# Mike Florio on Hawks-Broncos, Darnold, NFL Tech, Walker-Shaheed, LA

An episode of [Softy & Dick Interviews](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1245866571), 15 Oct 2026, 13 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/98a2599f-cd9b-4f2a-9be4-b22c00e585f2/907d6469-cef5-4bda-9f13-b2f100f49399/740547aa-3e84-44b2-813a-b4e3017cd782/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=26b16ce4-8fab-44ea-88d4-b2f100f493bc

Mike Florio of PFT and NBC joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the Seahawks game against the Broncos tomorrow, Sam Darnold’s continued turnovers, NFL technology when it comes to the ball and spots on the field, Seattle paying Rashid Shaheed over Kenneth Walker in the off-season, and the Chargers sitting at 0-5 now. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: It's time for our weekly conversation with Pro Football Talk's
[0:04] Speaker 1: Mike Florio, brought to you by Simply Seattle. Tired of
[0:07] Speaker 1: buying and repping the same old Seattle sports gear everyone
[0:10] Speaker 1: else has? For the best Seahawks, Mariners, Kraken, Sounders, Storm,
[0:15] Speaker 1: not to mention the largest Sonics collection in the world,
[0:18] Speaker 1: check out simplyseattle.com. Now with Mike Florio, here's Softie and Dick.
[0:24] Speaker 2: All right, big thanks to our friends at SimplySeattle.com. Whatever
[0:27] Speaker 2: it is you get your eyes on, code KJR15 for 15%
[0:30] Speaker 2: off Seahawk gear, Husky gear, Kraken gear, Sonic gear, tons
[0:34] Speaker 2: of that on the website. KJR15 always for 15% off
[0:38] Speaker 2: at SimplySeattle.com. Here he is, the heavyweight champion baby of
[0:43] Speaker 2: the NFL press corps, NFL and NBC, ProFootballTalk.com, PFT Live.
[0:48] Speaker 3: It's our friend, Michael Florio. Mike, how are you, pal?
[0:53] Speaker 4: What's going on, buttholes?
[0:55] Speaker 3: Not much.
[0:56] Speaker 2: You want to chime in on the situation in Seattle
[0:58] Speaker 2: with the Seahawks? Big, big game tomorrow night versus Denver.
[1:02] Speaker 2: Three and two. Got guys banged up all over the place.
[1:05] Speaker 2: Got beat by the Niners on Sunday. What do you
[1:07] Speaker 2: make of what's happening here in the Pacific Northwest, man?
[1:11] Speaker 4: Well, you know, the Seahawks have that edge.
[1:14] Speaker 5: They had Connor Stallions at Denver Broncos training camp.
[1:18] Speaker 4: He was practicing filming. They're ready to go. They're ready
[1:23] Speaker 4: to go. Isn't it funny how that just disappeared?
[1:25] Speaker 3: Yeah, because it was stupid, by the way.
[1:29] Speaker 4: Well, but it was great.
[1:30] Speaker 5: I wish it would have come out at the time.
[1:32] Speaker 5: In our business, that's the kind of stuff we like. But, hey,
[1:35] Speaker 5: the Seahawks need this one badly. I heard you saying
[1:37] Speaker 5: that beforehand. If you want to win the NFC West,
[1:39] Speaker 5: you get the 49ers at 5-0. The Rams have five
[1:44] Speaker 5: very winnable games on deck that they should win, and
[1:49] Speaker 5: that would move them to 7-3. You can't afford to
[1:51] Speaker 5: lose this one. And the Broncos can't afford to lose it.
[1:54] Speaker 5: This has playoff vibe because the loser is just going
[1:59] Speaker 5: to have a much tougher path. to the one seed
[2:02] Speaker 5: in their respective conferences.
[2:04] Speaker 4: Whoever loses is going to match their losses from last
[2:06] Speaker 4: year through six weeks.
[2:09] Speaker 5: So huge, huge game with significant consequences that will resonate
[2:14] Speaker 5: into January.
[2:15] Speaker 6: What did you learn about the Hawks from that game
[2:17] Speaker 6: on Sunday against the Niners? I mean, handing San Francisco
[2:20] Speaker 6: basically 21 points, losing by three. There's problems, but there's also,
[2:24] Speaker 6: I would think, reason for optimism, kind of like they
[2:26] Speaker 6: have optimism when they threw four interceptions and only lost
[2:28] Speaker 6: by two to the Rams last year.
