The Kevin Sheehan Show - Kingsbury & Whitt Jr. Out!

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

Kevin and Thom today with plenty of reaction to both of the Commanders' coordinators, Kliff Kingsbury and Joe Whitt Jr., being out. Why is Kingsbury gone? What was the reaction of players and who's next all a part of the conversation. For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match 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 chien show here's kevin tommy's with me from cocoa beach i am here the show's presenting sponsor as always window nation 86690 nation and window nation dot com if you need new windows i promise you if you've been thinking about new windows call window nation and they'll take really good care of you. What a day, Tommy, here on Tuesday, January 6th, 2026. Happy New Year to you, by the way. Happy New Year to you, buddy. How's it going down in Cocoa Beach? I know you've got some stories. We'll keep them until the end, but just overall, weather-wise and otherwise, how's it going? How's it going? Well, have you ever seen the movie, The Money Pit? Yeah, I've seen

the Money Pit. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Imagine that in the condo you're renting right now. There are people with jackhammers on my balcony. Right. 8.30 in the morning. Okay, now I know the movie you're talking about. Yes, yes, with what's her face from Cheers.

Yes. Joey Long. Yeah, yeah. Right. That's my life right now. I'm sitting in the car doing the podcast because of the jackhammer and the drier. knowing that's going on in the background. You know, yesterday morning, you know where my studio is.

You've been here many times. You know, it's part of one of these, you know, shared office space, you know, places. And I have literally 128 square feet. That's what it is, people. There's nothing grandiose about it. It is, you know, a soundproofed 128 foot square foot. studio with just a lot of radio and podcasting equipment inside along with a television, as you know, and a couple of desktops and laptops.

But the guy that runs the building from a maintenance standpoint is just and has been since I moved into this spot now, my God, eight years ago, almost eight years ago. Actually, it's been eight years. is one of my favorite people he's just one of the nicest guys he and he and I you know

have had reason to you know text at very early hours in the morning you know when I was doing early morning radio coming in here at 4 a.m. 415

and oh my God there's no power you know and I text him and he's already up and he's already working on it and the whole thing but the other day

you know he sent me um he sent me a text super early in the morning and he just said this was on friday which was um you know the day after new years and he said are you working today are you doing your show today and i said i'm doing my podcast not radio and he said so that means it's okay if there's noise outside of your studio you know between 10 and 12 and i said absolutely no worries at all and he said all right great Because if I had been doing radio, he would have made sure that whatever they needed to work on outside of my studio in the hall here, they would have done it after the show. He's awesome. And nobody needs to care that much.

But I guess I am the customer at the end of the day. I am the one paying rent. But, you know, when they have shit to do to the building, they've got shit to do to the building. Sometimes, you know, the tenant has to say, you know, they've got to say to the tenant, sorry, we've got to work on this thing. It'll take, you know, 30 minutes. It's going to be really loud. And most people say that's okay.

For me, I can't say, oh, no problem. I'll change the time of my radio show today. I can't do that. And he recognizes that and is always very kind to reach out. Doesn't sound like anybody did that with you down in Cocoa Beach. That's not this, okay? That's not this. This work has apparently been going on on the building for a while.

Yeah. And they told us that there may be some work going on in the building about two weeks before we got here. After a, well, long since had our money. Okay. And, but they thought it wouldn't bother us. Well, 8.30 in the morning, jackhammer right outside the bedroom window. And it's been like that for two days now. That's no way to be on, you know.

And the money we're paying for this? Your winter home should not have that when you're wintering away from your normal home and your warm weather home. Yeah. Now that's said, we're working on an accommodation where they're willing to work with us. They've been very, they've been very apologetic. I don't think they expected it to be still be going on when we're, we got here. But it's pretty, I mean, you know, it's pretty odd, pretty intrusive, very intrusive.

And I couldn't do the podcast from inside the condo. That would be added a question. Well, you're a warrior to go to your car. Well, you do a lot of sitting in your car anyway, don't you? Not really. Okay. No, I don't. Didn't you used to? No. You might have me mistaken with somebody else. Maybe I do. I remember many times. talking to you and you're like, yeah, I'm sitting in my car eating lunch and listening

to, you know, whatever. And I kind of felt like... Well, that was like when I would be at the studio. Yeah. And after I do our show, and I was going to be on the sports reporters later, you know, in a couple hours, I would go down to Arby's and get something. Oh, that's right. Arby's on Rockville Pike next to Popeyes on Rockville Pike.

Yes. I never went, I've never done Arby's. You know, I heard the curly fries are pretty good. Yes, that's been said. Yes, that's been said by when Ken Beatrice many years ago. Now, let me just also point out that Cocoa Beach makes Destin look like a nursing home. Really? There are, there's a bar within a block of my house.

and there were bars within blocks of the place in Destin. But they closed at 9 o'clock at night. The whole town shut down at 9 o'clock at night. Well, that doesn't happen in Cocoa Beach. Oh, wait. And you're a night owl. You're a night owl, so this is perfect for you. Yes, this is more.

There's a bar right on the beach, a block away. They have karaoke on Thursday nights. I watched the game there on Sunday because they have the NFL. Sunday ticket, the place was packed with people watching football, and I got a story about that, too. But I have not, and the weather, I haven't worn anything but a short-sleeved t-shirt since I got here. That's not been the case here, although it is on the verge of warming up here, midweek, late week. Now rain's coming with it, but, you know, it's been no snow. no ice, just, it's been cold. You know, it's basically been cold. You know, it was cold before

you left, you know, for the early part, mid part of December, but it's just been cold, but it's going to be nice to feel 50s coming up later this week. And then apparently it's going to turn really cold again, middle of a month towards February. We'll see. Well, they never know. It's 78 and sunny today. I mean, sunny. Okay. And one last thing, since we're into this, one last very cool thing, at 2 o'clock Sunday morning on the balcony, when we could go on it, we watched a rocket launch. Wow. I've never seen one before. Oh, and at nighttime, you know, the flames are shooting out of the rocket, you know, filling up the sky, the explosion when it takes off the sound is the roar. It's fabulous. It's great.

Tell me why rockets are launching. Is it satellite stuff? Like, what is... It's all SpaceX putting satellites up in space. Right. There's another one Thursday before the podcast at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I'm going to go down on a beach and watch that one. And I'll give you a full report for Thursday's podcast.

But it's all SpaceX satellite stuff. I'm looking at your weather forecast. I mean... I mean, go to hell, seriously. Sunny 75, sunny 77, sunny 76, 20% chance of showers, 75, then sunny and 66 next week. Uh-oh, you better break out the coats for that day. All right. Nobody wants to hear us talk about this on a day like today.

