On the Super Bowl and Klint Kubiak:

Marcel, you spent a long time in the state of Washington during your college days. Give us your thoughts on Sunday’s Super Bowl?

“For most people, I've heard a lot of murmuring that it was a boring Super Bowl, but I thought it was quite entertaining. This was a really good game.

“What went well for the Seahawks is what a lot of people saw on paper or thought they saw on paper. You had two really elite defenses going at it, and you saw a Seahawks team that throughout the course of the season, found ways to win.”

“It wasn't always pretty, and it wasn't always flashy, but they found ways to win. They do their jobs efficiently, they use physicality on both front lines, and they dominate the line of scrimmage. That’s what the game came down to.”

How much of Seattle’s success this season can be attributed to departing OC, Klint Kubiak?

“Well, he has a major effect on guys, and it's going to be interesting to see how Seattle retools what they do for next season because Klint Kubiak is not just a play calling coach, but he’s also a great leader.

“That locker room is very close-knit. That offense, in particular, is very close-knit.

“It'll be interesting to see who Kubiak can pull from that Seattle staff and promote them over in Las Vegas. Shout out to the Raiders, with Mark Davis and Tom Brady for making that acquisition, because Kubiak is one of the really up and coming stars in the coaching ranks in all of the NFL; it will leave a huge hole to fill for Seattle.

“That being said, one thing you know about John Schneider, he makes quick work of any retooling or rebuilding for his teams. Mike Macdonald is evidence towards that.

“They keep losing coordinators, and when you keep losing coordinators as an NFL team, it means you're doing something right. Macdonald has obviously shown himself to be a star in the coaching race himself.”

Jaxon Smith-Njigba had a quiet game in the Super Bowl after a great season, and went off with concussion for a large spell, while Kenneth Walker ended up winning MVP. How impressed were you with Seattle, and Kubiak’s, versatility?

“When you look at the way their season has gone all year round, first of all, you have a rookie that is leading your entire team, not just your team, but the league, the entire league on offense.

“Jaxon Smith-Njigba is a fantastic receiver. He was great in college, but he still wasn't the best college receiver on his team when they had Jeremiah Smith, but he's fantastic too.

“I think Kubiak made really good adjustments throughout the course of the game. You saw them, even with the play leading to an offensive touchdown by AJ Barner. He just tricked the Patriots with that play call.

“He made sure that he schemed something that, when they got into the red zone, that would take Christian Gonzalez out of the play so he couldn't make a great individual move, and he showcased the tight-end instead.

“The best player on the Patriots defense is Gonzalez. He wears the number zero. Kubiak understood that, he thought, ‘I'm not going to test this guy in the Super Bowl’. He thought, ‘I'm going to play to the weakness of their defense and try to make their linebackers guard’. Their linebackers are great tacklers, but they're not very good in space and in coverage.

“Kubiak showcases a tight-end with the touchdown, and then he showcases the run game. If you can run the football, take the air out of the football, keep the opposing offense on the sideline and not allow them to get a rhythm, then you can win any game. Good defense, running the football. They did both of those things, and they won.”

It was a tough night for New England, but they surpassed all expectations this season by making the Super Bowl. With Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye, how excited can Patriots fans be in the years to come?

“Mike Vrabel is fantastic; I've admired him for a very long time. He is an unbelievable coach, fantastic leader, and New England is going to be good for a long time, again, because of him and what he does with the players and his coaching staff and the way that the culture that he builds around him.

“Drake Maye, he's going to be a very good quarterback for a long time. Josh McDaniels, as an offensive coordinator, did a great job with him this year.

“McDaniels has been one of the great offensive minds in the NFL for a long, long time. It's the reason why he's been to so many Super Bowls. It's the reason why he takes teams to the playoffs and his offenses are always at the top of their divisions.

“That being said, the Super Bowl will have been a learning curve for Drake Maye and that offense.

“If you're watching this game and you understand football at an elite level, there were certain things that Maye could have done to help himself. Some of the schemes that McDaniels called; they weren’t all that hard to see.

“You could see the rotations, you could see them coming in his face, you could see them rotating and coming from the backside.

“I just believe that early in the game, they had so much pressure on Maye that he was rushing himself a little bit too much. They were running a lot of zone behind it. I know that some of the plays on the front four made it feel like pressure, but they weren't really pressures. They were getting to Maye with just four guys.

