The Kevin Sheehan Show - JP Finlay w/ Latest on Alex Smith

Episode Date: August 3, 2020

Kevin is joined by JP Finlay on the show today to talk about JP's report yesterday that Alex Smith has been impressive in non-contact football activity. They discussed the addition of Dontrelle Inman as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right. It's going to be a quick show today. J.P. Finley's going to join me here shortly. He's got news on Alex Smith that he broke yesterday morning. The Washington football team just signed a wide receiver and Don Trell Inman. We'll get to that with JP as well. wanted to start just with the weekend where there was a lot of sports on TV. And there was one thing in particular that I really enjoyed watching. We've talked for several months about how we were going to consume these sports when they restarted without fans. And in some cases, bubble sports, hockey playing that, the NBA playing that. I really enjoyed some of the playoff hockey from over the weekend.

The Penguins, Canadians game, in particular on Saturday night, went to overtime. I found it to be very entertaining. And even though crowd noise was piped in for the broadcast, there weren't any fans. And they basically covered the seats so that, you know, it looked different around the arena. But the intensity of the game, and maybe it's because in baseball, they're starting with a regular season, and in the NBA, they're starting with these regular season games, and in the NHL, they're starting with at least 16 of the 24 teams. They're starting with a Best of Five Playoff Series.

And you've got the Penguins who are a five seed up against the Canadians who would not have qualified more likely than not for the playoffs, and they're sitting there as a 12 seed. Game goes to overtime. It's NHL hockey in overtime. It's exciting. It was intense. And Montreal won the game three to two. And so the penguins in a short series now have to win three of the next four games to advance.

Now, the caps, if you guys don't understand this, are playing in the round-robin portion of the NHL restart. They're one of the top four seeds in the east. They're going to play the other three top-four seeds in a round-robin to determine seating. There's no benefit to seeding because there's no home ice advantage. But they're going to start today at 4 p.m. against the lightning. And then they'll play games also against the Bruins and the Flyers. Those are the top four seated teams. And then the Penguins came in as the fifth-seated team,

which is why they're playing in a best-of-five right now. But the hockey is starting with meaningful games. And maybe that's why I enjoyed it. And maybe when the NBA gets to the postseason games, which will be, I guess, another week or so, two weeks, it'll be different. I know many of you have really enjoyed the NBA so far, and there have been some very exciting games in Orlando. To me, it's hard for me to really get deep into it. It just feels very much like without the crowds there. It feels a little bit like Vegas Summer League, which I've had several people tell me I'm way off on.

The Wizards lost again. They're done. I mean, they've got six left. They'd have to make up a significant difference to get within four games. The team that they're chasing is the team they lost to yesterday in Brooklyn, losing to the Nets 118 to 110. Doug Peterson tested positive, which was interesting over the weekend, but he's asymptomatic. And then there was this story from baseball on Friday, which I wanted to just quickly touch on. And that was Major League Baseball on Friday put out all of their testing numbers from the

previous week. They had taken 11,895 samples to which they got 29 positives on. That's 2% in terms of the positive rate. Also, 21 of the 29 positives were from one team, and that was the Marlins, of course. the Cardinals have also had, I guess you would describe it as a much smaller outbreak. The total number of monitoring samples collected and tested for COVID-19 since all of this began is 40,783. 58 of those have turned up positive. That's 0.1%. We are not talking about an issue here that is widespread. It's a tiny percent. of those being tested in the, you know, this is the non-bubble sport that are coming up with positive tests. And what we don't have data on at this point is we don't have data on whether

or not any of these people have serious symptoms and serious illness. We don't think that we know of anybody that's gotten seriously sick. Of the 29 out of the 11,895 positives from last week, which ended on Friday, July 31st, 21, as I mentioned, were from the Marlins, and 20 of the positives were players, nine were staff members. So the one thing I thought of when I saw this, Mark Zuckerman from Mass and sent it out, was just the following. And that is that if this is going to disrupt the sport of baseball, with cancellations and postponements, this kind of percentage.

