The Kevin Sheehan Show - Daronte Jones Is The New DC

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

Kevin and Thom today with a deep menu of excellence that begins on weather terrace and continues with Commanders' defensive coordinator talk. Daronte Jones is the new guy and the boys share all of their thoughts on another coordinator hire with no previous experience. The guys finished up the show reacting to the news that the Washington Post Sports section may be done. For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match 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 Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here. The show's presenting sponsor is always,

Window Nation. 86690 Nation, Window Nation.com. On radio today, Tommy, and I'll talk about it right now. I mentioned that I took a bit of a fall last night outside of my house, walking into my house,

on some ice. Neil and Rockville writes I presume your wife came out gave you some smelling salts and told you to get your ass back to whatever you were doing yeah that was pretty much it that was pretty much it

I went down hard hard outside of my home last night everything was ice man you missed it over the weekend you were down there in gorgeous weather I don't want to hear about it I don't think anybody wants to hear what the temperatures are especially the feels-like temperature.

But I walked to my steps up to my front door, and that first step was a sheet of ice. Everything I was holding in my hands went flying, including my new phone. I got a new Apple phone about three weeks ago. And I banged my head on the ground, and I cut my hand on the way down, on like the steps or ice or something.

I thought I may have been concussed. I really didn't do much about it. I just, you know, there was a bit of a lump on where I hit my head. I just kind of went in, told my wife what happened, and she's like, well, are you okay? And I said, yeah, I think I'm okay. If I start to convulse or something, it's because I actually had a legitimate concussion and maybe you'll need to take me somewhere. But I'm good.

Man, it's been nasty around here. Been nasty. What's it like down there? Go ahead and tell us. Well, actually, today, today is cold. Today, it's about 50 degrees with a 20 mile an hour wind. So it feels more like about 33 right now, which I guess would be a warm front for you these days. 33 degrees.

I was just reading on Capitol Weather Gang, we have a chance to break the record for consecutive days below 32 degrees. um we went delis went down to i think one degree last night uh national is always the warm sort of island effect uh reagan airport um and it went down to 13 when i got in my car this morning to come to work it was nine but it was it must have been much colder earlier um so yeah the uh the cold spell we really went into late last week may continue. They think that maybe the first day above freezing, Groundhog Day? That's February 1st, right? Groundhog Day is February 1st. I think it's February 2nd.

Is it February 2nd? I believe so. Every year? Yes, every year. They'll change Groundhog Day. So the longest streak of high temperatures in the 20s or lower in Washington is 11 days. That happened in 1893. The next most was 10 in 1936. The most recent record in this last 50 years would be 1979, February of 1979. we had seven consecutive days of temperatures in the 20s or lower. And at this point, we've got Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, this is the fifth straight day of temperatures in the 20s or lower.

And it's supposed to be... Probably got another week, maybe. Yeah. The forecast is, you're right, Groundhog Day is February 2nd, and that's the first day right that some of the models are. suggesting that we will be out of the 20s. So a week from yesterday. Yeah, yes, that's another six days, and we would be right there on a potential record for consecutive days in the 20s.

I really feel bad for you guys. I'm glad you're okay. Well, we'll find out if you're okay, maybe in a couple of days. But, look, I remember one time an ice storm in the mid-90s. That was so bad. I mean, my car couldn't make it up the driveway, so I had to park in the street. And I remember I crawled from my car all the way up to my front door. You crawled?

Well, I wasn't going to risk. Yeah. I got you. I couldn't fall if I was already on the ground. I mean, you walked pretty slowly. I mean, the crawling must have taken hours. Did you have gloves on? Yes.

Okay. Yeah, I had gloves on. I had gloves on. But I thought the prudent thing to do was to be on the ground since I was going to wind up there Anyway. Yeah. I mean, we should. So I didn't, I don't think I spent a lot of time on the podcast yesterday talking about the weekend weather.

I think I wanted to save it for you. So this was the longest duration sleet storm. I think I have ever been in. Now, you know, Capitol Weather Gang goes back and does a great job of like, you know, historical. and they said 94 we had a nice storm where we had four inches of sleet across much of the area. We probably had three to four inches of sleep. That was it. Okay, so that's the storm I'm talking about. It's funny because I don't really recall that storm.

I recall ice storms freezing rainstorms in which we lost power. That was the best part of Saturday night, Sunday. Most of us got somewhere between four and six inches of snow and then three to four inches of sleet on top of that, which would have been the equivalent of another 10 plus inches of snow. We would have ended up with, you know, a foot to a foot and a half had it remained all snow. But there was no freezing rain. I know that some of you listening from like, you know, Southern Maryland, Eastern Maryland, you know, Virginia. probably had some freezing rain, but nothing like what they experienced in the south. My son lives in Nashville, and Nashville was, it was Armageddon, you know, on Sunday and yesterday. The number of

power outages, he heard transformers blowing and trees coming down. He lives in an apartment building, and they, uh, they never lost power. I'm assuming they had a generator. Um, but, uh, we didn't have that. And that was the best part of it, because on, top of the snow and then the sleet, if we had had prolonged freezing rain that caused power outages, that would have been a bit much to handle. But everything's closed. I mean, schools are closed probably for the duration of this week because of the cold temperatures. But your boy got out. I got out yesterday morning. We were shoveling. I was able to, I'll tell you what, shoveling ice is not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy.

I don't really want to do it anymore. I told Kara, I'm like, if we get another one of these, including potentially this weekend, we got to find somebody to come and shovel us out, or I'm going to go get a snowblower. We don't have one of those. You don't have a snowblower already. I don't.

I don't have a big driveway. You know, we don't have a ton of land where we live. So it's, you know, it's my, it's the steps in front of my house. It's, you know, out on the deck to clear spot for us to walk the dog and get out there. And it's the driveway. So that's... You know what's funny?

Yeah. When we used to get... When we got snowstorms, when we had lived in the house. Yeah. You know, big single family house. My wife did all shoveling. All the shoveling. Why doesn't that surprise me?

Because she liked it. She liked it. She liked getting out there and doing it. How convenient for you. I know. That she liked it. Baby. Yeah.

You're in smoking a cigar and drinking a beer and watching reruns of Rockford files. And she's out there chipping away at the ice. I hope you didn't complain about the job she did. No, I never complained about my wife. Yeah, but when the next storm came, you probably said, God, I hope it's all snow. want you out there working so hard to chip away at the ice. I want it to be easy for you. Absolutely.

