The Kevin Sheehan Show - Injuries Mounting + Dan Hellie

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

Kevin opened up with Commanders' training camp news before welcoming onto the show Dan Hellie. Dan is calling the Commanders' preseason games with John Riggins and Brian Mitchell and he shared several observations and some interesting insight on the team.   For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match   Ready to do your own spring reset? Join Thrive Market with my link www.ThriveMarket.com/SHEEHAN for $20 off your first three orders plus you’ll get a FREE $60 gift.   Chime is not just smarter banking, it is the most rewarding way to bank. Head to www.Chime.com/SHEEHAN. It only takes a few minutes to sign up.   If you want to try Momentous Signature Spec Creatine, head to livemomentous.com and use code SHEEHAN for up to 35% off your entire first order. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. I've got one guest on the show with me today. Dan Helly will join me. Helly's calling the pre-season games here locally on Channel 9 with Brigo and Brian Mitchell.

The show's presenting sponsor is always Windonation 86690 Nation, windownation.com if you need new windows. Three weeks from tonight, everybody. Three weeks from tonight, the NFL season opens up. Rematch of last year's Super Bowl with Seattle hosting New England. Between now and then, every team in the NFL holding its breath on their knees praying that they don't lose key players before the real games begin. Today, on that front, bad news in Houston.

Second year wide receiver Jaden Higgins, who really came on towards the end of last season. He was a second round pick in the 2025 draft, a big old lanky 6 foot 4 inch wide receiver, had two good playoff games in the Texans win over the Steelers and then the loss to the Patriots. Jaden Higgins, done for the year, torn ACL. It happened in a joint practice yesterday with the Raiders. I loved that Houston team last year. I played them midway through the season to win the AFC championship. I think that was the best defensive team we've seen in a few years in the NFL.

They could have easily made a much deeper run, but they were without some key players in that playoff game against New England. Their best receiver, Nico Collins, was out. They lost their tight end, Dalton Schultz, during the game. And then, I've mentioned this many times in the past, I don't know what they were thinking, dropping C.J. Stroud back over and over again. But if they had just run the ball three times and punted eight, nine, ten times in the game, they probably would have won the game. But now no Jaden Higgins. That is a big blow. You know, the combination of Higgins and Collins makes for, if not the tallest pair of number one and number two receivers in the league.

certainly among the tallest pairs of receivers. Collins at 6-4, 6.4 and a half. Higgins at 6-4 as well. Big loss for Houston today. They still should have a very, very good team and a dominant defense. It certainly looks that way on paper. How about our old friend Tyler Biotish?

Remember, he signed with the Chargers after Washington cut him. He's out indefinitely after suffering damage to his ACL. Now, an MRI today will reveal the seriousness of it, but Adam Schaefter reporting that there were additional injuries to his knee as well. This happened also in a joint practice as the Chargers were practicing yesterday with the 49ers. Remember the issues that the Chargers had offensive line-wise last year. That was really the killer for them.

They were good enough in most areas, but their offensive line, you know, they lost Roshan Slater before the season even started. Now they've lost the center that they went out and signed to a three-year deal, perhaps, for a while. teams between now and the opener, they just want to get to that first weekend with as many healthy players as possible. Obviously, our team has already lost one major, major player, and that's Laramie Tunsell. The Tunsel injury may right now still be the number one in terms of the most serious of all of the training camp injuries suffered by almost any team. But the list of players that are banged up, nicked up right now, missing some time in camp or have missed some time in camp for our team, it's getting longer by the day.

Add Rashad White, the running back to that list today. He did not practice. The situation with him was undisclosed. but that list of players who are or may be out for a while or have been out for a while, that list is getting longer. By the way, yesterday we talked about with Tommy, Tommy and I were talking about the two-padded practices that Quinn was looking forward to and sort of intimated that because they had two padded practices this week, that Jaden Daniels and maybe other starters wouldn't need to play. in the game on Saturday. Well, with some of the players that they have that weren't able to practice yesterday, they didn't go pads yesterday. They ended up going in just shells. Today was a padded practice.

But here's the list of players that are either out now or have been out previously. Nicky Javala put this list together and tweeted it out. Marcus Marietta, the MCL. Jeremy McNickles is out with a quad injury. Jerome Ford was just put on injured reserve, IR with a hamstring. River Craycraft, the receiver that they picked up last year for a week or two and then signed again recently. He's on injured reserve. Bates is still dealing with the hamstring, even though he has returned to practice. Tunsell, obviously, with the triceps. Alligretti is back at practice, but he had the calf injury very early in camp. Tim Settles dealing with a calf injury. Dietrich Wise is still on the pup list. Now we have O'Dafay Oway with a calf injury. Caleb on Chase on

with a knee injury. None of these are expected to be long term. Jordan McGee with the shoulder, Trey Amos with the ankle. And then add Johnny Newton to the list. He's got a peck injury which Quinn actually said today, he's not sure how serious it is. Look, Johnny Newton, I know many of you are now bailing on Johnny Newton. It is year three, understood. This is the year where if he's going to kind of present himself as having been worthy of a very early second round pick, you'd like to see that by year three. he's been banged up and now is banged up again.

