The Kevin Sheehan Show - RB Room Ranked + LeBron A Wizard?

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

Kevin and Thom today with plenty of material for today's show including some talk that a free agency dark horse destination for LeBron James is Washington. The boys also reacted to Warren Sharpe's rankings of NFL Running Back rooms and specifically where the Commanders' backs finished in the rankings. Other topics on today's show included but weren't limited to: Jayden Daniels, Brandon Aiyuk, World War 2, World Cup, The 1929 market crash, the best soccer movie ever, Serena Williams, Anthony Davis, the impending heat wave, the Nats, other NBA moves, the Orioles, the RFK site, and a lot more.   For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show. He is Kevin. Tommy's here. I am here. The show's presenting sponsor is always Window Nation. If you need new windows and if you've got older windows,

here comes the heat, brother. The heat wave is coming and you're going to be running that air conditioning around the clock to keep your home cool. If that happens, you definitely need new windows. call Window Nation. 86690 Nation or WindowNation.com. They can take really good care of you. I got this Tommy from R.C., who wrote Sheen. I wouldn't worry about JD5. He's not bending to Iuk if Iyuk comes here. It'll be the other way around. Jaden wears a crown, not a helmet. I think what RC is referring to is among the long list of reasons for my turnaround on Brandon Iuk

going from interested to completely out over the last week. You know, I think I mentioned I wouldn't want Jaden to feel that pressure. You know, you mentioned it last week. that would... In my column, I wrote about it. Okay. I know I tweeted your column out. I just didn't read it. Yeah. He should... He shouldn't have... He's going to have enough burden lifting this mediocre bunch of receivers. He shouldn't add to it by basically having to shepherd through this lunatic while he's in town.

People will look at Jaden, whether fair or not, as being someone. while responsible for keeping him under control. That's what I said. Among the many reasons at this point, and there are a long list of reasons you'd move away from this dude. But part of it is, and I think this is what R.C. was referring to, I said, I just, you know, Adam Peters is going to be sticking his neck out at this point,

and it wouldn't have been nearly, you know, going out on the limb that he's going to go out on now if he were to do it, like it would have been a month ago. And now it's Adam Peters and Jaden Daniels are kind of tied at the hip on this particular player. I think what R.C. is saying, though, is, look, if he can't handle that, he's the wrong guy to begin with. He's wearing the crown. He's the king. So it's Ayuk that needs to bend the knee and figure it out.

Look, I said yesterday, I'm out. I know for a fact the team was certainly going to be interested as of a month ago. My guess is the team's probably reconsidering seriously the idea of kicking the tires if and when he becomes available, which is, you know, who knows if that will actually happen or not, because he's not doing anything to action-wise, to affect his status as, you know, reserved less. squad. But I would bet using common sense that they're not too keen on the idea of bringing this guy in at this point. And I guess Nikki Javala reported this afternoon that she too believes that there was a time in which the team was interested, but she thinks that the team is likely,

that that has probably passed at this point, that the interest level isn't nearly what it once was. That's common sense. Yeah. That's good. It is common sense. Yeah. I mean,

basically, you know, in that column I wrote, you know, he's the hottest topic in town for all the wrong reasons. And he didn't grow up here. He doesn't live here and he doesn't play here. Yeah.

She writes, you know, They may have been interested in a, you know, signing them off waivers for a one-year prove-it deal, which is what I think absolutely they would have been considering. But that was before the erratic Instagram rants that have created worry about IUC's frame of mind. What was once seemingly minimal risk now appears more concerning. Yeah. I would say it's not just concerning to perspective.

teams. It's concerning to the people that actually are close to the situation. I played yesterday, Tommy, T.J. Hushman Zada's rant on his podcast. This was his friend. This was his guru, his mentor, his personal coach. And this guy said, if Adam Peters signs Brandon Ayuk, he should be fired on the spot. That's what T.J. Hushmanzada said. They all think he's a complete nutcase at this point. But anyway. Okay. I think common sense people have agreed on that. Do you like the non-common sense people? Yes. Now we go back to the issue of why consider him in the first place. What do we do about the weapons for Jane Daniels?

I'd be seriously considering Diggs. Diggs apparently was working out with a commander's football recently. Maybe he's interested now. I would have to consider him. I think that Diggs wouldn't have been interested if Iyuk was going to be on the way. But now even Diggs, who's had his own, you know, off the field issues, even Diggs is like, yeah, they're not going to sign him. So maybe, you know, I can join that team, be the number two to Terry and we can, I would absolutely be in on Diggs. Absolutely being on Diggs. Diggs is upside, not only in W.

one season, but beyond one season, is not what Iyukes would have been. But at this point, I think you got to start considering writing IUC off. I say that, but man, do things change? You know, we're not even going to camp for another month. There could be a lot of different things that happen over the next month. He could actually hire somebody like an agent that starts giving him good advice. He could all of a sudden become, I don't know, control. right, apologetic, and work something out with the Niners and promise that he's well and that he

was just hurt and overly sensitive, but who knows? Here's the issue in sports, man. When you're talented, you typically get chance after chance until that talent starts to fade. But we don't know what his physical capabilities are anymore. All right. Have we done enough about him for the week? Ayuk. Oh, I think we have, but I don't think we're done with him. Whoa, no.

