game game. Darnold out. No offensive line.
- [41:24]
Andrew Walsh
Yes.
- [41:24]
Luke Burbank
No one to throw to. But again, I legitimately don't know enough about like the NFL receiver position is so weird too because it's like you've got a handful of like really, really high level dependable guys that season after season are just making catches and there's like a bunch of other people in the middle who I don't even know their names. I don't know who's out there. Like again, I don't. I think probably DK Metcalf was the, was the, the best receiver who wanted to go to another team or who wasn't, you know, who was effectively a free agent. Right. Like I, I don't, I don't know. That's the other last thing I'll say. And I said this on our text chain. I do not understand the NFL draft or at least I don't understand like how I think for. I think it was for dk. I could be wrong. This could have been for Gino because we traded Geno and we also traded DK, but I think it was DK. We got a Steelers third round pick which is the 54th pick in the draft and like that's five entire football teams of people before you get to that guy. 5 full on 11 man teams, give or take. Right.
- [42:32]
Andrew Walsh
Like that's a lot offenses, not teams. But yeah, okay, yeah.
- [42:36]
Luke Burbank
Offenses or defenses. You're right. Good point. Not you're not playing both sides of the ball at the same time time. But it's a lot of players and like yes, I believe by the way Metcalf was probably in the 50s or later when we drafted him. Like I think like I know, he wasn't in the first round if I remember right. Although we did trade up with the Patriots to get him. All that is to say, it's weird to me when you have like this valuable player. This really. I mean, he is a good player. And you're getting the 54th pick in the draft and that was like, that was the best that John Schneider could do. And people think that's like, hey, you got a third rounder for dk. It's. Or maybe again, maybe it's a third round. I know we got a third rounder for Gino. I might be totally flipping these, but regardless, it's like, it's weird to me that in the NFL it's like getting a third rounder is considered a get even. If it's for Geno, it's like the 54th player that's pretty far down. They might be good, but you're not like getting them one of the top 10 picks. You're not getting one of the marquee dudes out of Alabama or whatever.
- [43:32]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah, I don't know enough about the draft to weigh in on that. I think a third round pick is considered good as is a second. But you're right when you do the numbers, like how could that be? But I guess there's a lot of. A lot of young men in the draft. But you did bring us to a point where maybe it's a good place to wrap up. But I wanted to mention too, is like you said, hey, how do we feel right now? You know, we were 10 and 7 last season. Are we gonna go 10 and 7 again? Or we can go 12 and 5 or 2 and whatever. Like, I'm not gonna do the math on all this. I'm not here to take quizzes. No, but point is like I. This has done. Has made the rest of the off season a lot more interesting. I can I off the air the other day, like, I just. It's really hard for me to get interested in off season football because at this point my heart is more looking at baseball and I don't know, there's something about football. Like I'm just as. As we've demonstrated today, I'm not super smart about it. Like for me the enjoyment of football is. All right, like let's let you know what Luke, it's like hearthstone.
- [44:29]
Luke Burbank
Uh huh. That's what I've always said.
- [44:31]
Andrew Walsh
Football is like Hearthstone. Speaking of, wasn't that a Jon Gruden quote? Who that. Who said that? No, but like that was.
- [44:39]
Luke Burbank
You were on the text chain that.
- [44:41]
Andrew Walsh
Was like this digital, like, kind of card fantasy, kind of world of war craft card game I used to be obsessed with way back in the day, and I wasn't particularly good at it. And the reason I wasn't good at it is because the real way to play that game is by really strategizing and collecting as many of these various cards as possible and understanding what they do and how they work in conjunction with each other and, like, all this stuff. And then you can only play against other real human beings, you know, just randomized in the world. And I'd be like, I don't know, I'm grabbing all these cards and then I just want to play. Like, I don't want to keep on thinking about collecting the cards, which is the whole point of the game. But for me, I'm just like, I want to just bash my toys together now. Right. And that's how I am with football. Like, I'm not. I don't have the brains or patience for this off season stuff. I just want to, like, have a Bloody Mary and watch my team go, you know, and so that's. That's, you know, inhibiting my ability to understand this stuff. But what I was starting to say was this will make the off season more interesting because we aren't. We have a lot of questions now that will be answered with things like the draft, you know, like, we don't know, like, what will our receiving core be and what will that line look like?
