The Kevin Sheehan Show - Brissett Replaces Howell

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

Kevin opened with his thoughts on the Commanders' decision to start Jacoby Brissett in their next game against the 49ers. Logan Paulsen jumped on the show to share his thoughts on the move as well. 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 Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. This is about Sam's continued development, and, you know, things hadn't gone as well as we'd like for the last few weeks. So, you know, we just think this is a good opportunity for him to watch. And, you know, I think Jacoby being the professional that he is

and really playing the way he has, has really going to give, I think, Sam, an opportunity to see some things and see how the offense goes. I think it'll help him. Ron Rivera earlier this morning making the announcement that Jacoby Brissette will be the starter against San Francisco on Sunday in Landover. Not a big surprise. We talked about that yesterday, but it became official earlier this morning.

No Tommy on the show today. Tommy will be with me tomorrow. I mentioned that he would be back with me today, thinking that today was Tuesday. But today is Wednesday, tomorrow is Thursday. Tommy will be on the show. tomorrow. Logan Paulson will be on the show today as a guest. Logan's insight, always great. We'll get to him starting in the next segment of the show, a show that is presented, as always, by Windonation. Call Windonation at 86690 Nation or go to Windonation.com for a great offer that you can access

as a listener to this podcast. Please rate us and review us if you haven't done that as we approach the end of the year and get ready for a new one. It's important that we get our ratings and reviews up on Apple and Spotify in particular. So if you haven't rated us or reviewed us on Apple, just pause the podcast. You can. If you don't mind, take 30 to 60 seconds. Give us five stars. If you see fit, write a quick one to two sentence review. It's very helpful when we get those reviews. And so many of you have done a great job with that. Also, subscribe to the podcast. and follow us on Apple and Spotify. That's a big help also.

So as it relates to Ron's official announcement that he's going to go with Jacoby Brissette on Sunday against the 49ers. I have kind of a big, as coolly would say, overarching theme thought on the decision, and then I've got five other mentions after that as it relates to this decision. Let's start with the overarching thought or the overarching theme, you know, on the decision Ron made to go with Jacoby Berset.

My overarching thought on this is it just doesn't matter much at all. It's kind of irrelevant, you know, almost beside the point. This season is coming to an end in less than two weeks. And when it ends, the current coaching staff who made this decision, they're going to be gone. much of the football front office, they're going to be gone as well. The players in that building, many of them won't be back. There is probably a major roster overhaul coming in this upcoming off season. The two quarterbacks who are part of the decision, they are probably not going to be for the new regime,

part of the plan A when it comes to the quarterback position. in the upcoming off season. Plan A is probably going to start with the draft and may move to something else if they don't love the players in the draft. Maybe free agency. You know who's going to be a free agent. The decision by Ron today is one of those decisions that, as he would say, is interesting but not important. There's no real cause and effect here, really. I mean, the decision to start percent probably does increase the team's chances of being more productive offensively against the Niners, but they're not beating the 49ers with or without percent. You know, there's just not much of a chance to beat that team coming off the loss that they just came

off of against Baltimore and needing to win the game to keep the number one seed alive for them. Washington is just a much inferior team to the 49ers. They're not going to stop the Niners with their defense, no chance. Now, there is one scenario, which I'm going to get to here in a moment, for the season finale that might make today's decision more of an issue. But Ron, as of this morning, did not commit to Jacoby beyond Sunday, although it wouldn't surprise me if Preset starts both games, the 49er game and the Cowboy game.

Look, this would be a bigger deal. This would be more important if they were playing, say, Carolina or Arizona or the Jets again on Sunday. Because, yes, playing Brissette against those teams might jeopardize draft position. But again, you know, defensively, come on, the Niners are going for 30 plus at least. They're not going to beat the Cowboys unless, and here's the scenario that I wanted to spell out for everybody. you really have to root for Dallas to beat Detroit on Saturday night. Because if Dallas loses that game and Philadelphia beats the Cardinals, Dallas is eliminated from the division race.

And they are locked into the five seed, which means that season finale in Landover against the Cowboys could be a game in which Dallas rests all of its starters because they would have nothing to play for. But if they beat Detroit, then they are guaranteed All right, guaranteed to have a meaningful game against Washington in that season finale. If they were to lose to Detroit and Philly were to lose to Arizona, seems improbable, but who knows, then Dallas would still have something to play for.

But if they lose and Philly wins, they're locked into the five seed, they're eliminated from the NFC East race, and they might decide to just, you know, let the starters have a buyweek. or many of them to have a buy week against Washington. But whether it's Brissette or Howl in that game, playing against Dallas last year when they actually did have something to play for, even though it was a long shot, you know, it's not going to matter who the quarterback is because if Dallas has nothing to play for,

Washington's going to have a chance in that game more likely than not. So anyway, but look, in this moment right now, most of the people involved in today's decision aren't going to, to be here next year. So it's, from that standpoint, I don't think a big deal. And those that will be here probably aren't going to be in the mix to be a starting quarterback of the two players. I mean, that's not true necessarily if they draft a player. It's possible that they'll keep somebody like Sam to start until the new quarterback, the young quarterback, the rookie quarterback is ready. but anyway, the overarching theme, just not that big of a deal.

Now, I have five less overarching thoughts to today's decision. Number one, man, does this kind of highlight just how way off Ron was about Sam's development? He just does not have a feel for the position. You know, it's been his biggest failure from the decision to let Dan essentially get his and see what Dwayne could do in 2020 when they had the number two pick in the draft to not offering enough. Maybe it wouldn't have been enough anyway on Matt Stafford, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Carson Wentz. And then, you know, the wing in a prayer that is Sam Howe. You know, a prayer that he convinced himself through some good games, actually, and some bad ones

that Sam was coming along and might actually answer Ron's prayer to make Ron look smart at the end of his tenure by leaving a starting quarterback. But man, he bailed on the thing that he said was as important as anything else this year. Thought number one is, man, was Ron way off on Sam? And man, is it a bit of a surprise considering where we were, say, week eight, week nine, week 10, that he's bailing on Sam with two weeks to go. He's benched him two weeks in a row, and now he's bailing on this project with two weeks left. That gets me to thought number two. So why did he do it?

