The Kevin Sheehan Show - Dan Quinn + Chris Cooley "Film"

Episode Date: August 22, 2024

Kevin opened with some Jayden Daniels and kicker talk before bringing on Commanders' Head Coach Dan Quinn. After the Coach, Chris Cooley jumped on with a "film breakdown" of Jayden Daniels' first two preseason games.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Two decent guests on the show today. Dan Quinn will be on in the next segment. And then following the coach, Chris Cooley, will be on the show today.

A show who's presenting sponsor is always, Windonation. Call them at 86690 Nation or head to Windonation.com. If you've been thinking about new windows, they'll come out to your home. when you mention my name and they'll give you a free no obligation in-home estimate. Yeah, Dan Quinn next segment. You're going to hear part of my interview with Dan Quinn, which I recorded about an hour ago. The entire interview will air tomorrow at 1025 a.m. on my radio show on the team 980. But I'm going to play a really good portion of that interview coming up in a few minutes.

And then after the coach, Cooley will be on. He watched Jaden Daniels against the Jets and Jaden Daniels against the Dolphins. He did a film breakdown using the All-22, and you will hear his breakdown of the quarterback. So Dan Quinn next and then Cooley after that. I'm going to start with this. It comes from Alvin P. Kevin, stop talking about Jaden getting out of bounds. The young man is a dog.

take that out of him. You start trying, you take away the best part of his game. Yeah, I get it, Alvin, you know, but the goal isn't to take away the best part of his game. The goal is to keep him in the game. I don't think anybody's advocating for him to stop running or to never take a risk while he's running. You just want him to be available, you know? Part of being that dog most of the time is being a smart dog some of the time. That's what Cliff Kingsbury essentially said the other day. He said, there's a place and a time. And I think we all understand what he meant by that. You know, the second quarter of a preseason game isn't the place or time to put your body at risk. The fourth quarter in a real game that's close, go for it. Sam Fortier, who was on with me

yesterday on radio, did this piece in the post where he watched 3,600 Jaden Daniels snaps from LSU back to high school. That boys and girls is some research. That took some time. He said he had been working on it for several months. His goal, Sam's goal, was to try to determine if there's actually a track record of Jaden taking too many unnecessary hits, which, you know, as we all know, heading into the draft, that was part of the criticism or the concern when discussing his game.

You know, he's got a slight frame, and yet he took a lot of hits at LSU that he could have avoided. You know, he played at times recklessly. That was the narrative. You know, hits where he had the option of sliding or getting out of bounds, but instead, you know, he decided to embrace contact. Without going through the entirety of Sam's research and the entirety of his story, what he did come to a conclusion on was that the reputation Daniels had for being reckless was overstated. Yes, there were examples of him being reckless, or, you know, in some cases, I would describe it probably in the same way Alvin would describe it,

which he was being a dog. You know, he was being super competitive, you know, taking some risk, but, you know, that's what dogs do. But the majority of the time, Sam found out, he slid or got out of bounds. Or used kind of his athleticism to contort his body to lessen the contact. You know, that's a big part of it, too, when quarterbacks are on the road. the real athletes with great spatial vision, which he has, RG3 didn't have. Even if they're going to take a hit, they're able to contort their body in a way where they don't take a vicious, you know, hit. And by the way, let me just mention overall, the bottom line is when we talk about this stuff,

a quarterback is more at risk in the pocket than he is outside of it. More serious injuries happen to quarterbacks in the pocket than when they're on the run. You know, there was this from Jaden earlier in the week. I don't know if you caught it. He was asked during that press conference after he was announced the starter on Monday. He was asked if he practices sliding and he said he doesn't. Some took that as he doesn't know how to slide. That's not what he said.

He said he doesn't practice sliding. sliding. If you watched him as a college quarterback, you know he can slide. You know, he slid at LSU. He was actually much better at getting to the sideline and getting out of bounds when he decided to avoid getting hit. But no, look, Alvin, we all know as football fans that the best ability often is availability. And that's all anybody wants with this young quarterback. We're not going to see them, you know, put a governor on them. They're not going to pull the reins back. They're not, you know, going to pull the best aspect or one of the best aspects of his game. They just want him to be smart. And getting tackled when you don't have to in a preseason game,

you know, didn't make sense. It's not that hard, really. Nobody wants to take his manhood away from him. By the way, today at practice, changing subjects, Riley Patterson, the kicker, well, he had another great practice. He made six of seven kicks, according to the beat reporters who were out there. He made one from 58 yards, missed one from 54. Look, he's been great in practices. I think he was perfect against the dolphins last Thursday. It's been the games that have been the problem.

You know, Doc Walker's famous line, this franchise is terrific Monday through Saturday, Sundays are the problem. He's two for five on field goals in two preseason games. Now, he's kicked well in the league in regular season games before. We know that. This from Dale, Kevin, if you're going to be right about 10 and 7, then they better find a kicker. Remind me why they got rid of Dustin Hopkins. The Browns just extended him. Yeah, I think I mentioned this. I may have been on vacation when the news broke that the Browns had signed Dustin Hopkins to a three-year contract extension. Look, he's kicked well in Cleveland. He got injured. Remember last year? And you know who came in for him, Riley Patterson. But he was 90, a career best, 91.7% on

field goals for the Browns last year. He was 33 of 36. Look, the Chargers let him go also. Remember that. They decided not to keep him or re-sign him when he was a free agent. He was 33 or 36. Amazing. He had a long of 58 yards, and he was 8 for 8 on kicks last year of 50 or longer. So last year was his best year before he got hurt. With the Chargers, though, he kicked well. He was 18 of 20 in 2021 after. Washington released him and he kicked for the Chargers for the final 11 games.

And then he was 9 of 10 for the Chargers in 2022 before, I think he got hurt, right, with the Chargers. I think he got hurt five games into the season because they would not have cut him when he was 9 of 10. But his last year here in Washington, he had come off a 2020 season, which was his worst. He was 79.4% on field goals, 27 of 34. plus he missed two PATs.

