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As part of our exclusive in depth coverage of the NFL, Your Home for

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the twelfth Man proudly presents NFL Network Draft analyst lanzer Line, brought to you

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by Moss Bay Hall, Queen Anne Beer Hall's sister location on the East Side

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in Kirkland. Incredible food, local craft beers and fresh cocktails with friends.

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Come check out Moss Bay Hall in the heart of downtown Kirkland. Now with

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lanzer Line, here's Safti and Dick. All right, Normally you'd hear this

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segment of five o'clock on Wednesdays, but today we make some on the fly

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adjustments in game adjustments. Here the first fifteen script that plays Dick just we're

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terrible going out the window threw them out. They did not work. We

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had to adjust it. Great teams, I think can adjust. We'll fly.

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So that's what we're doing. Right. We only gained thirty two yards

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on our first sifte as. Now we're down twenty five to nothing, alright,

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so we gotta adjust. But he's gonna be with us every Wednesday at

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five through the draft. Courtesy of our friends at Moss Bay Hall. It's

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our friend from the NFL Network LANCEZR Line, Lance, how are you man?

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SAFTI just tell the tell the truth. I was late to my initial

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meeting with the team. Yeah, and I did not make a good first

1:06

impression on the Seattle Seahawks with you know, they expected me to be there

1:11

at the combine. I ran late, I had my ringer off, I

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overslept, whatever excuses. I was actually just watching. I just actually just

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watching tape and had the ringer off, and I missed the first one.

1:22

But I'm glad to be here, really excited. Yeah, well we are

1:25

too. And I didn't want to throw you under the bus initially, right,

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maybe after a couple of accountable in this business. All right, we'll

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be account Here's the deal. Lance fell asleep, all right, that's what

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happened. All right, That's why he wasn't there at five o'clock. But

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you said you're watching tape. Tell us who you were watching and what you

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were watching that was so important you couldn't come on the show. You don't

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want to know. I'm down to the dregs of I should call dregs,

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but I'm I'm really scraping around. I'm at three hundred and ninety eight prospects

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so far written. So this was like the last Yeah, it's like the

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last one ten and these guys are not getting drafted. So if you really

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must know, I watched a tight end from Illinois State when you were calling,

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and uh, let's see who's my other one? Wow man tight end

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from Illinois State who came over from Southeast Missouri State transfer port off course,

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and uh, I don't know. There was a linebacker also, Oh, a guy named Jalen No John Johnson something like that. He was I so

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easily forgot him. I could tell you he has good instincts and there's a

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really good tackler, but uh, doesn't look like he has the athletic profile.

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So it's something Johnson. I do remember that. Well, we'll ask you. We'll ask more about him when the Seahawks drive him in the seventh

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round. But you don't land Zerline joined us. You know we're gonna ask

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you a lot about the top of the board, obviously, but I want to ask you about a prospect from two years ago, Sam Howell. What

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did you think about Sam Howell in the draft process two years ago? And

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had your thoughts changed for the better or for the worse since you've watched him

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in the NFL. No, I think I had him dead on. He

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was a player that I kind of liked the year before, and of course

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he had better he had better talent around him the year before, uh,

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his senior year, his junior year, and then his senior year. Honestly,

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I just thought, you know that it's kind of a tricky offense over

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there with with North Carolina because you have a lot of one on one shots

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down the field and you're just throwing go balls and and there's no safety over

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the top, and it's not what the NFL is. It's not an NFL

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throw. And I thought Sam, when he was forced to, you know,

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really play like an NFL quarterback to throw at the anticipation, make the

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intermediate throws, he just had a tendency really to to to be a little

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bit out of control and not as accurate as he needed to be. And

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and I gave him a grade that was commensurate with low end starter to high

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end back up, and that I think that's what he is. I mean,

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I think that's who he was, and and I think he's I think

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it's a great spot for him. I think it's a great spot for the

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for the Hawks because you know he's got some NFL experience, it's under his

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belt. He's supposed to be good in the room, and another set of

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eyes for Gino. So I like the addition. I just you know,

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this is probably what he is, a guy who down the road will get

