The Kevin Sheehan Show - Mariota On Rookie QBs Starting

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

Kevin opened with QB Marcus Mariota's comments about when a rookie QB should start. Plenty more from Mariota along with what Dan Quinn and Zach Ertz said today. JP Finlay jumped on with Kevin to talk about what he's seen and heard from the first six days of Commanders' training camp. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show is Kevin. Where are you at with the idea of, hey, if you drafted a quarterback early, put him in, start him versus watch, learn, and get used to, you know, what's happening? Yeah, that's a great question. I think it ultimately comes down to each person individually. You know, some guys kind of come out hot and play really well, and then there's also some guys that have really benefited from. taking a couple years or taking a few whatever months and watching and learning.

So I think it's really going to come down to the coaches and how they feel the young quarterback is progressing. And I really believe it really kind of falls on the quarterback room. How can we help him feel most comfortable and confident? And then from there, it ultimately is him to make the plays and go out there and do his thing. That was Marcus Marietta yesterday answering a question from our good friend Ben Standing at training camp on when is the right time for a rookie quarterback to become the starting quarterback. The show, as always, is presented by Window Nation.

Give them a call at 86690 Nation or head to Windonation.com. Mention my name for a free, no obligation in-home estimate. J.P. Finley is going to be on the show with me today, starting in the next segment. He's been at camp since the veteran. reported last Tuesday and started practicing Wednesday. We'll talk to him about what he's seen and heard from Ashburn over the last five to six days. So Mario-Ota says every situation is different, but one of the things that stood out about his answer to Ben's question, and actually many of the other questions he was asked that dealt with Jaden Daniels is how much response.

responsibility he has as the veteran quarterback in the quarterback room, who by the way has been through exactly what Daniels is going through here in D.C. because he, too, was the number two overall pick in a franchise that needed a quarterback. But he talked a lot about his responsibility to be supportive as the veteran in that quarterback room. He seemed during his press conference, really to be fully on board with playing that role, with being the experienced voice and mentor to Jaden Daniels. He had a few other things to say about Jaden, and you'll hear some of those things in a few minutes. As well as some things that Dan Quinn said today about Johan Dotson and about Brandon Coleman, the third round pick from TCU. I also have some Zach

Ertz Sound. He weighed in on Cliff Kingsbury, who he played for in Arizona. Today was the first day in Pads. Long way to go before we know much about this team, but Dennis seems to have it all figured out. Dennis wrote me, Kevin, went to the practice yesterday. Yesterday's practice, by the way, was the first open to the public practice. They had a decent crowd. I think 3,000 showed up for it. Kevin, went to the practice yesterday. I didn't love what I saw from your boyfriend, Daniels. He lacked accuracy and looked unsure of himself. The best-looking QB was Sam Hartman for what it's worth. I also wasn't very impressed with anything they were doing on offense with your guy Kingsbury. And then Dennis went on, and I'm not going to subject you to the rest of it. I'd like to say,

that Dennis had tongue placed firmly in cheek as he was writing this, but I don't think it's true. I think Dennis actually really thinks that the offense was supposed to impress him, and Jaden Daniels was supposed to be totally confident in his fifth practice overall. Dennis and anybody else that felt that way from yesterday, and I'm assuming most of you understood what you were watching. You saw an open to the public training camp practice on July 28th. You weren't impressed with what they were doing offensively. What did you expect? Like a full-fledged, you know, regular season game plan, like the install for the Tampa Bay game. As far as Jaden goes, I don't know what to tell you. I wasn't there. I'm sure there are going to be some good days

and some days it aren't great. I've heard, for the most part, he's looked really sharp, that he's really grasped everything, but that there were a couple of throws yesterday that were mix-ups with receivers. I don't know what to tell you, man. I mean, you're too easy. You're too easy, Dennis.

Rennie J. also wrote me. He seems to be convinced about a development along the offensive line. He writes, Sheehan, big doings along the offensive line. looks like Brandon Coleman has a leg up on Wiley. This is a massive development and a sign that Adam Peters knows what he's doing. Wiley was terrible last year.

