The Kevin Sheehan Show - Peters, Quinn, & Rivera?

Episode Date: July 24, 2024

Kevin solo today with plenty of follow-up to the Adam Peters/Dan Quinn press conference that kicked off Commanders' training camp. Kevin reacted to Quinn's response to whether or not it's time to name Jayden Daniels the starter as well as Peters' reaction to Brandon Aiyuk's Tik Tok photo of Washington's mini-camp practice. Kevin also talked about Ron Rivera's appearance on Adam Schefter's podcast. Ron talked about his time in DC and weighed in on Daniels as the team's new QB.  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. What is the plan for Jaden as far as working with, you know, how you talk about competition? What's that going to look like? Is it going to rotate? Is you going to work with the ones?

How is that going to look? Yeah, and that's a good question, John, because it's probably leading to Jaden starting and when is that happening. So this is a great time to discuss it, and I want you to know it's not a secret. Did we all just hear Dan Quinn say, that it's not a secret that Jaden Daniels is going to be the team's starting quarterback? Well, it's not much of a secret.

But there was a lot more to his answer. He actually struggled a bit to land the plane on the answer. But you will hear the whole thing, the whole question from John Kime and Dan Quinn's entire answer in a few minutes. The show's presenting sponsor, as always, is Windon Nation. call them at 86690 Nation or head to wind donation.com. Mention my name for a free in-home quote. This from Taylor Z to open up this show, Taylor writes, and let me say before I read what Taylor wrote and I respond to it,

this is going to be it for a while on the name. It's been pretty intense on the name recently. And now that training camp is underway or will be effective. officially tomorrow with the first practice. Veterans reported today. We'll have more football to talk about, including on today's show. But Taylor writes, Taylor Z writes, Kevin, Mark Eind told you what's coming. When he said a name change is a big lift, he told you that they are going to wait us out.

If they start winning sooner rather than later, they think the name issue will go away. Get ready, brother. Get used to it. It's commanders. forever. Thanks for that, Taylor. That was uplifting. Yeah, I don't know.

I actually, if you missed Mark Ein from over the weekend, had him on the show, minority owner of the team. And there were some moments with Mark that you guys grabbed a hold of and had strong opinions on,

and this was one of them. Actually, many of you thought that, and I would agree with this, that just the acknowledgement of the name issue being a big lift is an admission that they've been working on it, that they have been thinking about it for sure. But I understand what you're saying, Taylor, to a certain degree. I've discussed the idea that maybe they're trying to wait us out. I don't think that's what they're doing because I don't think it would be great strategy to do that. But it is possible that some of the owners are in favor of kind of waiting it out in hopes.

of winning soon. But what if they don't win soon? You know, and by winning, we're not talking about nine and eight, you know, because for them to really test whether or not winning would mean that the name issue would go away or be diminished, they need to win big. They need to become one of the teams in the league that you expect to be playing in late January every year. I personally don't see them moving forward with a strategy that puts all of its eggs into one basket, which is this name issue, as long as we win, we think we'll be okay. Well, what if you don't win? As I've said in recent shows, I think the risk of not doing something about the name and the brand and or the brand is much greater than the risk of doing something about it. It's my personal view,

and I think that's where they will ultimately get to. Again, we got to wait out the stadium piece to this, but then I think that they will certainly try to figure out how to make that big lift. I think they will. We'll see. But if you want me to get used to the name, Taylor, let's give it a go right now.

So the commander's training camp is underway. They are training at Commanders Park in Ashburn, and they will eventually play at Commander's Stadium in Landover, unless, of course, they get a stadium naming rights before the season begins. All right, that's it on the name today. Football season isn't really underway yet, but as I said, the lead-up to football season begins in earnest tomorrow with the first training camp practice. As of today, all but four teams have reported to training camp. The last four report tomorrow. The first NFL preseason game, the Hall of Fame game, is a week from Thursday night in Canton, Ohio.

It'll be Houston and Chicago, C.J. Stroud against Caleb Williams, if you even see either one of those two players in the first preseason game. Remember, those teams play four preseason games. everybody else will play three. The rest of the league begins preseason play on August 8th, so two weeks from Thursday night, and the commanders open up in the Meadowlands against the Jets on Saturday, August 10th at 12 noon. I still can't figure out why that is a 12 noon kickoff. It must have something to do with the Meadowlands having something else scheduled there, either Saturday night or Sunday.

