The Kevin Sheehan Show - 8 Straight & Mock Drafting

Episode Date: April 26, 2021

Kevin and Thom today on the Wizards' 8th win in a row, the Oscars, a new HBO show recommendation, plus tons of NFL Draft and Washington Football talk.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. All right. It changed this week. Tommy's going today, Cooley tomorrow.

Cooley had knee surgery, as you know, on Thursday. And he's been in some pain this weekend. And he needed today to get it together a little bit. And he says he should be feeling better and ready to go tomorrow as we count down the days to the NFL. NFL draft. I want to just remind people, you know, I'm on Team 980, 6 to 9 a.m. every morning. Ben Standig was on with me this morning. He comes on every Monday morning at 8. I really love Ben a lot. You know this. He's the draft. He's the draft guru. He really is. I'm like so impressed with Ben just over the years.

And I'm not here to just build him up. I mean, many of you know Ben and you probably read him on the athletic, which I would recommend. and he's got a really good podcast as well. Ben is the two-time Huddle Report mock draft champion. Now, what does that mean? Well, mock drafting is like an industry. There are a lot of people that make real money as a year-long mock drafter. I mean, obviously Kuiper was the original. Actually, it's funny Tommy this morning.

I did a call segment on if you had one go-to mock draft guy, who would it be? You know, obviously we love Ben, but Kuiper for me is still the guy. But, you know, Ken Beatrice on local radio here was doing this before Kuiper was doing it. I don't know how much of it was real. I mean, Ken would be giving you like the third string receiver from Western Michigan who had a chance to be, you know, a turn. 12th round selection because back then like he had like he had some kind of staff working on this stuff well he claimed he sort of did but um yeah but anyway um you know kiper's always been the guy i was

i was pointing out this morning because i was thinking about this last night they brought in a guy and todd mcshay to essentially replace kiper okay that never happened Kuiper staved him off. He adapted. And McShea and Kuiper have actually worked very well together over the years. But the goal of bringing in McShay, I don't know, 10 years ago, 12 years ago, whenever it was, was they were starting to think that Kuiper was running out of gas a little bit. And they wanted some young guys. Kiper's still going strong.

He is still, to me, the guy that is, by the way, fearless. you know, completely sold on his opinions. Nobody of any stature can talk him out of it. There was the famous, you know, Bill Tobin, Indianapolis Colts, you know, confrontation on the air in 94 on ESPN. I just like Mel. There are guys that do it really well, like Daniel Jeremiah, does a really good job.

I used to think Mike Mayock used to do a pretty good job, even though I felt like he always was very impressed with himself. he's a general manager now and Ben does a great job. I bring this up I really brought it up for the purposes of just explaining to everybody. Ben Standing has been doing this since

2012. He won it in 2019. He won it in 2012. He is Rick Gosselin. You know Rick Gosselin, right? Yeah, absolutely. Rick Gosselin's one of our most respected football writers in the business. Bill

Belichick is impressed by Rick Gosselin. Only Rick Gosselin has more mock draft championship trophies than Ben. He's got three of them. Ben's got two. No one else has, you know, more than one. And there are guys, look, Kuiper doesn't compete in this thing, but Daniel Jeremiah does. You know, Lance Zerline does. You know, there's some big names that compete in this thing. Evan Silva does. And you know how that happens. That doesn't happen from watching film and, you know, internet research. That happens from phone calls.

No doubt. Well, you point that out because it's the distinction that I sort of figured out as I was doing this segment this morning on radio because it's, it's an important distinction. Like Mel Kuiper is a draft analyst. He does a mock draft. but he's a draft analyst. He and McShay and a lot of guys that also mock draft are also going to analyze the players. Ben is very much, you know, a mock drafter.

He talks to a lot of people, has a lot of sources, and then he puts together the order and the players and where they're going to go. And the way they measure it, you basically get one point for every player you predict accurately. in the first round, and then you get two points when you match a player to a team. And so he's done this in the last five years, he's got the third best overall five-year average. He's won it once in the last five years. He's won it twice, as I mentioned, in the last eight years. But there's a difference between Standig and, you know, a guy like Kuiper.

Ben will give you his opinion on the player, but really what he's doing is he's trying to get players, and teams matched up based on information. Right. You know, some guys do it that way. He's not necessarily analyzing who a team should pick. Right. He's telling them, he's telling you who he thinks they will pick. Yes.

Now, a lot of common sense and a lot of, you know, history on how teams draft and what teams needs are, et cetera, all play into that for Ben. Oh, yeah, there's a base, there's a base knowledge that is available to people. But what separates him are the phone calls, the legwork, like we say in the business that he does, and the network of sources that he has. I mean, that's the difference maker for him. Daniel Jeremiah, you know, is in this competition. Peter Schrager's in this.

Daniel Jeremiah has been, you know, thought of as a potential NFL general manager. Mike Mayock went from sort of an analyst, a draft analyst, to, you know, an NFL general manager. I think Kuiper has had and has spoken to this over the years, although one of the reasons I love Kuiper is, as sure as he is, he doesn't come off as an asshole. Like he never has, to me anyway. I think he comes off with great humility, but great confidence in what he's doing as well. Is there a guy over the years that you like? No, I like Mel. I think Mel is a guy who started in his basement and has never forgotten that.

Right. You know, I don't, I don't, I've had some dealings with Mel. He's been a guest on shows that we've done in the past. He's, I don't think he's, I've ever heard of him big timing anybody. Never. You know, he used to come on. Well, he came on with us a couple of times. He came on, I mean, years ago with Rigo and I, when I,

I was doing the show with Rigo. And he's really cut back. You know, it's too much. He gets asked by everybody, you know. The guy that he was really close with because he worked with Andy for many years at ESPN radio was Andy Poland. Right. Yes, they did a radio show on Saturdays, on Saturday mornings, I think.

Exactly. So he would go on with Andy and Zabe, usually, you know, this time of year. But, you know, he's, you know, these guys, you know, look, I've learned this from Tony. I've learned it from Scott. you know, over the years, they can't say yes to everybody, or they'd have no time to do their own job. You, you know, all of the people that come after you all the time. But, you know, in Coley's the same way.

He gets asked all the time, you know. So I understand where Mel's coming from. But anyway, Ben was on the radio show this morning. His final entrant into this competition comes late Wednesday night. So it's got to be in like roughly 24 hours, I think, before the draft starts. And he had Elijah Vera Tucker going to Washington at 19 in his latest, although he says it'll probably change between now and Wednesday night. But he had Elijah Vera Tucker. The versatile offensive lineman could be a guard from USC going to Washington at 19.

We're going to circle back to some draft talk in a little bit, but I did want to start. I guess we already started, but I wanted to talk a little bit about the Wizards win last night. So, Tommy, do you know that this is the longest winning streak, eight games in a row since 2001, 2002? Since Jordan. Is that, that's nuts to me. That really is. I would have thought that they would have had a way. winning streak with the Gilbert

Karan, you know, Jameson teams or the John Wall-Beal teams of at least eight games. This is the longest winning streak in 19 seasons. 19 seasons. They currently have the second longest winning streak in the NBA. Do you know who has the longest winning streak right now in the NBA of nine games in a row? No, I don't.

