The Jason Gregor Show - September 9th, 2026 - Hour 1

0:00to the Jason Greggers shows sports 1440 sports 1440.ca YouTube Facebook X Instagram Twitch. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching the show. We very much appreciated. Always brought to you by play Alberta dot C a were the OG. The original lot of 649. 26 million dollars as well as the guaranteed one million also got a classic jackpot of five mills so get your tickets at play Alberta dot C a. I am Jason Gregger. Long side Connor Halley, Declan Kruger hope you are having a lovely game. Lovely day. Blue J's in action. Trailing the athletics one nothing, but the J's do have runners on the corners with two outs here trying to even this game in the fourth quarter. We got the NFL starting tonight. The sea hawks taking on the patriots a rematch of last year's Super Bowl. And of course the sea hawks are hoping for a similar result.

1:13Also the the news in Edmonton, most of you know about it Alex for mton signed a one year deal eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars today with the Edmonton oilers. He has not been in the NHL since 2022. He's his first full year in the league. He had 18 goals 32 points was was penalty killing super fast skater. And then of course everybody knows what happens with the court case. I'm well didn't really go to court until 24 25, but I'm the news came out that summer of 2022 that hockey Canada had made a financial settlement. With the with a woman involving in this alleged at the time sexual assault case back stemming from June of 2018. So basically eight years ago and you know, for mton.

2:18They they got acquitted those players got acquitted last summer. In court and I think we need to take a step back and look at the entire situation here. Um so hockey Canada clearly felt they weren't innocent. Because why would they have agreed to a financial settlement. Right. So then the courts finds them not guilty. And it's it's always important to say not guilty doesn't mean innocent. You know, they're not guilty of what they were accused of. Um I think we can all agree that it's an honor to play in the NHL. And the NHL if you recall last year that you know what what was their quote that they had in their statement regarding the players that the league expects everyone connected with the game to conduct themselves of the highest level of moral integrity. And I think that's something that's very important for people to remember. Okay. You could not be criminally charged.

3:20It doesn't mean that you're morally innocent. And I think the fact that hockey Canada paid out some money. Clearly they knew that something was not right. Now many of you and many of you didn't. But many of you did. You follow the court case. You saw the transcriptions of the text messages between the players. You heard the testimony of the players. It wasn't good. I think we can sit back and take a step back and just look and say, well, because when people say, wow, they didn't find him not guilty. That doesn't mean you exonerate him say, hey, just completely innocent. No. But at the same time, guess what? I think for minton has has paid a price for this. It wasn't like, okay, you know what? He was he was acquitted and that meant he didn't pay anything. This was a guy who after the 2022 season, his contract was up. He had just scored 18 goals. He was set to be an RFA.

4:21No, I've received that big in 2022, but he would have got a good contract. There's no question. It would have at least been a million bucks a year, probably if it's a multi year deal, we're probably talking three mill. So you can say that that decision, that evening cost him $12 million. It is not without punishment and not just financial emotional punishment. There's public. Basically your actions became public. And everybody, you know, there's wrong decisions, but there's always a night. I try to instill this in my son. So I'm not speaking out of turn here. I'm a big believer that there's consequences to our actions. Whatever our actions are good or bad. There can be good consequences. There can be bad consequences. And it doesn't always have to be instantaneous. In this case, it was many years, it was four years after the fact that that's what? Then the punishment came and it was four years outside the NHL, cost millions of dollars.

5:27Sure was very stressful for him and his family. And that's part of the equation. That's just how it is for all those who were involved in the case, right? It is, it's one that I would not wish on my son or my daughter. It wouldn't. And so I look at it now and say, there's going to be people that say it's never enough. And I can understand, especially somebody who was a survivor of sexual abuse. If you sit there and say, you know what? I can't forgive him. I totally understand it. And I can respect that because people who haven't been sexually abused truly do not understand what it does and how it changes you. I've talked to, you know what? My mother, I've talked to friends. And I've heard there were, but I can't fully grasp it because it didn't happen to me. I empathize with it. I understand it. I get irritated. I get mad.

6:27Something that I'm telling, like I'm sorry. Like, you know what? There's, we can all make wrong decisions, but there's different levels of wrong decision. Okay. There's different levels of it. And there were some consequences to the decisions and the actions that those young men made back in June of 2018. And for some of them, you know what? The actions have been different than others. They were out of the league for years, cost of money. Everybody knows their name. You're always going to be associated with that. It's not, it's not going to go away. Now, the, so, but at the same time, I understand those who say, you know what? I can't forgive it. And I don't want my team signing that player. I understand it. There'll be people on the other side who say, you know what? I think he's a, he's paid his punishment.

