Former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch has a new media endeavor. With someone not from the world of sports.
Lynch and California governor Gavin Newsom will host a new podcast, along with agent Doug Hendrickson. The effort, dubbed Politickin’, debuts on July 15.
The press release sums it up like this: “Gavin Newsom like you’ve never heard him and Marshawn Lynch exactly how you’d expect him.”
It remains to be seen how long Newsom will be able to do the podcast. There’s a chance, larger than zero percent, that he’ll end up as the Democratic party’s nominee for the office of U.S. President.
Even if Newsom doesn’t run this year, it feels inevitable that he will. Maybe in 2028, unless someone other than the current incumbent runs — and wins.
Mike Macdonald made an impression on Seahawks edge rusher Boye Mafe months before he became Mafe’s new head coach.
The Ravens hosted the Seahawks in Week Nine of the 2023 season and they sent the NFC West club back to Seattle as 37-3 losers. Mafe said on the Green Light with Chris Long podcast that the result made “no sense” to him, particularly because of how the defense Macdonald ran in Baltimore was able to shut down “the offense we have and the tools we have” for an entire game.
Mafe has been “looking behind the curtain” since Macdonald joined the Seahawks and he told Long that he now has a fuller picture of how Macdonald was able to put such a successful unit on the field.
“I see how it’s flowing and the essence of it,” Mafe said. “He’s really one of those people, like Xs and Os, he understands it really well. He understands football really well and he understands how to utilize people, how to move people. That’s one thing I’m coming to learn, I see where it comes from and how it works.”
Mafe made a jump from three sacks as a rookie to nine sacks last year. If Macdonald cracks the code on how to best utilize him, that number could jump again in 2024.
Mike Macdonald landed the Seahawks head coaching job thanks to his work running the defense in Baltimore the last couple of seasons and the Seahawks will be hoping that his arrival helps set some of their defensive players up for greater success.
Defensive lineman Dre’Mont Jones is one of those players. Jones signed a three-year deal with the team before the 2023 season and spent the first half of the season playing defensive tackle before shifting to defensive end for the second half of the year.
Jones finished with 49 tackles and 4.5 sacks and the plan for this season appears to have him continuing to move around the defensive front, although in a different manner. During minicamp, Jones lined up as an edge one play and a tackle the next as Macdonald looks for the best ways to deploy him this fall.
“I think his skillset lends to trying to play a little matchup ball with him or setting another guy up,” Macdonald said, via Brady Henderson of ESPN.com. “He can do a lot of things. We’ve talked about it, but we’re really excited about Dre’Mont.”
Macdonald said the more ways you can use a player the “more personnel groups, more looks you can generate” as a defense. It sounds like Jones will be a big part of those groups and looks this fall.
The Seahawks will have 10 practices open for fans this summer.
Seattle’s first session will be on Wednesday, July 24 with the last on Thursday, Aug. 8. Nine of the 10 practices will be held at the team’s facility in Renton, Wash. with the club’s annual Football Fest at Lumen Field taking place on Saturday, Aug. 3.
Fans will need to register for a ticket on the Seahawks’ website. Seattle is charging a $15 transportation fee per person to attend practice, as fans will park offsite and be shuttled to the club’s headquarters.
With a new coaching staff, the Seahawks also announced that fans will not be permitted to use cameras and cell phones during practice — though they can be used before and after.
The Seahawks made the signing of UFL running back Ricky Person Jr. official Monday, announcing the move.
Person played for the Birmingham Stallions.
The Seahawks also announced three cuts as they waived cornerback Ro Torrence, defensive end Rason Williams and running back TaMerik Williams. All three signed with Seattle as undrafted free agents in May.
Torrence played at Arizona State, where he finished the 2023 season with 37 tackles, two tackles for loss, two sacks and one interception. He led the team with eight pass breakups along with 36 tackles as a redshirt junior in 2022.
In his lone season on the defensive line at Louisiana Tech, Rason Williams started all 12 games. He recorded 25 tackles and 2.5 sacks.
