The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cooley On When Haskins Will Start

Episode Date: July 3, 2019

Kevin opened with some World Cup then brought Chris Cooley on to talk Redskins. Cooley talked about the pressure on the defensive coaches to produce a top flight defense and had a prediction on when Dwayne Haskins would start his first game. He also had some interesting comments about the chances that Colt McCoy might start the opener at Philadelphia. Kevin finished up with the Wizards' disastrous last six months and answered a prediction that the Warriors wouldn't make the playoffs in 2020. <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. I am here. Aaron is here. This show is presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Window Nation. And tell them we told you to call more on Window Nation a little bit later on. Tomorrow is July 4th. We won't be here tomorrow. Chris Cooley is scheduled to call in shortly and will do much of the show with me too. I did want to start real quickly with the fact that I did watch much of the second half of the World Cup game yesterday. Here was the comment that my middle son made to me as he was home as well and decided to tune in and watch the game with me or some of it. He said, you know what, to be honest with you, I can't tell the difference between women's soccer and men's soccer. I'm watching this game. It looks just like a men's soccer game.

And I thought about it, and I said, yeah, it doesn't look that much different. Now, you could say that watching a basketball game from afar, without a lot of knowledge of the game, that the way the game is played looks similarly, but that's not really what he was referring to. He was talking about the speed of the game, the athleticism of the game, the skill of the game, and it didn't look that much different to me. Now, I know that someone who is a soccer person will tell me, what I know about basketball and what I know about tennis and other sports, and that is that they're not even comparable,

that there's, you know, the best female player in the world wouldn't be able to be the last player on an MLS team. You know, that's probably what I would hear from somebody. I don't know that to be a fact. I'm just guessing. But when you're watching that game, the skill levels high, the speed, you know, it's the same sort of thing in soccer, right? When you're watching a soccer game and you're like me,

you don't really understand the beautiful part of the game and they're just kicking it around and they're kicking it backwards half the time and sometimes they go on the attack and then they turn around and they send it back to midfield and you're like, damn, you're getting close to the net. You're getting close to potentially scoring and having some action here.

I mean, really, I mean, the people that say that it's a beautiful game and it's continuous, of course it's continuous because the clock keeps running. But the action isn't continuous. The action is intermittent. The action for much of it is you're just passing it back and forth and going backwards, probably 40% of the time it seems like, rather than on the attack. And I do, I'm not trying to make fun of it, really, intentionally, but it's what I see.

I do know that there's some strategy involved. And I do know that sometimes when they're on the attack and they don't have something and then they turn around and they go backwards, sometimes all the way back to their own net, back to their own goaltender, to start over again, that they are running sets or running set pieces, as it's called, I believe, in soccer. I think that's more on the corner kick stuff. But anyway, I'm watching this game yesterday. It's the first one that I've really watched in the World Cup, and my son's there, and I found the skill level and the speed of the game and the relative excitement of the game

to be equal to a men's World Cup game. And I've watched a lot of men's World Cup games over the years. I enjoy that event. I do, even though I don't really understand the game and the strategy of the game. You can figure it out some of it as you're watching it. And you can certainly see how on corner kicks in particular, they run set plays. But I thought the skill level and the athleticism, and I thought it was really, really fun to watch. and man, that Alex Morgan is gorgeous, isn't she?

And that header and that little sipping of the tea with the pinky finger up was awesome. I like her a lot. She's definitely one of the reasons to watch the Women's World Cup team. So they're in the finals now, and is that on Saturday? That's on Sunday. Sunday. Now, where will that game be played in Paris, I'm assuming? Somewhere, yeah, somewhere in France.

I assume Paris. Because yesterday was in Leone. I don't know where today's semifinal is. Today is the Dutch, the Netherlands, against Sweden. Yes. And the Dutch, correct me if I'm wrong, but they're the orange. They're the team with all the orange. Everybody's dressed in orange.

The uniforms are orange. And their men's team has had tremendous success over the years. Although I do believe I could be wrong about this. Look this up for me. I think they missed the last World Cup. I think the Dutch actually did not qualify. The Italians didn't qualify for last year's World Cup, and I don't think the Dutch did either. Those were the two shockers.

The Netherlands and the Italians were not in last year's World Cup. And what was interesting is I was actually on a trip last summer. It was a family trip for my father's 80th birthday, and we were in Italy last summer for about 10 days. And the World Cup was going on, and, you know, every cafe, everybody's watching it, but Italy wasn't even in it. But you would have, you know, if Brazil were playing, you'd walk by this place and there would be a bunch of people in Brazilian uniforms and the Brazil uniforms.

But am I right that the Netherlands? You are correct, yes. They didn't qualify last year. Yes. But the women play Sweden. I don't know who's favored in that game. I know Sweden is the team that the U.S. beat in their, in the early rounds, the round robin play, whatever they call it, group play, I think it's called.

and they had, it was a revenge game because Sweden had beaten them the last time they played them. So maybe it's Sweden that would provide the toughest test, I don't know. But I will watch. I think Netherlands are the favorites. I will watch Sunday. I'll watch the World Cup final. I found it to be exciting. And the one thing that I would say is the off sides call that was overturned on replay,

or the non-call that was then overturned and called off sides on the game time goal. I thought that was bullshit. I mean, you're talking about it was like an inch of off sides. Like, to me, I think they should abolish the offside rule. I think soccer would be a hell of a lot more exciting and would be a lot higher scoring if you could, you know, if you could cherry pick. You know, like in basketball, the ball goes up and you're already running down the other end of the court looking for the outlet. I think that would make it a lot more fun.

I won't say what I've said before, which is I think they should abolish in a little. the hands rule and you should be able to use your hands. That's silly and I was, tongue placed firmly in cheek when I've said that before. But I think the off-sides rule should be a little bit more relaxed. It has to be almost perfection. And now with replay, it's like the time, I don't know, that to me looked like a goal. That looked like a goal. I do have a question for you because I don't know the answer to this. If they had gone to two, they would have played an overtime, right? But it's not sudden death. Am I correct about that, that they play like a full overtime and it's not sudden death, it's just a, I don't

know, 20 minutes, 15 minutes of overtime. And then if it's not decided, they play another overtime. Do they have a shootout in the World Cup in the knockout round? Yes, it's two 15 minute periods of extra time and it would play the full 15 minute period. So it's the same as the men's. Okay, so two 15 minute and then you go to a shootout? Correct. Got it. I don't think, this shootout to me is gimmicky. I love the shootout. I think they should just keep playing. It's gimmicky, but it's so exciting. I love it. I think it's, I personally, I think sudden death would be more exciting. I think, you know, the hockey thing would be much more exciting. Sudden death overtime. But anyway, I enjoyed watching the game yesterday, and I thought England was really good, too.

