The Kevin Sheehan Show - Ravens Envy

Episode Date: August 15, 2023

Kevin opened with thoughts on how Washington's first day in Baltimore for joint practices seemed to include too much Ravens' envy.Matt Paras/Washington Times jumped on with his observations from Baltimore. Kevin finished with a few Terry McLaurin sound clips talking about Sam Howell and the offense.For all of your sports betting needs, go to https://www.mybookie.ag/sportsbook/ and use promo code KevinDC. To find out more information about Circa Survivor and Circa Million, go to www.circasports.com/contests 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 Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. I mean, this is, again, an established team. And that's, when you practice against teams like that, there's a tone, there's a tempo that these guys always do things.

And there's a reason why Coach Harbaugh's been here 15 years. That was Ron Rivera earlier today after the first of two joint practices with the Baltimore Ravens at the Ravens practice facility in Owings Mills, Mary. Maryland. Up there off $6.95, Hahn. I'm going to nitpick a bit of what Ron's overall tone was today as it relates to the Ravens. I'll get to that in a few moments. But let me begin the show by saying that today's show is presented by My Bookie. Football is back and so is winning season at My Bookie. NFL, college football, and a brand new cash out system give you options. to bet and win all season long. First two legs of your parley hit, cash out early and use the funds on another bet, or let it ride for the chance at a bigger payday. Use early cashouts as a tool to stay in control of the action at MyBooky.

To get started, go to mybooky.ag now and register for an account. It's free to sign up. When you're ready to make your first deposit, use my promo code, Kevin D.C., to grab a welcome, bonus on the house. That's promo code Kevin D.C. to claim your deposit bonus and for a limited time, a free chip to use in the MyBooky casino. Bet anything anytime anywhere, only with MyBooky. By the way, the Ravens three-point favorites over Washington at FedEx Field on Monday night, August 21st. The Ravens looking, by the way, to win their 25th consecutive preseason. game. That is an NFL record. So I played for you a Ron Rivera soundbite coming into the show. I'm

going to play that one again here in a moment. And then I'm going to play another Ron Rivera soundbite that came from earlier today after the first of two joint practices with the Ravens. But this first one that you heard coming in, I want to mention that the context of his answer is he was asked about the offensive line working against the Ravens defense. And he said that he thought the O line was better than Friday night, I'm assuming, in comparison to Friday night's performance, but that the Ravens do some good things with their packages and stunts. And then he said this.

I mean, this is, again, an established team. And that's when you practice against teams like that, there's a tone, there's a tempo that these guys always do things. And there's a reason why Coach Harbaugh's been here 15 years. So Ron's impressed with the Ravens, their defense, certainly impressed with what John Harbaugh's been able to accomplish in Baltimore. He's been there, as he said, for 15 years for a reason. Then there was another question about a minute later. This one was about the skirmishes that broke out during the practice.

Today you probably have seen some of the video. Emmanuel Forbes got into a little back and forth with a Ravens receiver. Baltimore tight end Mark Andrews got into it with Danny. Johnson and then with Daron Payne. Ron talked about how he and the king, Coach Harbaugh, came together on that one. Yes, yes. Coach Harbaugh asked for me to come over to their side of the field. So I went over. Coach addressed his guys. I addressed our guys and they got back to it. Over here, you know, I compliment, I complimented coach because we had a situation.

One of the guys was a little out of bounds and made a play. And their guys came over and took care of it themselves. And that I thought was really big. And I told Coach, I really appreciated his guys doing that. So Ron Rivera thanked John Harbaugh. Appreciateed John Harbaugh for helping the situation a simmer down a bit, I guess. Look, this is a nitpick. I admit it going in. This is a nitpick for sure. But it started this morning when I was on radio. And I started to see the tweets coming in. Josh Harris was at the facility in Owings Mills, Jason Wright was there, and Joe Gibbs was there today. There was one tweet after another gushing over the Ravens practice facilities. Look, I admit, I admit over the years,

I've been at times jealous of what Baltimore's had. I've acknowledged the massive differences between the two organizations. I've mentioned many times how much I respect the Ravens. A lot of times, you know, with a tinge of anger towards our own situation, I mean, I understand what it's been, and I've talked about it. Steve Bashati versus Dan Snyder. I mean, come on. Ozzie Newsom versus Vinnie Serrado or Bruce Allen.