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another shot because there will be an injury to somebody at some point and he'll

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be able to step in, and we call him a three game starter. I could you want to know if you can have a guy come in and

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start for three games and give you a chance to win all three, that's

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I think Sam how can be that. I just don't think he is a

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solution for a team. Well, we got we got about seven weeks here,

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so plenty of time to talk about all these prospects. And just so you know, we're gonna go heavy Seahawks and heavy Washington Husky prospects. In

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a great year to be a Husky prospect, because there's a lot of guys

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coming out of you, Dub. But let me go back to the Sam

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Howe thing for a second, because you know how NFL front offices work.

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Dick and I had a debate last week about the difference between should and will,

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meaning, should the Sam Howe arrival change the Seahawks plans at quarterback in

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the draft, and will it change their plans in the draft. So,

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for example, if John Schneider has been loving Michael Pennix or J. J.

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McCarthy and has a chance to get him in the first round, do

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you think Sam Howe or Gino Smith will preclude him from doing that? No?

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No, if he if you know, well, first of all, we're talking about one of the longest long shots, John Schneider, trade up

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in the first right, but he likes to head the other way. Yeah,

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But you know, no, neither one of those guys can preclude you.

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If you really believe in a guy that you think you can win at

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a at a really high level, with a guy that you can you know,

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help compete for a Super Bowl again and and be up there in the

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names in the in the NFC to at the very top and NFC, you

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know, the the championship game. No, then you make that. You

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make that decision every day, all day. You should always do that.

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However, you know, I just I don't know if there's gonna be some

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competition to get up there, and I frankly I think I think JJ McCarthy

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is going to be the fourth guy off the board, maybe even the third

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player off the board, h third quarterback. There's a chance to goes quarterback

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one through four. I just think it's gonna go too early for John Schneider

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and the Seahawks to be in contention. But at the same time, no

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Gino Smith at this age and Sam Howe with you know what we've seen from

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him, they would not preclude you from looking at quarterback if that was a

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decision you were planning on making. Well, you brought you brought on McCarthy.

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We have had a lot of debate on McCarthy on this radio station over

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the last couple three weeks. Where are you on him? And why the

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just massive jump for JJ McCarthy from December to now, Well, it's it's

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really I think what I'm finding is this is one of these rare instances.

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It's not rare, but this is one of the most rare instances where the

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general media and draft media there the way that they evaluate j JJ McCarthy and

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I'm gonna put myself in this obviously versus NFL teams is just substantially different.

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I've talked to more than I probably talked about five different evaluators on teams.

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One of them was a quarterback coach, and they all love love different things

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on Sam or rather on TJ McCarthy that you know, we might not be

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looking for. And I watch a lot of tape and I just I wasn't

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wowed by him. I just thought, you know, this is fine.

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There's nothing really exciting. But I think it's the way he manages the game

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and I think it's the way that he can access winning plays. I know,

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for this quarterback coach I talked to, he said, look, he

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has a winning background from in two different high schools he went to. He

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won, he won a national championship in college. There's something about him where

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he has that intangible And we know the quarterback position is a lot less about

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the arm strength and you know, the explosive running plays and things. It's

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really about can you outthink the defense? Can you can you make clutch plays

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at clutch times? Do you have poise? And I think a lot of

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people in the NFL look at him and they see really elite processing the ability

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to get to certain reads, and I think that's something that you need to

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be inside the league to really get a real feel for that about how he's

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doing with his reads. And he played in the pro style offense. I

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mean, NFL teams can see him in a pro style offense, and it's

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way easier to project, to be honest with you, And I think Michael

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Pennix, you know, you didn't ask me about Penis, but I thought

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Ryan Grubbs offense did a great job of creating opportunities for Pinnicks to show NFL

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teams what it would look like if he were throwing in an NFL passing scheme.

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I think that was a big advantage. But with McCarthy, you know,

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I'm back into the first on him, so I wouldn't take him in

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the top ten. But you know that I do see some of the things

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that people see in him. It's just I just can't get there with them.

