The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cooley On If Haskins Will Start the Opener

Episode Date: August 16, 2019

Cooley joins Kevin from the start and discusses the chance that Dwayne Haskins could start the opener in Philly. Cooley and Kevin then turn to the defense which saw the projected starters play through much of the first quarter. Kevin talked about the Bryce Harper walk-off grand slam and then finished with the announcement that London Fletcher and Chris Samuels will be inducted into the Redskins Ring of Fame this year. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right. It's getting real up in here now, Aaron, with Dwayne Haskins. Come on. Let's get him up and ready to go against Atlanta next week from the jump. I don't want to wait for Haskins next Thursday night against Atlanta. I want to see him in the game at the beginning of the game with the ones playing against the. ones because right now, I think after two performances, and by the way, Case Keenham's performances, and by the way, Colt McCoy's injury situation, that Haskins is in play to play a lot sooner rather than later. Remember last week I came in here and I said, I think now the window is before week four, that at some point before week four or at week four, he's going to play. I think that window is shortening. I think he's got a chance to play much sooner rather than later. There are a lot of reasons for that, which we will get to with Chris Cooley coming up here in a moment.

But overall, he's more talented. He is a guy that you can tell. I mean, we all know as sports fans, a guy that looks like he belongs versus a guy that doesn't belong. He belongs, all right? Physically, the way he carries himself, there's no fragility in this guy. He is confident, self-assured. You know, you're not going to hurt this guy's confidence. confidence if he doesn't have great results. And by the way, I expect if he plays 14 plus games this

year, he's going to have some terrible games. He's going to make some mistakes. They're not going to win more games than they lose. But I feel the same way about Case Keenum. You know, that what's the point? Because the upside and starting Case Keenum isn't that much greater. Now, ultimately, you know, we're going to defer to Jay Gruden who really does know whether or not a guy like Dwayne Haskins can protect himself. And one of the things that Jay said after the game, after the Haskins 55-yard touchdown pass, was, you know what, pre-snap, he had it all right. He got the protection right. He moved the safeties, and he threw the ball really in a way in which I doubt Keenham or Colt McCoy can make that throw under the pressure that he made that throw under. He didn't play great in

the second half. It was uneven. I think it's gotten a lot closer, and I hope it has, personally. All right, there are other things that I liked and didn't like, and I'm going to try to cover some of those things with Cooley, who joins us right now. So the dude comes in, you know, midway through the second quarter, in part because Keenham didn't have enough snap opportunities in the first quarter. In fact, the Redskins, I think, had 22, 23 less snaps in the game than Cincinnati did. But Chris, he comes in, he throws the 55-yarder,

Jay raves about the mental part of what he did before the play. I'll cut to the chase. Do you think Haskins has a legitimate chance to start the opener? No, I don't think he has a legitimate chance to start the opener. There's so much that goes into week one in terms of a new game plan, a new install, getting ready for a defense, all the load that goes onto a quarterback. I'm not discounting any of that he can play in week one. He will play some in week one, but I don't think you put the entire onus on him in week one.

That said, I think you continue to bump the timeline as fast as you can bump the timeline. I want to see him as soon as we can possibly see him. I want to see him in meaningful games. Don't want to see him in this fallback system where, well, you went one and four. I want to see him now. And so I wouldn't be surprised if it were earlier than week five, like, was suggested by everybody a couple months ago. I was never out of the idea that he could start week one. I think the door is still open. But I wouldn't be surprised to see more of case than Duane in week one.

So, but you've bumped up your timeline to potentially him playing some in the open or just not starting it? Well, fortunately, I bumped up my timeline last week on my podcast to week three. So, you, you But before, I didn't need to see that. I said before week four. I didn't need to see the 53-yard throw to go ahead and bump up my timeline, so I feel good about that. Look, there's a lot that he's going to do wrong this season, whether he starts in week one or week six.

He's going to make a ball of a mistake, just like every young quarterback does. But he's going to learn from those mistakes. The thing that's appealing about Duane is if you can just not turn the ball over and then make a couple of those throws a game, you can make a bunch of mistakes. Football in the NFL hinges on big plays, and he has the ability with his arm to make throws that surprise defenses. That's kind of the way I looked at that throw to Robert Davis is.