What the hell is going to happen in football? I really also think that the Nats and Blue Jays should have played over the weekend. I don't know why they didn't continue to play. The Blue Jays had to stay in town because their series with Philadelphia was canceled and the Nats series with the Marlins was canceled as well. They should have just played three more games against each other. This is going to be an imbalance schedule, unbalanced schedule. It's going to be competitively unfair.

We all have to understand that as sports fans. I think it would have been better had the Blue Jays and the Nats had played over the weekend. Interestingly about the Nats, the Juan Soto, two positives he got cleared by the Department of Health over the weekend. He thinks they were false positives. No one else that we know of within the Nats organization is tested positive. So if he were truly positive, it is interesting that, no one else was infected when he was around the team. Anyway, they don't play until tomorrow night.

All right, we're going to get to J.P. Finley here momentarily. First, quick word about mybooky.ag. You may already have a spot. Why not a second? Use mybooky.orgy.org. They've got great lines, fair pricing, and you get paid if you win. Also, they're offering a $10 MLB future wager for free if you use my promo code. Kevin D.C. if you go sign up.

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All right, let's bring in J.P. Finley from NBC Sports, Washington, and also the Washington Football Podcast. Have you renamed it officially? Not yet. We need one. The Washington Football Podcast is so lame. I'm going to come up with something that's a little less lame, but I don't know.

Not a lot of great choices right now. You mean kind of like the Washington football team? Yeah, kind of. But I still say that having no name is better than rushing into it. Oh, I'm completely with you on that. I just wish that they had selected FC Washington or Washington FC because I think that actually had a chance. And I'm not suggesting the current focus on Washington as the brand.

I mean, they're really, you know, they made the announcement about Washington football team, but if you watch everything they're doing, it's really about an emphasis on Washington, you know, on the city. And, you know, I think they want that to become the brand, which is fine with me. I just think FC Washington, we could have been sitting here a year from now and getting an announcement that they're going to just continue with that, that it was so successful. Right. It just would have stood out.

The current situation that seems out, too, though. I think I would have liked Washington Football Club better, but with all the trademark nonsense, and I wonder if they stick with what they know they legally own. Probably. You know, who knows, man. Yeah, I think that's probably right. I think it's a good point that maybe FC Washington and or Washington FC may not. They may have faced the same challenges they did with Warriors or anything else.

Well, who's the dude that sings the National Anthem before NASG? Isn't that guy's name? Or it's his name, D.C. Washington. It's not FC. I think it's D.C. Washington. It's a heck of the name. Yeah. It's a great name. So you had a story that consumed much of my morning radio show.

I mean, what else was going to consume it this morning, the NBA from over the weekend? You're not going to talk wizards. No, not much wizards talk. Not much wizards talk at all. Although I did mention, and I mentioned earlier here in this show, that there's been a lot of praise for Rui Hachamura. I mean, Jared Dudley basically said, you know, future superstar. Karan Butler agreed with that. That's great.

I mean, I hope they're right, because if Wall comes back healthy and you get Beal who continues to grow, maybe they'll be, you know, they could be a team next year that, you know, vives for, you know, top four, top five in the east. I would be very surprised if John Wall comes back completely healthy next year with Bradley Beal, that they're not an NBA playoff team. I would be surprised about that. But anyway. Playoffs are kind of low bar, but I'm with you. Low bar. So for those that missed JP's story from yesterday morning, he had sources that told him that Alex Smith participated in four consecutive

days of on-field workouts with trainers and performed well. J.P. writes, perhaps more importantly, Smith suffered no setbacks after the on-field work. And I read your last line in your website story. What is known in becoming more obvious every day is that Smith will not quit, and it's time to take his football comeback quite seriously. That last line in combination with what you learned about Alex Smith's last week. Is it time for us to not only take his football comeback quite seriously, but to consider him as a potential on the field performer as a Washington football team quarterback in the future?

