Today I was joined by Robbie Williams & Matt Mikolas to discuss the Jamal Adams contract and other Seahawks topics going into the second pre-season game…

Here’s a clip from my recent appearance on the brilliant Pedestrian Podcast. It explains why I have reservations about the direction of the Seahawks and their 2021 prospects.

After listening to it, check out the full podcast (which is conveniently available right underneath the YouTube vid…)

What a joyless experience that was.

Admittedly, a number of key players were missing. That really just highlighted an issue that has existed for some time in Seattle.

The Seahawks rely on quality players. Their stars — Russell Wilson, D.K. Metcalf et al — elevate the team.

When’s the last time a brilliant piece of scheming or coaching won the day?

Both teams rested starters. The Raiders gave a whole game to the much maligned Nathan Peterman.

Yet they were able to put together a coherent plan for a quarterback who has been the butt of many jokes. He finished with 246 passing yards and 32 rushing. They ran for 158 yards. They moved the ball relatively well, all considered — collecting 385 total yards and converting 11/17 on third downs.

The Seahawks, in comparison, delivered a total wet fish of a performance. As has been the norm over the years, the offensive play in pre-season whenever Russell Wilson isn’t on the field has been abject.

They had just 194 total yards. They ran for 68 — 25 of which came from Alex McGough. None of the quarterbacks looked comfortable. They were 4/13 on third downs.

Here’s the yardage split in the first half:

Raiders — 290
Seahawks — 44

I could sit here and talk about Cody Barton’s two sacks (well collected, yet mixed in with a poor first half performance). Yes, it was nice to see Darrell Taylor on the field for the first time (albeit in a largely unspectacular debut). Good for Deejay Dallas to take his opportunity to make a big play when the Raiders defense fell asleep.

Yet all I could think of as I watched the game on replay this morning (having rightly decided not to stay up until 2am to watch it live) was the stark difference in coaching.

Jon Gruden had his team functioning and ready to play. The Seahawks were not.

Part of that will be growing pains with a new offensive coordinator and scheme adjustments. I’m sure the Seahawks are also keen not to tip their hat for the Colts game.

Yet so often in recent years this team hasn’t been particularly well coached or prepared. They’ve failed to adjust in games too. And they rely on Wilson to execute, on Metcalf to use his insane physical skill to make a difference.

This is a team without particularly good depth across the board that relies on a handful of stars. If/when those stars underperform, the Seahawks look incredibly ordinary (as we saw at times at the end of last season). They haven’t been able to coach around those occasions.

Regardless of who did or didn’t play — Las Vegas looked reasonably well-tuned in this one. Seattle looked like they were still in the first week of camp.

And while there’s understandably a lot of excitement around Shane Waldron’s arrival — he’s still a rookie play-caller on a new team operating for a Head Coach known for meddling. It feels like everyone is pinning their hopes on Waldron to offer the kind of coaching chops that have been lacking. That’s a lot of pressure on his shoulders.

The other key takeaway was the O-line.

I’m not sure what needs to happen with Duane Brown. However, there is absolutely no way the Seahawks can afford to go out to Indianapolis with Stone Forsythe starting at left tackle. There has to be concerns about a line that is already being impacted by injuries to Damien Lewis and Ethan Pocic.

Finally — short of a quick recovery for D.J. Reed — Tre Flowers and Ahkello Witherspoon will be Seattle’s starting cornerbacks in Indianapolis. Based on the evidence in this game, that’s a scary thought.

“Not good enough… on both sides of the ball” was Pete Carroll’s assessment afterwards. And he was right.

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If you’re looking for something to do prior to (or even during) the first pre-season game against the Las Vegas Raiders, check out this podcast I was part of this week along with Adam Nathan, Stu Court and Jacson Bevens…

There are two pieces of audio to share today. I was invited onto Jake & Stacy on 710 ESPN and you can hear the segment below:

I also hosted a live stream with Joe Fann to discuss the big talking point relating to the Seahawks. Check it out below:

Jamal Adams isn’t practising during training camp

Let’s just be honest about this.

Jamal Adams and Duane Brown are holding out. This isn’t a ‘hold-in’ as many are saying. The new CBA rules dictate that this is the present and future of NFL hold-outs.

You attend but don’t practise.

Financially it makes no sense for players to stay at home. Instead, they will report to camp and simply refuse to train.

