The Kevin Sheehan Show - Down To 53

Episode Date: August 30, 2023

Kevin had Ben Standig/The Athletic on the show to discuss Washington's cutdown to 53 today. Some follow up on the Ron Rivera comments from the Albert Breer story as well. Kevin did some tennis with thoughts on a tense-filled US Open first-round match he watched last night between Coco Gauff and Laura Sigemund. Go to https://www.mybookie.ag/sportsbook/ for your sports betting needs. Use code KEVINDC 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 Chean Show. Here's Kevin. The cut down deadline just came and went moments ago shortly after 4 p.m. Eastern, as I am beginning to record today's podcast on this Tuesday, August 29th. Washington, down to its 53, more roster maneuvering, of course, will happen in the days ahead.

but they cut down from 90 to 53 today. Some players ended up on injured reserve. Ben Standing will join me in the next segment, and we will go through all of the cuts and injured reserve moves in detail. All NFL teams had to be down to 53. There were some trades today. We'll get into some of those later on in the show. Jonathan Taylor was not traded by the Colts.

So nobody came up with whatever the Colts were looking for. He starts the season on the Pupplist. So the first four games with Anthony Richardson in Indianapolis will be played without Jonathan Taylor at running back. Today kind of marks the end of summer football. You know, no more training camp. The preseason games are over. No more cut down dates in the offing.

The next event on the rundown is the opener. on September 10th. I cannot wait for real football. The show today is brought to you by MyBooky. My bookie's got everything you're looking for if betting on football this season is something you're interested in doing. They've got fair lines, fair pricing, and you get paid if you win. No complicated process with MyBooky. Go to mybooky.orgie.org. Use my promo code Kevin D.C. to secure a welcome bonus on the house. Now, signing up is free at mybooky.ag, but when you make your initial deposit,

use my promo code Kevin DC to secure a deposit bonus, and for a limited time, a free chip to use in the MyBooky online casino. College football kicks off in earnest Thursday night with its first full week of games. Florida, by the way, and Utah play on Thursday night. That's one of the two or three big games of the weekend. Florida is a six and a half point underdog against 14th ranked Utah. That was one of the games of the year in the first weekend of the season last year.

The game of the weekend, the game of week one here, is LSU and Florida State. Two top 10 teams, LSU a two and a half point favorite over the Knowles. that game in Orlando. All of the week one NFL lines are up. They have been up for a while at MyBooky. Washington's still a seven-point favorite over the Cardinals. The total, the over-under is 38.5. If you believe that what you saw in pre-season from Washington is a harbinger of things to come,

and you think six and a half is a super low season win total, will go bet it at My Booky right now while it's still at six and a half. If you like the over, you can bet over six and a half even money at My Booky. And if you really like Washington after this preseason and you think they're going to make the playoffs, they are plus 300 to make the playoffs at My Booky. Minus 400 to miss the postseason, but plus 300 to make the playoffs. For those of you that don't understand, you put 100. down on Washington to make the postseason in

2023. If they do, you win 300 bucks. If you bet 10 bucks on it and they make the playoffs, you win 30 bucks. Go to my bookie.orgie.org, use my promo code, Kevin, DC. So a few emails in tweets to start the show before I get to Ben. And I'm going to start with this one from Trevor. Trevor writes, Kevin, I'm not sure what you see in Jacoby Brissette. Here we go again. A career backup sometimes starter in the NFL.

Jake Fromm was clearly the better quarterback. The only reason he won't make the team over Brissette is that Rivera doesn't know his ass from his face when it comes to QB. If he did, Kenny Pickett would be the quarterback here right now. Uh, interesting, Trevor, that you bring up Kenny Pickett, because I was reading about Kenny Pickett last night. Pittsburgh fans, Pittsburgh media, they are excited about Kenny Pickett and the Steelers this year.

Just ask Big Tony. Big Tony, I'm sure we'll call into the radio show before the season starts. But they think Kenny Pickett's the real deal. He played well down the stretch for them last year. He played well in the preseason with starters against starters. I liked Pickett. You know, he was on the board when Washington took Jahan Dotson after trading back with the Saints at 16. He was taken at 20 overall by Pittsburgh.

But remember what Ron Rivera said to Albert Breer in the story that I referenced yesterday from MMQB Sports Illustrated, Rivera said that the trade for Wentz last year made it so that quarterback was not a draft priority. He said that in the context of telling Albert Breer that if they hadn't traded for Wentz, they would have taken Sam Howell in the second round if they had actually been looking for a quarterback. I wonder actually if they hadn't made the trade for Wentz and they got shut out on Russell Wilson before the Wentz trade and they got shut out on Jimmy Garoppolo and they got shut out by Minnesota in inquiring about Kirk Cous. and a few other teams that they reached out to about quarterback before they finally did the Wents deal. If they hadn't done any of those things and they hadn't landed on Wence, I wonder what the board would have looked like for quarterback, because I wonder if Kenny Pickett would have been a possibility.

At 11 before the trade with the Saints, or at 16, after trading back with the Saints, maybe Desmond Ritter would have been high on their list. But Trevor, your point on Ron and his group failing on any sort of quarterback plan since they got here is impossible to argue with. You know, Justin Herbert was there for them in 2020 at number two overall. And look, I've said this a million times. Obviously, if you go back and redraft 2020, Washington takes Justin Herbert. I did not have an issue at the time with them taking Chase Young. That's who I wanted them to take.

I was not a big fan of Herbert, and Tua's hip would have scared me off. I would have absolutely taken Joe Burrow had he been there at number two. But if they knew that there was a decent chance that it was going to end that way with Haskins, I'm talking about his playing time here, God rest his soul, then obviously they made a mistake, not using number two overall to take the most important position on the field. Look, in 2021, I thought an aggressive move up to take Justin Fields should have been in play. I also think that, you know, and gave them credit for chasing Matt Stafford, which they did seriously. In 2022, they went after Russell Wilson very seriously and ended up with Ryan Fitzpatrick.