The difference between these two organizations has been massive. I mean, it doesn't, the mileage, between the two cities, 35 miles or so, doesn't do justice to the gap that exists between the two NFL organizations in these two cities. And you know, it's hurt Washington. It's hurt the Redskins. It's hurt the football team. It's hurt the now commanders. Howard County, Frederick County. Some of Montgomery County has seen a shift during the Snyder years, a major shift towards the Ravens, not as much in Montgomery as in Howard and Frederick. But we don't need to bend the knee anymore, do we?

Dan is gone. The chance to compete as a real NFL team now exists. I mean, Ron Rivera coached 12 years in the NFL. He was the 2013 NFL coach of the year. Harbaugh himself only has one coach of the year award. Ron coached a team to the Super Bowl. John Harbaugh has only coached one team to a Super Bowl. Now, he won his Super Bowl, but he needed a power failure and a long delay to help him beat his brother in that game in the Superdome.

I'm not saying that Harbaugh and Rivera are comparable. Harbaugh, by almost every measure, has been a better coach than Ron Rivera. I'm not disputing that. But Rivera is a veteran coach. He knows how to conduct a practice. He should know what kind of tone. and tempo is needed to practice at a high NFL level. He shouldn't need to see John Harbaugh's practices to feel, you know,

like he's growing in establishing his own tone and tempo. I don't know. He's entering his 13th year as head coach for crying out loud. Fourth here in Washington. You know, Rivera is, by the way, and I look this up, he only needs five wins to move into the 40, first position on the all-time wins list in NFL coaching history. That'll be just behind Don Corrielle and ahead of John Madden.

He's been a respected coach in the NFL. 98 and 90, eight NFL playoff games he's coached in. I just think it's time for, you know, the organization, for the fans, for the fans, as Vinny would say, for us in the media to stop. Slurping the Ravens. They're not a rival, okay? They're just not. But they are a bit of a roadblock, an impediment to growing the fan base once again,

in Maryland in particular. I guess I just would have loved to have seen or heard. Baltimore's got a good team, good players, good coaches, glad to be here, glad to get the work. Boom, that's it. I don't think we need to kiss the ring. Harbaugh has, by the way, just one ring. The Ravens, by the way, have just two as an organization. Washington's got three.

I guess if you were to count Baltimore, the Colts, one ring in Super Bowl five, then the Baltimore NFL franchises have three, and Washington's got three. But we don't need to bend the knee anymore. I respect the hell out of the Ravens organization. I do. but I don't need to turn the spotlight on them as much anymore as a way of describing how far we have sunk under Snyder. Snyder's not here anymore.

By the way, the truth about the Ravens, too, they haven't done much in recent years. They've won one playoff game in the last eight seasons. One, they have been looking up to the Bengals in the division here for a few years, and they might be doing that for years to come. Harbaugh, by the way, got rid of Greg Roman, brought in Todd Monkin to instill a more varied offense. But if they don't go to the playoffs this year or if they don't win a playoff game this year, their bar is a little bit higher. Bashati is used to being a legitimate AFC contender.

Imagine that if they don't go to the playoffs or if they go to the playoffs and they lose in the first round, and now it's one playoff win in the last nine seasons. Would Harbaugh be on the hot seat? He's under contract through 2025, but it would be interesting if they didn't have a good season. I mean, they shook things up by hiring Monkin, by bringing in Beckham Jr., by drafting a receiver in the first round, who apparently has looked lights out, Zay Flowers, from Boston College.

