The Kevin Sheehan Show - First 'What's Next' Look

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

Kevin opened with Washington's 2025-2026 Super Bowl odds before getting to his first thoughts on the Commanders' off-season priorities. Fred Smoot joined Kevin with his analysis on the loss to the Eagles in the NFC Championship game and his off-season priorities. Some talk of the name and early thoughts on the Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl as well.  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.

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Fred Smoot's going to be on this show. I love Smoot. We will go back and relive Sunday a little bit and then look ahead to what they need to do in the upcoming off season. a few emails, and then I'm going to get to my top five priorities for the off season. It's Wednesday we can start to look ahead after Sunday's loss in the NFC title game. But this email from Sander I want to start with, he writes, Kevin, good take on yesterday's show on the distance between Washington and Philadelphia. Real quickly, Tommy and I talked about kind of the gap between the Eagles and the skins.

and the pressure that is on good pressure, but the pressure that is on Adam Peters to close that gap, to win more games than Philadelphia, to win the divisions so that the path back to the NFC title game and beyond is easier because you have home games. So anyway, Sander writes, good take on the distance between Washington and Philadelphia, but don't you think that the rest of the NFC seems to be weakening? the Lions have 19 unrestricted free agents and they lost both coordinators. They did. Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn, both head coaches. The Bucks lost their OC. The Vikings don't have a proven quarterback under contract.

The Rams have an aging quarterback. The 49ers, who knows. And the rest of the NFC South and NFC East are garbage. I think Washington might have the third best odds to win the NFC championship next year. What do you think? You know, Sander, right when I read your email, I thought to myself, you're spot on. Washington's going to have the third best odds to win the NFC championship behind Philadelphia and Detroit. And guess what?

The answer is already there because my bookie and everybody else has the 2025-20206 Super Bowl odds up and available. and Washington is not the third choice to win the NFC championship. San Francisco is. The Super Bowl odds at my bookie for 2025, for the 2026 Super Bowl. Kansas City is the favorite at plus 600. Then it's Buffalo and Baltimore, both at plus 650, Philadelphia at plus 700, Detroit at plus 950, San Francisco at plus 1,600, and then Washington at plus 1,800.

followed by, by the way, Green Bay at plus 2000, Cincinnati at plus 2000, and the Chargers at plus 2200. Those are the top 10 odds favorites to win Super Bowl 60, which is what the Super Bowl will be next year. Yeah, so these are the best preseason odds Washington will have heading into next year since the 2000 season. Washington heading into the 2000 season was the second pick to win the Super Bowl behind the Rams. Remember Washington had won the NFC East, had won a playoff game. The Rams won the Super Bowl beating Tennessee with the greatest show on turf's debut season. But Washington had that offseason signing Dion and Bruce Smith and Jeff George and Mark Carrier and all of the crazy fantasy football free agents that Dan Snyder signed in his first offseason as owner.

But Washington that year was plus $3.50 to win the Super Bowl heading into the season. That's the best odds they've had probably since the early 90s. They were the best odds since the early 90s, and the odds that they'll have going into next season will be the best that they've had since. 2000. Look, it's so hard. I mean, nobody had Washington before this season. Washington's odds were fourth to last in the NFC to win the NFC championship this year, and they got to the NFC championship. You know, we've got a whole offseason. We've got lots of shuffling. You know, you did see young quarterbacks like Bryce Young play much better towards the end of the year for Carolina. That may be a team people have an eye on, believe it or not, even though they went five and 12.

You know, Tampa and Baker Mayfield's development, they lost their OC, true. But, you know, they've got a good team in the NFC South. Pennix Jr. will have a full season, offseason, going into his first full season as a starter. Yeah, the Vikings, I don't know where Sam Darnold will end up. We'll see. But if not, it'll be J.J. McCarthy. I think the Packers have a great roster personally. The Bears have a new coach.

We'll see what happens with Caleb Williams. I do kind of agree that the rest of our division is garbage. I mean, God, we haven't talked about Brian Schottenheimer as the Cowboys coach. I mean, the Cowboys don't have a job that's the least coveted in the NFL, but it's certainly in the bottom third, man. The Jerry situation, it ain't good. We're in a division with two dysfunctional franchises, and neither one of them is our franchise.

But you just never know year to year. But what you do know is that if you've got the quarterback, that you've got to go to near the top of the list in terms of teams expected to be good. And Washington is expected to be good next year. I bet you that they're over under, and I have not seen any over under numbers yet. And I don't know if we'll see any before the offseason is completed. But I bet you that they're over under for next year is nine and a half. it could be higher than that, but they'll have a tougher schedule. It'll be perceived as tougher going in.

But that's a really healthy sort of playoff team number. Nine and a half. I don't know. Will it be 10 and a half? Maybe it'll be 10 and a half on the over-under number. It's not going to be any less than nine and a half. Not with Jaden Daniels, a quarterback. But it's tough to, you know, predict the NFL, so weak to week to week in nature, hard year-to-year,

so hard year to year. But I do think, going into the season, Washington has the best quarterback in the NFC. That counts for a lot. This from Ryan, Ryan writes, I would like you to take a different angle when analyzing the Latimore situation. I say situation, not trade, because we currently have a decision to make. One of the great things about this trade is that outside, of draft picks, it cost us basically nothing. Additionally, we made no future commitment.