So, pretty eventful day. Yes, it is. So, Tommy, I wait. And for those of you wondering why the podcast got out, you know, even later than usual last night is I waited for the press conference yesterday. I didn't want to do a show to be trumped by any sort of news with the Quinn Peters season ending press conference. So I waited until it was over and then did the show then. And there was a question early in the press conference asked by Nikki Javala. it was a simple question, asked of both of the participants, Dan Quinn and Adam Peters,

you know, assess Cliff Kingsbury's performance. Well, the answer from Quinn was a non-answer. And I said on the podcast yesterday, uh, hello, are you listening closely? That is what you call a red flag. That is a non-endorsement of your offensive coordinator. Nikki didn't even ask him about whether or not he endorsed him or or not any of the stories from over the weekend had any validity to them.

She just said, what kind of job did Cliff do? He didn't answer the question, and Adam never even answered. She asked her to both of them. So I woke up this morning to the news from, you know, some people in, you know, our orbit that said today could be a very eventful newsday with respect to coaching changes, Cliff at the top. So I, you know, I opened the radio show by talking about yesterday's press conference and saying, you know, stay tuned. There certainly could be some news on this front. And then the news came that Cliff Kingsbury and Dan Quinn had decided to mutually part ways. And then the news came shortly after that, that Joe Whit Jr., this not a surprise, clearly, that Joe Whit Jr. was also fired.

and they are now in the market for two coordinators, an offensive coordinator and a defensive coordinator. And then, by the way, just a little while ago, they fired Bobby Johnson, the offensive line coach. So three, you know, big time hires just, you know, two years ago, actually, just, you know, because Quinn was hired a little bit later in. the month of January, and the hires came after that, but almost two years ago, his first staff now is without the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and O line coach. So I have a lot of thoughts on this, but I'll let you start. You know, you're down there in Cocoa Beach, but you've been

following this, I'm sure, over the last few days. I mean, let me just say, I think we can sum up Joe Witt, Jr. with, well, of course, we knew that was coming. That's not. a surprise. We can talk about some of the replacements, which we've been talking about since he was demoted back in November. But the big story here is Cliff Kingsbury is gone. So you say what? Well, I can't say I'm not surprised. I am surprised. Me too. That it would be so a dramatic development that he'd be gone.

You know, this is what I look. I covered the NFL on and off as a beat writer for a while and now as a columnist from afar

and podcast hosts. And I don't understand the sideline concept of if there's calls being made, if there's play calls being made

that the head coach does not agree with, why can't he go to the coordinator and say, you need to change these plays during the game. Why can't that happen? Or did a head coach just sit there and let the offensive coordinator run as little game as he sees fit?

And then after the game, he's pissed off. Like when Jane Daniels was clearly vulnerable, I mean, I think this is part of what they're dealing with when the team was compromised by injuries and they kept running they kept i thought putting him at risk with an aggressive offense when they had other options couldn't dan quinn have said to you know cliff kingsbury hey stop it give chris rodriguez the ball and that's it i mean that's an exaggeration but i don't understand why that doesn't happen Yeah, I think when you've got more of a CEO head coach and more of a defensive head coach, you know, you hire that offensive coordinator, especially one with some credentials. Cliff certainly had those.

And he's got some autonomy. And by the way, last year, there weren't a lot of opportunities to say, I don't really like that call. Right. Let's switch it to something else. Although I talked about this last year, you know, I don't know why at the end of the Tampa Bay game in the season opener in 2024, Cliff's running zone read down 37 to 13 with two minutes to go. Why would you do that? You know, I never have liked, you know this, and anybody that's listening knows this. I have never liked as part of Cliff's offensive repertoire, some of the designed runs with this particular question. quarterback. They run them, you know, and they did at times last year and even earlier this year, like he's Josh Allen or Cam Newton. I don't think that's what this quarterback is. I've never

suggested, nor would I ever, that Jaden shouldn't be a part of the run game. I absolutely think that that is one of, you know, as Dan Quinn would say, one of his superpowers. I think that this is very surprising to me. I'm not going to act like I'm not surprised. Now, over the weekend, you know, you become less surprised and think it's more of an opportunity. And I shared with everybody yesterday, you know, in terms of Diana's reporting and Ben's reporting, the only thing that I was told was that the idea that there's some sort of big rift between Peters and Kingsbury is overdone. But no one told me that it wasn't a possibility. And Ben followed up Diana's reporting with, he's hearing that this is a possibility. Ben came on

radio with me yesterday and said, I think there's at least a 60% chance that Kingsbury's not back. And then that this morning pretty much became like a 90% plus probability based on some of the stuff I think a lot of us were hearing. But I personally, you know, it would have been great, obviously, if they could have, you know, done this before their season ending press conference yesterday. So Adam Peters and Dan Quinn could have been asked about this. And we'd know, what their position was, you know, in terms of why this happened. My guess is the following. My guess is that basically Quinn doesn't love the offense.

He would prefer something that's different than what Cliff runs. And that at the end of the day, if his seat is warm next year, and I'm talking about Dan Quinn's seat, that he's going to do right now what he's. He doesn't want to say he regrets not doing a year from now. If the press conference a year from now is Josh Harris, Adam Peters, telling us that Dan Quinn's been let go. So I think that, you know, there were probably stylistic, you know, system differences, which last year aren't a big deal because the offense is, elite. Let's emphasize that point so that people don't forget that last year did happen. There seems to be a lot of revisionist history on last year. Last year's offense was an elite

offense led by an elite level quarterback, but also designed in a way that leveraged everything that that quarterback did well. Now, I personally, and I've said this Tommy, going back to before they hired Kingsbury before they hired Quinn. My preference in watching NFL football as a fan is a Shanahan-style offense. You know, more under center, zone run scheme, play action, bootleg, lots of easy stuff for the quarterback. I think Jaden would thrive in that offense. I think he'd thrive in almost any offense.

We know for sure that he thrives in Cliff's offense. We saw that last year. We don't have to guess as to what Jaden would look like in Cliff Kingsbury's offense. We know what it looks like. It's elite. This year doesn't count. He only played in three games start to finish, healthy. Four games in total start to finish.

So you can't draw any conclusions about what this year would have been, you know, or would not have been. You know, oh, they would have figured out Cliff System. They would have figured out Jaden. but we don't know that because he didn't play enough football. He did play enough football last year and it was elite level stuff. I think that that's ultimately what happened here is that after this year and maybe even during parts of last year, Quinn, you know, understood that what he was doing works and it was working for his young quarterback, but it wasn't what he likes to see offensively.

And let's face it, a cliff style offense with a quarterback heavily involved in the run game from an option standpoint, from a design standpoint, from, you know, and by the way, I would never want Jaden not, you know, a part of the run game. I think it would be ridiculous if you didn't have a quarterback like that as a part of your run game. I mean, it helps everything with an offense. But I think that some of, you know, the hits Jaden took, some of it, maybe he blamed Cliff for some of those designed runs. I'll tell you one thing. Cliff could certainly blame the head coach for leaving him in the game at the end of the Seattle game. You know, you talked about a head coach going to the coordinator

and, you know, saying, hey, don't run that play, run this play. How about the head coach going the coordinator saying, we're going to pull the starting quarterback in a 38 to 3 game or whatever it was at that point, 38 to 10 games. 38 to 10 games. 38 to 7. When he got hurt. Yeah. And yeah, that's why I wrote a column saying they had 29 coaches on that staff. One of them couldn't have walked over to that coach.