The New York Knickerbockers. Oh, boy. And then the third longest streak right now is just four wins in a row, the Clippers. So the Knicks, Wizards, and Clippers have the three longest win streaks. But really, the Knicks and the Wizards, the Knicks have won nine in a row. They are, they're playing very well. And they have the coach that I wanted Washington to hire several years ago in Thibodeau. But anyway, I digress.

The Wizards are really very interesting. to watch because they have two star players playing at a very high level right now in Westbrook and Beale. They also have, you know, they've got some players out right now. Hachamur is out and obviously they lost Denny Abdea for the year with the hairline fracture. They made this trade for Daniel Gafford. I told you I loved the trade when they made it because I thought that he had a lot of talent. At least he did in college, whatever that means. I was. surprised that year that he wasn't a first round pick. He went in this second round, and I sort of lost track of it until the Wizards traded for him, and then I looked at it, I'm like,

the Bulls weren't playing him that much. They're 10-1 since Gafford came to the team and started playing meaningful minutes. Now, Robin Lopez and Alex Lenn, it's a three-headed center, but Gafford last night had 27 points, I'm sorry, had 12 points in 27 minutes, six, rebounds, four steals, and four block shots. They haven't had a defensive rim protector like Gafford in forever. I don't know, maybe since Brendan Haywood? Brendan Haywood, I think you've got to go that far back. And he's different built. I mean, he's built like the, you know, the athletic centers of today. And man, can he finish at the rim? He's just got ridiculous sort of quick jumping ability.

And he was matched up against one of the best young big men in the game last night in Jared Allen and one of the best defensive young big men in the game in Jared Allen. Actually, Cleveland's got some young players. I lost track. I'll be honest with the of Darius Garland, who, by the way, played for Bradley Beale's AAU team, I think in the Midwest, in St. Louis maybe. Garland went to Vanderbilt as like one of the top two recruits in the country. blew out his knee in like game one or game two,

still ended up being the fifth overall pick by the Cavs. And man, he looks like the real deal. Like even Beal said afterwards, he's going to be one of the best point guards in the NBA, and you could see it last night. But the Wizards have two stars and some really good supporting players. Gafford's one of them. Lopez plays really well.

Bertons, obviously, is just flat. out one of the best three-point shooters in the NBA. Netto is really good. You know, they don't have Hachemura right now. They obviously lost Avdias. They're down a little bit. What's really interesting to me is this is a team that is surging right now. They're beating up on teams that they should beat, and that hasn't happened in the past.

They're playing defense when it matters. They didn't play it great all last night, but they were phenomenal. the last six minutes of the game and that turned the game. And right now they are solidly, solidly in this playing round. Like they're two games clear now of Chicago for the 10 spot. They're two games out of the nine spot and three games out of the eighth spot. What does that mean? If they get to the eighth spot, they'll be playing the seven in a first round game to get the seven seed.

and then if they lose, they would still have a chance to play the 9-10 winner. By the way, some of you are really struggling with this. I'll explain it. I think it's not that hard, but it's fine if you're struggling with it. The top six teams in each conference are automatically in the postseason, one through six. Seven through ten are going to play a mini-tournament, if you will, to become the 7 and 8 seed, the 7th and 8th seeds in the Eastern Conference and in the Western Conference.

Top 6 are in, and then 7 through 10 play it out this way. 7's going to play 8 in a game. The winner becomes the 7 seed. The loser plays the winner of the 10 seed versus the 9 seed game, and the winner of that game becomes the 8 seed. So if you're the seven or the eight seed, you get two chances to win one game, and you're in. If you're the nine or ten seed, you have to win two games in a row to get to the eighth seed. Does that make sense?

Did you follow it? Yeah, I follow it. Okay. It's not that hard. I don't think it's that hard, but some of you have asked for explanations, and that's fine. Now, the winner, if they're the 8th seed, they're probably going to play Brooklyn, and Durant came back yesterday. And, you know, I would think that Kyrie Irving will be done with Ramadan at that point.

And who knows if he'll play or not. I mean, it's sort of how he's feeling that particular day as to whether or not he's available. But they're really, really good. And I'll tell you what, though, if they somehow got to the 7th seed, I think they could give the Sixers all they want in a first round game and first round series. It might be able to. I mean, I'm not going to discount the possibility. Tommy Shepard deserves a lot of credit for the thing that Ernie was one of the many things I thought that Ernie was so destructive about was, you know, filling in the gaps on the team.

You know, the spare parts. Tommy Shepard has been much better at picking up the spare parts like a Daniel Gafford who could wind up to be much more than a spare part when all is said and done. The only thing that's going to hold them back at this point from probably realizing, you know, the potential they could have is their coach. I know you like them, but they can, they need, they need to move up on their. coach. They need to get a better coach. Well. Now that's going to be kind of hard in a way because

Russell Westbrook loves Scott Brooks. Well, let me just make sure you're clear. I do like Scott Brooks, the guy. I do like a lot. You know that I'm, I've never been a big fan of him as an X as an O's coach going back to OKC. And I didn't love the hire when they made it. Now, you just nailed it. If they get to the postseason and let's just say that, I mean, I'm not talking about, I'm saying they get into like a first round playoff series, not just the playing tournament

lose, but a first round playoff series, they're resigning him. They're going to give him a new his contract is up at the end of this year. Yes, it is. So. And that's a mistake. A mistake. Oh, if they resign him, you're saying it's a mistake. Yes. Yeah, again, I mean, I'd like to see what

is out there, but I think you nailed it. I think, first of all, I think Beal likes him. But more importantly, Russ now has hit his stride. It looks like healthy. He may have a couple years left with Beal. Now Beal may come back. And they may look at this and say, you know, we got a chance, you know, adding something else in the draft this year and we got some pieces.

We got a chance to be in, like we both thought they had a chance this year to be in that four to six range in the east. But, you know, they had cope. With the fully healthy was, and they weren't healthy. Right. I wanted to mention one other things, and then we'll move on from the Wizards to our next subject.

Did you know that last night, Bradley Beale passed 13,000 career points. He is second on the all-time scoring list behind Elvin Hayes in Wizards' bullets history. He is 2,539 points away, or 2540, 2,540 points away from becoming the all-time franchise leading score. He'll do that next year as a wizard. How old was he when he started playing, like 20 years old? I think he might have even been 19 when he got drafted out of Florida.

I mean, so he's been. For here, he was 19. He's been playing at such an early age, and this is one Ernie got right. Oh, yeah. Bradley Beal was one Ernie got right. He got Beal right. But, like, I'm, I guess I knew that he was up that high. I, it sort of surprised me last night how close he is to becoming the franchise's

all-time leading score. Like that's Elvin Hayes we're talking about. Elvin Hayes is like 12 all-time NBA scoring all-time. Beal's in his ninth year. He's got seven. He's basically in his prime right now for another NBA, another four or five years he's in his prime. He's really going to put up some his story.