Latimore has a cap hit of $18 million next year, but there is zero dead money on his deal. That means we can simply walk away if we want. 18 million is quite significant. It puts him squarely in the top 15 cornerback contract annual values. It is a number that could get us another premium starter on this team. The question is, what is, what is? What is the number? It is, the best use of that money. We had Latimore for the majority of the season. I don't think we had him for the majority of the season, but he only dressed for five games, right? The trade deadline came after the halfway mark. Maybe Washington had only played eight games at that point. I forget. One could argue that he played bad for three of them, Tampa and the Eagles twice. Are we throwing

bad money after good? Ryan, perfect segue into my. top five off-season priorities. So these are subject to change, but this is my initial gut on what needs to be focused on, because there is a gap between Washington and Philadelphia, and they need to close that gap. I think one of the things I kind of felt going into the game Sunday is we got a much better quarterback, and we do have a better quarterback, but their quarterback is a clutch back. And they have a phenomenal roster, phenomenal front office.

Everything about the Eagles, no matter how much we dislike them, is first tier. Everything they do. It starts number one. Here's my off-season priority list. Number one, you've got to continue with the culture

that you started in this past season. They had a total culture rebuild, and man, did they do a hell of a job of identifying the kind of players that would lend towards the culture, the vision of the culture that Dan Quinn and Adam Peters wanted. And that means guys like Wagner and Ertz and Chin, and even a guy like Mariotta, you've got to think about bringing back. I think number one is you've got to continue the culture rebuild. You did such a great job. And the dynamic of a

roster. You know, it changes. You know, it's dynamic. There's a lot of change year to year just by nature of free agency and contracts. I thought that was one of the things that Dan Quinn was so spot on in his postgame presser on Sunday night talking about how he told the players this brotherhood we developed, you know, look around because the locker room will look different next year. But they've got to keep that culture the way it was. And it'll be. be with new players. There's going to be eight, nine, ten new players minimum on the final 53 next year. There's just that much change typically year to year, especially when you have needs and this team does. Number two on the priority list for me, defense. Of course, it's defense. This is the on the

field must have, must improve. For me, it's an edge defense. For me, it's an edge defense. Offensive end, run stopping, D-end. That can pass rush two, but they've got to stop the run next year. And I think more so than the interior, and I'm not going to sit here and tell you that John Allen and Duran Payne and Johnny Newton and Carl Davis and all of them that played were the answers, but some of them are going to be because they're under contract. Certainly Johnny Newton's going to be a part of the plan moving forward. But you need to stop these edge runs, these things.

sea gap and outside the C gap runs that killed you with great backs, great teams, but you need a defensive end that can stop the run. You really need maybe two defensive ends that can stop the run. That's priority number two. Priority number three goes to Ryan's email, and I wrote this down last night when I was going through how I would prioritize things. Figure out Latimore. And it's really a figure out the corner position. Because if Latimore, for whatever reason, was a disappointment to the people inside of that building, culture-wise, playing on the field-wise, you don't let it fester. You don't, you know, let it ride.

You don't worry about being criticized for the trade. You cut your losses before they become and snowball into bigger losses. By the way, let me be clear about something. I'm not suggesting that I know something about the way they feel about Latimore. I don't. I really don't. I just have this gut feel that there's at least a chance that they may have been disappointed. I think it's way too early to be disappointed.

But what do I know? I'm not in that building every day. I'm not, you know, getting to, I don't know who Latimore is as a guy and whether or not he's the right fit for the program. But here's the thing, you've got to figure out corner. If it's Latimore and you feel good about the trade and it was just an issue of, you know, he was late getting in. He was injured when he came in. It just takes some time. Then I want to see him because I've seen him.

We all have as a player. He's a hell of a corner. He's a first-rate cover corner in the league. He has been in New Orleans. Availability's been his biggest issue. That's a big deal. So I just think that they have to be very confident that they made a trade that is going to pay off for them. And it didn't pay off for them this year.

That is obvious. Injuries are a big part of that. and probably just, you know, the fact that he had to get, you know, matched up against Mike Evans and A.J. Brown in three games of the games that he played in. But you got to figure out corner, and part of that is just making sure that you feel just as confident on the day that you made the trade in Marshawn Latimore that you do now. And that's big because Sanra still is going to be a corner, but where is he going to play? Their preference was for him to play inside, and he was so good outside. You need corners. You can never be short on corners in this game, but to Ryan's point, there's no dead money on the contract.