He's good. Okay, Harbaugh's good. They're an excellent organization. I just think it was a bit overdone today. The presence, you know, Rivera to a very small extent. I love Joe Gibbs more than anybody like we all do. But, you know, there was a time where the whole league was trying to emulate him and his organization when he was coaching. Rivera doesn't, you know, he doesn't need to do the John's

snow bending the knee to DeNarius. It's a nitpick for sure. And Ron probably, as he is, as a person and he's a good person. It was just being respectful. But it's time, I think, for this franchise to grow beyond pitying ourselves for the Snyder era and comparing ourselves to the Ravens. He's gone. Take advantage of these two practices.

Say, thanks for the work. Good luck this year. year done. Matt Paris is going to join me in the next segment. Matt was up there today, observing the first of two joint practices, and we'll hear from him right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, this segment of the show brought you by the Circa Million and the Circus Survivor Contests out in Las Vegas. The Circa Million bet five games a week against the spread. Six million dollars in guaranteed prizes. A million. to the winner, the top 100 pays.

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$14 million in guaranteed prizes. No rakes. So if the entries go above the guarantee, all of the extra money goes to the prize pool. You must register, person like I did at the Circus Sportsbook in Nevada. I know many of you can't, but if you're out there listening or if you're on your way, it is definitely worthwhile. Weekly picks can be made from anywhere. Jumping on with us right now from the Washington Times is Matt Paris. You can follow Matt on Twitter at Matthew underscore Paris. He was in Owings Mills today for the first of two days

of joint practices between Washington and Baltimore. Let me just start by asking you, what were your top observations from the day? Yeah, so as a note of caution or forewarning, I only watched the offense today, the way that the practices were set up. You'd either have to kind of stay at one field or the other, and so I watched the offense today. And, you know, I thought it might have been the best, the offense's best day in stamp. I thought the timing that Sam Howe had was really impressive. Rivera talked about wanting to see how speed up that clock.

But from what I saw, I thought it was a really good day for him. And I thought the connection with Terry McCorn was especially notable. You know, McCorn was matched up against Marlon Humphrey and All-Pro Corner. And how McCorn was creating separation and Howell was finding him in these tight windows. So it was really impressive. You know, I threw something out on the show yesterday, and I just did it not knowing what the right answer was. And that is, I wonder if in these joint practices,

they can show a little bit more in terms of what they're going to be on both sides of the ball when the regular season starts versus, you know, being super vanilla in these preseason games, which are televised and, you know, tape. is available. Do you think there's any truth to that or not? I do. Yeah, I mean, this is an opportunity for them to really show their whole stuff. They don't play the Ravens this coming season unless they were to meet them in the Super Bowl. And by then, you have a whole season's worth of tape. So I don't think they're really concerned

about that. I mean, if they really wanted to be super paranoid, you know, the practices were live streaming today. And so, you know, fans in theory or opposing scouts could have watched that seen all of Washington plays, but, you know, it's, that's just being paranoid, I think, for the take of being paranoid. It's, you know, I don't think they have to hold back in this sort of setting. So with that said, you know, in the 11-on-11, did you notice anything offensively or defensively that maybe you didn't notice in regular practices that you've attended? Not necessarily. Cadiq Charles was back doing teamwork today, and he was working with ones. So it still seems like they're going to give Charles every opportunity to be that starter

at left guard rather than Chris Paul. The line is still a little bit of work in progress. The thing that jumped out to me is not necessarily them getting beat on play after play. It's the penalties that can maybe disrupt some of these drives. We saw that in the Cleveland game. And then today, there were a handful false starts. They got whistled for a holding call near the end of the period. So I was interested to see kind of how they're viewing this offensive line. But in terms of scheme and formation, it was a lot of the same stuff. Quick throws, getting guys out in space, all that sorts of stuff. Yeah, I mean, after the game the other night, you wrote a lot about the offensive line concerns. So let's kind of start there. In addition to talking a little bit more