Well, he's going to put up all. all-time historic franchise numbers. He's going to put up more than that, though. It's really, I'm surprised at that. I didn't know that. I mean, I didn't realize that he had had that many points. Now, Elvin Hayes had that many points in Washington. Remember, he had, you know, a lot of points in San Diego,

and then points in Houston. and then points in Houston at the end of his career, too. So, but, you know, the... Well, I just looked up, I just looked this up. Elvin Hayes played nine seasons with the Wizards. Nine. That's what... Bradley Beale is in his ninth season with the Wizards.

Right. Elvin Hayes never missed a game, you know? So, I mean, it's this, it adds up in a way in that, you know, I mean, they've both played almost the same amount of time. And Bradley Beal has become a very prolific score. But it's not that absurd that it's happening because Elvin Hayes only played nine seasons. He played his whole career. Remember, he started out with Houston, right?

Yeah, Houston, San Diego. Yeah. Tommy, the bottom line is Bradley Beal is going to become on that, you know, that Mount Rushmore of Wizards Bullets players. We did this a couple of weeks ago. You know, I remember we had this conversation. And I think we both said, you know, Beal's going to be in that conversation. But it's more than that. Does he surpass John Wall?

Well, he's going to if he hasn't already. I mean, John Wall never averaged over 30 points a game. Beal's about to do it for the second consecutive year. Now, these are shortened seasons. Last year was a shortened season. And this year is a shortened season. You know, he had some injury-riddled seasons early in his career, too. Elvin Hayes played, you know, basically between 80 and 82 games every year of his career.

You know, he was an Iron Man of all, one of the great Iron Men of all time in the game. But anyway, it's funny because I don't consider Beal to be a truly elite player in the game. He is definitely now an elite score in the game. I don't, you know, there are many players I would take. above Beal. You know, I would consider him to be not in the top 10 of players in the game. Some of you think that's nuts. I mean, I could just start ripping off names right now that there's no chance if you said,

trade them, you know, if you, Curry, you know, Janice, Kauai, Lillard, Donchich, Durant, Yokic, Embed, I mean, how many did I just rip off right there? I'll tell you what, I would steer clear of Kyrie Irving. Zion. I mean, that's probably eight or nine that I just ripped off, and I'm not even thinking about everybody.

I like Jimmy Butler overall as a, you know, he's a great score, a great score. He's not a top 10 player. I agree. It'll be interesting to see if he makes the all-NBA. He's going to make an all-N-B-A team this year, no doubt. And he'll deserve to make the third team. And he'll get paid then, too.

He'll get his Supermax contract. Yeah, I mean. If not here someplace else. Yeah, last year he didn't make, right? Last year he didn't make the top three teams. And it was sort of viewed as a bit of an outrage. He's going to make it this year. And actually last year, I remember saying he actually deserved it averaging over 30 a game.

And I'm trying to think, I think I liked him over Simmons or maybe somebody else who made it. Whatever. Simmons is another guy. I don't know if I'd take Simmons. I think about Simmons. Anthony Davis, of course. LeBron. I didn't even mention LeBron.

Who? Yeah. So, anyway. All right, enough about them. There was some controversy in baseball yesterday. The Nats lost. That's not where the controversy was. The controversy slash debate was about a no-hitter that wasn't.

More on that right after this word from one of our sponsors. The Nats shut out yesterday by the Mets. There's some really good defense. I was watching some of that game by the Mets. So the Nats are whatever they are. They're 8 and 11, and they've been without Soto for a while. and obviously they're without Strasbourg. I forget.

Did we talk about Strasbourg last week or not? No, we didn't. Okay. Go ahead. Well, I mean, this is what you get with the guy. Here's my question to you. I mean, he's been dismal since they signed him to a contract extension. But if you're a Nats fan, can you live with all that based on the fact that he brought you a World Series?

Damn right. Title. Definitely. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's not, I mean, what he did in game six of that World Series, what he did the year, you know, at Wrigley when they needed it, he's been their best clutch post-season performer. And it just sucks. Like I think right before the season started, I said to you, I would love more than anything else to see Strasbourg stay healthy and get every, you know, every opportunity to have a full season. to be a legitimate sigh young candidate, et cetera. And it just, you know,

it just doesn't seem like it's ever going to happen. I mean, that's not true because he's had a couple of incredible seasons. Yes. But, you know, right now, look, this is, it's such a long year. Nobody's jumped out in the National League East.

The Mets are in first place, one game above 500. The Nats are in last place, two games out. It's a long, long season. I just want him healthy, you know, for the majority of it. And then if they were to make it to the postseason, I definitely want him then. Because I think he's more, I don't think there's anybody more reliable, you know, in the postseason, in a big spot than Strasbourg. God.

Look, I'm fine. I'm not fine with him being hurt, but I have no problem with the investment the team made in him. Now, the question is, the other guy on the pitching staff, the ace of the staff, so to speak. Right. Max Scherzer is 37 and in the final, I think he's 37, and in the final year of his contract. And there's a lot of talk that if the Nats aren't competing at the trade deadline, he gets traded. Well, I mean, he's been awesome so far this year. You know, take away the opening day start.

which, by the way, started really slowly with those three or four home runs, whatever it was. I think it was four home runs, right, against the Braves. I was there. Yeah, and then all of a sudden he bared down and he, you know, he kept him in the game. And his last three starts, I think three or four now, have been unbelievable. I think I looked at his ERA before his last start and it was at two something. And then, you know, then he beat the Cardinals won nothing in that game last week. his ERA is probably below two right now.

I'm pulling it up right now. But my case to you is that can Nats fans, will Nats fans live with shirts are being traded? Or do they want the team to reinvest in him? It would depend on where they are in the standings. You're certainly not going to trade them if you're in a race. And his ERA right now is 1.80. All right.

four starts 1.80 ERA. So he's been outstanding. By the way, Corbyn wasn't terrible yesterday and he's been better in his last few starts. Be nice of them to get Lester back. Look, so far, really, their starting pitching hasn't been the issue.

No, Joe Ross has pitched well for them. Yeah, except for the last outing or maybe it was two hours ago. But I mean, here's a question for you. I think you could make the case that Max Scherzer is the most important baseball player in the history of this franchise. Yeah.

What do you think? Yeah. Do you think so, or is it Strasbourg? No, I think I think Scherzer is definitely ahead of Strasbourg as far as that's concerned. Okay. I mean, in terms of the postseason, look, they won a World Series because Strasbourg in game six was just had one of the all-time, you know, postseason pitching performances. He was dominant.

He was clutch. And, you know, Scherzer was, was, look, I mean, I go back to that Dodgers game when they pulled Scherzer out. I still don't know why they did it, but you agreed with it in the moment. And Scherzer never bitched about it, which has always been interesting to me. Whatever. I, yeah, I mean, more so than Ryan Zimmerman. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think Scher is it. I mean, Scherzer is... He's the Loss Hall of Famer. He's the only Lock Hall of Famer. Yes, he is. Three Sigh-Youngs, he walks in. Oh, yeah.

