Seahawks have new owner — from a division rival; plus, we rank the greatest coaches of all time

Happy Monday, everyone, and thanks for reading the Pick Six newsletter. This is Zach Pereles stepping in during John Breech’s well-deserved vacation.If you’re thinking to yourself, “Happy Monday? Isn’t that an oxymoron?” — especially with a quiet sports schedule — let me tell you why it’s a happy Monday: Football is back this week.Stick with me here.The Seahawks (Friday) and the 49ers (Saturday) report to training camp this week. The rest of the teams report shortly thereafter, and every team will be practicing by the end of the month. Then the first week of August features the Hall of Fame Game. Then we’re in preseason mode, and before you know it, the Seahawks and the Patriots are kicking the regular season off Sept. 9.

So, yes, here I am on July 13 telling you that it’s football season. And if that’s not enough reason to tell everyone you know to subscribe to this newsletter, well, I don’t know what to tell you.

1. Seahawks sell for record-setting $9.6 billion, and most of it is going to charity

The Super Bowl champions have a new owner, and they’re coming over from a division rival. A group led by Vinod Khosla, who currently owns a minority stake in the 49ers, is buying the Seahawks from the Paul Allen estate for $9.6 billion, an astronomical, record-setting price.

Actually, scratch that. It’s not record-setting. It’s record-obliterating. The previous high was the $6.05 billion price tag the Commanders fetched in 2023. Here’s the quick breakdown: 

• Khosla will divest his 49ers shares before officially taking over in Seattle, and the other 31 NFL franchise owners’ vote could come next month.
• Khosla has a net worth of $13.7 billion, made as a tech investor and co-founder of Sun Microsystems, which got bought by tech giant Oracle in 2010. He currently runs the venture capital firm Khosla Ventures.
• Khosla’s group includes his wife, Neeru, who will serve as the primary decision maker, and his son, Neal, who “would be expected to have a significant leadership role in the ownership group,” per the NFL.

Paul Allen, a Microsoft co-founder, bought the Seahawks in 1997 and saved them from leaving town. He owned the team until his death in 2018, when his estate took over and his sister, Jody, became the controlling owner. In Paul Allen’s will, he stipulated that the team would eventually be sold and the majority of the proceeds would go to multiple charities. Allen Family Philanthropies, which has arts and culture, youth and environmental programs, will get most of the money.

What a legacy this leaves for Paul Allen and his estate. Save the team from leaving for Southern California? Check. Win the franchise’s first Super Bowl? Check. Win another one, in your final game as owners? Check. Raise billions for charity as part of the sale? Check. Simply awesome.

And speaking of the Super Bowl …

2. Will Seahawks or Patriots have Super Bowl hangover?

You know those nights when everything comes together perfectly? A great group of friends, a fun plan, a drink or two … and then maybe a drink or two too many?

The next morning can be rough. Hit snooze, pull the covers up and stay-in-bed rough. But NFL teams? They can’t do that. It’s a 24/7/365 enterprise, even for the very best teams. Heck, the NFL combine is just days after the Super Bowl.

“You have to hire a staff, and time waits on nobody, and we had to go,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald explained from the combine this year. “‘Hey, you’re flying to the combine on Monday.’ It’s just these daily things you have to hit, and those are the things you’re focused on, just being completely honest.”

There’s the mental toll of a run to the Super Bowl. You can’t rest on your laurels. There’s obviously the physical toll, too, having played multiple extra games. Those surgeries that get put off until the offseason? Well, your offseason started a month later than other teams’ did, meaning less time to recover. Plus, good teams often lose good coaches to better jobs and good players to bigger contracts. The Seahawks, for example, lost Klint Kubiak, who took the Raiders’ head coaching job, and many good players.

So can either the Seahawks or the Patriots avoid the dreaded Super Bowl hangover, the one that got both the Eagles and the Chiefs last year? Tyler Sullivan took a look at both teams’ chances to regress or regroup.