And what really happened in 2021, if you recall, was the final straw for Ron Rivera and Washington was that Kansas City Chiefs game. You know, they had been playing, I wouldn't say great football, but they had a game against Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reed, Travis Kelsey and Company at FedEx Field. that they actually led at halftime 13 to 10. And this was a competitive game for much of the game until in the third quarter, up 1310 with a chance to extend the lead to 16 to 10, Hopkins missed, hooked badly, a 42-yard field goal, a chip shot in the NFL. And remember, that had followed a couple of missed extra points

in a game at Atlanta, which they won. And also remember that year, the second game of the season, they had the Giants on Thursday night football at FedEx Field. And he missed the field goal to win the game at the end of the game from 48 yards out, but the Giants were off sides. Remember that one? He got another opportunity from five yards closer, and he made the kick, but he missed that first kick,

and Dexter Lawrence was off sides. Hopkins then made the second kick. But, you know, we were all very skeptical of Hopkins. You want to hear something interesting, though? And I'm sure we talked about this at the time. Do you know that Dustin Hopkins, in the history of Washington's franchise with kickers, kicked in the third most games,

for the franchise, Mark Mosley kicked in 182 games, Chip Lohmiller kicked in 112 games, and then next on the list was Dustin Hopkins, who kicked in 93 games for Washington. And by the way, his career average is, or much better than Lohmillers and Moseley's, but field goal percentages weren't back then what they are today. yeah, you'd probably rather have Dustin Hopkins. Sometimes change a venue for kickers is such a big deal.

You know, the other thing, too, is kicking, you know, off this FedEx Field turf in recent years at that stadium hasn't been great for any kicker. I think that what will happen, and you'll actually hear in my interview with Dan Quinn talking about the kicker position, I think they're going to sign somebody next Tuesday after teams cut kickers. There was a development today, a story today out of New England, where Joey Sly, remember him, has been competing with Chad Rylund for the kicker spot in New England. Chad Rylin kicked at Maryland and was Bill Belichick's fourth round selection. They picked Rylan in the fourth round in the 2020. draft. And Rylan really struggled last year. And so they brought in Joey Sly to compete with him.

And according to reports today, Joey Sly is about to win that competition. And that would put Chad Rylin on the market. Look, I watched Chad Rylen throughout his career at Maryland. This dude's got a big leg. He's a talented kicker. And you know these kicks. Sometimes it's just give me a new opportunity and a new place and all of a sudden it works. He was 16 of 24 on field goals last year. He missed eight field goals. That's not good as a rookie. He missed one PAT, but he missed eight field goals and his long was 56 yards. He's got a huge leg. You know, part of the determination here will be, can the kicker also be effective in the kickoff game now with the new rule? One of the things that came out in the story today about Joey Sly is he's a bigger guy than Chad Rylund,

and kickers might have to make tackles this year. So Rylund could be one of those guys. And if Ryln keeps the job, well, maybe they bring Joey Sly back. Remember that Joey Sly was at least partially responsible for Ron Rivera's biggest win in Washington. That was the Philadelphia Monday Night game when Washington was a big underdog. Philly was undefeated. I think they were eight and no going into that game. And Sly made like three kicks of 50 yards or longer.

He was huge in that game. That was the game where Taylor Heineke induced that late hit at the end of the game. that essentially iced the game. Let me pull up the box score to see because one of those kicks was really long. I think it was at the end of the first half, like 56 yards or something like that. 2022, November 14th.

32 to 21 was the final score. The final score remembered that Washington fell on a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown on the final play when Philadelphia was whipping it around, trying to lateral it all around the field on the final play of the game. Casey Two Hill recovered it. Here were the kicks for Joey Sly. 44 yards, 58 yards at the end of the first half, 32 yards and 55 yards. So he had two kicks of 50 or longer, but they were long ones, 58 and 55 yards out.

3221 over the Eagles that night. That was crazy. It got Washington back, remember, to five and five. And from there, they got themselves into playoff contention. You know, as bad as last year was, and it was horrible. And look, 2022 wasn't great either. They were really, really not very good on offense. It was the defense who carried them.

But remember, they went into that giant game, that first giant game. And they were like in the sixth spot in the wild. card race. They were seven and five. Anyway, yes, Dale, you're right. They need a kicker for me to be right about 10 and 7 because, you know, when you're that kind of team, you're probably going to play

some games where you're going to need a kicker to come through. You know, the irony of Riley Patterson is that he's actually been a pretty good regular season kicker. Terrible for us in the preseason here, two of five. And if he were

really that good, he'd be on a roster right. now. I understand that. But during the regular season, let me pull it up here, Riley Patterson, who's kicked in regular season games before, he kicked with Jacksonville, he kicked with Detroit, kicked with Cleveland last year at the end when Hopkins got hurt. So in Jacksonville in 2022, kicked in all 17 games. That was the year where Jacksonville came back from that huge halftime deficit in the postseason against the Chargers. And Patterson kicked the game winner at the gun to win that game. I think it was 31 to 30. Overall, though, 59 of 67, 88.1% career on field goals.

93 of 97 on extra points. I mean, it's not terrible. Not terrible. But they'll have some options come Tuesday night. Hey, there's a story that I'm going to save for tomorrow with Tommy. But Eric Flack, WUSA Channel 9, their investigative reporter, reported that the D.C. government has quietly signed on a powerhouse venue firm to help them explore the possibility of bringing the commanders back to RFK Stadium. The name of the company is ASM Global and the contract is $565,000. By the way, this is the second contract. The first one was a $400,000 study back in June that taxpayers, D.C. taxpayers,

yours truly included, paid for. This one is $565,000 to ASM Global, who is, bills itself as, quote, the world's leading venue management company and producer of live event experiences. They work with 400 venues worldwide and their portfolio includes seven NFL stadiums more than any single management firm. So we'll talk more about this if this is a significant story. It might be, look, what hasn't happened yet is that the Senate hasn't passed the RFK site bill. It passed in the House of Representatives. It is not yet passed in the Senate.

