The Kevin Sheehan Show - Reacting To Daniels Shutdown

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

Kevin and Thom with their reaction to the official news that Jayden Daniels has been shut down for the remainder of the season. They followed up with what Dan Quinn should do now that 2026 is in focus. Some other NFL, Nats news, and more. For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match Want to spruce up your lawn? FastGrowingTrees.com 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, here's Kevin. Tommy's here, I am here, the show's presenting sponsor, as always, Window Nation, 86690 Nation, windonation.com if you need new windows. A lot has happened here over the last 24 hours. Dan Quinn announcing yesterday that they have. have done what I thought they were going to do, and I thought he telegraphed what he was going to do last Wednesday. They have decided to shut down their starting quarterback for the rest of

the season. Jaden Daniels is done for 2025. I'll let you go first with your reaction, and then I will weigh in afterwards. So what do you have to say? I know you wrote about it. You got a column out about it. So where's your head on this right now? Well, you know, I wasn't, last week, you predicted that this would happen, you know, last week. And I didn't necessarily agree or disagree with that. I wasn't just willing to go as far as saying that, like you said, we won't be seeing him the rest of the year. And you were right about that. I think it's the right thing to do.

I think that, I mean, you know, Philadelphia, particularly, you know, Saturday game, maybe not the last game but the Saturday game, whoever's playing quarterback for Washington's going to be a target and look, I think to be honest with you, I think most people in that building in Ashburn if you ask them, they go home today. It just say, let's just forget about this.

Coaches, players, the worst, they just go home. Right. Okay. But they've got to finish out the season. I think it's a smart move. The intrigue is, of course, was this a coaching decision? Was this a general manager's decision? Was it the owner's decision?

Was it a unified decision? Was it a semi-unified decision? We know Jaden certainly wasn't crazy about it from what Quinn has said and what others have said. So that's the intrigue. is to where it came from. If you believe when Quinn spoke last week that he knew that the player was going to be shut down, I would think that this was a Quinn-connected decision. A Quinn-connected decision?

Yes. I think that we talked about this last week. We said, you know, if this does happen, who will be the driver? Who would have been the driver of that decision? And it wouldn't surprise me if Adam Peters was the guy who kind of drove the decision and probably with help from ownership. Quinn was asked about, you know, Josh Harris's involvement. And he initially said, you know, we we certainly talked about it with him and we told him what we were thinking and we went ahead and did it. And then he was, you know, asked to rephrase as to whether or not he just notified the owner.

And he seemed to, you know, push back that, you know, he's in a position to just notify the owner. By the way, real quickly, owners are involved pretty much across the board in the biggest football decisions. It's just a reality. And the quarterback playing or not playing, being shut down for the rest of the season is a big decision. I would guess that they were all involved and they all probably came to the same conclusion. Quinn, all due respect to him, in that trifecta of ownership, Peters, and coach, I think he is the one that probably is whatever you guys think. I don't know if that bothers people to hear me say that.

I kind of am bothered by it to say it. I'd rather have a coach that would say if he really felt it, hey, guys, this is the wrong decision. We're not doing this. I have responsibility over who plays and who doesn't. We're going to play them. But I think this got to a point, and I'll get to what my overall take is in a moment. where they all kind of came to the same conclusion.

I doubt that there was a lot of bickering. Well, I think if he had been inclined to do that, I think he was probably gun-shy by the Seattle game, where he heard his elbow. And the onslaught of criticism he took publicly, I don't think he was willing to fight on a hill if he felt strongly about, you know, Jane should be playing since he took such a beating

by leaving him in the game in that situation before. Yeah. What else do you want to say? Because I don't want to jump in here if you're not done. Because I don't think it's that. I'll be honest with you. I thought last week when we had the conversation about, you know, who was the drive?

driver, it was an interesting aspect of it. Today, I don't feel like it's that interesting. Because my sense is, it's probably something, you know, all three areas of the organization kind of, you know, got to the point where they all kind of agreed with this, meaning front office, ownership, coaching, staff. Well, what would be the owners, what would push the owner to keep him on the field? nothing at this point well I don't know the owner well enough at this point none of us do I don't know for all we know the owner is football players play football

you know he's a competitor he wants to play I think you guys should let him play he could be one of those guys but I don't I don't know but I could certainly see why the owner would be protective of the franchise quarterback and side with let's just say Adam Peters if he

the other one that thought it probably makes sense not to risk it for three games. Turns out four games. Yeah, I don't see, look at, again, let's look at his ownership in Philadelphia. Half the 76ers team never plays, okay? Yeah. They're always hurt. You know, they don't play for seasons. They don't play in Philly.

