The Kevin Sheehan Show - Commanders Low Road Goodbye To Chase

Episode Date: November 1, 2023

Kevin opened today with more reaction to the Commanders' busy Tuesday trades of Montez Sweat and Chase Young. Kevin felt the team leaking negative information about Chase Young on his way out was another low road taken by an organization known for that over the years. Ben Standig/The Athletic jumped on with his thoughts. Santana Moss followed with his thoughts on the trades and the team so far this year including his long-term Sam Howell prediction.  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. Two guests on the show today. Santana Moss will be on this show in the final segment. We'll get Santana's thoughts on the trade yesterday,

but also get his thoughts on the season so far, specifically, offensively, and what he thinks of Sam Howell. Santana Moss in the final segment. Before that, Ben Standing, who has not been on. the podcast in a while. He is with me on radio a couple of times a week, but Ben's going to jump on with more information about yesterday's trades of Montez Sweat and Chase Young. I've got more on that coming up as well here in a moment or two. The show is presented as always by Window Nation. If you've been thinking about new Windows, I promise you that Windonation will do it right for you. So give them a

chance. Call them at 86690 Nation or go to windonation.com for an outstanding offer that includes buy to get too free with no limit, plus no money down, no payments, and no interest for two full years. All right. Look, there's some, you know, there's some news out there. The World Series last night, Texas is up 3-1. There was a crazy NBA game last night, the Spurs and the Suns. Taylor Heineke is going to get the start. Sunday. for the Falcons against the Vikings, head coach Arthur Smith, saying that this is for, as of now, just this week.

But he played very well, Taylor Heineke did, in relief last week against the Tennessee Titans, threw for 175 yards in one half, and they scored on four of the five drives. So for all of you Taylor people out there, Big Sunday coming up right now, Ritter did have some concussion issues. Arthur Smith said he was going to lean on the medical experts first in making the decisions.

But for now, in the short term, it'll be Taylor Heineke this Sunday against the Vikings. The Vikings traded yesterday before the deadline for Josh Dobbs gave up a seventh rounder. So Dobbs may be the starting quarterback in Minnesota. Maybe not this weekend. They may go with Jaron Hall, the fifth round. rookie from BYU as Kirk Cousins is done for the year with a torn Achilles. So I want to start with the sweat Young Day. When Tommy and I were doing the show yesterday, if you listened, the Chase Young News broke

during the recording of the podcast. Fortunately, there was nothing else the rest of the day. Although they were, according to J.P. Finley, offered a sixth rounder for Jacoby Brouset. I'm not sure why they didn't accept that. Jacoby Brissette, more likely than not, is not going to be on the roster next year. And I can't imagine that there's so much mentorship value in having Jacoby Berset there. Although everything I've heard and read is that Jacoby Berset is just an absolute gem of a teammate and has been very helpful to Sam HAL.

So maybe, you know, not taking a sixth rounder for Jacoby Berset, trading him to an AFC team, wasn't going to impact your chances this year of making the postseason. Maybe, you know, the sixth rounder not taking it is worth it because of what he'll add to Sam's development the rest of the year. All right, so there are two conversations to have here before we get to Ben and then to Santana Moss. The first one is this. The day yesterday was, I think, more likely than not a good day.

for the organization. They got a very good pick for Montez Sweat. They got in what should be, given that it's coming from Chicago, a team that's two and six right now. It should be a very early second round pick, somewhere between 33 and 38, 39, you know, depending on what Chicago does the rest of the year. And that was, you know, according to all of the reporting, just too much value to give up. They were not guaranteed to re-sign Montez Sweat. They may have had to tag him to keep them if they had wanted him. And to get offered that, they took it. They did not, according to most of the reporting, and I certainly implied this based on some of the conversations I'd had yesterday. It was not their preference to trade Sweat.

It was their preference all along to trade Chase Young. But the value was too great. And so they traded Montez Sweat. And look, that is a... move for the future. It's a big-time trade asset. It's a big-time draft pick asset. Could be part of a trade. Who knows? And it was for a guy that they weren't sure the new regime would want, although even if they assumed that the new regime would want him, there was no guarantee of keeping him without tagging him. So I think that that was, you know, that's a B-plus-A-minus kind of move for Montez Sweat. Then came the news of the trading of Chey Chung. We've got a little bit more information today than we had yesterday. The information is that it's a third round pick, but it's

one of the compensatory picks that the 49ers will get for hiring for making minority hires. So it's not their third round pick. It's when the third round is over and the comp picks get added to the third round. So Chase Young went for a pick at the very end of the third round, closer to the fourth round, where Montez-Swed went with a very earlier, projected very early second-round pick closer to a late first-rounder. I say this all the time when it comes to things like this. The market will speak as to which of the players is preferred by the league, and clearly Montes-Swett was the preferred player.

Montes-Swett going for something much closer to a first-round pick, Chey-Shung going for something much closer. to a fourth round pick. I'm still, you know, curious as to Chicago's motivations on Montes-Swed. If you're, you know, talking as a Bears fan today, you're like, if they don't sign him to a long-term deal, how idiotic is it for a team that's going nowhere, two and six, to trade for a rental and with that high of a pick?

So I would assume that he's going to sign a long-term deal or that they're confident they can sign him to a long-term deal. I mean, you don't do that deal thinking, oh, we'll tag him if we can't sign them. You've got to feel like you can sign them. But a lot of the conversation was that Montez wanted to go home to Atlanta, where he's from, and that the Falcons would be a major player in free agency for him. And in fact, I believe the Falcons were another team very much involved for Montez Sweat, but they didn't want to offer what Chicago offered.

so Washington took the Chicago offer. Atlanta was thinking more of a third round, maybe conditional third round, that could go to a second. Look, Chicago right now looks like they're going to end up with a much higher second round pick. So Washington did that deal. We'll see whether or not the Bears can sign him.

Not Washington's problem anymore. I'll miss Montez Sweat. He was not the player that I thought he would become when they drafted him, but he was a good player for Washington. And, you know, a player that a team like Chicago and probably a couple of other teams desired. And Chicago just paid the heftiest of prices. On Chase Young, pretty crazy, right?

That the number two pick in the 2020 draft goes at the 2023 deadline in his last year of his rookie contract for the latest of third round picks imaginable. You know, no one wants to see that because it essentially says, you screwed up picking him at number two overall. I mean, that's the result of the pick. I mean, your organization, you know, given that, you know, you got one season of really strong play,

it was his rookie year, and then a lot of the rest of it had something to do with injuries, but it had other, had to do with other things as well, but you got, you know, basically nothing out of the number two pick in the draft. He'll go down. Look, this century, you've had three number two picks in the draft. LeVar Erington, RG3, and Chase Young. LeVar had some moments here. Certainly the Marty year and the Marvin Lewis year as the D-Corinator, but injuries really were a problem for LeVar, no doubt.

RG3 had an offensive rookie of the year season that was magical. Chase Young had a defensive rookie of the year season that was outstanding and was very impactful towards their run. to, you know, an ugly division, you know, title season at 7 and 9. But other than that, you didn't get much from Chase Young. So he'll go down as certainly one of the biggest bust picks in franchise history. There's no other way to describe it. They've had a bunch of them, but he'll go down there, you know,

right near the top of the list of the biggest bust draft choices in franchise history, no matter what he does in San Francisco or anywhere else. You know, do I think that they got enough value back for them? That's basically the market for Chase Young right now. I'm not sure there were many other teams interested. And I think that the teams that may have been interested, perhaps even Chicago before they dealt for Montez Sweat, were concerned about Chase Young's medical.