How great is it that they found a third rounder to take his place? Rennie, like Dennis, went on about other camp developments that he's read into. Look, this is not for the majority of you, okay? I understand that. And you're probably saying, why are you wasting time with these two people? Because I do think there is a lot of excitement right now. And I'm excited about the organization and about Jaden Daniels, of course,

and about Cliff Kingsbury. But there are people. We do this every year. I've been doing this every summer for the last 17, 18 summers, whatever it's been, 19 summers, you know, doing an actual show. you know, every day for three to four hours in the podcast for the last six years, believe it or not. And there are people that really draw big-time conclusions from this,

but they just went full pads for the first time today, six days into camp. And by the way, it's not even full speed. You can't hit the quarterbacks, as most of you know. You can't really take big shots at anybody right now. Quinn actually said, Dan Quinn, that is, said that the first day in pads is kind of equivalent to a sparring session in boxing. It's not the real thing. It is not the real thing. And in today's NFL, it isn't the real thing until it is the real thing. And there's nothing actually resembling the real thing until it's the real thing. I think the closest you'll get to being able to observe something. and gauge something significant would be the joint practices.

You know, that's where I think the coaches get excited because they can play their starters. They'll play them for longer. You know, they've got a plan with the other coach. I think you probably get more out of that than you do anything else. But as NFL fans, don't we know that we don't even have it figured out six, seven weeks into the regular season? I mean, Rennie, you might be right about

Brandon Coleman. You might be right. I'm not saying that he's not going to be the answer. And, you know, he's been getting some reps with Wiley being a little bit banged up. And I heard from my TCU guys, yes, I have TCU guys. My oldest son went to TCU. And a couple of the parents of his friends were big-time Hornfrog supporters and alums. And I mentioned this after they picked him, that I had a buddy of mine send me a long text from down in Fort Worth saying that this dude Coleman is like just an outrageous sick athlete. He was a third round pick too. I mean, it's not going to be a surprise if he turns into a good player. He's not an undrafted guy. There was a ton of interest in him. And so you might be right, Rennie, but it's just way too early to say that

we know anything for sure. I'm excited about where everything is. And yes, I went in a little bit last week with my 10 and 7 prediction, but it was not based on anything that's happened so far in training camp practices. It's based on my belief that Jaden Daniels is going to be the real deal. My belief in Cliff Kingsbury, to a lesser degree, the belief I have in Dan Quinn and the rest of the coaching staff that he's put together, which is very impressive. It's not that it's, I don't believe in Quinn and the staff as compared to Kingsbury. It's just slightly a little bit less excitement over that.

I'm more excited about the Kingsbury Daniels thing. But really what I am optimistic about more than anything else, as we all should be, is that we're actually following, rooting for a real NFL organization now, one that's run by competent men and women, you know, women, you know, to either they're women in the organization and on the coaching staff. I just feel like if I'm going to be optimistic about this organization because it's been a while that I'm feeling it a little bit now with the state of the organization.

And then clearly on top of that, the quarterback, the coordinator, the staff etc. But none of us are going to know anything for sure until we're a solid eight games into the regular season. Switching subjects. This from Julie. Julie writes, Kevin, the Olympics are great. I hope you'll do more on them than you did last week. The swimming and diving are exciting and the gymnastics the best it's ever been. Thanks in advance for your coverage of the Olympics. Tommy and I, talk some Olympics last week, but the Olympics didn't start until Saturday. You had the opening ceremonies, Julie, on Friday night. I know that there was some soccer and some other sports handball or whatever before the actual games began on Saturday. I'll be honest, I've not watched any of the

Olympics, really, hardly anything. It's been on in my home a little bit. I did see this interview, very interesting interview, between Torrico and Don Staley. Don Staley was talking about. talking about Caitlin Clark, I thought it was interesting that she said, you know, when the team was selected, Caitlin Clark really wasn't playing the way she's been playing the last several weeks. And if they had picked the team later, she may have received more consideration on merit. I thought that was, I actually think that's probably spot on. Now, I think she should have been on the team regardless, because that team and that sport, women's basketball in general. in our country just needs the spotlight more than it has had it.

And she would have brought that, not to mention a lot of new revenue through the sale of Olympic jerseys, specifically hers. But anyway, I do know that the men's basketball team crushed Serbia yesterday. And I know that Jason Tatum didn't play. And this was a big controversial sort of output after that game. Steve Kerr saying that it's a 40-minute game. He's got 12 players. It's hard to get 10 in.

He got 10 in. Jason Tatum and Tyrese Halliburton were the two that didn't play. I think Tatum's such an interesting conversation. He is a much debated player in terms of where his true status, you know, among the elite players in the league is. He's been a first team, all-NBA player, three years running. He's now got a championship. But, you know, there are people, and I would be one of them, who would say he's not a top. five player in the league.

Others would debate that, which means the thought and actually my position of many years now that you can't win an NBA title without a debatable top five player on your roster, that the street continues. You've got to go back to the 2004 Pistons to find a team that did not have a debatable top five player on the roster. But Tatum is debatable top five. I mean, all NBA first team multiple times now. I just don't personally find him to be in that category of true elite superstars.