Yeah. Well, she's, I'll tell you what, you're lucky. Kara actually, we both were out there shoveling. You know, there were all these, I love capital weather game. They do a great job. All right. So those people, and they know how into weather I am, some of the people who've been there for a long time. The constant directions on when to shovel and how to shovel, honestly, I don't, I think ultimately

the directions they gave, I'd have been better off just leaving it there rather than shoveling it because it's the layer of ice that I, that basically froze last night that nearly killed me. I think it would have been easier trudging through the snow and the top layer of sleet to get in. and walking on the snow because it's frozen and it's hard. So it's not like you're going down with your feet. I think the bare steps with the layer of ice was dangerous. But I'm not an expert on that. And everybody's house is different.

Well, it sounds like you might have to deal with this. Is that hazard gone or do you still have to deal with it? well the sun's out so even when it's super cold there is melting when the sun is out a little bit of melting and so then it when the sun goes down and it's 10 degrees tom yes everything you know that is damp freezes up again now we put we're putting stuff down on the steps we put some stuff down on the steps so that they're safer now but uh here's the thing and i was going to consider it a runner like a actual runner like a rug runner yes yes a 100% and we've done that before.

And we've also done, you know, just put things like towels down because I don't want the mailman trying to walk up to get to our mailbox, you know, although everything's kind of been shut down, trash pick up everything else for in D.C. anyway, for a couple of days. But I was going to save this for the end, but I'll talk about it right now. You know, most, we now have, you know, Twitter weather where everybody sees all of the long, range forecasts and starts to freak out over every model run. And so there's a big storm potential for this weekend on the East Coast. And right now, yes, there's going to be a massive storm.

The issue is where? It could be out at sea. It could be just on the eastern seaboard like the, you know, we're talking about the beaches, you know, from the Carolinas through Maryland, Delaware. up to Cape Cod. Or we could talk, we could be talking about inland. The American model,

the GFS, just, you know, basically said, this thing's going to develop and it's going to be a big one even for the DMV, for the metro area.

And this would be much different than last weekend storm. It would be all snow. It would be winds. It would be near blizzard conditions. But the European model says, nope, not going to happen. It's going to stay primarily offshore. But it's only Tuesday, and there's plenty of time. This is one of those that, you know, this is a storm for the forecasters

once again that'll be difficult, but should be more in focus by Thursday, today's Tuesday. But it's a Saturday night Sunday thing again for us if it happens. And if it doesn't happen, it'll just be super cold, which is fine with me at this point. I don't think I need another storm as much as I love. Well, down here, people are bundled up because it is cold with the wind. And you know what? There's a lot of, look, I'm not comparing my situation, but when it's 33, when it's cold, when it's like 33 feels like down here, it's in part because of the humidity.

You know, that makes it colder. than it does in other places. It's really, I mean, it's really humid down here. Is it really? Even in the winter? Forever to dry. Yes. Okay.

Any launches recently? There's a launch tonight at 1130. Are you going to stay up and watch? Of course. The nighttime launches are the best. Right. You know, this big fire in the sky? It's fabulous.

Well, I'm having it. happy for you. That sounds very exciting. Should we talk about the defensive coordinator who was literally announced or reported on as I literally as we hit send on the podcast

yesterday's podcast, the news popped out and I was like, shit. Am I going to have to redo it? And I just decided not to. I figured we do it today. So let's get to Durante Jones, Washington's new defensive coordinator. We will do that after these words from a few.

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That's drinkag1.com slash sheen. Drinkag1.com slash sheen. This segment of the show brought you by MyBooky. We're down to one football game left in the season. a lot of basketball, a lot of hockey going on, a lot of tennis, if you like to bet Australian Open tennis. My bookie's the place to do it. My bookie continues to give out 50% cash bonuses to my listeners. So if you sign up at MyBooky or you go back and you redeposit at My Bookie, use my promo code, DC Reload, and they'll give you a 50% cash bonus.

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But they will have just literally hundreds of prop bets for Super Bowl 60s. So that's the place you should do it. And for those of you that signed up over the weekend and got the best number on the board by far, My bookie had Denver as a five-point underdog where it was, by the time I recorded the Friday podcast, the number dropped to four and a half, four, and even three and a half by game time. But if you got it at my bookie early and you got it at five, you know, it didn't, you covered because they only lost by three. But imagine if, you know, there was a five-point number and all the four-and-a-halfs lost and you

pushed. That's what you want. The best number possible. You can only get that by having more than one spot. Go to mybooky.com or my bookie.orgie.orgie. Use my promo code. DC reload. What did you think of the games over the weekend? On Sunday. Well, I thought the Seattle Rams game was fabulous. Yep. I thought the Patriots Broncos game I was screaming at the TV early on

when like everybody else in the world recognized that Sean Peyton fluid when he passed on that fuel goal attempt early in the game I agree with you everybody doesn't agree with that but I agree with you I think it was a mistake

yeah I think again I mean, it was clear that the points were going to be hard to come by, especially given the weather report that was coming. Yeah. You know, and so you've got to take them when you get them. Look, I don't mean to, I'm not ridiculing statistical analysis. I recognize its place, but you've got to recognize that there's always other factors.

It's a tool. one of many tools that you use to make a decision. I mean, the pendulum has swung from, you know, these number freaks are idiots to these number freaks now are inside these coaches' heads. I'm reading your tweet right now from the game. There is a disease running through NFL coaches fueled by slide rule geeks to dismiss three points

as if it's an insult. In a game where points are, are clearly going to be hard to come by. Take the points, hashtag Broncos. Yeah, I mean, look, you're right. It's a piece of information.

It's out there for coaches. It's valuable information. It can be. It's valuable information. I do think that we went through a long period of time. I mean, you know, basically the history of football through about 10 years ago where, you know, the risk of being more aggressive probably hurt teams more than it didn't.

