The division actually that they’re in maybe stands as the biggest hurdle.
All right.
Welcome in the report for Thursday, July 23rd.
We’re gonna get a quick one in here before I go away on my training camp trip over the weekend .
My producer Ken Brown had 3 questions for me to answer, and so that’s how we’re gonna handle this one.
the first of the three questions is, can the Seattle Seahawks repeat?
And I think the answer to that question is yes.
They’re the first stop of my training camp tour.
And I look at the makeup of the roster and where they are from a team-building standpoint, it almost feels like maybe they got where they got last year, a year ahead of schedule.
If you look at the makeup of the team.
You’ll see a lot of players who took a big step, and that’s what we talked about last summer, how that team needed a lot of players to go from good, from good to great.
Well, that happened.
You had Jackson Smith and Jig would go from being a really good receiver to being the Offensive Player of the Year.
You had Devin Witherspoon enter the upper echelon of corners.
You have Byron Murphy go from a good young defensive tackle with a lot of promise.
To a game-changing type of player.
Even some of their older players like Leonard Williams took a step.
But I look at the makeup of the team again, so many of these guys that are still on rookie contracts are just coming off of rookie contracts that I think have Some more meat on the bone, you know, and again, I’m talking about the Smith and Jigbus.
I’m talking about the Witherspoons, I’m talking about the Murphy’s.
You can put Nicky Minwari in that category.
You can put Grace Zel in that category, even, uh, Charles Cross, who’s been a foundation piece for them for a few years now at left tackle, he could take another step.
AJ Barner, Rasheed Shaheed, there are so many young players on that roster that again, I think still have a chance to take a step.
And Sam Darnold was still in his first year there last year.
Now, there are questions, and one of the biggest ones is how they’ll replace Clint Kubiak as their offensive coordinator.
Brian Fleury is now the offensive coordinator coming over from San Francisco.
But the foundation there is very, very strong.
Mike McDonald and John Schneider have done a nice job of building over the last two years.
They know what they want, players in every single position.
And Schneider himself has done a great job of taking advantage of all the draft capital that came back in the Russell Wilson trade, which served as the foundation for what they’ve built over the last few years.
So, I think the Seahawks are very much in that mix to repeat as Super Bowl champions.
And I would say, looking at where they are, the division actually that they’re in maybe stands as the biggest hurdle because I think the Rams and the 49ers are also gonna be right in that mix.
Ken’s second question for today was what teams will be under the most pressure?
And I look at 3 teams of first-year coaches in Buffalo, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh, and this is a different situation that most first-year coaches walk into.
A lot of times, if you’re a 1st-year head coach, you’re inheriting something broken.
You’re walking into a place where you can say to the players, the way you were doing it wasn’t working, so here are our new answers.
Here’s my way of doing it.
That’s not what those situations are.
Um, Baltimore was a field goal away from being in the playoffs last year.
Pittsburgh was in the playoffs last year.
Buffalo advanced to the ground in the playoffs.
And so, you know, you look at those three teams with first-year head coaches and Jesse Minor in Baltimore, Joe Brady in Buffalo, Mike McCarthy in Pittsburgh, and I think there’s a lot more pressure than it normally would be on a first-year head coach to perform.
And on the quarterbacks, of course, in those spots, Aaron Rodgers, his last hurrah as an NFL quarterback, obviously, that creates emergency around the team.
Lamar Jackson is, you know, now moving into this phase of his career where, you know, he’s got his 2nd head coach, maybe playing for a 3rd contract, and of course, Josh Allen.
There’s always gonna be that question until he gets over the hump about getting over the hump.
So, going into the camp , I’d say Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo because of the coaching changes are under just a unique level of pressure.
All right, third question from my producer, Kent, this morning was Which teams could be surprise contenders, and I’m gonna look at one division in particular to pluck two teams out to finish things up today, and that’s the NFC South.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a half-decade were the class of that division.
They won the Super Bowl in 2020, then they won the division four years in a row.
Last year, the Carolina Panthers upset the apple cart and were able to knock off the Bucks at the end of the year to win the division.
But I’m looking at the other two teams in that division.
I, I look at the Atlanta Falcons and I see a team that’s built over the course of the last few years, uh, and , you know, you look at their offensive line, that’s a veteran offensive line.
You’ve got Bjon Robinson, you’ve got Drake London, you got Kyle Pitts, you got more out of.
I think one of the biggest coups too for the new head coach there, Kevin Stefansky was bringing back Jeff Ulbricht.
As the defensive coordinator, we’ll see what happens with Jason with James Pierce, but they do bring back Jalen Walker.
Uh, it’s a defense that I think has a chance to get better.
And here’s the thing, is like, I think Stefansky is gonna be able to get the most out of whoever’s playing quarterback, whether it’s Michael Pennox or Tuatungavaloa.
Penn, of course, coming off the ACL.
This is a team that’s been in the mix the last couple of years, and I think Stefansky, of course, You know, I think, I think the world of the guy he’s replacing him Raheem Morris, but Stefansky was as heavily pursued as John Harbaugh last year.
If you look at the amount of, of interviews he got, I think that tells you what people inside the league think of Kevin Stefansky and the job that he did in Cleveland , even though They only made the playoffs twice in his 6 years there.
I think people look at the circumstances he was in in Cleveland and say he performed at a very high level.
He was able to do more with less, and now I think he’s inheriting a roster that’s ready for a breakthrough.
And then the Saints would be the other one, and I just, I just look at the makeup of the team, and again, you know, like the, the, the offensive-minded head coach Kellen Moore, I think a high-level defensive coordinator and Brandon Staley, and this is a big if, but if they can get A high level of play out of Tyler Shuck in his 2nd year.
There are a lot of pieces on that offense.
You’ve got 21st-round tackles, and Talis Fuaga and Kelvin Banks.
You’ve got 21st-round receivers and Jordan Tyson.
And Chris Olave at tight end, you’ve got a guy who I think has first-round type talent, but was never able to harvest it, Georgia and Oscar Del.
I think he’s got a chance to be a really good player and then you add Travis Ech in to a backfield that already has Alvin Kamara in it.
Um, I think there’s the potential for that offense to be a lot better than people think.
And defensively, I trust Brandon Staylor to make it work the same way I trust Jeff Albrecht to make things work in Atlanta.
So those two teams, New Orleans and Atlanta, I think have a chance to be surprise contenders.
Appreciate you guys coming out.
This will be the last career report for this week.
We will be on the road starting next week.
I think we’ll first be coming to you from Seattle or Arizona depending on when we decide to shoot that report, but I’m excited to bring that to you and of course a ton of video content from the road.
We’ve got some stuff that was inspired by the World Cup.
We’ve got some stuff that we’ve always done, the observations from camp.
You can get all of that here on YouTube across all of our social channels and you get to me on.
Here on YouTube in the comment section down below or on my social media at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert Aubrey on Facebook, at Albert_ Breer on Instagram.
Appreciate you guys coming out.
We’ll see you next week.