We'll see how that situation plays out. Meantime, no answer from the coach today, Dan Quinn, on who will and who won't play Saturday in Detroit. He was asked again, he said they have not made that decision or they're not ready to disclose what that decision is. I would think that they've made that decision. But again, yesterday, it's. seem doubtful that the starters, or at least most of them would play.

But if they didn't get that practice that they wanted in pads, maybe the game for some of those starters is in play now. We'll see. This from Ken. Ken's writing from Palm Beach, Florida, a rather lovely spot in our United States. Kevin, I'm a skins fan down here in Florida. Through and through.

Please ignore the idiots that think the Daniels story is a nothing burger. It was full-on custom blend Shelley's caliber. Yes, we talk about the Shelley's custom blend burgers, which are very good. Nice reference there, Ken continues. This was a major peak inside our franchise quarterback's inner circle, and it's not pretty. We learn that contract negotiations with his agent slash mother will be difficult next year and they will be very public. We also know now more than ever that Jaden isn't in control of his inner circle. His mother is the boss and his Uber male teammates might eventually lose respect for him if he doesn't get things under control.

Thank you for that, Ken. I do agree that anybody that thinks this is a nothing burger is lacking something, you know, EQ, perhaps, or is just, you know, kind of a diehard, pompom waving. Please don't, you know, talk about anything critically when it comes to my team. I'm with you on that, Ken. I had several people reach out to me and actually say they thought this was, you know, a total nothing burger. I read that one tweet yesterday on the show. A media-created story, even more specifically, a DC media-created story.

Obviously, if you're paying attention, you know that's not true. You know, the Daniels team decided to do what they did with the jersey number and the cease and desist. And then they decided they thought it would be a good idea to go public with what they were doing and what they were involved with when it comes to LSU. Just silliness from some of you. You know, some of you literally are pom-pom waivers. Please don't talk critically about the team or try to create any sort of controversy. This, of course, was not a creation.

This was a reaction. Some of you must really miss Larry Michael in the market, you know, doing his show on Comcast or monumental or whatever it used. whatever it used to be called. No offense, Larry, if you're listening. But there are places in town where you can go for, you know, the absolute homer of all Homer communication. You're not going to get it here, even though I am a massive fan of the team. But no, you could not ignore what happened last week. So I agree with that, Ken, for sure.

I also agree that it was in many ways. ways the clearest peak into his inner circle that we've had, even though we have known for a while of the potential, you know, mother agent issues. But this was without question the clearest peak into what he has to deal with when it comes to all of his off-the-field stuff. Now, it's too early to really say what's going to happen next off season with contract talks. I will just drop this in, though, because I don't think I have said this about the contract negotiations that will obviously take place with Jaden Daniels when they first can take place, which is after his third season, is complete.

But anybody that believes, and I don't think many of you believe, this, but I don't think it's a crazy thing to sort of contemplate, well, you know, they don't have to give him a contract extension next offseason. They still have, you know, the fifth year option on his rookie deal that they can pick up, forcing him to play for us in 2027 on the rookie deal, and then in 28 on whatever the fifth year option number would be. But if you think that, you think that, Jaden Daniels has to go out there and have a great season for them to give him the big contract extension in 2027? No. He's getting the contract extension at the earliest possible moment, which would be the offseason in 2027. If the team is smart, we haven't seen how they deal with

these things. Now they did get the Laramie Tunsell deal done. Obviously, the Terry McCorn deal, many of you think that they really butchered that, I don't necessarily feel the same way. As you know, if you were listening to this show last summer, he's getting the contract extension unless he's got some sort of, you know, career-ending injury this year. Knock on wood.

You don't find talents like Jaden Daniels just appearing, oh, let's go to the quarterback tree. we're not going to pay him. No, he could get injured this year like he did last year. They're still going to pay him. He could have an average season. They're still going to pay him. This is like a 95%, I'd say a 90% chance that he's getting the contract extension next off season.

I mean, they're going to gladly want to pay him. could his mother, his agent, make contract negotiations difficult? What I'm saying is that there's a 90% plus chance that the team is going to be very interested in signing him to what could be, could be the biggest contract extension or the biggest contract in NFL history. Now, Drake May will be up for the same thing. and so will Caleb Williams and so will Bo Nix. We'll see about Pennix Jr. And J.J. McCarthy certainly at this point doesn't look like he's heading towards a contract extension or even a fifth year option pickup.

And then Ken on the leadership thing, I don't know what to say to that, man. I had a call or call in the other day and say, the biggest. you know, takeaway for him from all of this is that this is still a very young person who is too controlled by a parent doesn't have the you know what's to take over and tell everybody how the cow ate the cabbage. That's kind of an old 1950s saying, I think. I don't know what year that comes from. But, you know, and he's suggesting. that being able to lead an NFL group of men can be hard if they are looking at you like you've got no vote when it comes to your professional career and how your brand is

handled, et cetera. I don't know about that. Look, mothers are very important and she's his mother, period. And nobody's going to get in the middle of that relationship. What they have to figure out an answer for is making sure that mother slash agent and anybody else responsible for what happened last week doesn't happen again. It's too big of a distraction. It's unfair to her son and her client. All right. Before we get to Hellie, Trayvon Diggs, Stefan Diggs's younger brother, who Dan Quinn coached in Dallas and has been an unrestricted free agent. did finally sign today. Many thought that Trayvon Diggs was a package deal with his brother. That turns out to be not true. And some did think that whether they were a package deal or not, that Dan Quinn might have some interest in Trayvon Diggs.