I think he's somewhere probably in that six to nine range, six to eight range, seven to nine range. I don't know. I mean, Yokic, Janice, Gilgis, Gildjus Alexander SGA, probably Luca, M. Bede's certainly when he's super healthy. Durant, look, Durant played yesterday. Durant's on his way, by the way, to becoming the greatest international competition USA player of all time.

Incredible 23 yesterday off the bench. You know, I'm not even mentioning, like, one of my all-time favorites in terms of when he's healthy, Kauai Leonard, like when he was healthy this year and playing during that stretch, he was considered to be an MVP candidate. He just hasn't stayed healthy. I understand that.

Tatum's great. Okay, Tatum's really good. They've got two great players in Tatum and Jalen Brown. But anyway, I think the conversation about him is always an interesting one because there's definitely nitpicking when it comes to Jason Tatum. And I'm a nitpicker with him. I will concede that. And it's not even being a nitpicker when it comes to him.

It's just that I think there are better. players. But he did a great job, certainly in the close-out game. But he wasn't the MVP of the series. Jalen Brown was. Jalen Brown was also the MVP of the Eastern Conference finals. I mean, he is a certified star as well right there with Tatum. But Olympics-wise, I don't know how much of it I'm going to end up watching, probably less of it than some of you. But I will watch the basketball. I'll watch the track and field when it gets serious. Yeah, there you go. That's it on that. I wanted to play some other sound for you here in the opening segment. And I'm going to start with some of the other things that Marcus Mariotta said about Jaden Daniels. You know, Marcus Marietta, too,

was the second overall pick in his draft. You know, it was James Winston and Marcus Mariotta, and he was considered to be, you know, the savior of the franchise. And so he's gone, through what Jaden Daniels went through. Here's what he said about trying to help Jaden understand and, you know, that he's been through the same thing and that he can kind of help him through this. Here's what he said. It's not easy, you know, and when you're coming in to be the guy to kind of revitalize a franchise, you know, it is tough. But I think he's got a good head on his shoulders. He's done a great job of handling all that. And we can always kind of help him through that, right? We can kind of be that

shoulder he can lean on. You know, we can be kind of that guy that he can lean to in terms of experiences and hey, you know, what happened here? How did you do that? And he's done a great job asking questions too. So just kind of all together, helping him through that, but I really believe he's got a good head on his shoulders. He's handled it well.

So there was a bit of a theme from the Marcus Marietta press conference yesterday, or at least that's what I thought. That was my takeaway. Specific to the questions that were asked about Jaden Daniels, which, by the way, were the majority of the questions, or at least it seemed that way. And the theme was that Marcus Mariotta understands why he's here. He's here to mentor Jaden Daniels. Now, he is a perfect backup stylistically for Daniels,

but he's really here to mentor Jaden Daniels, a guy in Mariotta who entered the same kind of situation back in 2015 with the Titans. He was drafted by a team that was two and 14. They were terrible. They needed, you know, life into the organization. They needed a quarterback. And he was picked number two overall. And so he kind of went through the same thing that Jaden's going through. And I think there was some recognition of that. But I think it's interesting that he's embraced that role as a quarterback who's only 30 years old. You know, we've seen quarterbacks. have, you know, sort of resurrections of careers or even have some of their best years at 30 or older. But Marietta seems resigned or seems just happy to be in this role.

Look, he was a backup last year in Philadelphia to Jalen Hertz. You know, they kind of brought him in for the same kind of a reason. He was the starter in Atlanta in 2022 until he was benched. but I don't know. I've never been like the biggest Marioada fan, but I'm also not the biggest anti-Mariota guy. I've thought at times, various times during his career, that there was something there.

The thing about Marioita's playing style that used to drive me nuts is I just always thought it was too blasé, it was too casual, it was too laid back. But he had a lot of nice things. to say and seemed totally content with being in this role. And I would imagine his personality, especially if the advice and the mentorship is solid, that the personality is probably pretty easy for a young quarterback. Anyway, Zach Ertz spoke today, and he was asked about Cliff Kingsbury.