Adams and Brown aren’t alone. T.J. Watt is doing the same in Pittsburgh. It’ll become a common occurrence.

What we don’t know is what happens if these situations are still unresolved by week one. Are players prepared to miss games?

In the case of Brown it’s unclear what his game-plan is. He turns 36 at the end of the month. At the end of the season he will be a free agent — yet he’s unlikely to get big money at the back-end of his career.

Trent Williams agreed a deal worth $23.1m a year in San Francisco — yet he’s three years younger. The Niners are also transitioning to a quarterback on a rookie contract, making it easier to reward players like Williams.

I suspect the Seahawks are simply prepared to call his bluff. Pete Carroll has been dismissive of the situation in press conferences, hinting at a desire to give Brown’s hold-out minimal oxygen. It’s a dangerous game though. If he does indeed miss games — as he did with Houston in 2017, when he sat out half a season — then it will seriously impact Seattle’s offense.

Already Russell Wilson can sense the danger:

“I mean, not having Duane Brown out there is a pretty significant deal… He’s one of the best left tackles in the game. The guy’s—there’s no argument—is as good as it gets. There is nobody more athletic, more talented, than he is.

“Age is just a number. It looks like he’s 28, 30 out there. He’s really exceptional. So smart, physical. Understands the game. And I think people fear him, to be honest with you, when they are rushing him, playing against him.

“We definitely want to get him back out there.”

“We need him game one, that’s for sure.”

These quotes passed through the media with little fanfare but this is essentially a bit of a warning shot from Wilson, who is clearly emboldened to speak up in a year where he’s already flirted with the idea of playing elsewhere.

The issue for the Seahawks, however, is obvious. They only have $44m in effective cap space for 2022 according to Over The Cap. That doesn’t include any salary for Jamal Adams currently. It doesn’t include Quandre Diggs either — another 2022 free agent.

They have only 50 contracted players for next year and face the prospect of needing to pay D.K. Metcalf in the next off-season.

Committing extra money and years to a soon-to-be 36-year-old Brown is probably not on Seattle’s agenda, despite his clear importance to the team in 2021.

Thus, they’ll likely take a risk that he decides to start the season. It’s interesting how much they’re talking up Stone Forsythe though. That’s not to downplay how he’s performed in camp so far — but it’s perhaps indicative of an awareness that they might be facing the prospect of needing a cheaper alternative in the near future.

I wouldn’t expect a new deal to be forthcoming for Brown unless the team panics. It should be an interesting week leading into the Colts game.

With Adams the Seahawks have put themselves in a self-created mess.

The trade itself was an act of desperation. A quick reminder — a year ago their attempts to improve the defense equated to swapping Jadeveon Clowney for Benson Mayowa and Bruce Irvin and trading for Quinton Dunbar. They hadn’t added any impact players.

The extreme expense of the trade was indicative of a team doing what it took to get a deal done because they ‘had’ to have someone. Adams was available, thus he became the someone.

It was a deal concluded as camp started, despite Adams appearing to be readily available in a trade dating back to the previous trade deadline.

You have to seriously suspend reality to think a trade like this couldn’t have been concluded weeks (if not months) earlier. Can anyone say with a straight face that the Jets wouldn’t have accepted the offer at any point in the prior eight months?

It was further evidence of a reactive franchise, operating on the hoof. They waited for Clowney and when that deal drifted away — they spent a fortune on the one impact defender who happened to be available, right before camp.

As has become the norm for this team — they were reactive not pro-active, trusting too much in their own process and recruiting ability. The Seahawks haven’t had a Championship off-season since 2013 yet they speak and act like it’s an annual occurrence.

Nothing emphasises this more than the fact they didn’t have a contract ready to go for Adams when the trade was concluded. Everyone knew he had to be paid. And everyone knew by not having a deal in place, they were surrendering all leverage to the player when talks eventually happened.

Act now, worry about everything else later.

The Seahawks had already seen this play out with the Texans (Laremy Tunsil) and Rams (Jalen Ramsey). They had been warned.

As time passed, the situation worsened. Budda Baker quickly re-set the market for Adams’ position. Joey Bosa and Myles Garrett smashed records for defensive average-per-year. Ramsey earned a $20m contract. Justin Simmons was paid. And now, more recently, Fred Warner and Darius Leonard have received contracts worth around $19m a year.

