SHOCKER: Drew Lock EMERGES As Seahawks Savior After Sam Darnold INJURY! | Seattle Seahawks Podcast

0:00This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. Hey, Drake May here. As a pro quarterback, I know I can't do it alone. I have to trust my team, and that goes for my money too, which is why I use Betterment, the trusted investing and savings platform. Their automated investing tools always have my back, just like my old line. Over a million people already trust Betterment to build their wealth, so I know I'm in good company. Building yours at Betterment.com or Download the App. Investing involves risk. Performance not guaranteed. Paid client ad. Views may not be representative. See App Store and Google Play reviews. Learn more at Betterment.com slash ambassadors. Today's episode is brought to you by the Dell XPS. I'm Wes Goldberg from Lockdown NBA Daily and Lockdown Heat. So what does it feel like to have a better laptop like the Dell XPS powered by Intel Core? With a premium design that's thin and light, it feels smooth. With a responsive touch screen, it feels fast and precise. And with long lasting battery life, it feels like non-stop energy with a laptop that can

1:01keep up. Built for those who want better, the Dell XPS. Built for you. The Seahawks beat the Patriots not because they were the better team, but because they were the deeper team. And even with Sam Donald out on this night, they even had the better quarterback. You are Lockdown Seahawks, your daily Seattle Seahawks podcast, part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day. What is up, 12s, wherever you are, I am your host, Dan Viennes. Today on the show, I'll give you my Seahawks superlatives. My players of the game as I'll do the day after every game. Some big questions answered in a big way in the Seahawks banged up secondary, but first, we start with the latest on Sam Donald's injury and what his status may be moving forward. Welcome to Lockdown Seahawks, part of the Lockdown podcast network, the number one sports

2:04podcast network, your team every day. Thank you for making us your first listen five days a week. All right, let's get right to it. The latest on Sam Donald, according to Brady Henderson of ESPN, of course, he was hurt on the fifth snap of the game on a sack by our old friend, former Seahawks Dremont Jones. He limped off, didn't look too bad initially. A lot of the speculation in the moment was ankle injury. Somebody texted me, said, ooh, it looks like a knee. Then it got worse and you could really see him hobbling along the sideline. You went into the blue tent after a little bit of a delay. Then he went into the locker room for X-rays. Then they took him to Harborview Medical Center for a CT scan and the initial news was good. Here's actually what it looked like in the moment. You could just see that the knee getting jammed into the turf as Jones put his weight on him and brought him to the turf and that hip getting jammed back into the socket.

3:05But here is what Mike McDonald said immediately after the game. At this point, we are able to rule out a fracture. So there's some more tests to be done. We're still working through all that. Right now, I think fracture is out, which is great news. Good news indeed. You get to hip injuries. It can be really tricky, of course. In the moment as soon as they said hip and then they showed the replays and you could see that like, you know, I'm giving away my age here. But I who can't immediately go to bow Jackson and how that hip injury similar, much more severe obviously, but tackled to the turf and the knee gets jammed into the ground and obviously ended his career. Most recent example is something similar, especially involving a quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick with the Washington commanders in 2021 had a hip subluxation in the opener. Originally, they thought he could rehab through it and return that year.

4:05Eventually, they shut him down. He had to have surgery and never ended up playing another NFL game. But circumstance, he was a much older player. And then the other end of the spectrum. Now Brady reports that Sam will have an MRI done today and that's where they can get in and really look at whether there's micro fractures in there or microscopic tears in the labor. That's the big concern. It sounds like in 2023, Kansas City Chiefs Safety Jalen Watson, the former Washington State Cougar tore his labor in week two and actually elected to play through it for virtually the entire season and the playoffs was able to gut that out. And that's playing safety. So a wide range of possibilities here. I don't want to make too many assumptions. But the initial news on Sam's injury is good. We should find out more later today. Now that forced drew lock into action immediately. Six snap of the year, right?

5:06What is it about the fifth snap? Last year we lose Nick M. and Wory on the fifth snap of the year. And it was it was slow going at first, right? Five straight drives ending in a punt. And then the drive at the end of the half that kind of went nowhere and was really inconsequential. So the offense couldn't get anything going in the first half other than some early sparks, some flashes from Jadarian Price, including the first play of the game at 12 yard run up the middle. There were some positive things in the run game. But they couldn't get anything going in the passing game with locks six out of eight in the first half for 51 yards, just one of six on third down. But then he came back in the second half. And I think we can attribute this also to Ryan Flurry first game as a play collar. We'll touch on that a little bit more later in the show. And then not just Flurry being under the headset on an NFL side line calling plays for the first time in his career, but his starting quarterback, his star quarterback who he has a long history with going back to San Francisco a few years ago. Getting out on the fifth play.