Why did they do it? Is a better description, actually, because I think Eric B. Enemy was in lockstep with Ron on this decision. So why did they do it? Well, in part because they gave up on Sam's high ceiling potential. Remember from the jump, Sam got the nod because they were interested in the unknown. They chose to develop the player on their roster at quarterback whose ceiling was unknown. They knew what Jacobi's was. They didn't know what Sam's was. They knew Sam had some big time talent.

They weren't going to just throw him out there if the kid didn't have talent, which he did. But nobody knew if he could actually do anything with the talent, and they wanted to see if he could. because if he could, he more than Brissette had a chance to be a long-term answer at the position. Well, bailing on him with two games to go against teams that are playing for something, good teams playing for something, is at least a small admission that they've got a good idea that his ceiling isn't high enough. Because if it were still high enough in their minds, you know, right now, if they still felt that Sam had a super high ceiling,

they'd have enough confidence that he could play his way through some of these struggles. They'd put him out there. They don't have that confidence. They don't have that confidence at all. Why? Because the flaws that he has are serious ones, and they haven't gotten better. We've talked about this all season long.

The flaws were even noticeable in his good games, in his encouraging moments when he was taking too many sacks. You know, those flaws have been more noticeable against the better teams they've faced recently, especially the better defensive teams that they have faced recently. You know, not so much in sack totals, but in his bailing from the pocket too quickly and missing the throws they want him to make.

Bailing out of the pocket quickly may have lowered the sack numbers in recent weeks, but it also dropped overall production. His flaws have been and still are serious ones. He doesn't see things and because of it he's indecisive, which they've talked about a lot here recently. And it's hard for him being an indecisive quarterback that doesn't see things clearly. It's hard for him to throw with anticipation, to throw people open as NFL people like to talk about. to throw into those windows in the NFL, you've got to be able to throw with great anticipation, which means you've got to see it.

And his weaknesses are not seeing it. It's why in college he took so many sacks. It's why in the pros he's taking so many sacks. It's why in the pros here recently to avoid the sacks, he's bailed quickly from the pocket. His weaknesses can be improved, but they've got a history of not improving significant. enough. That's been the issue all along, and they finally saw enough to think that these flaws were too hard for him as of now to overcome. I got this tweet from Lex earlier today. Lex said, Kevin, doesn't keeping Sam from playing against the big bad 49ers say everything you need to

know about Sam? He's done. He's not the guy. They admitted that he was too broken to face the Niners, that's not future starter material. There's some truth in that, Lex. I don't completely disagree with that. You know, I think that Sam does look shot, mentally in particular. I think putting them out there is probably something that they now deem to be, you know, something that would only lead to further diminishing returns. But yeah, it says that they feel he's basically not up to this right now.

And as I just said, I think it's an indication that. that big ceiling that they hope to see and see more clearly at the end of the year than maybe they saw at the beginning of the year, it's not light at the end of the tunnel right now, not enough of it. It's not a great sign. It's not a great look. I mentioned yesterday that I didn't really have a strong feeling one way or the other, but I'd prefer to see Sam fight through this on the field.

They're not going to do that. My third thought on this, that is not in the overarching theme category. Did you know? And I had a longtime caller and friend of the program, Kevin, reach out to me to say, check out Ron's overall career record. This may be the reason he's going to Berset. Ron Rivera currently sits one game above 500 career. He is 102, 101, and two on his career.

If he loses these final two games to the 49ers and Cowboys, he will leave coaching, because he's not going to be a head coach after this year, he will leave coaching with a sub-500 record. After pretty much for the entirety of his career, being several games over 500, if he drops the games to the 49ers and the Cowboys, he will finish 102, 103, and 2, sub 500. I actually think there might be something to that.

That Ron is, you know, alpha male, competitive. I think he knows. You know, I had somebody respond to say, well, why did he play Sam Howell in the season finale last year? Because you said he really wanted to go 8, 8 and 1 in that game. against the Cowboys and not finish sub-500 again with a losing record. Well, remember, he didn't want to play Sam Howell in that game.

He wanted to play Taylor Heineke. And in the moment, going into that Dallas game last year, I think we all would have said, and I think they would have said their best chance to beat Dallas is to play Taylor Heineke, not put the kid in that hasn't played one down all year as a rookie in his first start. It was Taylor Heineke, who convinced Tron to play him,

Maybe others as well. Anyway, I'm not discounting that at all that Ron looked at this and said, got to win a GD game here. Can't end on this massive losing streak. Can't walk away from coaching with a sub-500 record. Maybe. Next point that I wanted to mention about Preset. I don't think this was about the locker room at all.

I had several of you say he had to do it. He had to save the locker room. He had to respond to the locker room. I think I mentioned this yesterday. This with two games left, all right? These guys in that locker room, they like Sam. You know, this isn't an issue with some of the previous quarterbacks that they've had. And by the way, much earlier in seasons, there are two games left.

They like Sam. I don't think they would have had a problem with Sam going out there for the final two games. What's Ron going to do? Lose the locker room with two games left in his. coaching career? Nah. I don't think that was it at all. Ben made the point to me on radio earlier that if this were about the locker room, he wouldn't have been out there all year long spouting this season as a season to develop a young rookie quarterback as almost a bigger priority than winning. Yeah, I don't think that was it. Last point, and then we'll get to Logan Paulson.

I'm rooting for Jacoby Brissette, not to win games. I want them to lose these two games, but man, for a few years now, whenever Jacobi Brissette's name has come up for anything. And I've kind of followed his career because I've always been a fan going back to NC State. I've always liked Jacobi Brissette as a player. He always looked like, you know, that big, statuesque quarterback in the pocket, who also had, I thought, underrated mobility. You know, never have thought that he was like, you know, a guy that could start and lead a team to a Super Bowl.

