The Kevin Sheehan Show - It's Heinicke Time

Episode Date: October 17, 2022

Kevin with his thoughts on what's next after the Wentz finger injury. Scott Van Pelt jumped on to talk NFL, College Football, Terps' Football, and more. Wizards GM Tommy Sheppard was a guest on the show with the NBA regular season opening up this week.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Two guests on the show today. Scott Van Pelt will be on with us shortly. We'll talk college football, Maryland football, NFL with Scott.

And then following Scott, the Wizards general manager, Tommy Shepard, will be on with us. The Wizards open up their 2022-2020 season on Wednesday night at Indiana. The NBA gets underway tomorrow night with a double-head. are 76ers Celtics and then Lakers against the champion Golden State Warriors. Just a reminder if you haven't rated or reviewed the show, especially on Apple and Spotify. If you don't mind, take two minutes and do that, less than two minutes. Five stars, if you're so inclined, a quick one to two sentence review really helps us out. So a few things to get to here in the open.

Number one is this, and I'm going to talk to Scott more about this. Saturday was a spectacular day in sports. It was one of those days that if you're a sports fan, you realize why you are a sports fan. The dramatic games, the big stakes games in college football and in the Major League Baseball playoffs, just one after another, the Tennessee Alabama game, one of the best games we've seen in recent memory. And then you had TCU in Oklahoma State going on at the same time. SC, Utah on Saturday Night was phenomenal. You had all of these matchups between undefeated teams, three matchups between six teams that were all undefeated.

It started with Michigan and Penn State, which wasn't much of a game. And then it was Tennessee and Alabama, TCU and Oklahoma State. Just incredible college football. Tennessee in particular and Bama, I don't know if college football or sports can get much better than the drama that unfolded in front of. 110,000 people at Nalen Stadium in Knoxville, where they've been waiting years to finally beat Alabama, and it happened. All the while, you've got an unbelievable scene in Philadelphia with the Phillies clinching against the Braves. The crowd in Philadelphia for those two playoff games on Friday and Saturday, as great as the crowds were in places like Knoxville in Fort Worth, in Cleveland. for the Indians and the Yankees game on Saturday night,

which was the game in which the Indians rallied from three down, or from two down with three in the bottom of the night to win. And then the Padres rallying from a three-nothing deficit against the Dodgers to eliminate the best team in baseball from the regular season. I'm not sure any crowd was as loud as the Philadelphia baseball crowd for those two games against the basketball. Braves. That was incredible. My God, is Bryce Harper having a postseason? And you get, by the way, now the two wildcard teams and the two wildcard teams that had to play on the road in the first

weekend in the National League Championship Series, the Padres and the Braves. Yankees and Cleveland tonight, Garrett Cole was phenomenal last night. What a seventh inning to get out of that to help the Yankees force the game five tonight in the baseball playoffs. But sadly, Saturday was just one of those days. I'll stop and we'll pick up this conversation with Scott here shortly. I also wanted to mention before we get to the story for us, which broke Saturday morning, which was the Carson Wentz injury. I did take just a moment to go back and watch some of that dreadful game from Thursday night. And I wanted to mention a couple of things. I've been a skiske. I've been a Scott Turner fan, as many of you know.

I've been a Scott Turner fan, and not in the sense that I think Scott Turner is the best offensive coordinator by any stretch of the imagination. I just thought that Scott Turner deserved a chance, that he had shown me enough in 2020 and in 2021, that I kind of felt like he knew what he was doing. And I think he did in 2020 and 2021. And I'm not saying that every game this year has been bad,

but he has to figure something out quickly. And this is whether it's Wence, Heineke, or Hal, and we'll get to that here momentarily. But in watching the game on Thursday night in particular, this team has a major problem along its offensive line with past protection in particular. That has been the case since the beginning of the season. I think I shared these numbers with you on Friday

that Washington, prior to the Chicago game, per the ESPN NextGen stat of pass protection win rate was 30th in the league. Only two teams were worse in actual pass blocking than Washington. Last year, same stat for the season, they were ninth in the league. So there, while I acknowledge that Scott Turner's part of the problem, the offensive line's part of the problem, Carson Wentz is part of the problem, the receiver's not getting open consistently enough for part of the problem. For me, and I don't think Cooley agrees, but for me, it starts with interior pressure consistently

over and over again, has been a theme on dropback passes going back to week one. And it's a problem, and it would be a problem for any quarterback in the NFL. However, Scott Turner Thursday night, with pressure, extra man pressure in particular, does not seem to be prepared or they don't seem to have answers. And look, this could be partly on the center. It could be partly on Wentz. But whatever the reason is, he's got to figure out answers to immediate pressure and especially extra man. pressure because there were a couple of those immediate pressures and sacks with an extra pass rusher or two on occasion on Thursday night where receivers are just not running routes that

are conducive to the ball getting out quickly. Now, some of these were on third down and really mid-range-ish kind of numbers, not long down-and-distance numbers, where you've got to extend the play and you've got to protect to try to get the ball downfield. I'm talking about third and fives, third and six, third and fours, and the receivers are not turning around quickly enough. They're running routes with the expectation that Scott Turner must have that, hey, our past protection's okay. It's going to get better, but it hasn't.

And I think that he's got to figure that out. there's nothing wrong with, you know, throwing hot, as coolly said, that there should be more hot throws. Hot route, hot route. Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Jeremy and John from Wedding Crashers. You got to have people that are open immediately with a lot of green grass because there was some off coverage during some of these extra man pressures on Thursday night where maybe you do throw the ball short of the sticks, and then you allow the Terry McClurens, Curtis Samuels, you know,

not Jahan Dotson the other night, to, you know, make a move and get the first down. You know, it's funny over the years, I think all of us as football fans always get frustrated when on third and seven they throw it short of the sticks and somebody gets tackled. And you're like, what is he doing? You got to throw the ball beyond the sticks. No, watch the league. when there is extra man pressure and they're bringing more than you can block and you're not in max protect, the ball comes out quickly and then you're reliant on that pass catcher to make that first tackler miss and get a first down.

A lot of first downs are made with throws short of the sticks. What I saw Thursday night on a couple of those extra man pressures is receivers that are not looking for a ball that's coming out quickly. that has to change. Scott Turner, whether it's Heineke or Howl or Wence is not as bad off as we think with the finger and his back shortly, you've got to come up with answers on third down. Just have to. The other thing I wanted to just mention real quickly from the Thursday night game, that last sequence, James Smith Williams saved the game on the second down deflection. I think that's a touchdown pass. They've had a lot of deflections. James Smith Williams did a really good job. Their D-line has really, really improved here. And not that it, you know, has just improved. It's helped the overall defense improve because I think Allen and Payne have

been consistent. And now Montes sweat. Now he had a rookie tackle in front of him, understood. But he is becoming the player that he was as a rookie at times and that some of us thought he could be when they drafted him in the first round. When they get changed, young back if they do get chase young back and there was some information from ron the other day on that look out um the other thing i wanted to say to and follow up to thursday and i tweeted this out and i think i mentioned this with tommy on friday but i wanted to reiterate it and that is that Antonio gipson gives to be as much a part of the game plan as brian robinson junior ron rivaara did say in his Friday Presser, that he felt like they got away from Antonio too much.

I don't know if that's just, you know, coach speak to say Antonio averaged seven yards per carry in the game and didn't get anywhere near the same number of touches that Brian Robinson got. And he's just, you know, I hope they're serious about not leaving Antonio Gibson out there as a 15 to 20 percent total snap guy. We gave the stat the other day that When he plays more than 50% of the snaps, they average over 27 points per game. And when he plays under 50% of the snaps in his career so far here in Washington, they average just over 11 points a game. That's a really incredible number.

Gibson's important to this team. But what I wanted to say about Gibson is this. If they're not going to play him, if they made up this decision, if they made their decision and made up their minds, before the draft, and that's why they drafted Brian Robinson Jr. And they're not believers in Antonio Gibson anymore. Trade him before the deadline. This season's going nowhere.