Kingsbury was his head coach when he was in Arizona. Here's what he said. I don't think I've ever seen Cliff so happy. He seems like he's refreshed. Every time he goes out to the practice field, he's eager. He's excited to work with the quarterbacks every single day. He's putting him through individual every single day. And so I truly believe that maybe that break from everything last year

and him able to get this job and work with Jaden and Marcus and Sam and Jeff every day has really almost rejuvenized or I would say rejuvenated him. And I think I'm in the same boat. You know, it's been extremely fun. to be here. I feel almost like I've gotten younger since I got out here just because how much fun I'm having every day. And so I think Cliff and I are kind of in the same boat in that regard. Put me down today as a believer that Zach Ertz is going to be a significant part of Washington's 2024 offense. Number one, he's 6'5. A young rookie quarterback wants that big, tight end target

and Ertz is that. Two, he knows Kingsbury's offense. He's the one that knows it. He's going to be in the right spots for Jaden Daniels. And three, it certainly sounds like he's healthy. You know, I know there's some excitement about Ben Sinit, and I understand that, the rookie from K State, and I think he's got a chance to be a good player. But I think Ertz is going to be a big part of what Kingsbury wants to do,

especially in the red zone, especially in the red zone. Ertz, by the way, was asked about sort of the Kingsbury offense here versus what it was in Arizona. Here's what he said. Yeah, there's some similarities. The running game is, I would say, very different. Obviously, we have a different all-line coach. But at the same time, I've been in this league for so long. The schemes don't get too drastic, no matter what kind of offense you're in in terms of kind of the plays.

It's how coaches want to call the plays in the game and how they want to put game plans together is how the average coaches are set. separated from the great coaches in that game plan. I think Cliff is one of the best in the league coming up with a game plan to attack defenses. So obviously he was a big part of the reason I'm here. And it's been really fun to be back with him, not only him, but really this entire organization has been awesome to be a part of. So I don't know how much we got out of that Zachert's answer that will really tell us a lot about what Cliff Kingsbury's offense is going to be here in Washington. but there was one interesting line, I thought, from Earths. And that is when he said, well, the running game's different because we've got a different O-Line coach.

You know, I'm not sure everybody knows this, although we've got some experience with it here. But a lot of times when the offensive coordinator is really a pass offense designer, they bring in other people to handle the running game. Bill Callahan was kind of that guy for Jay Gruden. Bobby Johnson's the O-line coach. Here he came from the Giants, but they also hired Anthony Lynn to be the run game coordinator and coached the running backs. So Kingsbury is going to handle the play calling and the overall offensive design, but his specific area of, you know, in the minutia will be the past game design,

where Bobby Johnson and Anthony Lynn will be more involved in the run game design. I think that's what we learned from Zach Ertz. Two quick sound bites from Dan Quinn today, because we did get that email earlier that I read from our guy, Rennie J., who was really excited about Brandon Coleman, as are others. I'm not saying that he was wrong about that. But Dan Quinn was asked about the third round pick from TCU today.

Here's what he said. One of the things I knew he was a very good athlete, but what I have been more impressed by, like he's got great balance for a big guy. And so he's got, you know, powered in his legs. So one foot coming back, redirecting on, you know, past rush stunts that could go. So that might be one of the things I didn't know was really one of his strengths. I knew he was a good athlete and, you know, movements and that. But balance is a harder thing to test.

You have to see it. And so he is very rarely somebody that's out of position. or on the ground. He's very deliberate in the way he moves and practices. So I think he's a very in control player. And I think that's a real attribute as an offensive lineman. You never see him overextended or out of position because when you do get beat, usually somebody's out of position. It's hard to recover.

He has that ability to stay connected to somebody. And that's one of the things I've been impressed by so far. So some pretty decent praise for Brandon Coleman from the head coach. I mean, it's early. and I am certainly not going to get carried away with anything that we see, but I think sometimes, as I've said many times in the past, it's more about what you hear from coaches and players in some of these avails that give you more insight than the actual on-field activity.

And they drafted this guy because they thought he could play tackle. Now, I don't know if that's left tackle or right tackle, and we'll ask J.P. Finley more about this, but he's gotten more reps here early in. camp because Andrew Wiley has been out, it would be such a huge, huge get if Brandon Coleman is ready to play early at tackle. Because this is, remember, the perceived external weakness of this team. I don't know if they feel the same way, but maybe one of the reasons Quinn said what he said last week about, you know, the perceived external weaknesses are more of internal perceived strengths.