And going for the fourth downs and being more aggressive and, you know, those things make a lot of sense and it's good information. But when it's historical information primarily, and it's not always just historical information. and somebody takes it and just says, is it go or kick based on, you know, the slide rule geeks? It's a go for it, coach. And nothing else is taken into consideration about that particular situation and the context around it. That's silly. You know, then you get into these situations where you think you're being super smart or somebody does and you're actually being super reckless. that moment in the game is, you know, look, there are a lot of people that, you know, hindsighted it,

but there are a lot of people, and it sounds like, did you send this tweet out when it happened? Yes, absolutely. And I felt the same way. My gut was, you got a backup quarterback, you got an excellent defense, and I swear when he called that time out before, I thought, he might reconsider and kick the field goal because I said, you know, I was sitting there with my wife watching the game. She was actually watching football because it was snowing and sleeting outside. And I said, I think he's going to kick the field goal right now. And I'm just going to tell you

right now, if they go for it, they're not going to get it against that defense with this backup quarterback. They're not going to get it. Sometimes you just kind of have a, you're watching the game and it's so hard for them to get any yards. You know, they had the one big play. and that's it. That's part of the context. New England's defense is good and they're playing great. And then you're like, oh my God, on the other side, our defense is dominating them. I mean, they are playing so conservatively because they're afraid that they're going to lose the game if they make a mistake. And a 10-point lead would be huge. And it was a short field goal. And there were only nine minutes left in the first half. I would have kicked the field goal. Everything about that situation said field goal to me. But they didn't do it, and it definitely hurt them.

I mean, you're not entirely sure how the rest of the game would play out, but it hurt them. There's no doubt it hurt them. I thought Sean McVeigh should have kicked the field goal down 31-27 with five minutes to go in the game on fourth and four at the Seattle's six. And the reason for it, Tommy, wasn't because I had the Rams plus three, and that would have made it 31 to 30. but on a super condensed field.

And that's what it is at a team six-yard line. You're talking about 16 yards to work with because it's 10 yards from the goal line to the back of the end zone. And you're on the road, and it's that particular defense you're facing. And I thought in that moment, they're going to get the ball back one more time. And, you know, it's possible they're down four again or they're down eight if, you know, Seattle went down and scored a quick touchdown.

but more likely than not, they're going to get it back, and then all they're going to need is a field goal to win. I thought it was debatable. He went for it, they missed it, and they never got the ball back until there were 25 seconds left in the game with no timeouts, and they needed a touchdown. Had they needed a field goal, maybe it would have been approached differently, but it was still going to be hard to get into range with no timeouts.

But, yeah, a lot of... I agree with you. I agree with you on that play. too. Teams just don't like field goals. I didn't think about it too much. No. No, I mean, before, I mean, it was never a second thought.

In the old days, you kicked the field goal. No one ever thought of going for. Very rarely. When did going for fourth and one become a thing? I mean, I do remember, here's what I remember about like being a kid and being into the

NFL and being at games, being at Redskins games. Fourth and one, you know, at somebody's six-yard line or something, or fourth and one at the one-yard line, fourth and goal at the one, there was always a lot of, go for it, you know, the crowd going, you know, but more times than not, they kicked the field goal, more times than not. That's what they had the guy in the sideline with the special kicking shoe for. It kicks a field goal.

Yeah. I'll tell you what. But, yeah. Seattle, you know, here's something else I tweeted, and I didn't mean anything bad by it, okay? I wasn't trying to be critical. It was just an observation, because I'm kind of fascinated by Mike Ravel

and whenever the camera's on him. And I came to realize that he has a huge head. You've talked about this before. you're you're really consumed with Mike Vrable's overall appearance on the sideline. Well, I noticed that the camera, and the one game I watched, was on him a lot a few weeks ago. And this time I just realized that he's really got a big head, and I pointed that out, and people hammered me for it. So I won't do that again.

But he does. He's got a big head. Yeah. I'm seeing your tweet right now. Somebody tweeted back at you a picture of you with your own giant melon. Yes. I don't, I have no idea. It looks like he's got a big neck.

Looks like it's a solid 19, you know, 19 and a half neck, 20 neck. I don't know where the neck starts and the head ends there. He's a hell of a coach. It seems like it's all one thing. Yeah, he is. I'll tell you, in that game, I mean, I had Denver plus the point, so I was rooting for Denver. I actually thought there was a pretty good chance Denver would win the game before the game started.

I felt very fortunate at the end of the game to have gotten the cover because Jared Stidham was terrible. I mean, he was pretty bad. But I think for me, that game was, I just kept thinking it throughout the game. I'm like, God, I've always loved Raebel as a coach. I loved him at Tennessee. I thought it was a mistake. He's the guy. Certainly was one of the guys I said, you got to interview Vrable. And remember, Adam Peters, you know, the reports were he didn't interview Vrable because Carthon, the GM in Tennessee who fired Vrable was, you know, a guy that Peters worked with and was very close with. But Vrable should have been interviewed. Now, I don't know if Vrable was ready to coach right

away. But remember, Vrabel and Belichick were, you know, I think should have been on the list of people that they interviewed. But the thing that I kept thinking is I was watching that game, it's like, this dude, he is playing this game so perfectly. And it's exactly the way the Texans should have played it the week before. If Houston's D'Amico Ryan, so I think does a really good job, If he had felt the game a little bit more, like we have a quarterback that is right now not very good, and their defense is really good, and the weather's not great, and their quarterback isn't very good at all right now. And our defense is the best in the NFL and maybe the best in years in the NFL. we need to be okay with punning it not five times, but ten times.

If they had punted it ten times and had three less turnovers, or what did they have for the game, five, I think total in that game, two less turnovers. If they had punted two or three more times and had two or three less turnovers, even if they had lost the turnover battle, they would have won the game. And Vrable took that MO, the opposite of D'Amico Ryan's, into that game and said, I'm not letting my quarterback and my offense lose a game because I think they need to win the game. They don't need to win the game. Our defense is going to win this game

against this team with that quarterback. And their defense is great, and our offense is not good right now and has not been good ever since it started to face really good defensive teams, and they punted the ball eight times. They could not have been more conservative, with the exception of the only play they had all day long in the past game, and that was the flea flicker. They took a shot with decent field position on a flea flicker, and it was a 31-yard gain, and Drake May had almost as many rushing yards as he did passing yards in the game. I thought Vrable won that game for them because he allowed the other team to make the mistakes, Sean Payton not kicking the field goal, and then, of course, the Stidham Fumble, and that decided the game.