I know many of you had interest in Trayvon Diggs. He signed today with the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. So there you go. Three weeks from tonight, real NFL football. Dan Helley next after these words from a few of our sponsors. Back to school isn't fun for the kids and their anxiety isn't fun for you. Let me make a recommendation that will ease the angst. Thrive Market is your answer to lunchbox dread, label concern, and it replaces that target or Whole Foods run that you have to make every week.

Thrive Market takes all the guesswork out of what to make them for lunch, what to make them for weeknight dinners, and no more label anxiety. Think of Thrive Market like your ingredient detective. They do all the work. They restrict 1,000 plus ingredients. Whole Foods only restricts 300. Thrive Market has pre-vetted lunch ideas, not just products. Parents need a repeatable solution for the lunchbox and Thrive delivers. The food has to be kid approved.

Choms, Simple Mills, Made Good, The Good Crisp, these are brands your kids will actually eat. Member pricing, weekly sales, free gifts, and free delivery on qualifying orders, all for $5 a month. In 2006, USA Today named Thrive Market, one of the most trusted brands by parents. Use my link, Thrivemarket.com, slash Sheen,

to get $30 off your first two orders, plus an extra 25% off during the end of summer sale. That's running August 16th through the 22nd. These offers stacks so you're getting the sale and my exclusive discount. You cannot get this deal on the website. It's only through my link. Sign up before this offer ends. Brought you by MyBooky if you want to bet on the NFL, preseason or regular season,

MyBooky's the place to do it. Go to MyBooky.com or MyBooky.ag. and use my promo code, Kevin D.C., for a cash bonus. Whether you're a first-time customer or a returning customer making a new deposit, please use my promo code, Kevin D.C. My book, he's got everything up for not only preseason week number two, but everything for the regular season, including all of the week one lines where Philadelphia remains right now a four and a half point favorite.

in their week one showdown with Washington. 46.5 is the over-under number. And I mentioned that three weeks from tonight, we do have NFL football, for real, the regular season opener featuring the defending champion Seattle Seahawks and the team they beat in the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots. Well, that first game of the year at My Bookie, here it is, the Seattle. Battle Seahawks are a three and a half point favorite. The total is 44 and a half.

MyBooky.com or mybooky.orgie.orgia.com or mybooky.com promo code Kevin, D.C. All right. Joining me right now, Dan Helly, of course, of Channel 4, fame, of NFL network fame. And last week with Rigo and Brian Mitchell doing the preseason game, and he'll be on the call for the game on Saturday against Detroit as well. First of all, I haven't talked to you in a while, and I'm so glad to catch up. I thought you guys were really good.

And I know that you're probably self-critical, and you can point out the things that you didn't love. But overall, you've got a good feel for this. You've been doing college football play-by-play, college basketball play-by-play, UFC play-by-play. Overall, what did you think? I thought we had a lot of fun. I think in the preseason, you know, chemistry is hard to create. And we've never worked together before as a crew.

And, you know, Riggle hasn't been in a broadcast booth for 30 years. He was telling a funny story about the last time he was actually calling a game was with Dick Stockton. And so that was a long time ago. And Beamich clearly dialed in because he does a daily radio show and the pregame shows and his Uber involved with the team. but I was really pleased with it. You know, we had some moments after a rough start by the commanders, and I think we kind of found our groove. You know, that's the one thing you worry about,

especially as a play-by-play guy who's kind of the point guard of that broadcast is I don't want to step on those guys. I want to give them enough room. And I think for the most part, we did that. Certainly there were some areas we could clean up, but I think we had fun. You know, I talked about this on the show, that doing preseason

football games is not easy for the play-by-play guide. There are 90 players that potentially could participate in the game. I've done college football before where, you know, that week one, when you have like depth charts, but, you know, they're like four and five. It's not a three-deep. It's like a six-deep because they're over a hundred players. And that's a big challenge going into a game in which you haven't seen the team, right? You have to be prepared for that. Well, it's huge. You have double numbers.

You also have guys, you know, the way we do it is there's a guy named Tony Britt who prepares, we call them our boards. Basically, it's our depth chart that is oversized and we write things on and they put the stats in from the last couple of years. And we take all our notes from our production meetings and our coaches meetings and things that we've read and that we've learned. and that's our Bible, right? So we have a spotter and we have a stack guy

and the spotter helps me kind of identify who makes the tackle. But, you know, college, they're double numbers, the NFL, you've got 90 guys on the roster. There's three, you know, just this week, they added five or six new players to the team and released a few guys. So you get this chart on Tuesday, and then all of a sudden you're adding names

and crossing out numbers and doing all this crazy stuff. You just want to make sure you have the right guy who makes the play, you know. Yeah, and I, and you're, you're a pro and you understand the difference between a regular season game and a pre-season NFL game. And I thought what you understood, uh, as sort of the, uh, keep the trains on time guy was, look, this is as much of a talk show, uh, and trying to entertain over a three hour period as it is, you know, game flow, score, time, all of that.