6:07So the whole game plan that was crafted for San Donald, what he does well out the window. And as is often the case in the NFL drew lock did confirm after the game. He got zero snaps. JSN talked about that as well. No snaps in practice this week. So all the prep he did was mental. He would talked about doing whiteboard stuff in the in the bedroom with his wife grilling him on some stuff and drawing out some plays. But in the second half, it kind of came together, right? 10 out of 14, 136 yards, the touchdown on fourth and one to Jackson Smith in Jigba. You see the yards per attempt 6.4 in the first half, 9.7 in the second half. And they hit some plays down the field. You got to see some of Drew Locks arm talent, which has never really been in question. And you see some of the reasons that we go all the way back to 2022. And John Schneider insisted that Drew Lock be included in the Russell Wilson trade with

7:10Denver that he liked him in the draft process wanted him involved in that trade. Even though he never beat out Geno Smith during the two years he was here initially, he did get opportunities. We'll never forget the Monday night football game against the Eagles where he drove the team down at the end in the beautiful touchdown pass to JSN to for the walkoff win there. And then he goes to the New York Giants for a year because there was an opportunity to start there. Retaniel Jones coming off injury. The Seahawks tried to keep him that off season, but couldn't match the opportunity for potentially a starting job. And then we're quick to bring him back a year ago because they just like him in the building and they like the upside. They like the athletic ability as well. And he showed off a lot of those qualities last night. And again, with no practice reps during the week. I thought he showed some of the stuff that we saw in the preseason and they did do a nice job. I thought Tareko and Collins worth on the broadcast of talking about, hey, this might be a silver

8:14lining to the fact that it's the other didn't play any of their starters. Mike McDonald elected to sit all of his starters in all three preseason games on both sides of the ball. And so Drew Lock got 55 snaps in live action in the preseason. That's not nothing. He got some of those live reps while Sam Donald did not even though he didn't get reps practicing for this game. He at least had that in his back pocket. And that opportunity to kind of digest and execute Brian Flurry's offense. I thought, but he was efficient. I thought in the short passing game. And then he made some explosive plays down the field. There was the third and long that really kind of felt like an unlocked him and allowed him to relax a little bit and get going where he hit JSN. Now JSN just shy of the first down marker. I think it was third and 19 and the completion was for 18 something like that. But I thought that was great. And then of course the touchdown, the go ahead touchdown late in the game or the tying

9:15touchdown. Fourth and one, they line up in a condensed formation two backs. And if you're like me, I'm looking at the screen going, why aren't we doing the bar in yard here? Why isn't AJ Barner in the game here and then lock drops back to pass from under center finds JSN just on the little option route. He just runs two yards turns around. He's wide open. And then he out races half of the New England defense to get to the end zone. Obviously a turning point in the game locked it admit afterwards. Mike McDonald is the first to give this away that he didn't even practice that play at all leading into this game. But he did call it a basic football play. I thought that was a great call from Flurry as well. Also showed off the athleticism. The 14 yard scrambled down to the three yard line. That ultimately ended up in a field goal situation. But look, if Sam's going to be out in the link the time, a couple of things here. First of all, the schedule kind of allows for a soft landing for lock.

10:18If you will, Arizona and Washington, two teams that were in the bottom five in the NFL last year in points per game and yards allowed. It would mean Jalen Milrose, QB2. There is not much out there on the free agent market. If they should want to add someone to the practice squad, we'll see. Don't want to get ahead of myself there. We'll see what the news is later today on. Donald, if he should have to go on in to reserve, then they might look to poke someone from a practice squad to add a third quarterback to the 53 man roster and at least serve as an emergency quarterback. We'll keep an eye on that news today. If anything breaks one way or the other later today, look for me to do a quick short reaction here on the channel on locked on Seahawks. Coming up the other major question mark heading into the game ended up being one of the keys to victory last night. Questions were answered in the secondary. You are listening to locked on Seahawks, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Football is finally back and Sundays just got a whole lot more interesting. Sundays, Thursdays, we'll get to see Rams 49ers tonight.

