The Kevin Sheehan Show - Play Them For Real Or Don't

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

Kevin opened with a "listener discretion warning" for those triggered by any talk of the Jayden Daniels/LSU situation from last week. Then he proceeded to follow-up on the conversation he and Thom had yesterday. Kevin has a new philosophy on starters playing preseason games and he described it as Washington gets ready to take on the Detroit Lions tomorrow. Fred Smoot jumped on with the most optimistic preview of the Commanders' 2026 team yet.   For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match   Chime is not just smarter banking, it is the most rewarding way to bank. Head to www.Chime.com/SHEEHAN. It only takes a few minutes to sign up.   Ready to do your own spring reset? Join Thrive Market with my link www.ThriveMarket.com/SHEEHAN for $20 off your first three orders plus you’ll get a FREE $60 gift.   If you want to try Momentous Signature Spec Creatine, head to livemomentous.com and use code SHEEHAN for up to 35% off your entire first order. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. Window Nation is the presenting sponsor of this podcast. I promise you, if you need new windows, calling Window Nation makes the most sense.

86690 Nation is the phone number. You can also go to Window Nation.com. Please mention my name. They'll schedule a convenient, fast-free in-home estimate. Fred Smoot's going to be on the show today. Always love having Smoot on the show. Looking forward to that.

I'll have my no keys to a win over Detroit. I will have the things that I'd like to see from tomorrow's game in the next segment. And I will talk about a bit of a change of thought for me as it relates to who I want to see play tomorrow and who I don't want to see play tomorrow. I'm going to open the show, however, first with a listener discretion warning. And it is intended for those of you who were triggered by the conversation that Tommy and I had yesterday about Jaden Daniels and the LSU situation from last week. Some of you were very upset, very angry.

So I am providing up front a listener discretion warning. There's no bad language. There's no excessive violence. There's no adult-themed content coming up where you'd have to take the kids out of the room. But a warning nonetheless for the homers out there that didn't like to hear any opinions or thoughts that conflicted with theirs. I begin after that listener discretion warning with this from Teddy in Damascus. Teddy writes, Kevin, Tom's negative reporting is not a good look for you and your podcast. His only move is to criticize the team even when the team isn't involved.

How could either one of you think the team is responsible for Jaden's mother? Yeah, I don't think we actually said any of that. And oh, by the way, Teddy, Tom's not a reporter. From Sicko 28, Sicko writes, can't listen to Sheehan when Laverro is on. He just falls easily into Laverro's anti-commander's trap. He sets that trap for me, Sick 028, and I fall for it every single time. This from Xmark.

X-Mark writes, Kevin, it was a PR mistake. Get over it. That's it. That's all. Why obsess with Leverro over a 24-hour story a week ago? Not sure why you guys hate the best young quarterback the franchise's ad in years. Yeah, it was more than a 24-hour story, X-Mark. And I can't imagine that even if you listened to just one show, yesterday's show,

that your takeaway could be, I can't believe, and I'm not sure why you guys hate the best young quarterback, the franchise's had in years. I don't think Tom's written more often and more glowingly about a player than Jaden Daniels over the last two years. And if you've paid attention, Jaden Daniels is not only a player

that I have loved and supported and thought very highly of since he got here, I felt that way when he was at LSU and started beating the drums for Washington to pick him. We did get this from Will. There was a lot of, you know, Homer kind of angry, upset, triggered correspondence from yesterday's show. But there was a lot of positive, too, and I picked this one out.

It comes from Will, who I actually think was listening yesterday to the show, listening carefully to the show. He writes, Kevin, without a doubt, you and Tom, are the adults in the room on this Jaden LSU-D-LSU-S-Flapp. I really appreciate the measured, unbiased approach to a crazy situation that has so many layers. The act itself was clearly a mistake. The overwhelming attention and reaction the act inspired was beyond anything anybody could have imagined. how the inner circle, excuse me, responds, and how Jaden manages his inner circle moving ahead is not only interesting, it's important. Love listening to you both on things like this.

The emotional intelligence, the emotional intelligence you both bring to these conversations isn't matched by anybody else. Well, thank you for that, Will. You're probably giving us far too much credit. I do love having these conversations. about these sorts of things with Tommy and other things, too, that have nothing to do with sports. But I always love having these conversations with Tommy because, first of all, I do consider Tommy to be, you know, a veteran understander of media and how it works. I have worked with a lot of people.

Tommy has a real feel for how media works and who's going to take the brunt of certain stories and how they should be handled. I actually think I have good, I think, intuition when it comes to that. But Tommy's got long, long time experience with that. So I like having those conversations with him. I've seen a lot of reaction to this story, and I'm sure many of you have as well. If you're not like just a blind homer trying to shut out anything that has to do with this story,

and you've actually been paying attention, yes, as Will wrote, The reaction was unlike anything I've ever seen to a story like this. I can't believe that an introvert, good kid, he's an adult, good young man, became the punching bag that he became for not a 24-hour period, but for like a four- or five-day period. It continues even now. You'll see it pop up on social media. I've seen a lot of, you know, media reaction to this.

nationwide. I mean, a lot of NFL people, a lot of sports people. I mean, this was an absolute given if you're in the long-form talk business in sports, this was a topic you couldn't ignore because it's Jaden Daniels, you know, and it's LSU. LSU has a massive, massive fan base and is a big, big story, obviously, in college football. I do think that the reaction that were out there, many of them were very well sort of thought out. I enjoyed some of them and others I thought were a little bit off. But I don't think even, you know, by the way, political shows jumped in on some of this, entertainment shows jumped in on some of this.

I think we and the people in Baton Rouge have a different perspective. And maybe it's a deeper perspective to sort of appreciate or even understand how many layers to this story. there are. There were plenty of layers, Will, as you pointed out. You pointed out several of them, but we have more of them and LSU has more of them than just if you're just commenting on the act itself and the PR blunder that it was. Yeah, I mean, Xmark, not sure why you guys hate the best young quarterback. I mean, seriously, dude, come on, man. You could not have listened carefully to the show yesterday. and concluded that we hate Jaden Daniels. That's absurd.

The other stuff, I mean, Tom's negative reporting. Again, he's not a reporter. He's a columnist. He's actually the opposite of a reporter. Does he do reporting sometimes? Yes, but he'll tell you that he's reporting when he's reporting. He's an opinion writer and a podcaster, of course. And he didn't even come close to criticizing the team.

Nor did I. I'm not sure what you could have been listening to. to some of you. I think Tom's belief is that the team by proximity to the act last week gets lumped into the act. Yes, it's true. You know, he's not wrong. People like us know that the team had nothing to do with last week. But if you're just following the punching bag memes that Jaden is on the wrong end of over a four or five day period,

and you're just an NFL fan living in, you know, Cody Wyoming, right next to Cooley's hometown, you just think there goes Washington again. You know, they can't get out of their own way. Plenty of people, I'm sure last week thought that. That was Tom's point, but no, Tom, neither one of us said that the team had anything to do with this. Our fan base, man, it is different in many ways than it used to be. part of it is social media. I understand that.

And the cesspool that social media is in a ton of corners of social media. I do think, though, that the fan base is more homer than it used to be. But I also understand that there is reason to be more optimistic. There is reason to believe now versus, you know, the way it used to be with new ownership, etc. but man, some of you, pom-pom waving blind homers, you guys can be tough to deal with. Anyway, that's it on that.

Listener discretion warning now dropped. I've changed my mind on something. I got this from Mark. I read this on radio, not X-Mark, but a different Mark. He wrote, so do you want Jaden to play against Detroit or not? How about more syrup for the waffling you've been doing? the last two days. And then from Jake, Jake writes,

why not and now why? From Sheehan on starters playing. Both Mark and Jake noticed something that I have certainly taken notice of, and that is because I am so self-aware. And that is that I have definitely flopped around this week. I have waffled on should they or shouldn't they in terms of starters playing.

You know, more specifically, should he or shouldn't he, Jaden Daniels, play against Detroit, or even Baltimore in the final preseason game? Earlier this week, I was like, look, you got to play football, man. Jaden Daniels hasn't played since last December. It was a bad experience the last time he was on the field. These joint practices are fine, but how about a real, you know, preseason game with his new center, new receiver, new offensive coordinator, new tight end. and let's play some football before they're going to be required to play football that counts on September 13th. That's what I was saying earlier this week. And that's probably what I have said for the most part this time of year over a many several year period.

Ben Standing asked Dan Quinn something yesterday. He said, can you help me with explaining the value of starters playing a series or two, the benefit that you get from that versus the risk of putting them out there. And I thought about the whole notion of, yeah, we're going to play our starters. We're going to play them a series. You know, don't worry, they're not sitting.