“Now, the offensive line has to protect them a lot better. The New England running backs have to protect him a lot better.

“It’s going to be a good learning experience for Maye. I think Josh McDaniels is going to have a lot of fun this offseason teaching Maye how to see certain pressures and manipulate defenses, even in pre-step at the line of scrimmage, because it was happening to him instead of him doing it to them in the Super Bowl.”

You spent some great years with the Washington Huskies in college. Wide receiver Denzel Boston looks set to make the first-round. What do you like about his game; and who would you compare him to in the NFL, past or present?

“Denzel is so good. He's so good.

“He's tall, and he's really all of that 6'5, and he's very long in it. He's faster than what most people think.

“I'm excited to see him run the 40. If he runs the 40, I think people are going to be surprised about his top-end speed, because it's definitely there.

“The really good thing that Denzel does that most guys his height don't do well, is get in and out of his breaks, covering them, being self-analytical of his own game. He sinks his hips fairly well, and he gets in and out of those breaks. He’s a hands catcher, which is so rare to see these days in college football.

“You see it from some really elite guys. There aren’t very many guys I’d take over Denzel in all of college football right now. Jeremiah Smith, he's still in college and just incredible. Ryan Williams from Alabama is still in college, but I think I would take Denzel over him.

“When it comes down to these wide receivers, Denzel is the guy, he is a dog. He is tough. He's a good teammate, goes up and make contested catches, and makes them look easy.

“If I had to do a player comparison, and I'm not a huge fan of them when it comes to NFL and college guys, but I would say it would be Mike Evans from Tampa Bay.

“A guy who initially doesn't completely just jump off your screen with a ton of flash, but he's always open, and always makes contested catches. He's a killer in the end zone.

“When it comes to the red zone, and you look up now, and when it comes to anyone who's played in Mike Evans' generation, he is right at the top.

What are your thoughts too on Jeremiyah Love; expected to be the top running back in the draft. What do you like about his game?

“He’s just flat out explosive and has a ton of versatility in his game. He was able to showcase it last season.

“He is fast, fast. A lot of guys in the NFL are fast, but he's what we call fast, fast. I'm not sure what that 40-time will look like, and I don't even care. His game speed is elite, it's next level.

“He's getting one foot in the ground and getting up the field. I like his game a lot. One thing that I've noticed about him, and we've watched him over the past two, three years, is that he’s getting better every single year, and that’s been exciting to watch.

“Even at the end of this season, he didn't have a ton of carries, but if he played another game this year, we might have been talking about him winning a Heisman; he was that good. He was fantastic for his team. I would love to have seen him in the playoff.

“I think Love is an elite running back. I do believe he will probably be the number one back taken because of his upside that people recognize and see, he could be in the top five or six guys going in the draft.”

Who else do you like from this year’s draft?

“Jonah Coleman, out of University of Washington. He's as tough as they come and is going to be a 10, 11, 12-year veteran in the NFL.

“He’s extremely smart, plays the game the right way, low pad level, physical, physical, physical. I think he's going to be able to surprise some people with what what he could do, that he wasn't able to really showcase on that Washington team, maybe catching out of the backfield and being a little more elusive and dynamic on the edges.

“When you talk about an NFL running back, Jonah Coleman is an NFL running back. He is all of that and more.”

Antonio Pierce mentioned a couple of times after his firing by the Raiders that he would have taken Shedeur Sanders in last year’s draft. Looking at things now, would you say the Raiders have been rewarded for a patient approach, with Mendoza coming in? Can Shedeur cut it as an NFL quarterback?

“It depends on how you mean ‘cut it’.

“I think Shedeur can play, I don't doubt his physical ability in any way. I've watched a lot of football, been around a ton of football, and I think he is going to be a good NFL quarterback.

“I think he was a good NFL quarterback in spots this year. When it comes to AP saying that he would have taken him in the first round, I think that, purely from a business perspective, that AP has to look at that and say, ‘that would have been a mistake’.

“You're talking about a guy that wasn't taken in the first five rounds. Just from a business and strategic perspective, you don't take someone who's not going to be taken. You just don't do it, whether or not you want him or not, because you can still get him later.

“Do I think it would have been a mistake to draft him at any stage? No, I wouldn't say that. I think Shedeur Sanders is a good player, and will make into a good player in the NFL.