Essentially, the Stidham Fumble decided the football game, and they didn't make one mistake. I knew when Stim was in trouble in the pregame stuff they showed with his whole family on the field, treating this like this was, I mean, this was, his family was every, his kids were all over him, his wife and a white fur coat was there, he had all kinds of friends and relatives on the field, and I'm thinking, oh, this guy is in trouble. This guy is in trouble, you know, and he was. He hit a big play, though, that first big play, and then I think he really felt himself a little bit. I think he got almost overconfident with some of that.

Because holding on to the ball trying to make plays, I mean, that's what cost him on the fumble. Meantime, the other game, I said this on the pod yesterday, but man, Matt Stafford, Smoot asked me yesterday on the podcast, he said, is Matt Stafford, if he wins this MVP, is he a first ballot Hall of Famer? I don't know if Matt Stafford's a first ballot Hall of Famer. He's probably not, but man, is he a lock hall of famer?

He did to the Seattle defense what no one else could do to the Seattle defense. They shut everybody else down, and in two games, he threw for 831 yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions and he only got sacked one time. And he lost both of those games, amazingly, because the Rams have terrible specialties. teams, and their defense really fell off over the last half of the season. I'm a big Matt Stafford fan, always have been. It's going to be interesting to see if he comes back, because he had a lot of back issues, you know, during the offseason leading up to the season. He should come back.

I mean, they'll be very good again. Very good. Yeah. Did you see Sean McVeigh blew up at the press conference? Yeah. A reporter asked him, you know, will Matt be back? And McVeigh, who never loses this cool with these press conferences, basically said, what kind of question is that?

I basically have a ridiculous question. He snapped back. I heard that, and I thought that was, because I love Sean. I'm like, you know, he's in the heat of the moment, but that's a completely legitimate question. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. I mean, after the performance he had had in the season that he had,

everybody's wondering, will Matt Stafford be back? I mean, they barely had him come back last off season. Do you know, I read something. I had Bill Barnwell on the radio show today. I really like Bill a lot. I think he's really smart and he's a good guest. But I forgot to ask him about the MVP race. And I saw that the ESPN football people voted

eight to three in favor of Drake May, winning the MVP. I don't get that. Stafford's got to win the MVP, doesn't he? I know it's not a playoff. It's a regular season award. Yes.

You know, award. But, I mean, I hope Matt Stafford wins MVP. Here's what I always say about these kind of debates, MVP debates. Is Drake May not a worthy candidate? Oh, yeah. He had a

worthy regular season. He did. Okay. Well, then it's, it's, And if people want to vote him for MVP, I'm okay with that. I might not agree with that. But I never get so ferocious thinking. It's not arguing who's the better candidate. If both from our MVP candidates, you know, then, you know, it's a difference of opinion, I think. It's legitimate.

I just have a problem when people win awards who clearly, you know, really don't deserve it. That doesn't happen that often. but whenever these debates come up, I always say, well, if the guy who won worthy of being an MVP, then he's the MVP. Yeah, I'm looking right now. Stafford at my bookie is a favorite. He's the favorite to win the MVP.

I'm surprised that that's the way the voting went on ESPN. We'll see. By the way, how did you feel about Shadur Sanders being named to the AFC Pro Bowl roster? Did you see that? Yeah. Yeah, I know. I mean, it's, well, the Pro Bowl is such a joke itself. I know that, but that's really embarrassing.

I mean, how do you do that? Like, there were guys, you know, they had an opening, and I'm forgetting who it was that dropped out. But there were guys that were not named Pro Bowlers, like Trevor Lawrence and others, who just had, This guy was one of the worst quarterbacks we've ever seen statistically.

You know, Marcus Marriota would be a better pick. Oh, my, yeah, but this was the AFC roster, but yes. Okay. I don't know how, I guess it's a television show and they want people. They don't play a game, do they? No, it's a flag football, but still it's a pro bowl,

you know, it'll go next. It'll go on his record. As a pro bowl alternate, right? Won't it? I don't know. Maybe it won't. maybe the alternates don't get that. I think they do.

I think they get to say they're pro bowlers. Seattle, New England, what everybody had right before the season started. This damn NFL, man, impossible to figure out. It really is every year. You know, I asked Barnwell, I said, give me, you know, essentially right now, first blush next year's New England,

like a team that goes from 4 and 13 to, Super Bowl contention, maybe not to the Super Bowl. And he said, well, it would be cheating to say Kansas City or Baltimore or even like Cincinnati. And I said, yeah, probably. So give me somebody else. And he said the Tennessee Titans. He likes Tennessee. They hired Brian Dable today as their offensive coordinator, team up with Robert Sala.

And I said, well, if you're picking them, you got to like Cam Ward. And he said, yeah. And they had a good defense this year. Washington's, oh, he said the Giants too. In the NFC, he said the Giants. Yeah. I would have said the Giants. He said the Giants in the NFC, Tennessee and the AFC.

I think for me, just because I'm not a big Jackson dart guy, I think Washington would be, you know, and he said Washington certainly would be in consideration. I also think the Saints are an interesting team because I liked what I saw from Tyler Shuck this year. All right. Seattle, New England. We've got plenty of time to talk about that game.

But, you know, is there any kind of, it's the Super Bowl, so everybody's going to watch. But what's the big storyline of the Super Bowl? Usually there's, you know, a player of note. Who's the player that everybody can't wait to see in the Super Bowl? We've had Mahomes, it seems like, all the time, you know, for the last few. few years. I mean... You know who the star at a Super Bowl is going to be?

Who? Who's it going to be? Brayette. Braybel with the big head? Yes. Yeah. I mean... Belichick gone.

Brayball, his former defensive captain, you know, captain coming back to win the Super Bowl without Brady, you know, without Belichick there. That's the story. Yeah. New England being back. in and the franchise, I mean, think about all the

franchises that haven't been and it's been forever and here's New England back in it again with a new regime. That's pretty amazing. But, you know, this is going to be a Super Bowl where the casual sports fans going to be like, well, who are the

coaches? Who are the quarterbacks? I'm not really familiar with these players. Now, if Drake May is the MVP, Drake May will get a lot of attention going into the game, but man, he has had one rough postseason. No doubt about that. He's also made some good plays, but it's certainly not an MVP caliber performance in the

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Tommy, tell us about Shelley's. Well, you know, there's lots of times down here in Florida where the one thing I miss is Shelly's backroom many times throughout the day, and particularly today of all days. I really miss Shelly's because I was really low on my cigar supply, so I had to go buy some cigars. And I went to a local cigar place, and compared to the selection you have at Shelly's back room, it was very disappointing. You know, I found something that will get me by, but not. not like the quality you get at Shelley. Just like everything at Shelly's.