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13:28All right. So of course, the biggest question going into the game was what's going on in that secondary. We knew Nick M N Warry was going to be iffy to play in this game. He ended up obviously not being active, although all signs were pointing to him being close and being able to run around and get some limited practice in this week. But the real curveball, of course, was Tio Cotta coming up with a hamstring injury on the Sunday injury report. He didn't practice all this week. He didn't play before the game. The see Hawks signed AJ Finley safety to the 53 man roster and then elevated Rodney Thomas safety to be active on game day from the practice squad as well as running back wide receiver, Vellus Jones. Now that led to some speculation, including my own that maybe Finley gets the start there because they gave him a 53 man roster spot. He did not. It was Rodney Thomas, the free agent who they signed in the off season after four years in Indianapolis. He played the entire game. We didn't see AJ Finley and he delivered four tackles.

14:30A pass break up had one of the biggest plays of the game. The first of three interceptions against Drake May in the fourth quarter where he ranged over to defend a deep shot to Romeo dobs on the three yard line deflected the ball in the air, came down in the arms of Neumaya Pritchett. That was a huge momentum changer and really flipped the field because after the return by Pritchett, there was a penalty tacked onto that. So the see Hawks got the ball at mid field and then five plays later. The fourth and one play the touchdown to lock. So that was a huge, huge play in this game. A big momentum swing at 10 to three. Speaking of Pritchett, the big question, not injury related was what was going to happen with that young secondary room. And I talked about that did a whole episode on it two days ago. And this is where there was so much uncertainty in that room. Now Neumaya Pritchett should have been first up. He has the most tenure with the team. As I told you the other day, team coaches have been singing his praises for years.

15:32His draft profile was enticing, even though he's a fifth round pick. At the time, most people thought that was a steal that he was ranked quite a bit higher on a lot of people's boards with that four three combine speed. And he's paid his dues. Got some moments last year. We all remember the great pass break up in the end zone to Marvin Harrison Jr. against Arizona. The question about him is, can he be physical in the run game? He showed flashes of that in the preseason, showed it off again last night. He ends up with six tackles plus the interception had the huge third down pass break up on AJ Brown in this game as well. The play that Brown was injured on reports this morning that he may have a high ankle sprain. He may be out for a while, but it was a tremendous play to read and react and break on that ball from Pritchett. And he showed run support coming up, taken on blocks, making plays. In the run game, just pass the eye test in a major way and really kept everybody else on the bench. Julian Neal, Avery Smith, both active for this game, neither I'm gone on the field.

16:39And it really did inform what we saw in the way that Mike McDonald managed this secondary. We didn't know how that would would go. I speculated earlier this week that Anthony Bell might be one of the game day elevations because he's more suited to play that role that they have Nick M. and Warry in quite a bit where he's in the box, kind of a hybrid dime linebacker, big nickel, if you will, they didn't go that way. They went the other way. It was Pritchett and Job for almost the entire game on the outside. I'll be interested to see the official snap counts when they come out later today and with a spoon in the slot, which was an option, certainly, but didn't think we'd see that. Now one of the, one of the, I was not downsides, but one of the surprising elements to playing it that way is I had expected and predicted a big role for third inside linebacker Tyrese Knight. He had the great preseason best player on the field in that Dallas game. He's got coverage chops. He's a violent hitter.

17:40And we saw them in training camp and a little bit in that preseason game before they bubble wrapped him for the final two games, playing some edge and being a pass rusher off the edge. I'm told I missed it. I haven't done a full rewatch of the game yet that he maybe had one snap as an edge player, but I was really surprised they didn't play him. They stayed in kind of what is their base defense with, with a spoon sliding inside. We did see a lot of those blitzes that we saw on the Super Bowl. A lot of them looked very, very familiar with, with with a spoon coming off the edge. They had Pritchett blitzing a couple times as well, but what can you say about Mike Mptonold and Carl Scott and Nico Thorpe and that entire secondary coaching group getting these guys ready showing off the whole 12 is one thing. The whole ready squad thing. There were people who flat out told me during the week, see how just don't have a chance to win because everything they do is predicated on being able to use three safeties and they're