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Yeah, the Penis thing is interesting to me because we saw him play

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twenty eight straight games lance at Washington, and yet we hear from people that

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he's got an injury history. Okay, he did have an injury history,

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and then he went to US and started twenty eight games in a row,

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and that Sugar Bowl performance when he was stepping away from guys like Byron Murphy

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and sweat and pressure was sensational. So he's a lightning rod. I mean,

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there is a there's not a consensus at all on Michael Pennix, is

9:13

there? No? Not really, And it's tough because it only takes one

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so I could see, you know, I thought Daniel Jeremiah putting him in the first route of the Raiders is really intriguing. In his last mock.

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You know, I don't have him there, but I can tell you this. So four straight years of season ending injury is a concern. I talked

9:31

to a representative of his We were going over the shoulder stuff and one of

9:35

them is an AC joint sprain that all quarterbacks get. The other one is

9:39

not was not even on his not is not on his throwing arm, but

9:43

it's all healed up. Two ACL tears on the same knee. He's not

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a big runner, as you guys know. He can, but he just

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chooses not to. And I think one of the problems I saw on tape

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is that he is really a poor thrower on the move. Like his his

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accuracy numbers running the twenty range when he's moving his feet outside of the pocket.

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Now, as it was pointed out to me, and this is accurate,

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a lot of those are throwaways. But you know, you just can't.

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You can't default to throwing everything away. So but when he's in the

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pocket and the game you're referencing against Texas was the best game I saw this

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year. I mean, the best game for a quarterback was Pennix versus Texas.

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Absolutely brilliant. I was at the Super Bowl, the Sugar Bowl rather

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watching that game, and I was blown away. He looked fantastic. Then

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I watched the tape later, and you know, there are some times that

10:30

he doesn't take sacks, which I love is an offensive line coach's son.

10:33

I love when when quarterbacks don't take sacks. But and so that's a big

10:39

bonus for him. And but I think one of the things I noticed on

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tape is he had a tendency because of having Polk and McMillan and a Dunza.

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You could throw some of those balls up in one on one and they had a great chance of making a fifty to fifty ball seventy thirty ball in

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their favor. So those are some things you can't necessarily and you won't necessarily

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get away with on the next level. But you know, I like Michael

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Pennix. I do think the injury background is going to be a concern for

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some teams. I don't think the age is going to be that big a concern. He'll be twenty five as a rookie. I talked to him.

11:11

I asked a quarterback coach specifically, does this bother you? I ask a general manager. They said, no quarterbacks playing until their you know, mid

11:18

thirties, late thirties. We're talking about ten years down the road. Who cares? You know? That's fine. So I don't think the age is

11:22

I think that the health stuff it will be a little bit of a concern

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for a lot of teams. Well, it's interesting with with Mike because it

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seems like he does things when he needs to do things. In the case

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in point, that Texas game, we kind of knew he was going to

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be more mobile in that game. We were kind of tipped off to that.

11:37

And then and then the USC game. I mean, my god, was there a better throw made by a college football player than Pennis rolling to

11:45

his left against USC, getting smashed out of bounds and throwing a dart into

11:50

the corner of the end zone for twenty five yards. So it almost seems

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like he can if he needs to. But but you're saying that, you

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know, just not consistent enough. Then no, and not consistent enough.

12:01

But you know what, really, when you look at Seattle specifically, you

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just talked about moving up, how about not moving up? And how about Seattle as the second rounder this year? Right? No, they don't.

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They lost it in the in the Eleonard Williams straight. I bet you they

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will though, because like you said, John likes to trade down. Well,

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I mean, I tell you if you like Michael Pennix, because you

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guys offensive coordinator, you've got Scott Huff the offensive line coach. I love

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both those I think both those guys are really talented. You know, Pennis

12:28

might be one of those guys that if you trade back and you're able to

12:33

add a second rounder, that is a guy that I might consider taking a

12:37

look at. You know, it's kind of a it's a tough call to

12:39

do that when you have three quarterbacks in the room and Pennix would be a

12:45

clear cut third where he wouldn't be able to play. And I think one of the tough things is now that I'm thinking out loud, you got a