Absolutely. No doubt. So, and Ryan Zimmerman isn't that? No, he's not. Ryan Zimmerman has had a very good career, but not a Hall of Fame career. Right. Not even close. So no one else on their roster.

I mean, we think that Soto could get there one day, but obviously it's way too early. but Max Scherzer is the only Hall of Famer on these teams, right? And I know you can logically say, okay, well, if you're not going to sign them, you trade them at the trading deadline if they're out of it. But that will mean they would have said goodbye to Bryce Harper. They would have said goodbye to Anthony Rendon. And now the player who probably means more to this organization than any player in its history. They'll say goodbye, too.

I mean, I think these are, these, these kind of moves slowly do damage to a fan base that still is being built. It's a young organization. Relatively, of course. So it's still being built. I mean, you know, the football team has been here since 1937. The hockey and the basketball team have been here almost 50 years. All right. let me ask you about yesterday. Yesterday in a double header, you know, and the double headers this

year are seven inning double headers like they were during the, you know, the season over the summer and into the fall. And yesterday, Arizona, in two separate games against the Atlanta Braves, they won the first game five to nothing over the Braves. And the pitcher in that first game for Arizona was Zach Gallen, he pitched a one-hitter in seven innings. Then in the back half of the double-header, seven innings, Madison Bumgarner threw a perfect game in seven innings. Not just a no-hitter. There were no walks, no hits, nothing in that game. Actually, that's not true. There was an error. There was an error in my fault. There was an error in that game, so it was a no-hitter. through seven innings and they beat the brave 7-0.

First of all, I mean, is it possible that one team could generate just one hit in back-to-back games? That seems pretty hard, but they did it. I would imagine there's some sort of record there in a double-hatter, but then again, we don't have seven-inning double-heder history to compare it to. Anyway, the argument here is did he or did he not throw a no-hitter? Does it get registered as a no-hitter? The answer is no. do you agree with it?

This is kind of a tough one because, you know, I don't necessarily like the seven-inning double-headers, but I've also said on occasion that if they wanted to change the game to a seven- inning game, I'd be fine with that. Right. You know, so I think it has to be a no-hitter. I mean, it's distasteful to me on some level. I understand what you grew up with, and this is not what you grew up with, but these are the rules that you're playing with now. I mean, this is like the idea that when baseball was 154 games and Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in 162 games, his home run record doesn't count, didn't beat Babe Roots because he only did it.

He needed eight more games to do it. Right. I mean, this was the whole controversy when Ford Frick was commissioner back then, and he put an asterisk next to Roger Maris's record and people rebelled against that. So if you're not buying that, then you have to live with the idea that this guy pitched a legitimate major league baseball, no hitter, as constituted in 2021. Okay, so basically, you know, they had made the rule way back in 1991, that only a full nine-inning plus game would count as a true no-hitter statistically. Just tell me if you think this is a legitimate argument or a legitimate counterpoint to those that would say no, and you say yes. And that is, you know, last night, I'll just tell you.

you and don't ask me why. Actually, I want to tell you about a really good new show on HBO, but you don't get HBO. No, I do now. Okay. Are you watching Mare? I'm going to. I've heard of great things about it. I'm going to watch it.

Two episodes in. Count me in on it. Two episodes in really good. The only thing that sucks is you can't binge it because it's, you know, week by week. Like my wife and I watched it for the second week in a row. Kate Winslet stars in it. She's great. there is one part of it

I don't like so I'll wait for you to watch it I can tell you this you know it's they're trying all of them trying very hard to do the Philadelphia accent and she's really trying hard and most people think she's pulled it off I mean she's a

Brit it just I guess because I'm a Kate Winslet fan it just I know how hard she's trying she's great in the show you're gonna I think you're gonna really love it it's a thriller so far Well, from what I've read, I think I'll like it.

But the reason I got hooked on watching it, I want to watch it, because I read a story, somebody wrote a story about it, and bringing up the question, if she's a Philly girl, why isn't she drinking Yingling? Why is she drinking Rolling Rock? Right, Rolling Rock Pittsburgh, right? Well, Rolling Rock, no, Rolling Rock was a Pennsylvania beer. I know, but I thought it was a Western PA beer.

It was a Western PA beer. But we drank it into Poconos. But once they moved out of, once they got bought up by Budweiser and moved out of La Trobe, all legitimate Pennsylvania beer drinkers swore them off. Right. Okay. You know, you wouldn't drink Rolling Rock after that. You just wouldn't.

So, I mean, I thought that was an interesting article. Why isn't she drinking Yingling? I'm not a big Yingling fan anymore either for personal reasons. But so that got me interested. And then I read more about it. And I said, I got to watch. watch this. What are the personal reasons on yingling?

Oh, I don't want to go in. I don't want to go down that road. It's a bumpy road. Is it, is it the taste, or is it something political? It's something political. Okay. Yingling tastes good. I don't mind yingling at all.

So the reason, so we got sidetracked here. I was up, and then when the show was over, I flipped it over to ESPN, where there was a great baseball game. going on. And by the way, already this year, there have been eight of them between the Dodgers and the Padres that have been fabulous. And last night, you know, I flipped it on, you know, before the show started, Dodgers had a 7-1 lead. When the show was over, it's 7-7 going into extra innings. And Kershaw is pinch hitting with the bases loaded and won out in the 10th. So it was just a very dramatic game. The game went to the 11th.

and this is why I bring this game up, you know, putting it side by side with Madison Baumgartner's no hitter that doesn't count. Well, the sack fly that Eric Hosmer had in the top of the 11th that scored, by the way, Tatis Jr., who had five home runs over the weekend in Dodger Stadium, went back to back with two home run games and then had a homer last night as well. Well, that sack fly in the 11th counts as an RBI for Hosmer. If that they put the runner on second. That's the key piece of information I forgot to mention. Yeah, you forgot to mention that.

They put the runner on second, free of charge. And that runner, Tatees advanced a third on something. And then Hosmer had a sack fly. Well, that was the whole, that's the whole point of the rule to stop. not to go to 14-15-en-in-in-game. I hate it. I don't like it either, but it counts statistically. And it's right now, it's sort of an interim thing. This isn't a definite thing. This is another COVID-season kind of thing to shorten the games and to make sure that they get these games in. Well, if his RBI counts a very logical argument against not counting a seven-inning double-hatter when you count an eight.

Aided RBI. Yes. It's a very logical. It's an aided RBI. It's a free RBI, really. Yes. So anyway. All right.

I did want to mention... So wait a minute. Yes. So you didn't watch any of the Oscars last night. None of it had zero interest. Do you want to tell me what I missed? Well, I watched it because my wife wanted to see it and her sister was visiting. and they wanted to see it.

Right. But it was really bad. Really bad. I didn't watch any of it. It was a terrible show. There weren't many clips from the movies that were nominated. It was just a, I know, they can blame it on COVID if they want, but it was a bad and boring, boring show. Really bad.