I don't know. It's not a national TV game. Washington's got three preseason games. They play the Jets. They play the dolphins the following week. And then they play the Patriots on August 25th on a national televised platform at whatever the stadium's name will be at that point. We'll call it Commander's Field for now, I guess. But they'll play the Patriots in the final preseason game of the NFL scale. schedule, and then it's two weeks from that Sunday, they'll be in Tampa Bay. By the way, speaking of that, My Bookie has dropped the Buccaneers from a four-point favorite in that game all along since the schedule came out to currently they are just three and a half point favorites. Go to MyBooky.orgie.ag, use my promo code, Kevin D.C. for all of your

sports betting needs. Washington's over under for the season, six and a half. All right, six and a half wins. You can bet over, you can bet under. Washington's odds on winning the division plus 800. Bet 100, you win 800 if they win the division. Jaden Daniels currently is second to Caleb Williams to win NFL offensive rookie of the year at plus 590. So bet 100 to win 590. All of the NFL futures are up at MyBooky. Go to mybooky.ag. And again, use my promo code. Kevin D.C., you'll get a cash bonus on your initial deposit. So there was a training camp kickoff press conference this morning with Dan Quinn and Adam Peters.

I didn't think there was much that was earth shattering or that newsworthy, but I love listening to these press conferences this time of year in particular because I actually think you get more from what they say sometimes than what you see. And when I say what you see, preseason games or if you go out to training camp practices, I just don't think those are that revealing. Listening carefully to what the coaches and players say sometimes can be revealing. Again, there wasn't that much today, but there were a few pieces of sound that I thought it made sense to play for all of you and just give a comment or two. There was one that really kind of raised my eyebrows a bit,

and I'll get to that in a few minutes. But the press conference started with John Kime asking the first question. Here was the question from John, and this was Dan Quinn's full answer. What is the plan for Jaden as far as working with, you know, how you talk about competition? So what's that going to look like? Is it going to rotate?

He's going to work with the ones? How is that going to look? Yeah, and that's a good question, John, because it's probably leading to Jaden starting and when is that happening. So this is a great time to discuss it. And I want you to know it's not a secret, but it is a journey and a process.

And so as we're going, when he's ready, we'll know. And when he's ready, he'll also know. But as far as the reps go, obviously with him and Marcus and moving around, there'll be certain days that will feature more. of another, but I guess I did want, I'm glad that you brought it up, and certainly not a secret, it's a journey and a process. And so through practices, through scrimmages and preseason games all the way down, that's where the journey will take us. And then not trying to hold back the

info, but when we know, we'll say it. When we know it, we'll say it. Well, then just say it, coach, because you definitely know it. Actually, I don't really have much of an issue with him not saying it. He kind of did say it when he said, it's not a secret. And then he went on with, you know, it's a journey and it's a process and he'll know and we'll know and when we know, we'll say it. Others have said it, you know, Chicago said it with respect to Caleb Williams back in the spring. Jacoby Burset was named starting quarterback in New England today and other teams will name their starting quarterback super early. But I don't have any issue with how they want to handle this. I would guess since they didn't do it early that will, you know,

watch him play in at least a preseason game or two before they do announce it. The only thing I would say is that if he's not the starting quarterback on September 8th against Tampa Bay and he's fully healthy, that would be a concern. I've talked about this before. I can't envision any scenario in which Marcus Mariotta is the starting quarterback, week one, Jaden Daniels, is sitting behind him, and I'm not concerned. especially when you consider a few things. Number one, he is an experienced quarterback coming into this league in terms of how many games he started in college. The talk about Jaden Daniels all along is just the experience

and how far along and pro-ready he is right now, about how his mobility at the very least creates a very high floor that gets him out onto the field. And then we've had, since the draft, an entire spring and early summer of nothing but lavish praise when it comes to Jaden Daniels. So if somehow things turned when training camp started and the preseason game started and he wasn't the starting quarterback, that would be a sign that he wasn't where they thought he would be and that would be concerning. All right, there were a few more sound bites that I wanted to play for you. from the presser today. Ben Standing asked a question,

and you'll hear the question. And I wanted to play this one, because I think the answer has been a theme, but it's also been a promise from both the coach and the general manager. Here it is. This is the time of the year where people ask predictions, how is this team going to finish, things like that?