about the joint practices, but is it possible that the starting five against Arizona, that maybe a piece of that isn't even on the team right now? I think it would have to be, something dramatic would have to happen for that. You know, I think maybe to their detriment, this is a coaching staff that really believes in their initial approach, and then they only change the approach when they're absolutely kind of have to think of them benching William Jackson,

you know, five weeks into the season, switching to a run-heavy approach in 2021 after the buy. This is a group that kind of waits along to make changes. So I think they're going to give someone like Cadiq Charles a chance to be that left starter. And then even guys like Andrew Wiley or Nick Gates, I don't think they're going to admit that they were wrong on those until they would prove that it was a wrong decision. What do you think that they would admit to if injected with truth serum as to their biggest concern along the offensive line? I would imagine the tackle spots.

I mean, even, you know, Charles Leno was solid last year, but when he was bad, he was really bad. And I think, you know, both those spots, I was reading 1048's article in the post, not to plug competition. But I thought it was really interesting at the line that he had about, you know, I think they wanted Darnel right really badly when that didn't happen. You know, they had widely on the roster, but you could have moved him to guard if they had drafted right. So it was kind of interesting how that shook out. And even a guy like Steve Avila at number 16 would have been, I think that would have been a reach. But yeah, it was interesting.

Yeah, there was actually some pushback to that idea that they would have taken them, you know, that high. I think that, you know, in just going back to the draft, I think the guy that if he had been there at 16, they would have taken was Darnell Wright. I think that's who they really liked, and I think had he been there at 16. Now, what was interesting about that draft, not to get sidetracked, but I do that quite often,

is, you know, the video that they put out, you know, draft night, Mayhew and Ron and Herney, and the idea of reaching out to New England, who was set to pick two spots, in front of them about a potential trade. And then ultimately it was the Steelers that jumped up and, you know, did a deal with New England. Washington didn't want to give New England exactly what they wanted. But I have speculated.

Ben has speculated with me. And I think it's somebody else that it's possible that Lucas Van Ness could have been the target at 14 because they knew Emmanuel Forbes would be there at 16. I don't know that I've ever asked you this. But, you know, what do you think their endgame was in trying to move up two spots? Yeah, I don't know for sure. I mean, Ben had been hitting, you know, the defensive end point for quite a while. It was, you know, that's a spot that had uncertainty there. You know, the Steelers drafted up for Roger Jones,

but I didn't get the sense that Washington was really all that in on him, at least compared to right. So, yeah, I don't know what they would have done there, but I think they're more than happy with Forbes. I mean, he's been really impressive throughout camp. Yeah, for sure. All right, back to what you saw today, specifically at quarterback. You talked a little bit about Sam and Terry being on the same page. Right now, how comfortable do you think they are with Sam?

And how big of a week, by the way, is this week, not just today and tomorrow, but Monday night? Yeah, I think today and tomorrow are more important than Monday's game, at least from what they want to see out of Sam Howe and the offense. Rivera said today that he watched all of the offense didn't really even bother going to the defensive side. He was called over there to break up some of the fights that had gone on. But he spent pretty much all the time watching the offense and seeing how that came together. And I think they're just looking for the timing aspect. You know, Eric, the enemy's offense is so predicated.

that, making sure that the pass has come out at the right time. And I do think Hal has made strides there lately, which is why, to answer your first question, I think they are encouraged by what they're seeing just because I think Howell's taken a step forward in that area specifically. Do you think they've been, as it relates to Jacoby Burset, do you think they got so far what they thought they were going to get, or it's less or more than what they thought? they would get. It's early understood.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's about what you would expect, a high-end backup that still has some limitations. If he had less of those limitations, he'd probably be a full-time starter because he played well when given the chance last year for Cleveland, but, you know, he's still, he's ultimately not going to be a guy that's going to be your full-time starter. So I think it's about what they expected. I thought, you know, he's had his moments as well. He had a really strong start against the Browns and then kind of faded there, I thought, a little bit.