I mean, it was funny the way he kicked off the video on Saturday or Sunday saying, you know, do you think I was done? No, we did not think you were done. We're pretty sure you're not done. But I think it's now a record here for the last three weeks. I think he's gone two days without a video. Of course, by the time many of you listen to this tonight, the new video might be out.

So I did want here in the opening segment, we're going to get to the Wizards. We're going to get to all of these swirling rumors about the Wizards, which actually now includes a new one and a big one. We'll get to that. I wanted to just talk about two things that I have watched. since the recording of yesterday's podcast, which included Jay Gruden.

You said that you wanted to say something about what Jay Gruden said to me. Well, actually, we've talked about this before because Jay Gruden has expressed his feelings that he thinks that, like, Ayuk is worth a shot. Right. He wouldn't be put off by all the histrionics. But Jay was never a big,

aficionado of disciplined players. No. You know, he really had no good guy, bad guy, he didn't care. You know, and that's not a path I'd be interested in following it if I was the team. So, yeah. I mean, I think that's Jay's attitude. Jay, I think was a little bit, I mean, he was gung-ho a few weeks ago after the draft when he was on with me. And he's more hesitant now.

but his biggest concern is just the current wide receiver room. He said that. That's a big concern. He just doesn't see it. He doesn't see it with the new tight end. I do, but he doesn't, and he's got a better and more expert eye than any of us do.

He's not necessarily a huge fan of a Conquo. One thing I want to emphasize, and I have done it recently, but just in case you're listening for the first time in a while, You can say that this wide receiver room looks like the room in 2024. And there are striking similarities, Terry McCorn and Diami Brown. But Terry's two years older. And Terry's coming off the most difficult season of his career in which he missed a lot of games.

So forget about the supporting cast that looks like it did in 2024. The bigger question is, Are you going to get the Terry McLorne of 2024? That's something that remains to be seen. Now, if you're going to count on anybody to follow up an injury-plagued, difficult season, to be in the best shape of his life and to be the ultimate pro and to be ready to perform in basically what amounts to a contract year for him,

it's Terry McLorn. So I would expect that we get a normal Terry this year. But you have to take into consideration. You know, he's 31 years old, and he's coming off a rough year, and it's not 2024. It's two years later. That's all. Right? But he should flourish in the new offense, the David Blow offense.

I think he will, actually. I think that sometimes those offenses, you know, make and elevate a lot of people. You know, what Jay said, though, is without an absolute, you know, playmaking, game-changing threat, he said, and he has said this to me many times before, he said it's just hard in today's NFL to go 14, 15 plays 80 yards every single time you have the ball to score. You need... It puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback to make all the plays. I can tell you that one of the stats, you know,

that is super important to coaches today, and it wasn't necessarily as important as it was, say, 10 years ago, is explosive plays, the ones you make and the ones you give up. A lot of coaches think that that is right there at the top of the list with things like turnover margin, you know, time of possession, first down, you know, percentage, etc. Third down-stop percentage is explosive plays. because if you can get a couple of those a game and you don't give up any, you're likely going to win the game. Speaking of the football team's roster,

there was something that came out about their running back room that we will definitely get to on the show today. It's not flattering. So there are two things that I've watched that I wanted to talk about since the recording of yesterday's show. I watched a lot of the soccer yesterday, which included Tommy two penalty kick games. A massive upset, Paraguay beating Germany. Germany was a minus 700 favorite in the game, and they lost on penalty kicks.

And then the game last night was pretty riveting as well, and I'm using that word because that's how I felt watching it. Now, not as much as the Paraguay game did, because that was such an upset. and you know, you just didn't think that the Germans were actually going to lose. And the Dutcher were favorites too, but slight favorites over Morocco, who has been a very good team. And this game went to penalty kicks as well. So a couple of things about the penalty kicks, where these games get decided on penalty kicks. Number one is, it is very exciting. It is very tension filled.

you can feel on these players that walk out there and the goalie, the pressure. Because, you know, the countries that they play for and the fans that they play for, they actually really care about this thing. This is like everything to them. And it just is really an exciting thing to watch. And the second thing that I wanted to say is, I just don't understand how these guys miss the goal entirely from 12 yards out. Kicks going far left of the post, far right of the post, sailing over the post.

One of the German penalty kicks literally went into like the 15th row. I saw that. I don't. I'm assuming it's nerves. I'm assuming they're choking. because there's no way you can tell me. Now, here we go. Because obviously, if we sent the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks to soccer camp for three weeks,

they'd be able to make a lot of those penalty kicks. I think so. I don't think they'd be too unnerd by a penalty kick. But let me, can I add to that? I think I could make a penalty kick. I do. I'm not saying that I'm not saying that I'd make

and convert on a lot of them but I and certainly some would miss and but I bet you I could make one out of five I just couldn't believe how many of the kicks just went awry just missed badly

I mean if you're going to miss make the goalie make a great play to stop it and there were a couple of those during the penalty kick segment. The only soccer movie I've ever watched, and it was a good movie.

I highly recommend it called Victory, and it's about ally POWs playing a German team during World War II, and Sylvester Stallone is the goalie. I think you've told me about this before, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's worth watching, but the final scene is a penalty. kick. So you're right. It is a dramatic moment.