But again, I thought that, I thought, you know, based on, I don't know Cliff Kings very well. my judgment is he's very confident and probably has a big ego and wasn't going to let the circumstances of this team this year get in the way of running his offense yeah so here here's so let me just add on so overall my belief is that cliff kingsbury is not coming back and it has nothing to do with the head coaching opportunities that he may or may not be presented with. It has nothing to do with, you know, contract or anything like that. It has to do with Dan Quinn, perhaps getting to the point where he realizes next year is a big year. And philosophically, he thinks of an offense in a different way than the way Cliff thinks about it. Now, with respect to

Cliff, please, people, I mean, last year happened. Cliff is a good offense. coordinator. Cliff is not the reason this year they went five and 12. Cliff is not, you know, the lack of under center or the too much no huddle is not why they were a five and 12 football team this year. Cliff coached a completely different set of players this year in the majority of games. The defense was horrendous. They didn't have players that they planned on having across the It was carnage this year. That's why they're 5 and 12. Cliff's a very good offensive coordinator.

Cliff, I think, ultimately, this season in many ways was a bigger testament to what a good coordinator he is. I mean, he made at times chicken salad out of chicken, you know what, including, by the way, I'll mention it yesterday on last week's podcast, getting a third string 39. year old quarterback to look more than competent. Josh Johnson had an 89.4 QBR in the game against the Eagles. I mean, I love the people Tommy that said, oh, this was embarrassing. You can't beat the second stringers and third stringers from the Eagles by more than seven. Washington started a third string 39-year-old quarterback and three-fifths of their starting

offensive line didn't play in the game. And I'll also mention, as I did yesterday, Philadelphia played some of their starters on defense, and their backups are better than Washington starters on defense. Cliff actually got pretty good results this year when you consider what he was working with. They were pretty much across the board, middle of the pack of every offensive statistical, you know, measurement. It cost them. What do you mean? It cost them. Getting the most out of what you'd say getting the most out of what he had, I say not adapting to what he had. But that's...

And it wound up costs in him. But he did adapt to what he had. I don't think he did. Well, I think he did. I mean, you know, look, I will say up front that I don't consider Cliff Kingsbury to be, you know, a run first coach. Like a guy that will always, you know, default to the run game. the way, that's most of the league, regardless of how you present it, whether it's shotgun

under center, whatever. You mean, you throw to take leads, you run to protect the lead and put the game away in this league. It's always been that way. But the numbers don't actually bear that out. They finished as the fourth best rush offense in the NFL. Last year, the third best rush offense in the NFL. They were ninth in overall rush attempts.

there are some quarterback scrambles in there, but this year, unlike last year, the running backs led the way in terms of their rush offense. I did not like the fact that Jaden Daniels led the team in rushing in 10 games last year. I made that very clear. I think they needed to change that, and they did. You know, we saw the two running back. Now, we don't know what it would have looked like had Jaden played this year, you know, more than, you know, three or four games in terms of start to finish. But third last year, rush offense, fourth this year, with most of it being the running backs. And so they were, you know, I saw, where did I see this? By the way, you also have to consider, you know, those numbers, when this team was behind in a lot of games quickly,

like when you get behind like they did against Seattle, Detroit, Dallas, Minnesota, I'm sure I'm forgetting some other games, Atlanta, maybe it happened another game or two, you're not running the football. So to finish where they finished, the numbers actually don't back up that he didn't, you know, somehow adapt to what he had, run the ball and realize that they needed to look they didn't do anything well this year compared to last year but i just i think that their pace of play was much different this year than it was last year they finished uh 16th or 17th in pace of play where they were eighth last year you know ben you know and i have gotten into it with respect to this no huddle ben calls kingsbury's offense a one of one. It's not, in my opinion, a one of one. What is a one of one is they're under center the least amount of any team in the league, and they go more no huddle than any other

team in the league. That's true. But what happens after all of that, you know, post-snap, in terms of play design and balance, you know, run to pass is pretty conventional. I mean, he likes to stretch people out. He likes some more screens. There's some creativity in some of what he does, but you can say that about Sean McVeigh, you can say that about Andy Reid and a lot of other people. But I don't think that

you know, he didn't adapt necessarily. I'm not saying he deviated significantly from what he likes to do, but when I say he got more out of less, the players he was coaching Tommy weren't

starter level NFL players for the most part. and against, you know, Philly and Dallas over the last two weeks of the season with Josh Johnson and quarterback, they were pretty good on offense. That's all. That's what I'm saying. I know. With Marcus Mario, they had some good moments on offense.

Yes, they did, but I'd hate to be judging Cliff Kingsbury based on Josh Johnson's performance. I wouldn't judge Cliff Kingsbury on anything that happened this year other than to say what I said, which is ultimately when you consider what he was working with, they weren't a terrible offense. They were a terrible defense. I mean, they didn't get more out of less on defense, that's for sure.

Well, I think, I think the coaching staff, including Kingsbury, put Jayden at risk this year after he was hurt the first time. They certainly put him at risk at the end of the Seattle game. There's no doubt about that. I guess you're you've got a point they could have pulled him from the Green Bay game I don't know that they knew he was hurt remember in the Green Bay game until after the game

but if somebody you know had seen that and they left him in there they certainly could have pulled him from that game other than that I you know I think that he I mean I thought the actually yeah no matter what either of us think this is a dramatic

off-season moment right now for this team. Because their offensive line coach apparently was fired too, and I thought the offensive line was one of their best strengths. It was. It absolutely was. Look, this is a big moment for Dan Quinn. Yes.

This is a, you know, for a guy, and I want to talk to you about this, and we'll do this in the next segment, because I thought watching the press conference yesterday, There was something that occurred to me that I didn't talk about on the podcast yesterday. But make no mistake, this is a big moment for Dan Quinn. He better get this right. Now, the defensive coordinator was obvious, okay?

But maybe he shouldn't have hired an inexperienced defensive coordinator to begin with. But moving on from Cliff Kingsbury, when Cliff Kingsbury had two seasons, one of which was elite-level offensive production. And the other one was marred significantly by the lack of his best players playing in anywhere near a majority of the games. You know, you better be right. And I would also suggest this. If he's doing this without the solution already done... Oh, bad move then.