It would be a loss of picks. It would be egg on their face for the trade if they ended up moving on from it. And I'm not suggesting they are. I don't know anything about Latimore. I, from afar, would say, let's let it play out. So number three is figure out Latimore, figure out corner. Number four is you've got to get better in the trenches, period. You know, you've got to get better on defense, which is priority number two,

and you've got to get better on the offensive line. You certainly have to get deeper on the offensive line, because Lucas is an unrestricted free agent. I like Brandon Coleman. I think he showed signs of being a guy that you can start at left tackle, but you've got to be as good as you can possibly be along that offensive. line and it was okay this year. It was probably better than most people thought it would be. Sam Cosmey's legit, but he also had a serious injury, so we'll see, you know, when he gets back

and whether or not he's available for the beginning of training camp, the beginning of next season. And then number five for me is just another playmaker, whether that's another wide receiver or another running back. I had this from Lawrence. Lawrence wrote, this team needs a number two wide receiver. It should be their number one offseason priority. T. Higgins, go get him.

They win the offseason. I think that that's kind of an interesting thought just a few days after they gave up 55 in the NFC championship game. I'm not sure that wide receiver is my number one priority. It's clearly not. I just gave it as number five, and it's a toss-up between wide receiver and running back. And it's down that low because they just got blasted again defensively. 55 in the NFC championship game. No matter how competitive we all think, I think the game was through three quarters before it got sideways in the fourth. So culture continuation number one, defense number two, specifically a run-stopping defense.

end that can also rush the passer. Three, figure out Latimore, figure out corner. Don't worry about the criticism you'll take if you decide he's not the right fit and you made a mistake. Cut your losses. Again, not suggesting that that is part of the conversation. But if it is, they should move on. Number four, offensive line.

Number five, another playmaker, wide receiver or running back. My preference would be running back if you can find an elite running back, but the truth is they'll go get both of those guys. They'll get a number two or a 1A receiver and they'll probably look for running back as well. You know what else they need? They need a kicker too. All right, Fred Smoot, after these words from a few of our sponsors. I want to welcome a new sponsor to the podcast, and that sponsor is Rocket Money. Guys, this is interesting, so listen carefully because we've actually talked about the problem that rocket money is solving.

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And he is great when he comes on this podcast. And I know how many of you listening enjoy it when he's on. You and I were just talking before we started to record. and we'll get to the game on Sunday and the season as a whole and what's next and all of that. But this was a hell of a lot better than talking about lawsuits and investigations, wasn't it? It was almost kind of like, I guess because we're still in the belly of the beach right now. I think we're just coming down off of this high. Right.

It was unbelievable in a way, believable in a way, because if you were told us, the season, give me your best case scenario. If everything lines up properly, if it works, what would have been the record of the team? And I think most people would have said, at best we sneak into the playoffs

as a 9 and 18 with a rookie quarterback and a new head coach, but man, these guys took us on an emotional roller coaster. You got to realize this. We're talking about a hell noah during the year. We're talking about winning on six games in the last

player again. It was just unbelievable from beginning to end. You know, I'm wondering if someone like you who's been around it for a while, and when I say around it, not just around the league, but around this team and this fan base for a lot of different reasons, starting with, obviously, you played here. But, you know, in my conversations with you guys, especially when you were playing or shortly after your career, I always felt like whether it was you or Santana or Clinton or Cooley or anybody that you guys just didn't understand our position on the owner during all those years. You know, I think a lot of you guys had relationships with them and I understood that

and that sort of tainted the view. But just how bad it was for fans and how poorly run the organization was. and I'm wondering now that we've stepped a year and a half away from it, if you realize why we thought the way we thought and why we felt the way we felt. Yeah, and I guess it was justified for y'all to feel that way, and I think it was justified for us to feel that way. You know, you got on one hand, you got people that's looking at the house through wondering. Then you got people that's actually living in the house,

and we see things totally different, especially when you're talking about God, is changing our life, you know, one paycheck at a time. And, and I can say this as a whole, because I always like to be fair in every situation I am. I will give deadness. We can't ever say it was a lack of not trying. He was trying, all right? Now, did his methods work? Come on, he brought back Coach Gibbs. The only coach to win this team of championship. He had some reaches in there. He had some mistakes in there. I just think in the end, the relationship won't thin with the fan base and won't be in with everybody else because we weren't, we were stagnant. We weren't moving.

And now that you get an ownership in here that's pushing all the white buttons, just doing all the right things, that's backing up everything that they say that's putting their money with their mouth fit, that's treating people like people, and now you've got something to compare it to. So now in comparing that in contrast, yes, this, the new ownership is hands-on. The new ownership has a direction, has a plan, have a method of a man. They understand how they want to do things. They're doing it. Like, it's a difference between working and then doing your work and working with love. Like, they're doing their work, and they're doing it with love, and it's permeating through the whole franchise. You know, I don't think I've ever asked you this.

But in going back to your time here, you were here for, I think, two very important moments in the early years of Dan Snyder. You were here when he hired and fired Marty Schottenheimer in one year. We've talked about that because you... Big mistake. Yeah. I think it's a single biggest football mistake he made during his ownership tenure. And then in your fourth season here, you were here for... for basically hope returns.