You know, there are, you know, local senators like Chris Van Hollen from Maryland that might be holding it up. All right. Dan Quinn, a portion of my interview that will air in its entirety tomorrow on the radio show. But you're going to hear a really good portion of it coming up next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, the slightest of edges make a huge difference in the games that we love to watch. In shaving, Harries gives you the sharpest edge with their razors. Harry's Edge comes courtesy of a combination of two things. The incredible shave their razors provide and the fact that they do it for a price way lower than the big brands. In an industry of overpriced and underperforming products, Harry's is your MVP.

I've been a Harry's customer for a few years now, going back to when Harry's first started to be a part of the podcast. They sent me product prior to asking me to endorse it, and I've been a customer ever since. I've been using their Truman Razor for the last year or so. It's got a two-tone handle with an ergonomic, no-slip grip designed for optimal control. It includes a German-engineered blade. It provides a super-close smooth shave, and it looks. looks great. They've got bold and sophisticated color pairing options which bring personality to your bathroom, orange, blue, and green handle options. They deliver in a sleek, good-looking package

that comes with a blue travel cover to protect your blades when you're on the move. They've got customizable delivery options for scheduled refills for as low as $2, half of what you pay for other big brands. You get a five-blade rate. weighted handle, foaming shave gel, and a travel cover for just three bucks at harries.com slash sheen. Harris offers other self-care products that meet the same quality standards as their razors. They've got extra strength, high quality, amazing smelling deodorant for just $5. Plus hair and other grooming products that fit your unique look and needs.

Using Harry's is a total no-brain. highest customer satisfaction in the shaving industry. No risk trial. Don't like your shave. No worries. It's on them. Convenient subscription option that you can cancel at any time. Get the edge on your shave with Harry's. Get started with a $13 trial set for just $3 at harries.com slash Sheehan. That's harries.com slash S-H-E-E-H-A-N for a $3 trial set. This segment of the show is brought to you by Window Nation. Call them now if you've been thinking about new windows and just get an estimate. That's all I'm asking.

It's free. They're not going to pressure you. They'll leave you with the quote. You can do with it what you choose. But if you've been thinking about new windows because you want your home to look better or you want lower utility bills, call Wind Donation 866-90-N-8-6-9-8. or head to wind donation.com. Mention my name.

The estimate's free. They'll take good care of you. Right now, the deal is really good. It's as good as it gets for Wind Donation during the course of the year. Buy to get two free, no limit, with no money down, no payments, and no interest charged for two full years.

Plus, you mentioned my name that you heard about Wind Donation on this podcast. They'll add an extra $250.50. credit. You're working with one of the best window retailers in America. Their customer services outstanding. It'll work out for you. But again, all I'm asking you to do is call them and just get the estimate if you've been thinking about new windows. If you haven't been and your windows are brand new, don't worry about it. But 86690 Nation, windownation.com. All right, earlier, I recorded an interview for the radio show tomorrow with

head coach, Dan Quinn. I'm going to play a portion of that for you right now. The entire interview will air tomorrow morning 1025 a.m. on the Team 980, the Team 980.com, and also if you download the Odyssey app, you can listen to it as well. But you'll hear the entirety of it tomorrow. But I'm going to play about eight minutes of the interview now. And I cut a couple of the parts together. It's not continuous. But I wanted you to hear some of it on the podcast, the rest of it tomorrow.

But here's how it started with the head coach Dan Quinn earlier today. All right. Joining me right now is the head coach of our football team, Dan Quinn. Coach, thanks so much for doing it. Really appreciate it. I want to start with you.

What does it feel like so far to be back in the big chair as a head coach again? Yeah, Kevin, I appreciate it, man. Honestly, having a blast with the guys here. We've had a good camp. We've had, you know, a couple trips went up to New Jersey to practice and then go play against the Jets.

Went down to Miami, same program, but down to practice and play against them. And then this week, you know, finally get to come back home, man. But it's been cool, you know, putting the whole thing together with Adam, with Josh, with the staff, the players. So, like, there's a lot of energy here in our building at the, practice, the way the guys are competing, and honestly, I hope that's what you and the fans and our families and friends see us. And man, these guys are absolutely bringing it. And that's the playstyle

and the identity that I'm, you know, hoping you and everybody else is going to see when we get this thing rocking. Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt that there is definitely a vibe that is upbeat and optimistic so far. But I want to ask you because we're all big football fans, and we kind of understand what this time of the year means. Is it even remotely possible to know truly how things are going before you've played a real game? I'd say that's a good question. One, I think you'll want to know, like, where's the health of the team?

How are you doing that thing? Because that's a real factor. The second thing is for us having not played any regular season games together, I would say that's a little harder to predict. but what I can tell you, what I see at practice, good practice habits, the finishing, taking care of the ball. So, like, the habits, you know, that you have, they don't get tacked on, Kevin, at the end of a championship season, they get tacked on when you put in the work to go.

So, honestly, I can't tell you where we're at, you know, in terms of the win, like if we're not in the regular season, but I can tell you that I think you'll like what you're going to see from the guys in terms of attitude and effort and play style. So that part, if you get that part right, then you can add a lot of other things onto it. But if you miss that part, all of the scheme and offense or defense in the world isn't going to matter if you don't absolutely bring it. Yeah, that makes sense to me. Winning habits don't magically appear in the middle of a season.

They're developed early on. I get that. You know, with that understood, though, I think you know one of the reasons the NFL is so entertaining, so popular, is that it's so unpredictable. Teams change so much, year to year, week to week, really. How long does it take, and you've been in this league for a long time now, how long does it take before you know what your team really is? How many weeks into the season does it take before you've figured out what you really have in your team? I'd say it's probably you have to go through a couple of really adverse, tough situations.