TaMerik Williams returned to North Dakota State in 2023 for an extra year of eligibility due to COVID-19. He played all 15 games with 14 starts, leading the Bison with 767 rushing yards.
The connection between Amazon gazillionaire Jeff Bezos and Washington has become a focal point in recent days, given the financial struggles and controversies of the major newspaper Bezos owns there. It has sparked a broader look at Bezos and Washington, courtesy of the Financial Times.
From the article: "[O]ver the past 18 months, several of Bezos’s big Washington bets have been derailed, blocked or overtaken by events — culminating in the upheaval at the Post, where the billionaire’s handpicked chief executive, Sir Will Lewis, is facing a newsroom revolt triggered by his radical attempts to stem losses at the news organisation, which last year hit $77 [million].”
In painting the picture of the Bezos Beltway struggles, the Financial Times adds this nugget. He wasn’t blocked from buying the Commander by former owner Daniel Snyder. Bezos was “simply outbid” by Josh Harris and his $6.05 billion.
“I don’t think Snyder would have not sold to them if Jeff came in with a bid of $7 [billion],” an unnamed source involved in the process told the Financial Times.
Even if Snyder is as petty as some believe, he surely wasn’t going to turn down a pile of cash in order to make a point. My own belief has always been that, if Bezos is going to spend big on an NFL team, why buy one with a damaged brand and a name that might need to be changed (again) and an outdated stadium that literally has rained raw sewage on customers?
He should wait for the Seahawks to be put on the market. Or any other team that doesn’t need to recuperate from the self-inflicted wounds of the former boss.
Really, if Bezos becomes determined his way in, someone will surely sell — at some number that Bezos (and not many others) can afford.
At first blush, the new guidance provided to voters on the AP Comeback Player of the Year Award ensures that the prize will go only to players who missed time in the prior year due to injury or illness. The details of the revised standard raise a fair question.
Has anything really changed?
Here’s the new language: “The spirit of the AP Comeback Player of the Year Award is to honor a player who has demonstrated resilience in the face of adversity by overcoming illness, physical injury or other circumstances that led him to miss playing time the previous season.”
So the player who wins the prize must show “resilience” (not necessarily excellence or even consistent performance) against “adversity” by overcoming “illness” or “physical injury” or — and this is the important part — “other circumstances that led him to miss playing time the previous season.”
The only clear, objective portion of this test is that the player must have missed playing time the prior season. So if, for example, a good player has a down year and plays all 17 games, he can’t be comeback player of the year if he’s suddenly good again the next year.
If, for example, Russell Wilson had played all 17 games in 2023, he wouldn’t be eligible if he suddenly plays like Mr. Unliiiiimited in Pittsburgh. Because he was benched for the last two games due to his contract (the team denied that, but c’mon), he experienced “other circumstances that led him to miss playing time the previous season.”
Really, anyone who didn’t play 17 games the prior season could easily fit in that category. Joe Flacco, who won it last year over Damar Hamlin, was a backup the prior year. That would arguably be an “other circumstance” that caused Flacco to miss playing time. Geno Smith, who won it the prior year (and whose victory sparked the push for clarification) had been a backup for seven straight seasons, with only three starts (due to Wilson injury) in 2021.
Given this oversized load of a loophole, the best way to truly ensure that the Comeback Player of the Year Award will go to someone who overcame injury or illness in the prior year would be to create a separate award for Most Improved Player. That would give voters who want to recognize someone who went from playing poorly to playing much better or not playing because he was on the bench to playing well.
There’s no reason to not do it. The league, which has made the AP awards the official NFL awards, surely wouldn’t mind adding another trophy to the NFL Honors ceremony. And the league’s various sports book partners surely wouldn’t mind having another category for futures wagers. (Because the house always wins.)
That’s really the best way to truly clear this up. This week’s change, at the end of the day, only blocks players who played all 17 games in the prior season. Having a path to recognize a Flacco or a Geno or a Russell Wilson (if he thrives in Pittsburgh) would ensure that a player like Damar Hamlin — who clearly showed “resilience in the face of adversity by overcoming . . . physical injury” in 2024 (but who played in only five games and participated in 17 snaps on defense and 94 on special teams) — would have been the runaway winner.