And they wound up, they wound up, the director, Stephen. Soderberg was the director and apparently he had engineered it so instead of having best picture at the end of the show like they usually do he engineered it so they would have best actor named at the end of the show because everyone thought it was going to be Chadwick Bosman right you know posthumously well it turned out to be Anthony Hopkins who wasn't even there okay the ending of the show was an absolute disaster. But Nomadland won for Best Picture. Have you seen that?

Say that again? No Mad Land won for Best Picture. I don't know I didn't know any of the movies. My son told me about one movie that he said, I have to watch, I don't even know if it was nominated, but the guy Riz Ahmed, who was in that Sound of Metal. Sound of Metal. My son said

it's a great movie that I'll love. He's right. He's right. Yeah. And he's And he said, Riz Ahmed's great. And he was the guy that was in Night of. Remember that HBO thing? No, it's a very good movie. All right. So I'll watch that one.

But Nomadland, I think, is good. Nomadland. I saw four of the movies that were nominated. And I thought Nomadland was the best of the bunch. Well, I bet you saw, I mean, I bet you saw more, I bet you saw way higher than the average of a typical year. of the movies that were nominated. Four of the movies you saw that were nominated.

I didn't see one of them. And usually in a normal year, a non-COVID year, I will have seen at least two of them, if not three of them, on average. I didn't see one of them. So how did you, you just watched them all at home? Yeah. I watched them all at home. You know, watched them all streaming at home.

The trial of the Chicago 7. Right. Nomadland Let me see The Sound of Metal and Mank The movie about the making of Citizen Kane Oh, okay

Is that the one Is that the one with Gary Oldman? Yes it is Okay, yeah I think my wife told me that I would like that one Did you like that? Yeah, but I liked it But I understand why a lot of people didn't

I liked it for different reasons That it turned me on to a guy I had heard of before, a muck-raking activist of the early 20th century called Upton Sinclair, who I had knew about before, but I didn't know how much of an impact he had. And he plays a key role in this movie, Mank. So I enjoyed it, but I think a lot of people were disappointed by it. All right. So I need to see Sound of Metal, it sounds like.

We're both in on mayor of East Town. By the way, her last name is Sheehan in the movie. And her son, I won't tell you what she had a son named Kevin, Kevin Sheehan. Oh, I know what I wanted to tell you. Oh, this is too easy. If I haven't told you this already. I did watch the Hemingway documentary, the Ken Burns thing. It was excellent.

Yeah. Did you watch it? Of course I did. Oh yeah. It was it was another one of his that was just so well done. God, the narration, the narrators in all of these things too, you know, voices like Jeff Daniels. You know, you listen to the voices and you know the voices adds a lot to it. I just thought it was well done. And it's not like I'm, you know, a literary Hemingway, you know, expert like you probably are. But I thought it was such an interesting story of such an interesting. life that did not end well. I've been tempted, and I think I'm going to do it maybe if they have it this year, if not this year, next year. I've been tempted, you know, sloppy, they mentioned sloppy Joes in Key West in the documentary as his favorite bar. That's where the other war correspondent, the woman, I forget her name now, Martha Galban or something like that, met him in Sloppy Joe's.

but they have a Hemingway look-a-like contest every year. It's a big deal at Sloppy Joe's. And I've been tempted to participate in it, but I haven't done it yet, but I think I'm going to if they have it this year, and definitely if not this year, next year. Well, just make sure that they're not giving out free yinglings, even that's a different area of the country.

All right. You read, we're going to circle back to the draft here shortly, but you read the same story that I read about the Shanahan's Seth Wickersham story. He always does a really good job of writing stories on ESPN.com. And he wrote a story that I really enjoyed yesterday. I mean, I guess the way to sort of describe it is it's, to me there were three, themes, if you will, of this Seth Wickersham story and ESPN.com, which by the way, was titled Inside the 2021 NFL Drafts Toughest Decision, the 49ers Choice at Number Three. But it's really a story about three things, in my opinion. One is this constant NFL fan discussion,

debate about do you have to have the elite quarterback or can you win a Super Bowl and be really good for a long period of time with just a decent quarterback, a good quarterback, a top half of the league quarterback, which is what I've always said. You can have a sustained winner with the top half of the league, but I don't know if you're going to be great with that. You've got to put a really good team around him. So that was part of it. Is this, you know, Kyle traded up from 12 to 3.

because Garoppolo is just, you know, just barely good enough. He's not a top five quarterback. He's not an elite quarterback, and they're going to go for the elite quarterback. And so part of the story is just the, you know, that long-running debate and how it's played into Kyle Shanahan's career and his father's career. Because Mike, obviously, won back-to-back Super Bowls in Denver with one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, John Elway. but was a really great coach, but never got back to the Super Bowl with not an elite quarterback. Got close, went 13 and 3 in 2005 with Jake Plummer, but Plummer threw four interceptions in the AFC championship game against Penn Rathosberger, and so they didn't get back.

And so Mike the following year went for Jay Cutler, you know, went big for Jay Cutler, like his son is going big for either Mack Jones or Trey Lance. By the way, that's the reporting this morning that the 49ers have narrowed it down to Mack Jones and Trey Lance. I'm going to tell you right now they didn't trade up from 12 to 3 to get into a debate over two quarterbacks. I still think it's going to be Mack Jones. Anyway, that's one of the discussions, you know, one of the points of this story. The second part is just about sort of Kyle and his journey and Mike in his journey as coaches and of all of the different situations they've come in. into and why they've both been so successful and influential in the game.

And then I think the third part of this was a subtle case that Wickersham makes, that I've made in the past, that Mike is a Hall of Fame coach. Yes. Yes, he does. Here's what it is. And this drives Washington football fans nuts. It's an inside the industry view of how Mike Shanahan is looked at. Right.

inside the industry of football, Mike Shanahan is revered. Revereed. Yes. And that may drive you nuts to hear that. But in the business where he does business, he is held in high esteem. Well, I mean, who cares? If it drives you nuts as a Washington football fan

because you think he sucked, you're just wrong. No, the owner sucked. The owner sucked. Mike Shanahan didn't suck. The owner and everything around him suck. Now, if you want to be critical of Mike for 2013, not basically putting it to the owner to say,

fuck you, I play my guy and I coach my people the way I want to coach him or I'm done, he could have done that. He could have done that. And probably should have done it. But he didn't, and they tried to make it work coming off 2012, because they had won a division.

They had nearly won a playoff game, and he was hopeful. But, you know, there are a couple of things that Wickersham writes in here. First of all, he says, you know, Shanahan's Broncos were five and three against Belichick overall. And Patriots coaches always lamented that Shanahan was the toughest coach to scheme against. Talking about the 2005 season in particular when they went 13 and 3 and ended up losing in the AFC title game, They beat New England in the divisional round, lost to the Steelers at home in the AFC title game, and that was the year, you know, Rathusberger's first year, and they went on to beat Seattle in the Super Bowl, and he had Jake Plummer throwing four

picks in the game, but they had gone 13 and 3 with Jake Plummer, you know, and by the way, had had some decent teams with guys like Brian Greasy. But Wickersham writes it was some of the finest work of Shanahan's career. In fact, he was a better coach than he was when he was winning championships in Denver. You know, and they talk about what happened in Washington. Wickersham writes in Washington, both Mike and Kyle, coached RG3 to a playoff appearance in the AP offensive rookie of the year win. But then the quarterback's ego skyrocketed as his play descended and body broke down. Both father and son were victims of the Dan Snyder morass and fired after the 2013 season.