I mean, I think the last two opponents, and I told you that I watched the last five or ten minutes of the game against France on an airplane on Friday, that, you know, France, France, looked like they were really controlling the play for much of the time. And I thought England really had the U.S. at times on its heels as well. All right, that's enough about women's soccer. Let's bring in Chris Cooley, who I would have preferred had been in on that conversation. But I'm going to assume that you didn't watch any of the World Cup. In fact, I would assume being out in Wyoming, as you've done in the past few years, you don't really watch anything, and you probably don't know about anything sports-related.

that's been going on since you got out there. True? Well, I'm sure Mindy Thompson's scoring some goals. I don't even know if that's a player. She's terrific. Is she terrific? Well, I... Her spacing is terrific, but their breakaway speed's awesome.

I don't know. I just, I think she's always had issues with endurance. Part of that's the knee injuries from the past, but, you know, I love the competitiveness, the fight. The resilience. I mean, it's what the World Cup's all about. No, in all seriousness. So I had not watched any of it.

I barely even knew it was going on. I told Tommy this story last week, and people got upset. But two weeks ago, I guess it was, I was getting my car washed on a Saturday morning at a car wash. And there was a coffee shop right around the corner. So I walked to the coffee shop while the car was getting washed. And I walked in. and there were these two dudes, probably in their early 40s, sitting down with coffee and a laptop open,

watching Women's World Cup in the coffee shop. It wasn't even the U.S. team. It was like, I don't know, China against, you know, Italy. I don't even know what the match was, but I just thought that that was major poser. Like, there's no chance that they were actually super into it. If I had asked them to name more than one or two players in that particular game, they wouldn't have been able to do it.

But anyway, we took some heat for talking about that, because Tommy always calls soccer the sport that non-sports fans like. And I tend to agree with him to a certain degree. Well, it's the sport that non-American sports fans like. It's the most popular sport, right? Yeah. And soccer. Right.

He's talking about Americans. Yeah, he's saying if you're really into soccer and you're a U.S. citizen and you live in the U.S. citizen and you live in the United States, you're probably not a big sports fan. It just seems like the hipster thing to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is. But anyway, I have, to make a long story short, I do enjoy the Men's World Cup, and we've talked about that in the past,

and I watched some of the women's game yesterday, and it was very exciting, at least the end of it. Anyway, how's Wyoming? Terrific. It's actually really cold here today. It's 44 degrees when I woke up. you can believe that it is so it's oppressive here this week i know it's awful there um it's going to be high of 62 today hardly god how nice so what have you been what have you what have

you what have you been doing out there have you been fishing a lot or just working on your house we haven't been fishing a lot i'll keep it short but you know the water and all the rivers is really really high. There's been a ton of snow in the last year, and so the runoff is pretty high. So we've almost finished doing everything with the house. It's been really cool. I made a vanity top out of this big slab of wood. I've been tiling. I've been doing a bunch of stuff. So shocked myself a couple times changing switching lights and stuff. Oh my God. Seriously? Like literally border-cutting outlets out of granite. What do you do? Why do you F around with electricity? When you say, you shocked yourself? Was it like a solid jolt?

Oh, I just change it. No, have you never touched a, like a light switch? Yeah, with a wet hand. I've done that once, and it was, you know, that and you pull it off real quick. Your hand doesn't need to be wet. Your hand doesn't need to be wet. It'll shock you with a dry hand. But no, so, oh, here's my example of why I get shocked. I'm just changing light switches. They're old school light switches. I want to put in new fashionable light switches. So I have two light switches in the same little box next to each other,

and I turn off the breaker, and then I check it, and the one's dead. But they're on different circuits, whoever wired it. So I turned off one on the breaker box, and I figured it was both of them. It wasn't. So it's not a big shock. You just, a little jolt. Little jolt, Kev. I know, but this always fascinates me about you.

I know you're definitely a fixer-upper guy, you're a handy guy, you're a do-it-yourselfer, but you certainly have the means when it comes to things that perhaps are higher risk, like electricity, like, you know, wiring a home, putting electricity in, making sure that you understand which circuit breaker or which circuit boxes on and which isn't, why you wouldn't just hire an electrician to do that part of it? Yeah, I know. It's not that hard, but what I'm talking about, isn't that hard. It's not a matter of it. It's not a matter of whether or not it's hard.

It's that if you don't know exactly what you're doing, you put yourself at risk. It's a minor risk. I'm touching a light switch outlet. Is it not like I'm... You couldn't get electrocuted doing what you're doing? No. Why not? Touch it. It shocks you a little bit. You're done. It's not like you get stuck on it. Why? Why is that? Go pull a light switch out of your wall and, touch the red wire. I would never do that. You'll know, and then, then, I know you wouldn't do that,

but go pull the light switch out of the wall and touch the hot wire on the little screw. You'll see that it's not going to electrocute you. It is just going to give you a jolt. And then you'll know that I'm safe. What could electrocute you? What could electrocute you? Working on electricity in the house, I'm actually curious about this. I don't know anything about it. I'm serious about that as well. Nope, I can't answer that question. Well, there you go. That's why you shouldn't be doing it. You can't answer that question. Well, I can tell you that changing light switches and power outlets is not electrocating me because I have taken the shock a couple times. Right.

And it would cost a couple hundred bucks to have an electrician out to do what you did. That's my only point. You can afford that. It's not that hard. What I'm saying is it's, to anybody that's changed light switches and little power outlets, they're agreeing with me that it takes three minutes. It's not that hard. It's just when one's on a different circuit, it surprised me that I guess I should have tested them both. No, I'm sure there are a lot of people that do this that are saying Sheehan doesn't know what he's talking about.

It's easy stuff. It's not that risky. And then there are a lot of people out there that are listening to this that are saying, why wouldn't he just pay a hundred bucks or a couple hundred bucks to an electrician and take all the risk out of it? He doesn't know what the hell he's doing. He's going to hurt himself. I'm not running the wires. I'm not running the wires. I'm not taking it. Well, I think you've done that before.

I think you've done that before. You've run some wires before in your own home, if I remember correctly. I've run a wire before, but I'm not good at it. And you are right. Anything more than changing the lights, which I should hire someone, because it's going to take me quadruple the amount of time to just figure it out. Just on this subject, because you mentioned something, your hand doesn't have to be wet,

but you were talking about a specific hot wire. I'm talking about a light switch in a house. I was always told you do not want to flick a light on or off with a wet hand. Is that myth or not? If you have a plastic cover on it, your wet hand is not going to, it's not going to shock you. You're sure about that? Because I think many years ago, I have been, you know what? No, don't do it.