18:41not going to be able to do that now. And so it's going to affect him in the run game as well because they won't be able to to get those run fits with, with lighter box and with lighter players out there. Well, the Patriots absolutely could not run the football. Just 51 yards rushing from their two running backs. Drake May actually got almost as many, almost as much as that, almost match that on his own with some scrambles and runs there. So just a tremendous job and really brings up some more questions as we move forward. If Julie Neal continues to develop as a rookie kind of in the shadows, he's the biggest most physical guy on that roster at the corner of that position. So he offers something that none of the others do. Avery Smith, they think it's going to be more of a nickel guy, is Trayvon digs even necessary on this roster. He's on the practice squad said, he'll need a couple more weeks to really get up to game speed. Does he even warrant a shot, barring injury with how well-priced it played in that third

19:45role? I thought it was terrific and really makes you feel good now as you look ahead to Arizona should get Nick M. Worryback as part of that package. And then even if O'Cotta has to miss another week, could probably survive that against the Cardinals. And the way Rodney Thomas played, you get M. Worryback. Thomas fills in for O'Cotta. Things start to look a lot better for that secondary. Very, very interesting stuff. And so good that it sort of made up for the fact that three sacks in the game, but that pass rush wasn't exactly what we had hoped it would be. They didn't get home a lot. Now we'll see when the pressure numbers come out later today. I suspect the pressure numbers might look better than the overall result, but they had a hard time containing Drake May. My keys to the game was moving off his spot. Well, they did that, but he heard him with his legs and he had time to throw too often back there, but he didn't have anywhere to go with it. No explosive pass plays, no plays of more than 19 yards in this game.

20:46He was over four with the three picks on the, on his four attempts over 20 yards, just a tremendous performance by the secondary up next. My final thoughts on the game, including Brian Flurie's performance is first time out as a play collar and then my Seahawks aperitiv players of the game. You're listening to Lockdown Seahawks part of the Lockdown podcast network. Your team every day. Thank you for making us your first listen five days a week. Welcome to your most rewarding NFL season ever only on fan dual. How rewarding are we talking more rewarding than a touchdown with time expiring more rewarding than an 18 point comeback or a 10 point comeback? Maybe even more rewarding than an offensive lineman cut she catching a touchdown. This season, fan dual is making the excitement go beyond what happens on the field with the all new fan dual rewards club featuring exclusive offers, surprises and more. Every week, check the fan dual app to see what's waiting for you.

21:47And after what we saw last night, Seahawks fans don't need much of a reminder about how rewarding a wild finish can be. Seattle spent most of the night making life hard on itself. Then flip the game late with the huge defensive play. A number of them a clutch touchdown and a finish that came down to the final seconds. That's the kind of game where you ride every high and low for three hours and then everything gets decided in a handful of snaps. And that drama is why we keep coming back every week and fan dual is adding another layer to that experience with new rewards and surprises throughout the season. Make this your most rewarding season ever with fan dual. Visit fan dual dot com to get started and running a business shouldn't feel like juggling a bunch of systems that were never built to work together. One app for accounting, another for sales, another for inventory and somehow you're stuck trying to make all of it communicate. That's where Odo comes in. Odo is an all in one business management platform that brings sales, accounting, inventory, marketing and more all together in one piece.

22:48So your business can manage, grow and scale without all the disconnected pieces. And in football, the best organizations usually operate the same way. Look at Seattle's roster depth. They've built this thing with a clear plan, not just the stars on the top, but players like Nehemiah Pritchett and Rodney Thomas ready to step in when their number gets called. That kind of alignment doesn't happen by accident. Great organizations win because operations matter. I Odo for free today at Odo.com slash locked on. That's Odo.com slash locked on. Some final thoughts, including of course, have to touch on Brian Flurrie's debut as offensive coordinated. And now we're going to take a much deeper dive with this tomorrow on the show with Rob Rang joining me is he will every Friday get his scouting eye, his thoughts on this. I also have some pretty cool comparisons to show you between Flurrie's performance last night in his debut as a C-Hawks O-C versus Clint Kubiak's debut last year week one against

23:52the Niners. You're going to want to stick around watch tomorrow show for that. I did see some promising signs though. Lots of under center. I suspect when we see the numbers, it'll be even more than we saw from Clint Kubiak. A lot of play action. We saw some creative motions and those seem to get more frequent in the second half as he and Drew Lock got more comfortable. I thought he adjusted well throughout the game when Donald went out, 4.8 yards per play in the first half, 7.2 yards per play in the second half. And that's with the backup quarterback and with the run game being bottled up, there was success in the run game early 68 yards rushing before halftime, 29 after he had to find another way. And I thought he did that, let the passing game carry the offense in the second half. And even though they didn't score in the red zone, I thought especially the back-to-back penalties that moved him back after they had third and third and one from about the three, had a chance for as they said on the broadcast five cracks at it.