I don't know, Kev, but I'm not ruling it out anymore. And I think for a long time, it was easy to rule out. I don't think we should be doing that at this point. Now, it's important to point out, and this is in the story, too, that the folks I talked to said that all three quarterbacks looked good, and that includes Duane, and that includes Kyle Allen. I still believe this is Duane-Haskin's team,

and personally, I think it should be. I think this is the year you play him, see what he's got, gave him as much work as you can get. But I just think, I think the tone of our conversation around Alex's return at the change, and it's, at some point, he will have to

pass the football physical, as Ron Rivera has termed it. And And, you know, it's interesting, something that maybe we didn't really do a deep dive into at the time. It came on the active publicist, not the reserve publicist. So that active public, he could be activated at a moment, whereas if he was on the reserve publicist would mean he would have to miss at least the first six games. The active public has none of those qualifiers to it. If he could pass his physical, his football physical, he could be cleared by Friday. So I think that's a pretty interesting little subplot in this.

I think it's just, it's really hard to know. I do believe the organization wants to roll with Dwayne, but they are serious about competition. And I don't think, my biggest point is I think we've got to start taking Alex serious. And if we were November 2018 when he broke his leg, let's say we were 99% sure he'd never play again. And then maybe November 2019, we were 90% sure he would never play again. My number has dropped significantly on that. I think you've got to give him at least a 25, 30% chance of playing. Just the way this has progressed.

I mean, I guess just part of me thinks that it's not that we're being duped at all. That would be the wrong description. But that everybody understands except maybe all of us, for sure, is that Alex continues to work his way back, and his goal is to be cleared to play professional football, but we're not actually, they're not actually going to go through with it. The Redskins aren't going to put him on the field, and Alex Smith isn't going to be on an NFL field. How much of a percent do you put to that? This is just to prove he can do it and they won't play. Yeah, and then, you know, he's either going to retire or, you know, they'll say he's ready,

but he needs, that this has been a driving force for him to get cleared medically and by a football team and NFL team to play professional football, but that he doesn't really have the desire ultimately to go through with it and that teams may not really have the stomach to put him out there. Legitimate possibility, I don't know. It's easy to do this. If you think that's what's going on, it's easy to do this. with an 80-man roster spots aren't that important. And not to say they're not important, but they're not vital. Whereas if you get to after cuts, I mean, that's where they will have to make a decision,

is September 1st or whatever the cutdown date is right there at Labor Day weekend. And you're not going to use an active roster spot, an NFL active roster spot. Those things are incredibly valuable, and you see teams have to make really tough decision. You're not going to waste one of those for a feel-good story. I don't think. So I think that is when, you know, push will come to shove. They can move him to the reserve puff list, and that buys more time. And then you could go from Pup to IR. That buys you the whole season. So they have options. But I don't, I don't think, and I know how respected Alex Smith is and how hard he's work, if he, if this happens that he actually, if he gets off the Pup list and gets on the

active roster, that would be, then they'd have to cut him. So I don't, if he gets off the Pup list, I think would be a really, really huge tell that, yeah, this is real. I agree with you on that. I mean, if he, if he doesn't go directly from Pup to IR and he is actually out there, then it's, Yeah, I mean, I read this. And I don't know that that's going to happen. I don't know that anybody does. Right. You know, he could also go from Pup to, you know, like you said, Friday, and participate in practices and handle all the non-contact stuff and then be put on, you know, injured reserve at a later time before the season starts.

But I read this from Project 11 because I was watching it last week. It just happened to have popped up. and I made a note of it. They came back into multiple segments of that documentary with a black screen with the following print in white. The following segment contains graphic images. Viewer discretion is advised. And that happened multiple times during that documentary.

And it's just, it's an unbelievably incredible comeback to be cleared medically to participate in football activities from a leg that looked like it was attacked. I remember saying it at the time, It looked like one of those shark attack legs that you've seen, you know, in pictures. And then you realize on top of it that it wasn't a bite. It was an infection that was eating his leg and potentially his life away. I've said this multiple times over the last couple of weeks,

and I forget if you and I discussed it the last time you were on the show, which I think was last week or the week before, and that is this isn't the team for Alex Smith to be put back on the field for. This is a team, JP, that's had all of these issues over the years with the medical staff, a reputation around the league for having mangled various things, whether they're true or not. And, you know, not to mention the fact of having a young quarterback that they drafted in the first round that is very promising that they may think is promising, too, with the new coaching staff. I just don't think this is the team if Alex Smith really wants to play and gets cleared that he should do it for. What do you think?