Sullivan’s Seahawks prediction: “Record: 12-5 | NFC West champions: No | Playoffs: Yes | Super Bowl: No … One of the big questions surrounding the Seahawks is how the offense will look now that Brian Fleury is pulling the strings as the offensive coordinator after Kubiak took over the Raiders. While Fleury (formerly the run game coordinator and tight ends coach for the 49ers) does plan to run a scheme nearly identical to Kubiak’s, it is a change. Does that, coupled with the departure of Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III, take them down just a touch offensively?”  

Sullivan’s Patriots prediction: “Record: 10-7 | AFC East champions: No | Playoffs: Yes | Super Bowl: No … The Patriots are a better team now than the one that reached the Super Bowl, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll make it back to the Super Bowl in 2026. That stated, they won’t fall off a cliff either. Drake Maye is a bona fide MVP-caliber quarterback who saw his organization spend the offseason bolstering the offensive line and giving him two new weapons at receiver in A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs.”

Here’s the full breakdown.

3. Ranking the greatest coaches of all time: Where Bill Belichick, Vince Lombardi, others line up

The offseason is a great time for rankings, and we have a big one I’m sure everyone will agree with! (insert sarcasm here) Six CBS Sports NFL reporters, including myself, ranked the 20 greatest coaches of all time.

I can’t give it all away, because I want you to read Bryan DeArdo’s story, which has excellent historical data and details — seriously, it’s impressive — but I’ll give you two rankings that stood out to me:

• 5. Don Shula — “His highlights include the most wins in NFL history (347), back-to-back Super Bowl titles, and coaching the only undefeated team in league history (the 1972 Dolphins). Shula was also the first coach to lead multiple franchises (the Colts and Dolphins) to the Super Bowl. … Shula was also on the losing side of the biggest upset in NFL history when the Jets — an 18.5-point underdog — shocked the Colts in Super Bowl III. … Shula’s teams lost twice as many Super Bowls (four) as they won (two).”

I wasn’t quite as high on Shula. Don’t get me wrong: He was an amazing coach, and it is truly splitting hairs when trying to differentiate the legends of the game. Not winning a Super Bowl (and only getting to one) with Dan Marino, though, was a tough one for me to swallow. As Bryan notes, there’s some “what-if” with Shula considering the World Football League took three of his best players in the 1970s, too.

As for a guy I was higher on than the consensus …

• 8. Andy Reid — “Prior to his success in Kansas City, Reid had a borderline Hall of Fame coaching career in Philadelphia. During his 14 years with the Eagles, Reid’s teams won 140 games, six division titles, and an NFC title in 2004. … Reid has been even better since joining the Chiefs. … The Chiefs have won three Super Bowls since 2019 and in 2023 became the first team to successfully defend their title since the 2004 Patriots.”

Yes, we can say Reid is a byproduct of Mahomes. But shouldn’t we also consider that Mahomes is at least somewhat a byproduct of Reid, too? And that he got career-best play from Donovan McNabb and Alex Smith? I think Reid, one of five coaches with three Super Bowl victories, deserved to be a few spots higher.

4. Bringing fútbol to football: What if the NFL looked like the World Cup?

Whatever you want to call the sport itself, the soccer at this World Cup has been amazing. The stars have shined bright, and many are still shining. The top four teams in the FIFA world rankings — France, Argentina, Spain and England — are the final four teams left standing. France vs. Spain tomorrow and Argentina vs. England on Wednesday are the semifinal matchups that usually only appear in dreams.

For a long time, the World Cup featured 32 teams. This year it expanded to 48, but the 32-team format got us thinking: What if the NFL season played out like the World Cup? All 32 teams, eight “groups,” 16 teams into the knockout stages and, eventually, a champion?

Carter Bahns took a really fun look at this one, using Pete Prisco’s Power Rankings for the draw. Here were the rules.

1. “The Rams are betting favorites to win this season’s championship, but the end goal here is not to automatically crown them as Super Bowl winners. We will pick every game from start to finish without driving to a specific desired outcome.”
2. “Upsets occur in the World Cup, just like they do over the course of an NFL season. We’re not strictly picking favorites. If Cabo Verde can reach the Round of 32, the Browns can advance out of their group.”
3. “Currently injured players are on track to be available for the early part of the season, they will be included in this equation.”