When he hired Joe Gibbs and Gibbs was coming back to coach this team, you were only a fourth year player, but you had gotten familiar with the market a little bit. But the reaction to that may have been, and maybe it was the single best thing that Dan did football-wise as an owner. What do you remember about hearing the news that he had hired Joe Gibbs to come out of retirement and to coach's former team. You know what, Professor, through all your investigations

and your search for knowledge, I cannot believe, Professor, that you don't know the story behind Coach Guilla. I don't. Do you know how the story unfolded? All right. Tell me. Let me take you down to the story. This is how the story happened.

All right, you know what happened when it came to Coach Furrier, right? Coach Furrier retired. You know, so I am, I'm going back. I pack my truck up. I'm going down south for a while just to relax, see my family. I'm driving down 95. I'm getting on 85. I'm almost to Atlanta, and I get a call from ESPN.

ESPN said, can you do an interview? Coach Spurrier just retired. I don't know where we want you to do an interview. I was like, well, I'm on the road, but I'm close to Atlanta. They're like, yes, stop at the building. We can do an interview. I go in. I do the interview with ESPN.

They asked me, so who's going to be the next coach? And I say the only coach that could save us right now is Coach Gibbs. Well, it turns out that Coach Gibbs is at home, him and Miss Gibbs, watching ESPN. So when I say that, Coach Gibbs turned to me and Ms. Gibbs and said, you want to coach again? And he was like, of course he does. I get a call from Coach Gibbs the next day saying that he is going to come back in coaching. He tells me the story and thanks me because he was like,

I've been thinking about this for a year, but I didn't have the nerves to talk to Ms. Gilles about it, and you took it out of my plate. So I, Mr. Smuster-Dermis, put it out there in the air, and it started to tell a reaction. I've never heard that story before. I swear to you I've never heard it. I can't believe that you didn't.

No, no. No, me and Chip interviewed Coach Gilt about the story, and Coach Gilt told the story. I don't remember that. I honestly don't think I ever saw it. And I'm actually upset that you didn't tell me one day. Why haven't you ever asked me about the Joe Gibbs story? No, no, because I thought you knew about it.

I just thought you knew it was common knowledge. I swear to God. I mean, I know most of the common knowledge stuff associated with the team, but I swear to you, I have never heard that story. And it's so great. But here's, now I have a couple of questions. So when he called you the next day, it was still a few days or maybe even a few weeks away from him. Before he took the job.

Before he took the jobs. So what was going on during those weeks? Did you tell anybody? Like, my God Gibbs is thinking about coming back. No, you didn't. No, I didn't say a word. I didn't say a word to know about. I was so in awe of talking to the Joseph.

I didn't know what to know. So when he, like, just to know, and I was like, just to know that I had, I put it in the air, and I had, like, like you said, I took a little bit off his plate, so he didn't have to ask her. Could he go back in coach? And I think it was one of them points, like, the one person that Dan could never turn down. I don't care who was the coach. If he asked to come back in coach, you were going to let him coach. So I just knew the window was open for him to come back in coach.

And that started a life-long relationship that I still held with Coach Gibbs like this. My guy, I always talk to him, I always take on him, always see him, most definitely. So you didn't call anybody including Dan or anybody with the organization to say, Joe Gibbs just called me, saw me on an ESPN? No, no, no, he had already reached out to the team. Okay. This was after he probably reached out to the team. Like, I think they had already started talking.

I just feel like I said, I just, I just said it was on my mind at the time. You know, the only coach that I had said that we ever won the Super Bowl here. And I was like, well, I know he still got some coaching in him. Why not come back in coaches? That's crazy. I swear on my kids, I've never heard that story. When I went to Minnesota, when I came back, I went to the front of office in Minnesota and told them I wanted to come.

back. I want to be a red skin. That's what I want to do. And would they allow it to happen? They said, all right, we have, they waited a couple weeks. They were like, all right, who are you going to talk to? I said, I'm going to call Coach Gibbs. When I came back, I called Coach Gibbs, told Coach Gibbs I want to come back. He said, well, would they let you come back? I say, yes, they will. And I went in and did my whole deal with just me and Coach Gibbs. Like, that's how it happened. Wow. That's a great story. I mean, one of these days we can just talk about that first season. I mean, we've talked about 04, but we've talked about 07 more, obviously, because of Sean's passing, and then, you know, winning the final four games going to the playoffs, etc. But that's crazy. But I would just ask one more question about this, and it would be, you know, take me to day one of minicamp or off-season stuff. How quickly did you know, because that was an older group that he brought back. I mean, Greg Williams was the defensive coordinator that he hired, but there were a lot of the old gang,

Joe Bugle, Don Bro, all these guys were guys that he brought back. How quickly before you knew this was a much different situation than the Spurrier group? Although Marvin Lewis was great. I've been saying from day one, though, from the first hour, and I love Marvin Lewis. to death, but Greg Williams was a whole another level of defensive call and a whole not a level of defensive intellect, whole not a level

of motivation. Of course you love, like, Coach Gibbs is, like, you've got different type coaches. You got your mad geniuses. You got your, you got your disciplinarians, you got your military type guys, you got your, you've got

your granddaddy effect guys. And Coach Gibbs is a little bit of all of them in one, and he's, delivery was totally different. And he was, when I say granddad, you would do whatever for your granddad. You'll run through a wall for your granddad. So we'll do anything for Coach Gill.