“I think he's going to be a solid quarterback, and he has an opportunity to be a quarterback in this league for 12, maybe 15 years if he wants to. I think he has that ability; you just wouldn’t have taken him in the first round, given how things panned out.”

We’ve seen a host of HC changes in the off-season. Robert Saleh to Tennessee, Mike McCarthy to the Steelers. Do any moves and new combinations particularly catch your eye?

“I think the marriage between Robert Saleh and Brian Daboll in Tennessee, along with Cam Ward is extremely interesting.

“I think they have the ability to be very good very quickly. One issue is, if they are that good quickly, if Cam Ward makes a huge jump, then Brian Daboll may be taken from them after this year.

“Daboll is a head coach acting as an offensive coordinator, and with how good he is, there’s no doubt he is going to be a head coach again very quickly.

“Just as an aside, I thoroughly believe that if Sean McDermott was let go before Atlanta hired Kevin Stefanski, then McDermott would be the head coach in Atlanta, and they would be a contender next year.

“Obviously, that didn't happen as we look back, and Stefanski is the leader in Atlanta. I think all eyes are going to be on him, and all pressure is going to be on him as well, because that team is, in my view, ready to go. That was a good football team. I think Raheem Morris, if he would have gotten another year, they would have been a playoff team for sure.

“That said, what they do at quarterback is going to be extremely important. It’s also a team to look at where, if Stefanski doesn't get it together and show enough to Arthur Blank, then he has potential to be a one and done in Atlanta.

“With the likes of McDermott and Mike Tomlin, who are sitting on the sidelines for a year, that’s two top candidates waiting in the wings.”

And how about John Harbaugh heading to the New York Giants? Could they be the surprise package of 2026/27? We’ve also seen the Chiefs make a big move with Eric Bienemy heading back to be OC in Kansas City.

“I think it's a possibility with the Giants.

“When you look at a guy like Harbaugh, he can lead, and sometimes leadership is all you need. He's walking into the door with another really good defense, a really good defense with a ton of playmakers. I can tell you right now, that's one of the biggest one of the factors in his decision making, was the defense in that Giants roster.

“They're going to give Harbaugh the opportunity to lead and do what he does best, and leaders make a world of difference when you're in a locker room.

“We're seeing it now when you look at University of Indiana, when you have guys like Curt Cignetti enter the building.

“They're stern, they care, they have a vision, they stay steadfast to that vision, they do not waver, and players respect it. If they don't respect it, they're not in the building.

“When you have something like that and you set that standard and you don't waver from that standard, the sky can be the limit for that football team.

“Looking elsewhere, I think that the Chargers in LA, and it hurts my heart to say this as a Raider, but I think they are going to be a team to watch.

“I think the addition of Mike McDaniel is going to make a world of difference. I think they only have him for one year because he's one of these guys that has had some success as head coach, comes back to be an offensive coordinator for a team that's just looking for one missing piece, and he already has his quarterback in Justin Herbert.

“I think that once they get rolling, he'll be a one and done in LA, and he'll have a head coaching gig somewhere else. I've been watching him since he was the run game coordinator in San Francisco, when they made that Super Bowl run, the things he did with Christian McCaffrey.

“He was good in his first couple of years in Miami, that team was rolling offensively. Even in the last few weeks of this season, the way they finished; they were on fire.

“If they would have started a few weeks earlier, they would have been in the playoff run.

“We’ve seen a lot of interesting moves this offseason with the coaching carousel. It's going to be interesting to see how it plays out with Kubiak rounding out his staff and then what that domino effect makes with Seattle.

“We'll see how it shakes out. I think it's going to be a fun season, though. There's a lot of offensive and defensive minds moving around.

“We also have Eric Bienemy back in Kansas City, and I think that to me, that move is one of those jedi mind tricks from Andy Reid saying, ‘it's not about Xs and O's anymore’.

“It's about his teams heart right now. Let's see what this last run actually looks like and get the band back together and have everyone overachieve one more year. I think Andy is thinking, ‘let's just get everyone to overachieve one more year until the wheels fall off.’

“Andy Reid is so good at those things and pushing the buttons of his teams in his locker rooms. The AFC West is going to be tough. It's going to be a tough one this year, but it's going to be fun to watch.”