You know, remember, after last year's season in Cleveland, there was a chance that somebody was going to give him a legitimate opportunity to be a starter. And I think maybe he even thought there was a chance to beat out Sam Hal when he got here. But he is, by all accounts, the absolute best team first guy in every locker room he's been. been in. Total class act. You know, if you've listened to him recently, super supportive of Sam Hal, even in Sam's toughest moments here in recent weeks, he's a guy that is easy to root for. Like, it would be great if Jacoby Berset had a chance somewhere next year. It probably won't be here with the likelihood of a quarterback drafted in the top three or four of the draft. But it would be great to see Jacoby Brissette get the opportunity that Gino Smith got in Seattle later in his career.

I don't know if it's the same exactly, but Brissette's a good quarterback. He's not a great quarterback. He's not a top half of the league's starting quarterback. He's not, in my opinion. There's just something about him that I think people have always wanted around their locker room, around their young quarterbacks. Ron made the comment today. He said they brought in Derek Anderson in Carolina after they drafted Cam. after they drafted Cam Newton, and that Derek Anderson was an incredible mentor to to Cam Newton, excuse me, and he said, Jacoby's been even better. He's just been an absolute mentor and first-rate guy in trying to help everybody develop Sam. So I don't want them to win these

two games, but I would love it if Brissette played well and they lost both games. All right, up next. We'll talk to Logan Paulson right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show with Logan Paulson is brought to you by our good friends at Surfside, D.C. You still got friends and family in town and you're looking for a dinner solution. How about Surfside's fajita boxes? Your favorite spot for tacos in D.C. has made it easier than ever to feed your family and feed them fast. Lots of family time this time of year. Surfside's fajita boxes are here to make dinners easy.

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Learn more at SurfsideDC.com. Jumping on with us right now is Logan Paulson, former NFL tight end, former Washington tight end, and Logan does such a great job in the market with everything he does for the commander's website, for their YouTube channel, and his podcast that he has with Craig Hoffman called Take Command. So I'll save the future talk for a time down the road when you've evaluated all the quarterbacks in the draft. And we'll focus on the present right now. And let's just start with your reaction to Ron Rivera's decision to bench Sam Howell

and start Jacoby Brousset Sunday against the Niners. Yeah, I mean, I think obviously this has been a really interesting couple of weeks. watching Sam and his development and development slash regression. And just when you watch that Jets game, it felt like there was, like, maybe too much on his plate, like there was a young man trying to drink water out of a fire hygiene type of deal. And I think when you see that from any player, but specifically a quarterback, I think it's time to kind of take a step back and kind of reset the system, so to speak, you know, like turn the computer off, turn it back on because he's not throwing with great

anticipation. He's not feeling pressure in the pocket very well. He doesn't understand kind of how tight, a tight window thrown the NFL is. So all those things kind of combined, I think, pointed to a young player who isn't ready right now. It's not playing well. And that doesn't take away from how I felt about what Sam did early in the year. That doesn't take away from the good stuff that he did. But I do think he's a young football player. And young football players have been known to take steps back at certain points. I think, you know, recently like look at Trevor Lawrence or Bryce Young. Like those guys were having, had really difficult spells early in their careers.

And I think this kind of feels like that to me. Just not seeing it well, not feeling it well. You need to take a little bit of a break. Need to take a little bit of a sit-down against the defense in San Francisco 49ers. That is excellent. You know, when you watch some of them, the way they match concepts, how well coached they are within their different and specific coverage structures is very, very, very high level.

And when you look at quarterbacks that have been successful against them, They're throwing with great anticipation. They're extending plays. They're not phased by a very dynamic pass rush. So this felt like kind of the worst case scenario for Sam based on how he's been playing the last three weeks. So it definitely feels like the right decision for me. Do you think that sitting him now, and I hear you on the regression, and, you know, it's the

Ron answer from earlier. It's probably just best for him that we kind of save him from himself and let him sit back and take a break, take a breath, as Ron said. But on some level, you know, for a guy that some thought at various points in time during the season was the answer, was the long-term answer, isn't it a bit of an indictment that you're kind of fearful about putting them out there against the Niners and maybe even the Cowboys to finish up the year? You know, fearful, I don't know if that's the right word. I think if I was, I was trying to put myself in the coach's position, the head coach's position. And, you know, ultimately, like, I know

this isn't the fan's motivation, but my motivation is to win games and develop football players. And right now, I don't think that me playing Sam or coach playing Sam versus the 49ers is going to develop him. And really, that's the ultimate goal. And I think, you know, I was one of the guys who was very high on Sam coming out of that New England game. Like, he's turned a corner. He looks like the guy of the future, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I still feel that way. I still feel like he's got the ability to do that. But right now, with the way he's seeing the field, especially the last couple of weeks, the confidence, the anticipation, or the lack of confidence, excuse me, just seems to be so prevalent. And there's a couple ways you can get out of that.

If you're a coach, one is you let the guy ride, let him take a beating in the first half and bench him again, or you say, hey, let's just prep this week like you're the starter. Let's watch a lot of film. Let's get you ready like you're starting. And hopefully you kind of can relax, watch Jacoby do it, kind of get a better feel for, again, what this, like, nebulous term of, like, NFL Open is. And I think that's ultimately what he's doing. And again, I don't think there's a, you know, indictment's probably a strong word, but I think it's true, though. I mean, he hasn't played as well as he probably could have or should have over the last three or four weeks, and something needed to be done differently to help his development and help

the team win. So ultimately, like, I don't have a problem with that. And, you know, I think a lot of people are hungering for this quarterback of the future year, and so am I. But, you know, like, getting to that guy, getting to that point is a long road, and it has bumps along the way. And I think Djigopi percent put it really eloquently when he brought that up in the press conference the other day. Like, good quarterbacks go through adversity, and this is a moment of adversity for Sam, and how does he handle it, and does he get better from it? It is a long road. There are a lot of ups and downs in the development of a true franchise quarterback. We've seen that as

football fans over the years, but there's a reason why teams eventually stop going down that road and taking that path, because at some point they believe that the return or the payoff won't be there.