I'll go take a video for you. I'll go soak my hand and flick lights on it. I would actually rather you not do that. What else have you been doing? Have you done any stories? I mean, have you played golf at all out there? Not one. No, I haven't.

I haven't played golf. We literally were finishing everything up. So, I mean, the house, so here's why I don't just hire someone for all of it. The house is a vacation home. It flooded two years ago, and I've put all the tile and all the wood floor. I had an insurance claim for like 80 grand. I spent it all on nicer things. like a more expensive floor, more expensive tiles.

So I could spend another 50 grand hiring everything out. I just don't want to do that. You know, I understand that. And I like and I enjoy it. No, I know you enjoy it. And I understand that. I'm just talking about this stuff that, you know, the perception would be you leave it up to the experts

because it could be dangerous when handled by a non-expert, which is you. That's all. Yeah. Well, it's, here's the thing. I could do that or I could become an expert. or I could become adept enough at doing a lot of these things, which I have.

I'll send you some pictures today. I've done a good job. I'm not really interested in the pictures. But so I actually have a story for you that I think you'll find interesting that I have not told on the first two days of this podcast, and I don't even know why I haven't told it. I just sort of forgot about it.

But I was away... In the first two days of this week? Of this week. That's what I meant. Since I got back, because I was on vacation last week. I went down to South Carolina with Kara and then her two brothers and her two brothers' wives. It was the in-laws, you know, me and my two brother-in-laws and two sister-in-laws and Kara.

We went down to Kiowa in South Carolina, and we were in Charleston for a little bit. I love that part of the country. It was hot. We knew it would be hot, but this was sort of the time that we could all do it. Everybody's schedules synced up. But the last morning we were there, which was Friday morning, the resort that we were. we were staying at we were all down at breakfast and we heard this commotion from the other side of like this dining room and people were panicked and it was a big table and then one of the women said

she's choking she's choking and it was her I guess it was her mother she was an older woman and she was you know she was choking to death right there at the table I mean it was quite traumatic. My brother-in-law went over there and she was on the ground and there were, you know, five or six people around and they were trying to help this woman as she was on the ground. And my brother-in-law said, you've got to stand her up. You got to stand her up. Do you guys know how to do the Heimlich? And everybody said, no. My brother-in-law stood her up and performed the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life right there at breakfast. That's amazing. It was amazing. You would have just,

call, you would have called an expert and waited. Well, what was interesting is when he got back, and it was one of those situations where, you know, at that point, no one really wanted to eat breakfast anymore. But I did not know how to do the Heimlich maneuver. Do you know how to do it? I got a pretty good concept of it. I have, I think, if you behind them, you go right around the top part of the rib cage. Yeah.

Well, the guy that was trying to do it to her while she was on the ground, starting to turn blue, by the way. What was he performing CPR instead of? Well, my brother-in-law just said, you're going to break a rib. You've got to stand her up. I know how to do it if you want me to do it. And my brother-in-law just took over, picked her up. And she was a, let's just say she was on the larger side of an elderly woman. and he did it.

Yeah, you put your hands like in a ball, and it's right below the diaphragm, I guess, and just you punch, and he did it like twice, and she spit up whatever it was she was eating. And then did someone tell her that she needed to chew her food? Well, better. She certainly needed to chew it better. I guess I'd chew that up.

But at that point, at that point, then the paramedics, showed up because somebody had caught, you know, 90 seconds or two minutes earlier, you know, you sort of lose concept of time when you're watching something like this. They showed up and they actually, I think they did take, I think they looked her over and then I think somebody said they took her to the hospital. I don't know why at that point they did. But anyway, the other part of this is, so, you know, I walked over in the general direction of where this table was.

It was actually at the other end of the dining room. And my wife, I love her to death, she looks at me while this is going on. And I'm telling you, there are like eight, nine people around this woman, her family. And then my brother-in-law was the first to get there to step in. He knew what to do. And my wife just says to me, do something. What are you doing? I turned around and I said, are you kidding me?

There are nine people around this woman. And Kevin, my brother-in-law's name is Kevin as well. I said, Kevin's, he knows what he's doing. I did have him, though, at the table sort of give me a demonstration of how it works, because I really had never known, I would have picked somebody up and grabbed them in that area and jolted them with my hands and my fists, but I don't know if I would have been doing it right in the right spot. But anyway, it was quite, it was quite dramatic there at breakfast as we were getting ready to head out of town back to the airport to come home. So let me get, let me clear this up.

He punched her from the front. He didn't go behind her. No, no, no, he was behind her. He got behind her, lifted her up. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Now, he knew what he, he totally knew what he was doing. Yeah.

So he saved her life. I mean, I guess. I mean, maybe the paramedics would have gotten there. What are you doing, Kevin? It's a one man job. It's a one man job. It's a one man job. Right.

And you know what it is? Hold her feet. Yeah, it is a one man job. Well, I think. you know one of the challenges initially was just getting her up off the ground because she was she was a big girl

she's a big girl a big woman and um but my brother-in-law's did you have done it oh yeah i could have done it i could have gotten her off the ground but they but they had you know they're again once my brother-in-law sort of took charge and said you got to get her up off the ground you got to stand her up

then there were three people that were helping him lift her up and then he got behind her and and jolted her, Heimlich style. Anyway, I love it. Yeah. Also, one other quick story before we get to a lot of things that you've missed that I want to get your thoughts on. In the Post this morning is a story about a guy who is an ultra-marathoner who last weekend ran the Beltway, the 89.9-mile beltway loop. He ran it in 17 hours.

54 minutes and 59 seconds. He left in McLean and ended up in Carter Rock, which is actually sort of near where I live, in the Bethesda part of the Beltway. And he's an ultramarathoner, and he got the idea when he was sitting in traffic on 495 several years ago, and he said, you know what, I could probably get to work faster by running.

And so he finally did this, My initial thought, as I was reading the beginning of this story, was how did he run on the Beltway? Wouldn't that have been dangerous? Well, he didn't... I mean, does he hit traffic? So, well, he didn't run completely on the Beltway. There were paths along the Beltway that took him in on a couple of occasions into neighborhoods that were running side by side with the Beltway.