What you'll know is there are going to be a lot of close games in the NFL. Like I think last year it might have been, then there 70% of our games were decided by a score or less. So in those close fights, Kevin, in those moments, when you see yourself coming out, you know, on the top of those, then you can tell. I'd say usually you're, you know, you run games a little bit behind, tackling's not as sharp as it needs to be because you haven't tackled a lot.

And those are things I think you get better as it goes. So you have to be in some fights. man. I'd say it's probably halfway through before you really have your team's identity for this season. You've been in some fights. You know who's going to come through in these big moments. So it takes more than a quarter of the season, I would say, for your identity to really take shape because you've got to be in some hard fights. Last preseason game is Sunday night. How many of the 53 spots that you have to cut down to by Tuesday at 4 p.m. are legitimately undecided? There's quite a few, honestly,

which is good in a lot of ways because we're talking about the fourth and fifth corner and fourth and fifth wide out and who's going to be this tackle and back up here or there. Good news is I think we're kind of settling in on the starters, but call those starters, let's call them 15 starters on each side. You know, it's the complimentary blocking tight-in. It's this person, the third-rescentry.

receiver, the second back, you know, some pass rushers, the third safety. So all of those guys will have significant roles. What we are excited to find out and still working through it, there's some good stuff on the return game that we're digging in on. We've got Jameson Crowder who's here. We've got great return stuff. But the kickoff and kickoff return is really a new thing, and we're digging in hard on that to find out who can cover.

I think we've got a rookie class that you and the fans are going to be proud of. They're mature, they're hardworking, and they'll have significant roles with the team. So there may be guys whose roles emerge, Kevin, even though it's not just the 53. In other words, as the seasons go, I could see some people's roles increasing with more experience and playing time, and that's to be expected for some of the rookies that are developing their role on the team. So 53, I'm guessing maybe five to seven that we're digging in and out. and then individual roles for the team, a lot of that has not been established yet about what it will look like during the season.

That'll take a few weeks. You know, the kickoff return is so interesting. I mean, everybody's still figuring it out. We saw the data that came out yesterday in terms of the increase of overall returns and a little bit more explosiveness to it. Do you have it figured out yet or not? On coverage and returns? Definitely not.

and I haven't seen the data that you're referring to yet. But, no, there's so much more to dig into the kicks in the air, the kicks on the ground, the way that you cover, do you twist, you keep it right, directional kicks. So definitely not have it figured out. But honestly, that's kind of part of the fun to dig in and find new ways. So we'll go after we've got kickoff and kickoff return again tomorrow, and then obviously we'll get some more in the game. but I would bet that of the other 31 special teams coaches,

there are some things they're keeping under the vest, so to speak, before the regular season begins just to refer to what you said, not to allow some new things out. But I think it is going to add an element of excitement to the team, and I think with the group that we have that can really run and hit and cover our special teams, they're really going to be a group that is featured here and able to help us win by, creating field position and making impactful plays.

One of those spots I think we all know is kicker in terms of up for grabs on Sunday night. Unless you add somebody between now and Sunday night, I guess I'm assuming Riley Patterson will take all the kicks Sunday night against New England, right? Correct. You're correct. So where are you guys in terms of understanding what you do, that there will be a flood of kickers that are released on Tuesday at 4 p.m. You guys have second position waiver wire-wise,

but some of these kickers will be veterans. Give me a thought or at least just a hint as to whether or not you think the kickers that hit the market Tuesday will provide other potential answers before Tampa Bay. I think there's no doubt that the competing won't stop. And so you're right that there's more than 10 teams that have two kickers on it.

Right. So for us, for other teams, for the guys that are on rosters on the other 31, yeah, I would say that will be, you know, competition that you will see. And usually on that spot, it's fluid. You know, that could change as the, as the, you know, first couple weeks of the season goes. You know, it goes with veterans and not and all sorts of rules. But we're excited for Riley for this weekend.

He hit the ball great when we were at practice at Miami. We didn't perform as well in the game as we'd hope. So we're looking forward to seeing how he'll get after it on Sunday night. And the rest of the group, there's so many cool spots to still figure out, man. So let's dig in and go for it. And like we're still in a camp mode today tomorrow here. But as we get into Saturday, late Friday and Saturday, we'll begin the preparation for New England.

And we're excited, man, to be here and be here in this stadium as the home team. My first time doing that, man, I'm pretty lit up. about that. It's just over two weeks until the opener at Tampa, just over three weeks until your first home opener against the Giants. Thanks so much. Really appreciate the time. Wish you the best. You got it, Kim. Talk to you soon, man. So that was a part of my conversation with Dan Quinn. The interview in full, which will include lots on Jaden Daniels, will air tomorrow morning 1025 a.m. on my radio show on the Team 980. You can listen to it at the Team 980. You can listen to it at the team 980.com or on the Odyssey app whenever you want tomorrow or throughout the weekend.

But if you want to listen to it tomorrow on the radio show 1025 a.m. We'll air the entire interview conversation with Dan Quinn. If you get a chance to rate us and review us, especially on Apple and Spotify, it's huge for us, especially now, between now and Labor Day, we are still finalizing some of our revenue and sales opportunities for football season. The more ratings and reviews, the better for us. You can rate us up to five stars if you think we deserve it on Apple and Spotify. And Apple gives you a chance to give us a quick one to two sentence review.

Follow us on Apple and Spotify and subscribe to the podcast if you get a chance. All right, Chris Cooley, his film breakdown on Jaden Daniels right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by MyBooky. Go to mybooky.orgie. Go to MyBooky. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and MyBooky will give you a cash bonus on your initial deposit. We've got real college football this weekend from Dublin, 10th ranked Florida State, and Georgia Tech. Florida State right now, an 11-point favorite over Georgia Tech. The game kicks at noon. It follows college game day on ESPN. MyBooky's got everything you want for that game. They also have all of the week one NFL lines up and all of the NFL regular season futures and prop bets. MyBooky.ag promo code Kevin, D.C. All right. Joining me right now, as promised, Chris Cooley is with us. He's watched some of the preseason action.

