Blockbuster trade, upcoming MNF game headline Week 8 for Seahawks

It's been a little while since we had a chance to talk with our sports director, Aaron Levine, or at least for me personally. I've been gone for a few days, and man, Aaron, I rejoin you. And since last time we talked, Kansas City Chiefs come into town undefeated, walk back home, tail between their legs, and all of a sudden, we've got some new ballplayers, too. Like, what in the world, man? Lots of things happening in just a short amount of time here. Yeah, we felt like we were on cloud nine after they hold Ken Walker III, Patrick Mahomes, and the top offense in the league to only three points. And then a couple days later, John Schneider works his magic, and we're sitting here with one of the best left guards in the entire game, Quentin Nelson, who went through his first practice today. It was confirmed by McDonald. He will start at left guard this weekend, and they're going to move Gray Zabel over to right guard, where that lands Anthony Bradford, who for now is probably just in a backup role. The Seahawks offensive line got significantly better. Nelson was certainly a target during free agency a few years back. He was unable, they were unable to sign him as he resigned in Indianapolis. Now he's going into the final year of his deal. We don't know whether he's going to be a Seahawk going forward, but the price that the Seattle Seahawks paid for Nelson. is nothing compared to what the Bears had to pay today for a defensive tackle in Simmons, Jeffrey Simmons. So they paid two first-round picks to the Tennessee Titans to get Simmons. Meanwhile, the Seahawks paid a third-round pick and a fifth-round pick. And if Nelson doesn't re-sign with the Seahawks and goes elsewhere in free agency, the Hawks are likely going to get a compensatory third-round pick back. So it's essentially just a fifth round pick with a third round safety net. It was a fantastic deal by John Schneider, who, by the way, every single year. Around the trade deadline has made a significant move the last four years. It goes back to Leonard Williams in 2023. The last year you had Rashid Shaheed. Two years ago, it was Ernest Jones IV. And then this year, they bring in Quentin Nelson. And I don't think they're done. Because at this point, if you add in the five compensatory draft picks that the Seahawks are expected to get for all the free agents they lost this past off season, along with Nolan Teasley, they are expected to have 11 total draft picks right now still. next year. They have a lot of draft stock to trade. If they want to go back, go out and get some more people before the November 10th trade deadline. Now, I tell you what, the crazy thing is, is that draft compensation that we're talking about here, that Jeffrey Simmons, that is the talk of Twitter today is like, wait, I mean, nope. If you're a Bears fan, you're not going to sneeze at the fact you just added Jeffrey Simmons to your team, which by the way, you'll be lining up up against coming up here week is it's kind of crazy that all these Pieces and parts coming away from the Tennessee Titans now line up against one another on Monday Night Football. But man, you've got to be feeling good about Schneider. What was the attitude like in the building? I know they were talking earlier today. Are you getting any vibes? Are you hearing anything from people with the club? I've got to imagine there's excitement when you can add a piece like this, a six-time All-Pro. It's not often you get guys like this. Yeah, well, Quenton Nelson was asked about Jeffrey Simmons going to the... The Bears and having to face him this weekend. He's like, I can't get away from that guy, unfortunately, because remember, they were going up against each other in the AFC South, and now he's going to face him this week. The also interesting part is that the 49ers went out and they got DeForest Buckner, who was Nelson's teammate in Indianapolis. So it's sort of going to be like Indianapolis practices during the middle of the week when the Seahawks face the Niners later this year with Buckner going up against Quenton Nelson. But I know there's a lot of excitement inside that building, in the Seahawks' building. going into this Monday Night Football game, especially with the momentum they have coming off of that win over the Kansas City Chiefs. And it is a really interesting matchup. I think this game has just as interesting a storyline as last week when Ken Walker went up against his former team, specifically the two head coaches in this one. You have Ben Johnson in Chicago. You have Mike McDonald in Seattle. And Ben Johnson and Mike McDonald were the final two finalists. In consideration for the Seahawks head coaching job when they fired Pete Carroll a couple of years ago, and they could have gone two directions. They could have gone with Ben Johnson, who is considered an offensive guru as the offensive coordinator, as you know, with the Detroit Lions, or they went with Mike McDonald instead, who is considered the defensive guru. So they opted for defense over offense. And now you have a clash of these two forces this Monday night. It's the first time these two have faced each other as head coaches, and we'll see who wins out. You talk about the defense, though. And I think it's a defense that really has been overshadowed. I know they're the top defense in the league, but I've been saying it all week. Should the Seahawks hold the Chicago Bears down this upcoming week and show once again that they are the superior side? I truly believe this defense is better than last year when they won the Super Bowl. And when I say it's been sort of shadowed and blanketed, it's Because of those three losses, but if you look deeper into those three losses, and specifically two of them, the Seahawks gave up 21 points to the 49ers off of four turnovers. They gave