You know, they're concerned about the need. This was a part of sort of the trade deadline discussions about Chase Young. I think San Francisco is in a different position than maybe some other teams that may have expressed interest in Chase in that they don't care if he ends up being just a nine to 12 game rental if they make a big run in the postseason. They were willing to give up one of those comp picks that they're getting at the end of the third round for a guy that they can put opposite Nick Bosa with Javon Hargrave and Armstead and Fred Warner and company and say, we just want you. should have rushed the passer. You know, the 49ers have lost three games in a row, and they've given up some big-time yards through the air, like to, you know, to Kirk Cousins and to Joe Burrow the last two weeks.

And so they didn't touch. They barely sniffed Kirk Cousins in that game, the front four. And they sacked Joe Burrow three times, but gave up 283 on 28 of 32. So they're looking very short-term. and if it ends up being a rental, they're rolling the dice on it. I don't know how many other teams are willing to do that with perhaps medical and other things being a concern.

I don't know what to say about really the value back. It's disappointing clearly, but it's also very clear, and it has been for a while that they have wanted to rid themselves of Chey Shung. And boy, did they express that. through leaks to the media as Chase was being traded to the 49ers or shortly thereafter. Look, you go back to the OTAs after his rookie year, pissed everybody off out there. They made it clear to people in the media. I shared that with all of you at the time, whether you agreed with it or not because it was

voluntary versus mandatory. 89 of 90 players showed up. He had a C on his chest and he didn't post for any of the nine OTA days. They were not happy at all. all. He did not have a good 2021 season before he got hurt and we heard all of the adhering to scheme, maturity issues

and if you didn't think that they were calling Chase out directly, they were, we tried to share that with all of you back then. There was no doubt that the injury rehab decisions that Chase made in terms of where he rehabbed

didn't thrill the organization and then when he didn't come in for OTAs again before this past season. You know, they had had it with them. They made it very clear that they were open to any kind of offers before the draft on Chase Young. They just didn't get anything that they thought was worthwhile.

They probably got an offer that was just a little bit worse than what they ended up, you know, trading them for yesterday. And even though there were moments this year, pressure moments, sack moments, and they, they talked them up after not picking up his fifth year option. And after, by the way, kind of, you know, as I said at the time, I said this when they didn't pick up his fifth year option. And Ron talked about, you know, we got to see it. He's, we're going to look at him like we looked at Duron Payne that maybe the prospect of

not having a contract will incentivize him to play and to produce. I didn't think that was a very smart thing to say at the time because I think you're basically saying this guy's got to be motivated by a contract year. And what are you doing to your potential trade value if that's what you really want to do? You know, the fifth year option is kind of an interesting question as to whether or not it hurt the trade value or helped it. I think with San Francisco, it may have hurt it. I'm not so sure that they were looking for, you know, if they want to get to a long-term

on Chase, they'll do that after he proves it to be, but to be locked in at $18 million a year, whatever it was on the fifth year option. Maybe they wouldn't have been interested. Who knows? But this team wanted to rid itself of Cheshung. And that's where I'm going to just take five minutes here and just say, the most disappointing thing about yesterday, a day in which, again, football-wise, they were thinking future.

Josh Harris reportedly was involved. I'll ask Ben about that. they got some assets back for a player that may have been difficult to resign. You would have had to tag him in Montez Sweat and a player that they clearly didn't want. You know, these are good things. It was, I think, in terms of football, a good day for the organization yesterday. And I think the incoming new football regime, new general manager, new coach will probably look at it and say, man, that was excellent that you got that second round pick,

because we don't know that we would have wanted to sign Montez Sweat to an upper-tier defensive end contract, and maybe he didn't want to sign here anyway, and we would have been forced to tag him. And as far as Chase goes, thank you. Yeah, I mean, you know, whether it was the medical or whether it was the freelancing and everything that they talked about yesterday, which I'm about to get to, you know, you gave us something back rather than getting nothing back. So the football day, okay, thumbs up, all right? Future thinking, all fine.

But you also went backwards yesterday as an organization, or you stayed what you've been for 25 years. You went the low road on Chase Young heading out of town. And that, for me, it infuriated me to see this. And I'm not blaming Josh Harris or new ownership on this. I'm not. If you don't know what I'm talking about, let me read to you some of the quotes. Okay, Ben Standig in his story. yesterday. According to a team source, the commanders hope to keep sweat, but the value of the

bear's offer proved to be too good. The team views the trade of young as a potential addition by subtraction, the source said. And then there was this from Mike Silver. Do you remember who Mike Silver is, Mike Silver, long-time NFL journalist, NFL reporter, Mike Silver, who got hired in 2021, July of 2021, to be exact, by the then Washington football team, to be a contributor to its website, Washingtonfootball.com, to be a regular guest on the team's podcast, to be a part of their weekly shows, their pregame show, and to be a sideline reporter for the preseason broadcasts. He was on the sideline during the preseason that summer of 2021 heading into that season. Instead of Doc or Brian Mitchell or Santana or any of the people that have done it that had done it for years,

it was Mike Silver on the sideline. Why was he here? Why was he in that job? Well, Julie Donaldson in the press release the day that he was hired spelled it out. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that will help us tell stories in a truly authentic way. His resume speaks for itself. and his working relationship with Coach Rivera will allow us to get a unique perspective on the journey of our football team. It was his relationship with Ron Rivera. They both went to Cal.

Long period of time, they knew each other. They had, you know, one of those media member journalist head coach relationships that had spanned many years and Mike Silver got the job here because of his relationship with Ron Rivera. He was here for a year and then that was it. Well, Mike Silver yesterday, now writing for the San Francisco Chronicle,

wrote about the Chase Young trade. And he wrote the following. Here's the money quote. Young, Chase Young, according to several commanders' coaches and other organizational sources, was viewed as an undisciplined player who developed bad habits, such as deviating from assignments in an effort to make splash plays, closed quote. So you had that.

You had Ben's quote from a team source. Young is the trading of Young is a potential addition by subtraction. People, they were falling all over themselves yesterday to leak stuff about Chase Young. They were leaking like the sieve they've always been. So it was a good day football-wise. Okay, that's over here in this bucket. All right. Good day.

Second rounder. High second rounder back for Montez Sweat. You know, for them, getting rid of Chase Young was what they wanted to do, and they got something back for him rather than getting nothing for him. Additioned by subtraction may have worked in. This may work out for the football team this year. Certainly we'll be looking to see if that's true. But man, over here in this other bucket was their behavior yesterday.

This was, you know, this was Dan Snyder and Bruce Allen-esque, you know, taking the bus, running it over Chase Young, and after they smushed them one way, they backed it up over them again. Just low rent, low road bullshit. Really disappointing from that standpoint. I hope Josh Harris didn't, you know, say this is how I want it handled. I don't think he did. I don't think Mitch Rails or Josh Harris, you know, said, let's, you know, let's make sure everybody understands that it was a him issue, not an us issue. You know, whatever you have to do, leak this stuff out to make sure everybody understands

he was the reason that it didn't work here. I don't think that's what happened. I think it was the people that had been here for a while that had been with him that leaked it. I think, you know, for all intents and purposes, it was probably Ron Rivera, given that Mike Silver reported it and said according to several commanders, coaches,

and other organizational sources. I mean, Mike Silver was here too, but the point here is, Why? Well, the reason is they were insecure about what the reaction about trading Chase Young for a very end of the third round pick would be. I had somebody say to me yesterday afternoon, what do you think the reaction to this is going to be? And I said, well, why should you guys care what the reaction is? Well, you know, people are going to be upset that we traded Chase Young, that we picked him number two overall. and we only got back what we got back.

Who cares? Why would you give a shit? What I think? What Ben Standing thinks? What John Kime thinks? What Grant Paulson thinks? What J.P. Finley thinks? What the junkies think?