You know, Duran Payne would be the obvious one that you would look to trade if you're not going to get him signed when the season ends, and he's an unrestricted free agent when the season ends. You know, you might be able to get a lot for Duran Payne at the trade deadline. But the difference between Duran Payne and Antonio, Gibson is Duran Payne is playing lights out and playing 80 to 85% of the snaps. And Gibson's playing well but isn't playing nearly the same number of snaps because they've got Robinson back and they have McKissick.

And they liked Jonathan Williams. He was hurt, you know, last week. But I would not hesitate. By the way, it would disappoint me because I really like Gibson a lot. But I would not hesitate if I don't believe in Gisson. Gibson as much as I believe in Brian Robinson, Jr. And I really like McKissick, and McKissick signed right now. I would not hesitate to deal Gibson.

There are teams out there looking for running backs, good teams, Buffalo, Kansas City, among those teams looking for running backs. Christian McCaffrey is going to be a high, high price tag. Gibson, not as much. I mean, could you get a third rounder for Gibson? I think you might be able to. You know, sometimes those trade deadline deals come with a higher price tag because teams are sitting there going, we have a chance to make a deep run.

And we're willing to pay for that if we don't have a certain player at a certain position. I don't want that to happen because I'd like Gibson to stay here. I think he's a good player having a good season and he hasn't fumbled yet. But I don't know that they feel the same way. So if they don't, they shouldn't make the mistake and hold on to a player that they don't see being a big part of their plans because they've got another guy there that is a much bigger part of their plans. And I know that, you know, you need two, but they do have McKissick. They got a nice change of pace. They like Jonathan Williams. Lastly, before we get to Scott, was the news that broke Saturday morning.

And by the time you listen to this, maybe there will be news specific to the trip that Carson Wentz apparently is making to the West Coast to get his finger looked at. But we don't have that news as I'm recording right now. Carson Wentz, the news broke Saturday morning, has a broken finger and was going to Los Angeles today to have a specialist look at that. A couple of thoughts. Number one is this. I mentioned this on Friday. Tough ombre on Thursday night to play with a bicep strain going in at less than 100 percent, to play with a broken finger that happens sometime in the second quarter for the rest of the game, and then to play with an ankle injury that had to be taped in the second half at one point.

I actually wonder why they played him. I mean, a broken finger typically, I'm not, you know, a doctor here, but I've broken fingers before. I've certainly badly sprained fingers before. You know when it's broken typically, and I would imagine that at halftime they were able to diagnose a broken finger. or at least a badly sprained finger, which, you know, was going to impact his ability to throw the football. I mean, the problem is with Carson Wentz, no offense.

You really can't tell between the inaccurate throw with a busted finger and just the normal run-of-the-mill Carson Wentz inaccurate throw. But tough, um, tough, um, to finish out that game. Uh, you know, one of the reasons he may not have played super well and thrown for 99 yards is he was not healthy in the game. also have to wonder, don't you? Why they didn't yank them? I mean, this was a must-win situation. Did they really think they had a better chance with Carson Wenson and the bicep strain and a bad ankle and a broken finger than they did by putting Taylor Heineke in the game in the second half? It's kind of interesting. You know, they were desperate for a win Thursday night, super desperate. I wonder if any of this stuff related to the story from Seth Wickersham and Don Van Nata Jr. earlier in the day had anything to do with him leaving Wentz out there. Or maybe they just didn't know it was a broken finger.

Maybe Carson didn't tell him. He's like, no, no, no, it's just sprained a little as fine. You don't need to look at it. So, for the purposes of this brief conversation, let's just assume that he's out for a while. First thought that comes to mind is this. It's possible Carson Wentz played his final game as a Washington commander Thursday night in Chicago.

Do the math on this. If he broke his finger and he's out several weeks, which is a possibility, at least it was reported as a possibility, I mean, if the team tanks with Taylor Heineke in there, we'll get to that in a moment, and the season is mathematically or practically over by the time Wence is ready to play, you play HAL at that point.

And you're not keeping Wence next year. I think we know that already. Now, if they play really well with Heineke, are you going to pull Heineke? So, I mean, there's an in-between. You know, you win a couple games, you lose a couple games. Heinekees is really not that great or he's decent in a couple games, not so good in others. And then Wentz is ready to go and you put him back in there, I guess. You've got that 70% snap threshold to think about, but he's going to miss a few games.

So that takes you into a latter portion of the calendar of the season calendar. If they had lost to Chicago, I would have been advocating for Sam Hal to begin with. Now, I said specifically on Sam Hal if they lost to Chicago if he's remotely ready. If he's not ready, and they can only, they're the ones to tell you that. Like, no, no, no, you don't understand. You haven't been to practice. He's not ready to play in an NFL game. We're not going to put him out there.

Okay, that's fine. But if he's, you know, good enough and they're intrigued and he's looked good with the few reps he gets in practice and he didn't get many, then I would have been all four seeing him this week against Green Bay had they lost to Chicago. But they beat Chicago, which, as I said on Friday, kind of saved the season, didn't salvage the season, saved the season. So I'd like to see Heineke. We're going to see Heineke. I mean, that's what they're going to do. He's the backup quarterback.

And at 2 and 4 right now, I'm sure they're going through the exercise of saying, we're only a game back of like five teams tied for the seven seed, the last wild card spot. We also have Green Bay coming up this weekend, and they were awful yesterday. Man, they were terrible against the Jets, and Aaron Rogers is beat up. He does not look healthy. You know, it's all about when you play them, not who you play, and they may be getting great timing with their game against Green Bay. I want to see Heineke at 2 and 4, you know, unless they were convinced that Hal was ready and Hal with a much bigger arm than Heinekees would give him a better chance to win. And also, you'd learn more about Howl. I mean, obviously I'd be for that, but I don't know that that's the case. But assuming that Howl is rather green at this point, you're going to be getting a typical, you know, first time rookie performance when he finally gets out there, I would go with Heineke.

I like Heineke. I've never disliked Heineke. I like Heineke as a backup quarterback in the NFL. Said that many times. He's just not a starter in the NFL. You start Taylor Heineke 15 and a half games, was it last year? You're going to end up with seven wins, which is what they ended up with. Now, you know, COVID injuries. Understood. Every team went through that. Every team has those kinds of things. Taylor Heineke is a gamer. I love him as a backup. He's fearless. He's going to make some plays good and bad. But his arm is so limited. You cannot win over a 17-game regular season, enough games to be a legitimate contending team

with a quarterback that really just has non-NFL arm strength. No matter how well he anticipates, and even that at times is a question mark. You know, I think there's a chance they could play well. this weekend. And I think with the interior pass rush issues that they have, Heineke has a chance against that because he's more mobile. But we saw Heineke in that Dallas game, you know, after the four game winning streak, end up with like a 5.3 QBR. He was getting bum rushed, couldn't escape it. And it was bad. They had to put Kyle Allen into the game.

But no, I'm for Heineke playing on Sunday, you know, assuming how. is nowhere near ready and Wence is out and that's what they'll do I'm sure. Lastly, because I think this is lastly twice now in this first segment. The NFL games yesterday, the Chiefs Bill's didn't live up to shoot out, you know, in terms of the kind of game it was, but it was a good game. And who saw, you know, Patrick Mahomes throwing an interception after they fell behind 24 to 20? Josh Allen is spectacular. And in that game yesterday, Stefan Diggs was so, so good in that game.

He ended up with 10 catches, 148 yards. I think the Bills and the Chiefs really are the best two teams. The game last night was interesting in that the Eagles had a 20-to-nothing lead. And then Dallas came back and took control of that game. It was 20 to 17 after two drives for touchdowns to open up the third quarter, and their defense was playing lights out. And then all of a sudden, Philadelphia started to run the ball, on Dallas and in a couple of those key third downs on that drive after it was 20 to 17.

Dallas didn't come with the same level of pressure that they did on the first two drives. I actually think both teams are good. I think the Giants are obviously playing, you know, winning football. I mean, Lamar Jackson made a terrible play at the end of that game. The Giants are five and one. You know, the Eagles are six and oh. The Cowboys are four and two. What a division. The NFC East is this year without, you know, at least one. one of the teams participating in all the fun. But Buffalo, Kansas City in the game last night, I thought Dallas showed a lot of resilience down 20-0-0 to get to get themselves back into that game.