7:27Some people go to jail for a year or two. They get out and you try to integrate him back in the society, right? Hopefully they've learned. And to me, now it's actions always speak louder than words. And we'll see, for minton, if he can beat any show player, has him in the league for four years. That's a long time. Yeah, I played hockey in three of those four years, played over in Switzerland. And still skate. That was one of his best calling cards. He can really move. He was a penalty killer. DJ Smith had him as a penalty killer in Ottawa in 2022. I think that's part of it. If Matt Savoy and doesn't get, you know, hurt because Matt Savoy was one of the orders best penalty killers last year. If Matt Savoy is healthy, I'm not sold that this signing occurs. I think it comes down to, and even though I don't expect Matt Savoy to be out long, they want to have depth and they want to ensure that their bases are covered.

8:30He signed here to be a penalty killer. And then when Savoy gets back in, then you're going to have to compete for a job. That's just kind of how it goes, right? Their penalty kill has to be better. If you take out 2024, the orders penalty kill is really not been good for five or six years. It just hasn't been not good enough, not even close. 2024 was awesome. Was even better in the post season. But that's kind of the outlier. So they want their penalty kill to be better. And no, the organization has a history of giving people second opportunities. This would be that for Fomenton. And he's four years outside the league where, you know, his one contract, at least probably would have been a three year deal. So, you know, at three million bucks, can we say cost himself 10 million? All right. It's a lot of money, not to mention the public humiliation of having that very front and center for a lot of people.

9:33So at what point does somebody get a second chance? And that's, I can't answer that question. It's going to be different for Connor. It's going to be different for Declan. It's going to be different for me. The NHL felt like you know what? They reinstated Fomenton along with Hart and DuBay and others. So far, Hart's the only one who's played NHL regular season game. DuBay got signed by St. Louis in July and now Fomenton signs with the orders. Probably getting some NHL games. I would assume. How long is it last? Be up to him. Will he, will he get back to be in the player? He looked like he was back in 2022. No idea. Playing in Switzerland's good. You're playing hockey, but it's not the NHL. So timing, reaction, everything else, confidence. Right. There's lots of things that will go into it. Opportunity will be the other one, of course. So we'll see where it goes. I look at this as.

10:36It's fair. I see, I see both sides. I see the frustrated side and I see the side who says, I, you know what, deserves second opportunity because both things can be true. You can be mad. You can be annoyed and say, this is a clues decision by the organization. And then there's other people are going to say, you know what? I think he's paid his, his punishment gets an opportunity. Comes in a leak minimum one year deal. We'll see what happens. And you go from there, but it doesn't mean you forget. Right. That that's something that he's going to have to carry with them forever. It's going to live in in for me now on the internet. You can't erase it. It's there. It's part of public record. Right. Personally, I wish all those people who engage in activities that were morally inept like that, especially those like I really wish our society would crack down on sexual abuse. It's embarrassing. How, how soft we are on unsexual abuse.

11:37I think it's a rampant problem in society. I know it's a rampant problem in society. The numbers back it up. And it would be nice to have like, there's people that commit worse crimes that it's never even talked about publicly. That's a fact. Right. It's a fact. So if, uh, if more of its disgust and talked about, it's good. I would hope the form and in case if you're a parent of a young teenage boy, late teens early adult boy or girl to look at them and discuss it and the actions on both sides. Because it's a conversation that that not a lot of people want to have. And that's why I think those instances keep occurring. Right. There is, there's conversations for both sides to be had. And I think as a parent, it's our responsibility to have those conversations with our kids, even when they're young adults.

12:37Right. Late teens, young adults, mid teens need to have those conversations. Right. Recognize. Right. What's your moral compass? Because that's the important part. And hopefully your actions will match what it is. So we'll see. I, this form is going to be a difference maker. Maybe on the penalty kill. Right. They need help there. We'll see. I don't, I don't have much expectation and admittedly it is pride. I don't want to put a boatload of stock and research into it. On this case. And I'll admit I have a personal bias because of my standout section. So I have to recognize that. I have to be forthcoming about it. And that's how I view it. So, um, just for all the people like, oh, it was acquitted. Just remember, not guilty. Doesn't mean innocent.