Why do you think there's still a chance that the payoff would be worth continuing down the road? Or do you? Yeah, I think when you look at... Yeah, that's a really good question. And it's one that I have a great answer for, but I look at what Sam did this year, like the high point. I look at the Denver game, look at the New England game, look at the Philly games, and that you're not going

to find some of the throws he made against Seattle. You're not going to find better quarterback play than what Sam did in those outings, you know, in terms of confidence, delivering the football, toughness, moxie, all those things that kind of encapsulate that ambiguous, it factor for a quarterback. And so the fact that I've seen it, that you've seen flashes of it, when you get guys like Desmond Ritter, who consistently week in and week out despite having total support of that offensive system seems to struggle, right? And

I think this is kind of the opposite. I think one of the things that they chose to do in developing Sam Howell here is really put a lot of pressure on him. We're going to throw the ball a ton. We're going to put you in high leverage situations a lot. And I thought he handled those situations really, really well. He seems to have

slipped up a little bit as the defensive has gotten better the last couple of weeks. And that's a challenging position to be in. Like these defenses that he's played, you know, the, the, the cowboys, the Miami Dolphins, the L.A. Rams, they run a coverage structure that's very hard to diagnose. And the cowboys are a little bit different in that sense because they bring so much pressure, and they kind of cover up their simple coverage structures with all the pressure they're bringing, but very, very talented defenses, and the margin for error was going to be so, so small. So, like, I'm not surprised there's been a little bit of regression.

and I think you want to see and perform well against these defenses, but I think it's also a little bit unrealistic to a certain extent. So am I still high on Sam? Yes. Do I approach this offseason with a moniker of caution? Absolutely. And I think does this preclude to Sam being on the roster preclude you from making an investment in the quarterback?

Absolutely not. But even if Sam had been absolutely bawling, I would say the same thing. If there's a guy that you love in free agency, a guy that you love in the draft, you still make that move. Now, because of his play, It's a little bit more open, a little bit more likely. I think a move is made in that direction. But I still think he's shown you enough that you say,

man, if we get the right system for him in here, we get the right coach to develop him, there is a path where this guy looks like an excellent football player over the next three to five years. Do you think there's a moment at some point where, as an evaluator, whether you're a coach or you're a front office, you see a body of work, which admittedly is still a small sample size of 15 starts this year. But what you see really in those really good moments, as you described, is that you

see Colt McCoy, or you see Gardner Minshu, or you see Case Keenham, or you see Tyrod Taylor, but you don't see, you know, a legitimate top half of the league NFL starting quarterback for the next 10 years. Is there a point in which a front office, an evaluator says, there's so much to like here, and he's such a great young man, but he's not, you know, he's got a ceiling. We now know what the ceiling is, and it's Minshu, as an example. Yeah. Do you get to that point? Yeah.

How long does it take to get to that point? I think that, again, you know, that's where it becomes super subjective is because, you know, one of the things about talent evaluation is as much as people want to say it's a science, it is subjective. People go back to their priors. They go back to their personal biases. and I'm going to be biased in my own evaluation here. And this is a dangerous thing about evaluating quarterbacks

is you see the high-level stuff that they do, like they call them big-time, PFF calls them big-time throws. And, you know, there was a period of time where Sam was leading the NFL in big-time throws. And that's traditionally a statistic that has a lot of variance to it. And I don't like to read a lot into that statistic usually, but I also think it shows high-level quarterback play. And I think it's not a surprise or, you know, a coincidence

that his high-level quarterback play is coming with when he's making big-time NFL throws. And I think when I see that level of feeling, that stuff you don't see from Tyrod Taylor, that stuff you don't see from Gardner-Minchu. And I think that feeling is very, very intoxicating. And it's one of the things that makes, again, you know, we're doing, I'm going to start my draft prep here shortly, but it's so hard to evaluate players off of, like, their top-end stuff. Because the top-end stuff will lie. It's how the body of work stuff comes in between. And I think like the top end stuff for me with regards to Sam keeps me excited and keeps me intrigued and says there's a higher feeling than some of those other quarterbacks you

mentioned. But also I understand that there's some growth that needs to take place. And I look at guys like Brock Purdy. And I look at Brock Purdy last year and I say, man, that was a long road. You know, I don't know if he's going to be the answer for them moving forward. Then you watch him this year. And he's taking a step forward in the offense, an offense that inflates him, an offense that has one of the highest running percentages in the NFL, a huge percentage of play action. Like there's all these things they do, screen to inflate him from these high leverage moments

down and down out. So I say, man, if we were to put Sam Howell in that system with Kyle, do you get a roadmap, a progression to a player that's going to be, I don't know, franchise guys,

maybe the strong word, but the starting quarterback for the next five or six years. And I would like to think that that is, there is a path there. If the scheme were to shift, slightly, if you de-leverage him slightly, if you speak to the skill set a little bit more, I think there's an opportunity there. But again, that's my evaluation as of right this second. And I'm going to go back and re-watch this. You know, there's a lot of quarterbacks in the draft.

This team's picking very, very high. Like, this is a decision that I'm sure the new ownership, the new GM is not going to take lightly. And they shouldn't. And you need to get all the data points in to kind of make a full flush out evaluation. Yeah, I want to get to, you know, what they could have done, as you described, to insulate you know, him as the 49ers have, to a certain degree, with Brock Purdy in a moment. But, you know, you talked about some of these big-time throws, and for you, that's a separator than from some of the guys that I mentioned that have been career high-end backups and, you know, low-end starters in the league over a long period of time.