Now, they're in a quarter coverage on that side. The safety's a little flat-footed. Nobody thinks that quarterback's going to throw that ball over the top of his head like that. So he's sitting flat-footed trying to break on an out route, and Duane sees him flat-footed and makes a throw. There's not a lot of quarterbacks in this league that will make that throw. and has the ability to put that kind of juice on the ball. Yeah, and then you got, you know, Gruden talking about afterwards,

and I'm sure you described it as well on the broadcast, and this is where, you know, you hear Jay talk about how impressed he was with Haskins handling the protection, you know, at the line of scrimmage, and handling that with, you know, as if he had a real grasp of what Jay wants to give him the opportunity to make a play like that. Those are the things that I've sort of been trying to listen for from Jay to give us a sense that Jay, you know, is getting comfortable, not with the physical, but with the mental, because it was always about the mental that would prevent him from playing sooner rather than later. He was impressed with that. You were too, right? Well, I was very impressed with it. And that's what I said as soon as he was drafted, as soon as he can protect himself in the pocket, i.e. pick up blitz.

looks, then he's going to be in the game. And that was a look where Cleveland had both of their middle line backers in the A gap. They call it double mug or double A. They brought a safety down off of his right side and looked like you might initially have pressure off his right side. Cincinnati. And then off of his, Cincinnati, not Cleveland, yeah. And then off of his left side, the nickel was walked out over the receiver, but the safety had backed up right over the top of the nickel. So he went ahead and saw that it was a disguise on the right side, slid his line to the left side. His back still didn't pick it up the way you would want to pick it up because they brought nickel pressure slid to it and the back kind of stepped inside. So he got hit while he threw,

although he made the right call and check to get himself into the protection. I think everything about that play was awesome. So let me make the case for sooner rather than later. Not that you're not making the case, all right? But some have continued to make the case that it's better to be patient. Smoot was on radio with me this morning. He still believes that they'd be better. off waiting and letting him watch and sit. First of all, it's very clear, I think, to anybody with vision that he's the most talented of the three. In terms of just physical ability, he's the most talented.

Check on that, right? Yeah, that's easy. Okay, so the second part is that this guy carries himself in a way, and this is obviously just a subjective observation. We all watch sports. You played it at this level. You're going to have better perspective. But you see guys that look like they belong versus guys that look like they don't belong.

You see guys that carry themselves with, you know, a hell of a lot of confidence that they don't look scared, that they're not getting rattled, they're not overwhelmed. And that appears to be him in these two games so far. Like he's been, look, he played at Ohio State. He played in a lot of big college games. He played much bigger in front of much bigger crowds. and in front of a rabid fan base. So he's used to a lot of this stuff.

But there's a way that I'm watching him that even after a bad play, he just doesn't look like he's fragile. Like he's the opposite of fragile. Do you agree with that? I play with a ton of confidence. But I also think he has a ton of humility. I think he's a smart kid.

And it's really, you know, when you watch guys play on film, and when I watch DeWain play, and I'm not going to go off of that I think that he was a second round pick or very late first and the Redskins went up to get him. But you always say that someone in my position without having talked to the player. I've sat and talked to Duane a couple times. He's impressive as a guy just to sit and talk to for a young kid.

And he listens and he's humble and he's smart and you can see that he loves ball and you can see that he wants to get better and that he understands he needs to get better. All those things wrapped up into that package make him more appealing than one season at Ohio State where there was a lot of question marks. Understood. That's a big thing. But so when I look at him starting this season, I think the more important question right now to me is, how big of a jump does he take in year one to year two and what does he have to do to take it?

You know, you look at Sam Darnold and you look at these guys that have taken that jump and you say they play. And so I ask, how many more games are you winning with Case Keenham as your quarterback? And honestly, Kevin, I don't know. If the answer is four, then yeah, you're going to play Case throughout the year. but I don't think that's the answer. And I don't think that's the case. I think in this instance, it's probably very similar between the two who wins more games. Case is going to make less mistakes.

Duane's going to make more big throws. That's where I was going. So, you know, I said physically he's more talented. Confidence-wise, he's not a guy that's walking on eggshells. He looks the part. The third part is competition. Like, are the other guys demonstrably better? The answer to that, I think, is no.

And so it leaves it up to one part that I don't have all the information on. You probably have much more. And that is, does the coach feel like he's ready to go out and is he able to protect himself? Does he have enough of the mental stuff out there to give him a chance to hit on those big plays in a regular season game? And if the answer to that is yes, I don't know what we're waiting for. Yeah, well, the answer is yes. It's just how much is he able to protect himself and how much of a concern to you. have that he starts getting pressure and making decisions that hurt his development.