13:43Because if he was innocent, why would hockey Canada paid money? Just ask yourself, you both can beat you at the same time. I think this is an example where it was. Now coming up on the show today. We are going to talk a little football. We'll talk a lot of football in the first hour. We're going to hear from Connor McDaily who spoke today. The captain. He was skating. I know it's just a captain's skate. But I do think it's a little bit of foreshadow and what you might see early on in the season. With the McDaily and dry subtle on a line together. Paul Coleson was there. They had Newden Hopkins, Hyman and Howard. And if I was a betting man, I could see them starting the season like that. But I honestly believe you're going to see things change throughout. As the season goes, depending on how guys play, depending on how the team plays, everything. You know, the coach can think you know the players until you get them and you stand behind the bench as a coach, you see different things.

14:43Right. You get your own impression of the player. But I won't be surprised if that's how they start. Now the bottom six is wide open. Dickinson wasn't on the ice today. So, but obviously he's a third line center. I think that's kind of obvious. You know, Samanski's going to battle with guys. You know, you've got Frederick. You have cabinet. You have doc. You have Joseph. Now you got for minton. You got Jones. You got a lot of wingers for the bottom four winger spots. And that's going to be the competition. I think on defense. With Anderson's injury, I think it means they're going to carry eight defense to start the season. I don't think they're going to expose a guy like stashing awayvers, losing for nothing. Then you get a guy injured and you know what? You'd like to protect yourself from it. That's going to be my get on like the safe thing. Assuming no one else gets hurt between now. And when they have to make their opening day roster, I won't be surprised if we see eight defense went on the opening day roster.

15:45Go eight, 13 and two. And away you go. You've got some guys. You know, so boy will be on IR. Yeah, Mark could be on LTIR. Well, Anderson same thing. Brigula wasn't here last year, but he still he has a smaller cap hit on the roster just because he'll be he'll be injured. Right. When the season begins, most likely. So, you know, they've got some cap space to have a few guys on IR, which counts against the cap. But then still have a 23 man roster. It's probably what you're going to see. So I think eight defense will be there. And you'll have Mach Madoulin, Emberson, Stashney kind of battling it out for ice time in that number six spot on the right side. Shay, Walman, Echome, Boushard, Murphy, those are your top five. The two goalies. It's not much competition now. It's Levi and in Jari. And then you go from your Ford group. And that's kind of how I see it. Starting the year, I won't be surprised all now. I talked about it yesterday. I don't get line combinations. Are they going to stay there forever? History says no. And not just in Edmonton across the NHL. History says no.

16:53So recent history in the NHL. So I wouldn't I wouldn't get too wrapped up in in line combinations. What you see in opening night is very often not what you see come playoff time. And definitely not even what you see come November 1st or December 1st or January 1st. So we'll take a quick break. We also got your Rem check, Strudwick, Speck, Aaron Portesline will join us. Imagine being a Columbus right now. Fantilly's not signed. There's all the Marchenko rumblings. What is going on? So we are a week away from training camp beginning until we get to all that. And more on Cigar show presented by play Alberta. That's the sports 14 40 dots a YouTube Facebook X Instagram. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Say hi to Declan. Hit the subscribe button. Give us thumbs up over on YouTube. Talk a little NFL with the demon over there. If you like some CFL big week in in football for both the CFL and the NFL. We got the Labor Day rematches. And of course, he kick off to another NFL season that starts tonight on a on a Wednesday of all of all nights.

17:57And I fell Wednesday. There you go. And then tomorrow they'll have the other Rams and the 49ers from Australia. So pretty a long road trip for the first game of the year. And the Toronto Blue Jays. Some things don't change runners on first and third. One out. Vlad, he Guerrero steps up to the plate and hits a dribbler right back to the picture. And it's a double play in and over. No run score. Man, does he get into a lot of easy double plays this year? Like just pound. And well, this one didn't pound. This is another dribbler. Like it is. It's wild. I know one home run and a five RBI game got everybody excited, but I cautioned him to say, Hey, and tell you does it more often. It's the same old and just continues to come up and clutch situations and the inability to to consistently even get a sack fly is wild. This year, absolutely wild. Now let's let's talk. Hey, lots going on and football right now as we get to our big guest of the day brought to you by.