I guess on one hand, if you're a Dallas fan, you're like, at least we won't have a quarterback controversy with DAC and Cooper Rush. Cooper rushed through three interceptions last night, but he was good on those two touchdown drives. So was Zeke, by the way. He looked great. And then the Buffalo, Kansas City game, unbelievable. at the end of the half where Buffalo goes 98 and a half yards for a touchdown.

Their first to take a 10-7 lead. And in Kansas City, just like they did at the end of regulation in the playoff game, in 15 seconds they get to a 62-yard Harrison Butker field goal. And it's 10-10 at the half. Scoring definitely is down in the league. Defense is up, that's for sure. And Washington's defense is improving, which is why against the team is banged up as Green

Bay is they'll have a shot Sunday. They're only a five-point underdog. All right up next, Scott Van Pelt, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Coming up here in just a moment, my good friend Scott Van Pelt will be our guest. Before we get to that, this segment of the show is presented by my good friends at MyBooky. Your favorite athletes always strive to put themselves in a winning position, and it's about time you did too with My Bookie. MyBooky has the biggest online selection of odds and contests to fill all your sports betting needs anytime, anywhere. Bet on the NFL, MLB playoffs, or play for a share of big cash prizes in the weekly blackjack tournaments that My Booky has. If you've been waiting for the right time to get in on the action, that time is now.

Make your winning move today. Sign up at MyBooky, use my promo code Kevin D.C., and claim your deposit match, event. any amount up to a thousand bucks. Again, that's promo code Kevin D.C at mybooky.ag or mybooky.com to claim your bonus. Experience sports in a whole new light and make this season a winning one. Bet anything, anytime, anywhere with my bookie. All right, let's bring Scott onto the podcast. I mentioned in the open, and you and I had talked about it, that Saturday was just an incredible day. in sports. And we have these every once in a while, but Saturday was just with the college football and the baseball and all of the dramatic games, et cetera, it just seemed like it was never ending

until, you know, very late at night when that Padres Dodgers game ended. I know you felt the same way describe it. I mean, I tweeted about it just because it was impossible not to just try to just to sort of weigh in kind of like almost nostalgic. I just thought from the noon window where Penn State, Michigan was the one, disappointing is not the right word, but it was the one, it was the one blowout result of the unbeatens against unbeaten. But from noon until literally I turned the TV off late at night after the Padres beat the Dodgers, it was just incredible.

The thing I said on SportsCenter last night was that it felt for Tennessee, for the Philadelphia Phillies fans, and for the San Diego Padres, it felt cathartic because they beat the exact team they would have chosen if they got to beat the team that would represent the happiest they could possibly be. Right? Tennessee beats Bama.

I had to beat them in 15 years. Philly, maybe the Mets, maybe the Mets would be who they choose, but the Braves of the reigning champions. And San Diego, of course, would pick the Dodgers who dominated the regular season series. And whether it was college football, TCU scene was amazing. Obviously, Tennessee, Alabama was, I felt like its own sort of singular thing. How about the shot from overhead the minute the game ended up? The fireworks.

What an incredible job. I kept, the one thing I cut, and the CBS must not have had it, I kept waiting for the under the crossbar shot, because I wanted to know how much that made it over by. And I'm like, where's that shot? I'm thinking, I want to see it. But then I really didn't give a shit because it just kept showing that all that matter was the emotion, and the emotion was everywhere. And so any direction you turn Saturday, the games were great.

The scenes were incredible. And I just can't remember a day where it felt like there were that many that felt that's important to the people. that gossip wins. I mean, fans running out onto the field, fireworks going off, it seemed like it was happening every hour from somewhere. You know, Tennessee, then Cleveland. I mean, we didn't even mention the Utah comeback over USC. That was an incredible game, too. They just didn't win by enough, which was upsetting. That was very upsetting, actually. So let's stick with college football here for a moment. because Bama loses, but as we know, they've lost before, they lost Texas A&M. One thing with that game, you know, Sabin is all-time great, okay? Mount Rushmore great.

We all understand this. But whether it was the Texas A&M game last year at the end when he didn't call his timeouts on defense, or at the end there where I thought they should have run the football and gotten it a little bit closer for the kicker and forced Tennessee, to kind of call their final timeouts. Do you think that this is an area that he's not great in sort of the game management because maybe he's just not in the situation enough? Probably. You don't have to manage clock and late game sort of strategy that often.

And the reason what I agree with you about is I would have wanted that field goal attempt from my kicker to be the last play of the game. Because the way Hooker and those receivers were destroying their secondary, it was the type of thing where 15 seconds is enough for us to get close enough, and it was. And I would have much preferred, all right, we either make this kick and get the hell out of here and win or on the last play of the game, or we go to overtime.

It can't be a situation where two passes equal, a game-winning field goal for them, and that's exactly what happened. But I don't think, Kevin, that it's, I mean, it's clearly not specific to him. Lincoln Riley and their game against Utah, it's like, what are you doing? And Utah was brilliant because they're saying we're going to score as late as we possibly can. I mean, it happened with Buffalo on Sunday. Of course, you're trying to thread the needle perfectly. We want to score and we want to exhaust the clock.

But if we have to choose one or the other, we obviously have to scorn. score first. We can't, you know what I'm saying? We can't be greedy. No. And Utah couldn't be, that Utah couldn't be greedy, but if it was a perfect scenario where USC is just not going to call timeouts and we can score and leave Caleb Williams with, what, 20 seconds, then we're winning. And they've rolled the dice, went for two and got it. But USC had to call timeouts. They had to. If you call timeouts, you've got two minutes left, and they just, they just let not only that. Not only that, you make, you make them kick the extra point instead of going for more likely than not as well.

I mean, the option of going for two and the win is much more plausible under a minute, where you kind of are going for the win, not just the lead. I mean, 48 seconds remained, and USC could have easily gotten in field goal range. But four minutes to go, three minutes to go, two minutes to go, more likely than not, Utah is probably going to kick, and you're going to be in a tie game. Whatever it was, whatever it was, S.C. should have been calling timeouts, and they didn't. and Saban could have, you know, could have run it to make Tennessee. I can't remember the number of timeout they had at that point.

They had a couple. They had a couple left, yeah. You're right. Okay, well, so then if you run, I mean, look, you put it in Bryce Young's hand, and you're saying, you know, make a play, and you're banking on that, too. So if that's the explanation, I would just shrug and say, I get it. I mean, he made play after play on Saturday. But again, I don't think Saban is the only person that I watch in those late-game clock, time-out scenarios,

and I just can't figure out what they're thinking. Yeah. Well, last year's Texas A&M game was the worst. He just let them go down and kick a game-winning field goal on the final play of the game without using any of his timeouts. It was remarkable. The Tennessee Alabama game was great. Now, who's more likely to make the playoff, Tennessee or Alabama?

You're the same as me when it comes to this because you've already done the math because Tennessee has to play Georgia in the regular season, which means if they lose that game, then that means Georgia goes to Atlanta almost certainly, and then that means Bama gets a chance if they went out to go. go to Atlanta and then beat Georgia. And then now you've got Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee all sitting there with one loss, all doing that Spider-Man meme where they're pointing in each other going,

wait a minute, right? I mean, well, I beat you. Yeah, cool, I beat you. Well, then how does it all sort itself out? So who's more likely? I mean, right now it's Tennessee because they haven't lost. But in Tennessee's case, they'd have to beat Georgia and then theoretically Alabama again, right?

Yeah. Well, actually, if they beat Georgia, they won't have to win the SEC title game. Correct, correct. But I'm sure Alabama fans are, excuse me, Mississippi fans are going, oh, wait a minute. I mean, we're over here. We're in the top 10,

and LSU fans are thinking, you've got to come to, you still got to come to Baton Rouge, speaking of Alabama. Right. I mean, the path still exists clearly for them, and their brand is such that they can shake off a loss, certainly much more easily than can most teams, also because the path for them includes chances to knock off, you know, big-time teams.

But, I mean, look, I've seen already people talking about three SEC teams and somebody else. You're like, well, wait a minute. You know, the Pac-12 still very involved, the Big Ten still very involved. the Big 12 still very involved. This is the latest it feels like every conference has real championship contenders that I can remember because truly everyone has them. There are a couple of teams I'm actually interested in because LSU was, I think they're starting to get better.