It's just much different than a regular season game, correct? Oh, it's entirely different. You know, I did the Titans preseason games for six years with Charles Davis. Wow. I didn't know that. Yeah. We were there during the, you know, the Mike Rable era and a year or two prior. So I have a pretty good feel for the preseason games, but you're exactly right.

You know, if the starters are in or the backups are in or they're, There's position battles. Those are all things you need to address. But if, you know, I think this last game, we had a long conversation about the worst turf in the NFL when Rigo and Beamage played. And, you know, when the dolphins are up easily, you know, the dolphins are driving using their third stringers in the third quarter. I don't feel the need to say that it was a, you know, a two-yard gain by Anthony

Hankerson, you know, like I think we're okay, you know, continuing the conversation for a little while. So you got, you know, you got to pick and choose your spots, but you're right. Once you get in the second half

of the preseason games, you know, there's a lot of big picture stuff. There's a lot of chatting about position battles. And it's really fun to get, you know, those guys outlook.

And especially at the running back position with, with Rigo talking about guys like K. Tron Allen and Robert Henry. And I think he was especially impressed by Robert Henry. I don't think many people

really knew a whole lot about him before that game. And that was his, I guess you could say, coming out moment, but it seems to work this way, especially for running backs in preseason. You saw it towards the end of the game. They're going to run a vanilla offense against the vanilla defense, and they're just going to, once they've seen everything they need to see, they're just going to run those guys to death to run down the clock.

You know, one of the things over the years in doing this for this long, I've always tried to get, especially when I was doing the pregame show for the Skins Radio Network, which I did like 14 years. I would always try to get the play-by-play guy on the show or the game analyst because they had this access to the coach and the quarterback and sometimes another, you know, two or three people on that Friday before a Sunday game. And they got more than most of the beat reporters would get. They'd get some nuggets that I think the coaches and or the quarterback would save and give to them. And I always found it to be pretty instructive and pretty informative.

And sometimes we'd get stuff that, hey, we didn't know that. Do you have that access for these preseason games? And I mean, how much of that did you take to the air on Friday night? That's a great question. And I've been there at every level, right? I've been the local reporter who hosts the coaches show. I've been the national host at NFL Network, and I've been doing the games. And I would say second only to probably newsbreakers and insiders who are constantly in contact with the coaches in terms of knowledge and value are these production meetings that we have with the coaches and coordinators and sometimes some players before the games.

And they, yeah, they tell you who they expect is going to be playing and generally who's going to be out there first. and a lot of times how long they plan on playing the guys. And a lot of it's just for background. You know, just so you're talking about position battles or how long or who we could be seeing a little bit later. And it really ranges, too, the amount of information and the willingness to share from head coach to head coach. And, you know, the coordinators will give you,

especially during a regular season game a lot of times, a little bit more about the game plan. but it's the head coach who's going to tell you, you know, who's hurt, who's playing. They always defer to him. But, yeah, it is incredibly informative. You learn a ton about these teams when you talk to the coaches. And, you know, I also got to chat with Adam Peters for 15 or 20 minutes. And he was very insightful in terms of, you know, what he thought about certain guys

and what he was excited about with the team this year. And it's all helpful. It's just in terms of background. you know, you have to be the expert on whatever team you're doing that week. And that's not always the easiest thing to do. I'm kind of going, I'm spinning it ahead to college football, right? I'm going to dip into Texas Tech for my first game of the year. And obviously, they had a very eventful offseason.

Sure. And it's their time to share or to spin or however they see it fit to use that time. And I always find that the guys who share more kind of get it because they realize, especially on the college football level, this is an advertisement for your team for three hours. Yeah. This is a national advertisement for your team. This is a recruiting pitch for everybody who's watching this game. It's obviously different in the NFL.

But you have to build up that trust. There are certain coaches that won't give you much. And if you've done a couple of their games by that second or third game, game, they're giving you more. You know, I had that example in Tennessee when I was doing the preseason games and Mike Grable came in and it took me a year or two to where he realized my paycheck was coming from the same place as his, you know, the team pays the preseason broadcast. It's very different than calling a regular season game, whether it be NFL or college.

But the background, it just helps us sound educated and be. educated when we're talking about these specific position battles, especially during the preseason. Well, what can you share with us that isn't going to be out of school about what you've learned from, you know, the conversations you've had with various people about how they feel about the team? I was surprised not by how good they feel, but the position groups and how much better they've, I think they were, when you come off an NFC championship game, the next step is the Super Bowl, right?

So last year, it was a much older roster, and everybody was thinking the next step was the Super Bowl. And then injuries happened and life happened and football happened, right? It didn't go that way. For them, injuries happened all season long. Yeah, exactly. It was, you know, when your best guys are hurt, you're not going to be able to win. But they feel so good about some of the weaknesses last year, right?

the defense is completely revamped. You're going to have, you know, seven, eight new starters on the defensive side of the ball. The wide receiver room, I don't know that I've ever seen before the change in perception after one player is added after training camp has been started. And of course, I'm referring to Stefan Diggs, right? Everybody now kind of falls into their natural slot or role. And I think I said this during the broadcast. Dan Quinn said there are eight receipts. receivers on our roster right now who were good enough to be on the 53 last year.