It's tough to kind of blame them for Fitzpatrick because he was coming off, you know, arguably the two best years of his career, he got hurt. But look, almost everything that they've done there you can blame them for. And the Wentz trade tops that list. I mean, that screamed to anybody paying attention. Don't do this. There's something wrong with him. But Ron and Martin and Marty and everybody else didn't seem to care about the red flags on that one.

Remember who got really excited about that trade. The owner did. That was the last time we heard anything from Dan Snyder's when he went before the Maryland Gaming Committee to get that license for the sports book at FedEx Field. And he said we finally got ourselves a quarterback. What a dope. But Trevor, look, on the quarterback stuff with Ron and the Kenny Pickett thing, it's a good point. The rest of what you said is just off. First of all, said Jacoby Brissette was anything other than what you described him to be. You know, a career backup and a sometime starter. I've said it slightly differently.

You know, he's a high-end backup and a lower-end starter, but essentially it's the same thing. I just, I don't know how my appreciation for what Jacoby Brissette has done in the NFL and how he is stuck around and how he's played when he's gotten the opportunity has somehow gotten confused with, I want him to be the starting quarterback for the foreseeable future. On the Fromm thing, I don't know why you would think that Fromm is better than Brissette after a couple of preseason games playing with third and fourth teamers against third and fourth teamers. I don't know why you would think that he is, quote, clearly the better quarterback, closed quote. You know, I said on yesterday, and by the way, he got cut in Brissette State, as I told

you that would happen yesterday. I know that most of you understood that. Trust me, but there were some people out there actually suggesting that the team should keep Jake from over Jacoby Brissette. And I said on the podcast yesterday, that's never going to. happen. One is why would we think Fromm's better than Brissette because of a couple of preseason games in the third and fourth quarter? And secondly, there are seven and a half million reasons why Brissette is staying and Fromm would be the one to go. Now, I did suggest that maybe they'll keep three quarterbacks, but $7.5 million is what's guaranteed to Brissette for the upcoming season.

But yeah, they cut Jake Fram. Kept Brissette. Shocker. Maybe to some of you, not to most of us. Anyway, I'm not losing any sleep over Jake Fromm being released. This from Jason. Jason writes, Kevin, Ron just talks

too much. Does he realize that by saying, if he knew how good Sam would play against the Cowboys, he would have started Sam Hal sooner? He said, that. That's the quote, or it's somewhat close to the quote from the story with Albert Breer yesterday. Jason writes, does he know that that makes him look like an idiot? He just isn't sharp enough to be the coach of a good football team. I, hold on, let me just pull this quote up. I don't want to paraphrase it here. You know, if you missed the Albert Breer story from yesterday, you can look it up and I talked about it on the podcast yesterday.

Here it is. Here's the exact quote. By the way, the context for this is Ron recounting the night after the Dallas game as he and his wife rode back together in a car from the stadium to their home in northern Virginia. So that's what Ron is describing to Albert Breer when he says this. Quote, you can ask Stephanie, all we effing talked about was the quarterback, what the quarterback did, who he was. I kept saying, and he uses the expletive beginning with the letter F, I kept saying, F, if I would have known this, I would have played him sooner, closed quote. Yeah, Jason, you're right. He just sometimes talks too much. And, you know, admitting basically what he's doing here,

admitting that he didn't know what Sam Howe could do late in that season, with the season on the line, and oh, by the way, the offense needing a boost at quarterback, it really makes him look like he wasn't paying attention. It makes them look bad. Now, you know, was that what he was intending to say to Albert Brue? I'm going to project here a little bit. I think what he was focused on in his discussion with Albert Breer was hyping Sam Howell for this year to get people excited for Sam Howell and the team this year.

You know, by the way, also simultaneously validating how smart they were to pick him in the fifth round. But like he's done in the past, he doesn't think things out, like how they will be received or perceived. Maybe he doesn't care, although I think he does care. Remember the outburst about Carson Wentz and him doing all the analytics research and the data gathering after it was suggested that, you know, it was a Dan move to trade for Carson Wentz. But that aside, you know, for me, I'm just not a fan of hyping Howl the way they've done it in this offseason and the way he kind of did it with Albert Breer. You know, the hype being shoveled out by the head coach is a bit much. Show us. Don't tell us.

Too much of what this franchise has been about for years, as I've been describing for years, is over-promising, over-hyping, and under-delivering. There's nothing to gain by publicly hyping Sam Howe before he's actually played in a real NFL regular season game. that game at the end of last year was meaningless. If he's that good, we will see it, we'll know it, and we'll give them credit. Ron and Martin and Marty and everybody else out there will give them credit for getting it right this time. But he kind of is setting himself up for Carson Wentz round two.

You know, different circumstances, of course. but the off-season and pre-season hyping of Wentz last year, it fell flat when the real game started. So I'm with you, Jason. You know, say less, do more. You know, the build-up of Howl during the off-season, quoting mock drafters who thought that Howl should have gone much higher as a way to kind of, you know, describe how smart they were to get him in the fifth round,

you know, talking about defensive. players, oh, the ball's there. It's, you know, when you turn around, it's already there. Receiver's saying coming out of the break, the ball's there, talking about, you know, Hal's arm strength. I'm not suggesting they're lying at all. But, you know, now talking

about we should have started him earlier if we had known, the buildup by Ron and others out there of Sam Hal before he's played a game, better deliver. It better deliver. You know, and the other thing with respect to, the end of last year. Sam Howe was never an option. It has nothing to do with whether or not

Ron knew what Sam Howell could do. Okay, plenty of people had an opinion of Sam Howell late in that season. All right, they were looking for any answers at the end of that year. The offense had become stagnant. They wanted to bench Heineke. All right, but Howe was never considered. never by anybody out there. They didn't think he was ready. And Wentz, you know, they targeted the giant Sunday night game after the by week for Wentz's return. But if you recall, there were like COVID symptoms that he had had, maybe not that week, but a week earlier. And it just set him back a little bit.