What Nikki Javalo? Anybody that talks about the team or covers the team, why would you care? Stop. You make a trade that you think is in the best interest of your organization, and you let that trade speak for itself. And on the way out, you take the high road and you say about Chase Young, we wish this young man the best. He's got extraordinary talent, certainly hoping that a new organization is a better fit for him.

We are looking to the future. It was very possible that we weren't going to be able to keep some of these players under contract, and we wanted to get something for the future now versus getting nothing down the road. we wish him the very best. That's not what happened though, right? They leaked like just the sieve they have been for years. It's such a, don't look at us, you know, Ron, Jack, the defensive coaches, he was the problem. Well, if he was such a problem, why didn't you cut him when you couldn't trade him a year ago?

Why didn't you tell him, this is not your show, it's my show. I'm the fucking head coach. You either do it the way we tell you to do it or you're out of here. I don't give a shit that we picked you number two overall. They just benched Emmanuel Forbes. Like, why didn't you just say, dude, you either get on board or you're out. You're not going to be a bad habit, undisciplined, deviating from assignments, subtraction from what we're trying to be as a defense.

I just, yesterday was like, you know, decent football day over here, bad day in the way they handled Chey Chung over here. It was just a bullshit way to go. And let me be clear about something, if I haven't been clear about this already. What they leaked out was probably true. I'm not taking Chey Chung off the hook for his own demise here. I'm not. He was largely responsible. I feel confident in saying, largely responsible for what happened in terms of the lack of true production here, you know, when he was here. Part of it's on the coaches, for sure. I'm just saying the team didn't need to do what they did yesterday. They didn't need to say it. You know, usually a player gets released or cut or traded and sometimes the player will go off on his former team, but they're the player.

The organization's supposed to be the adult, and yesterday they weren't. I hope that changes. I hope, you know, it's dealt with out there. All right, that's enough on that. Ben standing next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by MyBooky, if you're looking for a place to bet on sports, my recommendation, my bookie at mybooky. MyBooky.org. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C., and they'll give you a cash bonus on your first deposit.

A great college football weekend coming up, an incredible NFL Sunday coming up with a 9.30 a.m. kickoff from Germany. Right now at my bookie, the Chiefs are two and a half point favorites over the dolphins. The big one at one o'clock, the Ravens are six point favorites over the Seahawks at M&T Bank. Washington, now a three and a half point underdog Sunday in Foxborough against the Patriots. And then in the other game of the day, I would put Chiefs, dolphins, number one. Cowboys Eagles, right now the Eagles are three-point favorites over the Cowboys Sunday at MyBooky. MyBooky's got fair lines and fair pricing.

That's what you want. Go to MyBooky.ag. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. You'll get a cash bonus on your initial deposit. They'll take good care of you. You have to use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. All right. Jumping on with us right now, Ben Standing, who covers the team for the athletic, of course, at Ben Standing on Twitter.

He's also got a very good podcast, Standing Room Only, and he wrote and reported all day yesterday, including what I have already talked about in the open. He had the quote from a team source saying that the trading of Young was potential addition by subtraction. So let's just start with yesterday, just keeping it to football before we get into some of the things that were said about Chey Sheng on the way out. What did you make of their day? A surprising day, but surprising in a good way, as far as I'm concerned. Not surprising that one of them was traded. I mean, we've been talking about this for a while, and the reporting I had leading up to the deadline was there was a lot of noise from other teams about Washington.

and making these guys available. But okay, you've got to see what the offers are. Being available is not the same to say they have to go. I don't believe that they wanted to trade Montess Wet, but when they opened the door and the Bears came in with an offer, which looks like a very high second-round pick, they decided, hey, this is sort of my interpretation of their thinking, but they decided, hey, this is too good a value to pass on for a guy who,

well, Montesworth's good. I think they wanted to keep them, like I said. but you know, you could talk about extending a guy for 20 million or more a year for probably like four years versus, and he has to agree to it too, right? I think Montes-Wet was not objecting to possibly going back to Atlanta workers from that area. So who knows if he would have agreed to sign them or whatever. Anyway, they got a pretty high second-round pick, and for a team that already has one step into the refresh, rebuild situation with $90 million in caps space, that's a pretty good deal.

So a bummer for the team in the locker room, but totally get it. The case young part, and I know we're going to talk more about what went down there, but I think that one's clearly much more of a we wanted, we were going to take the best offer that we could get. The compensatory third-round pick from San Francisco is, you know, it's going to be a little bit lower than the regular third-round picks. I think it's a decent value from where he probably was at the beginning of the year before he showed. he could, you know, had still some games to play and he was able to go.

But, you know, I think there's concerns about the knee, and we'll get to some of the other questions with Chase Young in a second. But I think it kind of makes more sense in that regard. Like, if you had traded Chase Young, but you didn't have to force of Montess White deal. I think Chase Young was going regardless, and even though I know people will say, well, they just give away two talents, what about this year, you know, there's nobody else on the wrong.

the defense side that's going to compare to their abilities and potential, but we have seen in the past when they have not been around that the guys they have in Smith Williams and 2 Hill and Obata can fill in and, you know, maybe just allows John Allen and Geron Payne to spread their wings a bit more and get and take

their game up a notch compared to what we've seen so far this year. So I think from an overall franchise standpoint, I think this was the way to go, start looking towards the future simultaneously. I don't think they're dumping on the season. They may even play steadier football, which would be a step up for the defense.

But, you know, obviously it's a total refresh when you figure how many years have been now that we've been saying everything with Washington's look at them and you start with, but they have that defensive line, dot, dot, dot. Can't say that as much right now because of these deals. Do you think it was a net positive for the team to wait as long as they did to move on from a guy that they clearly were ready to move on from a while back, meaning, you know, they end up getting this compensatory third round, you know, closer to fourth round pick when all is said and done. But, you know, all the while, they believed that he was subtracting from their overall, you know, potential.

And so, you know, what was lost by having him there playing a significant percentage of the snaps in games this year. You know, I just wonder whether or not it was a net positive to wait until you could get. get, you know, more than maybe the fifth rounder or the fourth rounder that may have been available for him before the draft to get this pick, but you played a guy that you clearly didn't want for eight games, and you believe was subtracting from the overall defensive effort? Yeah, it's a good question. Like, you know, the evidence has been there, obviously, for a while that the team did not necessarily see Chase Young as the end all be all the way that so many others do, right?

I mean, go back to 2021, Rivera's calling him out subtly and then a little more directly at times about lack of discipline and maturity with his game, right? Then we get to this offseason. They decline to fit their option, which is pretty rare for a player at that statute. We're not talking about extension. We're just talking about picking up the fifth year option, which, as we discussed, you and I have many times, the state on that that was sort of blocked the match from keeping Montes wet on any level. so that's, I think, partly why they did that. And, you know, if you've decided, look, we already declined a feature option.

We're not about to give this guy an extension. Well, then, deciding to move on, that now makes sense. Now, in terms of sabotaging the season to a degree, I always did kind of wonder, like, if Chase Young, maybe he should just be viewed as a designated pass rusher and bring him in and on obvious passing down to let Smith Williams or somebody else handle those duties. Okay. but one thing I noticed a few weeks ago,

maybe we talked about this, is like how many snaps he was playing. He was like leading all the defensive alignment. And it was like, well, that's kind of interesting because he's just coming off the injury and we keep hearing, there's still some questions about the knee, but so maybe they were ultimately showcasing him to other teams.

If they look, he could play a heavy, he can play a lot of snaps, but be productive. You're going to have to take the risk on the rest of it, but he's not like, we're not hiding him. He's able to do this week after week. And maybe it didn't help a team, maybe it helps his trade value.