I agree. I wrote maybe two weeks ago, whenever the news emerged from Stefani Bell that Smith had been cleared by his own medical team, that I think the skins are Washington could create them. And I don't know what kind of trademark that there is, and they'd have to eat a ton if not all of the salary. But in my mind, Alex deserves an organization that fits where his career is. And Washington has invested a first and a fifth round pick as young quarterback since Smith got injured. People forget that fifth in Kyle Allen, but that's true. And sure, it's easy to say we just want competition, and sure Alex could be in the meeting rooms and give them a veteran voice. And we even saw last year that Alex Duane started a form of bond. But if he really wants to play, if he really wants to get back on the field, then, yeah, I think he deserves an opportunity that makes sense.

sense for him. Tell me he wouldn't be the perfect backup for Joe Burrow or really, if Washington hadn't traded for Kyle Allen, then this would be a great situation, I think. But because that trade already happened, unless the organization still doesn't believe he's going to play again, and that's why they're able to just go on with this because they know they have the guaranteed money. They have to pay him. He's going to sit on their cap regardless. Let's do one year of Alex in our building helping our young guys. And I think it's still distinctly possible. That's what's going on, especially it's their doctors that have to give them this football

clearance. So they retain some level of control. And I don't know if you listen to Ken Hampey, who's the new Cuban coach. I read the quote from him that you put in your story, which I thought about what they needed to see, which makes total sense to me, which is, you know, moving and sliding and 11 on 11 without contact and somebody breaks through and, you know, I can envision how that would be very instructive as to where he is. I can't imagine him doing. I just cannot imagine Alex Smith out there, not even full speed,

but three-quarter speed, 11-on-11 drills, where Lyman get knocked over and guys get rolled up on. And, I mean, River Buster maybe lost his NFL career. career in half speed 11-on-11 drills last summer. So, I mean, these types of things happen all the time. So what did you make of Zampeze saying that we need to see that? So I don't think we're that close to seeing. And I could be right. I know just from having watched so many practices how this works with

players on the side field, the injured players are on a side separate field, versus guys that are in action on the main field. And you'll watch, the guys on the side field, and they look great. I mean, they look like they're moving full speed. They look like they can do anything north-south or east-west. But then when you ask coaches or even other players, how different is that from what's happening on this field? They say it's light-use, because if you're doing a drill

where you're running forward and back and cutting, what about when someone's chasing you and you have to run forward and side to side and then back. It's just entirely different and then obviously contact on top of that is the true game changer and I think that's what would really freak

most people out about Alex. So have all these rational thoughts in my brain like listen, add all this up and it doesn't sense. And yet on the other side of that equation is this locomotive that will not stop and keeps pushing through previously thought unstoppable item. And that's Alex. He just keeps coming and keeps getting past where people thought he could be.

So it's hard to balance those two. You know, so you're right. I mean, just think about, I mean, they'd almost have to implement a five Mississippi count, you know, with him playing quarterback, because you'd have to tell him and give him warning to get rid of it so somebody couldn't accidentally stumble or trip and roll into him. But I do understand what Zampesi was saying.

And it's the thing, what was interesting about that documentary, and I pointed this out several times, at the end of the documentary, one of the things that I loved about it was he was out there with his young kids and he was moving around and he was, he was jukeing them a little bit, you know, how you do with kids and they're trying to catch you or you're playing tag. and you could see some lateral movement there, which was really incredible, you know, when you consider where the leg was, you know, 15 minutes before in the documentary. And so, but I can see how there's no possible way a quarterback, or really, for that matter, any player could get cleared until in a no-contact drill, he could show that he could step up

and juke somebody to step up into the pocket or get outside the pocket like you would, you know, in three-on-three, you know, touch football in your backyard. And if he can't do that, well, there's no possible way he could get cleared. But who, JP, who wants this in the organization? Do you have any sense of who's really thinking he's got a chance and somebody legitimately is excited about potentially Alex Smith being their quarterback? I don't know that, Kev. I don't know that that person exists. I mean, we know that that Alex and Dan are close and that their wives are close. But, I mean, I wonder if Alex, and I have no idea the answer to this, let me be clear,