Okay. So I don't think he would be the kind of owner to all. macho out on this kind of thing, or to, you know, worry about the box office because that's already been done. Those tickets are pretty much sold, and it's only a couple games left, and I don't think Jayden was selling that many tickets by the end of this year anyway. Right. Yeah. So I think, I think it would, if there was going to be a voice of dissension, it would be the coach. and I don't think it was a loud voice, I think in part

because he was taken aback a little bit by what happened from the Seattle game. I think that no doubt the Seattle game has played a role in all of this. But I think also we're at a different point now than we were two weeks ago because there are three games left rather than five. And the three games, one of them comes on a short prep week because they play on Saturday.

The other one comes five days after that on Christmas Day, and then you've got a season finale in which, you know, most people are packed up and ready to leave before that game anyway. I think that the decision that they made to shut him down is steeped Tommy more in fear than anything else. Let me just take a few minutes here to kind of summarize my reaction to the official news yesterday that Jaden is shut down for the rest of the year because to me the decision to shut him down is not a

decision based on him being too injured to play football. They shut him down because they feared a future conversation that might actually be about him being too injured to play football. You know, fear of the worst case, like God forbid he goes out there and gets seriously injured. That's why we're here. You know, all. of the other stuff that's been said going back to before the Minnesota game where Dan Quinn used, you know, the actual percentage of the season that was left. I had used the nearly 30 percent a few times and he said there's nearly 30 percent of the season left. Of course he's going to play. And then we got the, you know, he was cleared to return in the Minnesota game.

And then a day after he was just sore. And then two days after that, he's out of the Giants game. And then, you know, yesterday he's shut down for the entire season. We could nitpick and parse through all of what Quinn has said during this roller coaster of the last week and a half. But it doesn't have anything to do with anything because they shut him down because they were spooked by the worst case scenario. The worst case scenario being having to face the music if they had played him and he had legitimate. gotten hurt. I think they were less, you know, concerned, less squeamish about a worst-case scenario with five games left. But, you know, with the season's finish line in sight, you know, I kind of understand that the reward of playing him, you know, didn't match, you know,

the risk of what if, you know, what if we put him back out there with three games left? And it's an ACL tear or an Achilles. My God, can you imagine having to answer to that? that criticism. And they didn't want any part of that possibility. And I do think, you know, the schedule is a bit weird, you know, short week into Philly five days after that Christmas, etc. You know, I get that part of it. But I don't think, and I don't believe them hiding behind some sort of not cleared because of elbow soreness. You know, I'm not saying that there isn't soreness, there probably is some, but make no mistake that if they were in playoff contention and needed the game Saturday against Philadelphia, he'd be playing, and he would have played

against the Giants, and he probably would have been back into the game against Minnesota. This is fear of what would happen if they put him out there, and he actually legitimately got seriously hurt. This is, I do believe, more than anything else, a decision that probably all three areas agreed on, and ownership was likely involved, and Adam Peters maybe drove the conversation, and Dan Quinn probably agreed with everybody. They erred on the side of cautionary fear, which is a nice way of putting it. They dealt with their fear and answered their fear with being overly protective. And maybe that's the rational way of handling it. That's for, you know, people to debate. I was all for him playing with four, five, six games left. I'm not nearly as

upset about shutting him down with three games left, especially considering this schedule. I don't love it, but I kind of understand where they're coming from. But yeah, I mean, that's kind of where I am on all of this, kind of understanding big picture. We can, you know, nitpick to death all that's been said. But at the end of the day, and the Seattle game, without question, kind of started this process. They're just fearful of the worst case and what they would be up against if the worst case came to fruition and decided, with really four games left, but now three games left, the juice, as you would say, isn't worth the squeeze. This franchise, more than probably any other

could not afford to be put in that position because if worst case scenario then you're back to a national conversation about the laughing stock of the league the Washington you're back to the national

conversation of the idiots in Washington you know new owners same old story you're that's that that's the conversation if they play him in this scenario, and he's damaged, damaged significantly. You're not wrong about what the reaction would be, but let's be clear about one thing.