So that would be interesting if we could, you know, learn more about that. Yeah, I mean, the line that you got from a team source that the trading of Young was potential addition by subtraction, and yet he was playing, and I have the numbers right here, he had played the second most snaps of all of the defensive linemen against the Eagles, 79% of them. Payne was in there for a few more snaps, and he was number one in defensive lineman snaps at 90% of the snaps against the giants and the falcons. And it's like, again, okay, showcasing him, but to the detriment based on, you know, the quote that you have and the quote that, you know, was out there with Mike Silver and others, to the detriment they're saying in hindsight as they're,

you know, throwing him under the bus as he's heading out of town to the detriment of the team, in their opinion. I mean, I don't know. How much did, what were they going to get? A mid-fourth versus this end of round third with the incremental snap difference? Yeah. No, it's a good question. You know, I, again, it can't. Nobody should say logically that they improve their team from a talent perspective by trading these two away. On the other hand, and I've, you know, a few of these analysis now several times over the last 24 hours, it's kind of like, when an NBA team, you might think that having five All-Stars in your starting lineup is a good way to go, but at some point,

somebody has to set the pick. Somebody has to commit the foul, the hard foul, or dive on the ground, and the stars don't typically do that. You need those role players. And in the case of the Washington, over the court, in the case of a 22 player

starting lineup, whatever, it's not as big of a deal with talking one or two guys, but in a position room with four guys starting, it's sort of the same deal. Somebody has to be current. Because everybody can't be freelancing. Who's going to set the pick for the Clippers?

Exactly, that's part of why it seems like it's an insane situation because all their four top guys are, you know, at various points have been the man and MVP candidate, whatever. So I feel like that's kind of what happened with the line at times, especially back in 2021.

So, yeah, it is sort of Like, if the goal was just to win the games, it would make sense, like I said, before, to go with a Smith-Williams starting in the first or second down and bring Chase Young in off the bench. But, you know, they were unwilling to do that. And, you know, again, to be clear, we have manual Forbes has got bench, right? First round pick. I know I'm not comparing him to Chase Young, per se. But, you know, we've heard, you know, Jamie Davis was, they were pegging him to be the mic.

They instead moved him to a different role because it wasn't working. But with Chase, it never quite got to that. that level. Like, they never seem to, I mean, no doubt of what was said. Yeah. No doubt. His playing time never diminished, even if they thought he was being a potential detriment. Yeah, there never seemed to be kind of a come-to-Jesus moment with the staff and Chase. Like, you either do it this way or you're sitting.

You either do it this way or you're going to be a specialist for us, which, you know, I put that part of it on them. Here's a question that I contemplated on radio today. And I'm looking for somebody basically sent me a tweet that said, do you think not picking up the fifth year option resulted in less compensation back for Chase Young or the same or more? I actually think there's an interesting argument here, but I want to hear your reaction. Do you think that in hindsight they made a mistake not picking up the fifth year option, that they could have gotten more?

I get the argument for sure. I don't know. I mean, look, the franchise tag exists, right? Now, the franchise tag is more money. The fifth-year option would have been like $17 million and change. The tag of like projected be like $21 million. So I get it. But it's not like in the context of what we're talking about,

a potential all-pro player here, that can't be that much of a difference. So I don't know that it mattered. that much. I think the fact that he's come out and played, like even if they had picked the fifth-year option, but he's got, you know, one sack at this point instead of five. I don't think that, you know, I don't think the fifth-year option is helping you too much at that point.

So I don't know if it mattered much, but it's a good question. It's an interesting thought, but, you know, I don't think it probably mattered that much. Here's my, because I didn't address this in the open to the show. Number one is if you didn't think you were going to want him after 2023, and you can't pick up the fifth year option. Because what if nobody wants him and you're stuck at $17, $18 million for the fifth year option? So that's first and foremost.

Secondly, I think you could almost make the argument that a team like San Francisco, who is all in to try to win it this year, may have preferred that he's not under contract moving forward. And if he ends up performing at a high level, they'll figure that out and they'll try to get him resigned or maybe they'll use the tag or whatever. But really what they, the trade that was going to be made for him was going to be more in the rental mode and that the fifth year option and the guaranteed fifth year may have hurt their ability to trade him. Maybe. I don't know. Yeah. And also like, you know, sure, you could have traded Chase Young if you had the fifth or option and then at that

point said, let's resign Montes sweat, but by declining it, now you're opening yourself up to be able to sign either one. If you had done the fifth or option with Chase, and like you said, what if you can't get rid of them, now you're pretty much locked out of keeping sweat. Right. I don't know what they were saying in negotiations, but they didn't have

to trade them, right? They could have just said, hey, we want to keep you. Yeah. But, and then the other teams are going to know that when you're discussing it, but it's like, well, wait a minute, you really can't keep it. You already got the two tackle signed and Chase is on a fifth year. You have no leverage here. You're not keeping this guy. So we'll give you nothing, you know, or relatively a lesser deal.

So I think ultimately it worked out. You know, I think they did the right things with that regard. Yeah. All right. I do want to ask you about what happened after the trade. The, you know, the information that was coming from the organization, you had, you know, a pretty damning quote about Chase Young. Mike Silver had a really damning quote about Chase Young. Mike Silver having worked in this organization, and I explained how, you know, Grant Paulson's,

you know, retweeted and quoted the tweet from Michael Silver's story in the San Francisco Chronicle. And then he fist bumps with an emoji, almost acknowledging, yeah, yeah, all my information came from Ron Rivera. Amazing to me, right? I mean, would you ever do that? Would you ever fist bump somebody on Twitter acknowledging, essentially, where you got your information from? Absolutely insane. Like, look, I mean, obviously a part of this job is you kind of talk to people,

you've got to promise that you're not going to reveal sources and, you know, all these kinds of things because you want to work with them before. And if they're willing to open up to you, you don't want to break that trust. And then other people see it, all these kinds of things. We all get it. Like, I didn't need, we all understood where Mike Silver was getting from, anybody who was paying attention. But for the rest of the world, maybe they all know, right? maybe they're not aware of all of the Rivera relationship.

But then for him, just put it out on Front Street. Yep. That is, I mean, like, it's to the point that, I don't know if any was Will. Ron's going to talk later today, that, like, we should basically almost say directly, hey, Ron, Mike Silver reported this, and he basically acknowledged that you guys were the source. So, what do you want to say about this? Because, yeah, I mean, it's insane. So what do you say? I had my say here in the open, but I just, you know, netting it out, I don't dispute any of the reasons why they wanted to move on from Chey Shung. That's a different subject. For me, the leaking of the throwing Chey Shung under the bus and making him look bad on the way out just to me was another and a long line going 20.

years back plus of kind of a low-rent move. What did you think? Yeah, I don't think it was, it doesn't look great. I'll just say even like this, right? Like, we're all learning about Josh Harris still, right? We're still trying to figure out what makes him tick, what's it really like for him to oversee an organization, all these things. We can hear from the Sixers and Devils people, but we need to experience it for ourselves. I've been making the argument now for several weeks and being told by numerous people that I was an idiot but that the idea that Ron Rivera shouldn't trade these guys

because his best chance to keep the job was to win I was like, okay, what planet are they going to turn this thing around and win enough games to justify what's happening, not to mention the off-season transactions that's been bust. But I've been arguing that the best way to go is to lean into what we perceive as Josh Harris' vision, which is about the future. And ultimately, these trades were exactly about that.

So whether around the error was told he got to do this, or as I was told that they all worked in alignment, clearly they went down. He was willing to accept and go down this path, which is why then this part with the Chase Young comment, it feels like he should be playing to an audience of one at this point. I don't know what Josh Harris thinks this. It seems odd. It seems like it's not a way you would want to go about your business. Now, of course, the 76ers have had all kinds of problems lately with James Hardin before they traded them. I don't know exactly what was being said by 76ers sources, but it would be a good look to see how much of Philly saying, you know, trashing Hardin or not Trashing Hardin on the way out. In other words, to see what is the Josh Harris team typically going to do here versus what can come across as being petty even if the reasonings are sound, like why I say it.