Speaking of World War II, I've been watching the Tom Hanks World War II thing on Amazon Prime. I'm four episodes in. I think it's 10 episodes so far. It's really good. Who wins? Well, right now, where we are in the war, it doesn't look good for the U.S. and the Allies. It really doesn't look good for France. I'll never forget going to the World War II museum in New Orleans, which again, I highly recommend. In New Orleans, okay. Yes, who's there.

And that's an all-day event. And seeing a graph as to when the war started, how many soldiers were in the armed services in the United States compared to the Axis power? And we had nobody. it was like dwarf. It's amazing. How quickly. Roosevelt had to, when we were, you know, still under the neutrality act and we were playing isolationist,

I mean, when it became obvious that the French were being trampled, the Norwegians had been trampled, Belgium had been taken over, Poland had been taken over, the Germans were starting to think about moving on Russia, and here they're coming for the UK, and that's when he he instituted the first peacetime draft. He needed to. They were desperate for soldiers.

You know, I read this book recently about the 1929 stock market crash. And it's actually a really good book written by this guy, Sorkin. This guy's on CNBC all the time. He's not my favorite on CNBC, but he's, a really good writer. It's, it's, uh, all about really the buildup to the market crash and the depression right in 1929. And you know, without World War II, this country might still be in the depression. I'm, I'm of course exaggerating, but there were, but you're right. There were so many unemployed young men who went to war and were employed. And so the war just, you know, the war machine,

and the jobs that it created really got this country out of the Depression. But anyway, you know, you're such a studious reader. No, I'm not. I give you credit for that. I'm not. Because I'm reading, you know what book I'm reading right now? What? Wired.

It's a book by Bob Woodworth on John Belushi. Oh, no, I didn't know that one. I thought you were going to say something else. And he wrote it back in the 80s. He wrote it 40 years ago. Right. So I'm in the middle of reading that. That's what I'm not reading anything as studios.

Well, I'm not. I'm interested in that time period. I've always been interested. And a friend of mine said, you're going to love this book. And I couldn't put it down. This is like a month ago. And I think one of the things,

I mean, I think I knew that World War II was instrumental in getting this country out of the Depression. The other thing that was really interesting is you can kind of come to the conclusion. that Herbert Hoover, who is consistently ranked one of the worst presidents in the history. Yes. Because the market crashed in 29, you know, after we were going through the roaring 20s. The bottom line is it was going to happen with any president in the White House because of the number of people who were buying stocks on margin. There are a lot of other reasons as well.

And then FDR is considered one of the great presidents in the history of our country. look, the New Deal and everything that he was a part of. But the bottom line is, without World War II, I don't know that we think about FDR the way we think about him. Well, maybe. I mean, he started a lot of pretty good. Of course he did. Of course he did. Yeah.

I mean, you know, the Civilian Conservation Corps and things like that. But he, but when he got elected for the third, you know, in 1940, for the third time, we were at war, or we were about to go to war, and there was still a question as to were we going to get out of the Depression, you know, at that point.

But anyway, where I am on this, I'm looking at it right now, I thought it was 10 episodes. It's 12 episodes. I think 10 of them have aired. Where I am right now, we're not in the war yet,

and our allies are not doing very, well. It's an early struggle, for sure. The French didn't really do their part. What? I'm watching a riveting sport called Omega Ball. I don't know what that is. I honestly don't know what that is. I saw it on ESPN, and I was watching it the other day, and it's, it is soccer with three teams on the field of five players, on the field at the same time, in a round playing field, with three goals to protect.

Okay. Absolute chaos. Okay, the pitch is 60 yards in diameter, and each team has a goal to protect, you know? And teams that get one point for each goal, They rack up goals left and right, but there's chaos. I mean, I was just going to say there's real action. Yes.

Yes, there's real action. Games last for 39 minutes. You know, they have three 13-minute periods and two breaks. There's no run the clock longer if the referee feels like it. And this thing started in 2022. And I'm telling you, count me in on Omega Ball, an Omega Ball World Cup. Okay, well, let's keep us posted on that. I don't know if I have the bandwidth for a new sport.

I'm just trying to take in this World Cup thing, which I think still has another three months to go. Man, this last... You're going to this. You're going to the title game. I know, I am. July 19th. That's amazing.

I know. This thing really does last forever. I don't know. It used to be longer. It used to be 32 teams. Now it's 48th. Well, you mean it used to be shorter. Used to be shorter.

Yeah. That's what I meant. So the two big takeaways were the penalty kicks super dramatic. And I just don't know how these guys miss so many of these so badly. But I'll tell you what, Tommy. There are some countries

where the guy who misses the kick or makes the kick, the rest of their life is impacted by that one kick, literally. Yeah, I know. And the crying from the fans, the wailing in the stands, the shots of the Paraguay fans, it's just, it's amazing we just don't have anything like that. College football is probably the closest thing to that in terms of passion.

Like just insane passion. college football in the Midwest and in the South. I went to, I was invited to speak at a sports journalism conference in Brazil before the World Cup. And when I started talking about the concept of no cheering in the press box, you know, reporters are not supposed to show

favoritism or emotion. Right. For one team, they thought I was nuts. They thought I was absolutely insane. Yeah. Why would I want to be there if I couldn't do that? Right. Yeah.