You know what popped up on my phone the other day, which meant it was exactly a year ago, was pictures of my trip out to see you last summer. It was basically a year ago, I think it was a year ago last week, and there was a picture of us in a raft or a boat going down the river, and the picture of the one fish that I caught, the one rainbow trout that I caught.

That was a year ago. But I've seen you since. One was better than none. You didn't catch that many. We didn't catch that many fish. I don't know why Well it was hard for me in the raft To catch that many fish

Why I was rowing you down the river You weren't rowing me down the river I guess you were You didn't let me row But you didn't let anybody row Why I would let you row I wanted you to fish Right that's true

You wanted me to fish You wanted me to enjoy my time fishing Not rowing and steering Correct And steering So You would be great at it though I've done it before

I mean that was not a first time activity for me you know I've fly fished before many times yeah I didn't look did I appear to you to be a newcomer to fly fishing when you handed me the rod and said get after it

no like an experienced professional well not a professional not an experienced person but somebody who had done it before You looked capable of fishing with a fly rod. You were capable of fishing with a fly rod. I was capable, yeah. Interesting, we didn't have a great day fishing, or a great two days.

It's funny how that works out. I had a couple people in town last weekend, and it just wasn't great fishing. It stormed every afternoon, and they wanted to fish, and we went out and we got a couple fish, but it wasn't great fishing. And then I went out yesterday and I caught 60 fish. Did you really? Oh, yeah. It was awesome.

All trout, all rainbow, or was it a mix of rainbow browns? It was a mixed rainbow brown cutthroat, but it was a good day. 60 fish you caught. How big were they? What was the biggest? 18, 19 inches. Wow. It's funny.

I was with a couple. friends that we're fishing and said it's interesting because it's always inches with trout and it's always weight with bass yes why is that i don't actually no i guess you want a fatter bass you want to do what say that again i said you want a fatter bass a fatter bass and you want a longer i think if i cut a trout that was 24 inches i'd want to weigh it like a big trout would be a big trout would be five pounds where we're at. That'd be a dude. Three pounds is a really good trout.

If it were over five, you'd be putting it on the wall. Yeah, I'm curious as to whether or not the records, because you can look up the state records for the largest fish caught. Oh, they've got to be way bigger than five pounds. No, but I'm wondering if the records are by inches or pounds. No, they're by pounds. They are. They could have a record by inches.

I bet if you looked up the Wyoming records, you'd have rainbow and brown trout over 20 pounds. Wow, those are big fish. Good God. Yeah. Wyoming's record rainbow trout, 23 pounds. It was caught in 1969.

It's a monster. That's great. crazy. I wonder, it doesn't mention how many inches the trout was. What do you, what do you guess the inch? 30, 26 to 28, 30, 20, I don't know, over two feet. It had to be over two feet. Wow, that's crazy. A Wyoming man in 2020 caught the record rainbow trout for, oh, this is for some place. I thought this was going to be a record for the United States. But here it is. 31.25 inches.

They measure that one in inches. So how about it? They gave it the 0.25. Yeah, they gave it the preseason going for you. You've been watching? You know how much I hate the preseason. It is unbelievable that you've asked me to do this thing. And I am, what, I guess, five, four years removed, six from the radio show with you,

six or seven since I was doing the radio show with you. And every year before that, the preseason was so incredibly valuable training camp was so unbelievably important. And I logged into the all 22 and thought, hmm, football's back on. Cool. It's unbelievable how minuscule preseason is when you're not. living in it. And I'm not saying it. I enjoyed the hell out of it. I liked training camp. I was into the preseason games, always. I did not love playing in the preseason games by any means.

But I did thoroughly enjoy watching and understanding and seeing everything that was going on after I was done. Well, keep in mind, the preseason is much different than when you played or even when you were working in media. It's down to three games for starters. Jay Gruden told me recently at the beginning of the preseason, because I had him on, he said, everything changed he thinks when Sean took the job in LA and decided he was going to become the first coach not to play anybody in the preseason. No starters for even a play. And then from that point forward, which would have been, you know, what, six, seven years ago. Maybe longer than that now?

How many years has Sean been in L.A.? Since 2017. I think 2017 was his first year. But that now we just don't see, you know, regular season starters or contributors just playing enough. So it's a terrible consumer product. It's awful to watch. There was a time, Cooley,

where I would get excited just because football was back on television. But I've already said this. If I didn't do what I do, I wouldn't watch one minute of these preseason games. It just doesn't translate to the regular season. It's a joke to even consider you're going to break down what you've seen with Jaden Daniels and you can do individual evaluations, but none of it means anything with respect to what we're going to see when teams play for all four quarters with their starters having game planned for the game. game. So yeah, I mean, I would, actually, this preseason, I would have watched Jaden Daniels until he was out of the game and then I would have turned it off. And I think there's an absolute reason to do that. You're excited about a new player who could change the face of the franchise.

Everyone's excited to watch Jaden Daniels. I was excited to watch Jaden Daniels. Yeah. But for the most part, next preseason, I don't think anyone's going to feel that they're excited. see where Jaden Daniels has gotten to in the preseason the next year. Right. It's actually interesting, though, because the argument was always that this is your opportunity as one of the guys on the roster

who might not make this team to make anyone a 31 other teams. Right. But ultimately, we're going to play four preseason games. The real reason is money and how they do it. Well, again, it's down to three now. But it's, yeah. But the conversation about these guys, there's six of them on a team. Six, what?

Six or seven. Six or seven guys at the back end of a roster that somebody else really might want to pick up that they may end up finding a spot somewhere else. Right. Yeah. Based on the way they play in a preseason game. The fact of the matter is now most of these guys, there's so many connections in the league, and people have watched them at a college.

already knew if they wanted them or not. And they're going to figure out, hey, we had to cut two guys at tight end. And we really liked the guy Washington picked up. If we end up having a chance to get him, we're just going to get him. We don't really care about watching the preseason game three for three series. Right. I just don't see this unbelievable relevance. They'll call around.