And I know that they got run by Tennessee. There were a couple of weird plays early, special teams plays early in that game, and it got sideways and it was an 11 a.m. start, that whole thing. but they go Ole Miss and Bama the next two weeks, both in Death Valley. And I think they're a better team right now than they were two or three weeks ago. And they actually control their own destiny in the SEC West. Right, I agree that they're better than they were. And I mean, sure, anything's possible.

I just, I don't know. I've just seen them. That Tennessee game to me, I was like, yikes. You're right. And I had LSU. I think we both picked LSU in our pick segments, And then it was just, I mean, I don't, I didn't, to me, they didn't look like they were sort of in the same weight class as Tennessee in that game. I agree.

There were just some plays early, like special teams plays that went sideways for that. Well, they've been horrific on special teams all year. They've made so many mistakes in the kicking game. It's incredible. But, I mean, no, you're right that they looked, they looked awfully good on Saturday. And the good thing about playing an incredibly tough schedule is you keep getting opportunities. to beat big-time teams. But I think they're far more plausible scenarios,

playoff-wise, like a UCLA, like a TCU. I mean, every direction you turn, like I said, in conferences around the country, there are people that are involved. So, sure, you want to talk to me about Alabama, from Tennessee and Georgia? I get it. But this year, it's way more complicated

because of how many more other leagues actually have realistic. hope. You know, a couple of weeks ago, I would have said Georgia's the best team in the country, and now we just have to kind of look at who's number two. I don't know if I feel that way anymore, and if I feel that way, I feel that way more about Ohio State. What do you think about the Buckeyes? Well, sure. I mean, their offense is sort of singular in that league. And what I mean by that is just, I mean, they feel like they can score 35 and a half without a whole lot of sweat. But that said, Michigan, I mean, Michigan was pretty eye-opening.

They ground Penn State at dust on Saturday. I mean, they ran for like, what, 4-18, I think it was? So that game, you get that game in Columbus, and obviously this is the first time they've had revenge as a motivation in that game in years. But sure, Ohio State, I mean, they look like they have a gear offensively with Stroud and all those weapons, both in the backfield and a wide receiver that, you know, The line I always used to say with Riscilla when we would talk about teams is, you know, how good you're good, right?

I mean, like, there's a lot of good teams, but they have a good that not many others have. I agree with that. Okay. What about Maryland and their win? Right now, as we're recording this podcast with Scott, we do not have, I don't have any word on Leah's MRI. Do you know anything? I didn't ask you before we started to record this.

No. No, I don't know. I just, I know, I mean, I just, I just, typically, it's when a player leaves the field on a cart, it's awfully rare that it comes back and it's, oh, it's just a viscer of that. It's typically, right? I mean, it would be, it would be, I try to be optimistic. I just think it's hard to be optimistic.

This isn't going to be, you know, a lengthy, if not season ending type of thing, just based on that alone. I don't know. Well, at least there's not going to be. a guy like wearing jersey number 35 that comes in to play quarterback. Like we had a few years ago when a middle linebacker was playing backup quarterback. I thought this guy, Billy Edwards Jr., looked good at the end of the Michigan game. And I know it was kind of a soft defense they were facing because Michigan had a two-scorer lead. And then I think I told you this yesterday or whenever after the game,

there was a lot of in his running ability as an option quarterback. there was a lot that reminded me of Sean Hill, who was Ralph's first quarterback, that first 2001 season. This guy was apparently very well-liked and highly thought of at Wake Forest before coming here. I mean, I'm not suggesting there's not going to be a drop-off from Leah, but I'm not concerned about it or you. I think that's perfectly put. Are you saying he's as good as number three?

No. Are you saying it's a middle-line? backer throwing passes. It's not that either. And look, they don't win Saturday without performance. He made a number of decisive runs that were significant in the touchdown and the drive that gave them the lead with the touchdown from Hemby. And then he made a number of runs, including the one that gave them, you know, the cushion that ultimately allowed him to, you know, to survive that last touchdown with about 19 deflected passes. So yeah, I get it. He's, he's not Leah. I assume they don't

throw it as much, but he's certainly got a capable arm, and he's clearly a decisive runner, and maybe it's sort of it's a different look. But listen, Maryland is in a spot now where, okay, you got Ohio State, Penn State, a trip

to Wisconsin, which maybe doesn't look as scary as it did to start the year, and you've got Northwestern and Rutgers at home. So you're looking at these final five games and saying, all right, you need one to go to a bowl, you need two to go to a better bowl, and then, all right, let's get crazy and try to figure out, like, what's the path to a really good bowl? And I don't think that having the injury to Leah, whatever it is,

eliminates thinking about that possibility. So, you know, it sucks because Leah is such a significant part of what Maryland has done over these past couple of years. But, I mean, the next man up is such a cliche in football, and it applies to every position. Fortunately, Saturday, it didn't cost him a victory. And in fact, again, I think, they were able to win because of how how Billy played. Yeah, I had Loxley on the radio show Friday,

and I knew it was Friday, but I went back and asked him about all the Purdue calls. I don't think I told you this, but he said the one the league got back to him on and said that they missed was the 52-yard field goal that Rylan missed, that there was a player clearly off-sides. Well, the guy was off-side.

Yeah. Right. Yeah, but he said that it was not, they did not have enough conclusive video evidence to say that the extra point block was definitively all sides. I don't know. I think he was in the neutral zone to start. Maybe. Maybe. I just, I mean, complaining about officiating is the lowest kind of form of fandom. I mean, like Bama fans are up and off. Wait, it's what our fan base has been about in so many ways for our entire. lives. And I agree with you? No, for sure. Let me finish. Let me finish.

Let me finish. Doing that is the lowest form of fandom. And Alabama fans are up in arms. Like, Alabama, who the entire SEC is convinced the league is rigged for, is mad about how many calls went against him on Saturday. And I didn't think that, I don't think it was

a well-freciated game. Let me just be clear. But bitching about officials, everyone does. Having said that, I mean, I thought Deemus got tackled in the end zone Saturday. Like when you got the official, when you get the announcers on ESPN2 going, well, if that's not interference, I don't know what it.

And it wasn't. And then they got a PI on a duck later in the game that I didn't think look like PI necessarily. I feel like Maryland's defensive backs get called for more PI's and we get fewer pis than any team. I feel like the game against Michigan, like I didn't think it was a pick up 13 to 10 and it didn't seem to get reviewed. I think you could argue that the last pick in Ann Arbor.

I don't know that it was a pick. And stacked one on top of another, on top of another, than the Purdue game, and then some calls on Saturday. I don't like being the cliche fan guy, but I'm at my wits end with this. And if I were locks, I swear to God, I just stand up there at a press conference and go, look, Commissioner Warren, whoever it is, just here's a blank check.

Tell me what you want me to put on it so I can tell you how sick I am of what these calls are. It's just, it feels like week after week out. How many letters have they gotten from the league saying, yeah, we missed that one, sorry. I know. I know. It's like. So what do you do?

So, I mean, you know, and by the way, if you make the extra point and it's a tie game and then, you know. You might still might lose. Whatever. I mean, you still could have lost the game. No one's saying they lost just because of that. It's just, it's the trend of how many times these calls have gone against that I think is for fans particularly difficult to suffer through. So you try not to be quote unquote bad guy, but it's kind of hard not to be given, you know,

how many not so significant and then sometimes significant moments you feel like are impacted by it. but look, it didn't cost them a game Saturday, and they won. It's been a bit of an identifier for the Maryland basketball fan base in particular, but I also think that it comes with the territory of always having been the outsider, you know, whether it was in the ACC is the northernmost outpost and not in North Carolina school, or being this, you know, recent Big Ten entry that nobody in the Big Ten really wanted. And by the way, we didn't want either.

But now we're here, and it's coming up on a decade in two years that we will have been in the Big Ten. But it's like, you know, Marilyn was a charter founding member of the ACC, but was always an outsider. And now in the Big Ten, it feels very much like you're an outsider. And when you're an outsider and you feel that way, there's an inferiority complex that develops, which means that every bad call that goes against you, you're pretty much sure was ordered by the other teams in the league office. but it just always seems to be us. I agree, but that's such... I know.