Bad move then. big. If you think, if you're doing it just because you've decided, I don't want this anymore. I don't want this offense. I know he's good at what he does, and I know that this offense works, and I know it worked in a big way for us last year, because ultimately offense was why we were in the NFC championship game, not our defense. But, you've got to have an idea of what your plan is. You better. Absolutely. And he better be right about it. yes he's got because because next year if you're going to find he's been thinking about this for a long time

this is something that just came up i think i mean i i said i would find it difficult to believe that he doesn't have something in mind that's ready to go i think that minnesota game when at the end of that first long drive he went with three passes on second third and fourth and goal, I think that was maybe the moment that this became a possibility. Because I talked about the way Dan Quinn was legitimately, you know, for the first time, annoyed by the way it went down offensively, especially with some of the play calls. He said it. And by the way, later that week, Quinn did it not only after the game, he also did it, the Monday presser. But then, later that week, Kingsbury fell on his sword.

During his Thursday press conference, he said, I didn't call a good game. There are a lot of plays I'd like to have called differently. I think that sequence, second goal after Rodriguez had run you down to the two-yard line and you go tackle eligible. And look, Debo Samuel could have made him look right because he dropped a touchdown pass on fourth and goal. But I think that, you know, Quinn wanting to,

to be a little bit more of, hey, let's run the football in here, you know, rather than try some tricky numbers. I think that could have been the moment in which this first became a possibility. Because this was not a possibility during the off-season or early in the season. Quinn raved about Kingsbury and about how different. Remember, Quinn, when he hired Kingsbury, said one of the reasons he hired him was because going up against him when he was in Atlanta and in Dallas was always so difficult. He was incredibly

difficult to prepare for. And so I think maybe that Minnesota sequence was the moment this became a possibility. It may have been. I mean, it put Kingsbury on his heels, that's for sure. It did. That following Thursday press conference, he was apologetic. You know, he really was.

I've got the quote Tommy in front of me from that Thursday press conference when he was asked about the play calling at the end of that opening drive. He said, quote, you know, there are 30 plays in that game. I wish I'd called something different. And I wish one of those plays would have worked, but they didn't, unfortunately. So that's, I think, the nature of a play caller. But, you know, there weren't a lot of great play calls. in that game, and that's like I said, that's all me, and I got to get better, closed quote.

Remember, that followed Dan Quinn on the post game following the Minnesota game, and on that Monday, being kind of annoyed with the way everything went, including the play calling, including, you know, running the football more when they had the opportunity to do it at the end of the first drive. I will remind everybody about that game, though. The defense could not get off the field. The offense had the ball three times in the first half of that game, and they made J.J. McCarthy look like Joe Montana in that game.

But that may have been the moment that Quinn first sincerely thought, hey, I may have to do something at offensive coordinator. Washington, you know, going to be in that Detroit. position next year where they've got a new offensive coordinator and a new defensive coordinator. Now in the case of Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, they both got head coaching jobs. Not the case with Joe Wit Jr. He's not going to get a head coaching job, although Kingsbury might. All right, we've got so much more to get to on this subject. What Jaden said yesterday about Cliff Kingsbury,

And what was Jayden's role in potentially this decision coming down? Was he consulted? Will he be consulted on the new guy? We've got so much including the list of potential names to replace Kingsbury and Joe Witt, Jr. We'll get to that and a lot more after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, Chime is changing the way people bank. It's fee-free and smarter banking built for most of us. not the 1%. Chime's not just another banking app. Chime unlocks smarter banking for everyday people

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I think there's been a lot of talk about Cliff, just future in here, whether the head coached job or whatever. What have been your thoughts on him as a coordinator and just, you know, in the offense? I mean, I love working with Cliff. You know, me and him have a special relationship. You know, we kind of built that over this past two years. And, you know, I kind of just wish I was out there more to play for him this past year. So, I mean, that's kind of a focus for me in this all season.

It's just rebuilding myself from the ground up and, you know, hopefully go out there. and that's the most part of the thing to be available for my team. Jaden Daniels yesterday, stumping for Cliff. I love working with Cliff. Me and him have a special relationship. We've kind of built that up over the past two years. What's Jaden thinking today? There are some reports that say he was blindsided by this.

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So, let me just read this report. It's from this Jordan Schultz. I know that he's had some stuff. Oh, geez, this guy. I know, but he's had some stuff that's been right. You know, this is the, what's the coffee company? Starbucks. This is the Starbucks kid.

Yes, it is. You're right. I forgot about that. Howard, Howard Schultz's son, I guess. Yeah, who's basically trying to buy his way into being a media personality. Right. Well, okay, I'm going to read what he reported because I know that he's got 409,000 Twitter followers, and he's had some stuff.

I know that I've referenced him before that's been right. So I'm going to read to what, read everybody what he reported. Quote, my understanding, according to sources, is that key commander's offensive players, including quarterback Jaden Daniels are disappointed with the team's decision to part ways with offensive coordinator Cliff Kingsbury. Daniels vouched for him to stay in his presser on Monday and was among those blindsided by the move. Offensive players on the team figured the only way Kingsbury would be gone is if he got a head coaching job. Jaden's mom, we talked about this on yesterday's show, Jaden's mom tweeted out looking forward to, you know, year three of JD5 and KK.

By the way, she hashtagged it with lowercase htTC, but caps HTTR. All right, so I'm actually more interested to see if, if they'll consult Jaden on the replacement. But I would hope that they have that person pretty much in mind anyway, because I don't think you should fire Kingsbury without knowing what the solution is. But it's possible. As much as I think that Jaden is the sun by which all planets revolve around, he doesn't pick the offensive coordinator.

I didn't say him picking the offensive coordinator. that if you're Dan Quinn, would you go to Jaden and say, I'd like you to sit down or have a conversation with a couple of people we're considering? I think that's reasonable. You do? I think that's reasonable, but, you know, but it, I mean, it has to be clear. You know, you don't want to hire a guy who the quarterback is going to come out of that room and saying, I hate this guy.

okay you believe at this point everyone needs to move on from cliff kingsbury and jaden whether he's upset or not these are choices in front of them i think that i don't think that's unreasonable i'll tell you what the most important relationship in your building is really quarterback because he's an elite level talent and the offensive coordinator that relationship better be right this is so crucial for Dan Quinn. I mean, let me just say this. There was no risk for Dan Quinn and Cliff Kingsbury coming back. Now, I say that from an outside fan perspective.

Okay, even though I know a lot of fans wanted everybody fired, but really, you know, realistically, you're not going to fire Cliff Kingsbury when he didn't have his best players. QB one, wide receiver one, running back one, you know, wide receiver one, wide receiver two, wide receiver three, you know, your starting guard for the offense in the first six games, et cetera. You're not going to take a hit by bringing Kingsbury back. You could take a big hit if you ran them and you hire somebody that isn't the right fit for

your quarterback. You're done as the head coach this time next year. If you hire an offensive coordinator and that team's healthy, on offense next year, and it doesn't work. You're done. I would agree. I would agree. They have to get it right.

That's why this can't be. This can't be, I'm getting rid of this guy. Now we're going to figure out who's going to replace them. Yeah, I mean, I mean, already, Jaden being blindsided, if true, means they have not consulted, Jaden on any of this. Right. Yeah. Right. And I don't have a problem with that.