- [45:53]
Luke Burbank
It is more intriguing to be certain. And the draft itself.
- [45:57]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [45:57]
Luke Burbank
Because I think we do have a lot of draft picks now.
- [45:59]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [46:00]
Luke Burbank
And I think John Schneider, you know, mostly has done pretty well with the draft. He said some, you know, some hits and some misses, but, like, it's definitely more intriguing. And here's the one thing I will say. The Seahawks are not the Mariners. I don't know if people are aware of that. I don't know if they're talking about on Seattle Sports News. The Seahawks are not the Mariners in that. Like, if this were the Mariners, they'd just be like, cool. More money to stuff in our pockets.
- [46:21]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [46:22]
Luke Burbank
Like, more money to line our pockets. Now we don't have to pay these pesky players. Like the Seahawks aren't. My general sense of Seahawks don't operate that way. Like, if the Seahawks have room to try to do something, I think they're going to try to do it. If it may work out, it may not. But, like, I guess I'm going to say, overall, I'm About. I'd.
- [46:41]
Andrew Walsh
I'd give.
- [46:42]
Luke Burbank
Giving away all your best players about a B. Like, because it, you know, it. I am, I'm intrigued. And it'll be if, if, if There are now a series of, like, updates where it's like, Seahawks sign. And again, I don't even know who the, like, good receivers vers. First of all, Seahawks sign. Fill in the blank of competent lineman is never going to get, you know.
- [47:04]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [47:04]
Luke Burbank
Never going to blow my skirt back.
- [47:06]
Andrew Walsh
I have no idea.
- [47:06]
Luke Burbank
Yeah, I will have zero idea. Unless it's Orlando Pace or Jocko Brenamini. I won't know who they're talking about. But, like, as far as, like, the idea that this might be kind of a fun offseason because you might just hear about, like, oh, we went and got that guy. Okay. Like, I can just see the fun loving criminals just burbling, crackling with energy because we've gone and got someone that Ders and my brothers, the real sports knowers are like, oh, oh, no. This is a get. Like, you know, I'm. That'll be kind of fun. Like, we were going into a season that I just thought, like, maybe we'll make incremental progress. Maybe the defense will just be a lot better, the offense will be passable, and we'll just kind of like we'll do last year plus one game. Which, by the way, would have been enough to get us in the playoffs.
- [47:52]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [47:52]
Luke Burbank
Now I feel like it's. It's to take it back to Kenneth. The Seahawks will either be running this place one day or all die by their hands. There's no middle ground with this team, I don't think.
- [48:03]
Andrew Walsh
Now, the important thing is I know where you are right now. And you're starting to think, wait, how do we end this? And we did have a little saying to end it. And I, in case you forgot it, I texted it to you.
- [48:13]
Luke Burbank
I did forget it. I didn't forget the song.
- [48:15]
Andrew Walsh
I have the song ready to go. But our little. See?
- [48:18]
Luke Burbank
God, I love this.
- [48:19]
Andrew Walsh
Yeah.
- [48:19]
Luke Burbank
The next time that we convene this, it'll be because the Mariners are running away with the AL West. Okay.
- [48:24]
Andrew Walsh
That's right. Or running away from the AL west because they're literally kicked out of town.
- [48:29]
Luke Burbank
Can we please, can we prophesy that, can we name and claim it, that we'll meet right back here in four months to talk about the incredible, historic success of your Seattle Mariners?
- [48:39]
Andrew Walsh
That's right.
- [48:40]
Luke Burbank
All right, well, listen, thanks for the people, mostly my brothers who are listening to this. Thank. Actually one of my brother. Let's not get crazy.
- [48:48]
Andrew Walsh
It's David.
- [48:48]
Luke Burbank
David.
- [48:49]
Andrew Walsh
It.
- [48:49]
Luke Burbank
David. To anybody who actually listened to this, thank you. We appreciate it. It was good for me to get it out of my system anyway. And when we get together to talk sports, you know. You know, a couple of things are going to be true. No tangent too long and no detail too wrong. Feels good. No matter what you are, I will.
- [49:16]
Andrew Walsh
Always be with you. Rams blitz. Darnold gets away from it, steps up in the pocket. He's holding it too long.
- [49:24]
Luke Burbank
Just run.
- [49:24]
Andrew Walsh
Throw it, man.