Like last year, you bring in Josh Johnson and you say, look, he learned the offense in two days and we dumped it down and we simplified it. And that, yeah, you could play him right now and you could simplify and dumb it down. But you want him to grow, like, you're as concerned about his development as a player and his well-being as the franchise quarterback winning games at this point. He's so important. It's a crucial point for your offense. And so, or for your football organization.

So if there were concern that, man, he's going to take about five or six sacks a game and maybe one of those hurts him, maybe one of those doesn't, but maybe it hurts his development because he's just not going through the process of being a great quarterback, then you stand. But if he can protect himself and he can get through some throws and make some plays, then you roll him. All right. So I know how you feel now.

You've upped the timeline for this for him getting in and playing. in regular season games. What do you think Jay is thinking? I bet you... Okay. Well, I've said this to you before. Let's say you're looking at a team that should win six or seven games.

And you hope for the best and you hope that you could win 10-11 games. If you're a six-seven win team, Jay's going to lose his job unless he has Dwayne's full endorsement. Right. I'm Jay, you know how you get Dwayne's full endorsement? Show them how much you believe in him this second. Right now.

Let's go. I'm your guy. You're my guy. This is us. We're a team. Let's go. Because if you win seven games and you develop Dwayne to our next year, you're saying, this guy is going to be a top 15 quarterback in the league in a second year,

then I don't see a reason to fire a head coach or a staff in any ways, say it performed. I think that you say this is. This is what we've talked about with continuity. We're developing something on the scouting side. We're getting the type of guys we want. We now have our quarterback who believes in our head coach. And so if I'm Jay, I'm thinking as soon as I can possibly play this guy

and we can have a chance to win games and he can develop, I'm playing him. There is no question. All right, but you're answering that question is if you were Jay. What do you think Jay's thinking right now? Is there a chance that he's going to start Haskins Thursday night at Atlanta it'd give him a legitimate chance to get ready for an opener? Well, yes. First of all, yes.

Secondly, if I were Jay, I would start Dwayne against the Falcons because I know that Dwayne's going to start within four or five weeks of the season. And that means he's going to play the majority of the season as a starting quarterback. So he may as well play in the preseason with the starters. I just don't care about the optics of it or the looks of it or how anybody else feels. I'm going to explain very clearly to my team. Look, case probably are starting on week one. This doesn't mean that I'm giving, doing the job in week one.

It could win it. But he is going to be the guy. And so we need to see what he looks like with our ones. And we need to give him that feel in that time where he has Morgan Moses and Brandon Sheriff instead of Toulon Paris and Zach Karen. Do you think they- He's working with the starting receivers. Yeah.

Yeah, who are the starting receivers? Do you know? Oh, that's so up for grabs right now. Off tangent, that's such a interesting position, and it'll be a by-committee job because there's no dude, there's no guy. I think a lot of people are thinking Paul Richardson might be your one guy, but they're going to rotate a ton. You don't know what you're getting out of Terry McLaren. I like Kidsey. Everyone loves Steven Sims Jr.

Cam Sims has provided a little bit of a spark. I'm not as high on Brian Quick. I don't know if Doxon makes this team, to be quite honest with you, with some of these young players that you may not want to let go. And then there's that interesting factor of, you know, Jihue Chesson is not one of your better receivers, but is one of the best special teams players on this team. So do you keep J.Hu Chesson because you need the special teams talent?

I think you could end up keeping seven of these guys. What do you think of Davis? It's tough. And Robert Davis has made massive strides. I liked what Robert Davis did a week ago on a couple of those balls down the field and a couple of the routes that he ran. I liked what he did this week. Oh, no, I didn't mention Calvin Harmon, who probably won't make this team because he can't

keep himself from getting past interference. That was the worst. That's the worst call in the opportunity to correct it through replay with I have ever seen in preseason, regular season, or postseason. I'm not exaggerating either. When's the last time as an NFL fan? You've seen a DB running with his back to the quarterback, running right into a receiver with an underthrown ball,

and you see offensive PI. I couldn't believe that. Never? I don't think ever. It was so funny. I've been thinking that. I sat there and I said it in the booth. They're not going to overturn these calls.

They're going to do everything in their power not to overturn these calls because they don't want that. being able to make the call in the field taken from them. There's no arbitrary voice in New York looking at it. It's an officiating crew looking at it. You put a DB and a receiver and a coach and an official in that booth, that call is overturned, hands down. The second call is not ever made.

I hate that you can challenge PI if no call was made on the field. I think that's absolutely absurd and ridiculous as well. So that one was crazy. The officiating was horrendous throughout the game from start to finish. It was embarrassing. What Sean Hockey and that crew did last night was a shame to the game of football. Starting with the Josh Norman penalty where he's trying to catch a ball that everybody in the freaking stadium can see that his hands are extended, like, I'm going to intercept this ball.