So that part is sort of a curious part to me. What's the incentive to do it when you have a new owner who, I don't know, maybe Josh Harris cool with that or maybe he's like, wait, what? What would we just do? That's kind of weird. The incentive is to try to make yourself look like you had a – to try to explain to the public through the media why you were justified in trading the number two overall pick in the draft and the defensive rookie of the year

for an end of third round compensatory pick to the 49ers. They were insecure about how people would respond to it, and they cared too much about how people would respond to it. And, you know, I would say it's more about that than maybe just Ron venting. Ron's vented to, you know, a lot of us, you know, I shouldn't say Ron. The organization has vented about Chase Young. We've been hearing things for two years now. Ron vented publicly, you know, where it wasn't directly at Chase Young, but I think we all knew

who he was talking about in 2021 when he talked about adhering to the scheme and maturity, et cetera, et cetera. And he did eventually call Chase out in a Mike Silver interview. When Mike Silver was writing for the website, he did get, quote, on the record, point out that Chase was one sort of, I forget about freelancer, but yeah, he eventually even did that much. What was that? I forget specifically what that was. I mean, it was just extending, instead of just being mysterious and saying, we need more maturity and discipline,

even though we all kind of knew he was talking about Chase, he then went on that path again, talking to the team reporter, but then specifically called out Chase Young by name. I can send you the quote later. I don't have it. Yeah, I mean, basically, he just said the same thing, but this time he put Chase Young's name on it. Yeah, I mean, he, when he didn't pick up the fifth year option, he basically implied that this guy, like, Ron Payne, we want to see him produce, you know, when he's incentivized by, you know, a potential new contract. That's not the greatest thing to say either. And the, yeah, and the whole thing

about venting this way or getting this information out, I mean, for me, it makes them look like just idiots. Like, why didn't you just bench him? Why weren't you the adult in the room and say, hey man, I'm the fucking head coach. If you're not going to do what we're asking you to do, I don't care where we drafted you. You're not playing. Period. I mean, you know, we heard about the potential delay in him coming back last year

and they wanted it to be earlier. They thought it was going to be earlier. And there were reasons that it wasn't earlier. Hey, man, if you're not ready to play, go to hell. You know, fine. I'm playing the guys that are here and ready to play the way we want them to play. If you can't do that, see ya. He should have cut him.

I mean, or certainly traded him, but the constant discussion both, you know, sort of publicly and then through leaks. And now, to me, it just makes them look so small. And makes them look stupid, too. And I'm not saying that they're wrong. I'm also like, call out their players in front of the media and all that kind of stuff. But, you know, last year, with Jamie Davis started slow, Jack Del Rio and Ron Rivera, had no problem doing that. And later, I remember when we asked about, like, why did you decide to say some of this out loud? He's like, well, look, I think we know how some guys can handle things and some guys can't.

Jamon being a kid with a military parents or, you know, from the military background, that he could probably handle some tough love. and, you know, to a degree, I think it were a game and seemed to pick up his game pretty quickly. And, you know, there's been incremental progress since, but, you know, at least it's not gone backwards. And even here with Forbes, right? I mean, he is, you know, basically when they benched him the first time,

he was like, well, I think our action speak for itself, we can't keep out of this happen. But then with Chase, yeah, it's been, yeah, not real. And then on top of it, like you said, he keeps playing. He didn't get, you know, Jamie Davis, again, got switched positions. Folks has gotten benched. but Chase, you know, they just kind of kept going.

And maybe at some point that was a Dan Snyder issue, right? Because obviously Chase is from here. Yeah. He's sort of the more modern RG3 in terms of, you want him to be the face of the franchise kind of guy. Maybe there was some of that. But Dan Sider doesn't live here. It can't be that excuse this time. You're starting to break up a little bit, so I'm just going to finish it with two quick questions, all right?

Why didn't they trade Jacoby Berset for a sixth rounder if that's what Cleveland offered? I think JP reported that. I hadn't seen the offer and sorry about it I just walked outside to watch practice it's a little windy obviously I don't know

I've made the case for several weeks that I would fully commit to Sam Howe and trade Brissette if somebody was going to give me something because realistically he's not going to be here next year and you know

I think that this was on a day in which they traded and made a clear push towards the future with the trade that they made it seems like a relative no brain I guess the argument to some degree is one for one is you want percent to be a mentor for Hal.

I immediately dismiss that. You have coaches. Plus you can go and sign a Nick Fold or whoever's asked to come in and help with that. That's what you want? And two, as far as the idea of, well, what happens if they find themselves back to 500, how it gets hurt, and you're looking at whatever you have now is your backup? Yeah, I don't really care. I mean, again, like, what's the point here?

The point is we're accepting that we're looking forward now. Cool. Make the move then to do that. Anybody who is, I mean, you know, anybody on this roster who they don't see definitively being here next year, you should have, if it was an offer, I would have strongly considered taking hit. And again, I get, you got to have a backup quarterback. I'll take a lot of hits, all that, but, you know, you've already made it, you've already sort of said, we're not, we're not completely in this to win this, which is fine.

from a perspective of the franchise, maybe not a roster, but it's not what I would, I understand why they, from their perspective, what kind of saying? Josh Harris, involved in yesterday in a meaningful way or not? Yeah, I think so. I'm going to try to walk to a better spot here. Yeah, I mean, I reported that the conversations were held between ownership, between the coaches, between the front office, and that everybody was on the same page. Now, whether that spin or factual, the point would be that they were, that the ownership was part of the conversation, which of course, he just paid $6 billion for the team, seemed logic that he would. And, you know, when they brought in, one thing I think to me that really said they went trade, sweat and young or young, was the hiring last week of this guy to oversee the analytics department. That's clearly a Josh Harris move. and that says he is starting to find ways to put his stamp on this thing without waiting until the off season.

Thus, this wasn't that opportunity. If they weren't there five and three instead of three and five, probably a reasonable chance. At least sweat still here, maybe both. But when you're three and five in the losses have been the way they've been, you can't just pretend that this is going the right direction. So for, yeah, a new owner tear things down. This wasn't that, but this isn't the process, but it's still something different than the franchise has been doing. the last 20 years. Yeah, I think it's pretty clear he was involved.

All right. Thanks. Great job. I know you're outside. Starting to break up a little bit. I appreciate the time. I will talk to you later. Yeah, man. Thanks. We'll get Santana Moss's thoughts on the trades. And a lot more. We'll get him to weigh in on Sam Hal through eight games. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Halloween is over. Thanksgiving right around the corner. Yeah, three weeks from tomorrow. in fact, my favorite holiday of the year. How does apple cider, brine, smoked turkey, cornbread stuffing, shallot, and thyme gravy sound right about now?

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All right. Jumping on with me right now, 89. Santana Moss. It's always good to catch up with Santana. And what a day to have you on because yesterday was busy. So let me start there. What was your reaction to them not trading one but trading both? Chase Young and Montez Sweat.

I mean, honestly, when I heard sweat was gone, I kind of felt if anyone it was going to be him just offer. I think I was listening to him, talk to either JP or someone on the radio, when they asked him that question. They actually played it on 106.7, the fan, when they was in the locker room, and they asked him a question about the trade rumors and stuff. and he had mentioned speaking with his agent, and, you know, that's our part.

I don't think he went no further than that, but when you kind of up-to-date with going on stuff like that and talking to your agent, it's almost like it was something that he was anticipating. So when I heard him, I was already saying, okay, then, well, he anticipated it. If you look at the whole big scale of things when it comes to what was going on this year with him knowing he had to be paid next year, probably we didn't have enough for him, so we'll keep chase. And then I see chase going.

