LISTEN: Seahawks safety Julian Love expects ‘new wrinkles’ from 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan
Seahawks safety Julian Love discusses the importance of Seattle’s matchup against San Francisco for the NFC’s No. 1 seed and the NFC West title. Love says Seattle’s defense has to be ready for “new wrinkles” from 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, and he also discussed the significance of being nominated for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award.
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MAADDI: Welcome to On Football, I’m Rob Maaddi. Happy New Year to everyone. It’s the final week of the NFL’s regular season and 14 teams are going to make the playoffs. Twelve are already decided. Four division winners crowned. Four more left to be decided. Both of the No. 1 seeds are up for grabs in the NFC. Seattle playing San Francisco Saturday night, winner take the No. 1 seed in the NFC and the NFC West. The loser drops down to the five seed if it’s Seattle. Could be the six seed if it’s San Francisco. So much left to be determined. Panthers-Buccaneers winner-take-all game, not exactly. If the Panthers win, they advance. If the Buccaneers win, they have to wait until Sunday and they would need the Falcons to lose or tie against the Saints. And then the Ravens-Steelers Sunday night final game of the regular season, that is winner-take-all. That is for the AFC North title. Our guest this week, Seahawks safety Julian Love. Stay tuned for that conversation.
Final week of the regular season means it’s the final week for players and coaches to make their case for the NFL awards and the AP All-Pro roster. And this season, unlike any that I’ve seen in the past several, so many spots are up in the air. You look at the Coach of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year, MVP, very difficult decisions when you consider MVP the last 12 years, it’s gone to a quarterback, nine of those times, on a No. 1 seed, the other three on a No. 2 seed. So many tough decisions for the voters, I’m glad I don’t have a vote. Seahawks safety Julian Love, is one of the best players at his position and he is Seattle’s nominee for the very prestigious Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.
Julian, thanks for joining me on this week’s show. You guys have such a big game this week, right? The No. 1 seed, bye, home-field advantage, all of that is at stake when you’re playing the 49ers. What would it mean to be able to secure that and be home in front of the 12s for the playoffs?
LOVE: Yeah, it’s huge. I mean, you hit it on the head. I think we have a huge advantage at home with our 12s, with our home-field crowd. So yeah, that’s what we want. We want all roads to lead through Seattle, pretty much. So yeah. It’s a lot at stake for sure.
MAADDI: When you look at this Niners team with that offense, so many weapons, Brock Purdy’s back playing well, Christian McCaffrey having a great year, they even won last week without George Kittle. What’s the biggest challenge when you look at what you have to take on?
LOVE: Yeah, I think they have great players, obviously. And then really the thing that makes it all run is that (it’s) just a great scheme. (Kyle) Shanahan’s been doing it for a long time at a high level. And so he always is adapting and finding ways to get his guys the ball. So that’s kind of the battle we play. We know like straight up, we feel good, but they’re gonna have some wrinkles that we gotta just be ready for.
MAADDI: For you personally, I know it’s been a little bit of a challenge this year, right? You were down for a little bit, had an injury. How are you feeling now, heading into being healthy in December, going into the most important part of the season?
LOVE: Yeah, I feel good. It’s definitely been a different year for me missing nine games, which is crazy to even say. And it was definitely a grind while I was in it. But I mean, all I’m focusing on is every time I step on the field now, you know, it’s been seven games so far I’ve played, just make an impact, be producing, (be) productive on the field when I am. And so I feel like I’ve done that up to this point. And so, you know thankfully I feel a hundred right now and can really just try to dominate into this late stretch.
MAADDI: Julian, you’ve been a Pro Bowl player. There are so many awards in the NFL that honor what you guys do on the field. And then there’s this special Walter Payton Man of the Year recognition for what you do in the community and giving back. Congratulations on being one of the 32 nominees. What would that award mean to you?
LOVE: That would mean a lot. I, thankfully, had the privilege to grow up in Chicago. And so the name Walter Payton, it’s like he’s the superhero to my generation, the generation above. I feel like you weren’t a Chicago kid if you didn’t have some random VHS highlight tape of Walter Payton. And so he just had an impact on the community, for sure. And just obviously on the field, but this represents everything off the field. So, anything with his name attached to it is a huge honor. And, you know, to get nominated for something like just getting out in the community and doing good things I think is great, but it’s about these families.
MAADDI: I know you have a youth football camp that you did last year that’s pretty big. What are some of the different areas of passion, of interest that you have, of working and doing different things?