19:06R. V. Wars. It is back this weekend at the premium outlet mall right by the airport. Five massive dealers coming together to clear out all the remaining stock for our V's. Check out our V. Wars dot C. A for details and it goes this weekend down at the Olet mall by the airport as a great cup champion former CF. Our analyst Rick Walters joins us Rick. How you doing, my man? Jam, you're well doing well. It's a Tuesday. So rules get place. Well, it's a Wednesday in fact. So it's even better than a Tuesday. It's a closer to Friday. Yeah, yeah. There you go. Tough week for you. Tough week. The the Labor Day. It's now wouldn't go down as a classic game by any stretch, but it would go down as a classic comeback. And just another example that you know, this team they never feel they're out of it. And I'm sure you've played on teams, Rick, where you don't always have your best.

20:08But you find ways to win. How important is that to have in a group that you can still win even when you don't play your best for upwards of close to 40 minutes? No, and those are all good points. It's a it's an important characteristic to have. It's a long season. It's 18 games. It's a grind. You know, the long season shorter playoff, but you're not going to be like you said, you're a game every week, but as long as. And this team has have it has shown like a lot of tenacity around it. Just being able to close out and finish games. They've kind of written a similar script in a few of the few of the wins where it's slow start defense hangs on for for for a bit. And then offense in the second half kind of finds a couple of things, couple plays here and there. And defense kind of continues to play well, shuts them down and you end up, you know, scoring at the right time. And that was, you know, it's a it's a blueprint that you don't always want to have to use, but they've done a really, really good job of sticking to that.

21:15You know, for a couple of weeks now. You look at their like their their run game was weird like rank and couldn't run. Then they made the switch pal came in. He got something going a little bit. Then rank and comes back in and burst one for 50 yards. Now Calgary's D line is the strength of their team. No question, but rank and only had five carries. Rick. So we can say while the running game wasn't working on four of five carries. Sure. But that's still only four carries. Like you got to commit to it more than four carries. Do you not? Yeah, no, I would agree that's that's kind of the stat that sticks out is just how many carries he has went when Powell who I who I thought actually brought provide the big spark on on special teams in the return game and on offense. But when he has more carries than your, you know, your potential MVP candidate. I think you you'd have challenges now. You get touches in the past game and you want to get him as many touches as you can. But but I still think you have to you have to give him more carries the one part which I would say on the run game is that that I always look for is where they making people miss.

22:21Like are they making people missing the backfield or they making people of missing the secondary as an offensive coronary you want to get. You want to block it up so that your your back or whoever you're getting the ball to has has a path to the free safety really. And if you can get him to the free safety. Then you think okay, well, that's a successful running play. Right now you see that they're making like whether it's ranking or Powell they're making people missing the backfield. Like even on rankings long run, you know, he bounced outside had to make two miss and then, you know, I had a great spin move and then made another two or three guys miss. I don't necessarily know if that's a great running play because you can't count on people making people miss all the time and call that a great run running play. And I would even say some of Powell's runs you could say you see who is making people missing the backfield. So again, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but it's important that they go back and really, really look how the running game is coming coming to fruition.

23:28Is it that the backs are just making super human plays or is it actually a really good run play where we're getting them to the second level to the, you know, getting six, seven yards before they're even touched or before somebody has contact. So I'm sure the coaches are looking at all that this this week because you want to get, you know, you want to give them more ball more touches, but you want to make sure you're giving them touches in good run plays. Yeah, okay. You've been involved in in Labor Day many times and the rematch, you know, it's quick. It used to be way quicker. You used to when you played was on the Friday night. So even one last day of rest. And so, you know, they had a walk through late this afternoon, then they'll have one practice tomorrow. Then they have a walk through again on Friday. You know, physically it's, it's, it's a, it's a toll, but it's probably more mental, right? To just, you have to mentally tell yourself you're not tired in that rematch. Yeah, well, and I think the best thing about it is that you're playing against a similar opponent who just played the same game. So it's not like you're playing against somebody new or somebody coming into town.

24:36So that that was always our mindset is they're going through the same thing that we're going through. So the big part about it is it's a mental week. The coaches aren't going to, you know, there's not going to be any two hour practices or anything like that. Or any backgrounds or anything like that. It's going to be mental lots of film. Make the adjustments that you need to make on film. Probably jog through what it looks like on the field. Lots of stretching, lots of hydration, getting lots of water in, in your system. And then just making sure that you're, you know, kind of like what we talked about a couple of weeks ago. If there's any tweaks that you're adding to it, because they've seen you for a couple of weeks now. So if you're, if you're running lots of hitches, can we throw in the same like first and 10 or whatever you're running your hitches? Can we run it a hitch and go? Can we, you know, incorporate a slant and go or a bubble screen and go? Can we? There's a couple of run plays that you saw were were for jargon pulled the ball and you could see rank and kind of leaking back.