I don't have a problem with that. I would have a problem with Jaden making the final call. You know, this isn't the NBA, this isn't LeBron, this isn't, you know, Kevin Durant, this isn't, you know, where you really do need your, the most important person in your franchise, you know, to weigh in. Although you can make the case, the quarterback is the most important person in your franchise when he, you know, has accomplished in, you know, his first season. what do you accomplish? Look, I'm kind of with you

on one level and on another like if I'm Quinn I want to make sure that the guy's right for my quarterback personality personality wise for sure. I'm talking my question is the decision to fire

Kitt Kingsbury. You're not consulting with Jaden on that. Okay, I'm sorry, I misunderstood. No, that's what I mean. I mean, you're not saying, look, we're thinking of getting rid of this guy, what do you think? I mean, I don't think you get, you bring your, you bring him in to that situation. And the hiring process, I think, I think it would be wise to have a meeting between him and the candidates. Yeah, but again, that would speak to they don't have somebody in mind and they let Cliff, look, I did just think of this when I was saying, you don't let Cliff go unless you have the solution already in place.

But, you know, as a practical matter, you know, especially. if the relationship isn't tarnished, you know, if you're going to move on from Cliff, you're going to want to let Cliff have the opportunity to know that and seek other opportunities. You know, I think that there is a professional, you know, responsibility there, first and foremost to your team, but, yeah. And here's the other thing about, And I think we both agree that you better have an idea of what you're doing moving forward if you get rid of Kingsbury. But in the days, coming days, the candidate pool could change significantly. Yeah.

Well, part of Diana's report was they're not going to move until they have a clear picture as to what the coaching market, you know, looks like. I'm paraphrasing because I don't have it in front of them. And, you know, and that's true. There are still hammers to fall here in various places. And there are available people out there who, like a guy like Kevin Stefansky, I mean, if he doesn't get a head coaching job, would he be interested? I mean, so, you know, let's get to that. You know, let me just begin with this, because I'm going to, I'm going to try to cover all of the possibilities.

You know, on their staff, they have a guy like Anthony Lynn, who's been a head coach, who's their running backs coach. They have David Blow, who everybody believes is an eventual offensive coordinator and potential eventual head coach in the league. I mean, he's like one of those guys that if Cooley were hanging around the building, he'd probably be talking about David Blow, hire him to be the coach like he did with Sean McVe. They've got Brian Johnson on the staff. the former, you know, O.C. in Philadelphia. My guess is that they're going to go outside for the hire. Just my guess. And so then you look at, you know, some bigger names. Kevin Stefansky, you know, is a Shanahan-style offensive coach. If that's what Dan Quinn prefers, he can't stop it, you know, why not join it? because he has struggled more often than not with Shanahan-style offenses.

Stefansky, you want me to be excited about a replacement for Kingsbury? I'd be excited about Kevin Stefansky. Mike McDaniel, if he gets fired in Miami and it doesn't look like he's going to be, but he might be. Obviously, that would excite everybody. I mean, no matter what you think of him as a head coach, Mike McDaniel can scheme up some offense and call some offense. A guy like Mike LaFleur, who is Sean McVeigh's offensive coordinator, but he doesn't call plays. You know, Sean calls the plays.

Could you go to Mike LaFleur and give him an assistant head coach offensive coordinator spot so he's elevated title-wise so he can move? Maybe. Brian Dable's out there. Brian Dable, you know, there are similarities in kind of the Kingsbury, Brian Dable, not as much under center, et cetera. not like Cliff does. But Daibel and Quinn were together briefly in the Jets organization years ago. I started to think about people that are in organizations right now where the offense is thriving and there is Shanahan-style offensive football.

You know, obviously anybody off the RAM staff, anybody off the 49ers staff, but you can look at like what's going on in Jacksonville. right now. Like Jacksonville with Liam Cohen in his first year, Liam Cohen was a coach in Los Angeles with Sean McVeigh, you know, off the Sean McVe, off of the Kyle

Shanahan, off of the Mike Shanahan tree, and you look at the resurrection of Trevor Lawrence this year. That's, you know, somebody on that staff. So the offensive coordinator is Grant Udinski. But the quarterback's

coach is Spencer Whipple. His father was Mark Whipple, who was a big-time college coach and a big-time offensive mind. I've had Mark Whipple on the show a couple of times. And I think it was to talk about quarterbacks prior to the draft. He was at Nebraska. He was in Cleveland. He was in various places. You know, you look at that staff. So there are a lot of possibilities, but I have no idea. what Quinn has on his mind. I don't know that anybody really knows that they know what's on Quinn's mind. And that leads me to this, Tommy. Is it what's on Quinn's mind or is it what's on Adam Peters's mind?

Because in watching that press conference, it isn't the first time I felt this way about Dan Quinn, but I asked the question yesterday, I wonder who has more. sway in their collaborative relationship. You know, they've spoken so often about how they collaborate on everything. And Adam Peters went out of his way. I don't know if you caught this yesterday to say, I don't have anything to do with coaching staff decisions. That's Dan's, that's DQ's bucket.

That's his final say-so, which is the right thing for the general manager to say. Now, whether or not that's true or not in this case, I don't know. But I said, I wonder who has more of the sway when they are collaborating. And I watch Quinn in these press conferences. And, you know, it plays differently when you're 12 and 5 and you've won two playoff games and you're going to the NFC championship game than it does when you're 5 and 12 and everybody's questioning everything that's going on. he's very much publicly a pleaser don't you think do you oh yeah yeah yes i mean he really i had a

whole problem with the whole press conference scenario yesterday as it was i want to hear about that but but let's stick with this for a second because i do want to hear the problem that you have with it because i can only imagine you're you might be going after somebody or some people um i actually thought pretty much i think everything got asked but maybe you disagree. Quinn starts every press conference. We've talked about this. We've talked about the hokeyness of Tell the Truth Monday

and him kicking off every press conference with a theme or a message or an update of some sort that isn't just injury related. A lot of coaches walk to the podium and say, you know, Jackson's out, Jones is in questions. But he has this desire with me. media to please and to be available and accessible and easy, even when you don't get an answer. You know, he's trying his best to be polite, you know, and Peters to me is not that.

I saw in Peters yesterday some annoyance, you know, not with Quinn, but just with the idea, like, I think I played the very last question and answer where somebody asked them about the year in San Francisco after they went to the Super Bowl for the first time. And in 2020, they were devastated the entire season with just one big injury after another. And it was a six and ten season. And it gave him his first opportunity in that press conference to kind of open up. And he did it by reflecting on the San Francisco experience. But I think he was also trying to say, because he used words like carnage and just disaster. And he also mentioned that it was during COVID, which was a problem, obviously, to keep a roster, you know, filled. But they went six and ten that

year, the year after going to the Super Bowl. And it was just a disastrous year, you know, caused by more than anything else the loss of all of their key players. And so I kind of got this sense a couple of times in watching him that he wanted to say, do you guys realize that our best player barely played this year. Do you guys realize that our best wide receiver barely played this year? I think that he wanted to kind of say that whereas Quinn is too nice

and too polite. But I think Peters is the alpha in that relationship. What do you think? I don't know if he is or not. Look, I'd rather have, you know, it's hard to criticize a coach for being a nice guy. okay, for treating people with respect.