I won't ask for records. But for you guys, what counts as a successful season this year? I think number one, we want to start off and make sure, like our identity and who we are and how we play, that has to come along strong Ben. And that part, if you get that first and get that right, that's when a lot of the success will follow. But you can't put the record before you have the identity and who you are. And so I'm hopeful that when you and our fans and families see us play, they see that identity

coming to life, the speed, the physicality, the winning football in the most critical moments. Those are all the things that are going to make up our identity. and we've got to use this time to start establishing that in the very best of ways. Yeah, we both at our press conference when we first started, right? That was the thing we both said is you're going to see how we play. You're going to feel how we play. And that's the first thing. And how fast or slow that goes is so many different things that are variables and all that.

But I can tell you that you're going to see a great effort team, a competitive team, playing fast and physical. and we've seen that out there all spring and excited to see it here in camp. Adam Peters and Dan Quinn, in lockstep on this right from the beginning. They have talked about the kind of players that they want to be a part of their football team,

the identity that they want to have. You know, they talked player traits back in January and February and during the off-season activities. But speed, physical. physicality, winning football in the most critical moments, effort, competitiveness. And they've promised that. You know, if we want to hold them to anything in this first year, it would be that we get a team that really plays fast, plays physically, and competes.

Because these are the traits they were looking for in players. This is the way Quinn wants to coach the team. They've had this shared, this aligned vision on this. It's very, very reminiscent of the 49ers teams of the last few years. That team has played fast. It's been physical. It's been competitive as hell. You know, Dan Quinn's defenses have always been fast and physical.

So this is the one thing in year one. If you want to hold their feet to the fire on anything in the first year together, it would be that what they've promised in terms of an identity, this fast, physical, competitive, relentless, motored team that we see that. I love that. It's very rare now in the NFL for franchises to have an identity, you know, and they want to build one, and that's what they want it to be. I mean, you think of teams like the Ravens and the Steelers as having an identity,

but every other team, you know, they change their identity based on who's running the team, who's coaching the team, who's quarterbacking the team in the moment. You know, I guess Miami has sort of an identity right now. The chiefs have sort of an identity. The 49ers have sort of an identity. But the teams with true identities or the franchises with true identities are few and far between. J.P. Finley asked the question about the Brandon IUC, you know, still picture that he put out of Washington's OTA Day or mini-camp practice.

Here's how Adam Peters answered that question. A lot of crazy stuff happens during the NFL break, social media, all kinds of weird stuff. You guys actually had another player post-practice footage. What was the reaction in the building? How do you handle that? I don't think it. I think first and foremost, he didn't have practice footage. Still, maybe.

Yeah, still, yeah. But we handled that internally and we're unconcerned with that, yeah. We handled it internally and were unconcerned with that. Adam Peters said about the Brandon Ayuk posting of that OTA or mini-camp still photo on TikTok. Nikki Jabala had some additional information. on that. In her story in the post following this press conference, she wrote that one person with knowledge of the situation added that the team addressed the matter with Daniels but did not issue a fine or any other form of discipline. Yeah, I didn't expect him to be fined or disciplined, but I think

when Adam Peters said we handled it internally, that meant that they discussed the matter with Jaden Daniels. Who knows, maybe he discussed the matter with somebody in San Francisco as well. The bottom line is, you know, since the IUC posting of that still photo on TikTok, you know, after, you know, a good six weeks

of him kind of playing out his contractual situation in San Francisco publicly, which included using Jaden Daniels and Washington as a prime. on occasion. We haven't heard anything from IUC since that still photo on TikTok. Now, there was some news today as the 49ers veterans reported to camp. And coming out of San Francisco is John Lynch, the general manager, saying we fully intend on

Brandon being a nineer moving forward. We're always open to listening to things, but like I said, we expect Brandon to be an integral part of our team like he has been, and we are excited about that. They're expecting him to report and to be there for the first practice tomorrow. That will be an NFL story for sure tomorrow. Did Brandon Ayuk show up for the first practice of training camp or not? There were a couple of other things from the press conference today that I found at least mildly interesting, and there were two sound bites in particular. One from Adam Peters and another from Dan Quinn. I'm going to play the first one, which was a question asked about Cornelius Lucas in the left tackle position by Sam 40A

of the Washington Post. Here's the question. Listen to Adam Peters answer. Adam, as you were building the roster, I'm curious, what made you confident, hey, if with our offensive line with Cornelius Lucas, if he were the starting left tackle, what made you confident that he could hold down that role? Yeah, just watching the tape and understanding what type of player he is, what type of person he is, talking with the previous staff and people that have been with him. So we felt confident in him as a person and then watching the tape. I think, you know, as a past protector, Cornelius is really, really good. And so we got really good coaches that can help them with our skills and develop, like coach said,

in terms of whether it's one, year two or, you know, as you're a veteran, and you can still get better. And so he did really well out here in this spring, and so we feel confident that he can still continue to do that. Adam Peters telling you there that he is comfortable with Cornelius Lucas being the starting left tackle for the team this year, despite him starting just four games last year. He's a really, really good pass protector.