25:40Maybe they need to incorporate a little bit of a shovel pass back inside because there was no backers are attached to rank. And so I would say this week is is a lot on coaches to put in a game plan that takes advantage of the game plan. It takes advantage of things that they see on film from the other team. Going back to the run game, how does the run game change if the quarterbacks under center or in shotgun? It changed a lot. You'd be shocked at how, how different it is for everybody. Now when you think about it when the quarterbacks under center and he's taking the ball and the tail back is traditionally behind the center and he's, you know, six or seven yards. Now their angles and their aiming point change in terms of what that looks like their footwork changes in terms of how they're opening up to the hole. So your attack point normally if the quarterbacks in gun, you could be in pistol. So you're directly behind the quarterback or you could be offset. So your yard or two yards to the right or to their left. So your footwork changes from a tailback standpoint.

26:43And then your aiming point is changing typically how a tailback in a run game coming together is you have the footwork that gets you to a certain place, whether it's a gap or be gap. And that's where your aiming point is and normally your aiming point kind of helps set your eyes as to what you're looking at from whether you're looking at the three tech or the one tech. And then you're kind of setting up your blockers and then cutting off of that. So if it's something that you haven't committed to early in there, like you might want to pull it out, you could pull it out. If it's something that you've been practicing and working on, it's tough to just say, here we are, we're going to all of a sudden become a under center downhill run team. So it changes a lot for the running aiming point, like I mentioned, but it also changes for the quarterback because as you're opening up, if you're opening up to the right, maybe it's an inside zone to the right. Now your back is completely to the to the half of the field. So you can't really see that half. So whether you're booting out so you lose sight of the field.

27:50If it's a boot or if it's a straight dropback, you miss half of the field. So again, if it's something that you're practicing and working on, it's a, it's a great compliment, but it has to be within your arsenal. It's hard to just say, I'm going to pull this out and try it in week, you know, in week 10 or week 12. Okay. So when you look at their run attack, are there tweaks you'd make to it? Yeah, for sure, for sure, for sure, I would, I think one of the things that like we talked about last week is toss encounter has been predominantly their best two runs. Those are hard things to have as your staple base runs because there's, there's not much to protect toss encounter. Like, like I mentioned, toss the quarterback is the ball is leaving the quarterback's hands. So linebackers safety, everybody can kind of see that the ball has left their hand. So there's not a whole lot to protect a toss other than maybe you're tossing it to a slot who's coming in front of the tailback going around the backside or something like that.

29:00Or it's a toss to the tailback and maybe he throws the ball because everybody's seen it leave the quarterback's hands and they haven't ran any like we mentioned last week in a gadget place. So maybe it's a rank in throwing the ball. So, but other than that, it's really hard to protect the toss play. So what I think I would try to do if I am them a little bit now they have, I think I would incorporate some shovels. Some where you fake the inside zone quarterback comes to run. We've seen Fajardo come to run a lot and then either pitching it back to the tailback. The you know the lineman are working usually you're leaving an end on a shovel and you're taking the backside five or six guys leave the end come free and you kind of create a little bit of a wall. So the front side end comes free and you're creating a wall for the backside people with the alignment. I think I think a shovel play would be would be beneficial for them because I think everybody's going with the flow of where rank in is going right now and to be able to come.

30:06The opposite way create different levels for defense. I think that would be positive. You know, I think they do got to get downhill a little bit more like straight downhill and and provide like a little bit of a wall for ranking and then let him kind of pick the gap that he'd like to get to too many times. I think you see him having to make somebody miss in the backfield. He's doing a great job at that. And to your point you mentioned this earlier, I think I just stay committed to the run game. Sometimes when you get three or four or five yards. You know, it's really easy as an offensive coordinator to say, okay, well, we're not getting a whole bunch right now. So we're going to, you know, throw the ball. But ranking is their first, second, third, fourth best player. So I think you have to find ways to stay committed to that. You know, they're trying to get them some balls in the past game and I would continue to do that as well. Looks like Powell has a little bit of juice in his legs. And so I, you know, I try to mention his four have both of them in the backfield and make it that the linebackers put them in a bind as to who they're going to take.