There's agents, coaches, no coaches, GMs, no GMs. They'll find the guys they want. If you cut a guy, it's not, it is so unbelievably rare that his performance based on two or three preseason games is going to dictate whether or not he makes any one of 31 other teams. Yeah, but you do agree that for the team that they're in training camp with, that these practices, joint practices, and then preseason games, that very often four to maybe eight spots are determined on the back end of the roster. but we can determine those in practice just the same. Okay. I've been four to eight spots, let's call seven of those, let's call it eight. Six of them are practice spot spots.

Again, I don't want to demean it. Yeah. So for those six or seven guys, but we're talking about less than, we're talking about five percent of any roster, but the game actually really makes a big difference. Right. No, it's. Look, anytime you are watching an exhibition basically rather than a competition,

and I'm not saying that there isn't competition for those last few spots in, you know, individual evaluations, but as a fan watching, when the two participants don't really care about the final outcome score-wise, it's impossible to watch. It's just not. And look, we're going to be down to two of these things when we get to an 18-game. schedule. I think most people understand that. But anyway, let's get to the reason that I

called you and asked you to participate today. And I just gave you the job of watching the Jaden Daniels one series against the Jets and then the two series that he had the other night against Miami. Would you think?

I think he's everything that you hoped he would be. One, he looked really, really comfortable back there. And we'll talk about some of the other, the finer parts of it, but I think he looks really comfortable back there. His arm

is life. He gets the ball up and out, quick. He's got a ton of velocity on it. I think he can throw a great accuracy. But it comes out quick. You watch his release point, and you watch just from up and out, wow. And his ability

to drive a ball across the field, which you've see multiple times in these two games, throwing hitches to either out of the field, is really there. You don't see a lot of shots down the field, but in the first game, what the first third down, he takes a shot down the right sideline,

that's an absolute darn. He just drops in the bucket. Do you know the context of that play? It's funny because when you just watch the All-22, you don't know this. So he checked to that. It was a bubble that was called. He checked to the all-go,

allverts. And they weren't happy about that because they didn't want him checking to any sort of dropback because they had a limited you know, skeleton offensive line in front of him and they didn't want to put him at risk,

but he did it anyway. They didn't want to put him at risk. They're running zone read. I know. That's true. Good point. So, I mean, he's pulled it three times in two games. Right.

But on that shot to Diami... What are we talking about? On the shot to Diami Brown, I just didn't know if you knew that there was a lot of discussion because it was an audible. He checked to it. He said that the bubble was dead, but Kingsbury and Quinn basically told him going into this game, we don't want you checking to any dropback. In one series.

In one series. But he did it anyway. So he's really coachable. Well, a lot of people were like, well, that's not a good sign that he basically did something his coaches didn't want him to do. I actually kind of liked it because it was still a very quick drop, and he knew he was going to get rid of it pretty quickly. But it was also MPC set. Yeah. Yeah.

He saw a coverage where he had a one-on-one look at a go ball down the field. And he said, I'm going to take three and let it fly. Right. is what if you tell me that he checked to that, all he's got to do is hold the safety for the millisecond, which he did a very good job of on the play. Hold the safety with his eyes for one second and take the shot. That said, he did take a hit on it.

He did get hit as you let it go. He's under pressure. He gets banged into the side as he's letting it go. So it's accurate ball under pressure. Yeah. I liked it in the first game, second game as well. They're pistol, they're gun, they're under center. Really, Kingsbury, I think, we'll see how goes when they get to the regular season,

but it looks like the principle, what they have here is let's get the ball out of his hands quick. Let's get the ball into playmaker's hands. Let's get the ball out of Daniel fans quick. Not a ton of big-time decisions right away. Like screens, easy stuff, ball out on the edges, let him run with it. I like that principle. with him. He's also, he's not quick or fast. He's both. His mobility is going to be an unbelievable asset for this offense.

An offense, which, by the way, has dudes. If you look at Washington's offense right now, and I think they'll struggle up front some, and that's probably their biggest concern. But you've got two solid backs in acquiring Ecuador this year. I like having Urton as a safety blanket. The new kid's phenomenal. He'll end up being your two.

I can't imagine he wouldn't be there, too. Diommy Brown, Terry McLoren, Josh, doctor. The new kid, you're talking about Senate. You're talking about Senate. The guy that looks like you. Ben, Senate's going to end up being, yeah. Ben's going to end up being your two. So I can't imagine he wouldn't be the two, but we'll just, to me,

that there's a plethora of offensive weapons for Daniels to work with. God, interesting. and for Kingsbury to play around with to not have to go, okay, let's go, we've got to find a way to protect here. Let's keep the back in, extra, let's keep the tight in. Let's try to get down the field with three guys, maybe we can find a hole, and it's not, you've got to check it down. I think you've got enough dudes when you start moving around with formations,

motions, different looks, that you can just pop it out of his hands. And then that's where the mobility becomes even more of a problem, because now you're like, I don't know the release point of the ball, the timing of this, and we also have to account for this quarterback running. I think there's a lot of stuff that they can do with this offense. I think it's going to be a really talented offense. If they can continue to run the ball, and the second game against the Dolphins, they did have some good runs.

I think mixing some stuff in, it looks like a very competent offense. But mixing some stuff in, they'll be able to run the ball. So here's my thoughts on Daniels, right? The couple throws he missed, like he missed a screen in the first game, like just throws a bullet at the back. It's his first, I know it's preseason, but it's first throw. Right. throws it over his head.

He misses a couple throws in the Dolphins game. Like, misses a flat out to the left, and really ultimately when you look at it, if you watch his feet, it's almost like teaching a little kid to play baseball. Like, you want your body in line with where you're trying to throw the football. His feet are going, stepping laterally to, and say, of driving his front foot at the target. And he's got the arm strength. And it's not that he can't do it, but that's where he's messy.