Every World Cup has a “Group of Death,” where the competition is perceived as fiercer than others. In Carter’s exercise, Group C is stacked, with the Texans, 49ers, Lions and Browns. I think the first three teams are legit dark horse contenders, and the Browns’ defense can still cause a problem or two. Ultimately, Houston and San Francisco advanced.

I won’t give away who Carter has winning, but I will reveal the semifinals:

• Bills 17, Texans 13 — “There comes a point where I have to halt my blind faith in a C.J. Stroud turnaround. This is that moment: A matchup against the defense that led the league in passing yards allowed in 2025. The Bills head to the Super Bowl for the first time in the Josh Allen era.”
• Rams 31, Bengals 21 — “For as many improvements as Cincinnati made defensively, it is not enough to contain Matthew Stafford, Puka Nacua and Kyren Williams. This is also an opportunity for Myles Garrett to wreak havoc on Joe Burrow, given the Bengals’ perennial issues at the line of scrimmage.”

Carter did an awesome job with this really fun story. Oh, and if you want more fútbol/football crossover, John Breech had some fun ideas on how the NFL could replicate the drama of penalty kicks.

5. Why Baker Mayfield is quietly a major story in 2026

There have been several big contracts handed out this offseason, and there are likely at least a few more to come.

One worth keeping an eye on? Baker Mayfield. The Buccaneers’ gunslinger, entering the final year of a three-year, $100 million contract, stated he won’t continue contract negotiations once training camp starts. Tampa Bay’s vets report July 28. The clock is ticking, and former NFL agent Joel Corry, examined what could come next.

Corry on Mayfield: “It wouldn’t be surprising if Mayfield’s camp viewed Brock Purdy’s May 2025 deal with the San Francisco 49ers as an important data point. Purdy signed a five-year, $265 million extension with $182.55 million in guarantees, of which $100 million was fully guaranteed at signing. He is the league’s ninth-highest-paid player at $53 million per year. … Patience could be Mayfield’s best friend if his situation results in a franchise tag next year. Mayfield’s best deal would probably come by waiting for the quarterback market to further develop.”

This is a big one worth monitoring, because the Buccaneers are in a weird spot. They missed the playoffs last year after starting 6-2. Mayfield’s poor play contributed, but he was also injured pretty much all over his body. Coach Todd Bowles’ seat appears to be at least somewhat warm; he has won one. playoff game in Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers lost a pair of franchise icons in Mike Evans and Lavonte David this offseason. There is some young talent, but this doesn’t appear to be anything more than a potential NFC South winner.

Would Tampa Bay turn over a new leaf next offseason if 2026 doesn’t go well? And if so, would that include letting Mayfield, who just turned 31, walk? If he does, what would his market look like? Remember, this is a guy who looked like a potential MVP in 2025 before injuries really added up. He threw for 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns in 2024. This was a guy who was barely hanging onto a roster spot in 2022! Quietly, there’s a lot at stake for Mayfield, the Buccaneers and, potentially, quarterback-needy teams.

6. Extra points: Terrion Arnold garnering interest

• Terrion Arnold worked out for the Texans. Arnold, who was arrested on felony charges of kidnapping and armed robbery and still faces the possibility of life in prison, worked out for the Texans last week. The 23-year-old was released by the Lions after his arrest and went unclaimed on waivers. Apparently, several other teams have expressed interest in the 2024 first-rounder, too.
• Stefon Diggs, who remains a free agent, stated he’s the best No. 2 wide receiver in the NFL. I think CeeDee Lamb/George Pickens (depending on who you consider No. 1 there), Tee Higgins and Davante Adams would have something to say about that, but as Diggs continues to search for a new home, there are plenty of teams in need of a good No. 2, which is exactly what Diggs is.
• Aaron Rodgers went on a teammate retreat before his “last rodeo.” This bonding trip, which featured his top two wideouts, D.K. Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr., featured some fun Western outfits, horse riding, paddle boarding and bonfires. Pretty solid way to unwind before training camp.