But that's kind of how his camp has been as well. He's had moments where he's, you know, diced up the second team as you would expect a veteran quarterback to do. And then others where it looks like he's still very much learning this offense. Tell me about Logan Thomas's injury. Is this a nagging concern that will turn into a regular season concern or not? Oh, it's hard to tell because these guys treat every injury, like it's, you know, the wartime secrets that have to be protected at all costs. Now, we did see him today, jog on the side field, do rehab there.

I asked Rivera whether that was something that was new or that was just some of his rehab work that we didn't get to see in practice. And he indicated that it was a step forward, that it was new. So it sounds like he's making progress. They're going to ramp him back up to football shape now, I think. It's kind of where this is that. But, I mean, who knows? After the Curtis Samuel Tobogical a few years ago, I'm kind of done trying to guess, you know, how these guys are. Tell everybody how Alex Arma, the fullback number 40, plays into this offense where we really have not seen, you know, a true fullback as part of an offense in a while.

Yeah, he's especially kind of interesting in the sense that they use him a lot as a tight end when because this group is so, has been so thin at tight end, they kind of use him there as well. If the enemy is going to implement more kind of outside zone schemes, I think they would like kind of a stout blocker to, you know, to protect and kind of lead the way that, like that. Alex Arma can do that. I don't, you know, I've seen Alex Armer on the 53 of some others. I don't know if I would go that far. I would guess he still misses and doesn't make the roster,

but I guess it just depends on her. many tight ends they would want to keep. And I would count him more as a tight end than a running back at this point. But, you know, he is a fullback. Yeah, because the truth is Kansas City, like, when they used any sort of those formations, I mean, a lot of times it was a tight end like Blake Bell, as an example. It wasn't like a Kyle Use Check, you know, in San Francisco. They didn't really have that kind of fullback.

But I think... No, and... Yeah. Sorry, just to cut you off. I mean, they had Michael Burton, who was here. and had a cup of coffee in Washington. But he didn't see the field all that much. And, you know, honestly, they didn't need to pull back because they have Patrick Mahomes

and everyone else. Yeah. On the running back front, you know, I've been very adamant that, you know, nothing that we see other than individual evaluations really matter in these preseason games. And a lot of those individual evaluations, we don't even know what we're talking about to a certain extent. But when it comes to kind of skill position talent,

Like it was obvious to me, you know, Rodriguez coming out of Kentucky, the kind of vision, the kind of feet and the kind of power he had. And we saw that despite the fact that it was against twos and threes and whatever from Cleveland. I'm just wondering, do you think he is a sleeper contributor, like a possibility to get a lot of carries, a lot of Brian Robinson Jr.'s carries this season? or is he going to be a guy that's inactive for much of the year as long as Robinson Jr's healthy? Yeah, I would say not at first. I think maybe he's still as active. He's talked about trying to be a special team contributor and being active that way. But, you know, I think it would take Robinson disappointing,

which is on-field performance for them to consider making that change. I think that they want to see from Brian Robinson is, you know, have those long. longer explosive runs that he didn't really have last year. I think understandably because it's coming back from the shooting. But you would like to see his average, I think he averaged 3.9 yards for Terry last year. You'd like to see that get up. And then he only had, I believe it was like six runs of 15 yards or more. You would like that number to increase quite a bit.

I did this on radio this morning, so I'll ask you because I actually think it's a debate. I think others don't think it's a debate, and you may not either. But at the end of 2023, who leads out of the running back room in total yardage, excluding any kind of return yardage that Gibson might have on kickoff returns if he ends up being that guy? Robinson, Jr. or Gibson? I would still say Robinson only because I've heard that Antonio Gibson is going to be in the passing game for now this is fourth season, so four years now, and that has yet to materialize. I do think they're going to try and get him involved, but honestly, Scott Turner's offense,

Scott running backs involved, and for whatever reason, that hasn't translated to great numbers from Antonio Gibson, and I think they're going to still run the ball a bit here, so I would guess Robinson. Yeah, I think, I think, you know, if it turns out that Gibson's kind of in that Jerich-McKinnon role, you know, if we keep coming back to Kansas City, I think it's got a chance to be really, really close. I still love Gibson in terms of his overall, I think a lot more than others do. Even as a rusher inside the tackles, I still think he's a powerful, big guy. All right, tell us real quickly about the skirmishes today in Baltimore. That got a lot of attention.