Again, it's just, it feels like such a small, it's such a small, cliched way to behave. And as I say that, I'm listing these different plays that you just kind of shrug, and then at some point you, and then finally you just get pissed off, you're like, what is, what are we doing? What are we doing here? And again, we need to, excuse me, you need it

the down the line shot against Purdue. I think the kid maybe just jumped the snap. I thought there was an offensive P.I. on that great receiver, there's Jones, up 2423 to would have backed him. You know what? I'm not going to talk about the Purdue game. They won. I know.

They did. But I want to just say this. It's what makes when you eventually break through and you start kicking everybody's ass, it's what makes it so satisfying. And, you know, the football thing, is so much different, obviously, than basketball for we Maryland fans. I mean, being able to, you know, for that period of time, dominate Carolina, go toe to toe with Duke, win a national championship, be in the Final Four, be in the national, you know, elite conversation there for a decade or so with Gary.

It was, it made it so much more satisfying. I think there's actually, my point is being sort of the redheaded stepchild in a league comes with, a much more satisfying ending when you win. It feels so much better. Sure, but, okay, so we're answering our own question here. Against Purdue. You had the lead, you had opportunities, your defense turned them over three different times.

You got nothing out of it. Score when you get the ball. Put the game to bed, right? You can take care of your own problems. You can eliminate any one call being something, that you're going to spend weeks complaining about by just handling your end of the bargain. And for football, it's always going to be a chore because

you, I mean, and the Big Ten is going to change. We're not always going to be on the same side of the street with Ohio State and Michigan and Penn State. I mean, the league is going to do away with divisions, which will be, you know, be doing us a favor. I think I told you this when I saw Commissioner Warren at the lacrosse title, and I know him and we have a very cordial. friendly relationship.

But I was talking to him for, I looked at Stanford, Steve, and I said, have we been talking for five minutes yet? He said, about it. I said, okay, good. When are we doing away with divisions? We need to do away with divisions immediately. And he started laughing. I said, I just wanted to be, you know, have some pleasant conversation before I started

demanding you, you know, you changed the, uh, the lay of the land and the conference. And he just laughed because he, you know, he understands we're Maryland fans. So we're, you know, it's tough because obviously you got two top five teams on the, on your side of it. Anyway, this goes back to, they, look, they're five and two. They've got a game at home against Northwestern. It'd be nice to see some people come out on Homecoming and give this team who's, you know,

who's in the last two years given us more to cheer for than we've had in years. It'd be nice to show some support. I know it's been, it's tough. There's a million reasons why the fan base is deteriorated to the degree it has, but, you know, it sure would be nice to see those guys get some support. Real quickly on the NFL, We always do this thing every year right around this mark, you know, five, six weeks in.

All right, now we've seen five, six weeks of the season. Who's good and who isn't really good? So I'll start with you. Give me a team that's really good. Buffalo Bills. I'll go Kansas City. Who's next? Philadelphia Eagles.

Right. Is that the list right there? I think San Francisco healthy is really good. Yeah, but they're a lot. long way from healthy and they're not going to get healthy anytime soon is their issue. Dallas Cowboys, their defense is real, and when they get DAC back, I think Dallas is going to be, Dallas is going to be real. And I said this on Sports Center Sunday night.

I know it's true. We're human beings. We sort of hang on to preconceived ideas, whether we think you stink or whether we think you're good. Tampa Bay, Green Bay and Baltimore, they've got each one has to. an MVP quarterback, and you go, okay, well, Brady's, Brady, he'll figure it out. Rogers, Rogers'll figure it out. Jackson's Jackson. They'll figure it out. Those teams are all three and three. All of them. I know. Green Bay looks horrendous on Sunday. Tampa Bay hasn't

looked good yet. Baltimore just, they invent ways to have games slip away, which is incredible. How about this? They've led every game by double digits, six. They're the first team in NFL history to lead their first six games by double digits and only win three of them. I didn't know that. First came in NFL history. Meanwhile, meanwhile, we think the giants stink because they have. We think the Jets stink because they have. The Vikings, I know you don't think they stink because you love Kurtz's.

No, actually, actually, I told you this, I think. I think they were much better last year than they are this year. This is the funny thing about the NFL. You have this thing. You have this thing with cousins, again, that you love like a child, and they're five and one. I don't know if they're good. The Giants, I mean, the Giants just beat. Green Bay and Baltimore back-to-back.

They're five-and-one. You've got to give it. If nothing else, they're hanging in games and figuring out how to win them late, which is a skill. And the Jets are four and two. They've won three road games. I mean, how they've done it is really neither here nor there. They've done it.

I'm not saying these are teams that we say are good for sure, but the record says they are. It's been a strange year, I think, thus far in the NFL. Like the whole NFC West. Name an NFC West team you think's good. You said San Francisco. Yeah, but without Bosa, without some of these pieces, they're not the same team. Defensively, when they're healthy, they're awesome.

I agree with that. But what happened to them in that game, I guess, against, by the time that Carolina game was over, they'd lost Bosa, they lost Mosley, I think, Kinlaw, their defensive linemen went to IR. They're on third running back already, yeah, I know. I don't know who's good beyond that, but what do we say? We said Buffalo, Kansas City, Philadelphia. I'm saying Dallas is for sure. I don't know if the Chargers are.

Speaking of healthy, I mean, they're banged up with, you know, Bosa's a difference maker, obviously, he's been injured quite a bit. I mean, we get to see them tonight. I like them. I just, I don't know if they're good or not. Should Brady have gone to Kraft's wedding on Friday, miss practice, and then miss the walkthrough on Saturday or not? I don't think that's why they lost the game.

I, they haven't, they've scored more than 21 points in one game, and it was the game they got beat at home by double digits by the Chiefs. They've been bad on offense all year. So, I mean, if he doesn't go to that and he's there for a walkthrough, we think he's, what, like, got four touchdowns on Saturday, on Sunday, rather? I don't, I think, I think, I think, I just, I just think, I, and I mean, I don't, people have lives, man, and I respect that they have lives, like real lives and real shit that they deal with.

And, I mean, all this chatter about it. his personal life and whatever. He just looks miserable at all times and has not looked at any point in any of these games like any of this has been any fun. And I just think, man, I can't imagine what sort of goes through somebody's head. You know, if this is a real life thing that's going to happen and, you know, you have this very public marriage and everybody's talking about it and then you're struggling professionally, which is really something you haven't done a whole lot. I don't know. It just creates it's like a car wreck, you know what I mean, where people are just like rubbernecking at Brady, who's never kind of ever seemingly had to deal with a ton of on-field

struggles. I don't know. It's unusual. Yeah, he looks miserable. And the whole off-season thing, you know, will he, won't, he, didn't. He retired. He comes back. Then he's not, you know, then he leaves during training camp. It's a weird situation there all together. You know, in that division is a team that I've been talking about a little bit since the beginning of the season because I'm a big Arthur Smith fan. The Falcons are so close to being a lot better than three and three. You're so right. You're so right. They should have beat New Orleans. Should have. I mean, it really, and I mean, look, so many games in the NFL come down to one play. Baltimore. If Baltimore gets the third and one Sunday with like three and a half minutes

left, they probably put that game to bed. But there's a penalty, and then there's a pick on the next play, and they lose. I mean, they were one yard away from getting a first down against New Orleans. would have won them that game. They didn't get it. They actually had a chance late against the Rams, which was kind of make-per-revee. They kind of had a late chance against Tampa Bay, but they're getting crushed in that game. Yeah, but that was the Grady Jared play. I mean, on the roughing the passer and Brady. I understand that, but I mean, okay, you're down 21-0. No, no, no, I know. You get the ballbacking. I mean, they could have. Your point still well-taking, that they're, they're better than maybe people thought they'd be, but still, even with Tampa Bay's issues right now,

to think that at some point it kicks in and the talent that they have rises to a level where you're good enough to be better than Atlanta, Carolina, and the Saints. It's just interesting, and I talked about it in the open. The teams, if you go and look at everybody's preseason, you know, power rankings, Seattle, the Falcons, the Giants, and the Jets were all four teams that basically ranked consistently between 27 and 13. too. And all of them have overperformed. And we'll find out whether or not they're legit. But the Giants at five and one, obviously Brian Davel's doing a really good job. Real quickly on the Ravens. I haven't seen this yet. Were you watching that game? A little bit. I mean, but the way it's

hard to, you know, what specifically? At the end, at the end, did one of his analytics nerds up in the press conference tell him to let Saquan Barclay score for the 2420 lead? It looked like they laid down. I was looking for a quote to find if anybody asked them about that. I didn't see it. But they... I don't know. I mean, that would have been the dumbest thing of all time.