So it was a whole different environment. It was totally different than what we had saw. And I could only imagine, and, you know, not to die on any of my quarterbacks I play with any of that. But if we had one of the upper tiered quarterbacks with the defense we had in a running game we had and receivers we had, And we could have been a special team. Wow.

As always with Fred, you know, something happens in our conversation that leads to something. And I'm like, wow. We go sideways. I didn't know that. But that's crazy. And I know people right now are going to tweet and say, Sheehan, how did you not know that story? But I swear, I think it's the first time I've heard it.

All right. Let's talk about the team. And let's just go back to Sunday. and the game against Philadelphia. I'm curious if you felt the way I did, which was the final score was not really indicative of how competitive the game was through the Echler fumble that we're down 11 and we got the ball at midfield.

Did you feel that way or not? I felt that way too, man. The game got loose. The game got away from them. When the Everland started, it's hard to stop it. We've all been there. part of some of those games like that. Well, we're playing tight. We're going hit for hit,

but it's like it's a certain couple of plays that can break the game wide open, and it's turnover. The whole playoffs is about turnovers. Who gets the turnovers compared to who turns the ball over. That was unlike us. The one thing that we haven't done all year was one, get penalties, two turn

the ball over, and that's what we did when we lost this game. I hate, you know, I know people think I'm being a homer, but I think that we play a clean game, that that game go down to the last driving. We know how the last drive comes when it comes to this team. And let's just be honest, we are team that individually, we are not as good as we are collectively. Like, the unit itself breeds the talent, not the individual talent. When you look at Philadelphia,

individually, they are the most talented team in football, hands down to me. And I thought like at the end of the day, if we could tweak a cover team. things do a couple of things. We could really sit here and fight that battle. But at the end of the day, this is a team that's been in a Super Bowl won for the last three years that we played. Yes, they have restocked. Yes, they have reloaded, but they have the same build and the same guns.

And then they added a Saquan Barclay, a home one hitter, and tailback, and that changes everything. And I want to, at the end of the day, Saquan Barkley, Derek Henry, Jamir Gibbs, Beezon Robinson save the running back market. They showed what playoff football is built on. The ability to stop the run and ability to run the ball, Professor,

that dictate terms. You want to dictate terms, I could run the ball and I can do two things. I can keep the clock running. I can wet out of your defense, and I can make sure your quarterback watching the game with the rest of the fans.

It's a dominating thing, and that offensive line of Philadelphia gives them the right to dictate terms. Listen, you're preaching to the choir on that, and you're also bringing up something that I brought up about a week and a half ago, and that is, you just mentioned those backs. Well, guess what? Our team faced all of them. We faced Barclay three times, Gibbs once, Bejohn Robinson once, Derek Henry once, and Bucky Irving, who was one of the best young runners in the game. twice, not to mention Alvin Kamara, guys like Chuba Hubbard, D'Andre Swift, you know, I went back and looked at it a couple weeks ago because Quinn said something about facing really good running backs. There's no team in the league that faced better rushing teams or more star

running backs than Washington did this year. With that said, what you just pointed out is I think worth acknowledging. Philadelphia is better. They had a better roster. Some of our parts were, was greater than the whole. There's no doubt about it. And they're mature.

They're mature in them, their unity. This team was put together seven months ago. I know. I get that. But there is a gap, don't you think, between Philly and Washington?

It is. It's a gap. But guess what? We got them in two of the major categories. And this is what allowing us to play with them three out of the three games is the fact that we have, to me, the better head coach and the better quarterback. Them are the two positions that I think we're winning out of all of that. Now, if our roster progresses and as our roster grows and matures and we get better in certain positions, we will then contend with them.

They know we are a problem. They know this. Yeah, they probably do. I mean, we were there with them in the next to last game of the season. So if they don't acknowledge that, they're nuts. And clearly the quarterback was the reason we were in that game. And let me give you, let me give you your roses. Me and you debated this preseason.

And we was talking about this quarterback draft. And, you know, I was all over the place. I love me some Caleb. I love me some J.J. McCarty. and you just kept pounding, and you just kept pounding the table. I got to give you your prop. Now, did you know, Professor, at that time,

that he would be the best Ricky quarterback of all times, and don't you lie? Of course not. Nobody could have predicted this. But, first of all, you know, it's one of the reasons I love you because you don't just focus on the things you get right, You pay attention to other people.

I have lots of people that I work with that only remember when they're right. But here's what I did say at the beginning of the year. I actually said 10 and 7 and a chance at the playoffs, a wild card round because I thought he had played enough football and the skills that he had translated to the NFL today. But I do think in looking back, no, never would have predicted that. Of course not. Nobody in their right mind would have.

but I do think that it was 75% him, but I think Cliff gets a chunk of the credit pie, you know, at least 20% of it. Yeah, it's a marriage. Like, you need both. Like, you can't have one without the other. Like, I hate when people try to do that.