They're going to play a series. They might play two series. Is there any value in a series or two series in a preseason game? I mean, I'm not the right person to ask that question. because they know much more than we know. With that said, playing one series like Jaden did last year in the preseason, he played one series last year, against Cincinnati in the second game,

four-play drive, three handoffs, and a scramble from the 14-yard line where he ran it in for a touchdown and was lucky that he didn't get decapitated going into the end zone because there were guys waiting and the Bengals defenders decided not to hit him and to go ahead and let him score because it was the preseason. That may have scared the coaches. That may be a factor in why they may decide not to play him tomorrow. By the way, let me just mention my lean as of the afternoon of Friday, August 21st, is that he's going to play probably a series, maybe two. but he's going to actually see the field tomorrow. That's my hunch. I don't know that for sure.

It will be without his starting center, Nick Allegretti. But what is the true benefit of a series or two? Quinn said things like, you know, there's some benefit in getting ready to play, the preparation of getting ready to play, even if it's just a series, your pregame preparation, your pregame, you know, workout, whatever it is, There's some benefit to that.

And then he got into, you know, it's sort of a custom, you know, kind of an answer. You know, one size doesn't fit all. You know, some people might need it. Some people might not need it. Some people might, you know, need it, but we're not going to do it because the support around them won't really provide value. And so that was kind of the answer. But just one series, two series in a preseason game, seriously? Like, that's not playing football.

I think I pointed this out yesterday, and that is, in the regular season last year, after he had been hurt against Green Bay and sat out the Raiders game and the Atlanta game, right, I think was the fourth game of the year, and returned against the Chargers, the first two series of that game, three and out and then five plays in a punt. Okay, the first two series looked terrible. And then what happened the rest of the game? He lit it up. and they rallied from a 10-0 deficit and scored 27 unanswered with Jaden having a phenomenal football game.

It didn't start that way, but the final three quarters were vintage Jaden from 2024. What's one series in a pre-season game? Is that really playing football if it's four or five plays, if it's one pass attempt? Like, it's just not, I'm not suggesting he should play the whole game, but I think for me I've arrived at the following answer of fans' perspective, of course, when it comes to starters in the preseason. Either put the players out there for a minimum of 15 plays, both sides of the ball, a maximum of 30, or don't put them out there at all.

They play basically a quarter to a half, or they don't play at all. because one series doesn't make any sense, unless it's like a 15 play drive on offense, or if the defense was on the field for 15 plays. That's my new preseason position. Hopefully I'll remember it this time next summer, when hopefully the same coordinators are back, the same players are back,

because they had such a great 20-26 season, And we're not as worried about the snap counts for these players. But the other day, I had Jordan Dijani from CBS Sports on the show. I think I mentioned this yesterday. He said that Robert Sala in Tennessee is considering not only playing starters for at least a quarter, maybe a half in the preseason game they have this weekend, but even more than that in the final preseason game next week. Keep in mind, like, if Jaden were to go out there tomorrow and play one series, you know, six plays, 33 yards, field goal attempt, the next time he suits up in a uniform where he can actually be tackled in a game will be 22 days later.

Is he really going to be looking back to the experience of that six play drive in Detroit where he got in and got out as beneficial? to a game 22 days later? I don't know. It doesn't seem to make sense to me. I know in the past I've probably said, get them in for a series, get them in for two and then take them out. Let's just get their feet wet.

Get them into a football game. I just don't know how one series or two series, one series in particular, how that benefits the players 22 days later when they're going to play. a real game. All right, with all of that said, there are a couple of things that I wouldn't mind seeing tomorrow. I will share with you what those are after these words from a few of our sponsors. Back to school isn't fun for the kids and their anxiety isn't fun for you. Let me make a recommendation

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But the only reason I'm asking repeatedly or at least two or three times a week is because I know that the majority of you haven't rated or reviewed this podcast. But I understand. Everybody's busy and I get it. But if you can spare a few seconds to rate this podcast, that's the easiest thing to do. both Apple and Spotify, as an example, give you a star count. And you can click on five stars if you think the show deserves five stars. That's the best case for us.

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So it's 1 through 32, each positional unit, each positional room ranked 1 through 32. This is not the top 10 players per position that ESPN did a couple of months ago with Jeremy Fowler involved in that, getting 50 GMs, assistant GMs, coaches, etc. This is Mike Clay at ESPN.com ranking the, you know, grading and ranking the positional units for all 32 teams. So it starts with quarterback where the number one quarterback room in the league is Buffalo, followed by the Rams, Kansas City, Baltimore, Cincinnati. That's your time. top five. Of course, Josh Allen and Matt Stafford and Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow are the starters. Cincinnati also has Joe Flacco as a backup and some of these teams have

decent backups as well. Green Bay is six, San Francisco is seven and Washington is eight. A quarterback room that ranks eighth in the NFL with Jaden and Marcus Marriota. Remember, Jaden was tied for 10th in the top 10 player breakdown by position on ESPN.com. But the quarterback room of Daniels and Mariotta, number eight. Running backs, not very impressed, apparently, with Kroski, Merritt, and Rashad White. Washington's running backs came in 31st out of 32 teams. Number one was Indianapolis. I was actually kind of surprised at that.

Indianapolis was one, Philly was two, San Francisco three, Atlanta, four. Brian Robinson Jr., by the way, is the backup to Bejohn Robinson in Atlanta, and then Detroit came in at five. Washington at 31st among the running back rooms. Wide receiver, 22nd with Stefan Diggs added to it. Number one is obvious, Chase and Higgins, Cincinnati. Number two, I think is obvious. Nakua and Devante Adams with the Rams. Number three was Minnesota with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison.

Dallas with Lamb and Pickens came in at four, and then Detroit was five. How about tight ends? How impressed are they with Chigacanquo? Not much. Washington's tight end room 28th in the NFL. The best, the Las Vegas Raiders. Did you see Mendoza play last night? Up and down for him last night.

Threw a pretty bad pick six, but it had a couple of really good throws and had two or three balls dropped on him in that preseason game last night against Houston. But they've got Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer. They don't have good receivers, but they've got excellent tight ends in Vegas. Washington's tight end room 28th. O-line, Washington's comes in without Tunsell at 31st. the best offensive line in the league. Denver's followed by Philadelphia's.

Washington's 31st ranking. Where would it have been with Tunsell? I would imagine 21st, 20th, 19th, something like that. When you've got one of the best two or three left tackles, that's worth 10 spots at least. But, you know, offensively, quarterbacks ranked 8th, running backs 31st, wide receivers, 22nd, tight ends 28th.

and the O-line at 31st. What about defense? Interior defensive line. Washington's at 21. Kenlaw, Payne, Settle. 21 out of 32 teams. Number one overall, Seattle with Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy. They're the number one overall interior defensive line.

What about the edge rushers? Washington with all of their additions? Not very impressive, apparently. 29th among 32 teams. Pittsburgh, number one, with T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, and company. The Giants were at two with Abdul Carter, Brian Burns. Houston was three, the Rams, four, Jacksonville, five on that end. Offball linebacker, Louvo, Lovu, Stiles, Chinal. Washington was 19th overall in offball linebackers. The Jets with DeMario Davis back for his 10th season was number one for interior inside offball linebackers.

How about corners? 22nd for Washington overall. Number one, Houston loaded with Lasseter and Stingley as their two best corners, two of the best corners in the game on the same team. Safeties, Baltimore was number one. I did say corners Washington 22nd. didn't I? Safety's Baltimore number one with Kyle Hamilton

and then Washington at 28th. I think Washington safeties will be ranked higher than that this time next year. I think their tight ends will be as well. I like a con-quote. I like Nick Cross to be players that are

thought of much differently when this upcoming season ends. And then they had their overall rankings in Washington comes in 24th. Number one, the Los Angeles Rams, two, the Ravens, three, the Eagles, four, the Patriots,

five, Seattle, Washington 24th, overall. All right, tomorrow in Detroit. First of all, it doesn't look like Jared Goff's going to start for the lines. It looks like Josh Dobbs may be the starter, and they'll go with

some starters, but not most of them. I'm actually thinking that several starters are going to play, actually said that, but I actually think that Jaden's going to play some tomorrow. I mean, it might be a series. I don't think it'll be worth much. Here's what I'd actually like to see tomorrow. I would love Detroit to line up with what they, you know,

with some of their starters on the defensive side of the ball. Like I'd love to see Aiden Hutchinson on the field. I'd love to see D.J. Wanham on the field. Jack Campbell on the field. Brian Branch on the field. Some of their really good defensive players, but especially up front. I'd love to see Brandon Coleman get tested against one of the best. Maybe Hutchinson will line up over Brandon Coleman.