Their lead was three. And they had their timeouts left. You try to stop them and force them to kick a field goal. I don't think that's what happened. I think what happened was you had a P.I. in the end zone on a pick. And then you're at the one yard line. Yeah. And Barclay scored.

I mean, I didn't, I didn't, it didn't look like they just did like the stand up at the line of scrimmage play. Okay. I mean, Barclay kind of went in the air, but it didn't look like anybody was really pinching in. And then Barclay went down after a first down run that almost looked like they were letting him score there with a four-point deficit. Okay. Do the Yankees win tonight? The baseball playoffs have been great. I mean, statistically, through the years, Cleveland has not been great in this spot, elimination games.

I mean, whatever Yankee stadium's lore and or and mystique, whatever those, what was I lying years ago, those are dancers at a club or something, but whatever Yankee stadium is worth, I mean, yeah, but I'm shrugging

as I say that, I mean, it'd be wild for baseball to lose Atlanta, the Mets, the Dodgers, and the Yankees before a divisional, before, and the championship series. But you know it's funny, Kevin? Everyone, I shouldn't say everyone. You see complaints about this format.

This isn't fair. What are you talking about? Baseball's not fair. You grade on a 162 game scale, and then you're going to decide something on a three-game series or a five-game series or a seven-game series. It's inherently not going to met itself out the way it does over 162 games, which, by the way, you get to play a bunch of crummy teams,

and now you're playing people that are your equal, and it's a crapshoot. I just, I don't understand the hand-wringing. Like, I mean, back in the day, there were two divisions in both leagues. I remember the Orioles won 100-something games and didn't even make the playoffs because the Yankees won one game more. You would cry about unfair. I mean, baseball is just, it's a sport.

I just, I don't understand the complaining. The only thing that I wish, I wish this round was Best of Seven. I don't know why they've stuck with Best of Five forever. I think Best of Seven, it would produce more money. And, you know, it allow teams that won 111 games to stick around down 3-1 with a chance to come back. All right. Last one, because we haven't talked at all about them, but just Washington, the football team, the commanders. Thoughts?

I don't, that's really vague. No, it's not. You know what I want you to tell me what you think of them. I don't know, man. they're pretty limited. I mean, will it ever... Did you read the whole story last week from... I had Wickersham on the radio this morning.

Did you read... I did. So, do you think that any of this will lead to him finally being, you know, ousted or deciding to sell? No. No, I just... I don't. I don't think that.

I think I don't know the guy, but he's been here long enough for us to have a decent sense that I think he's nothing, if not defiant and digs his boots in and isn't going to be told what to do. And if, you know, if he's gathering dirt on other owners for real, I don't imagine that would be particularly difficult to do. I mean, I think if we've seen anything when it comes to, you know, ownership across all of sports and the issues that have come up with, you know, whether it's a Sterling or a Sarver or whatever,

is it that incredibly wealthy people who aren't used to having anyone tell them what they can't do don't always behave the most honorably, do they? So if, and I'm not speaking of Snyder, I'm saying if he wants to, wanted to look around and find others that, you know, that had something that they wouldn't want to have vetted, then, you know, I could just see, I just imagine that as it's been described to me through the years, that if someone wants to try to take Snyder out, that he would say, okay, cool,

well, I'm grabbing every one of you and dragging you to the bottom width, right? Yeah. aren't you glad you don't have to talk about them every day? I mean, I don't know how, I don't know, are the phone lines lit up? Of course. Every day. I could sit there and take calls for the whole three hours, you know. You know, if there's a reasonable topic, it doesn't really matter.

I mean, it's just, I don't, Tommy and I say this all the time. I think there's a group of people. And I'm very, very thrilled that these people are there because without them, I don't know, I'd probably have to do something else that almost enjoy the conversation about the team, whether it's, you know, rubbernecking or, you know, a participant, as they do actually watching the games. so it's really it's really an interesting sort of case study

in in that I mean I had some the other night after Rivera's sound where he was you know reacted passionately after they won

I just sort of ad lib this thing about I just it's so hard for me to to try to describe to you guys out there what what this is compared to what it was

and and how you know RFK, I said RFK, they're like an old rat, a rusted out battleship waiting to be sunk and how that's this perfect metaphor for what once was. And, you know, look, this is something that isn't an original thought. It's been said by a million people forever. I mean, how they were this source civic pride and this great connector of all areas and counties and socioeconomic and religion and everything. I mean, they were the religion. And maybe that's it.

Maybe they still are sort of, you know, that the ability to talk about it and feel connected to something, even if you're connected to the past. I don't know. Maybe that's it. Or maybe we're all just bored out of our mind. I can't know idea. I think people, whether it's celebrating or wallowing together, they don't mind being part of a community. People always want to feel part of a group.

And I think that, you know, it's been obviously a lot less celebration and a lot more, you know, misery. Washington has been sitting Shiva for a long time. A long time. Yeah. Yeah, without the good food. Yeah. I mean, after how many years of the results,

can anyone reasonably expect it to remain passionate and or optimistic? I don't know. All right, see you. Thanks for doing this. My pleasure. All right. Up next, Tommy Shepard, the Wizards GM, will be on with me. The Wizards open up their season Wednesday night in Indiana.

That next, right after these words from a few of our sponsor. Well, the NBA season is upon us. We saw hockey open up last week, and this is the time of year where we got all four of the major sports going on. The Wizards open up their 2020, 2022, 2023 season on Wednesday night on the road against Indiana. Joining me now on the show is Wizards General Manager Tommy Shepard. All right, I'm going to cut to the chase here. I'm not going to beat around the bush. We'll come back to the roster and the things that you're going to. you feel confident about in the areas that are a little bit murky, but I want to cut to the chase with this. Is this team on paper better than the team you had last year? Yes. It is. We have a lot more depth, and I think we have some quality leadership,

veterans that were added to help augment the leadership that we had existing. But in terms of competition for minutes in training camp and legitimate camp, legitimate starting positions that are open, you know, I think it was very obviously we added a lot more talent in the offseason and we're excited to see where it translates. All right. The other part... Thank you for having me on. No, it's always great to catch up. I love having these conversations with you. The other part of sort of cutting to the chase early is this. Is this Tommy a season where there is pressure on you, on West Jr., to win 44 games, qualify for the playoffs, one through six seeds, one through the six seed, not the play-in?

Is that this kind of a season, a win now or else kind of a season? No, it's never win now or else. I hadn't heard that from anywhere, but I promise you there's always pressure we put it on ourselves. You know, what you described as something we strive for every single season, but you've got to do it when you have the right number of players that are ready and available and I think the accumulation of what we've gone through to get to this point where you consider this time last year we had to now, we have 10 new players on our roster.

So obviously we had to do a lot of changing. That's what happens when you don't win. But the pressure is to just continue to get better. And that's something we put on ourselves. Ted, monumental sports, they've been fantastic, very great supporters of what we're trying to do and keep adding more talent and get ready for those big moments when they appear.

And, you know, we started a free agency last year at trade deadline when we acquired Christaps, Prisaginians. And we swung a trade to get Monty Morris and Will Barton from Denver. We added Dillon Wright through Free Agency and Taj Gibson. Like those are guys who've been through the wars. They've been in big games. We had a lot of success this summer with Danny playing with Team Israel. We have Chris Tass playing with Team Lopje, a lot of activity going on that shows us, you know,

where we're going. Kevin, I think is an exciting place because we've got a lot of guys who are really dedicated to getting better. And first and foremost, we have a healthy Bradley bill, and he looks tremendous. At 250 million, no trade clause, but that was a priority. You guys got it done. And I would wonder before we get into the roster in a little bit more detail, is there a bigger, Tommy, as long as, you know, Brad and Porzingis stay healthy, we should be okay. Is that the biggest key more than anything else to this season?