But not the entire Beltway are there roads right off of the Beltway. So some of it, I'm assuming he was actually on, you know, the, you know, that, the lane before the retaining wall. If you're on the outer loop, on the inner, on the inner loop, you know, the outside side of the road he was probably running on. But you don't see people jogging on the beltway. It's not something you would do. No, that's like when you ask me why I do electric. The house, why don't you run the beltway? That sounds awful. I think actually running the beltway might be. more dangerous, but 17 hours, 54 minutes, and 59 seconds of running.

And he did it on a day last weekend where it was 96 degrees and humid. Oh, wow. Yeah. All right. You've missed some things here over the last couple of weeks and not paying attention to much that are Redskins-related. You want me to go through them? First of all, I think the last time we talked was... Yeah, let's fire away.

Well, I think the last time we talked was shortly after the Trent Williams thing, right? And I think you essentially said you don't know anything, but you would bet more likely than not that come the beginning of training camp, he'll probably be there. Isn't that what you told me? I would, well, I felt like there's nothing that they really have an obligation to do the Redskins. And if he wants to continue to make his money, then what's he going to do? I didn't like any of the optics of it for either party. And I didn't think that they were going to get what they wanted out of a trade. So what happened?

There's nothing. There's no update on that story. None whatsoever. So I guess we'll know when we get to training camp or shortly before if he's going to post or not. They certainly need him. Yeah. They have to have them. They don't have a left tackle without him.

Well, I mean, you've got guys sitting out there. No one's really acquiring anybody right now before you get into camp. I can't imagine if they didn't believe, if they believed that it was dire that he wasn't coming back, you'd think they'd go out and sign someone. Yeah, you would think that they'd do that. They have not signed the guy that you suggested that they sign, which is the guy you played with at Utah State. Donald Penn.

Yeah, Donald Penn. He's probably the best available free agent tackle. Yeah, and he's not out. He's not out there right now. So a couple of things have happened. First of all, Rob Ryan says the Redskins have a top five defense or that he's come into a team with a top five defense. Do you believe him?

Yeah, we talked about that. We did? All right, then I'll be – here's my quick comment. If you're not a top five defense this year, then you're not doing a very good job coaching them up, are you? I hate that. I hate the word great statements. Yeah. Of course. Of course. All right. Then there was...

And I don't even think you should tell your players that. I don't either. In private. Well, this is... We've had another off-season of the new people coming in and telling everybody how great they're going to be and the team's going to be. Landon Collins has been, you know, the biggest defender of that. He is multiple times predicted multiple Super Bowls, and he seems completely transfixed on his former team

and doing damage to his former team. That's great. That's two games a year against a bad team. You've got 14 other games. And he's very, very into, you know, talking about the former team and why it didn't work out for him and the big mistake they made

in not drafting Dwayne Haskins and drafting Daniel Jones instead. and then you had the Rob Ryan stuff. It's always, it's like the new people come in, and for whatever reason, the place initially must be, it must be attractive compared to other places in terms of first impressions is the only thing I can think of. Now, the money for Landon Collins is great, and the fact that Rob Ryan's employed probably makes him very happy as well because he wasn't employed last year.

but it's typically fades away after a year or two. I don't understand it. I like the Joe Gibbs theory of let's go and find out. I was a culprit, though, believing that we were going to be great in multiple years. I've been a culprit since I've been done playing because you want to have the belief that you're going to be great. I think that's terrific that you do believe in your team, and that's what makes the NFL so exciting, every year there's a couple teams that were not good or hadn't been good that all of a sudden break out and that's a lot of fun but I just think that there's no need to say anything.

The one thing though with the players and coaches is it's essentially forgotten if you say we're going to be terrific and then you're not. Good for them. They believe in their team. I like that. I get it. But I just don't think it has to be said. I think there are two separate things.

I mean, you of course want them to believe that. they're great and they're going to succeed. You just don't want them to tell everybody about it before they've done it. All right. Then there was this from last week, and it happened while I was away, and I talked about it on Monday and then a little bit more yesterday with Tommy, and that was Doug Williams' interview with Steve Weich from the NFL Network. You've probably not read about this, but Doug Williams' interviews, had an interview with Steve White from the NFL Network, and he said about Duane Haskins. He said, I know there are words out there that Haskins might end up starting, and that could happen.

But at the end of the day, that's going to be on Jay, myself, probably Bruce, and the owner, and what he does during preseason and to see where we are as a team to make that decision, essentially implying that this would be a consensus organizational decision versus just a coach's decision on when Haskins plays. And that's what everyone believes, isn't it? well yeah i'm not saying that this is like somehow a revelation what should be what what should it how should it work that how should it work with a quarterback that was drafted in the first round um by an organization how should it work how should it work yes i'll tell you in

my my world how i would want it to work is the coach would decide when he's ready to play the coach is the one watching the film of practice of what he has going on the coach is the one installing the plays. The coach is the one calling the plays into his headset, listening to what he's calling back to the players. The coach was a quarterback. The coach has been around for a long time. You'd think the coach would decide, and that would be it. That's what I would, that's what I would want. In my world, I would like the coach working closer in terms of acquiring all the personnel. Right. You've always said that, that you think the coach should be much more intimately involved. in evaluating and acquiring players.

Right. And Jay's been more involved recently, right? I don't know how involved he's been with acquiring players. How do you? I mean, he evaluates all the players. He's got evaluations on all the players, but essentially what Doug said is what I think goes into every player. Is there's essentially a four-man team

that puts together a decision on what players acquired unless when we this has happened unless Bruce decides he wants a player or Dan how do you think it's going to play out how will the decision on Haskins and when he plays how will that play out within the walls of Ashburn a lot will depend on his ability to operate in timing and tempo of getting the play into the huddle and getting the offense set and getting guys in the right spot through the month of August and how much they believe that he can do that. And then beyond that, I think I've said this a few times is how well can he protect himself? Can he see some of the pressures coming and can he make the line slides and changes?

And also, that has to do with the 10th and timing of the offense. If you can't get the play calls immediately, then you're late to the last. line of scrimmage, then it's hard to get some of the checks made that you want up the line, and then it's hard to protect yourself. So they don't want to put him in. No one wants to put a young quarterback back in the pocket where he's not protected, and it's his job to do that. Now, obviously, the line has some part of that, and the backs and how do you have a part of it,

but he's got to be decisive and precise with his calls and checks from the play call in the huddle to the time the ball snaps. And as soon as he's ready to do that, he'll start. Okay, so let's say... So it will be on him, and so then the process will go back to whoever it goes to, Bruce, Dan, Doug, whatever Doug says. But Jay is going to be the first one to have to relay that. Right. I just think if it's not ready halfway through the season, or if Jay doesn't believe it, at some point five, six games in, then Jay will be omitted in that process.

process and he will be asked to start. And then they will tell Jay, look, you got Josh Johnson in a week, get the energy to the player, put him out there. I think he's got a grace period of a few games. So this is the key piece here. So Jay, you know, gets through training camp, gets through these preseason games, he's able to convince Dan and Bruce, or he's trying to convince Dan and Bruce, hey, the nine

for 10 in the third and fourth quarter against guys who aren't going to be in the league. Dwayne did a really nice job. They didn't pressure. It was basic stuff. But I'm watching here in practice every day. I don't want you to get too excited about those results against the Browns and the preseason. I know where

he is right now in his readiness and I don't think he's ready to start an NFL game. Do you think Bruce and Dan, Dan in particular, will take that and give Jay the ability to make the final decision?