So they're going to be cutting guys, whether it be the wide receiver room or the tight end room or defensively, that are going to be playing in the NFL next year. And I don't know that you could say the same thing about last year, right? So that's a good feeling. You've done something right when you are blessed with enough talent on the roster to be letting guys go that are going to be playing for other teams next year. So they just, they feel really good about where they are. You know, they feel really good about Brandon Coleman.

They feel like left tackle is his best and most natural position. And he got a good look last week. He was, I believe, along with Chris Paul, the only starters that played on the offensive line. And they wanted them in there to protect Marcus. And then obviously, Marcus gets banged up anyway to no fault of anyone. ones. So, yeah, I think they feel really good, really good about where they are. Obviously, the tonsil hit stinks. I mean, he's a top two, top three left tackle in the world. And that sucks. But they do feel confident that Coleman can fit in there nicely.

Do you have any sense, you know, not only based on the time that you've spent with them and getting ready for this preseason. But sort of the chronology of the last several months as it deals with that other receiver and it ended up being digs. But for a while, there was a lot of conversation about Ayuk until he kind of left the reservation on social media. But do you have a sense of what you think Adam Peters and company, what they were thinking, let's just say post-draft about the receiver room?

because clearly it is a lot better than it was last year. But what do you think they really wanted to do? I think that Iyuk was probably in the conversation at some point and that he talked himself or posted himself out of that conversation. You know, I think they probably had, I think Diggs and Iuke and, you know, Keenan Allen, maybe a couple other guys where they would, They were looking at them all. You know, they wanted to upgrade there.

I think they couldn't be happier with the way that things worked out with staff. And I think they're really excited about Antonio Williams. But, you know, if you don't have Steph, then all of a sudden, everybody else is playing more. They carry a larger burden. And now it's just everybody's kind of where they're supposed to be, you know. and then there's going to be a breakout guy. They're going to have to make some really hard decisions, right? You have your kick and punt returners, right?

Let's just say if Jalen Lane and Luke McCaffrey are going to take two spots in that wide receiver room because they're your returners, you know, where does that put, what does that put Jefferson, where does that put Berks? I think Brown's probably good because, you know, he's a different receiver than a lot of those other guys are. But I'm also, I'm telling you, this Jalen Bradley kid can play. He nearly blocked two punts.

I mean, and that's the kind of thing that we probably didn't talk about enough that B. Mitch was all over. Yeah. And we did mention it. But that's the kind of thing that could put him over the top, right, in terms of making the 53. Like if they can use him in some of these other roles on special teams. But he's, he's a big kid. He's a local guy. he's

I know I said this on the broadcast they brought him in for a local tryout and Adam Peter said it was probably the best local tryout he had ever seen and this is a kid that was well-traveled he started his career pit and he went to Charlotte

and then he wrapped up at UNLV the new era of college football that were in that's the other thing that started about calling these games and trying to list off the four or five schools that some of these kids went to sometimes but I had

I had one or two of his games over the last couple years, and he can play. And then the other guy that we didn't hear much about, and we haven't heard as much about, is Nick Nash, that wide receiver from San Jose State that over 100 catches one year. Yeah, he used to be a quarterback. Massive production in college. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't even remember what the question was. I'm just rammed.

No, it's fine. You know, I actually can't even remember what I asked you. You know what? It's a perfect time for a break. More with Dan Helly, including what he is observed and what he's heard about the camp that Jaden Daniels is having. We'll do that after these words from a few of our sponsors. Summer can really add up when it comes to how much money you spend, and it adds up pretty quickly. You know, a trip here, a dinner there, a couple of outdoor concerts later, and it should have you wondering if you're getting the most out of your money. Well, that's where Chime comes in.

Chime is changing the way people bank. They're not like traditional old banks who charge fees and gatekeep perks and rewards. Chime offers the most rewarding fee-free banking, all with no overdraft fees, no monthly fees, and no minimum balance fees. You get 5% cash back on a chimed card in a category of choice like gas or groceries, all the while building credit through regular everyday sales. spending with no credit check. You can also grow your money faster with a savings rate that's nine times the national average. And if you're ever in a pinch, Spot Me, part of Chime service, let you overdraft up to $200 fee free. Join the millions who are already banking fee free with America's number one choice for banking. Head to chime.com slash sheen. That's chime.com

slash Sheehan. Sign up now. It only takes a few minutes. Chime is a fintech, not a bank. Bank. Banking services for MyPay and Chime card provided by Chim's bank partners. Optional products and services may have fees or charges. Stated annual percentage yield and cashback for Chime Prime only. No minimum balance required. Checking account ranking based on a JD Power survey published October 20, 2025. For more information on APY rates, my pay, spot me, and travel perks. Go to chime.com. Slashers. Hey guys, creatine is one of the most researched and effective supplements available. But as the category is exploded, most brands have focused on flavors, form. and marketing instead of actually making the creatine itself better.