They're made, I mean, they are a cigar bar, and they deliver on that name with a cigar selection that also includes cigar aficionados top 25 cigars. You know, the magazine, the Bible of the industry, every year picks the top 25 cigars of that year, and Shelly does everything they can have those cigars in supply for you to buy. And I really could have used the trip to Shelley's back room today.

You should use the trip to Shelley's back room to pick out a cigar for your needs, for your desires. They're very helpful to staff there if you're, you know, first-time smoker for picking the right cigar and helping you through. They literally have, they put in your hand a, like they have a food menu and a drink menu, they have a cigar menu that describes what each cigar they have there. You know, the flavor it has, things like that. And that's where you should go if you're looking for quality smokes at a quality

location. Shelly's backroom at 1331 F Street Northwest in the district. You can look at that cigar menu if you go to shelley's backroom.com. All right. Washington here in the third segment, we finally get to the big news. They've hired Durante Jones. Oh, wow. This show's a little bit different on Tuesdays and Thursdays, people.

Hopefully you're used to it. So they've got a guy. I love when there's like a new coach hire or you're just interested in a coach that maybe you don't know a lot about. and you go to their overall career history, their professional resume. Man, coaches, the guys that have been doing it for a long time before they get that first opportunity, like I'm going to read through Durante Jones' professional career history.

Go ahead. Go ahead. I want to use that to discuss this higher. First of all, he grew up in the area. He's born and raised PG County group in Capitol Heights, went to Bishop McNamara, played in the WCAC, went to Temple for a year, then ended up at Morgan State, where he played college football as a corner.

And then once he finished at Morgan State, he started immediately his coaching career. He was at Lenore Rhine. I think that's a school in South Carolina. I need to look this one up. Am I right about that? North Carolina. North Carolina.

North Carolina. Division two, North Carolina. Division two, Hickory, North Carolina. Okay. Started there as a grad assistant in 2001. Then went to Nichols State. He was the safeties coach there. So from North Carolina to Louisiana for a year.

Then he became a high school defensive coordinator in Louisiana for two different high schools in 2003 and 2000. Then he got back into college football at Bowie State here in Maryland as an assistant head coach and defensive coordinator from 2005 to 2009. And then from Bowie State, he goes to UCLA for one year to be the cornerbacks coach. Now, the head coach I looked this up was Rick Neuheisel at the time. But he was only there for a year before heading to Canada to coach for the month. Montreal, Alouettes, and the CFL as a DB's coach. Then he goes from...

I love that part. I love the Montreal job. But how about this? From UCLA to Montreal, then to Hawaii, for two years as the secondary coach, and for one year as the assistant head coach and secondary coach. So he's in Honolulu from 2012 through 2014. then back to the frozen tundra of Wisconsin for a year to be the DB's coach.

Then to Miami, South Florida, probably felt more like Hawaii when he got there from Madison. For two years, he was the assistant defensive backs coach. Then he went to the Bengals and was the cornerbacks coach for two years. Then to the Vikings as a DB's coach. That was under Mike Zimmer. then to LSU for a year. 2021, no overlap with Jaden Daniels, if you're wondering. Ed Orgeron was the head coach.

2021, he had his first job as a defensive coordinator, coordinating and calling defenses in college in the SEC for LSU. Then back to Minnesota, where Kevin O'Connell was now the coach, the head coach, as a DB's coach. And then they hired O'Connell. second year, Brian Flores, and Jones stayed on as the defensive backs coach and the past game coordinator for the last three seasons under Brian Flores before Washington came a calling yesterday. That is a lot of years, that is two and a half decades of moving every few years to, in some

case is a completely different lifestyle. I mean, Carolina to Louisiana, back to Maryland, to L.A., to Montreal, to Hawaii, to Madison, Wisconsin, to Miami, to Cincinnati, to Minnesota, to Baton Rouge, back to Minnesota, to D.C. That's the life of a lot of coaches in sports. Oh, yeah. You know? Yeah. And let me just point out to, I... to you that when he was with the Miami Dolphin and then he was with the Cincinnati Bengals and then his first time

with the Minnesota Vikings and then his second time before Brian Flores got there nobody looked at this guy and said he's our defensive coordinator nobody nobody thought he was the David Blow of defense

No doubt about that. Nobody said at 30 years old, by the way, he started his career at 23 years old or 24 years old, but nobody said, you know, early on, he didn't play in the NFL, David Blow did. And David Blow played high-level college football as a quarterback at Purdue. But you're right. No one said until this year where he got a lot of interviews, you know, during this coaching cycle. So, in part, because of who he worked for. Right.

Yes. Brian Flores. And the success that Minnesota's had on defense. Yes. I'm not saying that, you know, that is a defining characteristic. Or like we've talked about, we have no idea if this guy can do the job or not. But it is interesting to me that, you know, along the way, no one ever spotted him and said, we got to hang on to this guy.

He's our next defensive coordinator. Well, not only that, he's only been a defensive coordinator once in 25 years of coaching. And that was at the college level. Now, you know, you look at Dan Quinn and, you know, he started coaching in 94 William and Mary. Well, he got a defensive coordinator job in college seven years later. But his first pro-defenseive coordinator opportunity, was Seattle in 2013. So it took him 19 years to become an NFL defensive coordinator.

So now he was a defensive coordinator at Florida. He was a defensive coordinator at Hofstra. But it wasn't like people were sitting there saying, you know, this is the next great defensive coordinator. I'll tell you what helped Dan Quinn is the talent Seattle had when he got there on defense. You know, when he got there, is the defensive coordinator.

And that's, you know, the thing with Durante Jones. So I'll let you go first. I mean, what's your overall, you know, gut reaction to this hire? Well, in a way, it's not much different than Joe Witt. Their careers are almost identical. Except he didn't work for Quinn. Actually, they played college football at the same time. Right, except he didn't work for Quinn.