Like, I hate when people try to separate Bill and Chacon, Brady. I hate when people try to separate greatness from greatness. Like, teamwork, it makes the dream work, And it takes up the people to make people great. Like the one thing I can say about Jaden, he is, that's why I call him Jedi Five. He is the force multiplier. He makes the points different.

What Jaden has shown us in his rookie here is, when you do eventually have to pay me with the top quarterbacks, I don't care what the other players are. I'm going to make them better. Like, he's already like, think about this. A guy like Jayton Hurts. I love Jay Hurts, but he has AJ Brown on one side.

Dante Schmills. He has a defense officer line in football. He has Goddard. He has got it at Tideon. Barclay. He has Seekore and Barclay. He has a total unit. If I take Jalen Hurst out and put in and insert

Jaden Daniels, do you know what the Philadelphia Eagles look like as a team? They're unstoppable. It's nothing you can do with them. No. No. Not to mention the defense that they have. All right, so one last thing about the game on Sunday.

It was another big reveal on just how sub-average the defense was. And it was all years, especially against the run. That's why I would say, yeah, you take away two of those turnovers. I think we still lose. You take away three, you know, I don't know. But at the end of the day, you couldn't stop them. You couldn't stop them. I think the wordage is different.

I think that's harsh. I'll say this. When you on defense, when you have talent deficiencies in certain points, then you have to say collectively as a defensive coordinator, I can't dictate situations. I have to give something and I have to take something. What am I going to give and what am I going to take? I'm going to give five yards in a cloud of dust. I'm not going to give you the big play over the top.

Fathers throwing into the ball. Because we did have deficiencies on defense. And I think as a coordinator, now my hand is forced to coach that way because I am in this situation. So I wouldn't say they was a bad defense because I thought Frankie Louvre played well all year. I thought Wagner played well all year.

I thought Fowler made plays. I thought Sarah Steele grew as the year turned on to be one of the best young corner of the, back in football. I just thought Jeremy Chin played well. I just thought guys played well, but they also still looked like a unit that had only been playing together for a year. So I like to be fair in my assessment of a team, of a coordinator of everything. All right, I agree with that. And all season long, I'm like, there's a disconnect here because I think they have some decent players. I think Louvo is a great player. Wagner was great. You mentioned

Chin, Martin, Sanristel, et cetera. But the results were not consistent to say the least. But are you going to be fair to Marshawn Latimore? How do you view his situation and his play? Let me hear it. Well, this is what I do, though. I think he got to the Brotherhood late. Because we got him mid-season, like, he was just trying to fit in,

to get in to be one other guys. And I think, especially with the injuries, I think that said him back. But then he had, think about this, against the Detroit Lions, he had zero catches, zero yards, zero yards. So he goes on these spurts of, I'm playing to these extremes. And I thought most people set the bar for him to play into the middle. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like he had two games where he gave up zero catches.

I just think that he's learning the NFC East. for one, and I have watched the NFC East undressed cornerbacks. This is not a cornerback friendly league. All your teams on TV, no matter which NFC team you play, and they usually don't have a bona fide number one and a bona fide number two-wire receiver. You remember Numbia Underwark came to Philadelphia after being what they call the shed-down cornerfoot the Raiders,

and I was like, no, I don't think you shed down. I just think the Raiders are no good right now, and nobody's throwing at him. So now he comes to Philadelphia, and people are throwing at him. So now you have to learn the league that you end and learn the circumstance. So I don't want to be unfair to him. I just think he has some up-in-dow game. And when you are the number one quarterback, when you are Champ Bailey,

when you are DiAngelo Hall, you understand when I take on the number one receiver, no matter how good I am, they're going to give him ten attempts to burn me. At least, they're going to give him ten attempts to burn me. can I be a batter in a batter's box in the MLB? Can I go for 10? Because if I can, I won that match up. So it's a flaw position that only gets more flaw because we'll put on a microscope because our plays are usually us versus them alone.

So no reason to panic on Marshawn Latimore. No, no reason to panic. He's going to get healthy. He's going to learn the game plan. We'll be able to lean on him. He'll learn to. He'll learn the environment that he's playing in. No, give him a chance.

Like, we can't be. That's why I have to have these shirts made this year. Let Grandma cook. I'm trying to teach patience. I'm trying to teach patience. We're in a microwave society where everybody's wanting now. If you really want something that you can live off of, they've got some love in it, it takes patience.

Let Grandma in their kitchen. Get out there, kitchen. Give me a fish and pull. Here's the thing, though. that we didn't have to be patient. They were in the NFC championship game this past weekend. I mean, so now the expectations are going to be through the roof right away. So I want to get to your off-season priority list to find out what you think they need to do over the next few months to make up that ground on Philadelphia in the division.