That's why Momentus created Signature Spec Creatine, their most advanced creatine ever, setting a new standard for creatine quality. Momentus Signature Spec Creatine is one of the only creatines to be manufactured in a pharmaceutical facility using reverse osmosis water purification and verified through an expanded six-stage testing process with four independent agencies. That's the momentous standard, the relentless pursuit of better and what you can always expect with momentous products. And the benefits of creatine, they're real. It supports strength, power, lean muscle growth, recovery, and even improved cognitive performance. So if you're going to take creatine every day, make sure it's the best.

Choose Momentous Signature Spec Creatine. If you want to try Momentous Signature Spec Creatine, to live momentous.com. That's live momentous.com and use code Sheehan for up to 35% off your entire first order. That's live momentous.com, L-I-V-E-M-O-M-E-M-E-N-T-O-U-S dot com, promo code Sheean for up to 35% off. LiveMomenus.com promo code Sheen. they sell right now, all windows and even doors. If you've been thinking about replacing your old windows with new windows, or you've got a door or two that you want to replace, call window nation. 86690 Nation. You can go to windownation.com. Please tell them that I told you to call. They'll schedule a convenient in-home estimate. It'll take an hour or less. They'll leave you with a

quote, and then they'll leave you alone. If you decide to move forward with Window Nation, the deals as good as any deal out there. Add to that if you choose to finance the purchase, no money down, no monthly payments, and no interest charged for two full years. They've got over 1,500 window styles to choose from. They also are a company that just gets it done right the first time. Ninety-six percent of their installs require no follow-up service, and they'll leave your home looking nicer than when they arrived. They also, probably, to get all of their installations done in a day or less. 86690 Nation, windownation.com.

We continue with Dan Helly, who will be on the call Saturday at noon with Rigo and Brian Mitchell, locally here on Channel 9. Dan does a lot of college football, a lot of college basketball, UFC. He's really good at doing play-by-play. You can follow Dan on X at Dan Helly. You know, as the guy that's calling these preseason games, you've been able to observe. You've had conversations with plenty of people. So where do you think everybody in that building is right now on Jaden Daniels entering year three?

I think their number one concern is just hoping that he can get through the season healthy. You know, he has been picking up the offense, which I don't think is a surprise. maybe faster than they anticipated. You know, David Blow came into his, he started his coaching career essentially with Jaden, right? Like as the assistant quarterback coach. He's been alongside of him all three years. The trust level there between the two is through the roof. I don't think they could be any happier with his performance in the way that he has progressed

in this new offensive system. And to be honest, I don't think we're going to see it at all in the preseason. I jokingly asked David Blow, what percentage of your offense are you going to show in these next couple games? And he said zero. Yeah, right. I don't know that we're going to see, you know, we're not even going to see him come out. You know, I think it was 11 and 12 personnel the whole game. And I don't know because I haven't talked to them leading up to this next game yet.

But I would imagine that that's going to kind of be the game plan, you know, the whole preseason is not to show. much, if anything, at all. Did you have a chance to sit with Blow and with Durante Jones? We did. We talked with both of them. Everybody who was doing the radio crew and the TV crew

all chatted with them together. So first impressions? Well, I'd listen to a lot of I've seen a lot of stuff with Blow. He's done a couple of podcasts, and I've been kind of following him a little bit.

He's really kind of cerebral. He's just a very smart guy. Everybody talks about the relationship piece and how inclusive he is. And that trickles up. I don't know if you can trickle up,

but to Dan Quinn, right? Like he's just very inclusive of the whole staff and everybody has a say and does their part. And, you know, Durante just, he just seems to get it. He's been with Flores. He's been part of some really good defenses.

He ran his own show at LSU in 21. Another local guy, which I appreciate, you know, he's coming home and where he grew up, you know, Bishop McNamara High School. And he's a smart dude. Like, he just, when he is tailoring his defense to what his guys do best. And again, I don't know that we're going to see that in the preseason. But, you know, he made it very clear when we were talking about his system. And he said, it's not my system that these guys have to adjust to.

It's me, any good coach would say the same thing, right? It's my system that has to adjust to my personnel. And he feels pretty good about the personality has. You know, I'm curious to see game two for Sunny Stiles. You know, he had that one drive. It was his first game. Everything's just kind of happening. It was a little bit of a blur.

And, you know, I've seen that he's taken a little heat for the way things went down, but it was, there might have been two starters out there defensively, you know, against the against the ones from Miami. And I understand that the commanders are expected to be a significantly better team this year than Miami, which will be one of the worst in the NFL. But I really don't think you can judge your, you know, seventh overall draft pick on one drive. You don't think so, because I, I just found what I read on the show yesterday, and I'll read it as if it was written to you. From Joel, he writes, I guess you hadn't heard Dan. Twitter has already gone through the All-22 and definitively determined after a couple of pre-season series that Sunny Stiles is a bust.