It’s become virtually impossible to pay Adams what the Seahawks clearly want to pay him. They are prepared to make him the top-paid safety, that much is evident. Yet they don’t want to stretch to a Ramsey-type contract or get near the Warner/Leonard average.

Yet Adams, quite rightly, should expect to be in that range. The amount the Seahawks paid for him via trade and the nature of the contracts being dished out suggest he has every right to expect more — regardless of his 2020 performance or fit in Seattle.

Thus, a stalemate occurs. And while Carroll attempts to play the situation down and an accommodating media allows that to happen — the reality is he’s two weeks into a hold-out now and the only obvious way to get this deal done is for one party to cave.

I suspect, from Seattle’s perspective, they are hoping to smoke Adams out by just waiting. They know it’ll cost him financially to miss games and he has little freedom or choice given the protection of the franchise tag in 2022.

This all sounds fine and dandy. However, as we’ve seen with Xavien Howard, forcing a player to sign a deal he isn’t happy with isn’t a precursor to harmony. Creating resentment would be unwise. Yet it appears to be a gamble they’re willing to take.

And yes, resentment is a distinct possibility. Think of it from Adams’ perspective for a second. They traded the house for him and made a public statement that this was a franchise player. Then when it comes to talk contract, they play hardball.

Ramsey, Bosa, Garrett, Warner, Leonard and others were all paid and all re-set markets. No delay. No resentment there. Browbeating Adams into a contract with the threat of financial penalties and the franchise tag simply doesn’t feel right.

Frankly — the Seahawks made this expensive trade and should be forced to live with the salary cap consequences if they intend to keep Adams. They have a duty to make this right. If they didn’t want to pay him, they either shouldn’t have bothered with the trade or they should’ve got what they can in a trade months ago and moved on.

They didn’t do that and appear to be rejigging the defensive scheme to get the most out of his abilities. They might as well call their bear fronts ‘Adams fronts’ because the change is inspired by one player. Although why they didn’t at least try and bring in a new defensive coordinator or consultant with a lot of recent experience in the system remains a mystery.

It also remains to be seen if they can find a way to make him effective without simply needing him to blitz 8-10 times a game — or whether they have the creative chops to deliver attacking opportunities without requiring an $18m linebacker to fill the A-gap as a decoy. Remember, Bobby Wagner blitzed a staggering 100 times in 2020 — fifth most in the league. In 2018, arguably his best season in Seattle, he blitzed just 41 times.

My prediction is a deal will get done before the season starts and one way or another it’ll be painful. Either Adams will be left feeling cold about the negotiation and the delay in completion. Or the Seahawks will end up spending more than they wanted to simply to nip this in the bud.

It doesn’t feel like a plan is being executed. Once again, it feels like the Seahawks are bumbling along — trying to stick everything together on the run.

It also still seems a little off to me that they’ll be paying a safety and a linebacker as much as they are — while playing hardball with the left tackle and lining up a rag-tag bunch of defensive linemen that some people describe as a deep group and I’d describe as a unit lacking game-changing talent.

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I’ve been speaking to Jeff Simmons to discuss all the relevant Seahawks topics doing the rounds. Check it out below…

Rob & Robbie dive into some pre-training camp Seahawks thoughts in a live stream.

Half way through Adam also joins us. Check out the video below…

Apologies if it’s self-indulgent to write about myself in consecutive articles. Especially when I’m supposed to be taking a break. Yet I’m home alone for the next three nights and I had some things to say and this, really, is the only platform I currently have.

As I noted in my previous piece, I feel like I’ve had my fair share of disappointment as a fan. The thing that truly ignited my interested in English football was a crushing defeat in a huge game for a local team. That moment, as difficult as it was, ultimately sent me on a path to becoming a sports journalist and broadcaster. It’s a bittersweet moment with hindsight, yet in the immediate aftermath there was only bitterness.

Without experiencing the pain, would I have ever truly felt the impact of what sport is capable of? Would I have thought to myself, ‘this is what I want to do for the rest of my life?’

We all treat our teams differently. For some the perspective of it all just being a game wins through. I remember doing a podcast with Robbie once where he mentioned the ease with which he gets over a Sunday Seahawks loss. As my wife will happily tell you, I’ve been know to be a real misery guts for days after a bad or unexpected loss.

The Super Bowl defeat to New England was uniquely challenging. It produced a range of emotions. Disbelief. Heartbreak. Frustration. Anger. Sadness.