If Mike had ever found another Hall of Fame quarterback after Elway, he might have walked away as the greatest coach of his generation. Instead, his good friend Bill Belichick, with two winning seasons and eight without Tom Brady, will, you know, walk away as the greatest coach of his generation. You know, he makes the case that, you know, and he makes the case right there. Belichick's walking into the Hall of Fame, obviously, is the greatest coach maybe of all time and certainly the greatest coach of his generation. but without Brady was basically two winning seasons in eight. And Shanahan had two championship seasons and had other great seasons and playoff seasons with very mediocre to subpar quarterbacks.

But I think, look, a two-time Super Bowl winning coach and really his offensive influence, which they talk about in this story, which everybody in the league respects how much much they've influenced the game offensively and that Kyle's almost taking it to another level, that that enough is enough to get him into the Hall of Fame. I've felt that for a while now. And I agree. I absolutely agree. I don't know if it will, but it should be. Yeah. That was a good story. I mean, forget about the Shanahan Hall of Fame, subtle, you know, sort of push. It's just,

you know, this debate that we have all the time, I am a believer that you've got to keep trying to get the elite quarterback, that the elite quarterback is the only way you can be guaranteed of a sustained long run of being in contention. On the other hand, though, can you make the argument that it's easier to find great players at other positions that it is a quarterback? And if it is, then why not build that way? Well, because if you build that way, you are always going, more likely than not,

you're going to come up short of winning it all because you don't have the elite quarterback. And more years than not, you're not even going to be a contender without the elite quarterback. I don't know that I disagree with you that it's easier, that less misses happen on other positions, although actually I don't know what the data would say to that. I think that's just my instinct. Yeah. But the...

I mean, because elite quarterbacks are so rare. The bottom line is the five that are going to go potentially in the top seven to ten, you know, depending on what happens. Three of them are going to be insignificant to the NFL and maybe four of them. And one of them, you know, may end up being a true franchise, potential elite quarterback. But you don't know which one it's going to be. That's the problem.

problem is we've gone through this, you know, over the years. It's just not, it's a one and four shot, basically. So maybe you get two out of the five. Who knows? I think you have to keep trying, you know, and that's why I've said, if Ron Rivera, Marty Herney, Martin Mayhew, et cetera, if they decide to go big and make a big move because Justin Fields drops and they really like Justin Fields. And by the way, I've said this a couple of times going back two months. I think there are people in this organization that like Justin Fields. I know some of the reporting has been Trey Lance. And that may be true too. I just know that certainly two months ago there were important people in this organization that loved Fields. So if they decided to, you know,

go big and trade up with Carolina at eight and take Justin Fields because he's dropping, I'd have no problem with that. Just like I was all for the Matt Stafford attempt. And I would have been all for a Deshawn Watson attempt. Obviously, that, you know, is on hold for everybody. I think you have to keep trying on that front. If you really believe that the guy, you know, you've evaluated the guy as, you know, one of the four that's going to make it.

I think you have to keep trying. That's the easiest way getting a top. five quarterback is the easiest way to guarantee that over a 10 plus year period, 80% of the time you're in the hunt. The other ways, look at Denver, lots of talent, you know, and no quarterback for the last several years. And they haven't been back to the playoffs since getting to the Super Bowl. Buffalo once they got their quarterback. Exactly. Anyway, a few draft thoughts right after this word from one of our sponsors. I mentioned the Ian Rappaport in Peter King.

I think I did earlier in the podcast. Both of those gentlemen reported that the 49ers have narrowed it down to two quarterbacks, Trey Lance and Mack Jones. I really have a hard time believing that Kyle Shanahan traded what he traded to move from 12 to 3 without knowing exactly what they were going to do. I guess. It's feasible to think that there's still debate going on. Kyle may have his mind made up,

but there may be other people with a voice in the organization that want something different. Okay. Well, we'll see. I think it's going to be Mack Jones. You know, the fact that Justin Fields isn't being discussed here, I mean, Coley doesn't love Fields. He's got him fifth out of the top five guys.

guys. Kooley's been very adamant that it's going to be Mac Jones, and if it's not Mac Jones, it'll be Lance. It won't be Fields at three. He just doesn't see Fields as a Kyle guy. He sees Mac Jones as a Kyle guy and sees Lance potentially as a Kyle guy as well. So that's, you know, that's essentially where they are right now. And then you get to four. If it's, you know, I had Ben on the show today. I had another draft. guy in the show today. I've been reading a lot over the weekend. If Mac Jones doesn't get picked at three by the 49ers and it's Trey Lance, Mac Jones could go all the way to 15 in New England. I mean, it's a really interesting thing. And I think all of you college football fans

would say the same thing. Okay, he's good, but he's not the other four, you know, and for a lot of reasons. But if somebody, all it's going to to take his one team to love him and they're going to go. But if it's not the 49ers, there's thought he could drop to 15. If it is Mack Jones at three, everything hinges on four with Atlanta. Do they take Trey Lance and have him sit behind Matt Ryan for a couple of years? Or do they take Kyle Pitts or do they trade back with a team like Denver who wants to come up and take Trey Lance or with Chicago or with Washington or with New England? I don't think Washington's going all the way to four. And then what happens?

happens with Fields. Well, Cincinnati's not taking a quarterback. Miami's not taking a quarterback. Detroit and Carolina may not take quarterbacks, but, you know, I think it's logical to think that if you want whomever the fifth is, or if it's the fourth and he's dropping and he's the guy you want like Fields, you're probably going to have to get in front of Denver at nine. Now, there were a couple of mock drafts this weekend that had Washington trading up to 14 and taking Micah Parsons. You know, that's a possibility, too. John Kimes reported on both of them. They could trade into the top, you know, eight to take the quarterback that falls that they love,

or they could trade up to 13 or 14 or 15 for an offensive lineman or for a Micah Parsons. Or maybe even the line, you know, or another linebacker, like, you know, in a Wuso-Coromoa pie. possibly, who now everybody has going before 19. It's going to be, it's really, Tommy, you know, I'm not a super, I love the draft. Don't get me wrong. But I'm not, I recognize what it is, you know, I recognize that like 30% of these guys are going to be significant contributors. You know, like a really good draft is basically a one out of three contributing hit rate.

So it's a lot, you know, it's one of those things that no one really knows. And we're going to sit here, we're going to listen to people, tell us why this guy should have gone higher than another guy. But then there's going to be a guy that went in the fifth round that ends up being better than all of them. Are you going to the draft party? No, I'm not going to the drive. Isn't the team having a draft party on Saturday at FedEx? The legendary draft party? Do you remember when we had to do those?