When he's not setting his feet driving off his back foot, getting his body line with his target, those are his couple misses. Well, yeah, the first one was the play before the check on the third and six in the Jet game. Yeah. He just sailed one over Echler. The second one was in the Miami game,

but the third one was the deep shot on third down with, you know, where he basically just threw one towards a side. sideline for Terry where he was unloading the ball it looked like to save field goal range. I actually thought on that play, the checkdown was at the golfons game. Yeah, the Dolphins game. Yeah, so I actually didn't like that throw. He's throwing that fade to Terry. They end up running into a cover two look, and that's what everyone calls the honey hole

or the pocket between the corner and the safety. If you're going to throw that ball, you've got to drive it on him. or you're just thrown it out of bounds, but you had a shot. I don't know if he thought too or not. But if you're going to throw that fade ball, you've got to drive it on McCorn. I think you let it go right as the corner fluff's off on it. So I think he thinks it's probably quarters or a cover four look that. He's not going to get as much safety help.

That floater, if that gets a little bit softer, that's a pickball or a big-time layout ball from that safety coming out there. That's the only decision I didn't like. Did you see what I saw, and I could be wrong, but it looked like the checkdown was Eckler out of the backfield. Yeah. And that that was actually, if he didn't feel good, and there was pressure, they overloaded the one side,

and there was pressure. There was an unblocked rusher, which is one of the reasons he got rid of it quickly. And remember, context was they're in field goal range. If he gets sacked, they're at a field goal range on that place. So I thought that that part of it made sense. But doesn't he have to get to Echler on the checkdown, and then it's an easy first down?

Well, if you can get to Echler, he can just try to drive the ball into the hole between the two corner on safety. And I'd just like him to understand that he was definitely throwing in the cover to that. Which he could say that he did, and they can all say that they know it, but the ball doesn't show that he did. That said, though, they have another third and out in Long where he saves a field goal,

and he goes all the way through his progression, that he gets the bait in the flat. It does get the checkdown on a third and long. Did you like that? Because that was another in-field goal range, at a field goal range if you get sacked, and it didn't appear on the All-22. It was like there were seven in coverage, right?

Yeah, I love that throw. And I love that throw because as he gets to it and the timing of the throw, if Bates happens to break one tackle, then we're giving ourselves an opportunity to get a first down or to get to where you could go for it on a fourth and three or fourth and four. Right.

So I really liked that throw. And honestly, I liked almost everything I saw. The hitches that he's throwing just strikes, putting it on receivers in timing, consistently throughout the day. One of the zone reads I would like to see them gotten down, even in the regular season when you achieve the first down, like, we don't need to take a hit. We do not need to get tackled here. Right.

Yes. But that said, you can clearly see, it's almost like Robert-esque. from 2012. As he gets just outside the tackle, he's incredibly fast. Yeah. He can really roll. So, yeah, I think a lot to like from the first couple games.

It looks like they, it looks like the preseason, but it's still like, I feel like the M.O. is get the ball on the hands, the receivers get ball out. Daniel's hands quick. Let's go make some plays. Let's continue to work up-tempo.

But they'll be faster up the years that are doing a lot of that thing, that a lot of that stuff. So we went through a couple of minutes. You know, one, I don't love the one with Terry. You said, Eckler is the checkdown. I like that. But then on another third and long, we do go all the way through one, two, three, four,

left or right across the board. We hit the tight-in baits in the flat. And we survived to play another down. And we kick a field goal. Yeah. I think it was very, I think it was very exciting to see what you saw. All right. a couple of questions for you.

First of all, when you said they've got a plethora of weapons, let me just update you in sort of a theme of the last couple of weeks. Terry is their number one wide receiver, and they, after that, have no clarity on who is number two, and there's a lot of discussion about Jahan Dotson's summer. For whatever reason, they don't seem to be in love with him right now. They like the kid Zakias number 14 as a slot receiver. They've played Diami Brown a bunch.

But, I mean, after Terry, I mean, I think Jahan Dotson's a weapon, but I don't know if, for whatever reason, it's working with him right now. A plethora of weapons offensively, I love Brian Robinson, Jr. I think Zach Ertz is going to be big because he's a veteran and he's a huge tight end. your doppelganger, Sinit, looks exactly like you and looks like he's going to be really good with the ball in his hands.

Did you see any of his catches and runs after catch? No. Oh, my God. I watched exclusively. I actually meant to, and I will. Okay. But I watched the quarterback. I guess a plethora of weapons is interesting.

Okay, let's go. Here we go. Here we go. I'm not saying that they're the all-time best wide receivers in the national football league. I mean, Terry's right there. I like Johan Dotson. I don't know what's going on with him, but I think he's a true vertical down the field, double-move kind of weapon.

In this tempo, a lot of problems with the quarterback running, mobility issues, if I have a one or a guy who can act as that, that can run a dig and go or run a comeback and go or run anything, a post corner that I can win over the top because safeties are sucking up and he can because I've seen him do it and I know he's got the speed to do it then he becomes a problem in that fashion

he might not be the guy that we're going to throw the slip screen to he might not be the hitch guy but he's the guy that you go this guy can be a big problem over the top he's got that ability you think he's got not Deshawn Jackson ability but that nobody's proven to have that but but that it's that kind of similar threat at his best that you'd like to see him be that kind of a threat to a defense? I agree, yes. He becomes a vertical down the field big play threat. Right.

Yeah. In what you're creating off a run action pass or problems where you're having to over-account for quarterback and all of the underneath stuff, that you say, look, we're going to put a corner on him, we got to DM up. We're not going to bracket him. We're not going to play him heavy over the top. and until he's going to prove that he can win, he's out on an island.

And I think he's an island guy. Right. But the weapon, like, you think about it, look, we haven't seen a ton from Dehmy Brown, but he's got to make some plays. I like Dehmy Brown. Sinan and Erch are both solid at tight end in terms of playmaking ability.