I just watched it. I actually watched it. I think it was Dub Climman that put something out. And it was a flip-up of that drive. Oh, my God. Can you imagine being a real football fan and thinking that the one drive in a pre-season game is a rookie, you can actually figure anything out. Bless their hearts. We have Dan Helly on the show, and he'll be calling the game Saturday ended in Detroit. It's a 12 noon kick on Channel 9 locally. You know, as of the recording of this, there is kind of a coin-flipish nature to whether or not we're going to see any of the starters, in part because they ended up not going padded practice yesterday. They went padded practice today.

Are you expecting to see Jaden and some starters on offense and defense? I would think that if you're not having joint practices, and this is what most teams do in the NFL, has been my experience over the last few years, is that when you don't have those joint practices, that's the game. If there is a game in which you play your starter, Sean McVeigh, for instance, out here in Los Angeles, doesn't play starters. Period. Ever. Precise doesn't do it. and those joint practices are game situations.

And being that there are no joint practices this week, yeah, I would think it's more likely than not that we see those guys out there for a couple of drives. Again, I have no information, I haven't talked to anybody, but that's what I would think most teams are thinking, you know, in the preseason. And then I would expect, too, even though it's vanilla that you want to get your guys out there and get them a good, look and, you know, maybe see a couple of passes from, from Jaden to Steph and Terry and a couple

of the tight ends. But I don't know. Maybe Marcus going down scare the bejesus out of them. You know, I know we got a long look at Hartman and Callie Kmanis, but, you know, neither one of them is the experience backup that Marcus Mariotta is. And maybe they don't want to put Jaden out there. So I'll be curious. I don't know when they're going to talk about it. I know that Dan said these next two days were really important, and it sounded like he was going to be deciding after today, maybe Thursday. So, yeah, I mean, it would be nice to see him. I think everybody would like to see him out there, right? Yeah, I mean, I think I would.

It's a new coordinator. It's a new center. It's a new receiver. It's a new back. Everything's new. He hasn't taken a snap since early December last year. and even if he were to play a series or two, it would be another 20-something days

until he takes a snap again. So, yeah, I mean, I'd like to see it, but I always feel like that's one of those conversations where we really don't know. Like they know and they know whether and, you know, how ready they really are. I'd just like to see with the starting quarterback, David Blow be on the headset and work a series

before doing it for the first time in Philadelphia in the season opener. That's just me. I don't know. Yeah, I would, I would love to see it, too. You know, their rebuttal would be, well, that's what we do in joint practices and every single day of practice is, you know, on the headset. But there isn't a stadium. There's not a clock. There's not a clock. There's not real referees. There's not a play clock that you're looking at. You know, there's all of those things, like in a stadium. But, but again, to your point, they may just say, there's a play clock and there are real.

No, I know, but I'm just saying it's not the exact same, but to your point, they may say, no, this is a replica. We're good. Yeah. They know more than we do. And I don't know, to be honest, I don't, I mean, I know as a fan and as a broadcaster what I would like to see, but I don't know what the right answer is. Are you going to tell Sean McVeigh, not playing the center ever in preseason since he's been in L.A. is the wrong move? Probably, no. Yeah.

That's kind of my point. I don't think we really know. And it's, it's, you know, they know a lot more than we know when it comes to everything. But in this particular conversation, it just seems to be a conversation we have every mid to late August. Because what other conversations are we going to have? All right. So let me finish with a couple of quick ones. You already mentioned the wide receiver room and we've been talking about it, you know, all summer long.

And, you know, I know they love Van Jefferson and, and, you know, and it would be hard to cut him, and they might have to, who knows? And it's a crowded room. Do you think for them this is the area that will be the hardest to cut down to say from wherever they are now, 8, 9, 10 to 7 or 8, whatever the number ends up being? Is this the position group that's going to be the hardest for them? Yeah, I think so. I mean, tie-in is not going to be easy either.

Right. I mean, Yankoff has been playing great. You kind of have your guys in, you know, Chig and John Bates who are slotted in there. You know, you have Senate who's been around per minute. But is it a Yankoff Senate competition? You know, you got L'RQAger there. I think running back is going to be a little bit easier. You're just going to have to decide.

Are you keeping four running back? You can't keep in terms of the skill players. You can't keep four running backs. six receivers, four tight-in, you know, you've got to make decisions, right? So one position group is going to affect the other. But, yeah, I would think that I would think the receiver is going to be the toughest. By the way, in watching Henry Jr., and I heard Rigo talking about it, and you and Brian, I mean, you know, there are things you can observe that have nothing to do with, you know,

the actual game or down in distance. That dude's just a natural runner. And I went back and looked at this. And he opened up last year against one of the best college defensive teams in the country in A&M. He rushed for 177 yards and 11.2 yards per carry in a game that was halfway competitive. A&M won the game by two scores. But A&M's defense by the end of the year, I mean, Miami really got to him in that playoff game on the ground, but it took three quarters to get there.

I just thought that guy actually really looked apart, especially for like a zone. run scheme. Yeah, I think he was great. And I said this on the broadcast. I believe it was, I don't remember who they played, but I had one of his games last year. And I'm like, who is this kid? And from week, I don't know, five or six to week nine,

he was the second leading rusher in college football. He was, he was like crazy good. and the way that he moves is so different than Alan. Alan is a, you know, 220-pound, you know, bowling ball when he gets his pads on. And Henry just has, like, he has juice. The way he moves is different. And that's going to be a big question, right? Where, you know, behind Bill and Rashab White, how healthy is McNichols, you know.