[2:31] Speaker 5: Yeah, had the four turnovers, got the last one out
[2:33] Speaker 5: of the system on the first drive of the second half,
[2:35] Speaker 5: and then came back and.
[2:37] Speaker 4: Took the lead. So they respond well to adversity.
[2:40] Speaker 5: I'm a little concerned about some of this noise about
[2:43] Speaker 5: trying to speed up the clock for Sam Darnold, trying
[2:47] Speaker 5: to get him to make faster decisions, that players only
[2:51] Speaker 5: meeting from last week for the defense. I know it
[2:52] Speaker 5: was only about penalties, but that's always a troubling sign
[2:55] Speaker 5: early in the year. You know, the problem is, Sins
[2:57] Speaker 5: and I were talking about this the other day. When
[3:00] Speaker 5: you win a championship, sometimes this desire to try to
[3:05] Speaker 5: do more the next year, run it forward, want to
[3:09] Speaker 5: have a bigger year, Sam Darnold wants to go to
[3:11] Speaker 5: the next level, blah, blah.
[3:12] Speaker 4: What about just doing what you did last year?
[3:14] Speaker 3: Right.
[3:14] Speaker 4: Because what you did.
[3:15] Speaker 5: Last year worked. We've perfected it. Let's just keep doing
[3:18] Speaker 5: what we did last year and let's do it better.
[3:20] Speaker 5: But you're bringing a new offensive coordinator and.
[3:22] Speaker 4: There's going to be some success.
[3:25] Speaker 5: Adjustment there's going to be some change and it's not
[3:28] Speaker 5: surprising that they've lost a couple of games early because
[3:30] Speaker 5: that is an adjustment look what happened the lines last
[3:32] Speaker 5: year after ben johnson left so we should have seen
[3:34] Speaker 5: that coming we get this idea that a team that
[3:38] Speaker 5: just won the super bowl is going to be very
[3:40] Speaker 5: very good even though the ramps kind of took some
[3:41] Speaker 5: of the spotlight in the offseason but it's an adjustment
[3:45] Speaker 5: and brian flurry five years ago was a quality control
[3:49] Speaker 5: coach with the 49ers that's the lowest level you can
[3:52] Speaker 5: get now hey great job he's worked his way up.
[3:54] Speaker 4: But There's a lot of learning that he's still doing
[3:56] Speaker 4: on the job, and I think that factors into maybe
[3:59] Speaker 4: some of the struggles.
[4:00] Speaker 2: Mike, do you get any sense– I know Mike Sando,
[4:04] Speaker 2: who you know, was on yesterday and said what a
[4:07] Speaker 2: lot of people, I think, believe, that if the turnovers
[4:10] Speaker 2: continue to struggle for Darnold, that, hey, they might eventually
[4:13] Speaker 2: make a change and go back to Drew Locke, which,
[4:15] Speaker 2: I mean, obviously every coach has his breaking point with turnovers.
[4:19] Speaker 3: I don't know if Mike's there yet.
[4:21] Speaker 2: But do you have any sense on how much rope,
[4:23] Speaker 2: how much leash Darnold has to continue to make mistakes
[4:26] Speaker 2: here before they go back to Drew Locke?
[4:29] Speaker 4: I think it would have to be very, very bad
[4:31] Speaker 4: before they would pivot back.
[4:32] Speaker 3: To Drew Locke.
[4:34] Speaker 5: This guy came in last year and he won the
[4:35] Speaker 5: Super Bowl. And you didn't give him a new contract
[4:37] Speaker 5: after he won the Super Bowl. You got him on
[4:39] Speaker 5: a year-to-year arrangement. I think that it would have to
[4:42] Speaker 5: be glass gas. This thing is falling apart. And Drew
[4:47] Speaker 5: Locke is the only way to turn it around. That
[4:49] Speaker 5: would be the only way that anything like that would happen.
[4:52] Speaker 4: But look, there's accountability. And if you don't protect the ball.