No, this is the nationalism, the patriotism in these places is insane. And then FIFA came and robbed the country blind. Yeah. As we're recording this and we're recording a little bit later than usual on this Tuesday, June 30th, the last day of June. Norway beat the Ivory Coast two to one. and France is up on Sweden, one-nothing. France, and Mbapé scored for France. They're the favorites to win this whole thing,

and then it's Argentina and Spain and I think England. The U.S. is like 33 to 1. They're like the ninth favorite at this point. You know, hockey, because it's a low-scoring game, because there's a lot of randomness to it, you know, we've talked a lot about that over the years. You can get, like, you know, an eight-seed in the playoffs to make a deep run to end up winning the Stanley Cup

to get to the Stanley Cup finals. And I was kind of thinking that if I were to look back, which I did earlier this morning on radio, that I'd find a similar thing that you'd find some surprise winners of the World Cup. No. The powerhouses win the World Cup every single year. It's Brazil, it's France, it's Argentina.

in the, I mean, I, let me pull this list up again because it is kind of, I didn't, first of all, I didn't know anything about the World Cup history. It started in 1930. And, you know, they had two World Cup missed during World War II in 42 and in 46. 46 was a year after the war ended, but they didn't play the 46 World Cup. And here are the, you know, so in total, Brazil's won five, Germany's won four, Italy's won four, Argentina is won three, France is one two. Uruguay won two in the very early days of the World Cup. England's won once and Spain's won once. Nobody else has ever won it. Nobody else has ever won a World Cup. I would say those names other than Uruguay, although apparently they were good and they have, you know, when they got ousted and didn't make the knockout round,

I think they didn't make the knockout round. It was a bad scene. apparently for the players and the coach, because they have, they won two World Cups in 30 and 1950. But basically, you're talking about, you know, seven or eight countries that have won the cup. You don't get surprise teams, even in the final. Like I was looking at this, the last final was Argentina over France, France over Croatia. Croatia, I guess was a surprise team. But before that, Germany over Argentina, Spain over the Netherlands, Italy over France, Brazil over Germany, France over Brazil, Brazil over Italy, West Germany over Argentina over West Germany, Italy over West Germany, Argentina over the Netherlands, West Germany over the Netherlands, Brazil

over Italy, it just keeps going. Like it's just, it's the power countries in soccer. And somehow in this incredibly low scoring game, the favorites always come through. I guess I was a bit surprised by that. I'll tell you this, Germany didn't come through last night against Paraguay. And the Netherlands didn't come through against Morocco. You know what's funny? You know what's funny? What?

I bet you there was a lot of German blood on that field for Paraguay. Yeah. Paraguay, wait, what am I missing? Why did you say that? Well, because, I mean, as we all know, South America, was to hide out for Nazis and post. But was it Paraguay or Argentina? And I thought Argentina was.

No, they went all over to the continent. I thought Buenos Aires was like the place where a lot of it. They were in Brazil. They were everywhere. They were also in places like the Bahamas. You know, it's interesting to find out where those Nazis had escaped Nuremberg, you know, where they ended up. But you're right.

a lot of it was in South America. I'll bet you there was some German blood on that field that wasn't Germany. Yeah. Tonight, by the way, Mexico plays in Mexico City against Ecuador. That is going to be, that's worth watching sports fans. The intensity of that crowd. I guess my producer, Max, on radio was telling me that the stories are the Mexicans have been banging pots and pans and

calling hotel rooms and trying to get the air conditioning cut off in Ecuador's hotel the last two or three nights. That'll be insane. All right. There was one other thing that I watched since the show ended, and I'll get to that next. Also want to get to some of the basketball and a list of the running back rooms in the NFL. where did Washington's rank? That more after these words from a few of our sponsors.

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leave you alone. You make the decision. Window Nation's windows were featured on HGTV's designing spaces recently. I'm telling you, those are windows you can have. Window Nation is the real deal. 86690 Nation, WindowNation.com. So one of the reasons we are recording late is I wanted to watch Serena Williams today. Her return to Wimbledon singles, 44 years old.

The last time she played was 2022. She played a 20-year-old Maya joint from Australia. And she didn't look great in the first set. The serve was still there. And, you know, it looked like there was a chance she was going to go down pretty easily. But she came back in the second set, one in a tiebreaker, and then ended up losing in three tough, long sets. Six, three, six, six, seven, six, six, she lost in the last set. I've just always been a Serena fan.

I love her. she's one of the greatest female athletes of all time. I think she might be the best female athlete. I don't know. I guess Katie Ledecki certainly would be in the conversation in terms of the 21st century. 44 years old, and she was out there battling, man. She's going to play doubles the rest of the way with Venus.

But I was hoping if she got through, she would have had a chance to win a second round match, too. to me she looked good enough to go ahead and continue to compete. Now, grass is really where she has the best shot because she still got such a big serve and the points are shorter on grass than they are on other surfaces. But we'll see if we end up seeing her, you know, over the summer and then at the U.S. Open in August. Yeah, you like Serena too. Yeah.