I remember, three days later, forcing myself to watch the final drive again with my wife — explaining through tears (she wasn’t really interested and was simply allowing me a venting session) what had gone wrong.

I recall listening to Brock & Salk on the Monday and Tuesday and it being some of the best radio I’ve ever heard. They captured the moment superbly, with callers coming on to express their own experience of that game. It felt like strength in numbers, a radio support group. Yet everyone was also trying to work things out in their own mind — what had actually happened? How was it allowed to happen? And what now?

As silly as it sounds, I didn’t really get over that game until 2018. The reset for the team afforded me a personal reset from that moment too. I suspect some will never get over it, while others moved on quite quickly. As I said, we’re all different.

So why am I banging on about this?

It’s that England game last week. Eight days on, I just can’t stop thinking about it. On Sunday night, while watching highlights of the Open Golf, all I could do was keep looking at the time and imagining at what stage the game against Italy was at the previous week.

‘We were 45 minutes away from being European Champions’ was a thought that popped into my head at about 8:50pm.

I worked through in my mind how I wish I’d enjoyed the tournament more. That I was so ‘in the moment’ that it kind of passed me by. Now I missed the nightly games, or the excitement of anticipating the next England match. I wish I’d had a blow out after the semi-final against Denmark to celebrate, rather than keeping the champagne on ice for Sunday (it’s still on ice now).

Every time I see an England flag defiantly remaining outside a house or shop, or a crate of Bud Light donning the players’ image (the official Beer of the England team apparently, even though I doubt many Brits drink it). Every time this song comes on the radio because it was used as a bed for one of the TV broadcasters.

All the memories flood back about what could’ve been.

If they’d won we’d still be partying now. Instead, I’m stuck in this melancholy which feels even worse than the Super Bowl loss. The fact is it took England 55 years to return to a major final and at 37, I’m starting to wonder if it’ll ever happen again in my lifetime. Was this the only chance?

Yet strangely I love the fact that only sport can really make me feel this way. And that very few people I know will be able to relate to the sadness of losing ‘a game’ — yet I know those people are out there, going through this. And that people similarly would’ve had the same feeling as I had after the New England game.

‘You’re taking this too seriously’ is a point of view, I suppose. But to those of us so invested in this, you really wouldn’t want it any other way.

Occasionally I wonder if I need a reality check and some perspective over what is actually important. And don’t get me wrong — it’s family first all the way. Yet having something in your life that makes you feel truly alive — even if it means suffering more than celebrating — who could ask for more than that?

I hope you don’t mind me writing about this on a Seahawks blog.

I’ve often wondered what it’s like not being a sports fan.

You can’t recreate the drama of live sport. Or the emotion. The stress, hope, belief or concern. There’s nothing like it.

Watching a team you’re invested in, competing in a crucial game, makes you feel alive.

At least that’s how I feel.

I can’t imagine not living with it. The good and the bad. Or at least the knowledge that either this will end brilliantly or with heartbreak. But I’m willing to take my chances on either on the off chance this will be a night to remember. To treasure.

You just can’t get that same high from a night at the theatre or within a great piece of literature. Music can stir the emotions but it hasn’t got the power to crush you or deliver elation with one moment of spontaneous inspiration.

There’s nothing that comes close to sport. It’s the best reality TV show in town. You constantly sit on the knife-edge of pleasure and pain as a fan. You go through the wringer, putting yourself through intense anxiety and tension.

All on the off chance you’ll win a game — played by individuals you don’t know.

I sit here writing this, a couple of hours after experiencing another low moment, wondering ultimately if it’s all worth it any more.

I’ve always seen England winning a major tournament as a life-completing moment. I have my family. If I can see England win something too, I’ll die a happy man.

I was fully prepared to witness England win Euro 2020 and save those memories along with any accumulated with my wife and children for the moment when the lights finally go out — hopefully in the distant future

Yet having experienced another situation where hope has been replaced with crushing sadness, I felt obliged to reflect on my own personal fandom.

You see, as much as sports has delivered so many great memories — I feel like the good times are always the calm before an inevitable storm.

When the Seahawks won a Super Bowl for the first time we all had 12 months to enjoy it. Then, almost as a means of punishment for having a nice thing happen, we were subjected to the most gut-wrenching Super Bowl loss. The team imploded and split. What should’ve been a happy moment against the Broncos is now overshadowed by the subsequent loss to the Patriots. It takes a great deal of concentration to watch the Denver game back now, without thinking about what happened next.