Oh, my God. Although the one with RG3 coming in on the helicopter, that was fun. Well, that was the biggest of all of them. I mean, there probably were $25,000,000 in the stadium for that. But how many of those Saturday? And him going up on stage and talking, that was fun. How many of those Saturday? with you and I out at FedEx Field watching the crew that would come in and pay 16 bucks for a beer

to see what? I mean, this is, and I've mentioned this before, and I hate doing this because it feels like we do it on too many shows, but this is what they got confused by. This is what they always got confused by. They thought the people that were showing up for those things were really reflective of their fan base. Anyway, no, I'm not going. I will be hosting our coverage on 980 to start on Thursday night. Oh, good. And I wanted to just say a couple of things before I finish up with a couple of things from Sally Jenkins column. Did you read her column this morning or not? Oh, yes. Yes, I did. I actually think there were some things in there. Sally loves herself some coaches, doesn't she?

Yeah, she does. She loves coaches. But I think there's some things in there that are actually new, including some quotes from Rivera that are new. and some stories that are new. But I wanted to just on the draft mentioned that, look, I think Washington's staying at 19 and they're going to take an offensive lineman, a linebacker, or potentially a corner. One of the things that I just started watching a lot of things over the weekend. I mean, whatever.

I mean, as Sage Rosenfeld said, you know, we're not film experts when we're watching games on YouTube or watching some of the highlight reels. Cooley's got the actual coach's film he's looking at, and there are, as Sage Rosenfeld said, you know, a couple hundred people that actually have access to that, and have the expertise to look at it. The corners in this draft, I would not be shocked if a cornerback is way up on Washington's board at 19, like a Newsom at a Northwestern or a horn at a South Carolina. Both of those guys can play. Now, almost every mock I see Horn going as the second corner after Sartan,

who's been mocked to the Cowboys more than any players, been mocked to any team other than Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson won two to Jacksonville and the Jets. But there's the possibility that a corner is there. I asked Ben this morning, and I think it was an interesting question for him to answer, and also one for all of you to sort of contemplate. Like, what's the wild card at 19. Like somebody that had, like we've all been discussing guys like Derisaw, Parsons, Owuso Coramoa, Elijah Vera Tucker, Zayvon, Zayvon Collins. Yeah, go ahead. Let me just mention to people. Don't spend too much time contemplating this. Find something

more fruitful to do with your time. I'm trying to appeal to the people that listen to this that are really into this draft, and you're not that much. So just give me a another minute here. The names that we've all been talking about, you know, is it's, you know, De Slater drop, will Derresaw drop? You know, is it going to be the tackle? Everybody thinks we really need a tackle. You know, it could also be Parsons. You know, there could be a trade-up for Parsons. If Parsons drops to 19, doesn't that say something about Parsons? What about Ouso-Coromo, the linebacker he'd fit in? So we've all had those conversations. But what would be the wild card? I think the corner is the wild card. I think a guy like,

Corn or Newsom at 19 would not shock me. When you watch these guys play games and you still consider that they still have a bit of a need. I know they got Jackson the 3rd, and they've got Kendall Fuller. They still need corners. It would not shock me if that's a wild card, a corner at 19. The other wild card is a running back. And if we haven't talked about this already, and I forget if Kooley and I talked about it, I know I talked about it on the show.

Peter Schrager, who does a pretty good job with mock drafts, mock Travis E.N to Washington at 19 in his last mock. Well, if Nadjah Harris is on the board, sorry, I'm taking Harris. If Harris is on the board at 19 and he's the highest rated player on Washington's board, even though it's not an obvious need, they should take Nadjay Harris. He is Marshaun Lynch, Derek Henry, like. He's going to be a major impact player. and I love Gibson too, but Najee Harris has a chance to be a premier elite back.

And maybe you think Gibson's that too. I would not do it for ETN. Anyway, I wanted to finish up to show Tommy with this, Sally's column. You read it and I read it. But I want to get to the parts that I thought were interesting, but just to give everybody sort of a sense, she basically wrote a column about Ron Rivera and about how he's the right guy for the job. I love her first couple of paragraphs. I'll read them real quickly.

Some people just naturally know how to say things in a voice that will make dogs sit and men dig entrenchments. And Ron Rivera is one of them. Born at Fort Ord in California where his father was an Army Chief Warren officer, he has such a habitual tone of command that you can practically hear the italics in his words, even on Zoom. And then she goes through some of the things that he is said. She writes, a lot of faux militaristic spittle-flying harangers say the same things as they pass through head coaching jobs in the NFL. What separates Rivera is that he's actually got a record as a turnaround artist twice now taking Dormat teams to division titles. I would just point out here, yes, they won a division title. They were seven and nine. And yeah, it's a little bit quick to

declare this a turnaround. I think that it's rather quick to declare it. It's rather quick to declare. to turn around yet. But, you know, he has taken dormant teams to division titles. She writes, but if the members of the Washington Football Club are to make a real transformation from long-time losers to enduring winners, it won't be because Rivera orders them in a loud voice. It will be because after all of the years of managerial duplicity and double talk, they finally believe in somebody. And then, you know, she writes what he has said, which it's something that you and I have talked about for years, which is sustainable culture change, you know, a sustainable winning organization. There's a big difference, and I pointed this out for years, and we both talked about it, between a

good team and a good franchise, or a good season and a good franchise. Every team in the NFL has a good season every once in a while. It does not make you a good franchise. Washington's been in the bottom, quarter, bottom, you know, third consistently of franchises or lower. for 21 years, but they've still had the occasional good season. But they've never had this sustainable good culture and good franchise. Now I want to get to the part where I think these are new things. And it deals with two specific players. Dwayne Haskins and a second player, who I will name here shortly.

She writes, Rivera wasn't holding everybody to the same. standard. She said, and they all knew it. Quarterback to Wayne Haskins, the personal first-round draft pick of owner Daniel Snyder, was a visible laggard. If there was one bad habit in the organization, the veterans knew it was the devaluing of real effort while allowing a favored few to slide. We know this over the years. Snyder's favorite few slid while coaches were forced to sometimes keep. them, you know, on the field, despite it hurting the rest of the locker room. Sally continues. Rivera desperately wanted to give Haskins a fresh chance. And he said, I love the arm,

and he's got a fast twitch about him when he sees the right thing. At first Rivera figured all Haskins needed was some schooling. For 11 straight weeks from training camp through the first month of the season, he gave Haskins every snap with the first team. I was trying to create as much of an opportunity is possible to develop and grow, Rivera said. But after an initial burst of progress, Haskins reverted to a habitual casualness. He says, quote, to Sally, look, everybody's got a great arm in this league. What separates them is the other part of it, closed quote. While Rivera felt obliged to give Haskins every chance, it became plain how badly he was being outworked by other quarterbacks, particularly Alex Smith, who was trying to prove his post-injury durability

despite 17 surgeries, and was another player Rivera didn't know quite what to do with to Smith's ire. Reluctant to test Smith's leg, Rivera felt most comfortable with the undrafted Kyle Allen, a dogged worker he calls, quote, a very steady force. He's a, hey, all right, whatever you want me to do, I'll do guy, closed quote. Haskins was a huge complication in Rivera's culture campaign because he made all of Rivera's talk just wind. By the second game, Rivera was concerned, and by the third, when Haskins gave up three interceptions and a fumble and a loss to Cleveland, Rivera started asking hard questions of his staff. What type of commitment do we have? What is he doing? When is he getting in? When is he leaving? What extra things has he done? Who's he been working with? Rivera would ask receivers, hey, have you been doing any extra work with him? The reply was no. And he'd say, you haven't?