Right. But, you know, Joe Witt, Jr., he started out as a student assistant at Auburn. where he had played college football right at the same time that this guy was playing college football. He was a student assistant at the Citadel. I went to Louisville, Atlanta, Green Bay, Green Bay, Green Bay, Cleveland, Atlanta, Dallas, and then in Washington. It's not quite as varied.

There's no trips to the Canadian Football League, but he's almost the same age and he's basically it's the same challenge you know except Dan Quinn has never coach worked with this guy before he worked with Joe Witt and he thought he could be the defensive coordinator

this is the same challenge for them they don't know they think this guy can do it yeah so a couple of things that is true I mean the similarities in terms of age and number of opportunities and not necessarily being thought of.

You know, I think Joe Witt, Jr., when he was with Green Bay, I think there was some conversation at various times about potential. I'd have to go back and look at it, but I think when they hired him... He was there a long time. He was there for eight years. I know. That's what I'm saying. In Green Bay.

He was there for... Yeah. And I think that there was a time when he was in Green Bay that he was perhaps interviewed for defensive. coordinator positions. I'm pretty sure that's true. But anyway, and that's probably different from Durante Jones. I'm assuming that this was the, I mean, maybe last year, I don't know. But a couple of things. Number one, unlike Blow, who was definitely the guy, okay, we can talk about the McDaniel stuff more, but we've already exhausted that. McDaniel, by the way, now officially the Chargers head coach

after potentially, you know, we found out that he was still interviewing for head coaching jobs and could have taken a head coaching job rather than going to L.A. I think ultimately, there was no way Quinn was going to wait that one out and lose Blow on McDaniel. And I'd be shocked if they didn't have a conversation about it anyway, where maybe McDaniel said, it's going to be a while before I figure this thing out. And, oh, by the way, if I end up becoming a coordinator, my wife lives in it, you know, is from L.A. We're probably going to go there. And I bet you that those conversations have probably taken place with Rahim Morris as well. But here's what I think I know about this.

Unlike Blow, Durante Jones was not a guy that was on the list here, you know, very high when they started this process. I'm not saying that he wasn't a guy that ultimately they were thinking about interviewing. But I think that he really became a prominent guy to interview after they interviewed Brian Flores. And by the way, after Jones was getting other interviews, I think Ulbrick in Atlanta, who stayed with Kevin Stefansky, Jonathan Gannon, and Brian Flores were the top three. Probably Ulbrick is the guy that Quinn would have loved to have gotten, had Stefansky chosen not to keep him as a defensive coordinator. And I think certainly, you know, they were hopeful that there was at least

an outside shot that Brian Flores would be available, but he's going back to Minnesota. And I think that there was sincere interest in Gannon. Gannon chose Green Bay because Green Bay has got a lot of talent on defense. And so now, you know, you're into that area of the people they had interviewed, Patrick Graham, the former defensive coordinator, he's been a defensive coordinator several times, Joe Cullen, Kansas City, Carl Scott, Seattle, Al Harris, Chicago, Austin from Pittsburgh. Those were the guys. And Jones was the last one to be interviewed.

I think that Brian Flores probably said this guy is ready. He's been interviewing in other places. He'd be perfect here. It also would be him coming home. They interviewed him, and I think that they were absolutely impressed with Jones. But I don't know that they would have ever gotten to Jones. if Ulbrook had been available. So unlike Quinn's hiring, this was down the list.

It doesn't mean that it's going to be wrong. It doesn't mean that it's not going to work. But this wasn't number one, number two, or number three on the list when this process started. But, you know, think about this. It was going to be hard to get number one, number two, or number three on their list. Because some of those guys were up for head coaching jobs. It was going to take some time. Number two is Washington's not that attractive for a defensive coordinator.

They have no talent on defense. So as far as him, I love the system he comes from. Brian Flores is a tough, apparently a tough guy to be around for a long period of time. So I have a feeling the timing was right for him. There's a possibility that a couple of those coaches who are also, after three years of Brian floors. Maybe they'll come with Jones. I don't know the spots that Washington has available. You know, Anthony Lynn is interviewing for the Cleveland job now. He didn't get the Buffalo job. He could end up freeing up a running backs job, not a defensive job. Brian Johnson's still out there

on offense in terms of jobs available. But, you know, is it possible? A couple of guys from that Minnesota staff replace guys that are on the staff and come with Jones. I think it's possible. But if he ends up adopting the Brian Flores defensive scheme, you know, it's a scheme that has produced more out of less, more often than not. So if he's the next guy that everybody thinks he was the right-hand guy to Flores, he was the next guy that's going to take the Flores system, we'll see. But I'm intrigued by the hire. I just don't know enough about a position coach for the last many years.

As pretty much nobody does. But we've said that repeated. You know, nobody knows anything about these guys for sure. But you know more about a guy, like Jonathan Gannon, you know he can do the job. Right. You don't know if this guy can do the job. I'm surprised that they ended up with two guys who have never done it once we went into this process when the season ended. Now, some of you would say, I'm surprised it's not a Quinn family member, you know, from his coaching family.

And so a lot of people didn't want that. Well, you didn't get that. And look, the bottom line is for that defensive coordinator position, you know, their wish list was a bit of a pipe dream list because of what they have defensively. something to you that I read, I think, when they interviewed Brian Flores a week and a half ago. It's from the ESPN.com ranking of coaching staffs heading into the 2024 season, not this past season, but 2024. And the Vikings coaching staff with Kevin O'Connell as the head coach, Wes Phillips as the OC and Brian Flores as the defensive coordinator, ranked 10th in the league.

but what was written about the coaching staff focused on Flores even more so than it did on O'Connell. And what they wrote, and I'm forgetting who actually wrote this, it may have been Seth Walder from ESPN. If I could, he wrote, the Vikings would have leapt up the board on the back of Flores, one of the league's best defensive coaches. He's a havoc wreaker, a madman at the wheel. No team rushed with at least six bodies more than Flores' Vikings last season, which he did on a whopping 26% of his dropbacks. The next closest was 11%. And no team sent only three rushers more frequently than Flores as Vikings, which he did another 20% of opponent dropbacks next closest 11%. Pass rush from anywhere, aggressive pressman coverage that suddenly becomes a blanketed,

eight-man zone on the next play. Flores takes the fight to opposing coaches, forcing them to respond to his defensive system instead of the other way around. And offensive coordinators are unaccustomed to being on their back foot. That's how a team without great defensive personnel like the 2023 Vikings steals a win against the 49ers or powers the team to a three to nothing victory over the Raiders. No coach last season made more out of less than Flores did with his unit, and it isn't the first time he did it in Miami as well. So if that's what we're getting, the understudy to that, call me super intrigued, excited to a certain degree. And here's the thing that you know that Quinn fell in love with. Quinn is.

talked about takeaways going back to last off season when I had them on the show. He talked about takeaways being the number one thing they had to fix that in tackling and, you know, stopping the run. And this year at the end of the season, the most disappointing part of the season, takeaways. Well, they've taken the ball away in Minnesota. And they've done a really good job of doing that without the best talent. So if this guy can do what Flores did, get more out of less, that's what you have to have because they don't have the horses right now in defense. Hopefully they'll add several of them.