I wouldn’t say it’s spoiled. Perhaps not even tarnished. But some gloss went off the Super Bowl win for sure.

One of my happiest memories was watching England win the rugby World Cup in 2003. Since then, I’ve watched them lose two further finals. The most recent, in 2019, was an absolute hammering by South Africa. The team raised hopes by handily beating Australia and New Zealand. Just as everyone got excited — bang. Reality check time. Embarrassment in the final.

England won the cricket World Cup in 2019 and a few weeks later Ben Stokes delivered one of the greatest moments in sporting history, in my opinion, with a virtuoso performance in an Ashes test.

Yet the England cricket team lurch between the sublime and the ridiculous so often, you’re never far away from a drubbing to bring you back down to earth with a thud.

I don’t follow a top Premier League club. Many fans in England will quickly move on from Euro 2020 and look forward to the new season. For me football/soccer fandom is pretty much parked until the World Cup next year. Working as closely as I do in local football for the day job, the ‘fan’ side of things took a back seat a long time ago. And the local clubs where I live have done a great job over the last 20 years of delivering their fair share of misery anyway.

That brings me on to the Euro 2020 final. I feel privileged to have been at Wembley to witness wins against Germany in the last-16 and Denmark in the semi-finals. Indeed I always told my wife I just wanted to see England in a final. And here they were — in a final. Yet the truth is having reached the end, you always want to win it. The prospect of merely being there always sounds great until the moment you qualify for the final. Then, only winning matters.

The experience on Sunday left me feeling cold. The somewhat cowardly team selection, opting to incorporate a defensive back five with two further sitting midfielders sent a message that England were more concerned with holding Italy at bay than taking the game to their opponents.

It just felt like a massive missed opportunity to create memories to last a lifetime.

Arguably England’s best ever performance came against Holland at Euro ’96. They took the game to the highly rated Dutch and played them at their own game. They won 4-1, in a display still talked about with great fondness 25 years on.

In the final this year against Italy, England did the opposite. They spoke all week of playing with courage, yet the manager displayed none in his team selection. Then, as the game drifted away from England in the second half, he failed to make the necessary adjustments to wrestle any kind of control.

Everyone’s a great coach after the event of course. Neither is it that simple to insert one or two players and everything automatically changes for the better. Inactivity, however, in the face of what is obvious — that is frustrating.

England’s manager Gareth Southgate is a likeable man. The kind everyone is desperate to do well. Yet his inability to balance pragmatism with attacking potency feels costly tonight.

Southgate’s been able to ride two favourable draws at the World Cup and Euro 2020 to progress through tournaments. Yet in key games against Croatia in 2018 and now Italy — the inability to assert control, sustain any kind of threat and ultimately adjust to what was playing out has cost the country two opportunities we may never get again.

English folk will now obsess about another failure via penalty shoot-out and speak of ‘pride in defeat’ (we are world champs at losing bravely and feeling warm and fuzzy about it) — for me there’s just this bitter disappointment that they didn’t have a go.

The game was officially lost on penalties — but wasn’t really tried to be won in the initial 90 minutes or 30 minutes of extra-time.

That life-fulfilling moment is as far away today as it has been in each of my prior 37 years. Yesterday, I went to bed dreaming this would be the moment. It wasn’t. And I don’t know if I’ll ever see it. These days I wonder if I’ll be young enough to enjoy it if/when it does even happen.

The sad thing is I don’t see much changing. I don’t think England are any more likely to win something in the future, despite possessing young talent. You have to seize opportunities when they are there. They haven’t.

Neither do I think the Seahawks are primed for success. I think the 2021 season could easily turn into a running commentary on Russell Wilson’s future with the team with further concerns about the defense. And if it ends the same way as the last few seasons — what then?

In truth I find it hard to even muster any excitement or energy for the Seahawks currently. Maybe that feeling will subside as the memory of Euro 2020 fades and the new NFL season nears? I hope so — but this latest setback has taken a toll. I so badly wanted to see England win something.

The whole miserable sports fandom cycle will continue. Fleeting success, followed by a wave of heart-ache because you seemingly can’t have nice things unless you fluke your way into following one of those teams who win all the time.

All the while ploughing on, always chasing that high of rare victory. That moment you’ll take to the end of your days.

Every time I wonder if I can be arsed to put myself through this again — while knowing I probably will.