24:53We did see where he was going to attempt some pretty cool little schematic twists and some motions where he was lined up in the back field on one of those plays before the penalty. We saw him scheme some guys open the easy touchdown to Cooper Cup that was called back by an illegal shift. I think was the call on that play, but wide, wide open for Cooper Cup on that play. Even though they didn't score in the red zone, I thought there were some hints that Brian Flurry might be really good in the in the red zone. Now on third down, that's got to get better. There were two for 11 in the game. We'll see, we'll see how that progresses. That is not good enough. That'll certainly be a focus of his this week as will the penalties, the dead ball penalties, the motions, the false starts. Those are operational things that Mike McDonald sounded confident after the game they would take care of. We'll see how good Brian Flurry is between games, right? From Monday through Saturday, although this week he gets a couple of extra days to work

25:57on it. We'll see how that goes for him because if they can clean that stuff up, I think there's some really promising signs that we saw last night. Now for my Seahawks, superlatives, these are the players of the game. Some of them are obvious. Some of them not so much. Locke, of course, we have talked about. JSN 8 catches, 122 yards on 11 targets and the touchdown, just one catch in the Super Bowl. There was a lot of talk from the Patriot side of things coming into this game that they would shut him down again. Now when you look at the covered stats of Gonzalez against JSN, I think there were only four or five snaps and he shut him down. He man to man, but and maybe this is something that goes in the box of credit to Brian Flurry, doing things formationally and with motion to force the Patriots into playing a lot of zone. All eight of JSN's catches came against zone defense. They were really able to take advantage of that. I talked about Pritchett and Job combined 12 tackles, three passes, defense, one tackle

26:59for loss and the two interceptions, including, of course, this pick with just seconds remaining in the game, Drake May trying to hit Mac Hollens in the end zone, unbelievable play from Josh Job spent all this time talking about Neyemiah Pritchett, didn't talk about really the biggest defensive play in the game to seal it and just a crucial, crucial air on May's part when they could have kicked a fuel goal to force this thing into overtime that all the control, no time out to select for Seattle, just a massive play from Josh Job to read this ball, react to it and make a play to seal this victory. And Chinnin was played his best game. I thought in years since really before the injury, he was especially a demon in the run game being violent setting the edge five tackles, a past defense and a tackle for loss. And tip of the cap to Jason Myers. He made the kicks he had to make with the extra point in the two field goals, even though they were shorter, you got to make those and they looked dead center and that is promising certainly as we move forward. As I said, be sure to tune in tomorrow when I'll be joined by scouting guru Rob rang as

28:02I will every Friday will get Rob's scouting takes on what we saw in the field and what we might expect from Zhu Locke if he should have to play for any length of time in his thoughts on what he saw from Brian Flurry. Certainly follow me on Twitter, if you will, and be sure to subscribe to locked on Seahawks on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And consider giving us a five star review on Apple podcasts if you like what you hear. And now on video, we are sending you over to the 24 seven locked on NFL YouTube channel for the 2026 NFL season preview. It's in three parts. I am involved in that. I made the finals. You're going to want to check it out. We had a lot of fun doing it. All three episodes airing now until Sunday at one o'clock Eastern time. What team will make the final one standing? I won't give that away. You're going to have to watch or listen to find out if you're on audio, find it on locked on NFL on the feed wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you tomorrow. You are locked on Seahawks.

29:04Your daily Seattle Seahawks podcast part of the locked on podcast network. 14 every day. This is David Harrison of locked on commanders. When the opening whistle blows on a new repair, get your crew moving forward with supplyhouse. Their real time inventory and honest lead times keep you from punting projects while their industry leading customer service always has your blind side covered. Join the free trade master program today and score serious perks like priority shipping, lower prices and a dedicated support line visit supplyhouse dot com to sign up for free. Use the promo code s h n f l five for 5% off your first order that supplyhouse dot com real people real service. Hey NFL fans, I'm Brian Peacock and that is Matt Williamson hosts of the NFL six pack part of the locked on podcast network. Your team every day NFL six pack brings you the latest NFL news and analysis and breaks down all of the weekly action. A six pack of takes daily on the playoff pushed in the 2025 season or if your team's in

30:06draft mode, yeah, we'll hit that too. All right here every day on the locked on podcast network. The NFL six pack subscribe on YouTube or everywhere you get your podcasts.