I think Sinnet's going to be a guy that they find, they pick their spots for, they find different places for him. He's going to be a guy. in my opinion that 30 catches this year plus. And you see the run after the catch and you see the ability with the ball in its hands and he makes some plays for him. That's still, you put Earth and send it together and you have, if Earth's is healthy

through the year, you get a tight-in group that adds 60, 70 catches. That's a plus. Robinson Jr. is a stud and Austin Echler coming in the back can do a ton of different stuff out of the backfield with what they're trying to accomplish with the quarterback. I think that they have weapons. I think Brian Robinson, Jr. is going to be a big feature of what they do, and it's going to be a lot of the dual threat, zone-read threat,

where he's going to feast on some of that. I think he's going to have a big year. The other thing you obviously picked up on, and I think all of us did, is just that what we saw in 15 pass attempts was basically 13 quick game throws, you know, screens, hitches, line of scrimmage, throws, et cetera. And I think that will be a big part of the offense. I think up-tempo, pace, zone read, all of that's going to be a big part of the offense. I think he's holding back, though, a lot of the drop-back part of the game and the boot part of the game and a lot of

the play-action stuff. So you agree with that? 100%. Yeah. You want to walk into week one with everyone thinking that you're not sure you can protect your quarterback in terms of dropping back and throwing the ball. Putting it out in the running back's belly, pulling it and going, oh, look, we're taking a shot 45, 50 yards down the field. You never saw that. It's probably why they didn't want to check to four verts more so than they were

afraid that they couldn't protect him for 2.1 seconds. They probably don't want to show truly what he can do on the NFL level throwing the ball down the field. That's an interesting take that they didn't want to, they didn't want to, they didn't want to have him check because he didn't want to reveal anything about what he can do. Check the mesh or basic cross. Check to one of those, but don't throw the post or don't throw the rail on it. Check to the shallow because you don't want to throw the bubble.

That was a great throw, one. Oh, my God. It was a great catch, too. Great catch. What did you think of the staple 2012 zone read look play action to Bates the Miami game, the quick throw. It wasn't, you know, the perfect throw, but it was, how many times do we see RG3 throw that to, you know, in that drift route that you talked about, to Pierre and everybody all there? Oh, is that the pop path? Is that the tight end? That's right down the middle.

Yeah, it was a base. I mean, it's a great look. It's that tight end pop pass. He misses him a little bit. Yeah. But it's off the zone replay action. Yeah, it's just off that, or inside zone, whatever. Awesome. There'll be a lot of opportunities for them to open up the field with Daniels. And that's the other aspect of this. When you talk about weapons, I think you have weapons around Daniels because he's ultimately the number one problem. Are we going to be able to get you to get into this season, their season, because you, like me, believe that Daniels was a home run pick and is going to work out. So now you've got a bit of a vested interest in Daniel's playing well. Will this motivate you to watch Washington games?

Yeah, I think it will motivate me to watch Washington games. It's just not having certain people there motivates me to watch Washington games. Yeah, it's not the same people there anymore, so you feel a little bit better about it. Seriously, without whatever. Actually, cheering for that team to win games makes me want to watch Washington games. games. Right. The back in my mind,

root against different people, is not what I like. This wasn't the players, by the way. Right. So, yeah, I think I'll be

much more interested in watching Washington games. The other aspect of it, it might be fun to watch Washington games when they play good football. Yeah. That means something to people.

That's a big difference. It's been hard to watch Washington games or the last couple of years. because it's just idiotic. Washington games have not been fun to watch, but Washington games might be fun to watch now, but I don't anticipate that you will get any gear of the Washington new nickname, you know, two-year-old new nickname.

I don't think you'll be wearing commanders gear. It's hard for you to even say it like it is for me. It's just not, it just doesn't make sense to me, but that's okay. Yeah, I know it doesn't. It doesn't make sense to a lot of us. All right, I know you have... It's fine for what it is. It is. It's fine for what it is.

I'm into Jaden Daniels and Quinn and I think... So I have two predictions on the show today, and we'll talk again before the regular season begins, I'm sure. I'm talking about it on the podcast. Number one, Jaden Daniels is going to succeed even as a rookie. That there's going to be... It's going to be obvious at the end of 17 games that they got it right. And then the other prediction I have is

you are consistently all year long, if you're watching this team, you're going to be really impressed with Cliff Kingsbury as a coordinator. I think those are two incredible predictions. Are they going to be accurate? If they're accurate and then you put another prediction together, which is I like what they acquired defensively, and Dan Quinn's really good at that, that they're top 15 in defense.

It would be fun. I didn't tell you this, I don't think. Maybe I did. I predicted two weeks ago on the show, I said, I just, I have a hunch, and I'm going to share it with everybody right now. It's not my official season pick, because that'll come, you know, before the first weekend of the regular season. But I think Washington is going to go 10 and 7 and make the playoffs. It's the most optimistic I've been about a season since Kirk was here in 2017. I think that, and it's all based on my belief in Daniels primarily.

but also my belief in Dan Quinn to coach up a defense that basically nothing was coached up last year. These guys were on their way out. We all knew that. And they've added talent, Louvo and Wagner in Chin, and I think Duran and John will be back to playing at a high level. Dante Fowler, I think Mikey Sandstrels is a stud. Manuel Forbes is a guy that was there that can absolutely play for him. they love Sanra still just so you know they'll love him

everyone loves him he was my favorite guy to watch I think he's been one of my top three or four favorite defensive players to watch in a college film breakdown yeah you love to our all right I know you gotta go thanks for doing this

we'll talk again soon see you go Chris Cooley everybody appreciate him doing that and maybe we can really get him engaged in the Washington season this year. Thanks to him, thanks to Dan Quinn. And again, a reminder, if you want to hear the Dan Quinn conversation interview in full tomorrow morning, 1025 a.m. on the Team 980 or the Team 980.com or the Odyssey app. All right, done for the day,

back tomorrow with Tommy.