And if it's over Josh Connerly Jr., I want him to get that kind of work. I'd love to see the O line without Allegretti get some work against a Detroit pass rush that can be very effective if their starters play. So I'd love to see that come to fruition. I don't know if it actually will or not. And if it does, remember, Sam Hartman's likely going to be the starting quarterback for that series or two. I'd like to see at least an improvement in run stopping, especially if you've got your starters on the field, which they didn't. I mean, Stiles and Channal were on the field, understood.

but that first drive, really the first two drives, was a bit of a beat down up front. And you can't just chalk it up to Washington playing their twos because there were two expected significant contributors on the field, actually more than that. But look, last year you had to play your twos and threes. And that can't be a reason, especially if your quarterback is healthy all year long,

that you end up being as bad as you were last year in defense. So I'd like to see whether it's the starters or a combination of starters and others. I'd love to see a better effort. And I'd love to see Detroit have their best players out there. Like, it'd be great to face Jemir Gibbs for a series or two. But even if it's not Gibbs, Isaiah Pacheco, I mean, does anybody run harder than Pacheco? So I'd like to see, you know, a better overall run-stopping defensive effort than the one you got last week. I get it. You know, it's not, you're playing starters last week in Miami and there's no

game planning, just a little bit better result. And then what I'd really like to see tomorrow is some separation, you know, at wide receivers, something that tells us based on, look, the guys that end up playing the most are usually the ones in trouble, certainly in preseason game number three, but maybe even to a certain degree tomorrow. I'd love to see Van Jefferson and Traylon Burks. I'd like to see both of them make the team. Not at the expense of Diomi. Keeping these receivers, this is going to be a very difficult cutdown. But I'd like to see some sign that says, yeah, we don't want to release Burks. We don't want to release Van Jefferson. I'd love to have a veteran like Van Jefferson along with Diggs and McCorn on the.

field for this upcoming season. I like Van Jefferson. I always have. I know they like them as well. But let's see tomorrow at wide receiver if we can get any kind of sense of what the order is. Now, you've got to have a quarterback that can consistently throw them good balls. And you've got to have the ball and you got to call some pass plays. And then you know what I'd like to see?

Drew Stevens tomorrow. indoors. Let's get a 64, 65-yard attempt in at the end of the half. See what it looks like. All right. Fred Smoot next after these words from a few of our sponsors. Summer can really add up when it comes to how much money you spend and it adds up pretty quickly. You know, a trip here, a dinner there, a couple of outdoor concerts later and it should have you wondering if you're getting the most out of your money. Well, that's where Chime comes in. Chime is changing the way people bank. They're not like traditional old banks who charge fees and gatekeep perks and rewards.

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All right. Joining me right now, the incomparable Fred Smoot. Smoot's been out at training camp. He's been doing a lot of the programming that he always does with Santana, with Logan, with a lot of the other guys on the Commander's YouTube channel on their website. I want to just start with, you know, they've got a game tomorrow. It's a preseason game. There's an opportunity if they choose to use it to play starters.

Who do you think they should play tomorrow? Who sits, who plays? I'm a professor who has been too long, brother. I know. I know. You're busy. You're a big star. You know, I don't want to have to, I don't want to call you all the time and ask you, you know, to come on regularly because you're busy and a lot of people demand your time.

I'm glad to get you. I'm glad to get you. I got your back. Don't you worry about that. Now, the thing about play, that's such a tricky situation. especially when you've got some of your key guys that's already down for, like, for some long, like some long stints. These are not, you know, when you lose a tonsil, it makes you not want to play Connolly.

But it makes you want to play out of gritty. It makes you want to play the other guys. But guess what? If I'm going to put Jay Daniels out there, I have to put Conno out there. So it becomes a domino effect of who am I going to play besides who needs to play. Now, in a perfect world, what I want to go into? week one against Philadelphia with Jaden, not taking a game snap. No.

But then I had to ask myself, which one do I value more? Do I value in-house practices, which we got one more set with the Baltimore Ravens. I hope they don't back out. But which snaps do I value more? And as a player and as a person that has been to camp and seen the playbook open up when they have the private practices because they can't record them and its teams they're not playing, they get more out of the practices than they do the preseason

when they're going to go in there and they're going to run bland coverage. They're going to run bland offensive teams because I would rather, I would rather the first three or four teams that we play this year not have a clue on office and defense. That little unpredictability could be the edge we need because what are they going to prepare for?

We haven't showed them anything, and we got two new coordinators who DNA has not been shown. Yeah, I think this is really hard for people like me to figure out. You guys have a much better sense for what kind of, you know, about what's needed, like how much hitting, how much real football before you get to a season opener? Because, you know, back when you played, like go back to 2001, like I'm looking at your very first preseason game. I don't know if you played in it or not.

It was against the Kansas City Chiefs. I did. At Arrowhead, and you guys got beat 20 to nothing. How much of that game did you play? How much did the starters play back then, 25 years ago, by the way? I think we played a quarter. If I'm not mistaken, because we had Morty Schadenheim, and we had four preseason games at that time and started three. And I think I had two or three PbUs in that game alone. So they tell you alone that I played a little bit in that day. Champ played, we played about the same amount, but we played mostly the second and the third game and did not play the fourth game.

But we also talking about a day-in-time professor when we could ride and back a pickup trucks on the highway. We're talking about a time when people didn't wear a seatbelt. So let's evolve and the game has evolved. I'm sitting in the back seat of a station wagon with the back down driving on a highway. Yeah, in my day. So, of course, things evolve. You know, in the open to the show today,

I talked about how I've kind of waffled a little bit. It's like I do want Jaden to play real football. I want Nick Allegretti and a new offensive coordinator, and I want to see everybody out there playing real football to sort of, as Quinn said, build up some calluses before we actually, you know, play real football on September 13th. But then I heard Ben Standing ask a question. question yesterday of Quinn. He said, explain to me the benefit from playing the starters

a series versus the risk associated with it. And I thought, is there really any benefit to playing a series or two? Like when we're talking about them getting a dress rehearsal, play football, play for a half, play 30 snaps so that you can adjust. You can come back after a bad series and have another opportunity. Because a, series, Fred, from my seat, and I don't know as much as you guys know, but it's still 22 days until the season opener. If he were to play a series with the starters and then they think they're getting benefit of that, from that, he doesn't play again for another three weeks. So I don't, I kind of have come down on play them for a quarter to two quarters or don't play them at all.

And Ben Standing asked the true question, the true soul of the question, what is it worth? Yeah. What is that one or there two drives? What is that worth to you as a coach at a child? What is it worth to you as a team? What does it worth to us to the overall? No, no, no. And you're wrong about that you're not going to play to 20 to 30 days because we're going to have those practices against the Ravens that mean more to this team than pre-tead the snap because what is, what do I win?

I'm not going to show my playbook. So am I really saying my guys up to win? I am I just going through the motion. I mean, the quarterback's not going to get hit in the joint practice. No, he's not, and I hopefully don't get hit in the preseason game. Well, I understand that, but it's legal to hit him in a preseason game. I understand there's some value in the joint practices, but it's not exactly a replica of a game.

But it's not so far from the new NFL. They don't let you barely touch it. anyway. The only way you can really put yourself in danger is not just to let the ball go. I think we got a quarterback in his third year. He'll throw a ball away before he take a nutshell and hit right about now, especially going through the things that he went through

last year. All I'm saying is when you have to really ask the true value of it. Now, I understand when y'all come from a fan's perspective, y'all just want to see the truck work. You know, I can't say if you're a truck and I don't crank the truck up. You want to see the truck work. I told I totally understand what you

saying before you buy the product. But what I'm saying is the things that y'all don't see is worth more than the things that you do because what you're seeing is a shadow of what we're going to be anyway. So what is that worth in the overall value of this season where we know we got this hard schedule in the first month of the season? I'll tell you what, I've gotten to the point where I don't need you to crank the truck up until September 13th. And if it's been sitting idle for a while, I'll just deal with it. but you're so right.

Like these preseason games, it's just so far from the reality of what you'll have on September 13th. It's hard to really measure. I don't know that I'm going to figure out a solution to this. And every team seems to treat it differently. Bottom line is about the NFL, and you know this. It's a week-to-week league, and you can't really start to figure it out until they start to play the real games. No, and that's what it's about. And that's what the coaches are kind of judging these things on, is what's the true value of these preseason games.