Next with the Jonathan Allen getting penalized for tackling somebody. to the ground to finish the play. You're telling me that for sure, in a scrum of four people that Jonathan Allen heard that whistle, I don't think so. I think there's a hard debate that he didn't. On down the line to little things like

Tam Sims gets a formation or legal shift penalty, which is the ticiest, tickey-tackest penalty. I don't even know. Ticky-tack. Just say tiki-tack. Brian Cook barely shifted his feet, but he never really moved or reset. That's never called.

to the PIs, to all the things that went on in that game, it was, and it was both sides. They were calling on both sides that weren't good. It wasn't just for the Redskins. It was embarrassed. It really wasn't. It's a preseason game that nobody cares about, but we're sitting there, and those that are watching are like, oh, my God, this is like, you know, you had a couple of seventh grade flag football referees pulled out of their, you know, pulled out of their homes and said, hey, get to FedEx.

The referee crew didn't show up. I've never seen something so badly handled in a football game before. We have not, on the podcast, talked about the ability to challenge PI, whether called or not called. I hate it. I think it's going to be a disaster in the final two minutes of a half and a game when it goes to a booth. I'd let that be a coach challenge opportunity only. And maybe they're just trying to send out the message that it's got to be something similar to the Saints Rams game for it to be overturned here in the preseason.

I don't know. I just hate it. There were three of them in the game because there was a PI called on a Bengals touchdown down the field on the receiver, which I didn't think was PI. And I thought Zach Taylor should have challenged in that instance. I thought he was just fighting through the DB to get the ball. I didn't think, I thought Duane actually the ball was coming out of his hand in the slight.

I thought it was a pummel. I didn't think that was a pummel. Now, granted, Duane's going to learn on that play that he can't be at 10 yards deep in the pocket. He's going to step up a step, but I still didn't think it was a fumble. All right. I think they got that run. Yeah, it was just unbelievable. Let me rip through a couple of these things, because I know you've got a run to do some work here today from last night.

Ryan Finley, to me, was the most impressive player on the field last night at any position. Do you agree or disagree? Ryan Finley was incredibly accurate. He is a intelligent player. He is very capable of making those throws. He's drafted in the fourth round because he can't throw a hell Mary 50 yards. That's the only reason? He does not have the armed talent than any of these other players have or the natural skill set. And this is not in a bad way. By the way, I made a joke about Kirk Cousins last night. Ryan Finley is Kirk Cousin. And I've been saying that since watching him at NC State.

maybe that's why I like him so much. Oh, he's efficient, he's accurate, he knows where to go with the football, but he's played in a system where they're calling plays in that at NC State. And he's talked to Dave Doran there. I've talked to Dave Doran about Finley. But he's the smartest player I've ever coach. Dave Doran, the head coach at NC State, said that about Finley? Yeah, he said incredibly intellectual, almost more than beyond, you know,

know, just he's a smart dude. He said smartest player, of course. All right. On the first team defense, I mentioned this on the radio show this morning, that if you go back over the last two pre-seasones before this, there has been an energy level with the first team defense that we've seen in the preseason before, and it's actually translated to early in the season. Even in 2017, when they were healthy, think about how good they were defensively against the Raiders on that Sunday night game and even the Monday night game at Kansas City. I love how aggressive and I think the team speeds even better this year. What did you see from the first team defense? I think they look exceptional. And you mentioned

the first part of the last couple years. I think both years they were derailed by internal problems that should have never went on and I'm not making an excuse for, but ended up having the sex of guys not believe in what they were doing. It's not going to be that way this year, especially since it's 70% Alabama defense. But Duran Payne and John Allen and Ionitis look like they're in week four

playing their guts out. Landon Collins is a guy that adds a boatload to that defense. I thought Monta looked fast, explosive. By the way, another bad call in a lot. I mean, that he lowered his own. to make a hit on the DB. I like a lot of these young DBs.

I think that they have some depth at that cornerbacks, so I think they should be good there. They got a little bit of work to do at inside linebacker, but I thought Harvey Cohen's actually played okay at inside linebacker with the starting unit. So that's kind of the hole is your inside linebacker spot. Other than that, it's a talented defense. And it's a defense, Kevin, that you've invested in. You've invested draft picks and free agent money.