I know you're watching the offense, but what do you know about, you know, the two or three skirmishes that broke out? yeah I saw the clips I mean that was the benefit of having you know film them filming the practices is the people yeah the clips went viral on social media

at mark Andrews slipped the hell out of uh jenny Johnson and you know that caused a little fracas um got involved and then um

Emmanuel Forbes went against one of their receivers I think Forbes took offense to something and another fight broke out there. So it was interesting to see kind of of him be so physical given all the size concerns

that people have talked about for months. I think part of that was the show that he wouldn't pull it up with any bullshit. But with an offense, Nick Gates, ever the instigator, he was actually pushed by Ravens

defensive lineman and shove someone back through a few punches and there was a little fracas. And another little skirmish on the sideline after the play. I think Marlon Humphrey delivered a hit kind of out of bounds or maybe too big of a hit. And the sideline was kind of jawing it. There are things, but that broke up pretty fast. So nothing too dramatic.

It wasn't like, you know, in 2018 when the Jets were in Richmond and a full like melee broke out. Nothing like that. Texans, yeah. Texans, yeah. Nonetheless, yeah. Yeah. Thanks for doing this, as always. We'll talk soon.

Appreciate it. Cool. Matt Paris from the Washington Times. Up next, a few things that Terry McLaren said today after the joint practice with the Ravens about Sam Howell and the emphasis for the offense during training camp. You'll hear both of those right after these words

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three weeks from today, three weeks from today will be Tuesday after Labor Day. The first day, Tommy, he'll be back on the show. It will be the first day of what I often referred to as high season. in sports talk in a city like Washington. You know, the beginning of the NFL season, the week leading up to week one, all the way through really early May, the NFL draft. That's high season in sports talk in this town. It just is.

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Anyway, Shelley's Backroom.com. Go to Shelly's 1331F Street, Northwest in the district. So Terry McClureen was one of three speakers after the first joint practice today with the Ravens. Duran Payne spoke, as we've already talked about, Ron Rivera spoke as well. There were two sound bites from Terry McClureen that I wanted to play for you. He was asked about how Sam Howell has performed so far, and here's what he said. Yeah, he's really poised, man. I think he sees the feel really well, and he's going to give us chance to make opportunities on the

on the perimeter, which has been great. His timing, I felt like, was really good with us today. As soon as we were getting out of our breaks, all our receivers, the ball was right there. And he gave us a chance to run with it as well. So I think he did a great job, even when he had to improvise and roll out a little bit to still keep his eyes down field and continue to give us the chance to make play. So he's been the same guy since we started camping since he stepped in at the last game last year. He's just really, really poised. So remember a few weeks ago I did a segment on how everybody was talking about Sam Howell's arm strength, how he could really throw the ball down the field. Terry McClorn, Ron Rivera,

several others emphasizing that. I thought what was interesting about Terry's answer today is it focused more on the concept of the West Coast passing game. You know, when he said, by the way, I loved how he said he's been really poised, because I think we saw some of that even in the preseason game the other night. But he said, you know, I think he sees the field really well and that he's going to give us a chance to make opportunities on the perimeter, which has been great. Timing, I felt, was really good with us today. As soon as we were getting out of our breaks, all of the receivers, the ball was right there and it gave us a chance to run with it a bit as well. You know, that's more indicative of kind of the short West Coast passing concepts. There was a

little bit more from Terry McCorn that I think even hammered home that point a bit more. He was asked about the emphasis for the offense in training camp. Here's what he said. You know, I think we have a plethora of ways to get the ball down the field and getting the ball in our playmaker's hands. And specifically on the quick game stuff as receivers, we just want to make sure our timing and spacing is on point. And I feel like we really capitalize on some of those opportunities. So I feel like we got to keep that stuff going. So he says that they've got a plethora of ways to get the ball down the field and getting the ball in our playmaker's hands. But then he says specifically on the quick. Quick game stuff as receivers.

