Welcome back to New Day Northwest.
We have been waiting months to see
what this new Seahawks team is gonna
look like with Russell Wilson and
Bobby Wagner gone and this weekend.
We had our first real look.
Well, sort of. So here are some
thoughts on the preseason opener.
It's new day contributor Terry Holliman
so thank you so much for being here.
Absolutely glad to be here.
Well, I'm glad to talk to you
about this because a lot of people
are talking about how the Hawks
lost the Steelers 2532 to 25.
But preseason games are not
a lot about who wins, right?
It's about figuring things out.
And that's why we're not seeing
a lot of our top guys, right?
Right? Well, we as fans love to see
the Seahawks play regardless, right?
I think fans should be happy about that,
happy that football is back,
happy that we can watch these guys do
their things out there on the field.
But you have to remember,
preseason is not the regular season.
Wins and losses are not
the most important thing.
So when you're looking at these games,
you're saying why?
Why do they have all these pieces
in games if it's not important?
Well, think about these guys.
They haven't played football together.
In a long time, months,
and months and months.
So it's about working those kinks out, right?
Yeah, getting back in the groove with things.
That's the first thing.
The second thing these coaches
too they have to get back in
the swing of things as well.
Calling plays getting guys in the right
position and and doing the right things.
And then you have to take into account.
There's a lot of young guys,
a lot of new guys,
guys that they drafted guys free
agencies right out of college.
And so these guys are really
trying to make a team.
They're trying to create their
dream and and go on to the
next level and make this squad
so they haven't even made.
Teammate like officially is the
coach just kind of figuring out
who's gonna fit where still.
So basically at the beginning of camp
you have up to 90 guys in camp, right?
And so they have to whittle that down
to 53 guys before the season starts.
So there's like 40 something guys
that dreams are going to end.
So yeah, yeah. And
yeah, I realize that.
Yeah guys, that will probably
never ever play football ever
again for the rest of their lives.
I know it's upsetting, right?
I know because I've been
there but but you know it is.
It's tough. So these guys are
really trying to make their dream.
Happened, and so these games are built
for that for the coaches to evaluate them.
See what they're able to do,
see their skill level,
and also see if they are able to understand
what it takes to be a professional.
So that's why you know you see
some names that you might not
recognize and see some names that
you probably won't see again.
Gosh, thank you for sharing
that other side of that.
Yeah, yeah, it is really intense.
Well, two guys who have made
the team and we know think a lot
about the quarterback performance.
This is Gino drew competition.
Is it closer than we thought?
It really is closer than I thought.
Sure, I mean, I thought you know
them bringing drew over from Denver
that he was gonna be given the spot,
but you know they got Gina was able to
start this game versus Pittsburgh this
past weekend and he did relatively good.
You know he he started off like 8 for eight
and was making some really good passes.
It wasn't a whole lot of stuff down deep down
the field but a lot of intermediary passes.
And he ran the ball very well and
so I was like Oh well, there's a.
There's a real competition now
and then and then Drew came in
in the second-half and played.
Just as well.
So it's gonna be tough,
but tougher than a lot of
us thought for sure.
And I I think that's a good
thing when you have, you know,
two quality guys that look well and we'll
see further as as as more preseason games go,
they'll get more playing time
as a as a preseason.
So we're still not gonna know for a bit.
We're not gonna know.
I don't think so.
And I think,
I think that when it happens,
I think Pete's and in this crew are
going to come together and make a
decision and I think they'll let us
know before before the season starts.
Speaking of Pete Word on the street,
he wasn't happy with the
tackling what happened there.
Yeah. So the deal is, you know,
in today's National Football League,
they don't do a lot of tackling in practice,
you know, before the season starts.
So, you know,
when you're not tackling somebody for real,
you're just in practice tagging people off.
That sets you back a little bit.
But yeah, you know, I mean,
it's different from, you know,
tagging somebody in practice and
then running into somebody full speed
and trying to bring that guy down.
So that's something I think is going
to be correct itself with time as
they get more reps in practice.
Get more real full time game
speed things going on.
They'll be able to correct that,
but the tackling was atrocious.
You were seeing guys?
Yeah, if guys wanna steal you were
getting hit and then dragging guys
for like 510 yards down the field.
Man I mean it is a thing you talked to
to football players from the from the
80s and 90s and they say you know this
game isn't even what it was sort of.
It's just changed a lot
it has. It has some of it's for the
good because you know you look at
the the long term injury situation
with older football players.
Guys that played in the last
generation and they've done a good job.
Trying to eliminate some of those injuries.
Some of that wear and tear on the
body and so this is what we have.
We we have situation where guys aren't
getting the full experience during the
preseason of tackling and how to hit guys.
Alright, let's talk about blocking the
rookies on the O line. They look pretty
good they did. They did the Seahawks
of course went and got a first round
draft pick of offensive tackle in
Charles Cross and he played fairly well.
You know he did good.
He's a big big strong kid and he
did really good in blocking the
court blocking for the quarterbacks
and another guy that I'm really
excited about is an offensive lineman
and it's a double edged sword.
To me his name is Abe Lucas and
I say it's a double edged sword
because I've known this kid since
he was in the eighth grade. Yeah,
I actually coached him in high school too,
so it was good to watch him.
Now do his thing and he's
bullying people and I said yeah,
and the double edged sword
about it is he's also a cougar.
He's a Washington state cougar so
you know there's that situation.
But this guy I think is gonna be a steal.
He's gonna be a steal if you helped coach I.
I didn't particularly help Coach
and I was on the coaching staff.
And of course you were.
But you know I was alright.
Take some credit,
that's alright.
So you an exciting.
Again, God bless him.
He came here today.
He's been driving for days.
What were you doing up in Canada?
Yeah, I went over to Edmonton,
Canada where my dad used to play
football that professionally
for 10 years and he was actually
enshrined in their wall of honor.
Is what they call it.
It's kind of like the ring that
they have here at at the Seahawks
stadium where they have Kenny
Easley and all those guys up there.
My dad and so my whole family went up.
My brother
and all my kids, my wife
and my mom was there and
it was a really cool experience.
It was. Late night game and there
was a thunderstorm. It was just
so surreal and they gave us
all jerseys and it was a big,
big time honor from for me and my family.
I have the chills. Congratulations.
Chills. Yeah. Thank
you. Yeah. My dad that my dad's,
like I said, spent ten years up there.
He played college football, Arkansas State.
So we came from Arkansas,
of all places, to Edmonton, Canada,
which was a big culture shift.
And he made an incredible
name for himself up there.
Played on a team that won basically,
you know, their version of the Super Bowl.
It's called the Great Cup and this
team won five times in a row. Yeah.
And and they and it was the city
where the Edmonton Oilers played
hockey at and they were winning
back-to-back NHL championships as well.
And it became known as the City
of Champions I love and my dad was
part of that yeah and how I got to
grow up there a little bit and have
a little fun up there in the snow.
It's no surprise that you became
one yourself.
Oht
champion. Does chance alright?
Thanks Terry. And just a
reminder y'all that the KING5 is
the official local television
partner of the Seattle Seahawks.
It means we have special access
for post game coverage.
We have exclusive player and
coach interviews and we will
have a lot of that content right
here on new day Northwest.