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twenty five year old rookie and you have to sit him down because he's the

12:54

third guy in there. That's that would be awfully tough to wait a year

12:56

on Pennis like that. If you were the number two, that might be

13:01

another topic, unless Seattle was willing to move on from Gino Smith and move

13:05

him in the trade. But I just I just keep thinking about Grub and

13:11

Huff and Pinnix all together, and I just I just can't help but think

13:15

that'd be a great company, no question. Well, Lance Zerline from the

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NFL Network, going to be with us every Wednesday at five o'clock. A

13:22

little special time today, but every Wednesday at five courtesy of Moss Bay Hall,

13:24

the Queen Ann Beer Hall's new venture on the East Side in Kirkland,

13:28

Win eleventh Central Way. Go check it out. If you're a fan of

13:31

the Queen Anne Beer Hall, you will love this spot. So I'm gonna read you some names here, Lance Justin britt Ethan Posk, Austin blythe Evan

13:39

Brown. The Seahawks have had four year roun starting centers, that's right,

13:43

for the last six years, and I'm getting tired of it. I think

13:46

Seahawks fans ever since they moved for Jimmy Graham and gave up Max Hunger,

13:50

they've had a hell of a time filling that spot. What do you make

13:54

of the kid from Oregon in Jackson Powers Johnson. I like him. He

13:58

is barrel chest at three hundred and thirty four pounder, can play center guard,

14:03

which I love. You need to be able to place two positions if

14:05

you're a center. What you'd like for him to be able to especially if

14:09

you're considering that player in the first round. I think that'd be a little early in the first for him, To be honest with you, He's not

14:16

my favorite interior lineman. My favorite is Graham Barton at a Duke who played

14:18

left tackle at Duke this year out of need. But Graham Barton can play

14:24

guard, can play center, can get you out of a game to tackle

14:26

if you need. You know, I know Ethan po Postage was doing the

14:31

same thing at LSU, playing multiple positions, but this Graham Barton is.

14:35

You know, my dad was an NFL offensive line coach and I've put on some graand Barton because he's one of my favorite players in the draft. During

14:41

Thanksgiving. I brought my tape up there and we were watching some or rather

14:46

not Thanksgiving spring break here just a couple of weeks ago, and I put

14:48

the tape on a Graham Barton because I wanted to see what he thought,

14:52

because I knew he'd like him. And boy didn't take long for him say

14:56

look at him, you know, roll his hips up under him, look

14:58

at his hands, look at his feet. It's a great job right there

15:01

with with anchor. He's really does a great job with his hands in his

15:05

and his leverage and you know everything that offensive line coaches wanted to see,

15:09

strong hands, body control. I mean, I think he'd be a phenomenal

15:13

pick for to to really solidify, like you said, they've been chasing centers

15:16

forever, solidify up the middle. And you know, I know that.

15:22

I don't know if you know that. Well obviously you guys know this. There's like a two hundred and seventy seven pounds center at UDUB who's now you

15:28

know, care for to Alabama. Oh yeah, Parker Berelsford. Yeah,

15:33

sorry, yeah, yeah, right, yeah yeah yeah, And I mean

15:37

that's that's landish a two hundred and seventy seven pounder. But but I think

15:41

that Scott hoff has a really unique feel for what kind of players can do,

15:46

what kind of things. And I think if you gave the Seahawks a

15:50

guy like Graham Barton, who you can put at center, you can put

15:52

a guard. He's an early starter. But I think John Powers Johnson is

15:56

an early starter too. I just happened to like one guy a little better

16:00

than the other one, But I wouldn't take either one of them there.

16:02

I think that would be, you know, a classic John Snyder trade back,

16:06

and then take one of those one of those two guys. Uh,

16:08

if you really wanted to solidify the middle, which is not sexy but it's

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also smart. Gotcha, Lance, you're the man. This is gonna be

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great. Looking forward to it every Wednesday at five and plan on five pm.

16:19

All right, five pm next Wednesday. All right, man, good

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stuff, you bet, Lance Zerline. He's gonna be awesome.