Maybe one of the reasons for that is Brandon Coleman. We will see. It'll be big for him in those joint practices for sure. And again, Wiley was back today, so we'll find out from JP how that played out at practice today. There was one other Dan Quinn soundbite that I wanted to play. And the reason I wanted to play this one is I feel like we, have not talked about this player that much so far, and that we haven't heard much from coaches about this player. But Quinn was asked this morning before practice what he's seen so far in Jahan Dotson. Here's what he said. You know, the first thing I think of with him is like really good ball skills. So like backhand, behind, you know, like if it's in the catching radius, it's a pretty

good shot that he's going to come away with it. I thought he's got, and he's also a good route runner. So to set somebody up, to work a leverage and work back. So he's pretty savvy in that way. And so being around Bobby and having an understanding of, you know, what it takes to play it, I've been pleased. And so when we get the ball in his hands, we're going to try to make plays and finish. And that's been one of the emphasis for a lot of the players after the catch, you know, what takes place. And I'm hopeful that you see that at practice where guys are down the field finishing with them to say, hey, can we extend plays? And so that's, that's one of the big emphasis for him as well.

Dan Quinn on Jahan Dotson, the hands, the catch radius, the route running. He was referring to Bobby Engram when he said Bobby, the receivers coach. But big year for Jahan Dotson, right? I also thought it was interesting how he talked about with everybody. They're really emphasizing yards after catch. I think there's going to be a lot of opportunity for yards after catch because I think there's going to be an element to this offense that is, lateral that is truly horizontal that will see a lot of line of scrimmage throws. That would be my

guess, some RPO with a young quarterback, a lot of quick hitches and, you know, having their athletes, McLorne and Dotson and whomever else is out there, maybe it's a McCaffrey, make plays. You know, that was kind of the idea last year with Sam Hal. Remember the emphasis from Ron and even Eric Bianamy about just all he's got to do is distribute the ball. There's some of that with all young quarterbacks. John Dotson, big year this year for him. I think he's a talent, man. I really do. I hope that with a different approach offensively than last year, with a different quarterback, with just a different vibe in the organization, I hope he gets that opportunity to become what, you know, I think a lot of us saw his rookie year.

You know, when he was healthy. J.P. Finley next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by Window Nation. If you're tired of paying high air conditioning bills every month during the summer, it's because your AC keeps running, and that's because your windows aren't energy efficient. If yours are builder grade or over eight years old, the seals are likely broken, airs leaking out, and you're paying the price in high utility bills all year long. Wind donations high quality windows, they're built to last a lifetime.

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Stop paying more than you have to. Schedule a fast in-home estimate right now at 86690 Nation or visitwindonation.com. Jumping on with me right now is my friend J.P. Finley, JP, of course, with NBC Channel 4 with 1067 the fan. And JP has the Beltway Football podcast. You can get that podcast the same place. You get this one. JP's been at camp since the vets reported last week. And that's where I want to start. Like this has been a fairly quiet first five days, I think, anyway. do you think there's been, you know, a headline or a big takeaway here so far? No.

I mean, it's funny. We just did a podcast. Like, I just recorded my podcast. And outside of Jaden, and I think what is completely manufactured angst over his not being named starter, outside of that, there is like zero storylines. I mean, there are roster battles. And position battles and who's going to start at, you know, Brandon Coleman emerged today.

You know, he got the first work with the left tackles. Like, that's a pretty big deal. But there's nothing like, it's all new, it's a whole new staff. So there's no real pressure on the staff. They've got to win, but it's all brand new. I think it's pretty remarkable, man. Like when you, you know, when you look around the league or you watch Sports or whatever, like all the stuff going on at various camps,

and it's really pretty quiet in Ashford. Yeah, I think a lot of the other stuff going on in other camps deals with big contract situations, whether it's signing somebody to a big deal or somebody like CD Lamb or Brandon Iyuk, not getting a deal yet. And right now, you know, there's no situation like that out in Ashburn. Although I do expect, and I'm wondering what you think, I'm expecting a Sam Cosmy extension before the season begins. Do you think it'll happen?

I don't know. I got to talk to him over the weekend, I think, and, you know, like a sit-down interview and I asked him about it. He gave the total kind of expected, yeah, that's my agent's department. I'm not worried about that. I think it would make sense. I think they might want – I can see it – I wouldn't be shocked if that happens in season more.

These guys probably want to see him a little bit. You know what I mean? But he's the right guy. He's played well. I mean, maybe they want to see some durability there because last year was really the first year where he was able to play a whole bunch. I think the Pro Bowl conversation was legitimate for him.

But I think for them to get that done, Matt, before week one, I'm not, I don't know that I expect it, but if you told me like, do they get one done before week eight? I could see that for sure. Back to Jaden for a moment, because you mentioned sort of the manufactured, you know, angst over the splitting of the reps. First of all, do you think he'll be the starter September 8th in Tampa? Unequivocally. Okay, so do I. Is it fair to ask or to wonder why?