I think it will be impactful because I don't think Jay has a prerogative either way to start anybody at this point. I think he does have a competition theory with the three guys that are there right now. And I think that he probably wants Dwayne to make progress under his tutelage this year or his coaching. And I think that benefits Jay. So I think Jay would probably prefer that Duane blow everyone away in camp and he started. I think that's the best scenario for everybody.

So I think Jay will be fully honest and it will be full disclosure. I don't think he has an angle to start Colter Jays. Right. But what I'm saying is if he has a definitive opinion a month from now or six weeks from now, midway through camp, in that opinion is he's not. not ready, will Dan listen and be okay with it? Yeah. Yeah. Yes.

I believe yes. Okay. There were also, since we've last talked, there was a piece that Kime did on ESPN.com and it was an interview with Gruden and with Haskins. And there were a lot

of interesting quotes in there. You know, first of all, you know, Gruden's saying, you know, the guy physically is so impressive and what he's put out there on tape. You know, he deserves a shot to compete for the starting job. And then he, you know, he makes comments like, and I'm going to read this one, he said, he stands tall, he has a cannon, he can quicken up his release, he's got great touch.

He's got a strong, powerful arm, strong, powerful body. But sometimes when he's off, he's abnormally off. It's kind of weird. So, you know, there's that sort of both sides on, on Haskins from Groo. and the real positive and then talking about some of the other stuff. And then Haskins had a couple of really interesting quotes where he essentially said, and I'm looking for exactly, he said, once I learn the playbook, I know what I'm doing,

I can call out the reads and point out site adjustments and move protections, everything else will go from there. So I feel one full year of learning would do me justice. I'm not worrying about starting week one. I just want to be ready to play week one, whether that's this year or next year. Whenever the time comes for me to play, I want to make sure that when I do play,

I don't want to look back, closed quote. Like I said to Tommy, because I know you and I have not had a conversation about this, that that's, you know, there's some self-awareness there with him to sort of approach it that way and to understand that he doesn't want to be, put out there until he really knows what he's doing. I love that.

I think that's wise of him. Yeah, I don't think that he'll have to look back much. You know, if he's starting as a first-round pick, he's going to have a few years to figure it out. He could be, let me say that, but then you look at Josh Rosen last year and he's traded. He'll still have opportunities this year, I guess. Yeah, you don't want to flop. But at the same time, first-round quarterbacks get a lot of opportunities. So it is smart of him.

I think it's humble of him. I think that's the approach he has to continue to take. And he is right, Kev. It takes some time to learn the playbook. I learned four of them. I never felt comfortable until going into that second year with truly being able to not just understand the playbook, but understand how to be creative with my responsibilities

and how to see the defensive side of the ball to our playbook. It took a year for me. Now, I probably could have speeded up the process if it had to happen and I would have studied day in and day out. But a lot of it is just not just study. It's seen it in real time and it's seeing it in real action. So for him saying it's a year, once you get into the season,

if he's not playing, he's not seeing it. So it's like you want him to have some opportunity throughout the year to play as well. What did you make of the Gruden comment about being very positive about some of the physical, you know, the physical presence, which is obvious, but then also saying that, you know, sometimes he's abnormally off. It's, to me, when I heard that, I sort of nodded my head and it's the conversation that you and I had about some of the games that we watched him in where, They were playing much better defensive teams, and they pressured him, and he missed badly on throws. I think it's Jay being Jay. I think it's just him being completely honest. And it's hard because that position demands, you know, I don't want to say full attention,

but it demands you to be a little bit more in the zone at all times. And so if he's off learning the new offense or if you had an install day, where he didn't, something didn't seem right or didn't fit in his mind, it would make him abnormally off. It would be, there would be, I don't think that's a derogatory statement. No, I'm not saying that it was, but it's the same thing that you saw when you watched every single one of his games from last year twice, and it's the same thing I remembered having watched him a lot, you know, against teams like Michigan State and in the second

half against Washington, good defensive teams, where when he got pressured, you know, his footwork was off and the ball sailed. And a lot of times he didn't get picked, but a lot of times he just missed badly. That's 100% right. And I think a lot of it has to do with his movement in the pocket and also his ability to see him pick up blitzers. You never know what another team's doing. It's hard to say what Ohio State was doing, getting into some blitz stuff. You know, he always looked decisive at the line, but I noted more than 50 times where he's just making a call and pointing out someone in the line, but then misses the blitz. He sees that there's something, but he slides him the wrong way. But that's a young player. I mean, that's the guy in his first year

not having seen a lot of these looks. And so it takes some time to learn those things and to see those things. There's no doubt about it. But it did make him off. He got high. He got off balance. He ran up in the pocket. He's not a guy that's going to just run to run, but he ran up in the pocket instead of sliding up in the pocket, which took him, you know, out of good position to throw the ball. He can improve all of that. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's not something that scares me, per se, but it's something that has to be fixed. So here we are, you know, basically a month before camp starts, a little less than a month

now before camp starts. What's your guess today? When does he start his first game? Week 5 or week 6. But would be my bet. I put the over under on 5. Week 6 would be the Dolphins game after they, you know. But I would not be surprised if he were to start week one.

I wouldn't. If Jay's serious about an open competition and Duane gets that playbook or, you know, however he says, it's more than just a playbook. if Dwayne's comfortable getting everything together, I just don't seem like they're being incredibly surprised. I also think that you're, you really have a good opportunity with a young player to hold him back a little bit.