And I think the true value of these preseason games is to see about the others, to see about the other people that I even got questions about. I want to see developed or somebody I want to see surprise me. That's what the preseason is about. It's not about proving commodities. Yes, like I said, y'all want to see it working unison. Y'all, now y'all have not seen it because y'all are not able to go to the Miami practices out of the Baltimore. practicing working unison. I tell you what is going full speed, the office of line, the running backs, the wire receivers, everybody, everybody else can get touched. And that's what

it's about. Are we going to keep everybody up? Yes, we are. But football is they inherited a rough sport. So you can't run away from the physicality of it. But I tell you what these coaches want to do, they want to minimize as much physicality as they can to get the week one, because they don't believe they can get fired in a preseason, but they can get fired in a regular season. Yes. It's been a long time since the coach has been fired in a preseason. All right. Tell me what you've seen so far that you're really, really excited to see when the regular season begins. It can be any part of the team. It can be a position group. It can be a player. Tell me what has you really fired up that you feel really confident about. you know what professor when i first joined your class in the school of teaching people how to do tv and radio i would never forget as i said i say you know what the professor know how to ask a question and he goes to think about the question that the answer i'm about to give you to the question

could you agree with me that and i know the storyline here in washington is jane danious quarterback franchise guy because we ain't had that we ain't had that in decades can we agree that's all that's going to always be the story Yes. 100%. And how his offense goes, right? All right? So therefore, can we get down to the truth of the NFL? The last Super Bowl winners have been led by defense first.

Seattle defense dominated that year. Now, South Donald did everything he needed to be. Johnny on the spot made plays when they presented themselves did what a good quarterback does. We watched the Philadelphia Eagles with Jalen Hurts, him. stand up when he needed to, but we know what the real soul of their team is the defense. And when I watch the guys that we have now, when I'm walking through the hall sometime, going ahead into the studio, and I'm walking, like I said, past these mythical creatures, Sasquatch, Bigfoot, the embalm of the snowman.

I'm talking, these guys are built. These guys look different from out the book. I'm looking at Sunn and Stasgoy. You miss Sasquatch. You miss Sasquatch. That's what I'm saying, and I call it Sunny Style, the S.S. Empala. Then you've got guys like Leo Chanel, Adolfi O'Re, way. Like, they look different.

And then you got to realize these guys are not just big dudes. Adophe O'Way is a 4-4 guy. Leo Chanel got the athletic profile that was in the top two when he came out. I don't have to tell you about Sonny Stiles. And K-Sons is going to be the one that benefits. I always tell people in football, if you've got a great one, the person that benefits the most is that two. It's similar to me when I'm playing with Champ Bailey.

I'm going to get the most picks because I'm going to be the one that they're going to throw the balls to. All right, well, it's going to be similar to that with Chase Sun. Chase Sun will get all the, probably get most of these sex because he's going to benefit. But when you see these guys, Charles of Men and Who, and then Ken Laugh, don't forget about it. We got so many new pieces, it makes you forget about the old pieces. And that's the shame of the whole matter. Then you have a guy like Nick Cross that's standing in the middle of the D. Defense commanding it in a whole different way.

Then you stir that pot and mix that gumbo, and you put that with Durante Jones and the defense that's very Greg William S. When it comes to organized chaos and you're forgetting about the Frankie Lou Boos of the world, it changes how you feel about a defense when the mentality go from being, but don't break to dictating terms with organized chaos.

It tastes different. Defense, don't be shocked if defense carried its team for the first half of the year. You know, it's so, I love having you on because you follow the league, not just our team. I think a lot of our fans, and even some people in media, they follow our team, they don't pay attention to the rest of the league. What you just said, I'll go beyond the fact that the last two Super Bowl champions, Seattle and Philadelphia, were led by their defense. The chiefs in 23. Their defense is what shut down that great Baltimore team in the AFC championship game.

They were really good defensively during that year. But it goes beyond that. The last couple of years, and I've noted this on my show over the last two years, we have seen an increase of dominant defense after this era of offense first. Last year, Seattle and New England's defense in the postseason, Denver's defense was dominant. I thought Houston's defense was the best defense. seen in a few years the way they played. And I don't know if we talked about this, but I am still convinced that if D'Amico Rynes instructed his offensive coordinator to tell C.J. Stroud

to take three knees and punt it 12 times, they would have won that game in Foxborough with their defense. And then you had, you know, obviously the Rams defense kind of got softened up a little bit towards the end of the year. They were really hurt by their special teams. But Philly's defense, Minnesota's defense, Jacksonville's defense last year was playing great football. And I actually think if they had beaten Buffalo, they were, you know, with that defense in the way they could move the football, they were a threat. And yes, and Philly's defense was so dominant. Remember, the chiefs in that Super Bowl did not cross midfield until midway through the third quarter. Yes, yes. And you got to realize this.

correlates because most of your special teamers are off of your defense. When you have great defensive players, you automatically most of the time at the kicker, which we have kicker with a leg with Stevens, and we got one of the best punters in the league, with Coach Izzo, one of the best special teams, coach

in the league. We've been top five special teams the last two years, win and lose a draw. You mix that with a good defense in an optimistic office. Now that you got step things, it e-cues everything out. Nobody wants to talk about it, and I love it. When we go under the radar, is when we really get things done.

This can be a beyond dangerous team and we can get to the first game with Philadelphia with the guys that we got left healthy. It gives us a chance because now we're deep, two, we're unpredictable, three, we've got some of the main ingredients that you need to win. And that's number one. We've been to have a defense that dominates.

And number two, we've got a quarterback that can make a play at any time. But why make him Superman all the time? Give him some layups. Let him be cool. Clark Kent. And then, when we need them to be special, lift the planet up and get the planet back spinning. Let him be Clark Kent until he has to go into the phone booth and switch into a new uniform. So, okay, so you're optimistic about the defense. That's the answer to your question, is that you're

really fired up about the defense in an age of the NFL that we think we're in, in which defense is leading people and teams to championships. Because Sam Darnold was the quarterback, I'll remind everybody of the Seattle Seahawks, sorry, but Darnold's not elite. Jalen Hertz was the quarterback the year before. Now, he played very well in that Super Bowl. He's actually played well in a lot of the big games. But no one's going to say that he is Burrow or Mahomes.

So that's what you're confident about. I wish I could share the same level of confidence because I haven't seen it yet. why not? Grandmama told you years ago how to make that box. You don't know what my grandmama told me. This is what I know, though. If you get on the back of that bed at Crockerbox and they say two eggs, a cup and a half of milk and all,

and then bake it at $3.50 for 35 minutes, that's the ingredient for that cake to be good. If you shy away from those ingredients and then get mad when that cake don't taste good, you're not falling in the ingredients of the league right now. And the league says right now, if you can get good quarterbacks off the field and you can dominate in defense and you can run the ball when it comes to December, January and February, you can hold this trophy up.

You don't have to be a dynasty. You need to get hot at the right time and you need to finish what you started in the regular season. And we have those ingredients. I mean, I hope you're right. And I think here's where I would just push back. First of all, I am optimistic that it can't be as bad. as it was last year. Let's start there. Because that was one of the worst defensive teams I think I've ever seen, and I've followed

this team for more than a half century. That was the worst defensive team I've ever seen in Redskins history, in Washington football team commander's history. That's number one. So it's got to be better than that. Number two, they're faster, they're younger. I like some of the players they signed. So it's got to be improved.

The level of the improvement to me is still a mystery because and you know this, it's not just that, you know, you've got improved players and you've got a new defensive coordinator, although that's a mystery because he's brand new, he's never done it before, but it's how those pieces fit,

it's how those pieces fit together. Why would y'all do that with coaches? We don't do that with no other job that we say they never did it before, but they've been coaching for 15 years. They just now I finally got my shot to be the trigger man and call the play, but you don't know how much the last coordinator,

the floor is, and nobody lean don't mean to get it. stuff done. Like, we don't do that to anybody. They've been coaching. They hold life. Well, hold on for a second. Joe Witt Jr. had been coaching forever. He got his first opportunity, and it didn't go well. You're going to throw out one of the missed it. There's a lot of

a lot of people who are doing that. There's a lot of misses. There's a lot of misses. Can I ask you this? If Joe Witt had some of the horses we got now, Do you think he got the worst defense in history? No, I don't. But I also think that that defense looked disorganized.

And in his defense, there were a lot of players that they didn't think they were going to have to play. The whole season last year was about all of the injuries and having to play players that were coming off the street to play. So I certainly give him that. But even going back to 24, it was not a good defense in 2024. Yes. I'm not trying to take up for him, but for every Joe Witt, there becomes a Mike McDonald. Okay, so don't. Okay. All right.

Like, we'll make a great quarterback. Nobody ever says, well, make a great quarterback is a great defense. They always say, we'll make a great quarterback as him being clutch. Well, a defense has to keep the game tight so he can be to their point. Well, what makes him great in the postseason? It's not just his decision-making. It's the run game. When it get cold and you can't throw it 40 times a game, that's when you decide who win the game in the trenches.