By the way, I'm not questioning it. Let me just preface this with, they know what they're doing more than I do when it comes to training camp practices with a rookie quarterback. But do you think it is fair to wonder why he isn't getting the significant majority of the reps? So I think it's important to note that today he did. Okay. Today was the first day of Pads.

They did goal line, was the first 11-on-11 work, and it was Jaden out there. And then they did work at the 50, and it was Jaden out there. So I think it's important to note this to me feels pretty similar to Mnicamp and OTAs when they started with Marriota and then eventually it got to Jaden. I don't think it matters at all because it's July 29th. I think this is just like the Anquin kind of hierarchy of football dogmatic, and I just don't, I don't think it matters. Jayden seems quite comfortable with it.

And what he said, I think it was Ben asked him, he had a really good answer. He's like, man, even when I get named starter, it's not like I stop competing. Like, I have to compete every day. That's the position. And I think that's what's most important. and I think some fans that were like, oh, man, you know, he's missing out on this work. Like, they do, these practices have been fairly fast.

But today was like barely 75 minutes, I would say. Of that time, like, quarterbacks are kind of just doing their own thing with the other quarterbacks, and then quarterbacks are just working with wideouts for a solid third of it. You know what I mean? Like, there's so much work going on that every quarterback ends up running, you know, throwing routes with every receiver. Like, it's not, it's just, it's just, I think too much has been made of the lack of the reps with the ones.

I think it also is going away. Like, it went away today, and I would expect that to continue. Like, what I'm really want to see is, like, when they get to the jets and the dolphins, like those practices, I think are the two most important things that will happen this all season. and I would imagine Jaden gets a ton of the work, and he should. You mentioned Brandon Coleman in at left tackle,

and Lucas was at right tackle. Do you think that is something of significance, or is it because Wiley was not 100% healthy last week and through the weekend? Don't know. Very curious to find out, though. Um, Wiley said, he was, Wiley is usually, he's a great guy, right? Like, as just as a dude, I know he struggled last year, which is a great guy. Always talks to the media, never a problem. We'll BS with you, you can kind of go and just talk. The other day, he was very short and had like a PR person with him, which was kind of out of character for him, which is it abnormal if they're guys, you know, injured or

or deal with something. I don't know that answer. I have thought all along should be a competition at right tackle, and maybe between both tackles, I think between Wiley Coleman and Lucas, you play your best too. And ideally it's Lucas on the left side.

I'm sorry, ideally it's Coleman on the left side, so that's your long-term answer there. And they are confident in him. I thought, even when they signed him, that Wiley should have been a guard. His best work in Kansas City was at guard. And I think if Lucas emerges as a tackle, and Lucas has played relatively well,

but he's at false starts a bit of a problem at camp. But regardless, I want Wiley competing at that left guards. What did you say? What did you say the issue with Lucas in camp was? What did you say? I wouldn't say only him, but false starts have been a problem. Oh, false starts. I'm sorry.

I didn't understand what you said. False starts have been. Got it. Okay, sorry. Go ahead. All good. No, I'm just saying Allegretti was signed and there was like this weird determination that he's just your starting left guard. I just don't know that that needs to be determined already. And I think

if, I think Wiley, I think Gates was really, really bad to start the year and it messed everything up. I think Wiley wasn't as bad as kind of people hammered him for. And I think he's useful player, and I would hope that they'd look around other options with a guy like that if Lucas beat them out. And the silliness, and you and I were kind of saying this before we came on air, the silliness of these conversations on July, in late July, is that injuries will inevitably play a

major role in this, especially when you're talking to a line. So, like, we'll see what it looks like come, you know, Tampa. Don't take everybody completely behind the curtain. We have to produce content every day. The Kingsbury offense, is there anything that when you're watching over these first five days, you think you've learned about what we're going to see in the regular season? Formationally, you know, it was Steve Whitech who had Scott Pioly on yesterday, and White said, I've seen Jaden Daniels under center, Mario da 2, I've seen him in the pistol, I've seen him in shotgun. Is there anything that would, you know, give us a clue because we don't have one about what we're going to see in the regular season with the Kingsbury offense?

I think the perception of Cliff Kingsbury, perception of Cliff Kingsbury's offense is everybody talks about the air raid. I think they want to be physical. I think Brian Robinson's going to have a big role. I think you're going to see a lot of 12 personnel, like two tight ends out there with Ertz and Senate. I think Ertz is going to have a big role. If he could stay healthy and you've got your late-round fantasy, like I think Erch could have a big year. He looks really, really good.