And so he ended up starting the Cleveland game. I actually think that the giant game, I was told that it was the giant game that they had targeted for Wence's return. that they really wanted a boost to the downfield passing game. You know, it's not that they disliked Taylor Heineke. It's not that they didn't think they could be competitive with Heineke, but they clearly felt like there was a limit with Heineke, and they thought Wence provided a bigger upside. They were wrong.

Well, they may not have been wrong about the upside. He just wasn't capable of reaching it. But look, I mean, Sam Howell was never an option. You know, we know that because he was a reluctant option for the meaningless season finale. No matter how much they've kind of revisionist history that one, he wasn't much of an option until Taylor Heineke pitched that he should be the, you know, starter for that Dallas game. But yeah, he talks a bit too much at times. I agree. And like last year, you know, he's set himself up again to look like he doesn't know what he's talking about if Hal doesn't deliver. But maybe Hal will. Maybe he will.

You know, at least with Hal, unlike Wentz, there is a secure team player, you know, a guy that is coachable. there are a lot of intangibles that, you know, Hal has that I don't think Wentz had. This note from Vic, why do you, of all people, think cutting Colt McCoy is a sign that the Cardinals are tanking the season? Don't you remember, Kevin, six in ten Colt McCoy? Question mark. Yeah, I do remember for many years saying, if you start Colt McCoy, you're going six and ten. You're a six and ten football team if Colt McCoy starts all 16 of your games.

But Vic, you actually answered the question. It's a sign that they're tanking because Colt is capable of winning six out of 16 or maybe seven out of 17. Six and 11, seven and ten doesn't get you Caleb Williams. So, yeah, I think. that's part of what they thought. Look, Colt McCoy, as a starter in Arizona, was a three-and-three quarterback overall in his career, 11 and 25. But three-and-three with some pretty good games as a starter in the two years in Arizona. You know, yesterday, by the way, Jonathan Gannon,

the new head coach of the Cardinals, refused to name a starter. He said, quote, I won't name a starter because I think it's a competitive advantage for us going to Washington, closed quote. You know, Josh Dobbs, they traded for Clayton Toon is the rookie from Houston. I actually think when you're talking about two quarterbacks that you don't know a lot about, one of them you don't know much about it all. It might be a slight competitive advantage not to disclose at this point. Look, any amount of time, even if it's, you know,

one day of Washington preparing for two quarterbacks instead of one isn't a terrible thing for Arizona, I would think. But I just don't think Josh Dobbs is very good. And keep in mind, I mean, he just got there. He was just traded for. Now, I do know that Drew Petzig, the offensive coordinator in Arizona, was in Cleveland with Dobbs, which is why they went and got Dobbs. so he is more familiar maybe with the offense than the normal guy that just got traded and derived. But I don't think he's very good.

And Tune is a rookie. So I do think that Arizona is thinking long term as it relates to 2023. They're not thinking about 2023. They're thinking about 2024. The draft in particular. And who's in the draft? One more from Marcus. Marcus writes, Sheehan, saying that the first game of a 17-game season is must-win is over-the-top,

even for you, they won't be eliminated from the playoffs with a loss in week one. Yeah, I kind of made the case yesterday that now that Colt McCoy's gone, and they're going to start Josh Dobbs or Clayton-Tune, well, this is must-win. It's kind of been must-win all along. Arizona is a consensus on paper worst team in the NFL. But I understand that the Arizona game, Marcus, isn't must win from a playoff scenario standpoint. But for many reasons, it's so important, so important. There is so much feel-good momentum right now.

And that would be halted in its tracks if they lose to that team. on September 10th. You know, the train wouldn't derail, all right, because Dan being gone means everybody understands that better days are ahead, but for the immediate, you know, for the short term, a loss to Arizona would be a major, major buzzkill. It also sets up the possibility of a terrible start to the season

because of what lies ahead after Arizona. You know, subject to change, meaning injuries to Josh Allen or Jalen Hertz or Russell Wilson or a bunch of Denver players. They're going to be underdogs at Denver, at home against Buffalo, and at Philly in the three weeks following the Arizona game. So you lose to the Cardinals and 0 and 4 becomes a possibility. I don't know. If they can't beat the Cardinals, it really will. feel like the season's over before it's started. And that's my point.

You know, it's just one game at a 17. I get it, but I think it's a game they have to win. Don't forget to rate us and review us, especially on Apple and Spotify. From Joseph and Mary on Apple, Joseph and Mary gave us five stars and wrote, I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Tom.

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All of those things are huge helps. All right. Up next, roster cut down talk with Ben Standing right after a few of these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought you by the Circa Million and Circa Survivor pools out in Las Vegas at the Circa Sportsbook and Casino, one of the biggest, 3-2-1. This segment of the show brought to you by the Circa Million and the Circa Survivor contests out in Vegas, $14 million in guaranteed prizes, the entry date deadline.

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out in Vegas before next Saturday, totally worth it. I am entered in both of them. Jumping on with us right now is Ben's Standig. Ben's got a podcast, Standing Room Only. Ben writes for the Athletic. I'm a subscriber to the Athletic. I think you should be as well. It's very inexpensive. Basically, like a dollar a month. You get Ben, you get every local reporter covering every local team and every national reporter. And every local reporter in every other market. The athletic is totally worth it. Ben, of course, can be followed on Twitter at Ben Standing.