I mean, you got three first-round picks in your, excuse me, four with Ryan Carrigan in your front five, and another in Ionitis that you paid. So you should be pretty good up front. You invested. You know, it's sort of been really impressive, if not blown me away in the first two games, preseason games, just, you know, evaluating the player, is how athletic Duran Payne is. Like, I don't remember him being that quick and that impressive of an athlete. athlete last year.

Yeah, that was kind of the M.O. coming out of Alabama as well, a dynamic run stopper, stout is never going to be moved. It doesn't have the ability to get after the passer, but he does. And then you see him tip a ball to Monta Nicholson. You see, you know, some skills and some anticipation. He's a good player. You know, we'll always look at that pick and say that it could have been, you know. Could have been Derwin James.

Go to Ben Derwin James, but at the same time, Durantin's going to be a good player here for a long time. What did you see from sweat in his first action last night? Fastest could be chasing an interception down the field. He outran him. He looked like he needed to run some winsprits. But other than that, I think you're going to be fine with sweat. Didn't see much from sweat.

Morland again last night. He sniffs things out. Like he anticipates so well. and sees things before they happen. To me, he looks like the find of the offseason in terms of where he was picked as a seventh rounder. No question about it. Although Jimmy gave up, I think,

the first five balls thrown in his direction were completions. I think Jimmy's going to have to get used to being thrown at. I think that's one of the things that JMU was he's able to fit things out, he was able to make plays, and he wasn't thrown at a challenge because he was better. It was that corner that you go, we'll work the other side of the field. And that's part of why he fell is because it's hard to have production at the FCS school as the corner that no one wants to throw out.

How do you say that he's a lead? And so I think that was part of the reason that he fell. Everyone loves Jimmy Morland. I love Jimmy Morland. It was funny when we talked in June or July and said, I think Jimmy Morland can make this team. And I said, I think Jimmy Morland can start. Yeah, exactly. And Jimmy Morland's going to contribute early for this team.

Did Penn and Martin, West Martin, and Donald Penn, were they saved for Haskins? Joe said on the TV broadcast when Christian and Flowers started on the left side, that that's your starting lineup for Philadelphia. What do you think? I think Jim and Christian's getting every opportunity to start the season right now. And I should play better this week. Yeah. Geron.

I call him, Jaron. Oh, Jaron, I don't know. I thought you said Jimmy. But go ahead. No, it's Jaron Christian. Got it. I think he's given every opportunity to start right now, and they're trying to get him to play a little bit tougher

and a little bit quicker without any tentativeness. But I think he's probably your starter as of right now. A week ago after the Browns game, I thought West Martin played lights out watching the film after the Browns game. I watched most of the film this morning. I didn't think he played as well. I thought he played a little flutters. I still think West Martin should be your starter at left guard,

but it seems to be that they were sticking with flowers and Christian. Interesting. Interesting. I thought perhaps they were saving Penn and Martin for when Haskins came into the game. But it sounds like you... I thought that a week ago, but they played Christian, and they played Christian into the third quarter. Yeah, I know they did.

Well, no, no, Penn. I thought Penn was out there for the first Haskins series. series? No. Are you sure? I'm sure that Christian was out there in the third quarter. Okay. I think he was out there in the third quarter.

I saw 74 out there, but I thought I saw 79. They may have rotated. You know, they may have rotated. Cleveland, they rotated series. Yeah, maybe that's what we saw. I didn't take close. All right, the last thing is this. You know, the special teams weren't very good.

You know, the kickoff returns, another punt return for a touchdown. In years past, when the special teams haven't been very good during the preseason. I've heard Brian Mitchell say on radio that he's concerned about that. And there's always been this disconnect for me on that because the guys that are playing special teams in these preseason games are not the guys more likely than not that are going to be playing special teams when the regular season starts. You get a lot of starters on special teams in the regular season. Is there a reason to be concerned when in the preseason your special teams aren't very good.

No, not specifically. I think the last two weeks, those punt returns, you're looking at 11 guys on the field, you know, Sumberg and Tressway out. So out of the nine, they're running down. Maybe one of them make the team. Exactly. So, no, I'm not concerned about that.

I was pleased with Fabian Morel's punt returns. I thought he did a good job returning punts. And then the kickoff return stuff, for the most part, Dustin Hopkins is going to kick everyone out of the back of the end, though. They're taking them in play because it's the preseason. He's going to kick him out of the back of the end zone.

And your punter can kick it 75 yards in the air at times. That's incredible. I wasn't interesting that Sunberg had three low snaps on Bill goals, but Tress Way had the time. That was really interesting, but no, I'm not concerned about Sundberg. I'm not concerned about Tress. I'm not really concerned about Dustin Hopkins. I like those guys.