Yeah, and I respect what I'm. great career she's had. Incredible career. Venus, too. You know, Compton, California. Did you ever watch that movie, King Richard? Yes, I did. It was good. It really was good, wasn't it? And apparently very accurate. I think I read that at the time, that a lot of that was spot on, according to the Williams's. Will Smith was great in that movie as Richard Williams. By the way, he's still alive, right? Why, did somebody slap him? No. I'm trying to think, did he

pass away? Let me look it up. He didn't pass away. He's still alive. He's just persona non grata after that Oscar performance. Yeah. No, no, no. I'm talking about Richard Williams. Oh, I thought you meant Will Smith. No, no, no. Richard Williams is still alive. He's 84 years old.

I have a feeling he's not healthy because I think it's been years since we've seen him at any of his daughter's tennis matches. Yeah, I know Will Smith was still alive. All right. So busy day in the NBA, man. The free agency is getting underway as we speak. And there was a lot of reporting leading up to it. It does appear, and talked about this yesterday on the show, that the Wizards are not going to trade Anthony Davis. Just moments ago, Mark Spears, reporting,

the Wizards are not interested in trading 10-time NBA All-Star forward Anthony Davis and are not listening to trade offers for him. Another NBA team exec says Wizard GM Will Dawkins is a huge fan of AD, which is kind of what he told me on the show Friday. I'm glad they're not trading Anthony Davis. Davis. That's insane. Why?

Absolutely. So you're going to sign him to a Macs deal? I didn't say that. I didn't say that. I'm not a big fan of doing that either. Tommy, there's, he's not, they got him for a song, and they're not going to get a lot more than a song back for him.

So why trade him? How can you say that when apparently, I mean, he's a key figure in this so-called reconstruction are the Warriors. Because, well, clearly the Warriors ultimately probably didn't want him badly enough. They wanted him to be the hook to bring LeBron in. Anthony Davis has played so little basketball recently.

I know. I still think he's not here in a wizard's uniform at the start of the season. I think I would bet big money that he's in a wizard's uniform in the beginning of the season. And I would bet that it's not under a long-term new deal. Here's what I think the smart thing to do for the Wizards is, is that you have him, he's under contract. If he isn't motivated to go out there and increase his value, he's never going to get that big deal again. He has every incentive to go out and not only be a part of the team, but play like Anthony Davis can play,

so that somebody at the trade deadline or somebody next off season pays him. You know what? I don't know if 33-year-old 10-time All-Stars look at their careers that way. Oh, I think he wants a big deal. He wants one last big country. I know that. I don't think, I don't necessarily think that will motivate him. Okay.

If it doesn't, then he's not going to get another big deal. Maybe. Maybe not. Well, I have a feeling that part of the issue here is that teams, even like Golden State, said, we're not giving you all of our first round picks, and we're not giving you the guy that we just picked from Michigan, and Jimmy Butler, so you can send him somewhere else for more picks or whatever it would be. I Anthony Davis Now I'm not telling you that I think that I know that he's going to be motivated

There is something about him that's always been off-putting You know, his His threshold for pain is really, really low, really low. I mean, he has been one of the softest big men in the game when it comes to the types of things that have knocked him out of games, plural. With that said, when he has been healthy and he's been on the court and he's not, you know, got a hang nail, he's dominant. And I don't know why at 33 he'd be like all of a sudden over the hill. I mean, we just saw Kauai Leonard, who turned 35, get traded for an absolute fortune to Toronto because he's coming off one of the best years of his career.

LeBron's going to get paid at 42. I think the Wizards should, you know, I don't want them to pay him. Like, I mean, I don't want them to pay him a max. I can't imagine they'd pay him a max deal. Because it could be, that could end up being one of the worst deals in history, at least with Tray Young, Tray Young's 28 years old, and is going to play a lot of basketball over the next several years. And theoretically, is just entering his prime or is in his prime.

But I'm glad that they didn't trade him for. were, you know, something equivalent to what they, you know, gave up to get him. That doesn't make sense to me. What makes sense to me is what Will Dawkins has said all along. We need our young players now to develop in an environment where winning matters. And to do that, you've got to have a couple of veterans on this team. And you've got to have one potential great veteran. And that's Anthony Davis, even though I acknowledge the chances of him playing, you know,

60-some games so that the Wizards end up in the playoffs, probably less than 50-50. Okay. What? Say it. I tell you what, I'm much more interested in LeBron James coming here now. He's not coming here. Count me in on that, though. What about you?

Well, of course, it would be, the Wizards would immediately become one of the most relevant teams in sports. Yeah. And they've never been that. You know, if they had signed Kevin Durant in 2016, which they were never going to do, they would have been, you know, a high-profile team. They've never, even with John Wall and Bradley Beal at their height, they weren't high-profile. But yes, there are reports, if you're not sure what Tommy's talking about. There are a couple of reports out there that say the Wizards have emerged as a wild card

in the LeBron James sweepstakes. LeBron told the Lakers earlier today he's going to play next year, but he's not playing for the Lakers. No, he's not going to end up I mean, he wants to win a title, Tommy. He's going to go to a contender.

Who could end up? You know, apparently I'm reading all this stuff on it's kind of funny. And maybe Russell Westbrook winds up here. I have a hard time believing that would happen to. That one makes me laugh.