LOVE: Yeah, so you hit it on the head. Well, first, we kind of, my wife and I, we kind a few years ago talked and basically said, kind of which areas do we want to focus on being better of service. And the first area is kids. And that’s from babies, I’ll touch on that, but from babies through teenage years. And kind of the point that you said, like, yeah, I have a pretty great camp I do in Chicago. This past year, we had 400 kids free. I put my own money into it. Some sponsors would help out and kind of make it overall a great time, but I was that kid. I was a kid that I know my parents were straining to get me to these showcases, these camps, all these things, trying to get to meet NFL players who I saw as, you know, like, they weren’t of this world, they were heroes. And I was that kid, and so, I think that’s kind of led, that leads kind of how I approach just interacting with kids. The resources are great. We do a lot and have partnered with a lot to give resources, but the kids just wanna say hi to me. They just wanna ask what my favorite video game is. They just want to like celebrate, do goofy things, do the celebration dances. Like all those little things I think are really impactful for kids that let them see that, all right, I’m accessible, it’s doable. Reaching certain heights, becoming successful is doable. This guy’s from my area and he does it. And so that is kind of how I approach kids. And then, sorry, kind of tangent a little bit. The second bucket is mothers. We had some struggles postpartum after we had our little guy and we just thought like, man, we have every resource in the world and we still have struggles. What are people without resources doing? Like how are they getting by? And so mothers postpartum is a huge area of focus and we’ve volunteered both in Chicago and out here in Seattle. We give a lot of resources just so mothers just have one step ahead and are prepared for when those tough times come after the baby that is here. And then the area is food. Food insecurity is very real, especially nowadays, and both in Chicago and in Seattle, we just try to give families, kids, access to healthy foods. I’ve been saying, like, I don’t know, I think having healthy food shouldn’t be a luxury for people, and so in the communities I’m involved in, I just try to get that out to them.
MAADDI: Time for some Pro Picks. The four-pack last week was 3-1 straight up, 2-2 against the spread. Overall this year, 49-18-1 straight up; 41-26-1 against the number. My best bet this week, I’m looking at Dallas, 7-8-1, on the road against the Giants. New York is 3-13. Cowboys are 3 1/2-point favorites. Dak Prescott has never had a losing season in a full healthy year when he’s played the entire season. The Cowboys haven’t had back-to-back losing years in 23 seasons, so they’re trying to play to avoid that, to finish 8-8-1. The Giants, well, last week they cost themselves the No. 1 overall pick by beating the Las Vegas Raiders. They can’t afford to drop any further in the draft order. Cowboys 30-20.
My upset specials are 13-4 this year, both straight up and against the number. I’m looking at Carolina, 8-8, against Tampa Bay, 7-9. Already told you about the ramifications of that game. Now the Buccaneers are 2 1/2-point favorites. The Panthers secure the division with a win or a tie. They beat the Bucs in Carolina a couple weeks ago. It’s difficult to beat a team twice in three weeks, but this Tampa Bay team has too many players who look like they’ve packed it in. They’re ready for a vacation. They couldn’t win one game down the stretch against a soft schedule to make this a winner-take-all game. That’s why they have to wait until Sunday should they win, an entire 24 hours or so to see if they get in. I think the Panthers are gonna put them out of their misery, 24-20. Win the game, win the division, end Tampa Bay’s season.
Next, I’m looking at Tennessee, 3-13 at Jacksonville, 12-4. The Jaguars are 12 1/2-point favorites. Trevor Lawrence, Liam Coen, they’re trying to wrap up the AFC South. Meanwhile, Tennessee, Cam Ward, he’s played well, especially towards the end of the season. Eight touchdowns, one interception in the last four games. It’s been a bright spot in an otherwise dismal year for Tennessee. The Jaguars, an incredible turnaround. They’ll win this game going away, 27-12, clinch the AFC South and head into the playoffs.
Last, Green Bay, 9-6-1 at Minnesota, 8-8. The Vikings are seven-point favorites because the Packers are locked into the No. 7 seed. They should rest their starters, get ready for their first-round matchup against the No. 2 seed in the NFC, whether it’s Chicago or Philadelphia. The Vikings have won four in a row and now they’re playing to finish the year off with a winning record at 9-8, they’re not worried about draft positioning. J.J. McCarthy should be back for this one. I’ll take the Vikings against a team that’s gonna rest, 24-13.
That’s it for this week. Thank you to Julian Love. Thank you for listening and watching On Football and thanks to Marcela Sanchez for producing this episode. Please check out APNews.com for the full Pro Picks, On Football analysis and more NFL news.
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