And that takes the quarterback out of it. Unless you play the greatest show on turf inside, guaranteed when the elements get involved, the game is taken out of the quarterback's hand and is put in the defense in the running games. Spoken like a man who played some defense in the NFL. But I agree with you. I totally agree with that. I think, you know, Adam Peters said something right when the season ended when he helped. held a press conference and somebody said, what's the plan to build a support structure for

Jaden? I'm paraphrasing. But he said, well, what would really help is if we're improved on defense, that would help out Jaden Daniels in the offense. And anybody that's watched football for more than 10 minutes understands what he's saying. They were second to last last year in takeaways. They were 26th in the league in 2024 in takeaways. They were terrible both years, third down defense. How about we get off the field? How about we turn it over and we give the offense the ball in plus territory a couple of times a year and maybe even score? That would be nice. Yeah. Yeah. It would be nice. Yeah. Actually do your job. And not only do your job, do your job so unpredictably and so excitedly that offenses, but they worry about you. You don't

worry about this. It's a difference between a bin but don't break defense and they dictate. off the defense. When we go as players into the game, no, we don't run, but we're going to run regardless of how we all are. We don't care what you do. You need to worry about what we do. And there's a mentality that changes everything, especially when you got the animals to unleash to get the job done. I'm telling you, that's going to be one of our biggest advantages for the first month. Now, the schedule, I don't look at schedule as disadvantage. No fair dodging you. I was going to have to play you at one point anyway, all right? At the better time for me to have to play you is when your intellectual

knowledge of us is not hot. I like that. I like that. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. Play Philly Week 1. When they have nothing on Blow, nothing on Durante Jones, nothing on all of our new players. Yes. Nothing. Nothing. And you don't

try to go in there blindly. So now I have to, now it forces me to prepare for everything. Nothing in particular, just everything. I'm going to try to go and study Florida. Reds, they ain't going to give me no well because he's not going to be exactly like Floress.

Like, now who you don't study with Blow? Ben Johnson? Like, what is your brain choice for week one, whatever we give you? And I'm glad we're not giving them anything. Yeah. I mean, I think also the schedule game is just in general a dangerous game to play because every year, teams that look like they're going to be difficult. Like last year, if you had Seattle or New England on your schedule, you thought it was easy. If you had Washington on your schedule, you thought it was tough.

So that game's a dangerous game to play. So I want to stick with the defense because that's where you've started. Specifically, who are you expecting a lot from defensively? Who are you excited about player-wise? I am so proud of you, Professor. We have been on this phone for 15 plus minutes that we have talked all defense. I never thought I could get you to this point. You started it.

You should take credit. Take credit for what you did. So give me the players. Give me the players. I'm going to say it's going to be this effect. It's a domino effect because I always say where they're going to shape the pass rush to. That's going to start out with the $100 million man Adapio, O'A, who I have been like over the moon about. He has been, I love players that haven't peaked yet.

Like too many times we have played players that already peaked. peaked in their career, they can't get any better. We got one right here just on the edge of what he's going to be. And everything starts with him, him in case on these edge rushes. But I'm going to tell you what really did it to me. Y'all can go check out get loud with me and Michael Jenkins. We sat down and had a talk with Frankie Louvre. And Frankie Louvre reminded me a son.

He was like, don't you remember when you played for grid with you? Like, I played for grid with. And this defense remind me of this. He's like, when you want a coordinator come in and say, we are all an edge. I know they don't mean to y'all. Because all my life I've been a CB and he's been an FS and he's been a D-Lyman and he's been no, no, no, y'all are X. And when I tell y'all are lying up at different places before the snap, post-snap, pre-snap,

all these things are different. We're going to be showing so many overloads. I don't know if I'm more excited about the players which I am over-acited about. Am I more excited about how they're about to be set up to succeed? And I think it's a mixture of the two When I see a guy like Leo Chanel That could play inside back A edge rusher

He could actually put his hand in the dirt Like it ain't nothing The versatility for the first time How many times have you got on here Monday quarterbacking on your show Talking about how bad tight is Killing us over the middle Those days are over, man

Listen to me Do you know how many Tip balls, overthrows and safety balls, they're going to get just because your middle line back in 6'5, it has a 40-inch 30. So when you try to throw over the middle sometimes, you're going to overthrow it, just trying to overthrow him. Like these things, the length, the speed, the tenacity, the brain challenge.

You mix that all together, it changes everything. So I would like to point out, Trey Amos, I would like to point out, I think this. Everybody talks about Michael Samuarez, you know, I have to come to the defense of a DB, because we always at the prison of our pass rush, and we didn't have a pass rush last year, and Michael Cerenstead still found the way to get four interceptions and survive, to vibe of what last year was about. Well, he's one of those people,

when he plays on an aggressive defense with his wide receiver mentality, he's going to get more of them four interceptions now that he has an aggressive pass rush and a legit pass rush, and now people will have some third and long, and he's got to be on the pressure situations all the time. He changes. Nick Cross, I love, I'm up. And right now, Jeremy Reeves is throwing their free safety,

nobody's talking about it. Nine-year-old guy, went through it all, earned it all. New coach staff came in and said everybody got a clean slate, his leadership, his communication, everything, everything will be better this year. Totality of the defense. I wish I could say one person is going to benefit, but a guy like Ken Laude of pain that's going to be not on the nose all the time, they're going to be right at the three techniques and on the edge of those tackles.

Man, they're going to call it some chaos. We're going to really force people to think this year. The quarterbacks will be under constant pressure. To be a great pass rushing team, I don't need to tell you this. You've got to be able to stop the runs. So you're not in third and twos and third and threes and not even facing third downs. You've got to get teams into third and passing situations to end up being a great pass rushing team. So do you think this team is set up to be a much improved run stopping team?

Oh, yeah, they got the front to stop anybody they want because nobody's talking about Dornstone. Nobody's talking about D.2 Wise when he comes back, the heaviest hands I have ever seen in the NFL. Nobody's talking about Tim Settle, a guy that developed with the Texas to a legit run stop in this league. We got, now Frankie Louvre is at the right spot in middle linebacker. He can go down here and cause chaos on the second level of defense. We've seen him do that when we're not forcing him to do something else. And like I said, Leo Chanel, it's not even a starter right now. Like, he's a rotational piece.

Like I say, you forget about all the other guys that we have to stop the run. I think not only that they're going to stop the run, I think they're going to excel at turnover, something that we haven't did at a high level here in a long time. That's what they're going to do. They're going to turn the ball over only because quarterbacks are going to have to prepare for them. And sometimes when quarterbacks think long, they think wrong, and we run it back, and we sing songs.

about all that. I love when I get rhyming smooth, the best version. All right, I have a question for you. You're going to love this one. Who's going to lead the team in sacks? I told you, I think Adolphi O.A. is, but, you know, like, one guy got to be the trigger man. But if you got another guy on the other side and the quarterback is running away from him and running into his left, it's almost like a cause-in-effect.

Because he's going to be causing so much chaos, I think. we get to like the 17 game of the year, and one probably got 15, 100, and probably got 16, only because you've been running the dudes into my left the whole time. So if I'm a bad man and I'm going to the casino, I'm going to do the cause and effect. I know who the big dog is, but he also going to get most of the double teams. Like, hey, son, I ain't going to get the double teams. And I have seen him be a single guy for the last two years and double teams. I would say right now on a limb, it would be case, especially with him being on a one-year deal.

He ain't going to leave that field. Can we talk about offense? Is that okay? Yeah, you know what? We can. We can't spend an hour and a half talking about defense, why not? Because they do win championships and offensive tickets, so why not? Let's go on the ticket selling part of this journey. All right. We'll sell some tickets after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show is brought you by MyBooky. If you want to bet football, MyBooky's the place to do it.

Go to MyBooky.com or MyBooky.ag. my promo code, Kevin D.C., and they'll give you a cash bonus when you sign up for the first time, or if you go back as an existing customer and you reload with a new deposit. They've got everything you need for not only preseason football, of course, but the regular season. All of the week one lines are up. Washington's a four and a half point underdog at Philadelphia. All of the prop bets, all of the futures bets opportunities are up. How about this one? The NFC. East odds are tightening up, not because of Washington. Their odds are getting more distant from Philly and Dallas.

But man, Dallas has really gained ground. Philly right now, the favorite to win the division at plus 120. But Dallas is now down to plus 199. So it's really tightened up. Go back a month or two. Dallas was at like plus 280, close to plus 3. Washington was plus 4.50. Right now, they're sizing up the NFC East race the odds makers are as a two-horse race between Philadelphia and Dallas. All of those opportunities are up. If you want to play Washington to win the division, you'll get plus 500 right now at my bookie. That means a $100 bet pays $500 if they win the division. Pretty good odds on Washington right now. I think the longest they've been, the best. price I have seen on them to win the division.