90 to 53 by 4 p.m. today just a little while ago. Why don't you walk through how they got it done? Well, hold on a minute. I'm looking for flights to Vegas because I've got to go to the Ocerca Survivor game. Yeah, well, I've entered both of those contests, and I can't wait for the season to begin. The Survivor Pool is, look, we've all, most of you have done Survivor pools. Ben's done them, I've done them. And, you know, typically what happens in the first three weeks of the season, three big favorites lose outright.

and it basically narrows your survivor pool, cuts it down by like three-fifths, literally by like 60%. There's 40% of the field left after the first three weeks of the year. Because people are looking to advance early and they're picking the big favorites. Week one, the big favorite is Baltimore and Washington. They're the two biggest favorites. The Ravens are 10-point favorites over Houston, and Washington's a touchdown favorite over Arizona.

one of those two teams, I bet you loses outright to just plush survivor bits. That's a scary proposition considering one of the two teams is, you know, we're still wondering what's going to happen. It's going to be Baltimore. Baltimore is going to lose to Houston. Washington's not losing to Arizona. By the way, before we get to the cuts, do you agree with me or disagree that cut, that cutting Colt McCoy is part of the long-term plan to get Caleb Williams or Drake May.

Oh, 100%. And what's amazing is no disrespect to Colt McCoy, but that, like, you would think going with Cole McCoy would be kind of like saying, all right, we're really not trying to win too many games. And they're like, no, no, no, no. He actually, Jay Gruden might be right. He actually might be good enough. We got to go under that. I joked earlier on Twitter. What are the chances that the Cardinals say, hey, Jake Fromm, why don't you come play with us and you play against Washington in a week one? How about that? And that seems to the wacky what they're doing. You just basically addressed two of the tweets and emails that I read in the open to the show.

Because here, I'm pulling it up right now. Vic tweeted me, why do you, of all people, think cutting Colt McCoy is a sign that the Cardinals are tanking the season? Remember 6 and 10 Colt McCoy? I used to say to Tommy, who loved Colt, you start Colt 16 games, you're going 6 and 10. But that's kind of the point, and you just made it too, is they're not going to be good with Colt McCoy, but he'll win you six or seven games out of 17, and that won't get you Caleb Williams, will it? Six and 11, seven and 10 won't get you into that top position or top two positions in the draft, although they do have Houston's pick as well.

And then the Jake Fromm mentioned, I can't believe how many people suggested to me. And I talked about it on yesterday's pod. The idea that they would keep Jake Frum over Jacoby Brissette, like people really think these preseason games, are like real football. Look, most of you who are listening don't, okay? I get it, that you get it. But there are people that really think that they would forego a $7.5 million guarantee to Brissette

to keep Jake Fromm instead. Anyway. Yeah, it makes me... I saw people who portray themselves as being, you know, commanders, thinkers on social media who were going with that theory, and I just, you know, I put a mental note checkmark next to that. I'm like, oh, God, no, that's not a fact. I, you know, you know this about me. There are very few insiders that I follow and pay attention to. You are at the very top of the list. Yeah, that was, that was silly thinking, uh, quite on

honestly, but whatever. I mean, the math, the dollars, they were never going to, they guaranteed to do seven and a half million. Even if they thought Jake Fromm was better than Jacoby Berset, they wouldn't keep Jake Fromm instead of Jacoby Bresset. They may have kept Jake from and Jacoby Berset, especially as I explained yesterday with the new, you know, third quarterback rule. But anyway, uh, all right, let's get to, let's get to what happened today. Why don't you walk through with everybody what they did today to get down to 53? Well, I mean, they had to make moves on, what, 24 players. I had to do something for the athletic today where East Be righter had to give, like,

who is the number one player that your team got rid of so we could have, like, one article for everybody to look at and see. And honestly, even though for the last few weeks, like, boy, there's some tough decisions that's, like, running back and, you know, maybe just, both lines and, you know, receiver. Ultimately, didn't only have one name. I was like, oh, well, that's like a crazy, crazy one. I mean, you could say Tyler Larson was a guy that people think was going to stay.

And guess what? He is going to stay. They're going to bring him back after cutting him. But, you know, I think they're willing to risk that a 32-year-old coming up too significant season in the injuries is probably willing to stay on as, you know, but here after, after cuts go through. You know, I don't know, I don't know for you what was the most interesting move ultimately that they got rid of Kaz Allen and kept Dax-Mill.

I mean, you know, at a minimum after the last preseason game, that seemed to be pretty apparent. I never really bought into the Kaz Allen hype as much as others did ultimately, but, okay, I get it. You know, I think a lot of this feels like it was decided, you know, a couple of weeks ago. I don't know how much has changed ultimately. maybe there were a couple things. I guess the biggest surprise is that Mitchell Tinsley, the underrafted free agent out of Penn State,

did make the team for me personally. He was on my, I did two 53 projections, including one before the first preseason game, and he was on that one too. So I'm not trying to say, look at me, but like it, even for me out of the game, well, I kind of thought that all along too. But I guess that's the biggest surprise.

I mean, you know, and it's also still a very fluid situation. I mentioned Larson. I think Alex Arma is another guy who got, cut that probably is going to be back on the roster this week. So I don't want to say it was anticlimactic and try to undersell what we're about to discuss. But I don't know if there was like really any surprises today for me. I guess the biggest one was probably yesterday was Braden Daniels going on IR. We all kept talking about like, you know, are they going to give him a hang now?

And he's going to go on IR. This was, I guess, more significant with a rotator cuff injury. But that was the one who was like, he really needs to go on IR. and develop for a year, but he's not ready for the play. And, you know, that did happen. Yeah, let me just for those that are using this podcast as their information place, so they released many players. They put four players on IR, including Jonathan Williams, the running back.