You know, they talked to last year's staff. He's a good guy. He's had a great spring. He's watched the tape. Look, they did try, let's not first. forget to trade back into the first round of the draft, to presumably take a tackle. You know, I think they may have been targeting Mims, who went 18 to Cincinnati out of Georgia. It could have been Morgan from Arizona who went to Green Bay or Guyton from Oklahoma, who went

to Dallas, but they did try to trade back into the first round, and I guess it was just too pricey to do it. They also took, you know, a potential tackle in Brandon Coleman. in the third round. But he's pretty bullish sounding on Cornelius Lucas. And I found this interesting, specifically as it relates to his pass blocking prowess. Cornelius Lucas per PFF's pressure rate. All right, the pressure rate percentage is basically the total number of quarterback pressures you allow during snaps in which you're pass protecting. Cornelius Lucas had a 5.26% pressure rate. If he had had enough starts or enough pass block snaps during the course of the season,

because again, he only started four games and he played a total of 152 pass block plays last year. but that percentage would have put him between 26th and 27th among tackles, and that would have been better than average. You know, I've talked about pass-block win rate and where Washington kind of ranked as far as that stat went. That's the next-gen stat pass-block win rate, and Washington was right in the middle of the pack in terms of pass-block win rate. Cornelius Lucas was a better than average pass blocker. Now, he didn't start 17 games, and he may get that opportunity this year.

But I played that soundbite in part because I thought it sort of dovetailed into a Dan Quinn comment on another question. I want you to listen to this question from David Harrison at Sports Illustrated and listen to Dan Quinn's answer. Coach, we talk a lot out here about perceived weaknesses or holes on the roster. Where are you most confident in your roster right now? Yeah, a lot of spots, honestly. And what may be perceived as a weakness externally might actually be something stronger internally. Dan Quinn, what may be perceived as a weakness externally might actually be something stronger internally.

when the external universe of people who follow this team, root for this team, cover this team, talk about the weakness on this team. What's number one? The offensive line. It's a runaway number one. It's not corner. It's not pass rush. It's not depth at wide receiver.

When anybody analyzes or has analyzed this team, during the off season. And most of you would say the same thing. The weakness is offensive line. The concern, number one, is offensive line. Now, Dan Quinn didn't tell you that what may be perceived as a weakness externally might actually be something stronger internally. He didn't tell you that he was specifically thinking of the offensive line. But you know, they know what the discussion about the team is, you know, in terms of the roster. And the discussion overwhelmingly has been that the roster is weak along the offensive line tackle specifically.

And I just thought that the combination of what Adam Peters said about Cornelius Lucas and Dan Quinn's answer there, even though it wasn't specific to the offensive line, I think he was thinking offensive line. And something that I've talked about a lot during the offseason is that when you have a new regime, they come in and sometimes see the players that are left over completely differently than the way we last saw them when they last played a game. Now, as mentioned, and we've talked about this ad nauseum, the advanced numbers never painted Washington's offensive line as bad. it described it as average, you know, somewhere in the middle of the pack. And it didn't look that way to most of us.

I will concede that point. But I think when it comes to offensive line play, I think a lot of people don't realize how few offensive lines in the league are really good. Most are bad, and when you have a couple of injuries, they get worse. But it didn't look good. It certainly didn't look good. but a lot of that was the quarterback. A lot of that was the offensive coordinator.

I just have this sense that they don't think the offensive line's going to be the problem that the fans think it will be. And I don't know if that's because they've got a much better center and an experience center, and they've got an outstanding garden Cosmi, and they're really high on Allegretti. Clearly, Adam Peters is pretty high on Cornelius Lucas as a pass blocker specifically. we haven't heard much on Andrew Wiley. Maybe there are other players. Maybe they're really excited about Brandon Coleman. Maybe they're really excited about a Chris Paul or a Trent Scott or a Mason Brooks. But I just thought, and when I heard Dan Quinn say it, because I was on radio listening to the press conference live,

I immediately made a note, offensive line perceived weakness externally might actually be something stronger in I just thought he was talking about the offensive line. Again, I might be wrong. It may be another area of the team, but the biggest weakness described externally by people who cover the sport, cover the team, root for the team is the offensive line. Wouldn't it be interesting if ultimately because of coaching, because of the quarterback, because of, you know, maybe the addition of new players, because you're going to have three new starters Remember, this isn't last year's offensive line.