The RG3 situation 12 years ago, completely different than this situation. And I would hope that, you know, Josh Harris, even though he's familiar, I'm sure, with what happened 12 years ago, Adam Peters and Dan Quinn are probably familiar with it as well, but I would hope that the decision wasn't, you know, driven by or even partly due to them being worried about a completely different regime and a different situation 12 seasons ago. I think it's part of it. I don't think it drove it, but I think somebody in the room said, you know, I mean, we do this and he gets hurt.

then exactly what I said. And we're back to being the worst franchise in football, the laughing stock in football, the target of everyone's venom, including our own fan. Ah, to go back to the days of being the laughing stock around the league. It wasn't that long ago that we were in that position. I'd rather not go back to those days. But, you know, one other thing about the announcement yesterday, Tommy, from Quinn,

I actually think that they could have gotten away with being a bit more direct and forthright because, you know, he used the, you know, the medical evaluation. He hasn't been cleared yet. He can practice. He's going to go out and practice. We don't have to put him on injured reserve. But, you know, they were able to kind of get away with that with the short week. You know, I still would go back to last week and say, why not play him against the Giants?

And then go from there. But I actually think that if Quinn had come out and said, look, you know, we've decided to shut him down. Five games is different than three. He's the franchise quarterback. He's too valuable to risk on these games now that we have just three left. The season's been pretty much lost. It would be hard to get into any kind of rhythm now without a full week of practice and without a full week of practice leading into the Christmas Day game.

And we've just decided to, you know, close it down for the season. You know, I think in, you know, all of this medical mumbo-jumbo, you know, they're in some ways opening up, you know, the opportunity for more questions about the kind of season he had, even though he didn't have much of a season, with too much focus on his being out, you know, again. And I think they could have said, look, he is the franchise quarterback and really build him up and say he's too valuable to risk in a situation like this. And we're not going to do it.

I actually think that would have been understood and depreciated a little bit more than maybe they thought. I would come down. If I was advising them, I would take the road of deception. In a cooperative effort, and I'm not saying they give a false diagnosis, I'm just saying if they say, you know, to the coach, well, he really shouldn't play. That's interesting and kind of funny. But then you'd have to go back, Tommy. And, you know, if you were really, you know, paying attention to this story in the

it's developed, you'd really have to go back and find out who the hell cleared him to come back in the Minnesota game. That's the one thing. With everything that's happened here over the last, you know, post-Mnesota game, who cleared him to come back into that game? That person should have his head examined. That's a good question. You've gone.

The reason is he's not heard. I don't think Quinn really meant that he could really put him back in the game. I don't think Quinn had a clue. when he said, oh, he could have gone back in the game. I don't think he knew that for sure. Why? Because I don't know how he could have gotten that diagnosis on the sideline without that elbow being x-rayed.

They did say they cut off the sleeve or whatever. I don't know. I just don't understand how they could have come to that decision in that little blue tent. Did even go in the tent? He did go in the tent. Okay, well... If he hadn't gone in...

How would you... You're dealing with structural damage. What do you do? You know, feel around. Yeah, you feel around, doctor. You feel around, doctor. You ask him to move it in a couple of ways. Okay, it's...

You got hit on what used to be a dislocated left elbow, but you didn't really damage it again. You can go back in if the coach let you. I think he was talking out of his ass. I don't think he could have put him back in the game. You really think he really think he... he was talking out of his ass? Like he went out of his way to say he was cleared to come back into the game.

I made the decision not to do it. I think it popped in his head. Just popped into his head. Why would he, if he wasn't cleared to go back in, why wouldn't he say that? That would have been the easiest thing. That's true. That's a good point.