He goes on Injured Reserve. They did cut Derek Gore, which means that three running backs, and they cut Alex Arma, the fullback. So there are three running backs on the roster as of now, and it's the three that we knew would make the team, Brian Robinson, Jr., Antonio Gibson, and Chris Rodriguez. They're just going with two quarterbacks, so any thought of, you know, that third quarterback rule,

look, I suggested this yesterday that it probably wouldn't be enough to keep Jake from. He would get released. What will happen is if the starter gets banged up one week and is iffy for the upcoming week, that's when you'll have the third quarterback and they'll bring them up from the practice squad and have them available as an active 53-man roster player, which makes him eligible for the game

if the top two quarterbacks get injured. Other players, you mentioned Larson, but mentioned he might be back. You know, Wild Goose got released. He struggled, especially against Baltimore. You mentioned Kaz Allen. He got released. He was a guy that I know they really thought had a chance to be their primary return guy,

and maybe he will be. It wouldn't shock me if he's on the practice squad, and at some point during the year, Kaz Allen's returning a punt or a kickoff in a game for this team. They cut Castro Fields, they cut DeJon Harris, the Benning Patoe, the guy that had a sack in one of the preseason games. I think against the Ravens. And then a lot of names, quite honestly,

Mason Brooks, the Guard, who had a, you know, by all accounts, a pretty decent camp. They released him. And you end up with the roster that you end up with now. And that's where we can kind of focus, which is, you know, they kept

seven receivers and Milne Pringle and Tinsley ended up making the team. I'm just curious. You know, ultimately, did you did you think even after the last two preseason games that Tinsley was a lock or not? Not a lock, but like I said, I had it on my last 53. So this is a part that's so weird, right?

We all get, you know, especially those who are out there every day watching all that, you know, you get caught up in overvaluing or at least overthinking all the players that you're watching. And you start to think, boy, how are they going to get rid of some of these guys? some tough calls. And then you get to the very end, and you're like, yeah, okay, that kind of all played out the way that it did. The question for a guy like Tindley was, like, I don't personally like keeping seven receivers, you know, just in terms of a roster build, and we don't know if they kept the seventh one because of Terry McCorn situation or not, but look, I think Timbley, to me, he looked like a polished receiver pretty quickly. Today I asked Ron Rivera

about when did he know that Tinsley was a real guy, and he said, really, from day one, you could just see it. And between the rat running and the hand, he really did look like a guy who belonged. The only question was, you know, when you have the top four receivers they have plus Pringle, plus, you know, what if, you know, Milne is a punt returner, you know, you only keep six receivers instead of seven, that's where it would be a question of the numbers. I wonder if, like, because he had a really strong last free season game, did that at all sort of clinch it, both in terms of like, well, we can't let this guy go, but also a fear of if we let him go, somebody might say, hey, you know, why not, you know,

especially maybe a bad team, say, hey, why don't we take a shot on this guy because it looks interesting. So, you know, I liked keeping him. I thought that made some sense. And like I said, they will, you know, this is as Martin. But he said that a fluid situation. So, you know, there's going to be more moves to make, and it could involve one of the receivers. But right now, you know, they've got the seven with Tyndley, Mill, and Pringle rounding out the group.

So a couple of other areas. Like, I was, I mean, look, I'm not following the cut down date in the same way that you and the guys that are out there doing 53-man roster projections are. but I'm following it enough and I'm reading you religiously even when I'm not working as I wasn't at the end of last week. So there was a surprise for me,

two of them in particular. Curtis Hodges making the team and then I didn't know that Trent Scott would make the team. Maybe he was on your final 53 man. I'd have to go back and check. I did read it. I promise you.

I read it. But those were the two that when I saw the full roster, the full 53 together, I went through it real quickly and I said, yeah, I'm surprised Hodges and Scott made it. You say what? Yeah, I mean, I think that's fair. I mean, I didn't have Scott on mine because, you know, I didn't know what Braden-Anne annual's shoulder, rotator cuff. So, you know, if you had told me he was going on IR, then I thought, then I was thought,

okay, Trent Scott probably takes that spot because of, you know, they want a fourth tackle. And, you know, to some degree, Charles Leno and Andrew Wiley have, you know, dealing with a little something, something, nothing significant. It doesn't think so. Okay, so I would have put him in there. I don't even count like that as a mistake because of Daniels Park kind of, how do we know? Hodges blew my mind. Now, look, when you go back to the offseason, right, and you had Cole Turner, Armani Rogers, and Curtis, you know, he can put, you know, you can rank them in whatever order you want, but they were all interesting lottery ticket. Hodges was obviously the least known because he essentially didn't play last year, went on IR.

But he, you know, he looked pretty good early, early last summer. A six, eight, you know, pretty fluid athlete. like there's obviously a lot of intrigue there, but it just didn't work out for it. It wasn't just the drops that you guys saw in the preseason games. He really looked, you know, not that impressive to me and I think to others in practice. Now, okay, sure, development, blah, blah, all that.

I get that. But that's where, like, sort of like what happened with Daniels. You think, all right, well, maybe we somehow, you know, get them on IR. I think that is going to happen. I just think it's going to happen you know, like tomorrow or something, I think somehow he maybe lands on

an IR situation or something like that. But yeah, I was surprised I think the other question here is what is the deal with Logan Thomas, right? I mean, we don't know where he's at. He's not basically missed all the training camp for the most part with his calf injury.

What's going to happen there? I don't know and, you know, as Curtis Hodge is sort of a hedge towards that. I think Arma, they're going to bring him back in the next couple days. That could be another hedge, but, you know, that is a big unknown to me at tight end. So, yeah, I was surprised by Hodges. I wanted to ask you about D-end.

They kept seven of them, seven defensive ends, 11 total defensive linemen. Any thoughts about seven D-Ns? Yeah, I mean, obviously, in sort of in a conventional sense, that's probably one too many. I'm a believer when in the draft. You don't draft a player if there is no room for him on your roster. Because otherwise, what is the point, right? Now, sure, you could say, well, you could keep the two guys they drafted in K.J. Henry and Andre Jones and move off of one of the veterans.

But why? Like, you know, the F.A. Abata, Casey Two Hill, Jameson Williams Trio, they all played well last year. And they've looked fine. This obviously, you know, not going to get rid of talent. And as much as, again, we all discussed the importance of some of these fringe guys. You know, you don't let talent go. And I think ultimately that's what it came down to. And as we know, we've discussed before, the five veterans are all entering the last year of their contract.