I'm like, okay, yeah, well, now we're really trying to rebuild and look, playing for the future. So it's one of those situations, man. You just don't know what to expect. Honestly, when you look at our schedule, you would say that you at least want one of those guys still around just to help with what we have going on. But then you also look at it from a big, you know, from a wide lens and say, well, you look at the guys who was here last year that played with those guys

wasn't around. Like when Montez went out for a little while, and when Chase wasn't healthy yet, you had those two-hills guys, and all those other guys that still here. And the defensive line played well. So you kind of looked at it and say, well, thankfully, we have enough dealt,

and then we also now put our stuff in a situation where if after this season, everything blows up where we don't have the staff or whatever may happen, you have some equity. Now you can go after next year, too, to help, you know, build this team to get it to where you're trying to

you know, take it or whatever. Yeah, it's a little bit different because, I mean, look, the teams you were on, it was always about, you know, spending and trying to get the best possible team for the next season rather than looking ahead and building for the future. And, you know, there's not

a lot of building for the future in the NFL because you can remake your team so quickly. But do you like this strategy, which I think clearly has some direction from ownership to you know, to acquire assets, to acquire draft choices, to move on from players that perhaps either you don't want or you don't think you can sign and, you know, look towards

what I think will be a completely new day when we get to mid-January. Do you like this? I'm all about whatever works. I don't know if it's going to work or not, but I'm all about whatever works. So, you know, at the end of the day, I'm like, hey, you know, it's not my decision. It's one of the things where as a former player, you know, you know, it's a former player, just sit back there and you make you raise your eyebrows a little bit and they say, okay, now I'm ready to see these guys go out here and the guys who get in the chance

to step into these guys' shoes see what they got. You know what I mean? Because now you get those guys a chance to go out there and basically potentially say, hey, you know, we deserve to be here another year or a few years to come. But I'm just all about whatever works. And it's hard to really pinpoint how things are going to transpire in this league. Things happen, you know, drastically, you know, I mean, with the same. of a finger. So if this is where we're going, I think when it comes to just seeing how everything

has kind of changed, it's almost like if you're sitting back and you're just one of those fans that you used to the same thing over and over again, it should give them a little hope, you know, a little more hope. But as a player, man, I don't, you know, you know, you never really know, man. You can, they should turn around starting this weekend. You know what I mean? Like you can, I've been in the shoes where we were three and six, you know, I've been on teams where we were three and six and made it to the second round in the playoffs. You see what I'm I'm all about whatever's going to happen, it's going to happen, but you just can't think or assume that we made these couple of moves, and we're going to look for the forward now and to the future,

and it's going to be better now, I mean, better then. You still could have things that happen drastically this year. So whatever happens happens, I'm just going to be paying close attention to. Yeah, you kind of answered my next question, which is interesting the way you said it, because it really is. The NFL is so unpredictable. Who knows? Maybe the mix of players that are, left will end up performing better. We won't know until we start to see these games. But, you know, you were never, you didn't play here on a team that had a perceived sell-off. You know, it was only two players, but still, it was two starting players, two players that were perceived as two of the better players on the team. And I was just curious as to what you thought, you know,

the locker room reaction would be. I mean, you just told me what your reaction would be, but what what do you think others might think? Oh, that's a great question, man. Honestly, it's all about the guys. I mean, I'm pretty sure those guys are going to be missed, especially the guys on the D-line, you know, who have basically went to war with those guys week in and week out.

I think Ted was one of those guys. He was probably the most consistent around because, you know, even though he had a couple of injuries here and there, he's been here and he's been playing consistently, you know, year in and year out. When it comes to Chase, man, I have mixed views because I look at the talent and I'm like, man, you know, I know he has so much in him. And I'm honestly, I think I'm a little happy for him, honestly, you know, and I don't want this to be, you know, quote it wrong.

The reason why I'm happy because I remember being a kid playing college ball at home in University of Miami. And I remember how hard it was to play home. Like you couldn't. You had to basically say, okay, good thing I was young when I was doing this, because I had stop everything. I couldn't be in certain places. I couldn't do the things that I wanted that normal players who were from out of town did. And I did it because in order for me to be successful, I had to almost, you know, go hide myself, go, you know, be duffed off because everything was scrutinized about what I did. You know what I mean? If someone saw me eating pizza,

oh, a tennis out eating pizza, you know, maybe that's why he didn't play well. You know, everything was true. So when you got a kid, you got a kid like, take young, Yeah, exactly. When you got a kid like Chase Young's playing home, so much pressure, so much going on with his team, let alone from the, you know, the pressure that he has individually. But the team, you know, he can't really be itself and go out and be a professional football player and just live his life. So I'm happy in a sense for him that he get a chance to get away from here and go be the best he can be.

But when it comes to just what that team might feel when losing those guys, I'm sure they'll be missed by the same time and the show goes on. Yeah, I think that's a really good point. I also would add to that, and I'm curious as to what you think. You know, a lot of what's happened here could be a lot on him, you know, not just the surrounding, but on him, and him maturing and him growing up a little bit. And this could be a bit of a wake-up call for him. Do you agree or disagree? You know, I don't know really what was going on with Chase when it comes to a lot of, I.

I've been hearing the rummish, trust me. I listened to all you guys' shows, and so I heard a lot more than I knew. The past few days about what people were saying, and I'm like, that was new to me. You know what I mean? I'm not in, you know, because I'm a player, man. I see it from a different lens.

And if that was going on, then, yeah, maybe this might be a wake-up call, but I really don't know if that was a problem. I know just the guy that I saw in these last seven games, I guess you can say he played in. He's a freak, man. And he hasn't played his best game in his league yet, you know. And I just know that's a lot of talent that San Francisco is getting in both of those guys.

San Francisco and Chicago, a lot of talent. But, you know, speaking on Chase, man, like I said before, if that's what it is, some players use that and say, hey, yeah, okay, this is my chance to now prove a point. And knowing Chase, he got a lot to prove, you know, he got a lot to prove. So, hell, I don't want this to be something that we look back at and say, well, damn, look at this player and look what he becomes. But at the end of the day, that's how things transpired time. Yeah, it's funny because I actually, because of the talent, because also, I mean, selfishly, I really wanted them to draft him. I thought he would turn out to be a great player.

I thought the end of his rookie year was what we were going to see for the next 10 years. and I'm kind of rooting for him to figure it out. You know, he's a young, whatever it is, he's a young man, he's 24 years old. And like you said, I think we know what his best game potential is. I hope he gets to that at some point, even if it's in another uniform. But whatever. Let me tell you something, though. Let me tell you something.

Because one of the things that I hate to hear when I hear things about players, because like I said, I speak from a player standpoint, I hate to hear. when I hear the rummins about that individual player on a certain team. And then it's not, you know, you really can never really speculate off of what you hear or just take that and say, okay, that's the problem. Look, when I was leaving New York, I'm going to tell you what I heard. I heard this from coaches. And it was other coaches on my team that told me this.

It was said that they couldn't coach me on the offense when I was in New York. And now you've been around me for a long time. Right. of times, man, it's coaches and players just can't mesh because of whatever that agenda or wherever that ego is that's coaching that player. And then it's players that go to teams or that around different staffs that they can get through to them. So I take that stuff like a grain of salt, man, because you really never know. And when I was leaving New York, that was the best thing for me just because I knew one, when I was up there, I gave them my all. But two, I didn't want to leave.

It was, you know, it was forced on me. It wasn't really forced on me, but it was the best thing for me. And when I came here, I came here with that feeling like, you know what? That was great. I have a breath of fresh air, and now I can go out here and play football and not have to worry about some of the rumblings and some of the things I was in. So that's how I look at Chase situation, man. If it was the best for him to go, then that's what happened.