So I'm not going to go down that path. And Peters does too. He treats people with respect. Listen, I didn't see that and hear that from Adam Peters, what you saw and heard. I mean, I wasn't at the press conference yesterday. But the few that he's had, he usually answers the question is that's a good question.

Yeah, no, I'm not questioning his politeness. I'm not questioning as a police. But that sounds like a pleaser to me. So I'll disagree with you on Peters, not that he isn't polite and respectful. But for me, this is more about Dan Quinn. I think you can be too nice in those situations. I think you can be too much of a pleaser in those situations, where it can backfire and you can be perceived as too nice, too much of a pleaser, you know, too soft.

And I don't think Dan Quinn's soft. Don't get me wrong. I'm talking about the perception of him, that he is such a nice guy, that he's so into pleasing. And by the way, everybody that plays for him loves him, you know, and swears by him. And it's why he was able to attract this staff, which most people think is a pretty solid overall staff. especially when it comes to experience level, you know, of the staff that he hired. But I don't know that it's the damage. So what's the damage?

What's the damage? That you, you know, occasionally, and maybe that's what he's doing with this Cliff Kingsbury move, but occasionally it's not about pleasing. It's not being, it's not about being polite or kind. it's about, you know, F all of you, you don't know what you're talking about. This is the way we're going to do it. This is the way it's going to go down. And I'm not saying that he's not that behind closed doors,

that he's not that way in the building. But, you know, I've had people tell me that have been in the building after some of these losses, that it's totally different than from the Snyder years, that, you know, I had one person tell me after one of the games recently at home. you'd never know they were the losing team walking into that locker room you know and

I'm not saying that that's a bad thing because I think it's part of the culture that they have positive people that they played look they played for him Tommy the Minnesota game was the outlier you know and maybe that's again

the game that really sent him down this path and maybe he is putting his foot down and saying you know what I'm not going to please I'm not going to be nice anymore I'm not going to be sitting here a year from now regretting that I didn't move on to a different offensive coordinator.

I'll tell you what, can you imagine if he had kept Joe Witt just on the staff and had let Cliff Kingsbury go? So I'm glad that with a very good friend of his, he was able to be, you know, the guy that said, no, we can't have you back here. You know, even though I know you're a good coach and you could be a good position coach, it just, I don't know, I just, in watching it yesterday, and I felt this way a couple of times in watching Quinn, I like him. He's hard not to like, and I get why everybody in his personal, you know, sort of world likes him a lot. But man, is he a pleaser in these, in these public-facing

events? And maybe it'd be nice to just see him not be occasionally. That's all. Well, in the press conference, my bigger issue was Adam Peters. Okay. Do you want to save that for next? Yeah. Okay, we'll do that. I also want to get your thoughts just on how the NFL season ended.

And this potential trade that the wizards are involved in. Yes, I said wizards. All of that and more after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey, guys, I'm always happy when Harry's is on the list of sponsors for this show. I've been a fan and a customer of Harry's for five or six years now, going back to the first time they sent me product and I endorsed Harry's on this podcast. Harry's is just a much better way to shave. From the experience to the cost, their advanced pivoting system reaches every corner of your face.

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And after you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support this show and tell them that I sent you. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelly's. Well, down here in Cocoa Beach, I'm already missing Shelly's backroom. Sure. Even on those cold Washington days, because that's a place to go in and get warm with their great furniture, their comfortable couches, their great big, comfortable chairs, their eight high-definition TVs, the great selection of liquor, the great menu, and the great cigar selection, and great camarader.

And great camaraderie. You know, I have a bunch of regulars that I see at Shelly's when I'm in there, sort of like, norm when he goes in the cheers and I'm going to miss those guys for the next couple months because there's no place like shelley's there's a lot of cool places in cocoa beach but I've done my research and no place like shelley's back room you can find out for yourself it's a great place to watch NFL playoff football in the next couple weeks shelley's back room 1331 f street northwest find out more at shelley's backroom. This from Jonathan Jones from CBSSports.com, he just tweeted out,

just got off the phone with one coaching agent who said the commanders may get a better coach as their OC than one of these teams might get with a vacancy at head coach. That would speak to Kevin Stepansky. Yeah, somebody like that. Yeah, it would. Yes. All right. Tell me what issues you had with the press conference yesterday.

Well, first of all, I felt that it should have been Adam Peter solo. Okay? You have, we've heard from Dan Quinn all year. I haven't heard anything from Adam Peters. He's not required to hold a press conference. We didn't hear from him when the trading deadline came and passed, and they didn't do anything. You didn't hear from him during the whole Shade and Dan. Daniels confusing and injury debacle.

So I thought he should have been up there solo answering questions by having him and Quinn up there. The whole press conference lasts at 35 minutes, I've been told. I thought it was a little longer than that, but that's fine. And Quinn wound up taking nearly half of that with his answers. He did. So basically, you got to answer for what happened. In such a horrific year, you've got 20 minutes with Adam Peters. Each media member, apparently, the way it worked, got one question, and that was it.

Now, I had a few questions that if I would have been there, I might have asked, but I would have only been asked one of them, apparently, but would have only been allowed. To me, the thing I want to know about Adam Peters right now, was he involved in the the decision of Ben's Jane Daniels. What did he think of his coach playing Jayden Daniels in that 387

Minnesota game? Was Dan Quinn's reversal? Seattle. Seattle game. Was Dan Quinn's reversal a result of a conversation he had with Peter's? What about the decision

to shut him down? Was Adam Peters the one who made that call? Was it made by him and Dan? Quinn. Was the owner involved? Was Josh Harris involved in a decision to set down? That would have been a question that I would have loved to have heard the answer to. There are numerous. But that's the one.

You could have spent a couple of hours. Just on Jayton's benching? Yes. Not benching, but shutting down. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, and I felt, and I'm writing about this for tomorrow, that for it, organization that inherited, I point out, huge credibility problems from the previous administration, the gesture of offering more time to answer for the failure of this year would have been a decent thing to do, you know?

I thought it was like 40, 45 minutes, but I thought it was pretty, I mean, just look at the transcript. I watched it. Did you watch it or did you? I did the transcript. I did both. Yeah, because that's a long press conference. That's not, look, that's not a long press conference when you have everything that went on this whole season. Yeah. And you never hear from the general manager about any of it. So I thought it was pretty pathetic performance by the organization. Not unexpected. And again, I'm not, I don't expect to get the answers. to these questions, but they need to be asked.