but if you're Elizabeth Smith, if you're Alex's wife, do you want him to have a place to be going on? No. Right? I mean, after everything your family went through. So I don't know that there's anybody pushing for him to get back on the field. I think there might be, I'm going to guess plenty of people. There's no way Alex Smith. was part of Ron Rivera's considerations, or Alex Smith back on the field,

was part of Ron Rivera's calculations when he took this job. I just, I find that incredibly hard to believe. And so this is, I mean, Ron took this job in January, and he saw a defense with a bunch of good players, the chance to take Chase Young and a lot of cap state. He's like, listen, I can make this work. The job Ron has now in August and early on after the post story, changing the name, everything that has happened, there's no way Alex was on top of mind.

Completely agree with you. Last one on Alex, and then I want to get to the news that broke a little while ago this morning about the new receiver. Just take a guess right now on August 3rd, how this ends up, you know, what the ultimate end game is with Alex Smith and the Washington football team. I still don't see him playing. I allow that I could be wrong. I think active pup to reserve pup to IR, they have to pay him anyway. And then at the next year, you let him,

I don't know, maybe next year we can't pass a physical, you know, the contract gets terminated. I don't know. I don't think they ever want to have to release him because of how close ownership is, but I still have a hard time seeing him play. Now, I used to think that completely, I don't know that that's the case anymore, but that's still the path I see happen. I would suggest essentially the same thing,

that they'll clear him to participate in football activities, but never for contact. They'll keep him off the field. field, they will go pup to IR. And sometime late this month or, you know, early September, Ron is going to hold a press conference via Zoom to announce that Dwayne Haskins is the starting quarterback and that he earned it in every way possible. He earned it on the field.

He earned it in the meeting room. He earned it as a leader. That's what I think is coming. And I'd be surprised if it's anything but that. And I'd be disappointed to if it's anything but that. not to sound cold-hearted towards Alex, but if Alex Smith came back and was on the field and beat out Dwayne Haskins,

that would really be indicting of Haskins. I agree with that. It's funny because I'm sure you get the speech also. A lot of people, I look like we're trying to create quarterback controversy, and that's not it at all. I think this is Dwayne's team. I think it should be Dwayne's team.

I think you need to give him every possible stop in 2020 to see what's there. I've been unequivocal about that for a while. But this is news, and Alex isn't here to argue with people on Twitter about quarterback controversy. So you can't stop the world for turning, man. Yeah, I can probably find it here. But after the show this morning, basically, you know, in talking and taking calls on this subject, somebody did the old, here we go again. Toxic. Trying to create toxic culture.

First of all, dude, try hosting a three-hour radio show with very little sports. Secondly, and there were games over the weekend. Secondly, I want Dwayne to be the starter. I've been an advocate for him to be a starter. Going back to before it started last year, and I'm really encouraged about his possibilities at becoming this team's franchise quarterback. I don't want it to wait, and it would be definitely damning if a guy who had a leg like the leg we saw beat him out. I mean, it just really would.

Talking to J.P. Finley, of course. So the team's expected, if they haven't done it already, to sign Dantrell-Inman, who's played, going into his seventh year, has played a lot with the Chargers. At times, you know, been productive with Philip Rivers and that offense there. injured a quad, got put on IR. When he came off of it, he got picked up by the Colts last year. This is an answer. I mean, we thought something would be coming after Kelvin Harmon, you know, towards ACL.

What do you know about Inman? And my sense of it is JP, they're signing him because he's got a really good chance to make the roster based on what they've seen. I think Harmon and Cody Latimer's situation. And Latimer, of course, yes. exemplist. If he gets cleared off that, facing suspension, is he facing jail time from his legal situation in Colorado? I think, I think Latimer is kind of off their mind now.

They have to move forward, and I agree with you. They have a chance to make the roster. They have no veteran on the team, no veteran at that position group. And really, you get past McCorn, Sims, Gandy Golden. I mean, Harmon and Latimer were kind of filling that out. Then there's a battle for the sixth spot. Now, no Harmon, no Latimer. You get past McCorn, Sims, Gandy Golden.