And I think the world of the guy, I think he's going to be a great talent, and I'm hoping the best for both of those guys. kids and and um let me do what we do whenever we end up chatting which is just take you back a little bit because you just sparked a thought and that was when you got dealt here in 2004 and you know it's 2005 excuse me at laverteous coals was here in 2004 how quickly did you know that Gibbs and a lot of these old dudes don bro and you know rennie simmons and And, you know, it was the old Joe Gibbs, you know, coaching staff. How quickly did you know it was going to be a good fit for you?

And what made you feel that way? Well, you know, it wasn't even about the coaching staff. What was it? I felt that way when I stepped into the fitness. I just knew I was somewhere where I wanted to be at, where I needed to be at. Like, man, look, I tell this story a lot. And people probably would look at it like, oh, wow, I didn't know that. I knew nothing about New York City when I was 20 years old.

I told you, I visited there plenty of times playing different teams in the Big East, but never really visit the city to really see the city. And my senior year, going into my senior year, the seniors who was captains, had to go to New York for the Big East breakfast, like the beginning of the year breakfast, the kickoff of the season. And I was there, and it was probably the worst day to be in New York, talking about when it comes to just weather, rain, cold. It was just dreary, nasty.

And I remember complaining the whole trip. Like, man, I'm ready to get back to Miami. This is, this is BS. You know what I mean? Like, I don't want to be here. And I remember a good friend of mine, old teammate, God bless him. So, Al Blade, he said he was the one that bothered me the entire time he's there. Tannen, stop complaining.

You're going to be drafted here next year. And I'm like, no, I won't. And I got, when they called my name, if you're the, just sort of look on my face, like, this dude just called it that I was coming to New York, you know, in the draft. So, already to me, that was like, God damn, I was, you know, I dinked to myself or whether he zinks to me. And then I got there and this stuff just was happening that, you know, a kid like me,

21 years old, which didn't happen. I got hurt out the gate. That already was in my head. I'm like, then it's my first time away from home and look what's going on in a place where I told myself I didn't want to come. So with all that being. said as a football player you get beyond you know you get get past all that stuff so I end up I eventually getting past that and and started maturing and started playing great football but I never

felt like the place was for me like I've always I joke about it to my friends because they used to be up there with me and I would have my back packed and we playing our last few games and I'm like man I can't wait to go but I'm still trying to win these playoff games but I still want to I can't wait for you know when it's staying all said in over because I just never felt like it was home. When I got to D.C., I don't know what it was. I'm home. I felt home. And I, it wasn't, I didn't play a game. I hadn't visited anywhere. I just felt like it was for me. So I'm a guy about energy. I've been like that even how I judge people or when I meet people. I can feel the energy and know if somebody is for me or if that person has some kind of feeling towards me.

And that's what I felt. I felt positive energy here in D.C. So before playing, I just felt like it was going to be a good fit for me. All right, couple things. First of all, had you ever been to D.C. before? I've probably been here, but not to, you know, visit. I drove through here my last year. The same year that I got traded here, I took a road trip home because we went to the second round playoffs and lost to, I believe, Pittsburgh in 04. And it was one of those situations where I had two great back-to-back playoff games, and I'm like, you know what? I'm going to do something. something different this year. I'm going to drive home. And I remember driving through D.C. and like, man, seeing the monuments and all that stuff, but I didn't, I didn't get out

and stop. I just wanted to keep, you know, keep trucking. And that was probably the closest I've been to, you know, coming to D.C. Well, when you got here, you went right to, you know, Ashburn, which, as you know, isn't exactly D.C. It's way out. It's a far outer suburb. How long did it take you after you got, you know, dealt here to actually go into the city and see what D.C. was about. I think of probably a day or two. I was staying with Porter. So Porter's had got his feet soaking wet being here for a year.

So he was showing me around. I'm pretty sure it didn't take long for me to see all the stuff I needed to see. Do you remember who got picked before you and by what team in the draft? Yes, it was Rod Gardner to Washington Rescue. Yeah, exactly. But also, too, to add to that, I think I share the story with you too, leading up to the draft, the entire week of the draft, it was dead. I was coming to Washington.

That's probably another reason why it felt like home. Like, it felt like what's meant to be. Because I had in the back of my head that, hey, maybe I'm going to watch them. But being the guy that I am, I told the guys who was calling me all the media, like, look here. And to a said and done or written in stone, I'm not going to speak on it because I don't. want to get too far ahead of myself. And when that happened, that draft day, that was like, all, you know, I told you, you know, I didn't want to go out there and say, yeah, I'm coming to D.C., get my head all caught up in here because I have a guard mom that's been living out here,

you know, since I was probably one. So I had that in the back of my head, like, oh, maybe I will be going to D.C. and I'll be close to my godmom. That's interesting, because that was the Marty Schottenheimer one year here. Yeah. And they took Rod Gardner, and I'm looking at that draft right now. Man, it was you and Reggie Wayne. That was it of the receivers in the first round. And he went to Indy with Peyton. You know, like Dallas Clark, you know, ended up being a tight end in Indy forever. And I always say to Cooley, man, you were just as good, if not better than Dallas Clark. Imagine if they had taken you and you had been a tight end with Peyton. Imagine if you had gone to Indy and been, you know, what Reggie Wayne, you know, what turned out to be.

I mean, do you ever think about like, because really it is a bit of luck where you get drafted and the situation like you were just talking about with Chase Young, the situation sometimes, you know, is a matter of circumstance and you could have ended up there. But, you know, whatever. You ended up in Washington. You had a great career here. Yeah, no doubt. All right. Let's get to the team through these eight games at this point.

First of all, I want to start offensively. Tell me why the game plan we saw on Sunday, with all of the quick game and all of the screens and the sprint outs, why don't we see that with Sam every week? Well, I think over a course of time, one of the things people found, feel to realize when you're in a new offense, you have the game plan according to what you're up against. And each week is going to basically give you a chance to be a little different or show something or try to do something that's going to fit your style of play.

So what I mean about that is like, just like who we're facing this week, you know, we're going up against the Patriots. Their defense, their game plan, It's totally different after every week. And it's because they want to keep you guessing. They want to keep that team, that opponent, to say, okay, you saw us do this, but we're going to adjust now to what you do good, and we're going to try to make sure we eliminate that.

So if we're going up against, you know, AJ Brown, trust me, AJ Brown won't catch a ball. That's how the New England Patriots defense think. And I remember being on good offenses where, especially here, when I got here with Gibbs, Giles was, you know, trying to go back into the wheel and say, hey, you know, this is what we did when won championship. It's going to work. And then eventually he started, okay, maybe after my first year here in 2004, first year back, I realized I can't, you know, dig too deep to that.

But our run game is very successful. We can still run the ball the way we ran it when I won, you know, when I won championships. But in the past game, I have to add a little something else. So what Coach Giles would do with me that year, we would just look at what the other team did against our opponent. and take everything they did in the passing game and say, Tanner, can you do this? You know, being a receiver, most receivers would say, yes, I can run every route.

But I honestly feel like I can do everything that I thought of other guys was doing. So I did that. And it was successful. That's why we went up there and put up so many numbers. And I had that 14-803-yard season because we just did the things that was working. So that's what I think our offense is starting to discover now that, you know, each week we're trying to do stuff that's going to, you know, know, fit what we do that's in our game book or our playbook.

And according to how the outcome is, it's either going to work or not. And we have to adjust on the fly if it does. We have to change things that have time. So that's what I'm seeing. And I'm hoping that going forward, because after some of the successful games that we've had, going forward, I hope we kind of have enough that we can say, this is what we're going to do regardless if anything breaks down. We can do this right here.

We can play this style of football. We can max protect. We can move the pocket. We can put two men, three men in route. And we can win and be productive offensively instead of saying, hey, I'm going to stick to what I know or stick to the game plan and try to run these plays knowing that certain defense is going to give up a different challenge. So what have you thought of Sam Hal?