I was really concerned yesterday about the Anthony Davis thing. I didn't want it to happen. Some of the trio eaters out there that cover the winters these days, they could be great to have Russell Westbrook there. I'll tell you one thing we learned about Russell Westbrook when he was here, is that he's not what I think most fans thought he was. He is a tremendous, veteran leadership, high-quality person in your organization.

Now, you remember the days when I used to just think that Russell Westbrook was going to win a title one day and I was dead wrong. I did finally come to the conclusion. He just can't slow down when the game slows down. He's self-destructive on the court. Yeah. I don't see that. Why would you bring in Russell? Where does he even fit? Does that mean Bub Carrington's not your backup point? guard to Tray Young. I know. You're right. Maybe Bob Carrington isn't your backup point guard. I'm not, of all their young guys, he's the one that I'm a little bit unsure about. But LeBron's going to look for, you know, it's going to be Golden State. It's going to be Cleveland.

It's going to be, I mean, is he going to go to Miami and join Janus? You know, is he going to go to Dent? I keep, of all of the things that have happened, that have happened, here over the last 24 hours. I'm so glad that Kauai got traded to Toronto. I actually think the combination of Kauai Leonard and Scotty Barnes makes Toronto a top three team in the east. Toronto needed a closer and they just traded for one of the all-time greatest closers of the last 15 years.

And he had a great season in L.A. this past year with nothing around him, even when Hardin was there. That's going to be a really interesting team. team, Toronto, and Kauai going back to Toronto where he won a title, he's going to sign a long-term deal there. I love that. I hope he stays healthy. And, you know, next June we're talking about, you know, if it's not the Wizards and it won't be, we're talking about Toronto and the Knicks, say, in the Eastern Conference finals and Leonard's playing in the Garden in big games. But LeBron's, the team that's fascinating to me is Denver, because they all of a sudden

have become an absolute afterthought in the West with still arguably the best player in the game, in Nicola Yokic. And they went from winning the title in 23, and everybody assuming they were going to win more and they were going to be around as contenders for the next five, six, seven years with him and with Jamal Murray and with Aaron Gordon, and now they're nowhere near San Antonio or Oklahoma City. That, to me, might make some sense for LeBron. that to me might make some sense for Jalen Brown to get traded to.

Man, the NBA's done a good job of keeping things interesting when their season's over. Yeah, they have. You know? They got the hang of that. And, you know, a lot of people love this Summer League. I couldn't give a shit about the Summer League. But the Summer League in recent years has gotten decent ratings. You know, especially if they've got a star player, AJ DeBonsa,

Darren Peterson. Well, isn't the first game? The Wizards have against the Utah team? I didn't know that. And then, Dan Peterson, I think it is. Look at you with your Summer League schedule in front of you. You're going to, is it kind of in magnet form? You're going to slap it on the refrigerator?

I saw a Summer League game in person because I was out in Vegas covering a UFC fight. Let me tell you what I wouldn't do if I was out in Vegas. Go to a Summer League NBA game. I can think of about 25 things I'd rather do than go to a summer league NBA basketball game. Wild day, it's going to be a wild night, wild few days. It looks like Anthony Davis is staying put, but you think he'll be gone before the regular season starts. I think he'll be here. No, I said I don't think he'll be in a wizard's uniform.

Well, that means he's traded. No, he may be injured. Oh, well, he, okay. Got it. All right. By the way, that's probably the odds on favorite. All right. Washington's running back room, where did it rank on a list that came out today?

That's next after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelley's. Okay, Shelly's Backroom at 13. 31 F Street Northwest in the district. I often call an oasis. And if you're going to need, there's no better time for an oasis than this week of 100 plus degrees temperatures

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Comfort is their middle name. Okay. They have comfortable couches, comfortable chairs, climate-controlled so you're in comfort. You know, comfortable cigars, comfortable drinks, everything about Shelly's speaks comfortable right now. You know, you can cool off with a beer or your favorite drink. drink. You can replenish yourself with a nice meal off of their menu of excellence.

And while the world is sweltering out there, which is always the key to success, everyone else's misery. Okay? You're inside smoking a cigar in comfort at Shelley's Backroom. You can find out more at at shelley's backroom.com. So I'm realizing now that Warren Sharps' 2026 NFL running back rankings, and this is running back units really that are ranked. So it's the running backs that you have in your roster ranked 1 through 32. It's all part of an entire team of unit rankings. He's got the quarterbacks ranked, wide receiver tight ends room ranked,

running backs O line front seven secondary head coach I think what we can do here is we can kind of take one each day maybe together and because the one that I saw on social media was running backs will start there but let me just give you a fair warning because I've looked at all of them if Warren Sharp from sharp football analysis and we've had Warren on the show many times before

if his rankings are accurate, this is going to be a terrible season. A terrible season. So, Sharp Football Analysis, the team for Sharp Football Analysis, ranked positional units across the league for the 2026 season, including the best and worst NFL running back rooms. The ranking guidelines were specific to the voter with the only requirement being that the focus be on the upcoming season only, not beyond that. With a combination of numbers, film, and projections,

the rankings were averaged for quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, tight ends, offensive line, defensive front, seven, defensive, secondary, and head coach. All right, so we'll start with the running backs and we'll maneuver through the rest of them coming up in future days. So the running back room. the team with the best running back

ranking and running back room the Atlanta Falcons and that's pretty easy people Bijon is different I've been saying that for a while I like a lot of backs in the league Bejohn Robinson is just flat out different nobody runs like him

he's the best in the league The rest of the running backs, you want to hear who the backup running back is in Atlanta? Brian. Tell me, boss. Brian Robinson, Jr. That's right. They have two B. Robinson's first and second string. So there you go.