We just want to make sure our timing and spacing is on point, and we have to really capitalize on some of those opportunities. So, you know, look, this is going to be a part of what they do. It's a part of what Andy Reid's done in Kansas City and Philadelphia before that. It is a West Coast get it out quickly. There will be some movement of the pocket to get it out, cutting the field in half. They'll have receivers that will.

be able to get open, you know, certainly get off the line of scrimmage. And I think, you know, in sort of dovetailing with some of the things that I talked about yesterday when I was talking about Diami Brown and Jahan Dotson's comments to me after the game the other night about Diami Brown is that, you know, this is a team that's going to really try, as all teams do, but they're really going to need to be successful on first and second down. You know, some of the best offensive teams in the league just don't face as many third downs as other teams do. This team will probably face some third downs, but they want them to be third and shorts, which by the way, at times in the games they won last year, you go back to the Philadelphia

Monday night game when they were very effective on third down. It's because they had a ton of third and shorts. Now, it was the running game that set that up, and I'm not suggesting that they're not going to use the running game this year to set that up. By the way, I'm looking because I remember their third down numbers against the Eagles were off the charts in that game. 12 of 21, which was amazing. You know, in that Monday night upset win stopping the Philadelphia win streak. You just don't see 21 third down attempts very often.

I mean, that's very rare, and they converted on 12 of them. But they'll use, you know, the run game. they'll use short West Coast passing concepts. They'll use some RPO to be successful on early downs, to move the chains in two downs, or to at least to have the ability to steer clear of third and dropback. Because I don't think that will be the strength for Sam Hal. He'll have the arm strength and they'll have the receivers,

but I think more importantly in that conversation is the strength of the offensive line, a pass protection unit when the opponent knows you've got to throw the football and you've got to give receivers some time to get downfield. I love their playmakers though. I mean, I think even in third and, you know, drop back situations, there will be times where you can throw the ball underneath to a Jahan Dotson or to a Curtis Samuel or to an Antonio Gibson or to a Terry McClorn and they can still go get the first down. I think you'll see some of that. You know, there will be some frustration at times I bet with, you know, why'd they throw it short on third and ten? Well, because it was John Dotson in space and they counted on him making the first

tackler miss and getting close to picking it up and that was their best option rather than dropping back and getting to medium length and hoping to protect for that long. Anyway, we're going to see a lot of the getting the ball out quickly. He's going to have a lot of options to get the ball out quickly against pressure. You know, that's something that, you know, Kansas City has built into their offense. I think it's just interesting because the West Coast offense and the chiefs with Mahomes, you know, you've seen at times Mahomes turn down some stuff just to be creative. You know, I remember mentioning a few times in the last few years.

Like at times it almost looked like Mahomes was trying to make the play more difficult than it needed to be because he wanted to have more fun like he was getting bored. That's not going to be the case with Sam Howl for sure. But anyway, two interesting comments I thought from Terry McLorne today about Sam Howl and the pass offense. I wanted to finish the show with this note that I got from Sandman Beeburg. I'm assuming Sanman Beeburg is a Virginia Tech hockey fan. Enter Sandman Beeburg being Blacksburg. I had a caller on yesterday's show on radio, basically tell me, his name was Andy,

basically tell me, hey, I've seen enough, we're going to the playoffs after the Cleveland preseason game. So Sandman Bberg sent me this following note. Your caller Andy had it right yesterday, and you mocked him. Sam Howe is the real deal, and so is Eric B. Enemy. I saw enough Friday night. This team's going to the playoffs, not sure why you're reluctant to jump aboard the essence. Playoff Commander. I can't imagine that most of you listening to this watch the game on Friday night and said,