I think your first point, though, is the best one, and that is Dan Quinn didn't need to be at this press conference. He had just done a press conference, you know, the day before, you know, after the game, right? Yeah, after the game. But having him up there is cover for Adam Peters. Yeah, it's funny because we just spent the last segment, me, you know, saying Dan Quinn's a pleaser. And Adam Peters yet kind of perhaps preferred to have the pleaser, the make everything right, to make, you know, everybody say, wow, he just said my name

again. And what a great question it was. Um, yeah, maybe. You know, Adam Peters definitely doesn't give you a lot. I think he gave you more yesterday than he typically gives you. Um, you know, we learned some things. We learned that, you know, they are, you know, hoping to get something done with Laramie Tunsel. That, you know, seems obvious, but, you know, I would have wanted to know that. I'll tell you something that I found interesting was the answer that they gave to the tight end situation.

This is like probably the fourth or fifth time from, you know, Peters, Quinn, or Kingsbury. God did they love Zach Ertz? I mean, Zach Ertz was for them an absolute gem. And look, he was great last year for Jaden. He was. And he is, you know, an experienced route running, receiving tight end that's going to be where the play tells him to be, where the quarterback expects him to be. What else was there? I don't know.

There was a lot. I played a bunch of it on the show yesterday. I played a bunch of it on radio today. stuff was interesting. I think that's, you know. Yeah, but, but, but, but there should have been, there should have been opportunity to follow up on his comments about the Terry McCloren thing.

He said, you know, there were reasons for the way things happened. Well, what were the reasons? Yeah, yeah. What were they? Yeah. And if he's not going to answer him, that's fine. But that press conference

is supposed to be about accountability for what just happened. this season? I hear you. I thought that it seemed long and a lot of the questions that I think I would have asked were asked. But I do think the owner, with respect to the decision to shut Jaden Daniels down, would have been a good question. You know, what's ownership's commitment to the payroll?

Okay. Last year, you still left cat money on the table going into the season. Good question. Ownership this year. Again, again, you're not going to get the answer. You're not going to get the truth, but the question needs to be asked. Well, that's one that you have to. That's one you'd have to answer.

You'd have to, if you're Adam Peters with. We have full support from ownership to do what we need to do, whether it's true or not. But if the numbers and a result say otherwise, then you can hold them accountable for it. Yeah. um okay what else on all this look by the time you guys listen to this there could be new news um updated news you know on on the hiring uh you know i was thinking about during our break before this segment you know do i have a prediction on who they're going to hire i don't i really don't have a clue do i have a preference on who they hire yeah i'd love it to be

somebody who employs an offense that I like watching and that I believe in, and that I believe Jaden would thrive in, and that would be a Shanahan-style offense. So somebody from the Rams, somebody from the 49ers, somebody from the Vikings, somebody from Jacksonville. You know, Zach Robinson is part of the Atlanta group that got fired. He was with McVeigh. I'm going to tell you right now, Atlanta people didn't like Zach Robinson. You know why? his quarterback, Pennix Jr. and Kurt Cousins last year, they were in the pistol too much. They weren't under center enough. So I doubt they'll go that way. But, you know, I will tell you what I don't need.

What I don't need is some guy that comes in and says, our head coach said he wants to run the football, we're going to run the damn football. I don't care about that. I care about is the offense moving the football and scoring points, which is what they did last year over and over again, so much so that they barely needed a punter last year. So I want the new guy to be able to do what they did last year. I don't really care how they do it. I prefer one way over another,

but I'll take last year on repeat and be thrilled. That old school kind of, that's what we're, you know, If that's what the head coach wants, wants to run the ball more, they ran the ball a lot over the last two years. They probably ran the quarterback way too much last year, considering he was their leading rusher. I'd prefer that not to be the case. But I don't want, you know, the old school, we're going to line it up and we're going to ram it down your throat, you know, 50 times a game. I know that, but it's ironic because while they didn't have, and they lost their number one back in Eckler, but even with that, they had three effective running backs.

No stars. Yeah. Okay. But they had three effective running backs in that backfield still. And they finished fourth in the league in rushing. I mean, I know it doesn't seem like it. I'm just giving you the facts. Jacori Kroski Merritt rushed for 805 yards.

Chris Rodriguez rushed for 500 yards. The two of them combined to average four points. 5-4 yards per carry. Jeremy McNichols rushed for 221 yards, five yards per carry. There were a lot of designed and option runs with Mario'd and Jaden when he was in there and a lot of scrambles with the two of them. And by the way, some scrambles even with Josh Johnson on Sunday against Philadelphia.

And that's the other thing that we didn't get to. Okay. If we're worried what Jaden Daniels thinks, what does Marcus Marriota think? Well, look, if Cliff ended up, let's just say, being the head coach of the Vegas Raiders, you know, remember, they wanted him desperately two years ago. Washington had to outbid the Raiders in another team or two that were interested to get Kingsbury. That's why this whole thing is surprising to me.

You know, and this is why, you know, for the first time in a very sort of demonstrative way, because I like Dan Quinn, I like the hire, I liked what happened last year, and I would never hold him accountable fully for what happened this year. This year is an exception to the rule. It's an aberration. You have, when you lose your starting quarterback, you know, look at what happened to the Indianapolis Colts. They were seven and two. They lost. their starting quarterback. They finished eight and nine. When you don't have what they didn't have, you don't win in the NFL. It never happens. The 49ers this year are the exception to the rule. So I would never, after what he accomplished last year, have him on the hot seat heading into 2026. But after, you know, moving on from Cliff Kingsbury, he better, be right about that. He just better be right because I know what I watched last year and I wouldn't have had a problem watching it again next year, you know, assuming that all the players got to play

next year. And if it's not what it was in 2024 with a healthy team in 2026, he's accountable for that. He hired Kingsbury. He's the one that said he was impossible to prepare for. He's the one that raved about last season, and now he's moved on from him. If he didn't like Cliff Kingsbury's style, you know, system, he knew what he was getting when he hired him. Everybody knew what Cliff Kingsbury would bring. You know, it's not that dissimilar from other systems. It is in the terms, in terms of no huddle, it is in terms of under-center percentage.

But in terms of what happens post-snap, it's not that much different. than, you know, six or seven different teams. You can look at the Chiefs and Mahomes and a lot of what Kingsbury, you know, did with Jaden last year is similar, heavy RPO. Now, I think we ran more Zone Reed than the Chiefs did, and probably more designed runs than the Chiefs ran. But Quinn's taken a big risk here. And look, look, based on the way the fans feel,

if the ownership listens to it. He was going into next season on a warm seat anyway. But that warm seat, Tommy, to me, is a bit warmer, moving on from Kingsbury. I'm going to be very, very interested to see what the solution is. And I promise you, there's a good chance I'm going to be excited about the hire. But he better be right. I'm not on that hot seat, which is now, borderline hot anyway.

This is a big move to make. I mean, shouldn't be undersold. He hired him, and two years later, he's moving on from him, and the results were elite year one and year two better than what should have happened based on the players he was playing with, the hand that he was dealt. So, hopefully he gets it right. I'm rooting for him. Winner tie.