Biotic, Allegrety, and Lucas as a full-time starter projected means that three-fifths of the offensive line is different than it was last year. We won't know until they start playing the games. And the quarterback and the offensive coordinator will have a lot to do with it. But I just thought that their lack of concern, and they didn't say it specifically, that's kind of the way I read it is interesting. There were a couple of other sound bites that I wanted you to hear.

One specific to the kickoff rules, the kickoff return rules. This question was asked by a reporter, and I'll be honest with you, I apologize. I don't know who she is. But she asked about the new kickoff rules and how they're going to handle it. And she also asked, you'll hear the question. She asked about punt returns and kickoff returns. But I'll just play it and you can listen to Dan Quinn's answer. My next question is about special team.

You saw some variety in the kick return, punt return role during OTAs. What are the characteristics you're looking for in that particular role? Yeah, I think right now I see them a little bit differently because punt return is pretty traditional in the way of catch initial quick. to make one miss. So if somebody who's coming to, I have the ability to make one go, that type of change of direction and hands to go. Oftentimes they're fielding everything above them and they have to make one miss to get six to seven yards. That's a good return, usually if I can make one go. On the kickoff return, I think it's going to be a little bit different because it may involve more true running skills, running back skills. And so time will tell, but I do feel like the two

positions are different because in a punt return, I may just make one miss, you know, who are the gunners usually outside, but literally anybody could be coming on the new way they kickoff and kickoff return is going. So that part I do feel is going to be different, but they may even have to be more adept at fielding a kick that comes and hits the ground first as opposed to forever. We've just seen kickoffs come from the air and we catch, we want to be on the move. there may be a player that has to play infield as well as outfield, and shortstop and center field. And so that kick returner this year better be adept at both.

Interesting stuff from Dan Quinn, specifically on the kickoff returns. On the punt returns, yeah, there's nothing that's changed. You know, I would imagine that a guy like James and Crowder was re-signed and kept in part because they see him as the guy that can catch the ball and make at least one person miss. and end up with a 7 to 8 yard return. He averaged last year 7.9 yards per punt return on 35 punt returns for the team. But I thought it was interesting on kickoff returns when he said running back skills, you know, may be required. And that's the difference with this play now.

It is going to be treated, I think, as more of a line of scrimmage play than a special team. play. Now, it's not exactly a line of scrimmage play because the person fielding the ball may be 15, 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage, which will be the 35 to 40 yard line, because that's where the kick coverage unit minus the kicker will line up. And that's where most of the people that will be blocking on returns will be lined up between the 35 and the 40. It'll look almost like a line of scrimmage. And then the idea for the kickoff is to, you know, kick it low and have it hit the ground somewhere inside the 20 but before the goal line. And that's why he was talking about, you know, infield outfield, shortstop center fielder.

You're going to have to be able to field the ball on a short hop at the 15-yard line and maybe do the same thing at the 5-yard line. I think what we will definitely see two returners per team on kickoff returns. So that leads us to, well, who are those two people going to be if they have to have running back skills? Well, Chris Rodriguez has returned kickoffs. That one seems kind of obvious, right? I mean, Chris Rodriguez has returned kickoffs before, and I would imagine that he'll be a guy that'll be back there on kickoff returns, assuming that he makes the team as a running back.

And then, you know, would you have a Brian Robinson, Jr. or an Austin, Neckler back there. I doubt it. I would think it would be a backup runner. But yeah, you know, this is what we'll be looking at during preseason games. I mean, we may learn more about how they plan to handle kickoffs and kickoff returns in preseason games than we've ever learned about a team watching these meaningless games. in which there are no game plans and not much is disclosed. But with respect to the kickoff, they're going to be trying different things. They're going to be putting guys out there to get experience doing what they want them to do.

But interesting answer from Dan Quinn on running back skills for the kickoff return guys. Lastly, I wanted you to hear something that Adam Peters said because it made me think about something and I went and looked it up. I'll give you the answer here in a moment, but it's a question about sort of the ongoing process of constructing the roster. You'll hear the question and the answer here it is. Adam, as far as continuously looking to have opportunities to build the roster and improve the roster, how does that evaluation process look at this stage of the offseason? Yeah, I mean, it's every day.