I just don't understand how they could have cleared him. And then he's not cleared. See what we're doing here now is exactly what I said we didn't need to do because it's not about, you know, who cleared him to come back in and why he was only sore on the day after. And then, you know, he was ruled out two days later. And then, you know, five days after that, you know, he shut down for the season. Like all of that stuff is immaterial to the primary reason for the shutdown. The primary reason for the shutdown is they feel. fear the worst case scenario. And the worst case scenario is much more worse case with three games left, three meaningless games left, than it is with five. And that's why they're doing it more than anything else. Anyway.

I don't think this story will end here. I think the intrigue of who made the decision, why the decision was made, and will continue until this team packs their bags and leaves for wherever the off season is for these guys. Okay. Let's talk about what's next. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey, guys, it's great to have Harry's as a sponsor on today's show. I've been a customer of Harry's Razors for five or six years now,

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sophomore slump talk, you know, regression, et cetera, et cetera. I think, and it's just my opinion, but I think it's a reasonable one, that anybody that truly thinks they can evaluate his second year should have their head examined. The guy played start to finish fully healthy. in three out of 17 games. Three, the giant game, the Chargers game, and the Bears game. Those are the only three games out of 17 that he started and finished as a fully healthy quarterback. In another four games, he either started and left the game with an injury,

or in the case of the Minnesota game, with some soreness to his. non-throwing elbow, or in the case of the Green Bay game, he probably should have left that game late in the game. But how you can evaluate a quarterback's season in any year of his career when he only started and played fully healthy in three of 17 games makes no sense to me. Not to mention, we know the games in which he participated in, the seven, this show, year that in five of them, the team was massively hindered by injuries. So with that said, what's next? I talked about this last week, assuming that we were going to get this news that he was

officially shut down this week, I wouldn't risk anybody of note. I wouldn't risk any significant 2026 cornerstone piece in any of these three remaining games. And you can certainly justify, based on previous injury, not playing Terry. Again, he's had a quad injury. He's come and go, not as often as Jaden, but he's been hurt. There is no reason to play Laramie Tunsell. He was legitimately injured in the giant game with a shoulder injury. Laramie Tunsell may have been your best pound-for-pound football player on the team this year. He sits the final three games. No reason to play Sam Cosmy. He was late getting back to this season because of a devastating knee injury in the Detroit playoff game. He's too good. He's too much apart of what you

want to be in 2026. You don't need to play Cosmy. I don't think you need to play Louvo. I don't think you need to play Kinlaw. Anybody that is at that level of we can't be with. We can't be with without that player for the entire off season and the start of 2026, they're not playing. They're going to mysteriously end up on IR or maybe not mysteriously end up on IR, like with potentially Laramie Tunsell, or they're going to be mysteriously inactive in these final three. I'd consider doing it with Marioota. What do you need to know about Marioita that you don't know now? Marcus Marioita is an unrestricted free agent, but I would assume the team.

is going to try to sign him and bring him back, they should, I'd start Josh Johnson the rest of the way, or Sam Hartman, if you want to sign Sam Hartman. But I wouldn't risk anybody of note the rest of this year. I'd start with the process of using these final three games. I said this last week, final four last week when I talked about it, to get more experience for the younger players and devaluate as many players as you can. And I know they would say, we've evaluated everybody, dude. We've been through multiple practice squads this year. But the key players for 2026, with my starting quarterback being shelved, I'm not risking any of them either. I don't know. I mean, you've gone from all the way, one way to all the way the other way.

Yeah, well, there are three games left, not five or six. And the starting quarterback's been shut down. It's a totally... They can win games with Marcus Marriota. They can beat the Giants with Marcus Marioo. They can beat the Raiders with Marcus Marioita. Those are the two games he started and they've won.

Okay? And anything could happen in the season finale and Dallas is going to probably be eliminated by Christmas Day. I mean, but what's the point? You know what Marcus Marioita is at this point? You know who he is?

He's an outstanding backup quarterback that you're going to want to sign again. I don't see the point. I take everybody that is on that top 10 list of players that have to be a part of how we rebuild this roster next year and say, we're not risking anybody. If we're not risking Jaden, we shouldn't risk Terry or Tunsell on offense or Cosme. I mean, Mario-Ota, I mean, what are you going to learn about Marioita that you don't know already? Oh, I know. I know.