What about the flaws? What about the flaws that maybe have less variance typically and historically to, them than say big time throws. You know, the sacks, the not seeing, you know, and not throwing with anticipation. You know, they've talked a lot about the decisiveness, which usually comes with being able to see it and anticipate it. And that seems to me, correct me if I'm wrong, to be an area that really did, you know, move backwards over the last five weeks, maybe because they were playing better teams. But what about the flaws that have less variance to them? Yeah, I think that's a brilliant, brilliant question. And that's exactly the question I ask

myself every time I watch Sam Howell is when you look at him, when you look at the sack specifically, he's gotten better in that category of avoiding pressure, of not taking sacks. I think you saw a little bit of regression in the Jets game. He was kind of feeling phantom pressures and running into stuff that he should have been running into and really, you know, hurt that offensive line, the offensive line production. But that does seem to be getting better. And that is something that historically does not develop very quickly, and Sam's been able to kind of work on that and cultivate that with the help of E.B.

And, you know, I think we talked about insulating Sam. And I think E.B. has done a good job, you know, kind of after, I forget what game was, but kind of going into that first Philly game of saying we're going to get to more quick game, more rollouts, more things that helps Sam not have to deal with feeling the pressure. but I also think Sam's done a better job of digesting that pressure in an appropriate way getting the ball. So to see that level of improvement from him, I think it's a positive sign. I think the thing that still remains kind of a glaring red flag is the anticipation and the anticipatory throws. And that's something that I always have a hard time with when I'm a value.

If I see that red flag, it makes me extremely nervous. And so the fact that he's having a hard time anticipating certain throws, understanding, again, I'm going to use this term NFL open, what that looks like, again, NFL open to me is that Logan Thomas touchdown. You're kind of threading Jacoby's shredding that ball inside the post safety, back shoulder to a, you know, boy, it's a very tight window, but that's NFL open because coverage structures are very, very good. And so he has a hard time with that. I think when you look early in the year, there's opportunities where guys are open.

But I also will say he's giving guys opportunities to make plays. And I just did my San Francisco evaluation. You watch Brock Purdy's throw for throw, and you're like, he's giving guys opportunities in tight windows to make plays. make plays and be explosive. And that's just not been a huge feature of Sam's game this year. So I think the sack stuff can improve. He's shown a willingness and an ability to improve that. I think the high-end throws get me very excited. It's the anticipatory stuff. And understanding the small window accuracy maybe is another way I characterize that,

that makes me really, really nervous. And again, I was hoping going the last couple weeks of the season that we get to see more of that against some of these better defenses. he'd be doing more of that stuff. And obviously he's not come, he's not met that challenge the way that I was hoping. So that is a huge red flag for me. I also wonder if the lower sack totals here recently are a result of two things. One, he bails faster from the pocket. And, you know, whether it's, he needs to or not, there has been a quick bail from the pocket more often than we saw.

at various points in the season. And two, you know, the lower completion percentage speaks to him throwing the ball away a lot more to a certain extent as well to avoid the sack. And I'm wondering if that's not a bad way to lower your sack total, getting rid of the ball and throwing it away. But it's the seeing things the anticipatory throws, as you mentioned, in him, you know, kind of bailing a little bit too quickly here in recent weeks that may be one of the reasons we've seen, you know, two sacks over two games.

Yeah, I think that's probably accurate. I think the other thing that it picks out to me is like even when he was doing well, so New England is a game that I cited in playing pretty well. He's bailing from clean pockets. But in that game, against Philly, for example, also, he's bailing from clean pockets and making a play down the field. Against Miami, he's bailing from pockets and making plays down the field. And so it kind of covers up some of the ails.

but when he's doing that and it's hindering the production of the offense. And I've been talking to some quarterback coaches, and they say, like, that is a big, big issue for them, when quarterbacks vacate clean pockets because it becomes a crutch for them. And so I don't like that he's continued to do that, and he's continued to do it more frequently. I do think he's got to kind of counter your original point. I do think he's got a better feel for the timing in the pocket.

And he's been more deliberate about getting the ball out, But I really, to me, like that the vacating clean pockets is another element that I have not been very excited about because he's not sitting in there, reading it out. Everything's off schedule. And when everything's off schedule in an offense, it's usually a sign that the quarterback isn't seeing it very well, which is, again, one of the reasons why I'm concerned. He's not anticipating throws that, I think, kind of coincides with the C-flash feeling of the position and what it takes to be successful at the NFL level. I said earlier this season, and I've said it a few times. In fact, I probably have said it to you, that there are shorter quarterbacks that play bigger than their size, and there are shorter quarterbacks that really do look like their size.

And I have felt from the very beginning, going back to the Arizona opener, that he's not, he's a shorter quarterback, he's boxier, he's strong, and I love the off-schedule stuff, and I love a lot of the things that he does. but in the pocket, third and eight have to wait for longer developing routes, et cetera, that sometimes it just looks like he actually physically can't see it. Do you think that's been part of the problem? Yeah, that's really, again, a great question, and one that I don't have a great answer to and one that he would have to answer.

I know that there have been quarterbacks in recent history that have been very successful about seeing stuff from the pocket. I think Drew Breeze is the best example. And one of the things I had the privilege of talking with their assistant o-line coach extensively about how they constructed the O-line there, and one of the things he mentioned to me was just, you know, we knew Drew was short, we knew we had to keep pocket depth, and we knew it we had to create width in the pocket so we could create throwing windows for him. And he and Drew had to work and cultivate a skill set to kind of see through those opportunities.

And I think you look at Russell Wilson when he was in Seattle, he could not see very well from the pocket. lot of it is vacating off-scheduled to kind of compensate for that lack of ability to see from the pocket. So I do think that, you know, you're dealing with some very big offensive linemen. All the offensive linemen here, I think, are over 6-4, 6-5, and Sam's not a very tall guy. So I'd imagine it becomes challenging to see. I think couple that also with the fact you don't have, you know, super big kind of physically imposing receivers. You know, I played with Rex Grossman, who's not a very tall guy. And he would say, I really enjoy throwing to, you know, you know, player X.

Like, he'd say tight end specifically. And I was like, why? It's like, because I can see you over the offensive line really well. And I thought that's something interesting that's probably underrated here. It's like, you know, you've got this offensive line that hasn't been built necessarily to support a quarterback, a shorter quarterback, excuse me. You've got skill position guys who are very talented but are not very physically imposing and you can't see them very well behind the offensive line.