But then if we're doing that, you're sitting here saying they're holding them back because they don't want to get run in the first four games with him as the quarterback. You're like, are you counting on losing two or three or four of the first five games so you can put them in? Right, because if they started off three and two, in case Keene and or, you know, Colt McCoy are playing great,

makes it harder to get him in there. But they shouldn't. They have a top five defense, so they should be okay. On Colt McCoy real quickly, it would appear, yeah, exactly, it would appear that according to reports that he will be ready for the beginning of camp and will be healthy for the beginning of camp, and I was thinking about this the other day, and I don't think you and I have talked about this,

but you've got two guys in Keenham and Haskins. One guy's a rookie. One guy's a veteran, but it's a new offense, you know, a totally new offense to both of them. Shouldn't Colt McCoy have a significant advantage if it's an open competition to be the starter just because he's totally comfortable in Jay Gruden's offense? I mean, I'll put it to you this way.

I would start Colt McCoy. yeah i think he should have a significant advantage if it is truly a competition i can't imagine that case will beat colt in that competition just because of the unfair advantages that colt does have in terms of knowing everything it's also another real like i'm thinking about this the other day is there's another interesting angle to starting colt this is not a nice it's not it's just honest. Colt gets hurt a lot. So if you were to start Colt and he were to get hurt in week four, then you just put Duane in. So that's the plan. Let's start Colt, knowing that'll get injured, and then we can put Haskins in because we didn't have a choice but to put him in because

the starter got hurt. Yeah, I mean, it is interesting. I mean, the thing is that you think Case Keenum is a better quarterback than Colt McCoy. I think that they are very comparable to each other. I think they're, I think Case has probably got a little bit stronger arm. I think Colt's probably going to get you into some more smarter situation. I think Colt will, I'd be surprised if Colt, if it were a 50-50 competition, if Colt didn't win the job. I think I'd be comfortable with Colt starting the season for me. So I thought when they signed Case, it gave them a great insurance for Colt, you know.

If you have to, if Colt gets hurt, then case is a guy that can come in. And that may be the case as well. You know, the other thing to consider with all of these guys, there's only so many reps to go around in training camp. Right. So it'll be interesting how they cycle them through with the ones and with the first group. And also the receivers, how they're cycled through. But in Jay's offense, you got guys like Jordan and Trey and Chris Thompson

that are going to be running a ton of choice and option type around. outs and you need to be, if you're the starter, you need to be in there working with them. Jay's spoken to that. How do you manage all three quarterbacks? To me, I think that you got to make the decision after the first couple weeks. Now, Colt would be okay with a lot of these guys, but at the same time, remember last year when they started Colt, it was like, Colt's going to throw a lot of back shoulder balls and Colts going to throw a lot of timing balls.

It's going to be out quicker. and I don't think the receivers anticipated it quite the same. Like, they have to get to know their quarterback as well. Like, you need to know if the ball is going to be out a half a second quicker. Like, when your internal clock needs to set off to make adjustments to start looking for the ball. And Colt will be quicker than Case, and Cole will definitely be quicker than Duane with a lot of that stuff. So for the – it's not just the quarterback getting sent to the receivers. It's the receivers having to feel for the quarterback as well.

So I think it's really going to be almost delicate how you decide and when you decide. I don't think it plays out until the last week of the season. Here may be a stupid question, but I'll ask it anyway, because over the years you and coaches, and we've heard this many times about the number of reps that are available, and you know, you just won't have the ability to get, you know, Dwayne Haskin, the reps if you're trying to get case or colt ready. And why can't you just stay longer and give them the reps?

Why is there a limit to the number of reps you can take? Like the high school practice out there, get them out in the six about three and a half hours and run them down. I mean, so we're talking about some of these choice and option route stuff, you could go and they could stay one-on-one and do it all they want. Until you have it with a full defense and in a play-time setting. Why can't you do it with a full defense? Why can't you just add? You just can't run a million. I mean, you just can't run a million.

I've heard, I've heard, you know, I've sat there and watched it in camp where they do, you know, it's like 20 reps, like 20 plays they'll run. Then they're on to the next thing. Why not run 35 instead or 30, an extra 10 so that Dwayne can get an extra 10? I think you could run a few more. there's just I think I think there's a certain number amount of time

that you can be out on the field in training camp now well that's what I was wondering I was wondering if you would answer it that way is there a CBA thing that limits the amount of time that you can be on the field the amount of reps you can take

the CBA thing that limits the number of practices yeah so we can only have one practice today boys we're going to be out there for about seven hours let's go but I'm not talking about the difference

between an hour and a half and seven hours talking about the difference between an hour and a half and maybe an hour and 50 minutes. I hear all the time there just aren't enough reps to go around, and I just, I don't think I've ever asked you before. Well, why don't they make sure that there are enough reps to go around? I mean, if Dway... No, it's a great question. It's a great question. I can tell you, I can say it's the same thing. If I would have saw a play script of an extra 40 plays in the training camp practice,

I'd have been one unhappy camper. Well, okay, but it's, it may be the better thing for the team. It may be. It may be. And a mutiny is definitely not a better thing for the team, so you manage that as well. That's where you need. Yeah, there's a lot. I mean, there's the, you need guys to spend extra time.

Like, you just do. That's what makes players great. Go back to the Jerry Rice model, and Jerry was the first one out there, and Jerry ran more routes and practiced on. Yeah, it's great. Gary also had Joe Montana and Steve Young. Yeah, that helps. Kime wrote another story yesterday, I think it was, maybe two days ago.

It was yesterday about Josh Doxon entering this final season. They didn't pick up his option. There are a couple of quotes that people sent me from the story, so I went to read it. And one of the quotes from Doxon is, I think I'm hitting free agency next year. It won't be the first, won't be the last. It's nothing to be sad about, be mad about. Someone wants you there, so it's all love. And they asked him if he's using this non-option thing as motivation.

He said, no, because that would mean it would have gotten to me, and I'd feel some type of way. There's no motivation. I'm not trying to prove nothing to nobody, just trying to get chemistry with the quarterbacks. Sure. I mean, I look at a free agent year. being more motivation than a non-option year.

There's a lot of money to be made if you have a big year and a free agent year. So I think that you, if you let you, and maybe he has no concern about money or the future. Maybe it's, he just loves playing. But I don't know, it's kind of human nature to want to make more money doing the thing that you're doing and do better doing the thing that you're doing. So I wouldn't look at the option as something negative if I were him, but I would want to have the best possible year so I could make the most possible money. You know, it's like what you always said and always do say, and that is, man, when you're

drafting these players, you got to know a lot more than what the tape tells you. You got to really understand. The first couple rounds you do, you can't miss the first couple round. You got to. They're starters, and they should be high-level NFL players for your team. And if you miss in rounds one and two, they're not. But you're done. You're in big trouble.