You're going to have guys that are playing, play special teams. and the kickoff stuff, you can kick it in the end zone. There's going to be a few times if you're going to kick it into the end zone. So, no. I actually did have one more thing for you. So last week after the first preseason game, you know how I love to watch running backs. I really thought 22 Reynolds had the vision, the plant,

you know, there's just something about him that he looks like a guy that can be a running back in the NFL. And, you know, P.Rine, Chris Thompson didn't, in his one, Kerry, didn't run well either. Maybe P. Rhine needs scheme and blocking and, you know, the whole thing. But Reynolds is a practice squad guy at the very least. Do you think that they like him enough where he could actually make a run to make the roster in front of somebody like P. Ryan or Byron Marshall,

who we know that Jay really likes. I think Jay likes both of those guys. What have you seen from Reynolds? Well, someone in the booth last night said, and I'll leave it out, that P. Rhine gets zero yards every time. And Reynolds got five a carry last night. And you can say Scheev and blocking, but then watch Adrian Peterson run and watch him run off here last year.

He doesn't beat scheming blocking. He doesn't. He doesn't, yes. Those amazing phenomenal players make plays when they're not plays to be made. And that's what he does. That's what you're hoping guys says. I think that's been a slow process coming back. I think you do, like, you're not sure 100% about the health of guys.

He's coming up. Chris Thompson's always banged up. Adrian Peterson's 40 years old. You got to keep four. Could Reynolds replace P. Ryan? Yes. 100%. Yes, he could.

But you know Jay's affinity for back, whatever one back it is every single year. like Rob Kelly over and over and P. Ryan has continued. So when I say yes, and maybe that should be the case, I still believe no. I think Jay will keep herein. So Reynolds would be a practice. I did forget to ask you about Colt McCoy.

He is hurt. He didn't play last night. Jay basically said after the game that, you know, we can't even consider Colt until he's healthy. What do you know about his health and this leg and the whole issue? And then do you think if he did,

in the next week or two, come back and be fully healthy, do you think he's still in play for the opener? He's still in play for the opener if he came back and he was healthy. That I truly believe. They would say that we would expect Colt to be back as soon as possible, and you would hear a lot more talk about Colt, if that were the case. And if he's really in a quarterback battle, he wants to be out there. There's a reason you can't, you know what I'm saying?

If you're competing for a position, you ain't missing a game when you need to play a game. So I don't know how, I don't know what is going on with Colt. All right, thanks for doing this. I'll talk to you later. Appreciate it. Goodbye. All right. Thanks to Cooley for jumping on this morning.

I know he's got a lot of responsibilities at the park throughout the day on the day after a game. A quick word about launch workplaces in Bethesda. If you live in the Bethesda Chevy Chase Upper Northwest D.C. area and you don't want a long commute. It's too hard to get work done from home. You're looking for new office space. Check out the new launch workplaces in Bethesda. They've got flexible and affordable private office solutions so you can get work done. It's a beautiful new space right there in the Massachusetts Avenue corridor, fully furnished offices, conference rooms, co-working desks, high-speed internet, they've got a cafe, and they've got free parking and plenty of it.

Get more work done today by moving your office to launch workplaces in Bethesda. Call today for an exclusive free two-day trial. The number is 240, 800, 6714, or you can go to launchworkplaces.com. They've got other locations throughout the area as well. You can find out where those are at launchworkplaces.com. All right, I think we covered most of what I wanted to cover on the game last night with Cooley. I want to emphasize once again that I was really impressed with Ryan Finley, the quarterback of the Bengals. And, you know, people, you know, I know that are listening to this podcast want to hear me just talk about the Redskins.

I like Finley coming out. Cooley liked Finley coming out. He looks like a future starting quarterback to me in the NFL. I like Andy Dalton. Like I may be one of the only people that actually thinks that Dalton's pretty good. But I think Finley's going to start one day in the NFL. Also, one of the guys that we really didn't mention from last night's game was Landon Collins. You know, there's always been this conversation about Landon Collins as being in and in the box safety, and that's what he is.