up 21 points to the Washington Commanders off of three turnovers. It was not the defense's fault. It was the offense giving the ball away in terrible situations, and the opponents taking advantage of that. So as we saw on Monday night, outside of that one baffling throw by Sam Darnold into the back of the end zone, which was picked off, and another bad decision by Darnold there, if the Seahawks can limit the amount of turnovers, then the defense can simply do its job and they can continue winning games. I tell you what, a lot of people are probably going to be watching now because not only do you have a big Monday night game going up, but trade deadline fast approaching. I got to ask, you mentioned all those compensatory picks. Do you think that they're done wheeling and dealing here? Do you think that this continues to be like an open phone line to Schneider's office? Because it sounds like he kind of has a full cabinet of things that he can throw at these trades. Yeah, I mean, Jeremy Fowler from ESPN reported that Schneider specifically is looking at edge rusher and also at running back. But we did get the news today that both Jadari and Price was designated to return to practice. And McDonald said that it was realistic that Price could play on Sunday. We also know that Zach Charbonnet had a chance to play last week, although he was held out and inactive. That means he has a chance once again to be active for Monday night's game against the Bears. Remember, he's only eight and a half months removed from ACL. But it would be an incredible accomplishment to be back out on the field. But the Seahawks are getting healthy at running back all of a sudden. And you add Quentin Nelson to the mix, and you potentially can have a healthy running game with Nelson, also a healthier passing game with Nelson on that offensive line, hopefully giving Sam Darnold a little bit more time to maneuver in the pocket. And all of a sudden... You have an offense that can hopefully move the ball down the field and be a little bit more effective and not turn the ball over on a regular basis. Getting back to the defense quickly, the defense is allowing, on average, 50 fewer yards per game than they were all last season. And the scariest part about all of this is that from weeks two to six, Nick Emanwari only played 30 to 40 percent of the defensive snaps. Last week against Kansas City, he played 100% of the defensive snaps, and look what they were able to do. The Seahawks' defense has held opponents scoreless in five of their last six quarters. That is astounding, and two of those quarters were the second half in Denver when they were only playing on three total days of rest, playing at altitude. This defense is really showing us something right now, and I'm hoping and looking forward to seeing similar style of defense against the Bears in front of the entire country on Monday night. I tell you what, this is going to be strength on strength. You mentioned how these guys were both finalists, Ben Johnson and Mike McDonald. I got to say, maybe whoever's doing HR over there, the Seahawks, whoever's slimming down, the finalists for these jobs knew what they were doing because there's a trend in football these days to go all in on offense. Seahawks seem to zig where everybody else is zag. There's a lot of young coordinators that have taken on head coach jobs in recent years, And now all of a sudden, You get to see two of the best on opposite sides of the balls go up against each other. So I will ask you, I mean, what do you expect to see in this game? I mean, I'm sure you're kind of starting to watch a little bit more of the Bears right now. Like, what kind of matchup are you expecting come Monday? I think it's somewhat similar in that there is a focus on the Chicago Bears running backs, specifically. Typically, you know... DeAndre Swift, in particular, and the storyline, again, shifts to the fact that the Seahawks have now gone 36 consecutive games without allowing a 100-yard rusher, and that is a franchise record. And if you take a look at their schedule, they do have a very good chance of running the team, table in that regard, and going another 10 games without allowing a 100-yard rusher. It really is more of a two-pronged approach. Ben Johnson likes to use multiple running backs, and we're going to see whether Kyle Monangai is available, or it's Roshon Johnson backing up DeAndre Swift this week. But they have... Some fantastic receivers as well. I mean, Caleb Williams is mobile, and you have a great tight end in Loveland as well, even though Cole Kmet got hurt last week. Roma Dunze, who a lot of people are familiar with from his time at the University of Washington, and Luther Burden III has really come on strong lately. So it is not an easy test for this Seahawks defense, and that's why I'm really excited, because they have more weapons through the air, Then the Kansas City Chiefs did last week. And so the Seahawks were really keyed in on stopping Ken Walker, the third last week. Now you have more of a three-dimensional say offense that you're taking a look at with Ben Johnson and the Chicago Bears. So I'm really excited to see what the Seahawks can do. And when we go back to turnovers one more time, Seahawks are perfect 15 and 0 under Mike McDonald, when they win the turnover battle, it's hopefully win that turnover battle again and make it 16 and 0 this week. Yeah, the interceptions, the turnovers, that's been the one thing that just kind of really has snakebitten the Seahawks. Otherwise, we'd be talking about a very different record at this point in time. But I'm not going to think too much about that after that win against Kansas City Chiefs. Anytime you take down an undefeated team in your house, that's always nice. Fox 13 Sports Director Aaron Levine joining us. Aaron, thanks so much for taking the time today. Of course.