Last year, of course, I mean, I think I would have felt even better about their running back room with Tyler Algier in it. But there you go. That is number one on the... Warren Sharp running back room rankings. I'll give you the top five here, and then I'll tell you where Washington is. They're not in the top five. Number two is Detroit,

and the Detroit Lions have another special back in their backfield in Jemir Gibbs. I don't think he's Bijan, but he's damn close to Bejohn. They also added, I didn't realize this, Isaiah Pacheco from Kansas City in the offseason. So they were two. Number three on the list of running back rooms in the NFL.

We go to the AFC East and the Buffalo Bills running back group. That's James Cook, Ty Johnson, Ray Davis. Pretty good running back room. In terms of all of them combined, that might be the best one. Number four on the list is Indianapolis. And of course, in Indianapolis, you've got Jonathan Taylor as their lead back. Their other backs are DJ Giddens, that kid from Kansas State that got picked last draft, not this past draft. And then a couple of other names that quite honestly I'm not even familiar with.

And then the fifth best running back room in the league, the Philadelphia Eagles, led by Sequin Barkley, Will Shipley. Damian Pierce, they added? Well, and Tank Bigsby. Those are your top five running back rooms. Well, I mean, the commanders can't be far behind that, right? So let's see.

Are they in the top 10? They're not in the top 10. Top 15. No, not top 15. Top 20? Come on. Top 25. Top 20. Are they in the top 30? No. They are number 32 out of 32 teams.

Wow. And this is what's written by Warren Sharp. Washington's running backs ranked dead last at 32nd this year. Chikori Kroski Merritt finished as the teams leading Russia in 2025, but he will split time with Rashad White, who was signed in free agency.

White adds a receiving threat in the backfield that Washington did not have last year. He has over 200 total receptions in his four years. 30 seconds. That's pretty stark. Not... You should glance and see where the receivers are. I've already done it.

I said to you, I said, if the wins and losses for the upcoming season came down to Warren Sharpe's positional unit rankings, there wouldn't be many wins next year. Needless to say, the quarterback room is ranked the highest in the league, all of the position units. We'll save some of the others for other days,

but 32nd in the league in terms of running back. Look, I would have guessed that they were going to be near the bottom. I mean, Jacori Kroski Merritt's hardly a proven product this point. I actually think Rashad White's going to be the guy that ends up actually taking more snaps early in the season, because I think they trust him as a pass blocker. I think they trust him as a receiver. And I also think that he is, I felt this way about Rashad White during his career in Tampa. I think he's been a little bit underrated as a runner.

I think he's a good between the tackles vision runner. And I think they probably see him as a guy that will, you know, succeed in, you know, mostly a zone run scheme with the vision that he has. So I have a feeling Rashad White ends up becoming. the guy. And I'm not knocking Bill, because I do think Kroski Merritt's got some talent. And I think that that run that he had against the Cowboys on Christmas Day was huge for him, because he didn't really break the big one all season long until that run against the Cowboys. He got to the second level, but wasn't able to get beyond the second level all season long. And then he did

it. He did it against Dallas. But the 32nd ranked running back room. in the league. Look, I know you are so itching to get to the rest of this because it's not very optimistic about each one of their units. The wide receiver tight end situation, not good, but we'll save that for, we'll save that for Thursday. We'll do wide receivers tight ends on Thursday. Can you wait until then? It's always good to have something to look forward to. You love power rankings and positional unit rankings. Pretty much your favorite. This guy, this is the guy who I have a certain level respect for.

I like Warren Sharp too. I do. I really do. I have always liked him. Really like some of the things in the way he thinks and some of the things he writes about. I'll tell you what, though, I would have 100% if I had been voting for this, I would have voted Atlanta number one because I just don't think there's anybody like Bijon in the league.

I think he's one of the top five players in the league. And, you know, 2,300 yards are close to it from scrimmage last year. With Tyler Algier, it's an absolute slam dunk. Brian Robinson, Jr. is not as good as Tyler Alger. Not even close. What other running back rooms? What about Christian McCaffrey and the 49ers where they rank?

They ranked seventh. What about, what about Derek Henry in the Ravens? 10th. Okay, 10th. What about Kenneth Walker, the Super Bowl MVP, who went to the Chiefs? The Chiefs have the 12th best backfield in the league. Who else am I missing as I look down his? Okay, the Rams are six with Kyron Williams and Blake Corum.

The 49er 7th. Jeremy Love and Tyler Alger and James Connor in Arizona. That is a good running back room. Quarterback's going to be their issue, among many things in Arizona. All right, a few more things to finish up with after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by MyBooky. If you want to bet on the World Cup, do it at My Bookie. They're offering my listeners a betback bonus right now.