[4:56] Speaker 5: that's when accountability comes home to roost we had bills
[4:59] Speaker 5: coach joe brady talking about that yesterday regarding james cook
[5:02] Speaker 5: who led the league in rushing last year he's putting
[5:04] Speaker 5: the ball on the ground too much and at some
[5:06] Speaker 5: point it's going to eat into your workload and with
[5:08] Speaker 5: the quarterback who's on the field every play it's not
[5:11] Speaker 5: like you can get in fewer snaps you don't split
[5:13] Speaker 5: the job between two guys it's all or nothing so
[5:16] Speaker 5: if he falls below the minimum level of performance then
[5:19] Speaker 5: I would assume everything's on the table.
[5:22] Speaker 4: But I think it would take.
[5:23] Speaker 5: A lot at this point because he's built up a
[5:25] Speaker 5: ton of equity, and you have to be damn sure
[5:27] Speaker 5: Drew Locke is going to come in and be significantly
[5:29] Speaker 5: better than Sam Darnold in lieu of letting this thing
[5:32] Speaker 5: work out. Because I think if you bench Sam Darnold,
[5:35] Speaker 5: then you've got to cut him after this year. You know,
[5:36] Speaker 5: he gets into that third year of the contract where
[5:38] Speaker 5: the cap number goes up, kind of like what Geno
[5:40] Speaker 5: Smith was in when they traded him. I think if
[5:42] Speaker 5: you bench him, you're going to have to let him
[5:44] Speaker 5: go after the season, whether you trade him or cut him. Yep.
[5:47] Speaker 6: Mike, we have Gene Steratore on the morning show on Mondays,
[5:50] Speaker 6: and he was talking about the Cooper Cup play, and
[5:52] Speaker 6: he thought, hey, maybe a play like that is a
[5:55] Speaker 6: reason to have a chip in the football. Do we
[5:57] Speaker 6: need a different camera angle or a chip in the
[5:59] Speaker 6: football for plays like that Cooper Cup sideline play that
[6:02] Speaker 6: ended up costing Seattle?
[6:04] Speaker 5: Well, you know, I have no experience as an official
[6:07] Speaker 5: at the NFL level, so I'm probably not qualified to
[6:10] Speaker 5: chime in. But we said the same thing on PFT Live.
[6:12] Speaker 5: We saw the World Cup this past year. They would
[6:15] Speaker 5: have an image within seconds of a guy being– offside
[6:20] Speaker 5: by the whisker on the tip of his chin so
[6:23] Speaker 5: if you do full and complete digital mapping you know
[6:26] Speaker 5: where the ball is where the sideline is and where.
[6:28] Speaker 4: The line to gain is and you know whether.
[6:30] Speaker 5: Or not the ball got there before it crossed the
[6:33] Speaker 5: plane see that's the thing that confused a lot of
[6:35] Speaker 5: people because the ball made it past but the ball
[6:40] Speaker 5: is dead when it crosses the white stripe. So it's
[6:43] Speaker 5: where the ball is when it crossed the white stripe.
[6:45] Speaker 5: And the NFL needs to spend the money. They need
[6:47] Speaker 5: to apply the creativity and reimagine the officiating function. They're
[6:51] Speaker 5: still evolving a system that started with two sticks and
[6:55] Speaker 5: 10 yards of chain and the naked eye.
[6:58] Speaker 4: And we know the naked eye is faulty.
[7:00] Speaker 5: They've already given up on the two sticks and the chain.
[7:02] Speaker 5: They need to fully embrace technology. The problem is the
[7:04] Speaker 5: NFL moves too slowly. They're so afraid of doing too
[7:07] Speaker 5: much and stumbling into unintended consequences that they don't move
[7:11] Speaker 5: fast enough.
[7:12] Speaker 2: Yeah, have you guys, you and Chris broached the Kenny Walker,
[7:16] Speaker 2: Rasheed Shaheed conversation in Seattle? I mean, you know, people
[7:21] Speaker 2: are arguing, you know, whether or not Kenny Walker wanted
[7:23] Speaker 2: to be here. Is it a Rasheed versus K-9, the
[7:27] Speaker 2: amount of money they spent? But here you got a guy,
[7:30] Speaker 2: Mike and Kenny Walker, who might be the MVP of
[7:32] Speaker 2: the NFL right now. He's on pace for 370 carries,
[7:36] Speaker 2: which he's going to break if he does that. Rashid Shahid, meantime,
[7:40] Speaker 2: is making $ 17 million, and he's on pace for barely
[7:42] Speaker 2: over 40 touches. What do you make of just the
[7:45] Speaker 2: way that whole thing's worked out so far for the Seahawks?