31:16Okay, that's fair. I thought that it was offensively the I thought the Elk side another really solid game defensively, a great turnovers. Force fumbles. You know, people will look at the 28 points. I wasn't a great game. I think at times they were kind of put in tough spots that you know didn't give up a ton of yards. And really when it came down to it again, Rick, they gave up nothing in the fourth quarter. Right. Yeah. And so this defense when it really just kind of anchors down, there's, there's a lot of offenses that can't do nothing. pass the ball like as good as the offense as being at times, I still think the defense is the heart of the team. D.V.A. 100%. They're holding them down for sure. One of the things that I think you can kind of look at is that clearly that come half time, they're doing a great job with adjustments as to what and how the offense is in the league are trying to attack them because you've seen the defense get better in the second half, which is kind of what you want. They can hold on in the first half, figure out what offense they're trying to do to them.

32:21Their coaches are on a sideline looking at the iPads, making adjustments whether it's offensive in a quick game or they're trying to go versed down field or they're trying to go inside zone, outside zone. They're doing a really, really good job of figuring out what they're trying to do and then canceling those things in the second half. We saw it against Winnipeg and then a few games ago, Winnipeg was just, you know, they were, they controlled the whole first half of the game and looked like unstoppable offense. And then the second half, again, nothing, you know, they started to blitz more, it started to be a little bit more gap sound and shut down their receivers down field. And so I think, I think a lot of credit has to go to the coaching staff and what they've been able to do from an adjustment standpoint in the second half. Rick, great rundown. We look forward to seeing if the Elsen get the sweep for the second time in three years and in the process, clinch a playoff spot, which would be pretty impressive for them. That would be huge. Yeah.

33:22Especially this early in the season, especially where they were there, you know, where they've been in the last few years to be, you know, I think once you're all clinched, um, last week and for them to be the second team with the potential of clinching, which would be massive for the organization. Rick, great stuff, buddy. We'll talk to you again next week. Have a good one. All right. Sounds good, Jay. Talk to you soon. There's joins us usually on on Mondays, but obviously the long week and we adjusted it and came on today. Uh, when we come back, the great part of a new season is opportunity is there and excitement is high and everybody's excited. How long will the last talk was about seven hours? Somebody will be disappointed. That's what's great about sports. Well, discuss the next. It's Greg or show presented by Plalebird. Into the seventh inning for the Jays, a matinee in Oakland and the Jays are, uh, what, uh, seven outs away from losing this game as they trail to nothing to the athletics as, uh,

34:27they get guys on base. They just can't punch anybody in here. The last few innings, uh, Strandon runners and lots of double play balls being hit by the blue Jays so far today, which has been a little bit of a calling card for certain one of those guys right now. So, uh, we'll see. We will see a three three four one 14 48 three three four one 14 40 got a lot of text coming in. Gregor have to admit, uh, I'm a football coach, uh, Rick's description of how the run game changes from shotgun to under center was outstanding. I'll be taking notes. Thank you. There you go. Yeah. I'm going to do a great job of explaining the differences and the nuances and I just talked about the angles and everything else and it definitely changes. Uh, you're running attack, whether you're a quarterbacks under center or if they're in the shotgun and speaking of football, we'll get to our NFL report brought to you by legacy heating and cooling. Are there rates to never change?

35:28No payments for one year on your furnace or your AC. I'm up and save even more at legacy heating dot C a and tonight the NFL returns on a Wednesday night. Now, I think is this the first ever NFL game on a Wednesday? Like I maybe there's been one in the past. I honestly, I can't remember, but it's definitely seems to be a while. Uh, it has been as the, uh, the sea hawks will, uh, raise the banner tonight. Of course, the defending champs in the NFL and they'll take on the team that they beat. The New England Patriots, uh, Paul Silby from King five Seattle sports joins us. Paul, good afternoon. How you doing? Good man. How you doing? Hey, I'm excellent. Is this the first ever Wednesday NFL game? Has there been one? No, no, okay. No, there has been one. You might remember I was a Christmas day games. When Chris was falling away in the day. Okay. All right. Nice. See? Yeah, let's get to have anything more exciting than that. But there's a lot of fired up people down here for a win tonight.