It's throughout the summer when we're away. We're always constantly talking about that, constantly talking to other teams, other GMs, whether it's a trade or whether it's internally with our short list and our emergency list. So figuring out, all right, if this happens, where do we go? And so we have all those processes in place. And, you know, this is the league where injuries do happen and hopefully knock on wood, we don't have too many. But we'll be ready when they do.

And our team with Led by Lance and David Blackburn are all set and ready to go. So, yeah, it's something you're always doing. You're always monitoring. and you're always challenging yourself to say, okay, have we explored every opportunity? And that's what we pride ourselves on doing. So many of you may know this already, but listening to Adam Peters made me think about something. And that something is the waiver wire. You know, Washington as the second worst team in the league,

Washington will get second dibs on players that hit the waiver wire. The draft order is used for the preseason through the first three weeks of the regular season. So players that get waived and are eligible to be claimed off waivers, and those are players with four years or less than four years in the league. The order of being able to claim said players will go Carolina 1, Washington 2. And I bring this up because at the very least, Washington may be in the market for a kicker at the end of the preseason. We'll see what happens with the kicker they have during these preseason games. Maybe he will earn his way onto the regular season roster. But in thinking about various positions on the team that may be perceived weaknesses,

the perceived weaknesses being offensive line for sure, tackle specifically, but maybe corner, maybe, you know, another pass rusher somewhere along the line, that when we get to the cut down date on August 27th, and you only have one cut down date now. That started last year. You cut down from 90 to 53 by August 27th at 4 p.m. That's two days after the preseason ends. Washington will have a chance to claim players before 30 other teams in the league.

The only team that can get a player before they get a player is Carolina. Just something to keep in mind. Rarely, as bad as they've been, number one, number two, you know, top three or four on the waiver wire can be advantageous for weak teams or teams that have been weak. All right. Other things to get to, I also failed to mention at the beginning of this show that Tommy is going to be with me tomorrow. He had to do early morning today if he was going to do the show today,

and I wanted to wait for the press conferences just to see what came out of him before doing the podcast today. So Tommy, he'll be with me tomorrow. But more, including, by the way, Ron Rivera spoke to Adam Schaefter about his time in Washington. You'll hear that before the end of this show today. We'll get to more right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by Window Nation. If you've been thinking about new windows, all I ask is that you give Windonation a chance to provide you with an estimate. It's free. You call them at 86690 Nation.

Go to WindowNation.com. Mention that you heard about Windonation from me, Kevin Sheehan. They'll come out, they'll give you an estimate. They'll be in and out of your home quickly. You'll find out which windows actually need to be replaced versus those that don't. And then you'll have options. You can shop that offer. You can decide to wait or you can move forward with Window Nation.

What you'll be getting if you move forward with Window Nation is a top three window retailer in America. Great product, great deal, which I'll tell you about in a moment, and great service. Their installation teams have over 10 years of experience, which is one of the reasons 96% of the windows installed require no follow-up service. They install your windows in a day or less, and the windows come with a lifetime warranty. They make the windows locally, which really makes a big difference. And right now, you can buy two and get the next two free. So you're paying half price on the windows. You put no money down, you pay nothing, and you don't get charged interest, for two years before you start making payments.

That's the deal right now. Call them at 86690 Nation or head to windonation.com. Mention my name. Buy to get to free, no limit, with no money down, no payments, and no interest for 24 months. So, training camp is here. And I think this is a training camp that is highly anticipated. I know that there are a lot of other issues, you know, the name being a big one, which has recently and still does affect the emotions you have for the team. But in terms of the team itself and where the organization is right now, this should be one of the most anticipated seasons in a long time.

And the reason for that is everything is new. You know, the ownership is new. I know that the ownership was new a year ago, but they didn't have time to put their stamp on the franchise. We've got a new front office, a traditional front office structure with a general manager who is new. We have a new coach and a new coaching staff. 52 of the 90 training camp players are new.

They weren't on the roster. a year ago, at least half of the likely starters when we get to opening day will be new. I mean, no less than 11 players that walk out there on the first offensive series, first defensive series, will be new, perhaps more than 11 of the 22. The quarterback, of course, is new. And he's the first quarterback that they've had in the building since 2017, that legitimately could be the quarter. of the next decade.