But by the way, Mariotta, maybe if Cliff ends up somewhere, Marioita goes with Cliff because you know who loves a Marioita too? Cliff too? Marioita, who stumped for him yesterday. Yeah. And they're very lucky to have him as a backup quarterback.

No doubt. I think he should be a priority to resign. And maybe they'll bring in somebody that everybody will be just... Oh, Kevin Stefansky. All right, man. Who, Mike McDaniel. You got him?

All right, let's go do this. We'll be here, play by playing, and analyzing the entire thing. We've got an exciting, interesting off-season upcoming, but much different than last years. All right, we've got more to finish up with, including a potential blockbuster trade involving the Wizards, and I'll get Tommy's thoughts on a game I know he watched the season finale Sunday night between Baltimore and Pittsburgh. We'll do that after these words from a few of our sponsors. This episode is brought you by prize picks, whether you're starting a new routine or making

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DCR-E-L-O-A-D for a 50% cash bonus at mybooky.com or my bookie.orgie. I know you were watching. I'm assuming you were watching because you do have a bit of a rooting interest with the Ravens. So what did you think of the final regular season game of the season? You know, probably going into the beginning, in the fourth quarter, I tweeted out, what the hell happened to Lamar Jackson? Then he lit it up. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. But even lighting it up, he still seems so unsure of himself when he's in the backfield. Yeah. Now when he's running, when he just, just,

I don't remember him. I agree. Lack of a pocket presence. I agree. It's like, Something has happened to him. I don't think he's been healthy. I don't think he's been healthy.

I think that's been a big part of it. But you're right. Like, even on that last drive, he nearly got sacked and he kind of just winged it out of bounds. And it was like he didn't seem to get away from the pressure the way he used to. I agree. But he also made some unbelievable throws in place in that fourth quarter. Yeah. Yeah, he did.

Look, as much as I despise Aaron Rogers, the playoffs are probably better for having him in them. you know he's an interesting character in the NFL and uh and you know I mean that poor kid who missed the field goal what's the tower loop or something like that loop yeah

oh gosh what he's got to live with now I mean I said that I was talking about this to my wife sports is the only thing where if you fail maybe not the only thing but one of a few things if you fail at your job you have to stand up and answer questions about it.

I know. Like 15 minutes later to the whole world. Brutal. Yeah, I mean, Boswell missed the extra point, which created that opportunity. Now, it would have been a kick to tie rather than a kick to win. But I'll tell you what, the one thing I don't think I said about this game on the podcast yesterday is this is this is the rivalry in the NFL. You know, rivalries have kind of gone by the wayside a little bit, and I'm not saying that just because from our team's perspective,

they've kind of been diminished over the years significantly. You know, I guess this Bears, Packers thing is back on to a certain degree. But Raven Steelers... Yeah, that's probably like 100 years old, that one. I know, but Raven Steelers for this century and certainly the last 15, 18 years, easily the number one rivalry in the NFL. Yeah. And they've got so many of these memorable games and memorable finishes,

and that's right up there. You know, I mean, the way the two quarterbacks went back and forth in that fourth quarter. But I'll tell you what, Tommy, I have a dilemma that I am going to be faced with on Monday night, the final game of Wild Card Weekend, Texans at Pittsburgh, because I'm pretty sure. sure right now I'm going to have Pittsburgh in the smell test. Already here early week, the Texans are an overwhelming public play. And their dilemma is that about two months ago, I bet the Texans at 30 to 1. They had a losing record when I put a wager on Houston at 30 to 1 to win the AFC championship. They had beaten Buffalo on Thursday night football, and I came in here the

next day and said, call me crazy, but I think Houston can win the Super Bowl. I did not bet them to win the Super Bowl, but I bet them to win the AFC championship game. Now, they are the favorite, so I can give out Pittsburgh, I can play Pittsburgh, I can hedge with Pittsburgh against my 30 to 1 AFC title bet, and still hit it both ways if Houston wins by, you know, I think three or less. I think right now they're minus three and a half. We'll see where the number is when we get to Monday night. But that should be a hell of a game to finish up, which should be a great wildcard weekend.

One last thing before we leave. So lots of discussions about Trey Young. And the team that everybody's talking about is Trey Young to the Wizards. I had Josh Robbins from The Athletic. He covers the Wizards for the Athletic on the radio show. And basically, he said, look, this is taking on. have the space to take on a salary cap, a hit of $49 million, but he thinks it would have to come with a high draft choice or another young promising player.

He doesn't think the Wizards give up anything other than a salary matching situation, which would include like C.J. McCollum, but that for the Wizards to do this deal, they need to get another pick or another young asset. I'm not a big Tray Young fan, personally. I think he's an absolute ball dominant, you know, shorter guard. He can score, there's no doubt about it. I'm just, I've just never been a massive fan of Tray Young. Going back to even, you know, his college days at Oklahoma when, I mean, the shot volume was through the roof in college.

I mean, he is yet to not be open as a basketball player in his entire lifetime. Part of me loves that about him, but I just don't think you win big with a guy that's that ball dominant where the ball sticks as much as it does with Tray Young. But the other part of this, just so you know, Tommy, and this could be a great development as it relates to a team that has zero interest level in our town right now. But Josh Robbins explained it to me. So the pick that they have in the first round of a very anticipated draft upcoming, the kid from BYU, a kid from Arizona, the kid Camboosur from Duke,

it's not protected if it ends up being ninth or lower. It goes to the Knicks. And so to guarantee that there's no chance that the draft lottery produces a draft position of ninth or lower, the Wizards have to finish with one of the four worst records in the NBA. Well, currently, they have the fourth worst record in the NBA. But they've won four out of their last six games. I know, I know. if they go win too many games, and it doesn't matter about where they finish. Remember,

it's about where they pick. There's a draft lottery that determines draft order. Now, there's no worse than eighth if you finish in the bottom four. That's why they have to finish in the bottom four to keep that first round pick, because the worst they could do is pick eighth. But if they finished with the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, eighth worst record in the NBA, there's a possibility they could lose that pick. And that would be organizational malpractice at the highest level. So if this team keep an eye on them, because they've got some young players who are playing well, you know, Alex Saar is playing pretty well, Kaishan George.

I'll give you that about Alex Sar. He looks very promising. some promising developments this season with some of their young players, if they start getting too good too soon, they're going to miss out on a first round pick in a very, very anticipated 2026 NBA draft. You know, the kid from BYU, people are swearing by, you know, and then you've got, you know, several others in this draft. And they lose their pick. if it ends up being slotted at 9th or

lower. And to guarantee that that isn't a possibility, you've got to finish in the bottom four. So, anyway. All right. You got anything else? No, I guess I got to go back to see if the jack hammering stopped. Yeah. Get out of your car

or go to Arby's and get, you know, a roast beef sandwich with some curly flies and a mocha shake. All right. I'll talk to you. Thanks. Okay boss.