I just think it's going to be Jaden and the shotgun with five wideouts, just letting it rip, spreading everybody out. And you'll see some of that, but I think you're going to see bizarre to think that Cliff Kingsbury, like the inventor of the area, maybe not inventor, but certainly a disciple of it, I think the offense will be so much more balanced than the train wreck we saw last year. Yeah, well, it was for Kingsbury as a head coach in Arizona. It was much more balanced than sort of the perception of it.

Is there a player? And again, and you and I did talk about this, before we started to record. And it's July 29th, so, you know, I'm not sure that we've really learned anything definitively at this point. But have you heard any rumblings about a player that maybe no one's thinking about that has impressed? That's a good question. You know, there's this kid, Owens, undrafted safety, that is making a lot of heads turn. I think he's big.

I think he's like 6-2-6-3. They drafted the kid Hampton from Washington in the sixth. This Texas Tech kid is undrafted guy. I think he's kind of catching people's eyes so far. I think that Coleman is able to go out there with the ones right away is a pretty good sign of his camp that he's putting together. that isn't a roster guy, but I think maybe he's fighting his way to be a practice squad guy. This guy Yankoff that just always catches everything to get thrown to him, plays tough, plays physical, the UCLA guy.

Like, I don't know what will actually come of that. But that's what you're looking like the deep cuts. You know, I think Brian Robinson has looked really good. I think Brian Robinson is going to be more of a pass catching back than maybe we envision. But at the same time, Echler looks great. The trio of veterans of like a high esteemed veterans in Wagner, Ertz, and Echler, one are really kind of tone-setter guys. Right.

But they've also all looked really good, which is, as I've gotten to know them a little bit more, those guys are so driven, and this is not like, let's get one last contract before we're done. Like, it is a, like, Ernst publicly talked about how he's like, man, F this, people think I'm washed, I'm not. And I got to interview Echler and we talked for like 20 minutes and these are passionate, driven people that I think it's easy to say like, oh, the leadership in the locker room. Like, that's all there. But I think they are here to play, not to coach. All right. Let's take a quick break a lot more with J.P. Finley right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

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We continue with J.P. Finley. Three players. I want you to just give me a quick what you think they think of them. Jahan Dotson. I think they think he can bounce back. Jamin Davis. I don't think they know what to do with him. Okay.

How will that manifest itself? Will that result in them not figuring it out in him being a cut or what? I don't know. Yeah, I don't know, dude. But if you just play the numbers, like as linebackers, they knew he was here. they declined to pick up his option. They signed three guys and drafted one, right? And McGee has looked good, the fifth rounder at a temple.

McGee looks like, like, if I had to do a linebacker depth chart, I think Davis is fifth, Wagner, Louvre, and they all take different roles. And I'm not trying to shoehorn everything together, but like Wagner, Louvre, McGee are the top three. Right. Then I think this guy, Pitt, Pitt, and they signed from Detroit. then maybe Damon

so a fifth linebackers hardly a roster spot so then it's like okay well what's he doing as a pass rusher and then if that's a roster spot like Armstrong Fowler Farrell Henry Jones like this just

it's it's interesting I don't know and I think it's so early injuries will be a factor maybe in these joint practices when he's able to really turn it up he shows them something A lot can still happen here. I just, I don't know what the path is there.

Forbes. Then, everybody in the NFL had him as a first round pick. Now, we can argue that Washington should be taking a solid. That is a true statement. I think what's been distorted after his rookie year is somehow they took him so far out of line from where he was. That's not true. Maybe a bit early, but he was a first rounder. I think now Gonzalez got hurt, so it's hard to say.

But Gonzalez certainly looked better early on before the injury. And I think you could make a real case. They should have taken Gonzalez and not Forbes. But the notion that, like, oh, my God, this guy's going to be out of the league, how did Ron draft him? The whole league had him projected as a first rounder. And so, you know, I mean, this kind of gets deep. Principally that staff was kind of a shell of itself,

and particularly at defensive backs coach. I'm not trying to dog the dude because he's a nice dude, but Brett Bieselmeier had never ran his own room, ever. And I think we saw so much stubborn BS from this defensive coaching staff that when it started to go bad with Forbes, there should have been some, like, all right, let's go back to the drawing board and figure something out, and there was just none of that.

These guys, Quinn and Witt, particularly, their track record with quarters particularly is so freaking good. He saw him to be a year ago. I think maybe he now has a chance to be that. I do, they're saying now that he gained 17 pounds. I don't see it. Maybe he did. I think if you can get him in the right role where he's using his eyes and his length

and his speed, then he can help you. I think some of the reasons he had to be off the field were the smallest or the least physically imposing corner in the NFL should not be playing arguably the most physically imposing receiver in the NFL and AJ Brown. But I think he's got a real opportunity. But there's also got to be a decision on his part about just like willingness to put your body on the line. And he was unwilling to do that, especially in the first half of last year. against the run game, it was 10 on 11, and he got exposed. And that's why they finally had to bench it. It's one thing to get beat through the air.

