KOMO News, AMP Sports launch The Dark Side podcast with Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl champs

Welcome to the Friday Five — Week 1 Monday edition! Every week during the NFL regular season, I will drop five Patriots-related thoughts on Friday to recap the week that was in Foxboro and look ahead to kickoff. This week, the column has been moved up to account for the Patriots playing their season opener Wednesday. Ready, set, football. Advertisement 1. Rhamondre Stevenson In the NBA, one of the cleanest ways to measure a superstar's impact is to compare how his team performs when he's on the floor versus when he's on the bench. For example, how much the Celtics are outscored by their opponents on average when Jayson Tatum sits weighed against how much they outscored those same teams. In football, there are far too many variables, from personnel to scheme and down-to-down situations, to quantify any non-quarterback's value with simple on-off splits. But Rhamondre Stevenson might be an exception Wednesday. The Patriots' depth is such that Stevenson is not only their only starting-caliber back, their only proven back, their only all-around back, but their only back the coaching staff should trust in pass protection. TreVeyon Henderson hasn't practiced in almost two weeks and will likely be out. The Pats' other options are Corey Kiner, who's been here for one week, and practice-squad members Hassan Haskins and Lan Larison. After the Seahawks tore their pass protection apart for six sacks and 11 QB hits in Super Bowl LX, it stands to reason protection will be a central battleground in the season opener, and particularly when Seattle blitzes. Meaning, whenever Stevenson trots off the field, the Seahawks will smell blood and send extra rushers at Maye. The damage inflicted during those non-Stevenson snaps must be minimized. Advertisement 'We'll see how different (Seattle's pressure) is as the complexion of the game unfolds, but they certainly found some opportunities last year,' Pats offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said Sunday. 'Hopefully we've done a good job of trying to limit those as we go into Wednesday night.' McDaniels downplayed the Patriots' thin depth Thursday and expressed confidence in players like Haskins and Larison. The Patriots cut them both last week, after Haskins signed mid-summer and Larison disappointed in the preseason. Larison, the most tenured of the reserve backs available, even wore a scout-team jersey during Sunday's practice. One other problem: it might serve the Patriots offense as a whole to run Stevenson into the ground. Pushing the tempo has been a theme of their offseason, a way to combat defensive disguises, like the kind that troubled them against Seattle. Force the Seahawks to hurry into alignment before the snap, and they might miss an assignment or make a hasty mistake. The Patriots need all the free yards they can get, especially on the ground. Whether he's rushing, receiving or blocking, Stevenson will be at the center of everything the Pats try against Seattle; a bell cow and bellwether for their offense survives Wednesday night. That is, except when he inevitably will need a breather. Then, it's time to hold on for dear life. 2. Inventing an EDGE As the Patriots' outside linebacker depth became an increasing source of concern over the summer, when Harold Landry never practiced and second-round rookie Gabe Jacas played catchup, defensive coordinator Zak Kuhr seemed to find a curious solution. Advertisement In team drills, his starting defense occasionally fielded three defensive tackles at once: Milton Williams, Christian Barmore and Cory Durden. Except one of Barmore or Williams aligned opposite an offensive tackle, a la an edge defender. Opposite that relocated defensive tackle, the Pats deployed one outside linebacker, typically Dre'Mont Jones or Elijah Ponder, to form a four-man line in front of two linebackers and five defensive backs AKA nickel personnel. It's a heavier personnel grouping that theoretically should stop the run better than a regular nickel package featuring two outside linebackers, where Ponder, Jacas or seventh-round rookie Quintayvious Hutchins could get targeted on perimeter runs. In the Super Bowl, the Patriots allowed 5.3 yards per carry on runs off the edge, per Pro Football Focus. It's hardly a leap to imagine the Seahawks might press the same button Wednesday, and Barmore or Williams would do a better job of containment than the available outside linebackers. 'Sometimes you know you get a little bit bigger on the edge and it helps in the run game,' Kuhr said. 'But the versatility always helps. Showing different pictures with different people, so you're just not always static in the same (defense).' 3. Groh on the phone In March 2025, Patriots vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf revealed front-office executive Matt Groh, his predecessor as the team's de facto GM, has taken on a new role with an increased focus on negotiating player contracts. That hasn't changed. Advertisement Groh is at the center of the Patriots' prolonged contract negotiations with Christian Gonzalez's representation, according to sources. Rumblings around the league suggest Gonzalez's camp has been frustrated with the Patriots, in part because Groh is in a position similar to what he was under Bill Belichick: working with a set of talking points but unable to approve changes or alterations to a potential deal himself. The distance put between Gonzalez's camp and team decision-makers who could negotiate more directly, like Wolf, director of research Richard Miller and Patriots ownership, is intentional, according to agents who have worked with the Patriots before and say other franchises use similar tactics to wear down players and their reps in negotiations. Miller, a Patriots lifer going on 31 years in the organization, has a leading influence on how the team manages its salary cap, cash flow and cash budget. The Patriots' cash budget was something Wolf referenced last week when asked if planning for an expected Drake Maye extension has affected talks with Gonzalez. 4. Seattle noise One of the few ex-Seahawks on the Patriots' roster first experienced the legendary noise of Seattle's crowd noise as a visitor. Four years ago, Dre'Mont Jones and the Broncos visited Lumen Field in a season opener Denver dropped 17-16. Jones signed with the Seahawks a year later, with the memory of that game still vivid in his mind. Advertisement 'When you're on the field, sometimes you can't hear a guy that's a couple inches away from you,' Jones said. Patriots special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer, who coached with the Rams for two seasons, went a step further by confirming Seattle as a truly unique atmosphere among NFL venues. 'Yeah, it's pretty loud compared to other stadiums, in my opinion,' Springer said. 'That's why they call them the 12th Man.' New backup offensive lineman Greg Van Roten, who played his first away game in Seattle as a member of the Packers in 2012, the famous 'Fail Mary' game, said the crowd noise can even affect how well players hear one another at halftime. 'It's a pretty incessant assault of your senses,' Van Roten said. 'It's noticeable, an appreciable difference, especially if there's a big play or something like that, too.' Advertisement 5. Reed check-in It's been almost two weeks since the Patriots traded Kayshon Boutte to Houston for second-year safety Jaylen Reed. Reed currently projects to be the Patriots No. 3 safety, but Kuhr doesn't sound too inclined to put much on his plate just yet with the team's first game just days away. 'I think there's some potential versatility there. I don't want to put (expectations) on him right now, just because it's still new, and you don't want to just give him multiple things at once,' Kuhr said. 'You still kind of want to hear even the little things of how we practice and how we call offensive terminology, so we're all communicating the same way. But I'm excited to work with J-Reed.'