I mean, honestly, it's like when you listen to the radio each week, I just said this other day to Fred. and Logan on our command center show. I was like, bro, just last week, everyone was talking about benching the kid and putting in for set and saying, hey, you know, and I'm like, the next week he goes out and have one of those games again. What I've seen is a guy that, regardless of what he does week to week, he doesn't do it again the next week.

It's like he gets better. And then, like, one week he may regret. But I think it's not really him. It's just the, you know, what the defense is basically dick. to our offense. And most of the times you want to be the dictator. You want to be the guy, you know, the offense wanting to be able to go out there and make the defense move according to what they're doing.

And it hasn't been the case all year. I think when you watch that Giants game alone, man, we knew that, you know, he was coming like he was coming. That defensive coordinator was going to bring it. We knew that. We was going to bring it. And we just couldn't, I mean, it was like watching yourself self-destruct. I literally was sitting there in the sand, watch, watch.

watching that game in New York, and I'm like, man, one guy messed up on the O line, and it's like disaster for that whole drive. So we could never really get ahead of the change because individuals messing up more than the game playing itself. And then when they caught their feet in the second half, it was just too late to climb back into it. So I'm hoping going forward, man. We started off the line switch up this past week with Larson and putting Chris Paul in there,

and it looks very well. It looked like these guys played well, but if you also look at the big picture, that particular defense wasn't bringing a whole lot. They didn't blitz a lot. They showed different looks like they were going through. They might brought five here and there, but it wasn't a big heavy dose of blitz. So I'm just hoping, man, going forward that these guys can understand that they can play

well together if they just do their job. And I know that's cliche because we heard that from our opponents that we're going against this week a lot. but I think when you see those guys go out there and really play to the standard that they can play to, everybody looks well. Sam is capable. I think Sam is going to be the franchise quarterback. I mean, if you have to ask me, that's what I see. The guy can make every throw.

He's young and he's doing this stuff. So just imagine what he's going to be like if we can protect him and we can see this guy playing two or three more years all here under this system. It was good to see Johan Dotson have a big game. the other day because it just wasn't happening through the first seven games. You and I talked before the season started, and I know you were expecting kind of a big breakout year from him potentially.

So your thoughts on his season so far? Yeah, I've been there, man. I've been in those shoes, and I know how it is sometimes when things are just not jealous. It's crazy because even though we talked about what he could do, I had in the back of my head, man, oh, man, I hope we don't put too much on. his plate and he doesn't, his season gets off to a bumpy start and that's just how it, you know, it kind of transpired a little bit. But this guy is a great talent, man. I just hope that him and him and Sam could continue to kind of like jail and get that mess that's needed.

One of the things that I've been seeing from the offensive game plan, everybody's going to be able to eat, man. Everybody can eat. And I love the way that EB distributed the ball around to everybody. He gives everybody a chance to make a play. But also, I think, man, And when Sam really gets on it and start hitting some of these wide open guys, because he's missing a lot of big plays out there week to week. You know, you get a guy, too, that streaking that he's overthrowing. If he can get that, you know, caught up to speed, man, this offense can really take off. But I think it's a lot of big plays that we're leaving out there.

Now, he's driving the ball, putting up some big drive. But if he can hit capitalize on big plays, that can do a lot to your office and your team. You know, he missed on the fourth and one. Curtis Samuel was, you know, there was a coverage breakdown. He was wide open for a touchdown. He had Pringle early. But I'm curious, like, when you, you're in the game and you're wide open and the quarterback goes elsewhere, or you're in the game and you're open deep and he overthrows

you. How much of the time do you get back on, you know, Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or whenever the film's broken down and you see, well, he couldn't see it because. he had pressure in his face. Because a lot of times it's not, the frustration comes from the past catchers, the wide receivers, and the quarterback had no chance to get to it, right?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a lot of times you're not even in the progression. Right. So if I'm not in the progression, then I'm not worrying about him not seeing me. But if I'm in a progression, then I got a bone to pick.

I got to be like, bro, what are you seeing? You know what I mean? Got it. You have the time. But trust me, it's one of those things, man. If you're into progression and he misses you, then that's on him. But if you're in the progression and he misses you because of what happened up front, then that's on us because the team should have blocked, you know, protected better

and maybe he could have got to me. So it's different situations like that that changed the circumstances of the play. The fourth and one that, you know, they went to Terry, it almost got picked. Do you think Curtis Samuel was in the progression? I believe that was actually Crowder because that was Crowder. Yeah, that was Crowder in the game. I don't think he was in the progression. And I think that was just singled out, hey, we throwing this ball to our guy who's going to come down with me. Like, you know, Kerry's running this single-man route on the back side, and we're throwing his one-on-one, we're going to throw it to him. But it obviously was a, they had another plan for it. They had his own, and the guy didn't, you know, he was playing the flat, and he just played it well.

Quick question for you, because Emmanuel Forbes was in the game, ended up getting matched up against A.J. Brown a couple of times a few weeks after, you know, he got torched. I was listening to Peyton Manning talk about it was the Monday night game between the Vikings and the 49ers, you know, a week and a half ago. And he said, the Vikings have a whole different set of plays that Kirk checks to if Bosa is out of the game. Was that always a part of an offensive game plan when the other team has a dominant sort of game wrecking type of player? and then on the flip side, if somebody comes into the game that you think you can attack, does the offense adjust to that and then try to attack that player? Offenses that have a little, I guess you can say that, a little leverage with their play caller and the pastor that is confident enough in a guy or two, they would do that.

I've been on offenses that when they really had confidence in the guys who was going to the play, they would say, hey, if you see this guy, then you attack that. But then I've been a part of offenses that won't budge. They will keep what's been designed to be called in the huddle, and they won't take advantage of that. You know, that's why you see some succeed and some fail, you know, because I'm a part of this. Like, I played like that in college, where we got to a point, and me and Reggie Wayne got to a point where we can play the other position, and we go out there and and put up crazy numbers or have big, you know, big, you know, those explosive plays that help your offense

not have to drive the whole length of the field to get a score. You know, that's what you're trying to do. You're trying to score. So I see the Eagles do that and take advantage of that, and that's why they're so good. That's why they don't flinch when they're down because they know they have the players that they can really rely on to say, hey, we're going to pull the trigger when we get a matchup.

And if you want to succeed in any style of, you know, offense, you have to take advantage of those opportunities and those matchups when you see fit. That's why you see us now throwing a Terry a lot. We have the confidence in Terry knowing that, hey, nine times out of ten, when we throw this ball up, he's coming down with it. So I would like to see a lot more of that. But to answer your question, yes, you will.

There's a lot of great offenses out here and staff that when they see those matches, they tell that quarterback, hey, take advantage of it. How good is A.J. Brown? Man. You know, I didn't give them enough credit. I knew he was good, but this year he's having right now. I mean, he's on one. And it all started that week one when they gave DeBonte Smith all those passes.

And he chewed hurts out. I think that was the start of seeing him take off right there. He wasn't happy with, you know, the attempt and his opportunities in week one. And since then, you've been seeing a drastic change. He's getting all the balls, and DeVante has been, you know, DeVante. He still gets those exposed to plays here and there, but he's not getting that many opportunities. Thanks for doing this as always. You can go to Command Center on the commanders.com website and watch the Players Club.

Santana is a part of that. And a lot of the other videos that the team puts out, you know, with guys like London Fletcher and Fred Smoot and Logan Paulson, et cetera. I appreciate you doing this. I hope you're well. I'll talk to you soon. As always, man, I appreciate you. Thank you.

Santana Moss, everybody. Thanks to him. thanks to Ben Standing back tomorrow with Tommy.