Jerome Ford has been placed on the, you know. physically inactive list, right? So then is one of those guys going to be the third string guy? I think it depends on, I don't know, maybe what they're doing on special teams and which one can catch better coming out of the back field because they're very different backs, very different. But we're going to be seeing more of them probably than we see of anybody else in these next two preterm.

No doubt. And they pat him back on punts. They had them back on kicks. Clearly they wanted to see it. kind of under the lights to see whether or not what they were seeing all along was real. So I'll finish up with this, although I do want to ask you about your college schedule. Is there a player that you think they're really excited about that might be a surprise to, you know, the fan that's even paying attention to the preseason?

Is there somebody that you've got in a sense, God, they really like this guy? I think they really like Joshua Joseph. the rookie out of Tennessee. He was drafted in the fifth round, and I feel like they think he's going to play this year, that he will contribute in some form or another. So defensively, I think they really like him. And I think they're excited about Antonio Williams, too.

I just don't know, you know, given the situation in the receiver room, how big of an impact he has right away. But, and, you know, the other obvious ones, you know, the chig and stuff. Right. You know, we haven't heard much about Rashad White, and I feel like he's going to have a massive impact on this offense this year. I agree. Totally agree. Yeah. But yeah, that's kind of some of the young guys and some of the old guys. And, you know, I'm excited for the season to start, even though I'm not going to be doing the games. Because I want to see what they are because it's a completely different team.

You know, everything that they wanted to achieve in the off season, upgrade the defense, find another weapon for Jaden, get another running back who can catch out of the backfield. They did all of them. you know, and not everything was plan A, right? They tried to sign some other receivers and threw a lot of money of some guys, and it didn't work out. But plan A isn't always the best plan, you know. Let's see where LSU is in five years after Lynn Kiffin has pissed everybody off down there. You know, that was plan A.

There's a lot of plan B, plan C, plan D head coaches in the NFL that have lasted. Well, it's, yeah, it's the nature of the league. It's like it's just so close. Everything's so close. It's hard to figure out. All right, give me your, give me the college games that you know about that you're doing. You said Texas Tech Week 1. Is that against Abilene Christian on FS1?

That is against Abilene Christian. No Brandon Sorsby. No, no. That's going to be a big topic of conversation down there. And I'm sure they cannot wait to get that first game in the books to stop answering Sorsby questions. Right. And then I was supposed to have a Wake Forest Purdue game, but I had to give that one back for a UFC event.

And then my third game is going to be a fun one. It's going to be on Fox. It's going to be Utah hosting Utah State, kind of an in-state rivalry there. Utah should, I would imagine, have their way with them. Is that week? That's week three? That's week three, you're saying?

That's week three. Okay. So you don't have a game in week two because you've got a UFC deal. But then that's just your schedule for now. You'll end up working games the rest of the season on FS1 or Fox, right? Yeah, yeah. So they kind of hand out that we find out 10 to 14 days ahead of time what our next game or two are going to be. Who's your partner?

Who did you work with last year? Who were you working with this year? So I worked with a guy named Petros Papadakis last year whose claim to fame is that he is the captain of the worst. football team in USC history. Okay. And being on the West Coast, now everybody knows USC is Southern Cal being on the East Coast. USC could be South Carolina. But he's a big, he's a big radio host here. He's been here for 30 years. He's a big radio show in town. It's done college football for Fox forever. And this year, I'm going to be working with Robert Smith. Oh, okay. Ohio State

Bucke and Minnesota Viking. And he'll be my partner. And it's going to be primarily Big Ten and Big 12 games. My last game last year was the Maryland Michigan State game. And this year, so far, it's two big 12s to kick things off. And then we'll get a few big 10 ones. Yeah, I'm trying to think that Maryland Michigan State game was, that game was in the snow, right? No, that game was indoors.

Oh, they moved it to Ford Field. It would have been a major snowstorm game, but the game was at Ford Field. course. That's what I was remembering. Correct. It was, yes. It was snowing, and they didn't move it. It was scheduled to be there. Kind of like the post- Thanksgiving game there.

Yeah, the big year. That's the schedule for now, and then hopefully we get some good ones coming up. It's like, I remember all my friends when they were SportsCenter anchors at ESPN. They would all be waiting anxiously for the month's schedule to come out to see who was on, you know, big ESPN and it was relegated to ESPN news where Feldy made his living. I can say that. Feldy and I was going back and forth. Yeah.

But you wait for your games. You know, hey, how good is my game? Am I going to get a couple of top 25 teams? Who do I have? So that's a fun thing to wait for when you're 10 to 14 days out to see what your next couple of games are. All right. Well, you're really good at doing this.

And the challenge that you have for preseason games, you guys easily, met that challenge on Friday night, and I'm sure it'll happen again on Saturday at noon. Thanks for doing this. Good to catch up. Hope you're well. Thanks, brother. Thanks for having me on. Dan Hellie, everybody, enjoyed that really good guy.

All right, that'll do it for today. Back tomorrow with Tommy.