And Cooley sort of dispelled that when they signed him back in March and said he's actually a lot more than that. He can cover. Well, that doesn't mean that Landon Collins isn't a really good in the box safety. And I think you saw that a couple of times in the few plays that he played last night. He's aggressive. He sees it before it. happens. I think, you know, Sweringer was pretty good against the run in the box for the skins the last two years. Obviously, they had issues in that, in that DB room between

Swaranger and everybody else, maybe everybody else on defense in general. I think Landon Collins is going to be a really good player. And I like the combination of Nicholson and Collins together. I've always liked Nicholson. I think, you know, from the first time we saw him, we saw a guy with great range, great closing speed. You put him in there as a true free to go with a true strong safety in Landon Collins. I think you got a pretty good back end of your secondary. The defense is something to be really optimistic about. I do want to caution everybody, as I have when we've discussed this before,

it made great improvement from 2017 to 2018, but it was not a dominant defense last year. It was a good defense. And for the first half of the season, they were pretty good, except against the really good offensive teams. They were pretty good stopping the run. But Atlanta shredded them, New Orleans shredded them, and then in the back half of the schedule, it regressed. In part because the offense wasn't very good, too, and they were on the field even longer. But I do think there's a chance that this defense takes another big step forward and maybe becomes a really good defense this year. I don't know if it's elite.

There's some really good defenses in the league. talked about that. But that is, you know, a reason, maybe the single biggest reason to be optimistic about the Redskins' chances to be competitive, to field a competitive team this year is what they look like on defense. They've got speed, they've got youth, they've got talent, and they are really strong up front. The other guy we didn't talk about, and I didn't talk about with Cooley, I thought Vernon Davis looked so good last night. Jordan Reed also told Clinton Portis on the sideline that he's going to play against Atlanta, and apparently he has been really, really good in this preseason and in training camp. If you've got Vernon Davis looking as sharp as ever a healthy

Jordan Reed to go with whatever they have at receiver and Chris Thompson, you know, I mean, you've got a couple of playmakers on offense when Jordan Reed and Vernon Davis are playing well. You do. They may be the only two, but, you know, not a bad two to have out on the field. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me early on with the situation at receiver if we see a lot of Vernon Davis and Jordan Reed on the field at the same time. All right. That's it on the Redskins. I think we covered most of it with Cooley. And he answered that question that I had about the special teams. I'm just not that concerned about the special teams in preseason. You're not going to see most of those players playing special teams when you get to the regular season. All right, there is something I want to get to because in the

fourth quarter like last week, I'll be honest with you, it's a hard, it's a hard watch in NFL preseason game. So I started flipping around and I'm following very much the Nats and the pennant race that they're in the National League East in the wild card race. And I noticed that the Cubs had a five-nothing lead on the Phillies at the end of the seventh inning. It was five-one going into the ninth and all of a sudden I saw that it was five to three. So I found the game and I was paying attention to the game, and Bryce Harper came up in the game last night with one out and the base is jacked. And he falls behind Aaron early in the count. Fowls off two sliders to go 0-2. And so, you know, you got Bryce sitting there with a chance to be the hero, but now at 0-2,

it's looking like he's going to be the goat. On a 2-2 count, he got the count back to 2-2. listen to what this sounds like coming off his bat and listen to the call of this in the bottom of the ninth Bryce Harper up bases loaded down 5-3. Two and two with the bases loaded and one out. Oh my God. Deep to right field way up that wall for. I mean this shot, you heard it on that broadcast and the analyst, whomever that is.

Oh my God. because it was crushed into the upper deck. I mean, that thing was still climbing when it hit the upper deck. And Bryce Harper, have you seen the highlight of this yet, Aaron? Yeah. He sprints around the bases. I mean, sprints. There's no jog.

There's no enjoying it. He does a full sprint around the bases. And he said it was as memorable a hit as he's had in his career. By the way, if you're following him, you know that he's had a very disappointing year after signing the big deal in Philadelphia for the most part. But he has gotten into a groove recently. And this is what happened last year, right? Towards the end of the year, he really, you know, started to get into a groove. He's got five homers in the last six games. He's got two homer games, two of them. He had two homers on Wednesday night against the Cubs. He had a two home run night against San Francisco last weekend.

He's now got 25 on the season. He's got 87 RBIs. He's approaching top five in the National League in RBIs. So, you know, we tend to look at numbers, you know, in baseball mid-season or whatever and say, what a disappointing season. He's still got 40 games left. You know, he's still got a significant part of this season left. He's essentially still got a quarter of the season left. I think that he is hitting his stride right now.

And I know that Philadelphia has sort of floundered here and been up and down, but they just swept the Cubs, you know, a team that's in a race in the National League Central. And they've now won three in a row, and the Phillies still very much in the wild card hunt. They're eight back of the Braves. The Nats are five and a half after not playing last night, and the Braves lost to the Mets. But that Nats-Filly series at the end of the year, that five games set at the end of the year, all of those games, by the way, here, that's going to be a crucial series potentially by the time we get to it. But my God, did Harper crush that Grand Slam last night for the walkoff?