36:31Yeah. Yeah. No, that's fair. Um, so you look at the sea hawks and I've been talking about it for the last few weeks. And hey, I get the Rams made some moves and everything, but the sea hawks were the champs. And they're still really good. Obviously, you know, there's a change at running back, but Seattle's bringing back a pretty deep roster and a lot of the guys who helped them win the Super Bowl, uh, you know, only seven months ago. Yeah. Not the great point, man. They're bringing back everybody with five guys. So defensively, they're stacked. The biggest question mark going into this game is their secondary because they're beat up. They got some injuries to Nick even worry who was a young star in the making and, you know, a lot of pressure on Julian love back there at safety and Devin with his bonnet corner. So this is where it's going to be a real interesting matchup tonight with with Drake May and his new receivers and in Romeo, Dobbs and of course, AJ Brown. So that that that a Patriots passing game against the sea off secondary is one to watch tonight. When you look at the Patriots and like they had a great year last year, you know, a lot

37:33of people wonder if they can live up to it again. Seattle really dominated that game. And like I don't know, do you think much has changed like when you look at it, I think there are only three three and a half point favorites tonight going in, but I almost seemed like that. It should be more based on how that Super Bowl game went. And when I look at their two rosters today. Yeah. Yeah, when a home team gets three, it's basically like a pick him because, you know, very home team seems to get three if they're, you know, they, the sea arcs have a slight edge going into this game, but I'll tell you the biggest difference, I think, the Patriots and, you know, their fans and their franchise are probably telling the same thing by the time they got to the Super Bowl last year, their quarterback was beat up, their big left tackle was beat up. So they had some guys playing on one leg. And so you heard a lot about that, but on the flip side, the sea arcs really dominated that football game. So going into this game tonight, you're going to see a much healthier Patriots team. I think they're going to challenge the sea hawks, even with all the pomp and circumstance going around this game and raising the Super Bowl banner.

38:36Man, this is, this should be a good game tonight. I think the sea arcs will be tested. I talked about the sea arc secondary, but I'll tell you right now that running game concerns me big time because they're first round draft pick to Darien Price did not take one snap in the preseason. So you have no chance to learn his offensive line and they didn't have a chance to learn him. And that's going to take a few games. So that running game for the sea arc tonight, I think is going to be just suspect at best. What about the offensive coordinator shift from Kubeh active flurry? I think there's, you know, Sam Donald talked about it a lot, the fact that they've been in communications in day one and he said Brian Flurry's going to last word on everything, but Sam talked to Flurry about what has been working well for this team and what work, well for them last season. So it's not like Brian's coming in and changing a bunch of things, but he is adding a lot more use of the tight ends. He's going to want to get that running game going. I just don't know if he has the horses out of the gate to do that.

39:37But look for the sea arcs to try to establish a run and grind it out more than they have in the past. And the other thing is that this team, this offensive team on the flurry, even the sea arcs defense, which is practiced against them for the last several months, will tell you that there's a lot more emotion over there. There's a lot faster, you know, play calling and just a whole tempo is quicker. So this is going to, that's going to be the biggest difference of the sea arcs offenses. We're going to move the ball and there's a lot more tempo. Everything's going to be a little bit quicker. Paul Sylvie joining us here on the Jason Greggershow, taking a look at the Seattle sea arcs who kick off their season tonight, hosting the New England Patriots. And one of the players I'm really excited for Paul going back to last season was Rashid Jihid when they dropped him in there, bringing him in from the New Orleans Saints. But I think now with a full camp under his belt, the chance to make a real big contribution on this offense as a guy who could be a threat to take it to the house at any point. How is he looks so far in the preseason and his first full off season in Seattle? Lots of beauty of it. That's the beauty of it is that he has had his first full off season.

40:38One of the things that Sam did with Rashid, they didn't quite get it all together last year because of sheet speed. The fact that he's so fast Sam had to get used to throwing in the football. So they met earlier in the summer, around on July before they went into training camp. And they threw the ball down in California and gave him a chance to catch up to his speed. So they worked a lot together during that week of how to just how to read each other and Sam to put the ball right on the mark for Rashid because he was just a fast receiver that Sam wasn't used to throwing to. So that's one thing they worked on this summer and it's certainly showed during training camp. So it's just a great talking point. The fact that those two got together and engaged each other a little bit better. So I think you're going to see a big difference and she will become much more of a weapon, not only of course on special teams, but in the past again. Yeah, and it's been a crazy opposite for the Seattle sea ox team. Obviously, winning the Super Bowl and then they've got the hard knocks true filming them.