Right. But really the only two players under contract for next year are the two rookies now. So I'm totally fine of it. I mean, you know, is there something to be said of what's going on with Chase Young? and the stinger, and we still don't know when he's able to practice of contact again. Probably not, because I think seven was looking likely for a while now. But, you know, it does give you some depth. I guess one thing I wonder is with K.J. Henry, who has just really been kind of,

it really had sort of a quiet summer, I'll say, to be kind, you know, is there sort of a, hey, did you know, did you have a hang now or something? We can put you on eye off a little bit, open up a spot, that type of deal. You know, other than that, I don't really have an issue with it. They only have four linebackers, as we know, and three running backs. So, you know, I don't feel like they did anything crazy to keep the seven end, along with the four tackles. Yeah, and you said it. You know, they don't have a lot of players that are under contract for next year.

And some of these players are talented. Don't forget, another guy that I think has talent, and I think they think he has talent, but he is suspended for the entire year is shock at Tony. But, you know, some of these guys may be bets on next year in the event that, you know, sweat and or young, one of the two more likely than not will be gone. You know, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think they have cut a draft choice in this initial cutdown since they got here in 2020. I'm talking about Ron Rivera.

I think they cut William Bradley King. Oh, they did? But even that, that's sort of similar to this year because they drafted him and Chocotony. I want to say in the seventh or least the last two rounds. Yeah, so it's sort of like to my point before, don't draft a guy unless there's a room. You know, obviously William Bradley King has still been around. He's on the practice squad.

Sorry, he was just released. Could be back on the practice squad, but maybe it's time to move on. but yeah, but he's the only one, and like I said, even he's been around essentially the last two years. So, yeah, they definitely give a lot of deference to their picks. I don't think they're alone in that regard. I mean, the league of the whole, you know, I just did, I don't know if we're going to talk about it or not, but my annual NFL agent survey is up on the athletic. Right.

And sort of a broad, you know, among the questions that come up is just, you know, what are the agents think about, you know, where the money is right now? and, you know, they all cry, you know, cried about the middle class evaporating, and they're not wrong. And part of that is teams are just saying, we'll keep the rookie for a lot cheaper than paying, you know, some six-year veteran. So, yeah, so I think that's kind of happening around the league. But, yes, for them, they clearly are giving the tiebreaker to any traffic. So what do you think? you mentioned Tyler Larson, you mentioned a couple of people that, you know, they probably will try to bring back because it'll be easier to bring them back.

What are their next moves? And with all of the cuts around the league, not that you've, you know, scoured everybody's waiver wire, but is there anybody out there that makes sense to you for them? Yeah, I have no idea, honestly, about the positions. I mean, I saw some of the headlines today. you know, Bailey Zaffy got cut with the Patriots, which is super weird. But I saw a couple things like that. But, you know, I just think if I had to look at positions, tight end, offensive tackle, and linebacker would be the ones I would think you would look at the most.

Maybe a returner, depending on what, you know, where you're at, if you're okay with Dax Milne, you know, being a steady guy, but not being an explosive guy. But I think those are three areas that I would take a little. look at. I mean, obviously, teams don't typically cut viable offensive tackles, but, you know, you never know, right? I mean, you never know. And, uh, tight end, as we've

discussed, I mean, like Logan Thomas, until he's out there, I can't assume he's ready for week one or or, or what have you, and you know, Curtis Hodges, even if Logan Thomas is, I think you can do better than, at least for this year, than Curtis Hodges as your fourth guy.

So I think those are two spots at a minimum, and then linebacker, you know, I, we know, we know, be emphasized that spot. I don't necessarily know that they need to cut any of the guys that they have, but if there is somebody else that's out there, you know, I think you have to consider it. Yeah, Bailey Zappy got cut in New England. A lot of people during the offseason thought he could actually make a run at Mack Jones for the starting job. If I didn't mention this already, Jonathan Taylor did not get traded, so he starts the season on the Pupp list. so Anthony Richardson doesn't have his best offensive player for at least the first four games in Indianapolis. Von Miller is going to stay on the Pupp list. Why is that significant? Well, week three, Buffalo comes to FedEx Field,

and so Von Miller will not be a part of Buffalo's defense for that game. The Cowboys landed a – they swapped corners with Miami. Dolphins sent their first round pick from 2020, Noah Igbin O'Genni, to the Cowboys for their 2021 second round pick, Kelvin Joseph. And Dustin Hopkins was traded to the Cleveland Browns. They cut Cade York, and they traded a seventh round pick to the Chargers for Dustin Hopkins, some of the things that happened around the league today. You mentioned Chase Young. I want to add Phil Mathis into this conversation and Terry McLaurin.

Who should we be concerned about in order of the most concerned to the least concern for the opener against Arizona? Well, I mean, you know, even though Ron Rivera has given us some injury updates here and there, they're not obligated to. At this time, starting next week, they'll have to put a standard injury report, but not right now. So, you know, we've tried the last few days to get an update on where Chase Young is.

He met with a doctor on Friday to get a sense of when he could return to contact. We don't know, though. Ron Rivera wouldn't answer that. Math has, you know, been out a while with his calf injury, sort of the same deal. You know, we don't know where that's at. I would say, though, that even of those two guys didn't play, are those? I mean, McCorn

is obviously the one where it's, you know, again, we don't know the extent, you know, there have been reports that I have the team is optimistic, and there's reports of, well, optimism doesn't mean he's going to happen and there's uncertainty there. So I think that one of the bigger concern. Again, he may not have the bigger injury, but I think it's a much bigger deal.