So I think it's probably both those things together. But I do think it's not something that is a fatal flaw. it can be remedied. But again, to your point, you know, you have to ask Sam specifically, but I would imagine that it's something that affects his ability to play the position at a high level. All right. After 15 games of Sam, and there's a chance that we won't see any more of Sam this year, how would you have done it differently now that we've seen what he's good at,

what he's still developing with, what he may have as, you know, an ongoing flaw with little variance to it, what kind of offense would you have designed from the jump for him? Yeah, you know, it's really hard to say. I think, you know, because there are some things that EB did that I really, really liked, you know, some concepts that he had in, some play designs that he had in that I think really spoke to what Sam does well. But I think I probably would have just taken a more conservative approach. I'm a more conservative person when it comes to offensive football and quarterback development.

I just think there's a longer track record of that being successful, you know, kind of your flackos in Baltimore, your Big Benz in Pittsburgh, your early career Russell Wilson stuff, your early career Brock Purdy stuff. Those guys were supported by good defense, which again was something that was kind of touted at the beginning of the season, a strong running game, and there's other ways to get to the running game. But I look at Seattle, I think, is a really good example.

And they are very creative about how they get to the running game. They're creative about how they scheme that stuff up, and it helps insulate Drew Locke. It helps insulate Geno Smith. And what I mean insulate, I'm not saying that they don't have to play quarterback. I'm just saying instead of, you know, 50 dropbacks a game, if we can get that number to 30 or 25, that's better for the quarterback. It's less down-to-down processing for them.

And it alleviates some of the pressure that they need to be perfect all the time. And I think that's kind of what I would have leaned into a little bit more. But again, that's my background, you know, coming from the Kyle Shanahan, West Coast offense. That's one of the tenets is de-leverage the quarterback, de-leverage the offensive line, find ways to run the football

and steal yards and be super efficient on first and second down. So you're not in these high-leverage, third-and-ten, third-long situation. So that's what I would have done. I'm sure there's a million ways to do it, but I think I would have leaned in that direction. And I think the question that I would pose, you know,

is that a viable offensive solution, given how, in effective the defense was for the majority of the year. And I would say probably not. So I do think if they wanted to win games, they needed to be aggressive offensively, and that's what they did. And I think it was beneficial for Sam's development in some ways, but I think we also are seeing some of the negative results of that later in the year. Yeah, I mean, like, I think it's totally reasonable to say you're not tossing Sam to the side here, even if you, like, for me, It's like I'm ready to really look.

I hope they are seriously with this very unique position as a top three in a draft slot holder at a draft that has some very high ceiling quarterbacks in it. Because, you know, there's that saying if you're unsure about the quarterback that you have, then you probably don't have one. And I think at the very least you're unsure. But at the same time, it's not what the situation was last year, all due respect to Taylor Heineke. he's got real NFL arm strength. As you said, he can make every throw. He is a gamer. He's competitive.

He's very good off schedule. The eyes don't come off down the field, and he's still able to run it if that's the solution. And part of me thinks that if he had been in a Shanahan-style system, which is predicated on running the football, and then seeing some of the QB keepers bootlegs off of it and play action, that he could do that. Now, you still on third and nine have to stand back in the pocket and make throws

if you're going to be a good offense ultimately. But I don't know. That's the one thing. We saw a lot of quick game. We saw the adjustment to quick game. And it was the right adjustment for him because the pure dropback stuff just was a problem for him much of the year. And it was a problem for the offensive line to a certain extent,

although they are 14th in the league. Chen's pass block win rate rankings this week. But what we never saw was, let's try to run the football and then marry our passing game to being able to run the football. And what's interesting about that, too, Logan, is I think some of their best players on the team were their running backs. Yeah. Yeah, I think it is interesting. And again, like, there were some really cool, like, there was a concept that they ran in last week's game that I thought was, was brilliant. And I think the other thing that

in this whole quarterback evaluation process that is, I think, overlooked is kind of the lack of efficiency from the receivers. And what I mean by that, as I was talking on our command center show today about how they haven't created a ton

of separation, you know, and do they really understand the point of this concept? It's a new offense for them too. And so I think there's opportunities, like, when you're, again, when you're watching, I'm prepping San France, I'm watching a lot of them, like, they find ways to get guys open, open, definitively open, and Brock makes those throws. And I understand that that is, you know, like, I understand kind of more reticently how they do that

because I was part of that offense. But here, I just feel like there's opportunities where guys, you know, there's no air in the concept. Like, Sam has to make an excellent throw every single play. And when you're watching Sam Fran's, like, explosive play cut up, it's like there's that excellent throw every third play. but two of them, two of the three are kind of like layups. You know, it's a screen.

It's a play-action pass. It's, you know, a 50-50 ball to a receiver, and the guy makes them right. And so I think that that's something that, again, is kind of lost here. It's like, have you maximized what the skill position players are doing to help maximize Sam? And that becomes really challenging as well in the evaluation of where he's at because it's kind of like we haven't seen the production from that group

that we thought we were going to see in training camp. You know, as you were describing that, you know, as football fans over the years, there have been, you know, offenses that you watch and they're like, my God, people are just always wide open. Like I have to say that Norv Turner for years, while not a great head coach, when you watched his offenses, people were just for whatever reason, they were open. You know, same thing with the Shanahan scheme. I still find it amazing how often Travis Kelsey is wide open, although in recent weeks, not so much. But with the 49ers specifically, just as a follow-up to them, how much of it is scheme versus, well, it's Kittal, it's Ayuk, it's Debo, it's McCaffrey, you know, even their backups, you know, are, you know, Jennings and the kid from Clemson, Ray Ray McLeod. I mean, like they just are able to get incredible separation. So how much with the 49ers specifically is it scheme over outrageous talent?