But, you know, all of these defensive coordinators that have become great started somewhere as an unknown as a defensive coordinator, having not done, including Quinn. You're right. Yeah. Listen, here's what the Washington Post wrote, and we'll get to the post actually in a little bit in their situation.

but this is an excerpt from the story about the hire. Washington, okay, here's what happened. He impressed, Washington landed on Jones, who interviewed Sunday. He impressed during his meeting with the team, the person familiar with the matter said, and pitched a vision of philosophy centered on physicality, down-tackling, and forcing takeaways that mesh well with that of coach Dan Quinn.

Well, you know something? That philosophy and vision, I think that mesh is pretty well with about hundreds of commanders fans who I've heard of from all this year, who wondered why there was no physicality sound tackling and forcing takeaways. I mean, it's kind of juvenile. I mean, who's against that?

Nobody's against that. Yeah. Um, nobody's against them. I mean, we're talking defense. Is there anything I missed besides, you know, physicality, sound tackling and forced takeaways? No, no. I mean, there's, you know, I, look, you know, usually, it used to be, it's like, does you play a three four or four or three? Um, you know.

Yes. Yes. I remember those. Yeah, that was, that was, that, those were the olden times conversations about defense. But look, we saw it up close and personal, uh, in early December. Minnesota's defense finished ranked third in the league per DVOA behind Seattle and Houston's defense. Minnesota's defense over the last half of the season was an absolute monster. We saw it up close when they shut us out 31 to nothing.

And look, that was the one game in which they played well offensively. They were having great defensive games with a terrible offense led by either J.J. McCarthy or Max Brosmer or Brosmer. But in that game... I know. And if this was a Broadway show, you got the understudy now. You got the understudy.

Yeah. And sometimes when you get the understudy, you're like, wow! Who knew? I was upset when I showed up. But... You being a theater person, you would know that.

I do like theater. But back to the Minnesota game that we played, J.J. McCarthy was Joe Montefi. in that game against our defense. And so that's, then that was Brian Flores at his best. Not only can he, you know, confuse the hell out of you, but he's got a lead to do it. So he doesn't have to be concerned about it.

But they really played well defensively in the second half of the season. I mean, they really shut down the Packers. And they lost the game, Tommy, to Seattle, 26 to nothing at Seattle. and you'd look at that and you'd say, oh man, Minnesota, terrible. Minnesota's defense was dominant that day, dominant. They held Sam Darnold to 128 passing yards. Seattle in total to 213 yards. But they couldn't do anything offensively,

and Max Brosmer, Brasmer, through four interceptions, which set up Seattle's scores in the game. and so they couldn't score, and the defense set Seattle up for their scores. But, yeah, I mean, look, got to get players, and you got to get pass rush. You got to get pass rush help in this offseason. Have to. This guy can do all the scheming up he wants, but the only way it really pays off is with a lot more talent. All right, anything else on Durante Jones?

Nope, that's it, boss. All right, I know you want to talk about the Washington Post Sports section. I do too. We'll do that to finish up the show after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment brought to you by Window Nation just a few days left for their buy-four, get-for free offer. Part of that offer includes paying nothing for two full years, no down payment, no monthly payments, and no interest charged until the year 2028. The cold weather is here.

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Best customer service and best deal right now. 86690 Nation, windownation.com. So I am assuming that most of you have followed this story over the last few days, but I'm sure some of you have not. The Washington Post's sports section, sports department, could be shuttered entirely amid massive layoffs per our friend John Orand and his group at Post. Huck News. Now, a lot of reporting now on this, but it does appear, it's not official yet,

but it does appear that the Washington Post may do away with its sports section, Tommy, after all of these years. I know the newspaper business isn't a healthy one, but you're the newspaper man among our group, so I'll let you have at it first. Well, I never want to see a newspaper and journals go through what people with the Post are going through. I mean, I know some of those people on the sports department.

Some of them are my friends. And, you know, but this is something that's pretty much industry-wide, maybe except for the New York Times, actually. It's the one lone place. Before it had been the Times and the Post. Now it's pretty much just the Times. who seem to have, at least on the surface,

planned much better for the economic uncertainties of the media business between all their little word games and buying the athletic like they did, they seem to be in much better shape. And, you know, it's funny because games go back in the newspaper business for 100 years. I mean, newspapers have been running games. to sell papers for like a century now.

But I do wordle every day with my sister and my mother, every single day. My wife does it all the time with some of her relatives. And the post never really seemed to grasp that or hang on to that. And now they're in an economic situation where they're determined not to lose money anymore, and that could cost them their entire sports section. You know what with the first thing is I see, I see some of the lunatic friends out there celebrating this, including some Washington commanders fans,

and I said to them on social media, I said, you know, you should remember that if it wasn't for the post-sport section, Dan Snyder would still probably own the commanders. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was their reporting about the 42 women, It started 15 women and grew to 42, yeah, no doubt. Yes.

Yes, that was the momentum changer, really, in this thing. And got so many people on board. There were other factors, Snyder's finances, you know, his debt and things like that. But, you know, NFL owners usually typically don't push other owners out just because they're a financial mess. I mean, it just doesn't happen. It doesn't happen for any reason, usually. But they pretty much did for Snyder. And it was the post-reporting that ultimately led to the movement on Capitol Hill to bring this issue before Congress, along with elite emails from John Gruden.