that's it. I've seen enough. We are going to the playoffs. I said this on Friday night. I said it yesterday. There's just nothing in these games, these preseason games, other than serious injuries that change my view about a team. in the regular season. I just think it's hard to really, other than a few teams at the top and a few

teams at the bottom, to even have any clue as to what these teams are going to do when the regular season starts. You certainly don't get it from preseason games. But I did want to mention that after the initial, I didn't feel this way after Sam Howell's touchdown drive, because that was the third drive. They had struggled on the first two. I liked some of the first two. I liked some of the things that Sam Hal did on the first two drives, those drives got derailed by penalties and the sack that I do think was his fault. But I did after the Jacoby Brissette first drive, I did kind of need to slap myself just quickly to say, okay, relax. He's, you know, playing against twos and threes. But I was really impressed with Jacobi Brissette's first drive.

I really was, and I don't know if I said it enough in my recaps of the game. But, you know, that first drive was flawless. And I tweeted something out and it had to do with, okay, I've seen enough of Jacoby Brissette. And somebody tweeted back, man, you are just, you know, a big Jacoby Brissette fan. Like, you know, don't you realize he was playing against backups? Yeah, well, so was Sam Howell in that third drive, the one successful drive. I thought I was surprised that Jacoby Brissette continued to play, but I slapped myself out of that feeling.

I think Jacoby Brissette looks the part. He's a big six-foot-four, 230-pound dude. He's got arm strength. He's got mobility. He's got much more mobility than people give him credit for. He was so smooth on that drive. Again, I know. I know who he was playing.

I know who he was playing with. But, man, the throw that he had to Diami Brown, the throw that he had to Pringle. I mean, he dropped a couple of dimes in there. And then that touchdown run was just so, like, calm and poised and smooth. I like Jacoby Brissette. I think their quarterback situation, for me right now, going into this season, is much better than I thought it would be last year.

But, again, I'm not suggesting it's going to be good. I just think Jacoby Brissette is a hell of a failsafe. Like, they didn't have a failsafe to Carson Wentz. I mean, again, acknowledge the, you know, the baller in Taylor Heineke and the competitor that he is, and thank him for it and wish him the best of luck in Atlanta. Jacoby Brissette is more of an NFL-looking quarterback. I don't want to say that he's a potential Gino Smith coming of age at 30 years old, as Smith did last year. But there are a lot of similarities in their games.

And if they had to go to Jacoby Berset, I would not be concerned. Now, do I think Jacoby Berset is a 12-win quarterback even with a really good team like the one he would be playing with here? I don't, but I do think he's a 10-win quarterback with the team that he'd be playing for and with here. I don't know what Sam Howell is. Obviously, I'm all for the Sam Howl experiment here because we don't know what his ceiling is. We do know what Jacoby Brissette's ceiling is, or at least we have a pretty good idea after seven, you know, or eight years in the NFL. Sam Howell's an unknown in terms of what he might be able to do. do. And as I've said many times in the past here, the reason that I'm intrigued with Sam Hal,

I wasn't a massive fan of him coming out, but I'm intrigued because everything that he does well fits well with today's game. But I was impressed with Jacoby Brissette the other night. Not enough to say, all right, that's it. We're going to the playoffs because even if Sam can't do it, Jacobi can. But he just has always going back to NC State, to me looked like an NFL quarterback. But I know what he's done throughout his career. I know that he's been, you know, the absolute example of a high-end backup quarterback in the league. And when he's had chances to start, you know, he's played well, you know, the year in Indianapolis when he threw for 3,000 yards and, you know, a 3 to 1 touchdown to interception ratio was pretty damn good.

And last year in Cleveland, you know, Brown's people will tell you, he wasn't the reason they were four and seven with him as a starter. The defense was inconsistent. Now, Deshawn Watson gives them something completely different than Jacoby Berset. But anyway, all right, that is it for today, back tomorrow.