Alex Smith wasn't going to be that. Dwayne Haskins, there was certainly some hope, but not like you have with the number two overall pick in the Heisman Trophy winner in Jaden Daniels. There really wasn't a shot with any of the other quarterbacks that came around, Case Keenham, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Carson Wentz. You know, certainly not a Sam Hal or a Taylor Heineke to be

the starting quarterback for the next decade in terms of real legitimate hope that you could be in a situation where this is year one of a quarterback that ends up being with your franchise for the next decade. He's as exciting a prospect at the position that they've had since RG3 in 2012. It's new everywhere. Is it improved? It should be. It should be in this first year because we're talking about comparing it to last year. It would be hard to imagine a team worse than the one they fielded in 2023. I mean, that team was truly terrible. I mean, we talked about it at the end of the year.

The 2023 team is one of the worst teams in franchise history based on the number of games that they lost and really the way in which they lost games. their minus 189 point differential was the worst in the league. Carolina's wasn't as bad as Washington's was in 2023. I mean, there were too many weeks in a league that's designed for parity in close games where the games were basically over at halftime. So, you know, will the new be improved? Yes.

I can't see them winning four or less games and having the largest point differential, negative point differential in the league. I think they will be much better this year. You don't have a lame duck coaching staff. You don't have limitations in various areas, including quarterback. You know, you don't have a coaching staff that's perhaps at odds with each other right from the get-go. I mean, you know, it was basically about 11 and a half months ago that Rivera went public on Eric B. Enemy. They all knew that they were kind of in lame duck status, and that really doomed the season before it ever started.

So I do think that this team will be much improved. I really think we'll see improvement on defense. Of course, it will be improved because it was super bad last year, 31st per the DVOA metric, and 32nd in other measurements of defenses last year. But I think it's got a chance with coaching and with the addition of Louvo in Chin and Bobby Wagner to be a much improved defense. And then offensively, we'll see, does he come out of the gate and have a C.J. Stroud kind of rookie year? or is it a more conventional, typical rookie season of a lot of ups and downs? But I think the level of excitement and anticipation for this upcoming season is, as it relates to specifically the on-field product or the football part of the organization, the highest it's been since 2013.

I can't think of anything between the 2014 season and last year that would match this. 2013, remember, is year two of RG3, coming off the offensive rookie of the year campaign. Seven straight wins to go 10 and 6, get to the postseason, even though the playoff game did not go well, as we know. And despite the all-in for week one campaign, which was a turnoff and revealing of some of the personal Griffin traits that would not necessarily be conducive to winning, Most were just off the charts excited for the opener that year against the Eagles on Monday night football. That's the last time, I think, a team's season around here was as anticipated. 2016 wasn't, you know, there was some juice for it coming off a playoff year in 2015, but nothing like 2013 or 2012 or 2010, you know, the Shanahan McNabb year.

Or 2004, the Gibbs year. You know, he had Brunel at quarterback. We've not seen this much new ever. I can't think of a team that had this much new. All right. We'll finish up with Ron Rivera on Adam Schaefter's podcast talking about his time in Washington, and he had some thoughts on Jaden Daniels. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

If you get a chance to rate and review the show, especially on Apple and Spotify, it would be much appreciated. Carl gave us five stars on Apple reviews and wrote the following after listening to Yesterday's show in which Logan Paulson was my guest. He wrote, I really love when you have Logan Paulson on the show. He's coolly without the eccentric personality, but he's really good with the analysis. I still want more coolly, but love it when you have Logan on the show. Thanks. Well, thank you, Carl. Yeah, Logan's great.

He really is always so good. He was great yesterday. And, you know, my goal is to get Chris to watch football this year, watch Jaden Daniels and Washington because they should be a more exciting team to watch and to come on once a week and tell us what he thought, you know, with some film breakdown as well. But Logan's great. Love having Logan on the show.

And we'll probably get him back, you know, prior to the season opener and then on the show a couple of times. He's always open to coming on. I just don't like to ask so much because he's busy. He's coaching. Plus, he's doing a ton of media. But review us on Apple. Give us five stars. If you see fit, write a quick one to two sentence review.

It's really helpful. Subscribe to the show if you get a chance. and follow us on Apple and Spotify. Apple gives you a chance to just hit the follow button in the top right-hand corner or the plus button. Spotify gives you that chance as well. So Ron Rivera today appeared on Adam Schaefter's podcast. They talked about a lot of different things,

but they did talk about his time in Washington. And here was the first question about Washington asked to Ron. by Adam. You'll hear what Ron said. I'm curious to know, as you look back at your time in Washington, what comes to mind when you look back at the time you spent there? The truth is, Adam, I became more of a manager than I was a coach at one point. I was managing, you know, things that were going on that were outside of football.