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and you don't have to pay anything until the year 20, 27. We continue with Fred Smoot. So let's talk about what's next. What is on Smoot's offseason plan? Give me your top three priorities. All right, this is what I do want to say. Adam Peters has really done a great job because it ain't one glaring hole. You see what I'm saying?

Especially with the Marchand-Ladamore mid-season trade for the third-round pick. I think we won that one. I would say this. I want a layer of positions that I'm good at. I want to get better. Like the one thing Philadelphia showed us, it gave us a true microscopic look at what we are and what we have to get better at. We miss it maybe one or two more offensive lines.

I would say you become a dominant team in this league if Zach urs is your number two tight end to me. All right, maybe we can still a Kyle Pitts from Atlanta. Oh, he stinks. he doesn't like football. Did you watch him this year? He doesn't like football. Sometimes people need a change of scenery and a change of culture.

They were frustrated with him. He's too talented. He's too talented. He's a real thing. Thank you. And sometimes it takes different people to get talent out of people. Maybe. He looked disinterested when I watched him.

Yeah. So also, I think people would say, let's go get Terry. a legit running mate that gets him open by his presence alone. I would think people want to go get a one beat. I hear a lot of people talking T. Higgins. I would love T. Higgins. I think T. Higgins would be a good pick, but do most people think that he would buy into the culture?

Well, most people think he's a culture killer. So it's like they want people with commanders' attitude. So, you know, when you shop for these guys, there'll be different type guys that they go and get. So, yeah, most definitely add to the wide receiver room. The big question is, Professor, what would you think about in the running back? Well, I was going to just ask you. My next question is you brought up wide receivers,

if you could only have one, a big time running back or another big time, you refer to him as a 1B, wide receiver, which would you choose? I think if the guy I'm good, is a draftee like Rocket Sanders. I'm getting somebody that can be a potential home run. Here they're running back. I'm going to take the running back. Because I think the running back just does so much for the offense and the defense.

And I can get me a wire receiver. I figured I can get me a wire receiver. I'm telling you that I can find wire receivers. I think quality running back high on the list, would you take a Najee Harris or something like that? Or would you want some different? I mean, this hypothetical, question is more for the purposes of kind of trying to find out from you which you think is more

of a priority, because the answer is they'll probably go out and get both a wide receiver and a running back. But I'm with you because I just picture what you said, Jaden and Seekwon Barkley in the same backfield, Jaden and Jemir Gibbs, Jaden and Bijon Robinson. You know, I mean, I just the running back made a huge resurgence in terms of the importance. We really were inconsistent running the football with a dual threat quarterback, a guy that was involved. He led our team in rushing 10 times. We don't want that next year.

You agree with that? Yeah. Yeah. I agree with it. I, if Ashton Gentie or the kid from Carolina who's a big dude, Hampton, if there's somebody, I like the guy from Iowa, Caleb Johnson, if there's something, if there's somebody that they... What about the guy from Ohio State? Trayvion Henderson, yeah, or the kid, the old miss, yeah.

If it's, if they thought that they, the back they had, had a chance to be truly an elite back next year or the year after, I'd prefer that. And here's the other part of that, too, Fred, is that they schemed wide receivers up open all season long. Diami and Sekias, these guys were open. call it, but I do want, I do want, I do want a little bit more heat in my wire receiver room. I need somebody that can legitimately, legitimately take the top off. Like, I want, I want, I want either, I want a super-fas guy that can really break the defense open. I want a really big tall guy that could catch bad passes with a big catch radius.

Like, I want to make Jayden Daniels job easier, period. By the way, did you throw out Nizier Harris? Because you like Nagee Harris? No, I just threw it because I know he's a free agent. Okay, got it, got it. Yeah, because there really aren't a lot of big-time backs that are free agents. I think, you know, Aaron Jones would be out there. You know, he's getting a little bit older.

J.K. Dobbins, I think, is a, but he's always hurt. And then, Nadja Harris is another one. All right. Well, I mean, they have a lot of names. needs. You just identified a lot of needs. They've got to get better defensively. We know that. They've got to get better and stronger and more physical on the offensive line. Depth-wise, at the very least. And they need another playmaker or two on offense. What are we missing?

Yeah, most definitely. Well, that's what I say sometimes to find out what you don't got. Let's talk about what we do get. We find that left tackle in the third round. We got a star at quarterback. We got a star at wide receiver. We have a legit center that can handle anybody in this league. We have an agent tight end that steal money in the bank. We do have pieces. I just want to layer those pieces. I want to layer those pieces on defense.

What do we have on defense? We have some legit guys in the inside. We got to find out what's going to happen with John Allen. What do you want to do with the run? We got some youth in there. What do you want to do? You want to resign file? you want to upgrade at that position.

Jeremy Chen, I want Jeremy Chan back from Adam Peters. Most definitely I want Jeremy Chan back. I need to sign Wagner back. So it's some guys that I need to sign, but then you've got guys like Drake Greenlaw that's going to hit the Free Asian market. You know, that Adam Peters is familiar with.