But when you won't engage in run fits, you can't be on the field. Some of this, I think coaching makes a big impact. Some of this, I think Emmanuel has to decide what he wants to do. Do you think they're comfortable with St. Juice as one of the two outside corners? I don't know. I think they like Mike Davis a lot. But I also think they know they're 4 and 13 with no pro bowlers. Like I think they understand the depths of the rebuild here.

Yeah. And that's why, like there's no flashy signing, right? Like Wagner and Earth, but those were kind of veteran, like unique situations. I don't know that they're thrilled about it, but if you think about BSJ's body type, Like, you know, if you're going to bet on a corner, if you're going to bet on coaches to make a corner work, this is the staff, and they love big, long, rangy guys like that. I think he's got to work on, like, where his hands go because he gets flagged, but these are the guys that are supposed to make you better.

Who's the most animated coach out there? Is there – if the answers, nobody has really stood out, because last year yeah go ahead yeah it was almost quiet and then just EB was yelling right uh Bobby Johnson O'Lyman has a really good kind of

O'line coach Rumble Bark yeah Ken Norton's like always talking uh Joe Witt does a good amount of talking um it's usually that stuff usually comes from the defensive side of the ball

like DB coaches a lot of times um and I think that's fairly consistent. Dan, Quinn isn't a big, one thing I like about Quinn is that he's like involved, like at the line of scrimmage on a ton of snaps. But not necessarily like a yeller or anything. Cliff is like super involved, pretty quiet. Like he's talking to the guys, but I don't know that I've heard Cliff yell, maybe ever. All right. Real quickly, and I'll let you run. You know, Dan Quinn answered questions about the kickoff rule today, and it's not the first time he's answered questions,

and we're all going to get to see it Thursday night in a preseason game in the Hall of Fame game. Do you have a guess right now as to who the two, and I think it will be two returners, will be on kickoffs? I think Chris Rodriguez could help you there. I think, you know, B. Robin Eckler are probably the two best options, but I don't know. that you want to put them in those situations, at least until we learn more. I almost wonder if, like, are Titan is going to be involved? Or, like, if you, I mean,

what a Senate's strength was his yards after the catch, but I haven't seen those guys. Dude, they've had fans still catch a punts. And if you go back, like, he was a receiver at Michigan, then he converted over to DB. Apparently at the pro day, when everybody was out there,

and granted it was for McCarthy, but he was, like, running routes to kind of impresses. coaches with his route running. They love that kid. He is feisty. He is. Dude, he's an alpha. I think,

you know, if things break right, I think that kid's a star here. It's a good question, man. They've done a ton of punt return work. Right. And a ton of catching balls off the jugs.

But I don't know that they've done, like they've done kick work, but I don't know if I'm trying to rack my brain if I've seen like kickoff return. it's more. I think they're kind of learning it on the fly too. And the punt return stuff, in addition to Sandor Still, it's been Crowder, right? And maybe Dotson a little bit? I think it's Crowder.

The Santerstil wrinkle is relatively new in the punt return stuff. But if it's not, if Mikey's not included in that conversation, it is Crowder with a pretty wide gap. Crowder looks the most fluid and he looks frankly the most interested like some of the other guys that are back there probably know they're never actually doing it

in a game and I think it shows a little bit like you can't put Forbes back there they're broken in half but I haven't catch it I guess but I just I don't understand the functionality of that and Dax Mill I think is what I mean like you know I think it's I think it's Crowder pretty

I think the receiver room really lacks, and I think Crowder, Zakias, I think those guys have relatively firm roster spots. All right. TV, podcast, radio, what are you having the most fun doing right now? All right, you don't have to answer that. But what? No, it's all fun. It's just different.

It's all fun. It's just different. I love being able to do, honestly, my favorite thing in camp is, is, and the PR staff does this with all the TV stations, is that you get these one-on-one interviews, and it just gives you a chance, you know, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, however long you go, to really get to know somebody, and those are by far the favorite thing I do during camp.

All right. Speaking of golf, let's do it soon. Hope you're well. Thanks for doing this. Thanks, buddy. J.P. Finley, everybody, at J.P. Finley, NBCS on X on Twitter. All right, that is it. for the day back tomorrow with Tommy.