He's not playing than the other two. And, you know, the sprain toe, whether it maybe it's, you know, turf toe, you know, that can be an, an injury that lingers for sure. So I guess I would say that one followed by Chase Young, followed by Mathis. That would probably how I would rank it. So here we are. You know, kind of the summer is over and now it's about getting ready for the season. We'll have time to talk about this between now and Sunday, September 10th. But as you look at this roster,

this final 53-man roster and anticipate some changes. What do you think of it? And is it a roster that can compete for a playoff spot? Well, let's start with the quarterback, right? Obviously, everything hinges on that. I think if you go back to January when this seemingly wacky scenario was unfolding that they're going to give a guy with his level of inexperience that they weren't even going to start themselves in Week 18,

that eight days later they're saying he's going to be our QB1 going into the off season. From that point to where we are now, I think you have to feel pretty good about Sam Howe. He's met all the benchmarks along the way, you know, taking command of the huddle, learning the enemy system, all these things. He's shown the big arm. We know he can move. They've talked about his ability to correct mistakes in real time. I think all that is reasonable to me.

Now, does that translate to 10 wins? That's why they're going to play the game. games, right? Well, we'll see. I think there's reasonably hopeful, but, you know, that's different than saying, you know, this team's going to get turned around. But I think you have to feel pretty good about whether I was Sam Hogan, considering the risk of making that choice. That said, you know, I don't know that I feel any better about the offensive line than I did from the start of training camp earlier this year. At least Sadiq Charles appears to be healthy right now. And I think if the

Dean Charles and Sam Cosme, a guard, the upside of the group may exist with them. By the way, I think Nick Gates is an incredibly fun player whose wild man attitude, I think, could really be helpful for this group as an from a good attitude perspective.

But, you know, definitely questions there. That's not ideal when you have this young quarterback. The tight end, as we just discussed, like, I can't sit here and say, boy, I feel a lot better about them than I did. I think Cole Turner's fine this summer, but

that's still a pretty dicey situation, knowing Logan Thomas's age and recent injury history. And then sort of the same thing at linebacker. There were points this summer with tight end and linebacker where you thought, okay, well, maybe things are trending in the right direction, but I think Cody Barton had an ultimately fairly rough

training camp and preseason. Jamie Davis obviously had he had an injury early on, then he has the court situation. So that group has not been impressive. The defensive line has largely looked really good. The secondary look good. We know they have playmakers on offense.

So there's reasons to be optimistic, but other than how, I don't know that I can look at the rest of the roster and say, boy, they have really looked a lot better than I might have thought, you know, three months ago. All right. We've got plenty of time before the opener. I appreciate you doing this. I know it's been a busy two days.

I'll talk to you soon. I look forward to it, man. By the way, Reed Ben's column, his annual column where he surveys, you know, a bunch of reps, agents around the league. There's some good stuff on Washington's status now is a dysfunctional franchise in the league with Snyder gone. All right, I'll talk to you soon. Thanks. Yep.

So I'm just seeing the transcript from the Ron Rivera presser today, along with Martin Mayhew, and he said something about Sam Howell that I'll read to you when we come back, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Shortly after the cut-down deadline at 4 p.m., Ron Rivera and Martin Mayhew held a joint press conference. And Ron Rivera was asked on if this is the best QB situation he's had in what? Washington. And he said, quote, I think it is. I think you know, the one thing that you never know is until you start playing for sure. But with the things that we've done, the way we practice this year, going to Baltimore, doing the things that we did during those two scrimmage days, and then the games that we've played the last couple of weeks, there's a lot of confidence

and we feel good about where we are. Again, it's one of those things. You just got to go out and see what happens, and that's where we are. We feel really confident. We feel good about the playmakers that are around Sam as well. So I would say with that answer that he didn't over promise there because, you know, he didn't say, he said, I think it is. He didn't say it definitely is. And he said, you never know until you start playing for sure. And they have not played yet with Sam Howell at quarterback. That starts on September 10th. I thought the other line in his answer, the way we practice this year. Now that may have been specific to the Baltimore joint practices because he said right after he said that going to Baltimore. But the way they've practiced offensively this year

is much different than the way they practiced with Scott Turner. There is no doubt that there is more attention to detail with Eric Bianney. That has been made crystal clear. by everybody that understands what's going on out there. Now, whether or not it holds up and it delivers in games, we don't know. But there's been a different mindset with respect to small details on offense in practice than more loosey-goosey, which is the way it was previously. One last thing before I head out for the day, for the evening at this point. I watched something last night that I just wanted to talk about for a few minutes.

I watched U.S. Open tennis. I used to be a big tennis fan, and I loved tennis and played tennis growing up. And I sat down last night and watched Cocoa Gough play Laura Sigamund in a first round match at the U.S. Open. Cocoa Gough, the American, 19 years old now. I mean, anybody that's been following tennis knows who Cocoa Gough is. She's seated fifth, and she appears ready now to really give it a run in a major championship and perhaps win her first major. Many people think she'll win majors, plural.

Terrific talent, and by the way, incredibly likable. She was playing this German Laura Sigamund, who's 30, years old. 35 years old and not really a singles player. She's had minimal success in singles, but her success in tennis has come primarily in doubles, where she's won two major championships, both at the U.S. Open, a women's doubles title and a mixed doubles title. She's 35 years old.

She had to go through qualifying to make it into the main draw, where she was last night after winning three qualifying matches over the weekend. She had a serious injury a few years ago, almost gave tennis up, but came back. And my intention last night was to, you know, watch it for a little while and watch Cocoa Gough, you know, smother the first round opponent and knock her out quickly and then turn to something else.

And maybe turned back when Jokovic was playing. That match was over in like 30 minutes, it seemed like. But anyway, I started. to watch this match. And any of you listening that are tennis fans that watch this, I think you know where I'm going with this. Or maybe you don't, because maybe my opinion on what happened last night, and it was a sports news item, especially after Laura Sigamund's press conference after the match. But the match became very tense. Sigmund is one of these crafty veteran players who isn't overly athletic, isn't overly talented, but is smart, is strategic.