So it will be some be made. Number one for me on defense, I need a run-stopping edge-setter defensive end. They got gashed. consistently on the edges. And Fowler is not a run stopper. They were putting Duran out there late in the season to see if he could do it. If you told me the number one player defensively or number one position,

to me it's a run-stopping D-end that it would be also nice if he could rush the passer. But you've got to be better at stopping the run or teams are going to do that. And that means less opportunities for the. offense and for Jaden? Well, the thing about it is we almost named it out, I mean, named a million cap room and draft capital.

You have your pick-upil-a-litter-lid like that's the thing about it. We are at ground zero. Now, like you said, we were four quarters away from being in New Orleans. I know that happened quick. We kind of all got whiplas from it, but this is the worst-this roster's ever going to be.

I think so. And that's amazing to see. hear and say that. Like, this is the worst, that they literally accomplish the unthinkable. They literally four-quarter, literally, I want to say two quarters away from the Super Bowl with this roster, with a roster that they're only going to upgrade at least one person in every position. That's how I look at the roster. They're going to upgrade every position at least one person per position. And they should be a much more desired destination than they've been in the past.

No, we are America's new team. Just the new monica. Every free agent wants to come here. Draft these out, tweeting everything, everybody wants to come to the nation's capital, the rightful place of America's team. It's something new. It's totally different. Do you want the name to change?

Nobody cares anymore. The commanders actually was cool. I'm just telling you, like, actually nobody cared. Commanders was cool. Like, let me tell you something. When something in the room stank, professor, the best deodorant is winning, right? The best deodorant is winning.

I haven't heard nobody say nothing about the name. This week's three. All right? Nobody cared. Everybody was sleeping in their band with their left hand up. And they didn't care. They're commanding to me. Nobody cares.

Sleeping in bed with their left hand up. Let me just tell you something with the utmost of respect intended. You are way off on this one. It matters to a lot of people. And I think you know that. But what's interesting about what you said is, and I had somebody mention this to me very recently, in fact, that the winning does perform. fume over a lot of ill will. It also acts as fuel for those that did not come back and won't

come back without the team looking, feeling like the old team. But those people are also paying attention and excited about the winning, but they're not jumping back in until it is something resembling what they used to have versus kind of the expansion team feel that we've had here for the last couple of years. And I think they realize that out there. I think they understand the tent grew. The fan base got bigger, you know, a lot bigger in the last year, but it's nowhere near still what it used to be.

The local television ratings kind of tell you the story on that. They were 21st in the league this year in local TV ratings with the hottest, you know, young quarterback in the game in one of the biggest surprise teams in this season. But I also, look, I've said this a million times. I want a change. I think there will be a change. But I also understand how complex it is for those people.

There's no easy solution here. And they've got all the numbers. They understand what will make sense and what won't. The only thing that would have disappointed me, and I know this won't be the case, is if somehow they just blew it off. and ignored it. They're not doing that. Well, you know, once upon a time, a great philosopher and professor,

one said, won't you just name on the Red Wolf? And let's just rock with that, you know, but nobody paid that kid in their attention. Nobody gave a guy that guy's name. I think that guy's name was Fred something, yeah. Yeah, the team paid people millions to do research for a name when I gave it to them for free. Yeah. Well, you know what? You should have charged them. Maybe they would have taken your advice. You can't give away that stuff for free.

All right, who do you like in the Super Bowl? You know what? I'm going to be, I'm going to be as honest as I can be. I, myself, as a football showman, I don't ever bet against Patrick Mahon. You understand? That is blasphly. Ever bet against legitimately the goat of quarterback and the goat of coaching Mr. Andy Reid, who I had a decade awards with.

But I really do feel. player for player. The best team is the Philadelphia Eagles. I think it's their time. I hate to say it. It tastes like puk in my mouth. But I always pull for the NFC East because I want us to continue to collect trophies and be the number one division when it comes to Super Bowl trophies.

I think that Saquan Barkley is a unstoppable force behind that offensive line. I think at the end of the day, I think the Philadelphia is going to win this game, 27, 25 State of Super Bowl winners. It ain't a light pole safe in the city of Philadelphia. We know how these people act. They're not the best fan base,

but I think they win the Super Bowl. Yeah, I think you're right. I like Philly too. I mean, I've got time to change my mind, and so do you, and it's tough to bet against Patrick Mahomes, but I think Philadelphia is the best team. You're the best. Thanks for doing this. I appreciate it. It's always fun.

Anytime, Professor. Fred Smoot, everybody. Love having him on the show. All right, that's it for today. Back tomorrow with Tommy. Tonight's one of the most exciting days of my life. And as a lifelong Redskinned fan should be for all of us. First off, I'd like to just say thank you very, very much to Pat and Joe.

Welcome home. Well, first of all, I'm nervous and excited. So if I make a few mistakes here, you'll have to bear with me. I'm going to kind of wrestle my way through this. First of all, I want to thank to everybody for the welcome. I mean, to see the people out front, try to stop and say thanks to each one of them. To think, I really got to tell all of you, I had all the fun. So everybody's thanking me, and I said, I'm the guy that had all the fun.