Those are, that's your, the building blocks of your team. So yes, you should know everything about them. You've got to know if they love it. And I think, you know, at this point, and I'm rooting for him, you know I am, because I wanted them to draft him. But I hope somehow he gets some hunger and, you know, plays with an urgency and a desperation and a love. because that 2016 draft that started with Doxon Cravens, this team, whether it was McLuhan or somebody,

they didn't know enough about the individuals. They didn't do enough due diligence beyond the tape. Yeah, and it's, again, going back to where he's at right now, with the enthusiasm, if you want the ball, you have to show them that you deserve and, want the ball. I think we said this all the time, and I was probably one of the best in my career at this, which was false, false enthusiasm. Go fake it. Go hoot and holler and goop around a little bit and yell a couple times and act mad or act excited, but act like you want to be

there. There's false enthusiasm today. Be a little bit of an actor, but you got to get the coaches what they want if you want the ball, if you want to play. You know, show i i've said this all the time i my first couple years i knew when the coaches were in their meeting rooms so i'd go out and run on the field on a saturday morning right there that's it wasn't like i was really running hard but go out there and show yeah people i guarantee you i guarantee you all those coaches offices have windows out to the field and you see josh dachson out there on a saturday morning with nobody at the park running routes running sprints they everyone's going to look at what is that oh man josh that's out of that

they're running, man. He must want it. It'll get so gullible to that type of stuff. You, you, be what they want to be for a small amount of time. You are the ultimate, Eddie Haskell. I mean, you just, you showed up and you went out

with the big windows so everybody could see you by yourself, you know, just kind of jogging and running around, and there they are. Oh, look, cool he's out there. Man, God, he is always working extra. He wants this badly. You think I'm going to run if no one's watching me run?

No. All right. What are you doing for the fourth? Is the fourth a big deal in Wyoming? Is there some sort of Cody Wyoming parade? Oh, there's a massive Cody Stampede parade. We are going up to Dill fishing today through Cody. And then we got a bunch of lawn chairs.

You got to put them out the night before so you get your seat. We've got to drop her lawn chairs off the night before in Cody. so we can go over there. You've got to get the kids in the spot to get the candy and see the parade. So we're going to do that. We went to the rodeo a couple nights ago, which was fun. But I've been in the bowl for the last couple days bucking my kids around the living room, getting tired of being the bull.

Yeah. What was that? The 100th annual Cody Stampede? I don't know what year it is in the Cody Stampede. Well, the rodeo, you know, the Cody has the Cody Night Roadie. every night of the summer. The one we went to is the ESPN Extreme Bulls Rodeo where all the top bull riders and bulls are brought in.

So it was like the bull circuit that stops in Cody. It was a big deal. How many people live in Cody, Wyoming? Is Cody in Yellowstone? No, it is not in Yellowstone. Is it near? Is it about 50 miles. Yeah, it's about 50 miles from the east entrance of Yellowstone Park.

Got it. So it's, I don't know, seven, eight thousand people. That's the population. Seven or eight thousand. You look at a, pal six. Cody might be nine or ten. Hold on, here it is. Cody, Wyoming population, 9,885 as of 2017.

So just under 10,000. Beautiful part of the world. All right. Thanks for getting up and doing this. I'll talk to you later. Happy fourth. Yeah, buddy. See you.

be free. All right, good to catch up with Cooley out in Wyoming. This was the time of year, Aaron, where, you know, he would leave Memorial Day and not come back until the first day of training camp. So basically took all of June and July off. And it was fun doing a four-hour morning show by yourself. I can imagine. Without him, it was a lot in the summer. It's a lot of fun.

You know, Galdi's doing mornings, right? He's doing four hours every morning on 9. And this is the time of year in June and July where you'd much prefer to have a partner. Just a little bit. Then be alone. Quick word about window nation. I really want you to consider them if you're considering new windows. Give them a shot.

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All right. So that's Jeff Green gone. Trevor Areza went to Sacramento. They traded Kelly Ubre for Areza. They didn't get anything there. They traded Jeff Green or signed Jeff Green. Could have traded him at the trade deadline. Didn't get anything there.

Of course, Otto Porter went to Chicago for Bobby Portis and Jabari Parker in a 20-23-second round pick. Portis has already gone to New York, and Jabari Parker remains unsigned. Remember, they also traded Austin Rivers as part of that deal for Areza. Netting it out, the Wizards over the last six months

have really, you know, effed it up big time. I was thrilled that Trevor Arisa was coming back to the Wizards, but even though I was very happy about that, I also said and was adamant that they had to trade him at the trade deadline when it was obvious they weren't going to be a playoff team. They needed to deal Jeff Green and Trevor a reason. They didn't do it. They didn't do it. For whatever reason, they thought they still had a chance to make the postseason or they thought they had a chance to bring these guys back. Now, you know, this is the previous administration, the Ernie Grunfeld administration that did all of this. So Tommy Shepard,

who is, I guess, the de facto GM right now, you know, it's hard to really pin this on him, but I pin it on Ted. You know, this is his organization. And it was obvious to anybody watching this that you could get something back for Trevor oriza at the trade deadline, that teams really value Trevor oriza. I've been telling people that for eight years. It's why, you know, on a contending team like Houston, he averaged more minutes than anybody on that roster, not named Hardin.

He is valuable. He's a leader. He's high IQ. They could have gotten a second back for him. They could have potentially gotten something back for Jeff Green. They basically unloaded Kelly Ubre and Otto Porter, and then Jeff Green and Trevor Areza for a 20-23 second round pick. That's what they got from all of the activity of the last six months. Now, they still have Jabari Parker as a possibility, Aaron. He's a free agent, and he has not signed with anybody else. And I actually thought that he played pretty well. I actually would,

if I were a contending team and had, you know, a need or a spot, I consider Jabari Parker. He's a tremendous athlete and an explosive offensive player, much more so than I actually realized. and I talked about it when he came in and was playing with the Wizards last year that I was actually really impressed. Now he's not a great defender and he's not a great ball handler, but man, he's a powerful, explosive dude, you know, near the rim. I think a good team should try to sign him. But anyway, you know, basically the Wizards netting it out got a 2023 second round pick for all of that. I mean, we may update that if Jabari Parker gets signed and they keep him. But Ubre, who I loved – Ubre, by the way, what is his situation right now?

I have not checked that recently. Has he signed with anybody yet? I do not believe so. I was a Kelly Ubray fan. More because I loved his competitiveness, loved his competitiveness. And I thought he was a player that really had improved. but he is an unrestricted free agent, right? He has not signed a deal, a long-term deal with Phoenix.

I think that's true. He's a free agent. Is he restricted? I'm not sure if he's restricted or unrestricted, but he's a free agent and there's articles about his market. What is his market? What are people saying about his market? But does he freaking have some sons fan?