I was trying to manage the players and keep their focus on what's going on in the football field as opposed to what was going on out in the media, it was going out in the public. that was a very difficult thing. People have no idea how hard that was and how distracting it was. So just how hard that portion of it was. It really, you know, that's what I don't think people understand. And the hard part, too, is we didn't have the structure, you know,

that you see in most teams typically. And that was you had somebody that was really managing the day-to-day football operations. That all fell on me. And I think the thing that you see is like, you know, and again, 49 is a great example. You know, John manages that's that portion of it, and Carl manages the team, just the players and the game. And I think when you have that split structure, you're in a much better place. You really are. Really?

Split structure? We didn't have the structure that most teams have? Well, that's because you took the course. coach-centric job. You wanted all of the responsibility. You wanted final say over the roster. You wanted to be the GM and the head coach, and the owner was just dumb enough to give it to you.

A lot of revisionist history there. Look, I don't know what his other options were back in 2020, and I don't think Dan had a lot of options. Bottom line is, you know, Ron got fired by David Tepper, a terrible owner. He wanted to prove immediately that David Tepper was wrong in firing him. Dan Snyder was coming off a disastrous season in 2019. Joe Gibbs, you know, was somebody that Ron talked to. And Gibbs, I guess, gave him the green light, but told him you got to get control. You got to keep the owner out of it. And Ron got control. You know, the structure here was Ron. Ron was

GM and coach. And there's no doubt that Ron Rivera would have been, I think, a better coach had he just been the coach. I also think he would have been a better overall coach-centric GM coach, if not for what was going on here. It was not a good four years for Ron Rivera. It was a bad four years for a guy that was considered to be not an upper echelon head coach at Carolina, but certainly a top half of the league coach at Carolina and a highly respected guy. But he didn't have a chance, just like nobody had a chance when they came to Washington to work for Dan Snyder. But it is interesting to hear him talk about, you know, we didn't have the typical strike. You know, the split structure, meaning GM coach so he could coach the team and not be the manager.

But he's also talking about all of the responsibilities he had is kind of the face of the franchise, you know, during those really, really dark days from 2020 until last July when the sale was finalized. He was also asked about what he thought about Jaden Daniels and what. Washington, here's what he said. You mentioned Jaden Daniels. Have you studied him at all, knowing that you were going to have a high pick? Yes. You know, at the end of, you know, during that part, you always start looking ahead and seeing me.

So I can start watching the quarterbacks and thinking, God, this kid's got it. He's got it. And because Cliff Kingsbury's there, I think that was a tremendous pick for him. Because that offense counts on the quarterback doing a lot and making. things happen, in my opinion. And you saw some of the success he had in Arizona. The one thing, though, is that they've got to be able to protect him and protect him from injury because the young man's going to play all out.

And you don't want him to get hurt. You really don't because I think he can be successful in this offense. If you had stayed there in Washington and you had still been the coach and been an active part of the front office, do you think when the season ended that your organization was going in a Jaden Daniels direction, or was there another guy that you were looking at with that number two overall big, Ron? No, that was the quarterback. I really think that was important.

I really do. You look at his ability to prolong the play, to extend the play. Look at his ability to throw the ball downfield and create his ability to run. So Ron Rivera, a big fan of Jaden Daniels as well and claims that if he had, you know, still been here that Jaden Daniels would have been the pick for his group. Thank God it's not his group. And it's Dan Quinn and Cliff Kingsbury and the staff they have here now to coach up Jaden Daniels. But I think, you know, the one takeaway would be, you know, they had come to the realization at the end of last year.

Remember, they benched him that Sam Howell was not going to be the quarterback, that the first. that the franchise could build around. All of the talk during the stretch in which Sam and the offense was playing pretty well, start with that Philadelphia game that they lost at Philly. You know, you think about the Atlanta game, the New England game to a certain degree, the Seattle game that they lost. There was a stretch of, you know, three or four games in about a five-week period where I think everybody was intrigued because I think he played.

played well. But ultimately, you know, they benched him even though he ultimately played because Berset couldn't go in those final two weeks. And they were starting to look at quarterbacks in the draft. But anyway, enough of Ron Rivera. There was a lot more that he said about his time here, but those were the two things that I thought were most interesting. All right, done for the day, back tomorrow, I think, with Tommy. Thank you.