The Seahawks agreed to terms with running back Ricky Person, Aaron Wilson of KPRC reports.
Person, 24, just completed the spring season with the UFL’s Birmingham Stallions. He had 93 rushes for 297 yards and six touchdowns in nine games, along with 13 receptions for 150 yards.
Fourteen of Person’s touches came in the UFL Championship Game when he gained 106 yards in the Stallions 25-0 win over the San Antonio Brahmas.
Person originally entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent, signing with the Ravens, but he was waived after two months with the team.
Person has never played a regular-season NFL game.
Devon Witherspoon made the Pro Bowl and finished fourth in defensive rookie of the year voting in 2023 after the Seahawks made him the fifth overall pick. It could have been better.
The cornerback missed three games with a hip pointer.
He plans on being healthier and better this season.
“First of all, I want to play all games, the whole season,” Witherspoon said, via John Boyle of the team website. “I missed a couple games last year so I’m trying to make sure I get through the whole season healthy and then I’m just really trying to build on my year. I left a lot of plays out there on the table that I wish I had back, so just trying to make those plays this year.”
Witherspoon showed why the Seahawks drafted him in the top five, making one interception, 79 tackles, three sacks, one forced fumble and 16 pass breakups in his first season.
He has become more of a vocal leader this offseason and could earn the “C” on his jersey for this season.
“I think he’s been doing an awesome job, just being vocal,” receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba said. “To me he looks like the captain of the defense, making sure everybody’s lined up and just using his voice more from year one to year two. He’s been great. A phenomenal player, All-Pro. I’m a big fan of him, so I’m just definitely excited to watch him take the steps physically.
“He’s getting bigger. He’s getting faster and just more comfortable, being smarter. He plays extremely fast, and we all know how physical he is in the run game on whoever has the ball. I’m glad he is on my team.”
Most teams keep close to the vest the various different scenarios that might have played out in round one. The reason is simple. Teams don’t want to undermine the guy they ultimately got.
The Rams have leaned all the way into the potential alternative scenarios, via their cooperation with The Pick is In, a 90-minute documentary regarding the 2024 draft.
Video from inside the Rams’ draft house shows their efforts to try to trade up to No. 10 with the Jets. Rams G.M. Les Snead offered Jets G.M. Joe Douglas the 19th overall pick and a second-round selection, pick No. 52.
While the Jets were on the clock, Rams coach Sean McVay separately called Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell to confirm he wouldn’t be inclined to trade back if O’Connell’s guy (J.J. McCarthy) was there. (It’s possible that the Vikings made the move from No. 11 to No. 10 because O’Connell became concerned by McVay’s call that the Rams were thinking about jumping the Vikings in order to get McCarthy.)
After the Jets traded down to No. 11 with the Vikings, the Rams tried again to move up. Snead offered No. 19, 52, and a third-round pick (No. 99) for No. 11 and No. 185, in round six. Douglas declined.
The Rams kept trying, until the Raiders took tight end Brock Bowers with the 13th pick. (The Rams offered the 19th pick and the 52nd pick for No. 13 and No. 112 to Las Vegas. The Raiders stayed put.)
It became clear from the context that the Rams wanted Bowers. After the Raiders took Bowers, the Rams became focused on a potential Aaron Donald replacement, in the form of Texas defensive tackle Byron Murphy.
That didn’t last long, because Murphy went just three picks later. And coach Sean McVay correctly sensed that No. 16 — Seattle — was the floor for Murphy.
The Rams ultimately remained at No. 19 and took Florida State edge rusher Jared Verse. And while they were happy about it (because what else would they say?), the peek inside the draft room makes it clear that they wanted Bowers first and then Murphy, before settling for Verse.
Even without the candor from the Rams, we already knew that’s how it goes on draft night. Teams have considered every scenario, and plenty of them plot for ways to get a guy they want, when they know he might not otherwise fall to them. For the Rams, neither of their top two targets did.