I think that's a huge key. I would add in there the ability to play off with Chris Taps, Prazingis and Bradley Bill putting, you know, Kyle Kuzman that mix in terms of a guy who can really help prop up the starting. You know, those two guys right there are a lot to expect that to them. I think Kyle can be a tremendous addition to that group. I do think we have a lot of different guys who can score a lot of different ways. I really do believe that, that,

chemistry between Bradley and Chris Daps has been apparent. We see it every day in practice. Hasn't been able to get out on the floor as much. They played the one game in Japan together. That's unfortunate, but it's what it is. In this day and age, you know, talent knows talent. They figure it out. And those two players are certainly talented, that's for sure.

If we can keep them on the floor and have them playing together for, you know, 75 to 82 games during the regular season, that would be awesome. All right. Tell me about Will Barton and Montae Morrison. what they bring to the team. Well, you've got two guys that you know exactly what they're going to bring. Monta is a, he's shown because of injury in Denver, he was a capable starting point guard in the NBA when Jamal Murray was out.

I think his numbers speak for himself. He was very competent at the defensive end as well, but he's a guy. He's a pass first, but he can score. He definitely is a pesky defender. I think Will Barton, he scores in bunches. You can start him, not start him. you can bring them in, plays multiple positions. But Will is, you know, he bleeds basketball.

And that's one thing I think that's raised a level competition-wise for minutes. When you have people like that, they're going to really push the people behind them are going to have to raise their game, you know, because those guys are going to play a lot of minutes. I think DeLon Wright brought to us the back court, the big defender that we've lacked in the past. We've got a guy legitimate 6'5. We can go out and shut down the other teams. You know, whoever, if it's the one and it's the two that's gotten us, he's somebody that we think can come in and cool them off.

He can finish games, and he's actually very proficient from the three-point line, but he's been in big games. Monty and Will, you know, he's talking about conference finals, finals with Coos. He got guys who played it, and that matters a ton. And then adding, you know, just such a wonderful presence in Tage Gibson, who can go out and give you minutes when you need them, but he can stabilize your locker room at all times. He's a great practice player.

it's after it, but make no mistake, he can still play. You know, he's very expanded his game. He's a three-point shooter. He's one of the better rebounders in the NBA. He's going to help us tremendously on the class. We've got to get better there. But he's been just a tremendous leader at every area in our locker room. As you know, a locker rooms are you've got older guys and young guys.

You've got a lot of different blends of backgrounds, and he kind of brings everybody together. And it's been wonderful to have him here. and then I can't say no about Johnny Davis. I think his best days obviously are going to be ahead of him, but where he is as a player right now, many rookies have faced it before. One end of the game is ahead of the other.

His just happens to be defense, which we need. So that's good. He's really been a very good active defender for us. The shots will come. He's figuring it out. His shot, you know, if you watch him, Kevin, you've got a great eye for town, what he's doing right now. It's a little slow.

So in college, you can get away with that here. you got to get it up quicker. And I think he's missing those six seconds in the shot clock. He's used to dance with the ball a little bit more. So we're trying to get him into quick decision-making, get to your spot, get it up, move the ball. One of those. And he's just a tremendous assimilator. He gives him the message.

He goes out, works on a practice, comes back, and he brings it to the game. I'm really confident where his future is for us. He's going to be a really durable defender, two-way guy who can score. It's interesting. I mean, the quick release is always the difference sometimes with, the shooting between college and pro players, but the six seconds that you talked about, and just thinking about him, you know, as a college player at Wisconsin, there was kind of a methodical way in which he went about trying to, you know, create shots. And you don't have

those extra six seconds. It's got to move a lot faster. Tell me about Hachamura. I mean, this is, you know, last year obviously missed a lot of time. And I think we all thought before last year, this is like the wild card. This is a guy that could eventually become a star and be a second or third star on this team. Where is he with his game? What are you expecting from Rui? He's been tremendous. He showed great improvement from a year ago. You know and I know when you miss training camp, you miss preseason. Very seldom do you have a good year. He actually came back and 40 games in the season and was spectacular shot that ball very well from three. able to score in bunches.

He's got to get better defensively. It's got a recurring thing, but I think with Ruey right now we're very satisfied with his progress. He's been able to pick it off the glass, take it up the court, make plays. Now he's learning where the doubles are coming from. He's passing out quicker. I think he's making a lot

better decisions with the ball when he's coming up the floor. But he gets to his spots. He makes his shots. And I think now we watched the other night in New York, we threw him on multiple players that the Knicks had going, different sizes, different qualities. You know, if you're guarding Julius Randall,

you're going to guard him a certain way. Willie was very physical with him. And then he got out on the perimeter a couple times, switched out on some guards, did a good job on that. So I know his defensive acumen has gone up. I think what we've got to expect from him is the consistency. He's a player that's going to go out and get you a steady, 15 a night.

I think he's going to shoot the ball very well. Get to the free throw line. He's got to knock down. You know, his free throws in preseason. I think he got to the line. the most out of anybody on the team. I know he can make more than 68%. I think he's closer to 75% free-to-shoe shooter and better.

So the one thing I was most I'm really happy with, he rebounded a lot better in preseason this year than he has in the past. That's what we need him to do, and he answered the call. He's seven and a half rebounds in preseason. So we saw progress in every area of the game. The most important thing for us is that we can rely on what he's going to bring to the game every night. be consistent. Go out there. You don't have to outkick. Outdo your coverage, anything. Just go out there

and be you and do that every night. That's going to be good enough. We're excited for him. He really looks good, Kevin. What do you need from Denny this year? We need him to be much better at everything that he was good at last year. He's got to improve defensively. He's a good defender. His size really helps us. I think he's ideal as a starter, actually, because he doesn't need the ball a whole lot. He's not going to take a ton of shots, but he can guard. But what he can. do. This is a straight bribery. I'll tell you off the top. I said, Denny, if you get the ball off the glass, you take it up, you can make any play you want. We're better in transition. We really push that. If you're watching us play, like I know you are, you'll see Ruiz do that.

You'll see Coos do that. And for Denny, it's something I watched him in big games this summer playing in Eurobasket do, and it's something that's very second nature to him. He's a really good player. I know, DHO's decision-making. He can do a lot more with the ball than maybe we've asked him to do in the past. And this year he's not going to be able to hide. We're going to ask him to do a lot more, facilitating the offense.

So if he comes off the bench, if he starts, we know what he can bring to the table. He got a little setback coming back from Israel. We really wanted to air on the side of caution, but missing training camp wasn't quite the same. Like he was active that whole time. He's shooting the whole time. One thing I think you'll see is an improvement on his three-point range.

And I think you'll see him play through contact better, Kevin. And that's something I know. Bugged you in the past, bugged us too. He's got to get up, get to the rim, punch it through. But I love his IQ, right? I mean, this is a high IQ player. Absolutely. You know, you mentioned Dilan Wright and you mentioned Barton.

Like, with Wright, Barton, and even a guy like Todd Gibson, is there a toughness that you have on this team this year with guys like those three? I'm just mentioning those three because Barton and Gibson, been tough competitors. Dilan Wright, you know, that long-arm 6-5 defender. You mentioned it. He's played in big postseason games in Toronto. In fact, against Washington in one of those series, you know, a few years ago. He put a hurt on up. You're right. He really did. And is there a toughness with those three and maybe, you know, somebody I'm not thinking of that you really haven't had previously? I think that tough guys, they come to your franchise and they can elevate the

toughness of other people around them. It takes on its own identity. One or two players can change the identity of your team. And some of those guys are existing. Bradley Bielst is a very tough guy. He posts every night. He's going to go out and play through injury. He does all kinds of things.

But defensively hard-nosed, he knows he can pick it up now. He's got a lot more help. He doesn't have to save himself for the offensive end. I think Bradley, combined with these guys, they certainly, they bring that to practice every day. There's a hard-nose edge to everything. We're seeing a lot more diving on the floor. We're seeing a lot more rebounds that are contested.

And the guys going up and grab it. You know, again, I don't want to put any pressure on a rook, but, like, Johnny Davis is a tough kid. Right. He really is. He's made some amazing plays in practice where he'll run through people and not blink. His football background serves him well. He doesn't worry too much about where his body is.