For all of your football betting needs, mybooky.com or mybooky.orgy.orgia. promo code Kevin, D.C. All right, let's get to the offensive side of the ball. Because as much as you are excited about the defense and have identified the recent trend in the NFL, which is defense has won back-to-back championships. Seattle was led by its defense. Philadelphia clearly led by its defense, especially in that Super Bowl game against the Chiefs. Both teams, though, were pretty capable offensively.

So I still believe in my heart of hearts that even if the defense ends up being a really improved defense and let's just say a top 10 defense, this season is about number five more than anything else. You had to make it about number five. will you just be little, Sam Donald, who I think is pretty damn good? And you said Jaylen Hertz was just a passenger on the bus. No, Jaylen Hertz, I don't think it was a passenger on the bus. I would say this, that Jaylen's upside is much higher than Sam Darnold's

and higher than Jalen Hertz's. But to me, I can't see going from worst defense in the league to top five dominant like Seattle's and Philadelphia is in one off season. I'm not saying it's not possible. Why? We've seen it often before. When? When?

From dead last to top five? Tell me when? Let me ask you this. How many starters of the team this year was going last year? No, no, no. That's a good point. It's a completely different team. Completely different.

I thought we were going to talk about offense. I thought we were going to talk about offense. You right. You right. You right. So I still believe that if 5 isn't upright, healthy, and playing quarterback for 15, 16, 17 games this year, you're not going to win more games than you lose. That's just what I think, even with an improved defense.

So very true. Did you say very true? I said very true. Okay. But I can tell you this. What? Now that we have an offense that protects him because this offense doesn't put your quarterback at peril. It doesn't put your quarterback where prevalence can get them.

Like, you know, I love tip. I don't talk down on clip, but the one knock on any offense like that is your past protectors under constant pressure and your quarterbacks continuously get hurt. Not your starter, your second screen, your third screen, you force, you're like, it put all of them at peril. Now, you look at an offense like this out of the being juniors. tree that protects Jared Gough, that protects Kelly Williams, even though he likes to play off the schedule, that protects Brock Purdy, that protects all of these guys, Matthew Stafford.

Now, that's the protection that he has inside of the play call. Now, the other thing about those offenses, they are very much, and people don't like to say it, very much run-oriented offenses, all right? They run the ball. They make an emphasis to run the ball to make sure it's a lot of third and short. Make sure they're throwing into big windows. Now you mix that with a quarterback with a threat of his feet. That means I'm faster than Breck Party.

That means I can bring some of the element that golf can't bring to it. That means I'm even faster than Caleb Williams. So now that's a whole other element blouse gets to open up on his offense. And don't forget, Jane, one of the best deep throers in his league. Now, over the middle to get the trains moving. You're talking about Chigua-Junkway. Y'all going to love what we got in Chigua because the action really happened with him when he gets the ball in his hands.

another guy that's all about that yet. And you got a guy, you know, the DMVs on, Stefan Deeggs. Listen, I was watching him run routes the other day, and you can always tell when the guy is two years away from a knee surgery, because they get back to even who they were, or better. Just nobody's out there. Even Terry doesn't run routes like Stefan Deeggs runs route. This is the best parent that Terry has ever had in his life.

He's never going to see as many one-on-ones as he's about to see right. now. Now you're talking about receivers that can get the ball and turn something, nothing into something. Like mixing that with office line, I feel very confident about. Now would I feel more comfort of it when we had tons? Yes, I would. But I can't go off the what ifs anymore. It's weapons out there and people that can make plays. Antonio Williams, I call him A&W, because you know what? Rube does go down smooth. And this guy, they're smooth running. Learning for step or things, he's only going to get better.

You got a big body and Traylon Burks over there that can go get you to jump ball in your corner and I'm going to tell y'all who y'all going to really be impressed with and it's going to be this running back group. Dollar Bill and put on some piles and really take your pass blocking series. Rashall White is a specimen. Don't forget him and Jaylon.

They've been here and done that five of his playing together. His hands out of the back bill. He's in with you. Like, we got some dudes. The fat man. Like, it's some dudes on this team. Let them get him a chance to prove to you who they are. and if you can mix that with some optimistic defense, and we got a returner that,

we had two returning that I almost went to the Pro Bowl last year. Like two of them, punt returner and kickout returner if you're talking about McCaffrey and Lane. All right, yes, they almost went to the pro bowl if they could just finish the year. We have something potent on this team, and I love it that nobody in the market think we do. Are you concerned about anything? I don't think I'm concerned about it. What money nature do, and I can't tell her what to do, so it's going to be some storms. there's going to be some cold games.

There's going to be some stuff I cannot control. Now, this is all I do know, and this is going to be for truth. I used to be a baby, and I'm going to on future ghosts. Other than that, I don't know nothing. I've got to watch it play out like everybody else. You're going to be a ghost that haunts everybody. When you get to that point, what about Center? What about Allegretti?

And the fact that he's been banged up all training camp, and just give me your overall thoughts on what they decided to do, parting with Bionish and going with Aligretti? That tells me, you know what, that they got full-fed in our Grety. We can't control the injured part of it. Hopefully he gets bad as soon as he wants to, but this gave guys like glooming and the rest of these guys' chance to get out there, good Jones, some guys to show what they can do.

And evidently, if AP hasn't reached out and brought anybody in it, it tells me his mindset right there that we got it in-house. And that's what a billion a roster is about. Every year we watch to San Francisco 49ers pop out of nowhere because they have to the roster is injured and they play well. Nobody that people thought could play. And the players can't show you they can play until they get a chance to play. So I'm always good when they say we're good with the people we got, man.

Because sometimes it ain't always good reaching out. And we didn't have a guy that's being here working all season and proving who he is and now you don't give him a chance. Give me a player on both sides of the ball that you think will end up making. a much bigger contribution than most fans are thinking right now. Cigacquay on outfit. Okay, but I think fans understand he's a pass-catching tight end. He was a big signing and free agency,

and there's a chance he's going to be at least the second most targeted receiver among the group. But he's not. They go to think about it. Now that Steph Diggins is here, he gets pushed down a level. Like, that's what I love. Now, when you add a game breaker to your office, don't forget Steph Digg was coming out for me, Andrew, and he was still the top receiver for a Super Bowl team last year. Now, a heftier year, now he asked to be in one B, and now that puts his chug down, now he will

never get double team. All right, it's like, if y'all thought he was going to have a big year, it's going to be bigger than you thought because of Steph Diggs. Okay. So you've got to, so I want to take the leap with you here, because I actually said this a few weeks ago, when ESPN had like the top 10 rankings of every position, and I said, my prediction for players on this team that would be in the top 10 next year, I said, Chigacanquo is going to end up being thought of as a top 10 tight end next offseason.

Is that where you're going with this? That's what I'm going with this. He's a bigger, stronger, faster after the yak running back version of Chris Cooley. Yes, I'm saying. And because of Steph now, I was like, at first I was like, oh, right, so now we're going to make him the two. If he's going to be the two, he's going to have to earn everything, especially in the middle of the field. They can play some coverages that can take it away from them. Now with Steph here, they wouldn't dare play those coverages.

They wouldn't dare keep their safety down that just for a tight end when I got these two guys on the outside, plus a quarterback that can run. That they quarterback can run, factor then I already made me want to play zone the whole time. Then I got Steph D one of the best zone beaters of all time. it opens up everything for Chief. All right. What about on defense? On defense is Nick Cross. I can't believe it's all this Maryland Terps.

It's a revenge of the turtles right now. But Nick Cross gives you a bona fide tackle across the field. It stops out along runs when it comes to people breaking tackler. Sure, tackle in the middle of the field. Sticky in coverage. Communicates well, competitive, still evolving as a player. So it's two turtles. Can't believe I'm going double.

Turn about they're like going in with Josh Wilson last week at the game about Mississippi State and Maryland. Well, average minds think alike because the two players that I picked to be in the top 10 of their position groups next year were Chig and Nick Cross. And Jaden, of course. But other than Jaden, Nick Cross and Chigacanquo, as a Terp alum, I'm fired up about the Terps that are on this team. Meryl's got a lot of them around the league for a team that hadn't won a lot of them. lot of games here in recent years. All right. I mean, I'm...