Yeah, I think that's the thing that was surprising when I was watching that cut up because you're kind of, you come to a patch of plays, you know, it's 150 explosive plays for them in the past game. And you kind of say, this isn't anything special. You know, the commanders run this concept. it's excellent throw and an excellent catch by the receiver. And I think that that is something that I think fans and I, as a guy who's really into the X's and O's often overlooked,

is as much as you want to say it's the scheme. And I read an article recently saying, you know, it's probably 60% scheme, 40% playmakers, and I think that feels about right. The scheme does a lot for you. But there's times where the scheme isn't right. You know, Kyle's not right calling the play on the sideline, and you need the players on the field to execute an elevate.

And I think that's what you see is like it. There's no – it doesn't surprise me that Detroit is such an effective offense because they have explosive playmakers. Like how many times this year have we seen Gibbs the running back with a free runner in the holiday makes that guy miss for a gain of 20? Like that play, the defense on paper should have won. But the Jimmy's and Joe's beat the X's and O's. And I think that that's something here, you know, in Kyle's situation where having those

tremendous playmakers, you've – Debo Samuel, like Debo Samuel catching a five-yard hitch on a screen, and, you know, it's blocked for 15, but he takes it to the house for 65. Like, again, that's the playmaker elevating that concept, and that's so, so important. Mike McDaniel, again, a Kyle Shanahan disciple said something similar. He was basically like, you know, as much as I pride myself on putting guys in good positions, they have to maximize those positions, and I think that's why having a Tyree kill, a wadle, some of these really dynamic, you know, A-Chane, Mostor, some of these really dynamic,

explosive playmakers, elevates the scheme in a way that sometimes when you're watching here in Washington, you don't always get. And again, it's a new offense. Guys are still working through their understanding, so I'm not being critical of that. But I think that's also something that needs to be talked about with regards to what we're seeing from the quarterback position, is how confident does he feel in like putting up this 50-50 ball that his guy's going to make a play? And you can tell Brock Purdy is 1,000 percent confident that his group of playmakers is better than what the defense is presenting. You mentioned that they had a new concept that they put in against the Jets.

I'm curious to find out what it was. We will get to that and more with Logan Paulson after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., for a cash bonus on your initial deposit. MyBooky's got everything you want. All of the bowl games, prop bets, on all the bowl games, everything you need for the NFL's upcoming next to last weekend.

We've got a game on Thursday night. We've got a game on Saturday night this week, and then a full slate on Sunday. You've got the semifinal games on New Year's Day, Michigan, Bama, Washington, Texas. You'll find it all at my bookie.ag. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. So you mentioned a brilliant new concept that they put in against the Jets. What was it? The both.

So, yeah, I mean, a lot of people are doing this now, but I really just enjoyed kind of this innovative football thinking it's a play action pass. And like off play action pass, one of the problems is you can't get a lot of eligibles out into the concept. So usually it's like a two-man route concept, maybe a three-man route concept. And it works because it creates space because the actions drawing linebackers up. but teams have gotten so good, especially at the linebacker level, of dealing with that, right? They've got really good at saying, oh, this is play action, we've got to tell, and dropping under stuff. So what they did is they ran a post on the outside to the offensive right, ran a high cross on the offensive left, and instead of keeping all your eligibles in,

they're able to flood the flats with the back and the tight end, and then have the third of the third receiver element run like a swirl to the same side as a high cross, replacing the void that's being created by the high-prite cross. So on paper, I love that because it gives you this big play potential here, but if that's dead, I can work back to the swirl. And I think the thing about that that was disappointing is the protection was good, the route concept that ends up getting covered. You know, and so despite your ability to stretch the defense horizontally,

find one-on-one matchups for your playmakers, you didn't really get a lot of capitalization from those guys in those situations. So, again, that kind of goes back to what we're just talking about. You see this really cool, you know, getting to a play action pass look from a drop-back distribution of the field, helping the offensive line, helping the concept, giving the quarterback answers, but you're not able to maximize it because guys are covered. There's not a lot of air in the concept, and you're asking Sam, again, to make a big-time throw. I have another question just about Sunday, and in general with the offense this year.

Adam Archiletta was on the call. I don't know how much you listened to Archiletta. I actually think he does a really good job. I think we had him earlier in the year. Maybe it was the Buffalo game. I forget it. It may have been the Denver game, actually, now that I think about it. And, you know, they get a chance to sit down and talk to the coaches.

And the coaches tend to disclose a lot to those game announcers because they consider to be, you know, a very sort of confidential. but they want to give them some background and some things to throw in there. So anyway, on multiple throws, in fact, I'll give you the one play. It was when Sam was dropping back and then got flushed and actually got hit and the ball fluttered up into the air. It was almost picked off. It was incomplete.

It was a third and eight, third and nine, something like that. Archelette said something that we've talked about here at various times this year. It's like every eligible was on a law. longer developing route. There wasn't any ability to check it down with pressure. Right. Right. Did you feel this year that at times there just wasn't an option for Sam under duress like there typically is? I mean, obviously, if you watch every single play of a season that happens across the league,

you know, on that play specifically, I remember thinking he could probably get the ball to Logan Thomas in the flat. So I don't totally agree with that analysis there on that specific play. But I think the point does come up, but that does come up for all offenses. You know, at 3 and 10, you're going to run your guys to the sticks. And, you know, like, that takes time. Teams defenses understand that you are in a leveraged situation. You're trying to get the first down.

They're going to play coverage in a specific way to take that away, and they're going to rush in a specific way to put you in a duress. So I think, yes, that has happened a couple times this year, but I don't think that's a unique thing to Washington or this offense necessarily. Settle an argument that I had with a friend of mine. I think the first interception, I think Logan Thomas certainly could have caught the football, but I thought it was really thrown hot and drilled in from a short distance and was a tough ball to handle.

Agree or disagree? I agree that it was a tough ball to handle, but I also know, you know, having caught that ball and seen a quarterback in that situation, like you got to try and make your guy right there. And like if I'm that, if I'm Logan Thomas today, I feel bad. You know, as much as the ball's hot and as much as there's an opportunity to say, like, you know, like Sam's got to give me a better ball, which I don't disagree with. I also know that I got to catch that football.