One more thing before we run today. So the Redskins announced yesterday before the game that they're going to put London, Fletcher, and Chris Samuels into the Redskins Ring of Fame this year. Those are the two additions to the Redskins Ring of Fame. Daniel Snyder in a press release said London Fletcher and Chris Samuels are two of the greatest Redskins during my tenure as owner of the franchise. Their consistent level of play, leadership in the locker room and dedication to excellence during their time as Redskins were everything you could ask for from a player. I'm honored to make two tremendous additions to our storied Ring of Fame. Closed quote. Yes.

they are so deserving, and they are two of the better players during the Snyder era without question. The only Hall of Fame player during the Snyder era, and of course they traded him quickly in 2004 is Champ Bailey. Right? I'm not missing anybody else. That's the only Hall of Famer from the Snyder ownership era. And of course, you know, he made his Hall of Fame career as much in Denver, probably more so than he did here. Anyway, I have nothing against Chris Samuels and London Fletcher going into the Redskins ring of fame. They are deserving Redskins. However, Joe Jacoby and Tommy tweeted this out, and by the way, Tommy's feeling better. And he'll be here hopefully next week on Tuesday and Thursday for the show.

But Tommy tweeted out that Donnie Warren should be in the Ring of Fame and that Jim Lachet should be in the Ring of Fame. and Jacoby picked up on it. Jacoby said, you know, about Donnie Warren, how about playing in four Super Bowls? I think that's got a little more value than Pro Bowls. Plus one of the six players that played in all four Super Bowls and the other five are in the Ring of Fame. So I do believe that Don Warren deserves to be in the ring of fame as well.

Now, was he as good a player as Chris Samuels? No. Chris Samuels is probably the third best left tackle in franchise. history, and I'll get to the second behind Jacoby here in a moment. Some would say Don warns in that conversation of the great tight ends in franchise history. Certainly as an all-around tight end, that's true, but Jerry Smith's one, and Cooley's probably two in terms of past catching tight ends. And Cooley was an exceptional blocker as well. But Jacoby also tweeted out, he's like, or Tommy tweeted it out about Jim Lachay. And Jacoby said, how do we miss two guys from those years of

bringing the Lombardi trophy to the DC? region. Jim Lachet is the second best left tackle in franchise history. It's not Chris Samuels. It's Jim Lachey. He's the most talented left tackle in franchise history. Jake is the number one left tackle in terms of production, in terms of the career, in terms of the years spent here in franchise history. Jim Lachie's number two. He played seven years here, played 86 games, won a Super Bowl ring, Most impressive, as Tommy tweeted out last night, three straight years of first team all pro from 89 to 91. Not Pro Bowl, not popularity contest, all pro. 89 to 91.

Jim Lachet was a dominant left tackle, one of the most athletic left tackles of his time, and one of the most dominant left tackles of his time. And was part of that great 1991 team, I think, the greatest redskinned team of all time. and I think one of the greatest Super Bowl winning teams of all time. And in some metrics, in some, you know, and we've seen some people evaluate all of the Super Bowl winners and put that Redskins' 91 team at or near the top. Jim Lachey was a big part of it.

It was a great offensive line, and he was the best player on that offensive line in 91. By the time we got to 91, Jim Lachay and Don Warren should also be in the ring of fame. And Jim Lachet, in particular, should have been in the ring of fame before Chris Samuels went into the ring of fame. And I think Chris Samuels was a great Redskin and a very, very good player. Don't get me wrong, as was London Fletcher.

But Tommy's right and Jacoby's right. Don Warren, who played 14 years, 193 games for the Redskins, has three Super Bowl rings compared to, by the way, zero for Fletcher and Samuels. He should be in the Redskins ring of fame. In my view, I think Tommy is 100% right about that. Anyway, there you go. The Redskins announced that Samuels and London Fletcher are going into their ring of fame. Back on Monday with the show, Tommy will be here Tuesday.

Wasn't a long show today because we had a long radio show. Don't forget, you can listen to me on ESPN 980. I'm sorry, the team 980, 7 to 10 a.m. weekdays every morning. This morning we had Smoot on the show. We had Michael Phillips from the Richmond Times Dispatch on the show, but it was great to do the show today to have Cooley join us and get 30 minutes with Cooley breaking down the Haskins opportunity for the opener and the game in general.

Have a great weekend, everybody. Talk to you on Monday.