Let me one up you on that. Did you say that they'll be the only two in the top ten? No, I said those... I essentially said that... I think Jaden will be in the top ten. And then I said the top two for me that I feel really good about should be or could be in the top ten are crossing a con quo. But I also said Oway could be there, you know, a year from now.

and I think that was, oh, I think I said Cosme could potentially be there as a guard. Yeah, I think that was my list. All right, well, you know, you said Cosme, most definitely, that's one. Oh, wait, that's another one. All right, then you got, you won't have a cuss with Casas. Then you already know, Larry Thompson, I already, and then you got a guy like Terry McLaur that I think is going to benefit from having Steph Digg there, so he might have the best year he ever had in his career.

And if he had the best year he ever had in his career, plus the way-in-prey-out game, he'd become a top-10 receiving the league, too. Who did you just say, Traylon Burks? I said Terry McLuhan. Oh, Terry McLorn. I'm sorry. Yes. Yeah, I mean, look, Terry has, you know, occasionally hit that area around top 10.

He isn't here in recent, after 24 he was. And then after last year, just like Jaden, he missed too many games, and he didn't play. way, on the wide receiver front, after Diggs and Terry, and let's just say Antonio Williams, because he was their third round pick, there are another four receivers that are likely going to make the final 53. Let's just call it seven. Who are those receivers going to be? How are our position, man? You're going to cut good players. I hate to say it. I say it every year, but you are. Circumstances might be it. I think McCaffrey has a look good this year, plus he has a special team.

you know, special team helps you make this roster. Then you've got a guy like Jayne Lane, who also could have been a pro bow over, I mean, on Purn Returning, who's been polishing his wide receiver skills. So now you got Trey Lundbergs, you got Van Jefferson, and you have- Diami Brown. Deiorene.

Yeah, you got two of those three if you're keeping seven. So who doesn't make it? And I think it comes down to special teams. Diomé was a hell of a gunner when he was here, the year that we went to the playoffs. Traylon Burks can add to that special teams. I think the odd man, and I hate to say this because his camp has been so good,

might be Van Jefferson. Yeah. Somebody told me about two weeks ago, if they cut them, they're going to hate cutting them because they really like them. Yeah, they really do. But, you know, it's a numbers game, especially when you've got probably going to have to keep four tight ends. All right, well, look, we'll talk when they're four.

I mean, at this point, you've got them at four and oh, five, and oh, at some point going into mid-October. No, I don't. But I got them being a very, very competitive team that's going to be very unpredictable with a legit quarterback, with a legit defense. And guess what? As much as I kind of like, I'm telling you, like, the Dallas has put a squad over there. Like, I think Dallas might be better than Philadelphia this year because I think they

really put it together. But I would take my quarterback before that's going to playoff at any time. So that thing right there, that ice water in the veins gives me the edge in the present situation in the playoffs that we had to play Dallas right there. I think the defense is going to be great. I think Chavonne Revelle is going to be a pro bowl at the end of the year for the Dallas Cowell. Wow, that's a good call. People love him. Yeah, like they got some dudes out there.

Oversone, they got some dudes. But I take my quarterback Jedi Five over deck. And I think it's going to prove to be that I will, our receivers, Terry McLaure. Stefan Diggs are a better playoff pair mixed with the quarterback than Dack, C.D. Lamb, and George Pick him.

I would take my playoff-proof and receivers before I take and quarterback before I take the unplayoff proved Dallas Cowboy 3. Okay, well, you're in the division. Would you take them over Stafford, Nacua, and Devante Adams?

Now I got to play the truth game. I'm going to take the quarterback that won the Super Bowl. I'm going to take the receiver this run in the Super Bowl. And DeVonte Adams is one of the best in the Red Zone still to this day. So I can't be, no, no, no, I can't play Homer right there. Not Homer Simpson. I mean, not home. Yeah, right. That team, by the way, the Rams, if Aaron Donald comes back and it looks like he might, that is one of the best teams on paper, games aren't played on paper, as we know. But that's one of the best teams combined offense defense we've seen in a long time. But you know, but you know,

know what cost them last year with special teams. That's what cost them against Seattle. Yeah, that's because a lot of the special team player was playing starter reps. That's what did it for, but let me tell you something. This could be, like you said, the best team ever assembled. And imagine this nightmare. Miles Garrett just broke the sack record, and it ain't never led at Cleveland. Never.

He's about to play three-fourths of every game. while he sit out the fourth quarter with the lead. He might break his record by 10 sacks. And then he's talking about a defense where he's not the only guy on the front. This could be a nightmare.

I'm hoping Aaron Donald stay at home. Stay at home. That's what you need to do. Because that's cheap mode right there. That right there, imagine being the office of line coach that has to go in there

and you ain't got at least two pro bowl on your office line trying to stop these guys. Like, I don't know how you get the job done. The only way you can get the job done is run it. Run the football. Run it. Run the football at them and wear them down. And if you've got a running quarterback can help you out.

I mean, just the thought of what you just described because he's never played in this situation. Although a couple of years ago, they did make the playoffs when Flacco came in. And I know, I know, no, I know. I know. This is a guy who I think pound for pound. Maybe Mahomes and Allen because of the position, but has been the best football player in the NFL

who has just played on one terrible team after another. And to your point, you usually pile up sacks on teams when you got leads and you're forcing the other team to throw the football. He hasn't been in that situation at all. And he is about to be in that situation. Yeah. He's about to be in that situation.

He might break his record by just. 10 sacks. He might get 33. 33 would be the number. 10. Go to the MGM and go plus 30. If you want to reach the, go plus 30 right now, I would not be shocked. Because that's only him averages. One and a half to two sex a game. I would not be shot. So you like the Cowboys a little bit. You love the Rams. You're a little bit down on Philly. I kind of feel you on that. I don't know why. What about who else in the NFC? Do you like the lions to bounce back in a big way? Yeah, I do like the lions

to pass back in a good way, but you don't feel, you don't know why I'm dying on Philly? Can I give you a cup of Fass? Yes, please. All right, this is... No, I feel this. I'm actually feeling the same thing that you're feeling. Go ahead and give me your reasons. All right, let's start

with the Nuffe about things, okay? The Nuffe about things. There's always been this, hey, since Seriana's been there, has always been this bickering. Back and forth, and I don't know if it's a Philly thing. I don't know if there's a player thing, but at one point, the emotional, like, A.J. Brown, is you saying that's getting the cancer out? I would rather take an A.J. Brown on my team any day. But what I'm saying is, check this out. You have a quarterback, and I love me from Jaylor

Hurd because I think he is clutch. He don't get enough for his clutch, Gene. I agree. But the one thing we can all agree is he's not a quarterback, they're going to throw you open. You don't lose A.J. Brown to get better. The truth is, do we know it Devonte Smith for number one? Do we know Ted Scott? No, we don't. We don't know that. We don't know that. we've seen the offensive line that deteriorated last year did not get better. They got worse, going to lose a Hall of Fame right tackle.

Take one, I can promise you this. He might come back and get more yard, but he could never beat a back of two years ago. All right? And we're talking about a defense that's not getting old, getting expensive. So you can't sign everybody. The team doesn't take a step forward

when you lose elite players. And now you're talking about a quarterback in Jalen Hurst and an office that's been on a sixth office of coordinator at one point that takes this toll. Like the different terminology, the different way of thinking, it's going to take them for a week to figure out what they are on office. So if they're not going to be coming out firing on our filler like the Dallas Cowboys are, and that's why Dallas Cowboys will have edge.

Now, the division that really got me intrigued is the NST North. Because when we look at the north, most people say at least maybe our four teams can make the playoffs. You would have an argument. Let me just say that, again, I hate that this is happening on this show today. But everything you said as to the reasons that you think Philadelphia may not be what everybody else thinks they're going to be is exactly why I have this feeling. Like something's not right. the Siriani thing in right, the Jalen Hertz thing isn't right. I don't even think it's a great fit with the Sean Mannion scheme,

but you didn't even touch that. But the non-football stuff, they've been on this run for a while. Siriani was about to be fired. Then he wins a Super Bowl. He comes off to me as a bit of a dope. I'm not saying that he is because clearly his players like him, but something just isn't right there. And it hasn't been since they won the Super Bowl.

and sometimes you just get tired of being the team that's got all the drama. I think if they were to start off slowly this year, like you get to the midway point, let's just say they're three and four or something like that, three and five, I think Siriani could be gone. I like our chances in the division. I really do.

Yeah, yeah, because we don't have the, and I can say this about Jerry. He ain't been Jerry. lately. Now, I need him to start back to Jerry. I need him to start back to, to intertwine his thoughts and line into what they're supposed to be. Hold them press conferences every day, yes. Yeah, I need him to Jerry a little bit. Now, the Giants, the one thing I could say about the Giants, they got tons of talent. Tons of talent. I'm not a Jackson Dart guy. I'm not. I was just going to say, but they still in it, that boy rock band stage. When you think about

the New York Giants, you think, think about the red hot chili peppers when it comes to the death of the daughter. The red hot chili peppers are not a boy rock band, but that's okay. The Jonas brothers are more of a boy rock band. No, no, no, but we had to watch the chili peppers mature after they tear up hot hotel room, and they go to cities, and they terrorize them, and then they really come into the classic band. But what I'm saying is, they still got this.