Who are you even writing down as a lineup? Cam Sims? I like the kid, blanking on his name, the undrafted kid from Temple, I think, has a legit chance of making the roster because he's a physical guy on special teams. I say right, I think he's here. I don't even know who you're talking about.

Prey Quinn. Well, you weren't talking about Trey Quinn. I'm saying like these are the games you start talking about as you get further down the list. Cam Sims, I mentioned, Marvin Kiddsey. I mean, heck yeah, Don Charles Inman.

We thought Kizzi might make the team last year and play a lot. When you get to those games, especially we're talking now like the fourth or fifth wideout. absolutely Inman has a chance. You know, Inman's a big guy, and he, there were, you know, I've always been a big Philip Rivers fan. And several people who listen make fun of me for being a big Philip Rivers fan.

I just always have been. And there have been some games this guy had, you know, in 15 and 16 that were big time games. I mean, he, I remember some of those games and some of those games were important games. He's a big dude with a big catch radius. I'm surprised that he was... And what we know about Duane, he'll put it up there. He'll give a guy who's going to make place. And Dwayne really was the guy who connected with Harmon, who's also a bigger guy.

So I think, first of all, I was reading that you're really not allowed to just bring people in for workouts just in the event. If you bring, the NFL is really advocating because of COVID-19. If you bring somebody in, you've got to have a legitimate, sincere, interest in signing him. So it sounds like they're going to do it. And yeah, that's a really good point, is that they're giving Dwayne another guy that's bigger with a bigger catch radius. I don't believe, by the way, J.P., that it's because they believe that Dwayne is inaccurate.

I mean, I just think he'll give people a shot. And he'll give people a shot. I don't believe that either. I mean, his college tape is incredibly accurate. And you can argue if those are downfield. throws or not. But then look at the two games he put together at the end of the year. Let me start that Philly game

12 for 12? He did. I need to get the exact stat, but I think Duane's an accurate passer. But here's the thing. A lot of accurate passers don't go down to field very much. I think Duane is an accurate passer that still looks for

trumpyard. And I think that's... Those are the numbers I'm going to be watching this year. I wrote something a while back on the two most important areas for Duane. And his accuracy numbers were deflated by how awful he was when he first got on the field against the Giants. Which is when he really was, he was unequipped to be on an NFL field at that point, by his own doing and by coaching. So those numbers skew his entire season. But if you look at the last month, they look much different.

You know what I forgot too, and I'm looking at Inman right now, is Inman when he was in Indy last year after getting release. by the Chargers, but he was in Indy in 2018 the year that Indy and Andrew Luck went to the postseason. And he had four catches and a touchdown in a playoff game at Houston when the Colts won at Houston and then had four more catches for 55 yards in that loss in the snow at Arrowhead in that divisional round. So he's played in some big games too. He's a solid veteran and I'm actually surprised he hadn't been picked up yet. Do you know anything about the corner they picked up over the weekend from the dolphins? Do not.

It's one of these things you'd be normal training camp I'd be learning about him. I'd talk to them. I'd watch them play. I'd watch him practice. But this is anything but normal. All right, man. I appreciate it, as always. Good to catch up.

Yeah, good to catch up with you too. Talk to you soon. I'm moving in with my in-laws for a week, Kev. Wish me luck. Are you really? Why? We're doing taking a wall down in our kitchen. Ah.

Good luck on that. Well, I mean, everybody's relationship with their in-laws is different. I always, my in-laws are great. I actually get along with my in-laws and my entire wife's family is great. Me too. It's going to be great. It's just we got young kids. Yeah. Well, you're going to get some help, hopefully. That's kind of what I'm hoping. Yeah, it goes. All right, well, let's get together soon. Thanks. Okay. Sounds good. Take care.

All right. Thanks to JP. Always like catching up with him. Short show today. Just don't forget Window Nation, if you've been thinking about new windows, 50% off everything right now. You'll also be in a position where if you want to finance it, you won't have to make any payments with no interest for two years. 86690 Nation or Windonation.com. I promise you it'll work out for you. If you've been thinking about new windows, give them a call. No risk.

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