He's going to do whatever it takes to get the possession. Anthony Gill is a tough guy. So you put these guys in a room together. I think it does start to iron-sharp an iron kind of deal where these guys all, you elevate, you say what's our standard? And everybody lists to that standard. The new guys have certainly helped that, bring it out in some of the returning players. But I'm really satisfied where I think we have a high-character team that loves to play together,

that they'll get after it. And I think we've got a streak of nastyness and that'll come out. Right, let's talk about Bradley. First of all, how's his health? Fantastic. He looks great. We held him out of a preseason game. game because we were in Japan and the turnaround was a little too quick, it was a little too early.

And then when we came back, he got in the protocols. He had strep throat, got through that, and played out. I thought the other night, the game was easy for him against the Knicks. It was almost like looking at two years ago when he was putting up 30 a night. He scores it easy, very efficient, but he makes the right play. and if you suffered through watching our three-point shooting a little bit during that game, it was a little bit like 10-cup there for a while, but Bradley was making the right play. Yeah, making the right plays, the balls, the shots weren't dropping,

but, you know, he's a very willing passer, and he's going to make the right play every time. And we know, and he counts on these guys to knock down shots, he knows that they can. He's got all the confidence in the world of them. We're excited. We wish there was one more game that, you know, KP, Bradley could have played together. But, you know, when you go to Japan, two games, that that really took us off the surface of the NBA for a while. You're up in the air. It's a long trip in a short amount of time.

That's not an excuse, but we have to come back knowing that, hey, we probably could have used three or four more days of practice. It's probably one more game, but we just don't have that. So let's maximize what we do have. Just real quickly, was that trip a trip in which? I mean, first of all, just from an experience standpoint for everybody involved, that's an incredible trip. But were there a lot of Wizards fans there because of Rui? Man, it was insane, yeah. I think there's a ton of NBA fans, and there's a ton of Rui fans.

There's a ton of Rui fans that are the same people. But certainly, I think there was a lot of people there celebrating that. You have a Golden State, the world champs in the building as well, or the NBA chance, I should say, or everybody in the building. I think that was just a celebration for Japan to have that. those two games, it was spectacular. The fans' participation was awesome. Really satisfied with the third game. We wore their starters out.

We were doing pretty well. We let the game get away with us late in the game with our third and fourth line, and that's to be expected. But those guys that we need to see what they can do, too. So we took away from going to Japan. That's a fantastic basketball community that really loves the game. But I tell you what, Kevin, it's almost like being at a tennis match. They'll celebrate a great play,

and this gets really quiet. It's like someone was hitting a mute button during the game, and that's just the culture. They're very polite people, but they celebrated having Rui home, and he loved the bear hug, and he gave it right back to him. He was able to give Steph a bottle of his black samurai wine, which Steph was just really over the heels over. That was a neat present to have.

He gave all of our players a kimono, and we just had opportunity to share culture at the same. same time, get some basketball stuff done. It was cool as heck. And then, I will tell you, one of the coolest things was having George Mersen on there with some of the best sumo wrestlers in Japan history, taking pictures of different sized people. It was fascinating to a lot of the local people. Oh, that's fun. All right. So back to Brad for one second. Is there a point total that he can average that is too high that you would look at and say

that doesn't necessarily equate to wins. I don't even think I asked it the right way, but I'm just wondering, like, if he ends up... Yeah, no, I know what you're saying. Yeah, if he has to score 31, 32 a game and be among the league's leading scores, does that equate to something better with respect to record or worse? Well, it's all about efficiency.

And if we can add more scoring around him and take some of the pressure off, I actually think he can score more, and we'll score more as a team. If we get him back to some catch and shoot threes and make the offense a little bit easier for him where he's not seeing double and triples and pick up points at half court and give him a lot more breathing room. Our spacing is going to be huge. But, you know, when you put Przingis out one corner, move them around on the perimeter,

and you have Kuzma, those guys can bury three. And Bradley can get to the rack. He can pull back. He can step back. There's a lot more he can do with just the space. And Monti is a very capable shooter as well. So I think Bradley, to answer your question, I don't care how much he scores if he's making the right plays and the ball's moving, we're going to be very efficient. If we have to go to him every night to bail us out and rely on him to score 30, 35 a game, you're not going to win to your point because it's not going to be an efficient amount of points.

What's really going to separate him, I believe this year, Kevin, is just the continual rack attacks where he can get to the line. If he can get to the rim, that opens up. the whole floor for them, then I think you see a lot more opportunities to score without having to, you know, dance with the ball and get deep in the clock and have double and triple. Like I said, you're going to either get to the line, you're going to have a clean look, you'll be able to score and transition, make the game easier for him. And that's why you add talent. That's rarely where we think we're a lot better equipped to help Bradley this year.

You know, one of the things that's noticeable in the last couple of years is all of your bigs could really run the floor and finish. you know, even a guy like Bryant and a guy like Gafford, Porzingis can obviously run the floor. But when the game slows down, is Porzingis the kind of pick and roll player that will really pose problems, whether it's, you know, Monta running it with him or or Bradley or whomever? Because, you know, I still think that that team you guys had, that, you know, one series in advance to the second round and was close on a couple of occasions to advancing to the Eastern Conference finals. You know, they may not have gotten along super well,

but John and Gortot running that pick and roll, that was a tough combination to check, especially when you had some shooters waiting in the corners, whether it was Bradley or Trevor or whomever. What kind of big man when the game slows down, do you see Porzingis being with Brad? I think they'll play well off each other. the two-man games live and well with those two.

I think, Przingis, certainly he can roll to the rim, but he's picking Pop-wise. He'd pick your poison. I mean, Bradley can get down the Illinois hurry. Chris has to be wide open at the three-point line, and he's very proficient from there. He showed last year, actually, we had a nice little stretch. I think we were six and five over 11-game stretch,

and we were throwing a saddle on them. We were down big to the Lakers. He took the game over. We wanted the fourth quarter. It did the same thing to go in the state. he's just used to being able to shoot over people. I think he's a lot more athletic than probably meets the eye. I think everybody's kind of, they've fallen in love again with the unicorn

because of maybe some of the stuff that was going on with Victory at Wambiamma down in Vegas, and it reminds people of all this versatile big man that can really do all these different things, you know, where's those guys been? And his name is one of the first that surfaced when they were trying to make comps. and rightfully so. He was an all-star. He's a guy, I think, had 300 points in the first 10 games in New York,

better than Bernard King ever was. In those 300, you know, those 300 points in 10 games, I'm saying, it broke Bernard King's record. Chris Das is a very capable player. I think he's been hyper by injury. Now he's in a good system. In the stretch, in a half-court setting,

he can do a lot of great damage to defenses. Was there ever a better, bucket getter and bunches than Bernard came. No, Bernard was unbelievable. Yeah, it was unbelievable. All right. Best of luck to you. It's going to be fun to watch.

Oh, I know what. I had one more. Give me a player. You've mentioned almost every player. You know, one player we didn't talk a lot about was Kispert, but just give me a player right now that you think that maybe fans like me aren't thinking is going to make a major contribution at some point during this year, but you see it coming. West sees it coming. The organization sees it coming.

We see the steady improvement of Gafford in that second group and being able to get him out to your point, you talk about a rim roller and a guy that plays above the box. He gets easy lobbs. I think that somebody's going to continue to improve. He's improved his ability to score around the rim, and he's a good rim defender. So I think his productivity is going to continue to increase. as you increase the amount of talent on that second unit. You know, the most obvious statement in scouting sometimes, he's a really good player when he's with good players.

So our ability to raise that level of that second unit, add more talent that's going to make him even that more valuable. One thing I think he'll be really impressed with is his ability to switch directions and get down and be the first guy down in the offense and first guy down on defense. He's more the fastest people on our team. Yeah, athletic as hell. Thank you. By the way, after Wednesday night's opener against the Pacers,

wizard's home opener is Friday night against the Bulls. So get tickets and get down to Capital One. Tommy, thanks. Best of luck this year. Look forward to watching. Man. It is always a pleasure, Kevin. Thank you so much for having me on. Have a great one. All right. That's it for the show. Thanks to Tommy Shepard. Thanks to Scott Van Pelt. Back tomorrow with Tommy.