When Rivera and his staff looked at the Cleveland game tape, he saw something that truly startled him. On a throw late in the game, Haskins went through his progression backward. His first look was to a receiver who was the last option on the play. A week later, he demoted Haskins to third string, and it was one of the two most important personnel moves Rivera would make all season. I will say this, Rivera told Sally, I think doing what I did, helped me with the other guys because I showed them that, hey, guys, I'm not all in on just one guy. I'm all in on the team. Making the decision not only had the impact of taking a young player and benching him, but it also told a group of guys, hey, look, if you're not towing the line,

if you're not doing your job and working the way you need to work and doing the things we need them done, I'm moving on from you. The second most important player move was elevating and I'll leave off there and I'll come back to it to name the player in a second. First of all, the Haskin stuff, the Cleveland thing's new information. We hadn't heard that before. I also wonder what he means when she writes that he was obliged to playing, while Rivera felt obliged to give Haskins every chance, it became plain how badly he was being outworked by other quarterbacks.

Why do you think he felt obliged to playing him? Well, I think we know. I think it's, you know, because this was the owner's quarterback. This was where the competition went. It disappeared into the thin air. The one that he repeated, that he talked about when he got hired, the one he talked about during the draft, and the one he told, the one that he traded for Kyle Allen,

And the one he talked about the opening a training camp, none of that ever materialized. And I mean, it's, I don't know, you know, I know we just talked about, you know, worshipping at the author of Mike Shanahan, but sometimes these coaches aren't very smart. He had to know this coming in. Yeah, I think he, I think he and Scott Turner knew. Yeah, they had to. What was this guy's MO with the last coaching staff that he didn't work? Yeah.

You know? So, I mean, that this shouldn't at all, everything they described, like it took them to the third week to figure out that this guy wasn't working. That's a little bit bizarre. I think that, you know, it's interesting because, you know, a lot of people that are listening say, She and you wanted to see him. You saw, you know, something in them.

I didn't out of the draft, but I did in that first year. And what Rivera said here to Sally is, exactly what I thought, you know, I was seeing. Now, I didn't realize all the things he was missing, but when he said about him, he said, I love the arm and he's got a fast twitch about him when he sees the right thing. Think about some of Haskins' really good throws. Good God. Quick release, on time, with great arm strength, could make every throw. Like, there was some of that that we saw in some of these games. He wasn't horrible in every game. Yeah. No, he wasn't. So some of that, I think, like, if Rivera didn't see anything in him,

he would, I think he may have said to Dan, sorry, I'm not taking this job if you're going to tell me that I've got to try to make this a go of it. I think what also played into it is that he looked at the 2020 season and said, you know, this season, this is season one of a culture change, you know, of finding my bearings. And oh, by the way, he had cancer, you know, at the time. So all of that was going on, but I do think that he and Scott Turner, if forced to wager large amounts of money on whether or not Dwayne Haskins was going to be their starting quarterback in 2021, would have wagered no before the season started, I'm saying. Or when they took the job, I think that's what they would have wagered on. So here's the other part of this.

So he said, you know, he said the second most important player move was elevating unsung grinder Jeremy Reeves. And it was the complete opposite of the Haskin situation. Rivera had cut the 24-year-old safety from the roster of 53 in the preseason, but Reeves was the kind of guy who did everything he was asked of in double time. He had caught the coach's eye with his energy. Rivera told him, look, you got our attention. This is a numbers game. Keep working and I promise I'll give you an opportunity. And he had him on the practice squad. When Landon Collins went out with his Achilles injury, the football world expected Rivera to bring in big name veteran Eric Reed to help with the playoff chase. But Rivera kept his promise to Reeves and promoted him from the practice squad. Reeves ended up with the fifth highest rated safety in the league of course. according to Pro Football Focus, and he told everyone in the building Rivera was a man of his word.

By the way, Reeve said, I'd run through a brick wall for coach. I'll give coach everything because I got because he gave me an opportunity. He didn't have to do that. He had a guy that he knew that played in the system that he was comfortable with and he went with me. You know, remember, he did reach out to Eric Reed. And the reporting was that Eric Reed wasn't going to be given the starting job. He was going to have to come in and earn it first as a practice squad player, remember? Right. And he was going to have to earn it or, you know, he was going to have to earn it in practice. He wasn't going to be handed it. And Eric Reed said, no, I either come in and start or I'm not coming. And so, you know, these are the kinds of things that, you know,

the last really good coach that was here, Shanahan used to tell us, you know, you, the reason that he played Kirk Cousins at the end of that 2013 season and that is that he was going to lose the team if he didn't play him for those final three games because the the team knew. You can't fool the team.

I remember Santana Moss telling me the same thing. Yeah. Oh yeah. You cannot fool the team. We all see... There's the thing though. Sometimes you get a team that doesn't care. Yes. I mean, and that's an even worse. But yeah,

you're right. If you have players who care and you think you're building a foundation, you can't put one over on them. I mean, it's easy to put one over on a bunch of stiffs because they don't care. They're just trying to get to the end of the season. Yeah. You know, it's funny.

I heard recently I had another player tell me that he would have run through a wall for a coach, and it was one of the guys I interviewed about Marty Schottenheimer. Yeah. Who was it? I forget. I forget which one it was. It was a defensive player.

I remember you. Yeah, it was. Yeah, the, look, I think they have the right guy. I do. I think they have the right guy. And think about this first year for him. I mean, again, we've said it a million times, all the things he faced and then the personal situation he faced with cancer.

They're going to have, you know, pro football focus, if you guys miss this, rated Washington's roster, the eighth best roster in the NFL. Yeah, I saw that. Now, I mean, again, I mean, take pro football focus for what it's worth. But they do have a good roster defensively. They have some players on offense, and it's going to come down to, you know, the quarterback situation, as it typically does. I'm excited about Fitzpatrick this year. If they don't draft a quarterback, I'll be fine with it. I'd be fine with them drafting just a player that's got a chance to be, you know, a real A player. You know, a Chase Young, a Montez Sweat, a Dron Paine, a Terry McLaurin, you know, a legit player that's going to be, you know, obvious pretty quickly that we've got, you know, ourselves a really good player for years to come.

I think they've got a draft best player available. And we'll see what happens. What else you got today? I got nothing else for you today, boss. It's a beautiful day out. Gorgeous day. Enjoy the day. Back tomorrow, hopefully with Cooley.

Hopefully he's feeling better. Have a great day.