I'd be worried about Marioita getting hurt because you don't want to be in the market looking for the right backup quarterback. If he gets hurt. Right. This seems pretty drastic. Give me an example when this has happened before. With three games left? It's down so many players, yeah. There aren't many.

examples where teams have shut down their starting quarterback with three games left. So the conversation would be a hard, I mean, it would be hard for me to find a cop. I mean, Cincinnati's already said Joe Burroughs going to start the final three games. He actually had a legitimate surgery this year that kept him out of a lot of games. But in terms of when you get to the final game or two, yeah, there's always the, you know, key players conveniently getting something of a knicker and knack to keep them out of the game. And teams start to want to look in those final two games

at some of the players who haven't gotten the chance to show what they have. I think if you did it, if you did it on Christmas, no one's even paying attention, so no one would even notice. And then you're into the final game with a seat. I think this is too premature to do it on this Saturday against the Eagles.

In a game, that'll get some attention. well especially considering it's a divisional tournament game have you heard quinn talk about the division tournament the nfc east tournament that they're in have you heard that no i'm not i'm not making fun of it i actually i actually appreciate the fact that he's coming up with a way to keep his guys motivated so they took these final four games all nfc east games and it's survive in advance he's the They're treating it like a tournament, and they survived the first round. Got by the Giants. Now they're into the second round against the Eagles.

Can they survive again? By the way, they're not going to cancel the Calvoy game if they lose. I don't seem doing mass benchings for this game. Like I said, the Christmas game, no one's going to be paying attention. I'm not saying that that's what we're going to see. I'm saying I think that's what we should see. and I certainly don't expect Tunsell to play. I don't know what kind of pushback you get from Park Avenue, NFL headquarters.

I would tell Park Avenue, did you see our injury report this year? Have you followed our season? Yeah, we're not going to go into 2026 where you're going to want our team to be healthy with the same situation. You know, I don't think Park Avenue tells them what to do. I don't think the league office tells them what to do. It'd be one thing, you know, if Jaden had been playing all season long, he's having a hell of a year, but they get eliminated on Saturday by the Eagles, and then, you know, Quinn's threatening to sit him for the final two games a year.

What are you talking about? The Park Avenue tells them what kind of shoelaces they have to wear. They tell them to have everything. But not who to play and not to play. It would be too noticeable to have mass benching. it's not a mass benching. We're talking about... There aren't like 15 players that are must-havs for next year.

Have you seen their roster? No, there are not. You're talking about their very best players that you absolutely cannot afford to lose. You want to arrest the rookie Josh Connolly. You want to get him hurt. Well, he's a young player. He's actually playing much better. I want him to get the reps.

Yes. Your young players, absolutely. Very much better. Laramie Tunsell doesn't need reps coming off a shoulder injury. He's got to be an absolute sit on Saturday against Philly and then on Christmas Day against Dallas and then the finale. There's no reason. If this is Wagner's last year and he wants to play and he's not coming back next year, it really doesn't matter.

It's so funny that this old man who can move maybe three yards one way, three, yards the other way, but still manages to lead the team and tackle. Oh, he's good. Every week. He's a good player still. He just can't cover. No. No. But he's going to play. Here are the guys. You ready for the list?

Number one would be after Jaden. Terry McLaren. Number two would be Laramie Tunsell. Number three would be Sam Cosme. I don't know if you can sit Tyler Biotta. She's a really good center. I don't know if you can sit them because the center is rather important to everything

and making sure that you have the ability to conduct a professional outing, even if it's Josh Johnson quarterbacking. And they don't have an obvious backup center. They'd have to call that up from the practice squad. But I wouldn't mind if they did. There's no reason at this point to play somebody like Chris Rodriguez. I'd play Kraski Merritt just because he's young and more. reps, the better.

I wouldn't play Kinlaw. I wouldn't play Louvre. And I wouldn't play... This is a mass bench that's it. You were talking about. No, I just named... I just gave you one, two. Louvoo, Kinlaw, Cosme, Tunsel, Terry. And maybe Rodriguez.