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You have to use my promo code at MyBooky to get access to that. My promo code is Kevin D.C. So go to mybooky.com or mybooky.orgie.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. By the way, we are 10 weeks away, Tommy, from being on the eve of the NFL season. 10 weeks from tomorrow night, the Patriots and the Seahawks. Two and a half months from tomorrow. night. The Super Bowl matchup gets played again in Seattle. The Seahawks at My Bookie right now a

four-point favorite. The following night will be the Rams and 49ers in Australia. The Rams are three and a half point favorites. And then we get a full Sunday card featuring late in the day, Washington at Philadelphia, the Eagles right now, at My Bookie, four and a half point favorites. You can start betting week one. They've got all of their season bets up for the NFL. MyBooky.com or my bookie.ag. Use my promo code. Kevin, D.C. Real quickly, before we get to a couple of things, this heat is legit. I had Doug Cameron on the radio show this morning, and he threw out, and he was very careful to do it because he said, look, it's really early, but he said, I've got my eye on something for July 4th. The condition

may come together for a potential derachio on July 4th. Do you remember the derachio of 2012? Oh, I remembered it derachio, yeah. Yeah. Now, I immediately said, whoa, and he said, no, no, no, let me just make sure I'm not forecasting it, just something I'm keeping my eye on. And I said, people, don't run with it. He's just forecasting it.

somebody tweeted and said, Sheehan wants everybody to be calm about Doug Camer mentioning derachio. And then he talked about the dera show for 10 minutes. That derauch in 2012, oh, that was brutal, brutal. Yeah. And obviously cost people lives. But this heat, Tommy, this is going to be one of the more extreme heat waves over a long period of time that we've had in forever.

the actual all-time temperature of 106, which was recorded twice in 1918 and 1930. There are models saying that that record could fall on Thursday or on Friday. So what are you going to do to stay cool? Go to Shelly's? Yes. Okay. That's a good idea. Which is what everybody should do.

Everybody should do that. since you weren't on the show yesterday, thought we could talk a little bit about the Nats. They took two of three from the Orioles over the weekend, which was encouraging. In fact, I thought the bullpen did a nice job on Sunday, for sure, to hold the 6 to 4 lead that they had over the final two winnings. That was nice to see.

How about Garcia with two home runs at Camden Yards on Sunday? He is really hot. Absolutely. Definitely. One of the hottest hit. He was, I think, player of the week for the National League. Yeah. I mean... Being player in a week. And your guy... What was more? Go ahead.

No, I was just going to say, your guy, Foster Griffin, is having himself a year. On Saturday... On Saturday, and the Nats, 4-3 win at Camden Yards, seven innings, no earned runs.

on three hits, nine strikeouts a career high. His ERA is under three now. He's eight and two. He did not get the win Saturday, but he's probably going to be an all-star, right? I would think so. It's an all-star season for a guy they signed from who played in Japan last year.

Right. They lost last night. More interesting about, yeah, they lost to Boston, the Orioles series. I mean, I've been reading, out the Orioles, but watching the games, I had no idea how bad, what a hot mess the Orioles are. They're a mess. I mean, they can't get good pitching when they need it.

They look terrible on the field. Their so-called superstar young players are not hitting like everyone thought. And this is a cautionary tale for what happened up there, because before Paul Tobani, there was Mike Elias up in Baltimore. He was the star who came from Houston who was going to, you know, build up the Orioles organization

the right way with draft picks and stuff. And then they wound up making a playoff. They wound up being very successful for a year. But now they've fallen off the deep edge. They had a disappointing season last year. They're on a way to a season

where people get fired this year as it stands. now. So when you invest in prospects, they don't always pan out. And if that's going to be, if that's going to be your

backbone, you can't afford to make mistakes. Now, if you've got to, you've got to supplement those players with veterans at some point. Now, they did this offseason. They signed Pete Alonzo to a big contract.

But that's It's not enough, apparently. No. Not working out for them. So while Tobani's doing a great job here in Washington, and that's have been remarkably and surprisingly competitive, moving forward, the invisible players that everybody's in love with, prospects, don't always wind up being real major league players.

Yeah. I mean, it's just like drafted players in the NFL and the NBA. The majority of them don't actually turn out to be major contributors. All right. What else did I have? Oh, the DC Office of Planning released their master plan for the 180 acre site at RFK. All of the renderings, the designs for this $3.7 billion project were unveiled. there are going to be 6,600 homes.

There are going to be 1,200 hotel rooms, 260,000 square feet of retail, 60 acres of park and recreation. And, oh, by the way, a stadium that will be roofed, domed, not retractable, 65,000 it will hold that will be the centerpiece of the new RFK site. The drawings, the renderings look great. I mean, we've been seeing these things for a while now. And, you know, we are four years away from nearing the grand opening. It'll be in 2030, and they'll be ready to play football there in the fall of 2030.

And the Women's World Cup in 2013 will have a home in D.C. We'll have women's World Cup games. They should be exciting. We're all going to have cash pouring out of our pockets when the Women's World Cup comes here. All right. You got anything else? I got nothing else for you today, boss. All right. Stay cool, everybody.

I'll be back tomorrow with...