[7:48] Speaker 4: Well, it's the market.
[7:49] Speaker 5: You look at the contracts that we're giving out to
[7:51] Speaker 5: the running backs this year, and if you look at
[7:53] Speaker 5: Rashid Shahid's contract, the value from signing is higher than
[7:58] Speaker 5: than the average per year from signing of both Dijon
[8:02] Speaker 5: Robinson and Jameer Gibbs.
[8:03] Speaker 4: Wow. And it's receiver versus running back.
[8:06] Speaker 3: Right.
[8:06] Speaker 5: Hey, when Robinson and Gibbs were up for their contracts,
[8:09] Speaker 5: I was saying nothing against JSN.
[8:10] Speaker 4: He's a phenomenal player, but $ 42.
[8:11] Speaker 5: 5 million for him versus– $ 22 million.
[8:16] Speaker 4: For Gibbs or Robinson, it's a no-brainer. It's not even close.
[8:20] Speaker 4: The problem is this, and this is a very.
[8:22] Speaker 5: Basic dilemma that teams face, because of the nature of
[8:25] Speaker 5: the position, the inevitability of injury, they don't want to
[8:29] Speaker 5: carry a significant injury risk on a major contract. And
[8:33] Speaker 5: that's the thing with Kenneth Walker III, and I think
[8:36] Speaker 5: that's the reason why they decided to move on. Durability
[8:38] Speaker 5: is a question. He caught lightning in a bottle at
[8:41] Speaker 5: the end of the season after Zach Charbonnet got injured.
[8:43] Speaker 5: with a serious ACL tear, and Walker came in and
[8:47] Speaker 5: he took full advantage of it, and he's carried it
[8:48] Speaker 5: into this year. But they keep pounding him, and they
[8:51] Speaker 5: keep pounding him. Every time he runs that ball into
[8:53] Speaker 5: the line, there's a chance that he's going to get injured.
[8:55] Speaker 5: And I don't want to put the Malochio on him
[8:57] Speaker 5: by saying that, but it's obvious.
[8:59] Speaker 4: We know that. We know what the running back position is.
[9:01] Speaker 4: So that's the thing to keep in mind.
[9:03] Speaker 5: And, hey, if you're paying Shaheed more than Gibbs and
[9:07] Speaker 5: Robinson or Megan– Well, I don't want to put him
[9:10] Speaker 5: back in the backfield somewhere. That run against the Chargers
[9:13] Speaker 5: was the thing of beauty. And he was talking about
[9:15] Speaker 5: last week when he was.
[9:16] Speaker 4: At Weber State.
[9:16] Speaker 5: He went from running back to receiver, and he's still
[9:20] Speaker 5: learning the receiver position.
[9:22] Speaker 4: He still knows the running back position.
[9:23] Speaker 5: I know he doesn't have the kind of bulk that
[9:26] Speaker 5: would allow running in between the tackles on a regular basis. But, hell,
[9:31] Speaker 5: you can't hurt him if you can't hit him, and
[9:32] Speaker 5: you can't hit him if you can't touch him.
[9:35] Speaker 6: And with what K-Dub is doing and Bijan and Gibbs,
[9:38] Speaker 6: is this finally the year that there's a legitimate chance
[9:41] Speaker 6: that a non-quarterback could win the MVP for the first
[9:43] Speaker 6: time in 14 years?
[9:46] Speaker 5: Yeah, Adrian Peterson was the last one to take it
[9:48] Speaker 5: from Peyton Manning with a strong finish to the 2012
[9:51] Speaker 5: season where he nearly broke the Eric Dickerson single season record.