41:39What does Mike McDonald been saying? Just to kind of keep it the composure heading into the season where we know it's going to be Iraqis crowd in Seattle tonight. They're allowed all the time, probably even louder. Emotions are going to be all over the place right now. What's been the message from Coach McDonald? You know what? His message is constant. It's almost boring to the media who listen to it. But man, Mike is all about just playing the game. Even I asked about whether he's going to, you know, what the emotions will be like when they raise that Super Bowl banner. And he's like, I hope we're even out there when they do it because he could be running out of a tunnel that he doesn't even know, but all he wants to do is play this football game. And then when Monday, you know, Monday comes on a Sunday, but when when Thursday comes, he wants to get ready for the arrows on a cardinals. Like this guy is a machine when it comes to coaching this team. So, but his message is basically, you know, he's been saying it throughout for any camp and in the off season, he wants to run it forward. He doesn't want to run it back. He wants to run it forward. He wants these guys thinking about winning the Super Bowl and forgetting everything they

42:41did last season because it's the whole new season. And the players are buying it. Paul, one more for me here. I just want to ask you what the division obviously kind of nice for the Seahawks to have two of your division rivals, two really good teams in the Rams and the 49ers having to travel halfway across the world of play a football game. But how do you think this division pans out this year with what the Rams have added? And if the Niners can find a way to stay healthy? Yeah, man. Really, that's the biggest key. You know, the unfortunate 49ers, I mean, every, it seems like every season they start, they're starting hobbled. And, you know, so again, if the 49ers stay healthy, it's going to be a great another one, two, three finish, you know, in the NSE West. These three teams, if they stay healthy, are going to be in the playoffs. No questions. So just like last season. So I just, this, you know what? Everybody's got the Rams as the Super team, but a few years back when the Philadelphia Eagles built a Super team, they felt flat. And I think there's a lot of pressure on the Rams team. Yeah, there are number one in a lot of people's power rankings. There are the consensus favorite to win the Super Bowl.

43:44But I just think that's just way too much speculation, way too much optimism, way too much hype around that Rams team. So I like to see us to win this NSE West again, because they just continue to keep their nose in the ground. They love the fact nobody talked about it in the off season. And everybody was talking about everybody else. And the C-OX quietly did their thing. So their position very well to win this division again. Well, it's going to be a tough division. No question. I think the C-OX look good. I think the Walker absence is definitely a cause for concern. We'll see what price can do. Can the running game be as effective? But that being said, I just wonder if we just see Sam Darnel throw the ball more early on this season. I think you will see him using the tight ends a little bit more in the passing game. I think the JSN is going to one of the things that we'll talk about in the training camp and going into this season. The JSN is now a marked man. They have seen what he can do. They've got plenty of game film on what he can do.

44:45And he's liable to be doubled up a lot. And so when Cooper Cuff, who's a veteran at a former Super Bowl MVP, he's on this team as a coach, as much as he is a player. He's so valuable in his experience that he's been laying on JSN. He basically told us, look, this guy's going to have to learn how to play covered and learn how to play with a ton of attention on him. That's going to be the next step for JSN. So that will be interesting to watch this year. And at the same time, if he's getting all that attention, that's going to free up guys like Cooper Cuff and AJ Barnard and Rashid Shahi. Well, it should be a good season, man. We really appreciate the rundown. Enjoy the game tonight. How long of a ceremony are you expecting? Well, hopefully not long, man. I hope they just get that banner off. I know, my McDonald's, they're going get it over with, man. Yeah, we wanted. But that was months ago. Let's play this game. So McDonald's will definitely be chopping the bit waiting for that banner to go up and everything.

45:45All that stuff to stop. He just wants to play football. All right. We'll see how it goes. Thanks, Paul. Appreciate your time. You got a man. Thanks. There you go. That's Paul Sylvie from King five Seattle sports. The the sea. I think it's fair to say the run game is a concern. And I wonder if that's why if you go to play Alberta, Dotsia under the NFL, they have an odds boost on Sam Darnold having 20 completions tonight. Hmm. I was looking at he didn't, you know, it was kind of, you know, right around. I think half the games last year where he completed 20 passes, but without Walker and Charbonne and you just heard price hadn't taken a snap with the offense yet. Like this might be the night where maybe this roll in the ball a little bit more. Why not? Right? I mean, you got to be kind of weary of Christian Gonzalez. Obviously he signed that new deal. I'm sure he'll be shadowing Jackson's been to jing. But by like he said, get those tight ends involved in the passing game. Maybe you haven't found that chemistry with your running back in the line. Well, maybe a swing pass. Get the ball in his hands. Let them do some things. And I really like.