Good morning, 12s. Here's a look at what's out there today — Monday, May 16 — about your Seattle Seahawks.
Cliff Avril Talks Mentorship Role With Seahawks On Seattle Sports' 'Wyman & Bob'
When Cliff Avril retired from the NFL in 2018, it was clear that it wasn't due to a diminishing skillset.
Avril was coming off of one of the best years in his career in 2016 in which he posted 39 tackles, his second most in a season, along with a career-best 11.5 sacks. Then, in Week 4 of the 2017 season, Avril suffered a serious neck injury in a 48-16 win over the Colts and would be placed on injured reserve three weeks later. He'd never play another down in the league again.
Now five calendar years removed from his final NFL season, the Seahawks Legend and Super Bowl XLVIII champion is looking to spread the knowledge he's gained through the years amongst the next generation of NFL stars. Last week, Avril joined Dave Wyman and Bob Stelton on Seattle Sports radio's "Wyman & Bob" show to talk about the young players across the league and on the Seahawks that he's worked with, his Sack 360 pass rush program, as well as the "intense" game nights he's had with former teammate K.J. Wright.
Check out some of the highlights below and listen to the full conversation here.
On if he'd ever want to serve in a coaching or advisory role with the team:
"I would love to. For sure. I would love to be a part of the organization. And my whole thing is, honestly, on the coaching side, being on the field would be great. I work with a lot of the young guys already, I work with the D-linemen already anyways. But I think it's more along the lines of just having some veteran players that know what it looks like to be a pro. Sometimes coaches — and I'm not putting this on the Seahawks, I'm just saying in general in the NFL — sometimes when you look at the young player, he's cheaper, all these different things. But if he doesn't have a leader to help him understand what he's getting himself into, his career ends up being shorter than it needs to be. So having some leadership, guys that have been in the locker room, guys that have been in the trenches that have seen the same plays that they're seeing, I think there's just a different level of respect that'll come with that."
On his Sack 360 pass rush program:
"I started it right after I retired actually. I was helping guys out, a lot of the younger guys — Jarran Reed, Cassius Marsh, Quinton Jefferson, all those guys were like, 'Hey, man, we still want to work with you.' Because when I played — again, this is the veteran piece of it — when we played, we would take two weeks out of the offseason and fly everybody to Hawaii and the entire D-line would train together. So that was kind of something they were used to and wanted to keep that going. So when those guys asked me to come out I realized how much I actually liked teaching some of the things that I've learned through the years … I'm supposed to be getting with DT [Darrell Taylor] soon, I'm supposed to be getting with a few of the younger guys as well to start training with them."
On game nights between his and fellow former Seahawk K.J. Wright's family:
"We play all types of stuff, and it gets so competitive. Whether it's UNO — heck, we might even play Jenga, all the kiddie games, but it gets so intense. Especially because it's K.J. and I — if we're the only ones left, it's going down. A lot of yelling, a lot of loud talking. It's a great time."
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Stan Taylor of Field Gulls breaks down which teams benefit most from having a 17-game season.