That certainly got their interest. Well, it's just that it's a bad thing for everybody if this happens. I know all the reporting's been there, but it's not actually something that we know for sure yet. I guess there's always a Hail Mary with Bezos, right? Here's what John Horan reported just today. The Post has informed monumental sports, owner of the Capitol's Wizard of Mystics, it will no longer send reporters on the road to cover its team. And Nationals beat riders were told not to book travel for spring training.

Yeah, that's a pretty big tell. for sure. You know, in thinking about the likely reality of this, you know, it hits me a little bit from this standpoint. I don't want to sound hyperbolic, but the Washington Post Sports section meant a lot to me. I mean, from the moment I learned how to read at what, five or six years old and probably got through a bunch of Dr. Seuss books and curious George books, I was reading the Washington Post sports section. Like I couldn't wait for the paper to, hit that front stoop in front of our front door and race to it to get to it before my father did. And if he got to it before, I would sit there and say, how much longer? And if I got to it before, he'd say how much longer until you're done with the sports section? It was a habit for the majority of my life going back to being a kid. And it was the thing that really, I think, got me into reading. And I would bet that for a lot of young people, young boys in particular who were really into sports, you know, that it was the reason that they read

more consistently than not. Now, I'm not going to read that book, but I am going to read the sports section every day. Yeah. You know, and, you know, you think about, you know, who I was reading. I mean, the best of the best out of that newspaper. I mean, the list goes on and on, but, man, did the Washington Post, Tommy, produce some real, you know, beyond newspaper stars? I mean, literature-wise, I mean, John Feinstein's probably written more, you know, successful sports books than anybody. Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon have made a lot more money on television than they ever did as newspaper columnists. You know, like I wrote down just all the people that I would read. religiously. And George Solomon gets, you know, all of the credit for this, right, Tommy,

being just an unbelievable sports editor of the newspaper. Yes. But over the years, like, I read Tony religiously, you know, long before I ever, you know, worked with him. I read Mike. I read Baza forever. I loved reading Baz. You know, the thing about Baz is that he's always been a very reluctant person when it comes to coming on radio shows. You know, you know that, I know that. And I did, I think I got

him on at the end of the Snyder era, or maybe I got him on last year before the championship game. You know, he's come on with me, you know, occasionally, because he knows what a big fan I was of him over the years. Sally isn't with the post anymore, I guess, but I've loved reading Sally. I mentioned Len Shapiro, Christine Brennan, when she covered the team, it was historic. It was groundbreaking. The first female covering an NFL team. I mean,

as much of a pain in the ass as he was, God rest his soul, I loved reading Jr. Because he really was a guy whose favorite sports were my favorite sports, other than football,

because football wasn't his favorite. But college basketball, he loved tennis, he loved golf, he wrote about it. But for me, it's like, I mean, it was a habit. It was part of the, if you didn't wake up and read the post sports section, for me anyway, all day long, it would nag at me. I've got to get to, I got to get to the sports section. Sometimes I'd be at school and I'd go to the library and that's where I would read it if I didn't have time to read it in the morning before I left for school. But it was totally a habit for so many people because it was really good. And it was also,

really local. And that's the part that I would ask of you. Two things. Do you think that their move in recent years away from, or at least mixing in much more national sports? Sometimes, you know, sports that aren't super popular, you know, soccer, women's soccer, you know, gymnastics, lots of stuff on Olympics, lots of feature stories. Did that impact the the readership, do you think? No, I don't think, I don't think their local sports coverage suffered in terms of the major sports. I mean, they had two guys on the nationals beat, you know, two people on the commander's beat. You know, they, they had a beat reporter for the wizards and the capitals and the capitals and sent them on the road everywhere.

I think their failure, I think they were they fell down was on the news side locally. Okay, I think you could make the case much stronger that their metro and local news coverage they went away from in terms of a bigger global coverage. I think because they saw themselves competing with the New York Times. I mean, that was their, it was the Times and opposed. That was their competitor. So they were competing at a much more worldwide level they saw themselves, and I think it hurt them with people locally who relied on local news. Well, look, this isn't my business, so I'm probably missing the big reason here, as you mention that.

Just overall readership has to have declined with the Washington Post. And I'm not talking about sports. digitally, it shouldn't. I mean, the New York Times digitally, they keep going up at some point. The Washington Times has been much more left-leaning than even the New York Times during... The Washington Post to me. That's what I meant. What did I say, Washington Times?

That would not be the case with your paper. The Washington Post has. So has it hurt revenue? I don't think so. I think, look, I think if you want to look at certain points where they took a hit, uh, the editorial fight over Kamala Harris, where Jeff Bezos stepped in and said, no, we're not endorsing her. I mean, they lost tremendous amount of subscribers because of that. No, they made, they did not keep up with the times in the business decisions to keep the paper viable. Uh, that's,

I think that's where they went wrong. I mean, Bezos could completely save this if you wanted to, obviously. Of course he could. Yeah. Of course he could, but, you know, we get into the politics for that then. He'd be much more of a hero in some people's eyes by letting it die. Would it have made a difference if over the last 20 years we just had a bunch of winners in town rather than primarily a bunch of losers in town in terms of the teams, the important teams?

I don't think so. don't. I don't think that it would have made that much of a difference. Now, there's great economic forces here at work that go beyond the coverage. Like I said, every, I mean, USA today, it's still viable, but it's not what it used to be. But basically, the LA Times which used to be a big, you know, one of the big ones and used to compete with the Post and a New York Times is a shell of its former self now. So basically it was the Post and the Times in a race, and the New York Times has won. All right.

I mean, I really feel for everybody there. I feel bad about it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a lot of these people I like a lot. Who would have thought that I could wind up being the last man standing in D.C.? And by the way, nobody really know about it. Yeah, I mean, so many of the post-sports people we've gotten to know,

you've really gotten to know, obviously, over the years, and I've gotten to know over the years, and I, you know, I can't think of many that I didn't like. I like so many of them, and I wish people like Chelsea and Barry and, you know, everybody the best. I mean, you know, talent rises to the top, and they'll find gigs, I'm sure. But I wish them all the best.

I really do. You and I both worked in an industry radio, which has changed significantly, has been weakened in a lot of areas, especially post-pandemic. But yeah, crazy times in media, that is for sure. Wish everybody they're the best. All right.

Anything else? Nothing else for you today, boss. All right. I'm done back tomorrow, everybody.