We got some growing to do. Plus, the one thing I do love is one universe. that nobody like to talk about because people love to get retread. Oh, the coaches that have been there, done there, they won a Super Bowl. Yeah. No Super Bowl coach has ever went to another place and won a Super Bowl, so that makes me feel safe with the Giants. You mean after winning a Super Bowl in the first place? Yes.

Yeah, but plenty of, but plenty of coach, this is another conversation probably for another day, but I'll just say it this way. The retread coaching, you know, narrative. Yeah. but Belichick was a retread coach. Pete Carroll was a retread coach. No, no. You're wrong.

Because Belichick was not a retread coach. Well, I'm talking about he had been somewhere and he had, and didn't stay there and went somewhere else. Pete Carroll was a retread coach. He won a Super Bowl. They did not win a Super Bowl at the first place that they were there. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. It's different from what you were saying.

But a lot of people will say, well, the guy wasn't any good in his first spot. Why would you hire him? Well, there are plenty of it. examples of guys that when they got that second opportunity ended up being successful. I don't call it a retreat. Some people do, though. You don't. Some people do.

Yeah. No, that's a reboot. That's a different thing. Okay. All right. Fair enough. All right. What else?

What haven't we covered? What haven't we covered, King Slayer? What do we got going on? Well, you know, I think we've really haven't the war of the dragon right, man. I know. I'm not watching. It just been back and forth. You should.

You're missing some great theater right now. You should watch you. But I think we went office. I think we went defense. Like I said, I think because of the new brain trust, we're going to be very optimistic at the beginning of the year, very unpredictable. With a quarterback that's very accurate and people just look at his feet with a coach

that some people say on a hot seat, I don't feel like that, but somebody's coaching. Like, it's so it. The tensions in the building has went up. Like, everything's where it needs to be. It's one focus, and they just go out and win football game. I think that's what people need to really understand about the team. Every year is different.

And that's why I don't buy into the schedule how. I always look at the schedule and judge it about how that team was last year. Every year is different. Every team is different. We got to change the day. You wore 27 and 21 here, 21 in your first run, 27 and the second because Sean was wearing 21 when you got back. you wore 27 and 21 in Minnesota as well. Yep.

Which was your preferred jersey number? 21, right? It was most definitely the 21. Yeah. Like, there was most definitely the 21. And when I got back, Sean, tried to give me my 21 back. And I was like, no, man, you already went to the Pro Bowl in the Jersey. Because I wanted to put on 36, but somebody had 36.

So then I put on 27 because I had already wrote a 27. And the closer thing until one visually on the jersey is a 7. So it fits with me. I enjoyed it. Then I'll forget, the great Ken Houston wrote at 27. That's why you don't see anybody even weighing at 27 anymore, you know? Ken Houston, Fred, is of all of the players that have played for this franchise, if you go position by position all-time rankings,

Ken Houston is higher ranked as a safety than any other player in the history of this franchise is ranked at their position. You know. And you are right, and that's including Dale Green. It's including Darrell Green. Yeah. Ken Houston is a consistent top five all-time safety, and Darrell's not a consistent top-five all-time.

Top 10, you know, a lot of times, but not top five. Sammy Ball's not a top-five quarterback, you know? Yeah. You are correct. Ken Houston could be the most decorated player. Washington history, the most, like, of all the Hall of Fames, if you got all the Hall of Famers together, and they would probably say Ken Houston is the most decorated out of them all, who I think doesn't get enough love when it comes to just a fan base knowing who he is.

If you know what I'm saying, the recognition, he don't get enough of that. You know what I, one of the things I love about Fred is Fred isn't from here. he's from the south. He's from Mississippi, right? You grew up in Mississippi or Louisiana. Yeah. And played at Mississippi State. And he has invested into this franchise's history.

And most people that come to town from somewhere else and play for this franchise don't do that. So not everybody appreciates that, but somebody like me appreciates that. Because Kenny Houston really was one of the great all-time safeties. He also, by the way, one of the reasons that he went into the Hall of Fame as a Redskin, but he played eight years in Houston before he came here in 73. And his first season here, and let's see if you know the answer to this, he made a play that is one of the most famous plays in the history of the franchise and in the history of the Dallas-Washington rivalry.

do you know about that play? And then what year was this? 1973. His first year here. First year, 73. Let me correlate everything. It wasn't him versus Bobby Mitchell, was it? No, no, no.

It was, I'll tell you, because it's a famous play. And you're to, even though you study the history of this team, this is one of those plays that is, you know, legendary, especially in the Cowboys Redskins' Rivals' Rivals. Monday night, October 1973. Skins are up 14 to 7. The Cowboys are driving late.

And Craig Morton throws to Walt Garrison, who catches it at the 3. He's about to go in the end zone, and Kenny Houston wraps them up and stops him from getting into the end zone. Clock runs out. Washington wins 14-7. It's the Ken Houston tackle on Walt Garrison.

that is a legendary play in franchise history. And let's fast forward there, because if there was 73, I was born in 79, let's go to 2008 or 2009. We're playing against the Philadelphia Eagles at the end of the game. Fred's who won the same 27th tackles of the Philadelphia Eagle at the 1.5-inch line to run the clock out, and we win the game. In 2009? No, I think it was either 2008 or 2009.

You could check it. We was watching it the other day, and the clock runs out. We went again. Who'd you tackle? I don't remember this play. Who did I tackle on there? It was not, it was not, it was not, it was not what's the name. It was a bigger receiver.

I had to go watch. I will, I will text you, I would text you to play. I think I have the game in front of me, all right? I think I have the game in front of me. Was it, was it, was it Brian Westbrook? was it Deshawn Jackson? No, it was a receiver, a bigger receiver, less known receiver, and it was at the end of the game, and it was at FedEx Field at the time, Northwest Stadium now.

Right, right, right, right. Oh, was it Reggie Brown? Reggie Brown, I think. Yeah. I think I have the game because the final score was 10 to 3. Yes. Was that it? Yes, it was a load.

that's how we play with low-scoring games. Here it is. I've got, I just pulled up the play-by-play. Donovan McNabb, deep down the middle to Reggie Brown, and Fred Smoot makes the tackle at the one-yard line. The ball was at the 18, it was a 17-yard game, clock runs out. They had a replay. The replay assistant challenged that the runner broke the plane, but the play, as it was called on the field, was upheld.

Washington won the game 10. Wow. That was a Jim Zorn team. Walk off right there. So to a march to the great Ken Houston, thank you, brother, for giving me the privilege of ran 27.

Nobody else has rolled that number since then. Thank you. And I'm just glad to mimic a plate like he did. You're the best. Thanks for doing this, as always. Anytime, professor. And I love the fact that I really steered you to the defensive side of the ball.

I love defense. Last year, let me just tell you, we probably talked about this during the course of the season last year. Midway through the season, I decided watching that Houston defense that they were going to the Super Bowl, and I bet them to win the AFC championship at 30 to 1 at that time. And when they got to the postseason, I'm like, I don't think anybody's going to beat this team unless they beat themselves.

And they did in Foxborough. CJ Stroud turned it over five times and had four picks in the first half. That's why, like, I swear, I don't think I've ever watched a game in which if they decided in that game, hey, we're going to knee it on first, second, and third down and set our punter out there, they would have probably won the game. Yep, yep, I totally understand. And then they would have gone to Denver where Jared Stidham was starting for Bo Nix, and they would have beaten the hell out of Denver.

Yeah, there's no doubt. No, but that's how to ball. That's how I bounce. Yeah. Like, that's how I tell people, regardless, we got a legit chance. We ain't never really had a legit chance because we've never really had a defense in the office at the same time

is usually either or. But this time, man, we got a chance to do everything you need to win. Smoot says the 85 bears are going to be dressed in burgundy and gold this year. Can't not wait. Hope you're right. Thanks. I'll talk to you soon. I, bro.

Smoot, everybody. He really is a lot of fun to have on the show. All right, that'll do it for today, back on Monday. Morton's play was a rollout designed to get the ball to Walt Garrison. A man so tough, he played in the Super Bowl with a broken collarbone and gained more than 100 yards. And suddenly, as if in a cock-eyed dream, there was Cam Houston restraining Garrison at the one-yard line

and throwing him back to preserve a victory that had been celebrated long before the final gun.