It seems like the son's want him back. They're trying to bring him back, but there are, I think he's kind of in that waiting game where people, you know, we're kind of in the Kauai waiting game right now. And if someone wits, they could try to bring an Ubre. I would, I would think somebody would want Ubrey. I really do. I mean, you know, him being in limbo right now in free agency limbo is a surprise to me. It's a bit of a surprise.

Maybe, maybe something has to, another chip has to fall or another domic. has to fall and then he'll end. Maybe there's a plan for him to go somewhere. You know, I don't know, maybe it's tied to Kauai Leonard and in Kauai Leonard's move. Who knows? But I'd be surprised if there wasn't interest in Kelly Ubre. But anyway, back to the Wizards. It was a disaster of a pre-trade deadline through now situation. And as I said the other day, they're barely an NBA franchise right now in terms of relevance. they aren't relevant at all. And they've got a roster next year that, you know, who knows?

I mean, there are a couple of players that I like on their roster. You know, I've mentioned that I do like Mo Wagner. I think he's interesting and I'm going to be interested to watch him play. And, you know, as far as Isaiah Thomas goes, I have no expectations of him having the kind of year that he had in Boston a few years ago. I don't have that kind of expectation for him. You know, I'm interested in watching Rui Hachamura. As I said, you know, I was not a fan of the Wizards drafting him there.

I don't think he should have been drafted that high personally. But I wasn't, you know, somebody sent me a comment that I had made about Hachamura, and I was basically lumping him into a bunch of players that I didn't want the Wizards to take at number nine. It didn't mean that I didn't think he was a good college player and had potential in the pros. There were just a lot of players that I liked more. That's all. I liked a lot of players at a much higher level. But, man, you know, Troy Brown Jr., you know, Thomas Bryant,

and, you know, maybe this will be on Maheen Me's year. Maybe this will be Mahimmy's year. But you're going to have Bradley Beal, and I'm just trying to think of their starting lineup next year. It's Bradley Beal. It is, I'm assuming that also starting on this 10, team is going to be either Isaiah Thomas or Ish Smith. I mean, who's going to play point card? I would think it's Isaiah Thomas. It's an Isaiah Thomas Bradley Beal back court, potentially with, you know,

Thomas Bryant starting at center. And then you get into who are your small forwards, Troy Brown Jr., maybe Jabari Parker, your second round pick, Admiral Schofield. I'm just trying to think of the players they have. Hachamura, maybe he starts as a rookie. Who's your power forward on this team. Who's your true big power forward? I think it's Wagner. I think Wagner should be, could be their starting power forward. Bad team. I mean, as I'm just going through it, this is a 30-win team next year. It's a 30-win, 12th place in the east, 11th place in the east type of team. I would say, you know, netting this out, because nobody cares. If you're a Wizards fan like I am, you just have to assume that the next two years are non-playoff years. You just have to assume, you just have to

assume that, which would mean a run of three playoff misses in a row. One last thing that I did want to mention. Actually, the Nats last night. I watched that last inning and a half. What an at bat for Trey Turner there at the end, Aaron. I mean, that was a 10 pitch, I believe, at bat, really hung in there and then drilled one into the gap in right field to score Gomes on a three-two pitch. You know, that two-two pitch that he took was huge because it put Gomes into the position where he could run off the pitch, and that's why that particular hit scored them all the way from first. But man, this is a good baseball team right now all of a sudden. I mean, they're now two games above 500, and the Braves lost last night to the Phillies,

so the Nats are sitting there six out. They could be inside five games out at the All-Star break. Not a lot of people saw this coming, and what a run from 12 games below 500 to two games up. and Trey Turner was huge. I mean, I think there was the expectation that that would be a really solid at bat. Anyway, the last thing I wanted to mention real quickly is Bobby Marks, who I've had on this show at least two times. I love his analysis. He's the ESPN NBA guy, really knows front office stuff, contracts, all of that.

And I had him on during the season, and I think I had him on right before the draft a few weeks ago. He made a comment yesterday or this morning, but I read it, I didn't hear it. He doesn't think that the Warriors are a playoff team out west next year. He thinks the Warriors because of the Clay Thompson injury, and assuming that Clay Thompson doesn't come back until super late in the season at the earliest, that the Warriors will miss the postseason next year. I don't agree with that at all. That team with Steph Curry,

and Draymond Green on that particular team and DiAngelo Russell now, they're going to be good enough to be, you know, a solid 45-win regular season team minimum. I would be so surprised if the Warriors weren't a playoff team. And part of his argument, and he made a compelling argument, at least what I read, and that is just the depth of the West next year.

You know, I mean, a lot of people like Denver, a lot of people like Utah. Obviously the Lakers are the prohibited favorite to win the title of Kauai signs there. They're going to be the favorite even if he doesn't. But they're not going to be a prohibitive favorite if he doesn't. People like Portland, Denver, Utah, Houston. There's 10 reasonable teams you can put in the playoffs. Look, Paul George and Russell Westbrook are still going to be a playoff team.

You know, the spurs are still more likely than not going to be a playoff team. And then you have the Clippers who got super hot at the end of last year. And remember, one, two games in the first round. against the Warriors. And so I started thinking about it. And by the way, not even mentioning New Orleans and Memphis, teams that have really added, Dallas could be a potential surprise team. Some people think Phoenix is going to be a lot better, not playoff better, but a lot better. The West, when you look at it, may not have a terrible team. Phoenix was terrible last year, but a lot of young talent on that team, a lot of young talent on the team, including D'Andre

Aiton. I still think I would be shocked if the Warriors with Curry and Russell and Dramon Green and Kevin Looney, who signed the other day, not to a big deal. I thought Looney would get more money. I like Looney. They also just signed Colley Stein as well. But I would be shocked if the Warriors aren't in the playoffs next year. But anyway, you know, some people in thinking about the NBA, and I know a lot of you again, I say this all the time, I know a lot of you don't care at all. I do. I know a lot of people look at this NBA next year and they're praying, as I am, that Kauai does not sign with the Lakers, so that you can have a wide open year. I say that, but I will also say simultaneously that the bottom line is that it's better off. The league is better off when it has a dominant, dynastic type of team. It's a much better situation for the league when you have a prohibitive favorite and a dynasty kind of team like Golden State than a wide open feat. I personally think the wide open field will be fun to watch and will be entertaining to watch, but I think it's better for the league because it attracts the casual fans when you have a super team.

All right, we're off tomorrow. Enjoy the fourth. Thanks to Cooley. Thanks to Aaron. Back on Friday.