[9:55] Speaker 5: And I think the running backs need to be taken
[9:57] Speaker 5: more seriously. You look at what Robinson can do. He
[10:00] Speaker 5: even had a big game the other night, despite the
[10:02] Speaker 5: fact that the Falcons lost to the Ravens, what Walker's
[10:06] Speaker 5: doing with Kansas City Chiefs. It has become a default
[10:10] Speaker 5: best quarterback slash on the best team award. And I
[10:14] Speaker 5: think we all need to take a closer look at
[10:18] Speaker 5: what it should be. And you look at the definition,
[10:20] Speaker 5: the team, the player whose performance is most valuable to
[10:23] Speaker 5: his team. That's the definition the AP gives. And I
[10:26] Speaker 5: got one of the votes and I'm not going to
[10:29] Speaker 5: let myself just say, well, let's pick one of the
[10:31] Speaker 5: quarterbacks from the top seed in the AFC or the NFC.
[10:35] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[10:36] Speaker 2: Mike, before you go, the LA Chargers are staring 0-8
[10:40] Speaker 2: right in the kisser, maybe even 0-9 with this schedule.
[10:45] Speaker 2: Will the LA Chargers win a game before Halloween? Do
[10:48] Speaker 2: they win a game before Thanksgiving? And How shocked are
[10:50] Speaker 2: you to see Jim Harbaugh struggling like this?
[10:53] Speaker 5: I think the key is will they win a game
[10:55] Speaker 5: before Sunday night because they enter their bye after this
[10:58] Speaker 5: game that's coming up at Kansas City.
[11:00] Speaker 4: And I don't know what ownership's going to do.
[11:04] Speaker 5: I don't know whether Harbaugh would fire Mike McDaniel, the
[11:07] Speaker 5: offensive coordinator. There's been some chatter to that effect that
[11:11] Speaker 5: maybe Adam Gates, the former Dolphins and Jets head coach,
[11:13] Speaker 5: would take over as offensive coordinator in an effort to
[11:16] Speaker 5: turn this thing around.
[11:17] Speaker 4: But it clearly isn't working. And one of the things
[11:20] Speaker 4: I said very early on, based on what.
[11:21] Speaker 5: I know independently, I've never been around them together, but
[11:24] Speaker 5: what I know of Mike McDaniel, what I know of
[11:26] Speaker 5: Justin Herbert, I got a feeling Justin Herbert, isn't a
[11:30] Speaker 5: big Mike McDaniel fan because Herbert's kind of quiet, reserved,
[11:34] Speaker 5: doesn't say much.
[11:36] Speaker 4: McDaniel, you ask him what time it is and you
[11:38] Speaker 4: get a 15 minute answer. So, and I love the style.
[11:42] Speaker 5: He's very different, but after a while you get, all right,
[11:45] Speaker 5: come on, we got to make this a little more
[11:46] Speaker 5: concise and we got to get down to business.
[11:48] Speaker 4: So something's not clicking there. Herbert's regressed. The team is
[11:52] Speaker 4: horrible right now. And they were expected to be much better.
[11:55] Speaker 4: This isn't like the Titans at 0-5. We're like, you know,
[11:58] Speaker 4: what did we expect?
[11:59] Speaker 5: This is a team that would have been far more
[12:00] Speaker 5: likely to be 5-0 at this point than 0-5.
[12:03] Speaker 2: Mike, great stuff as always. And again, we hope you
[12:06] Speaker 2: enjoy it as much as we do. So we'll talk
[12:08] Speaker 2: in a week.
[12:09] Speaker 4: See you, guys.
[12:10] Speaker 3: See you, bud. Mike Florio with us on the radio. No,
[12:12] Speaker 3: that was good. Good to go. He's got to be
[12:14] Speaker 3: in a great mood. I mean, there's no other explanation
[12:16] Speaker 3: for it. I think he just got done with a run.
[12:18] Speaker 6: It was at the very beginning.
[12:20] Speaker 3: It did sound like he was on the treadmill, right?
[12:21] Speaker 3: A little bit. Yeah.
[12:23] Speaker 2: Well, we're lucky he wasn't on the treadmill while he
[12:25] Speaker 2: was doing the interview. We're going to break. Factor Fiction, right?
[12:28] Speaker 2: Brought to you by the Lucky Eagle Casino and Hotel
[12:31] Speaker 2: is coming next. And then Lane Lambert, coach of the
[12:33] Speaker 2: Red Hot Kraken, baby, at 345 on 93.3 KJRFM.

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