And Cocoa Goff, who is incredibly talented, and by the way, incredibly bright, but is really the kind of player that just overpowers you with speed and with power. And Sigamund won the first set, 6'3, and she won the first set with just incredible. incredible guile and craftiness. I think Chris Everett at one point called it, my God, this is crafty. And she's slicing backhand, slicing four hands, drop shotting, and then using power and then using off speed. And she's a great doubles player. And you could see that at the net. She had great hands. And she wins the first set, six three. And Cocoa Gough is scrambling. She doesn't know what to do. She's completely off.

And anybody that has followed tennis over the years knows that there are players that make it to the professional level that, you know, are kind of junky in the way they play. Brad Gilbert, who is Cocoa Gough's coach now, was very much that kind of a player. Like, I bet you he appreciated the opponent last night for his player, Coco Gough, Laura Sigamund, because she was junkie. it up. And then beyond that, she's a very slow player. She would take essentially all 30 seconds, and there's now a shot clock on the serve. You've got to be ready and you've got to hit that serve within 30 seconds from the time the last point is called by the umpire, which by the way, there is discretion used by the umpire. Sometimes they call the score immediately when the point ends. Sometimes they wait a little bit. And if they wait a little bit, then you actually get more than 30

You can get up to 40 seconds if they wait, you know, eight to 10 seconds to announce the score after the previous point. But she was using everything, and she was going into the expiration of the shot clock. And the umpire, with her discretion, was not penalizing her or warning her for going past the zero zero on the shot clock, on the serve clock. and, you know, the fans were starting to get frustrated. Brad Gilbert and the other Cocoa golf coach were telling her to tell the umpire that she is consistently going past the serve clock, but the umpire didn't do anything. Eventually she did, and eventually she was, you know, penalized a point,

which actually ended up being the point that decided a game later in the match. but she was doing everything she could to win the match. She was playing amazing tennis, amazing tennis, not just with the strategy and the way she structured points and the way she won a lot of points and took a one set lead. She was slowing Cocoa Gough down psychologically by using every second of the clock and even going into it. Now, you know, there was probably some gamesmanship there, but she's a slow player in general, which is what I read about today after I watched her press conference, which I'll play some of it for you on the way out of the show here in a moment.

But I enjoyed watching her play. I was rooting for Cocoa Gough because I've been kind of a fan, you know, as much as you can be as an American. tennis fan. I don't follow it as closely, but she's a very likable player. She's very good. And I don't know. I root typically for the Americans at the U.S. Open and sometimes at Wimbledon as well. And anyway, I found myself completely fascinated watching this match, which took nearly three hours to play, was incredibly tense as both players approach the umpire. You know, in Sigmund's case, Sigmund's case a couple of times. Cocoa Gough up 3-0 in the final set went to complain about the time that she was taking on her return of serve because when you're returning, you are supposed to be ready when the server's

ready. But she was taking time on Coco Gough's serve as well. Now, one of the things that's changed is when a player sweats a lot, they usually go to the towel in between points. It used to be that the ball girl or ball boy could bring the towel, but since COVID, they've got to go to the towel, which is a longer walk when you're playing on the Ash main court in the main stadium. Anyway, the fans really got on her for playing slow.

To the point where they were cheering, you know, when she would fault, you know, with the first serve. they weren't cheering some brilliant shots that she hit, and she hit some amazing shots. And they were behind Cocoa Gough, the American, which is the case always at the U.S. Open. But it got to the point where it was a bit ugly. You could hear the fans really complaining about her slow play. I even thought the broadcast with Chris Everett and Patrick McEnroe was a bit over the top. And I think Chris Everett felt it at one point and said, look, I don't want to, I don't want this to get overshadowed. She's playing incredible tennis.

She is competing at a super high level. And I loved everything about the way both of them competed. I thought it was an incredible tennis match, an incredible close to three hours of a first round women's match at the U.S. Open. And I just felt like a lot of the fans in the crowd, and even Chris Everett, Patrick McEnroe, and Pam Schrever, who was on the call court side, that they got too wrapped up in the slowness of her between the points and didn't embrace how brilliant she was during the points for a lot of the match. She was down 5-1 in the third set, and she got that thing back to 5-4 in the set and really had Cocoa Goff once again, you know, reeling a little bit. But golf came through

in the 10th game of the third set and won the match, 366264. She was, you know, as a veteran player who's been on the tour and has played in a lot of, you know, grand slams, both doubles and singles. Laura Sigamund, you know, addressed the media afterwards. And I'm going to let you listen to the first few minutes on your way out if you're interested. Because it was very emotional. She was very upset with the crowd and the way she was treated. And to be honest with you, there was some whining here to a certain extent, but she never used it as an excuse for losing the match.

But I actually think for a lot of what she said, she was spot on. She was somebody that last night was easy from my standpoint to root four. not against. Back tomorrow. It was really a good match. I want to say from both of us, I mean, from her not, because I made her not play her best tennis

in the way how I, you know, structured the rallies. But I think it was great tennis. It was a great show, both fought hard. I think an audience watching a night session match cannot ask for more.

And this is something where I have to say I'm very, very disappointed of the way the people treated me today. I think I'm a fighter. I never did anything against the audience. I stayed calm. I never made not even a gesture against the audience. And they had no respect for me. They had no respect for the way I played. They had no respect for the player that I am.

They had no respect for tennis for me today, for good tennis. And this is something that I have to say that hurts really bad because, you know, there is no doubt about that I'm slow. There is no doubt about I'm getting time violations.

There is, you know, no doubt about that I have to, should be quicker. But at the same time, it's how I play. I'm very slow. I don't want to, I do it for me. I don't do it against the other one. And just like how, you know, clapping when you miss the first serve, those kind of things, I have no understanding for it.

I was very disappointed. I thought I'd go out there. I have a great time on Ash. I have to say I had not a good time and that was just for the audience I'm going to be able to