So it kind of, I think it kind of goes both ways. On that, on that place, but it was thrown unnecessarily hot. Yes, I would agree with that. Okay. Thank you. I think I won that debate. All right, two more real quickly, because we haven't talked about Jacoby Berset. What do you think of Brescet? Like, Gino Smith kind of had this resurrection to his career, late in his career. Does Bressett have any of that ability in him?

Well, Berset's been a guy that I've always enjoyed watching because I think he brings a really nice competitiveness to his game. He's obviously a very smart player. and I think he trusts the concept, and he trusts his players in a nice way, and he's got a lot of experience. And so, you know, it's funny when you go back because I don't have the chance to watch the game live. I had to watch them all-22 the day after

because I was doing so with my family. But when you watch the game, you know, you're expecting kind of this amazing performance from Jacoby. And really, I don't want to say it's stupid, but, you know, you make a brilliant throw to Logan Thomas for a touchdown. You get Tara McClorn on a five-yard out. You have Bates on a screen that goes for six. You get two explosive runs from Chris Rodriguez.

You get a DPI that gets you down to the one. And there was nothing magical about it, just kind of distributing the football. Right, the Rams game was more impressive by him. Correct. Yeah, I thought so. Yeah, I agree. Like, kind of he's sitting in the pocket, you know, taking hits.

Again, like kind of understanding that NFL open, like the in the Rams game, the comeback to Jahan, great throw. The comeback on the inside slot kind of, I guess it's a comeback to Curtis Samuel, you know, after kind of reading Logan Thomas over the middle field getting to the second progression, tight window throw, both throws to Terry. Like, great job, you know, the throw in the red zone for the touchdown, great job.

Like, to me, I agree. Those are much more dynamic throws. This was just kind of playing offensive football. You get a fortunate play call on the late hit to Johan. and you make an excellent throw on the Skinner route or the skinny post, excuse me, to Logan Thomas in the end zone. But the other stuff was very kind of as expected. And so it's hard to kind of say, oh, Jacoby did something definitively great in this game.

I felt like he just was kind of the consummate game manager, which I know people use as a negative connotation, but I actually think it's a positive in this case. Yes. So, I mean, answer the question. though. Is there a future with, is there a future with, would anybody look at Chacobi Berset at this point in his career and say, we can build around him? I, you know, it's so funny, and maybe this is the optimist in me, but I thought that after his year in Cleveland, a team would give him an opportunity, like in Atlanta, would give him

an opportunity to do that. Because I think he's perfect for a system like that, where it's like heavy play action. You've got some playmakers, guys that can win 50-50s. And I think if he's in Atlanta this year, they're easily a playoff team. And so, like, do you want to build around him? I don't know if you want to build around him, but you know, you're going to get him on a contract that's about $10 million. In Atlanta, they've got a bunch of young, Uber-talented physical freaks. And he's a guy that understands how to elevate players to a certain extent. Is he going to consistently do it every single week? No, but I think he can do it enough

where you're looking at that Atlanta team saying, hey, we're a 10 or an 11-win team, and we're easily going to the playoffs after winning that division. All right. Last one, you've been generous with your time per usual. 15 games in, and it probably will get worse, given that they're going to face the 49ers and the Cowboys. But what happened defensively this year? We were so optimistic in August, and even after the over? opener. I mean, to be honest with you, through the Buffalo game, I was still optimistic. I didn't

think they played that badly against Buffalo. What happened to the defense? Yeah, it sounds like we're kind of on the same page, and it just feels like they hit a really, and even when you look at that first Philly game, you know, you have a young player going against AJ Brown, who has a tough outing, and I was still kind of relatively optimistic after that. I think to me, the thing that sticks out about Jack D. Rio's tenure and the defense this year specifically is when you look at the most effective defensive schemes around the NFL, let's say San Fran, let's say Dallas, Cleveland, you know, kind of insert your, you know, high-level defense here, is they really have a clear vision

for what they want to do with the four-down linemen that are playing up front. I think the Jets are another great example of this Houston. They're kind of budding into this group that I'm describing right now, and they play this defensive structure that helps people, helps the defensive line rush the passer. And when you can create pressure with four, and when you've elevated those guys, taken responsibilities off their plate, basically say, you guys are rushing the pastor and you're stopping the run on the way to the quarterback and kind of remove everything else from their responsibilities, I think you get a more productive defensive front, especially when you

had, you know, Chase Young, Montez, sweat, all those guys here, that maximizes that group. And then it covers up a lot of deficiencies in the back end, because there are times where you're watching that group, you know, that dominant group of first-round talent, and you're kind of saying to yourself, man, they're not getting home in the rhythm and timing of the rush.

Like both Philly games, you know, Philly's got an excellent offensive line, maybe the most talented offensive line in football. But they shouldn't be able to erase that group with how, Jalen Hurts holds the football, but they did both games. You know, the Bears are able to kind of make them go quiet. And I think it's a lot of it because there wasn't a clear vision for what they were supposed to be doing in terms of simplifying rush angles, presenting different fronts that kind of made it more challenging

for the offensive line. And I also think they got to a point in the secondary where they really did not understand their vision and their identity. And that made it very, very challenging for that group to be successful. So I do think it was kind of a dual failure. You know, if we did maximize our strongest unit on the field and the defensive line, and in the back end, we didn't really understand who we were or who we wanted to be. And that was very, very challenging.

Great job, as always. I really appreciate it. Hope you're well. Watch Logan on all of the shows on the Commander's website. He's great, whether it's with the coach, whether it's with Fred and Santana, the podcast he does with Craig is outstanding. I appreciate it as always. Happy New Year to you.

Thanks, man. You too, Kevin. Always appreciate it being on here. Always good football talk. Logan's a great guest, isn't he? I think most of you would agree with that. I mean, he is excellent. It's always good to have him on the show.

All right, that is it for today. Back tomorrow with Tommy.