Milroe closes preseason 0-2-1, locks down QB3 job
Jalen Milroe played all 60 minutes of Seattle's preseason finale and locked down the No. 3 quarterback job behind Sam Darnold and Drew Lock, as the Seahawks turn to a Super Bowl LX rematch with the Patriots on Wednesday.
Preseason closes 0-2-1, and Lock's QB2 job is no longer a maybe
Seattle's preseason ended the way it started, with Jalen Milroe taking every snap. He played the full 60 minutes of the August 29 tie at Kansas City, going 16 of 26 for 223 yards and finding Nick Vannett from 4 yards out for the lone touchdown. Elijah Arroyo turned his only target into a 24-yard grab, and the one sour note belonged to Jason Myers, who missed his extra point and went 1-for-2 on field goals in the 9-9 finish.
Chiefs9-9
Titans16-19
Cowboys7-17Mike Macdonald's postgame review of Milroe was warmer than the scoreline: "Stick to your reads and then, if it's there, rip it; if it's not, progress... I definitely felt like he took a step in his game, and he should be excited about his growth." It was, by most accounts, his best outing of camp.
It still wasn't enough to pass Drew Lock. Seattle kept all three quarterbacks on its initial 53-man roster, and the pecking order is set: Sam Darnold starts, Lock is the backup with 28 career starts behind him, and Milroe's finale was strong enough to lock down the No. 3 job for another year rather than to overtake anybody.
The $9.6 billion sale is done, and it's 12 investors deep
It stopped being a pending deal this week. The team's own account made it plain: "Following approval by NFL owners on August 26, we are proud to announce the sale of our franchise to the Khosla family has officially closed. The Khosla family is now the controlling owner of the team." A transaction that started as a July agreement with the Paul G. Allen estate — the largest team sale in NFL history at $9.6 billion — has a signature on it.
Seahawks' new ownership group has 12 limited partners. t.co/mxs9LXOpx5
Pro Football Talk added the wrinkle Thursday night: the new ownership group isn't just Vinod and Neeru Khosla, it's 12 limited partners deep, a structure built to spread a nine-figure-a-year price tag across more than one checkbook. It also means the runner-up bidders, a group led by former Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck and steel heir Aditya Mittal, have reportedly already been offered a minority stake of their own — the losing bid still buys a piece of the champs.
Before any of that, there was a goodbye. "We are eternally grateful to the Allen family for their incredible leadership and impact on our franchise, the 12s, and our greater community for the past nearly 30 years," the team posted, an unusually plain sentiment from a franchise account that spends most of its week on hype clips.
Wednesday's opener is Super Bowl LX, run back
ESPN's Mike Reiss caught the moment live in Foxborough this week — the first question Mike Vrabel fielded at his podium wasn't about installs or depth charts, it was about facing the same team that beat him seven months ago, in the building where it happened. Seattle won Super Bowl LX 29-13 this past February 8 in Santa Clara, and Wednesday's kickoff at Lumen Field is close to the same two rosters running it back in Week 1.
Mike Vrabel arrives and fields an opening question from @kguregian on facing the Seahawks in the regular-season opener … and if it helps that it is a Super Bowl rematch. t.co/uaPMX8IBGk
It's a rematch with some history behind it. Patriots.com's own preview flags Wednesday as the first game New England has ever played on a Wednesday, and notes that since 2000 Seattle is the only team with a winning record against the Patriots — 4-2 in that stretch, part of a 12-9 lead in the all-time series.
Vrabel's actual worry, per NESN, isn't nostalgia. He pointed to Seattle's pass rush — six sacks of Drake Maye in the Super Bowl — and a secondary the outlet describes as able to "disguise coverages and close passing windows quickly." The bigger unknown might be noise: nothing New England ran into all preseason can simulate a home crowd at Lumen Field trying to blow up protection calls in Maye's ear.
Home, favored, and waiting on Emmanwori's ankle
Wednesday night vs. the Patriots kicks off the regular season at Lumen Field, and the Seahawks open as favorites in their own building. The line opened at -3.5, and the total was set at 44.5 — a middling number for a game two defenses spent the offseason getting compared to.
The one lineup question still open belongs to the back end of that defense. There is uncertainty about whether safety Nick Emmanwori (ankle) will be cleared to play against the Patriots on Wednesday, Gregg Bell of The Tacoma News Tribune reports — worth watching given how much of Seattle's Super Bowl coverage disguise ran through him.
Circle it: Wednesday, September 9 at 5:20 PM, a Super Bowl rematch on national television to open the year. It's the kind of Week 1 that doesn't need the hype written for it.