I just gave you five to six players. That's it. Rodriguez, you'd be able to get away with because he was just inactive on Sunday. That's 30% of their starting lineup. Yeah, I mean, but also super important to 2026. Yeah. 2026 can't come quick enough for you, can it? Well, I mean, I would have loved certainly starting with five or six games left

to see the first string offense out there for a string of games to get it back to where it was last year and to have some, rhythm to have, you know, some confidence and not have the whole season be what it's been, which is completely miserable, with, you know, not very much to kind of harken back to, you know, in terms of a carryover into next year. But that's not happening. It's over. It can't happen anymore.

So now that it can't happen, I'm not going to lose my week one key starters in 2020. Sure, they could get hurt in the offseason. They could get hurt in OTAs or mini-camps or pre-season. They could, but those are things that are held to prepare you for the 2020-6 season. I don't need Tonsor or Terry McLaren or Frankie Louvue or Javon Kinlaw to prove anything to me. I know who they are. I just, I'm not risking them. I don't need Sam Cosme to end up having another injury in which he doesn't show.

up until next October again. Another question for you. Yeah. Would you have liked to have heard from Adam Peters at some point during the season? You asked me that last week. We're going to hear from them after the season. I don't care. I know we are.

I don't care. But that press conference may be so long. They may have to take a lunch break. Well, that's fine. That's fine. Most general managers don't talk during the regular season. Some of them do. Some do. Some do.

Yeah. I mean, do you think you're, have you seen his press conferences, right? You get nothing from him and like it. Yeah, but that's only because he hasn't been grilled. Yeah. Everything's been hunky dory. That's true. What would you ask him?

You can ask Adam Peters to open up his wallet and show us how much money he has in there. And if he's got a lot of bills, ask him how come he didn't spend it on free agency? are you are you saying that spend they didn't spend their free agent money right so but are you wondering yeah okay so now we're getting to whether or not he can spend what he wants to spend or not yeah i think that's an interesting question i do okay i don't i don't know you know with all of the money calculated yeah i know about it but we don't know look he's never really been put the spot about it. Right.

I think that, you know, the spending a lot of money in 2025 off season, I mean, they went for it in 20, you know, leading into 2025, starting with what they did, you know, at the trade deadline in 2024, trading, you know, compensation, draft compensation for Marshawn Latimore, then doing the same in a big way for Laramie Tunsell, then doing the same and paying, by the way, Debo Samuel, you know, the $20 million that he was owed this year. Taking on the Tunsel contract, which they knew when they took it on, they were going to have to pay him in this upcoming offseason. We thought in the moment they overpaid Javon Kinlaw.

But to your point, after that, you know, did they really let Olomidi Zakias leave for a half million dollars? maybe they did. So, yeah, those are reasonable questions. I think the 25 is a little bit more explainable, like they decided to upgrade their team with massive contracts that already existed with trades. You know, Tunsell, Debo, Latimore,

to try to take advantage of what they could take advantage of this year, which was, you know, one game away from the Super Bowl, rookie quarterback contract. You know, we feel like we can really, contend this year, but I think this upcoming off season is a completely different animal because they're going to finish with double-digit losses, a very disappointing season, with major context. But part of the context is the injuries were the reason more than anything else, but you didn't have good players in reserve to keep your season from tanking. So, you know,

front line heavy, not even, you know, secondary players really, really struggled. So, yeah, I think it's a reasonable question. What do you think the answer to that is going to be? Ownerships given me the ability to do whatever I want? Yeah, but that won't necessarily be true. No general manager says, you know, I had $50 million to spend, but I only decided to spend 30 of it. Well, you know, you can't do that, right?

You have to, there's a league minimum you have to get to. It's not like they... I know that, but I'm exaggerating to make a point. Right. Okay. I mean, commanders are second in the league and available cap space at this point. You know, I know it's different. For next year, they're sixth.

Next year, they're sixth, according to SpotRack. Okay, but right now, I'm more concerned about what they didn't spend this year. Right. And why? You know, we kind of went through this during last off season, but you can't come up with like this massive list of players that you had hoped they would have spent for. You know, it's not like there was this great free agency year where you were missing out left and right on massive contracted players that decided to go elsewhere or you decided not to pay. I mean, we'll see this year, and it's not necessarily setting up as a great NFL free agency year again, but we'll see what they end up doing.

Right now, they have currently in projected 2026 cap space available, according to SpotRack, about 94 million. They can create more space by cutting loose pain, Latimore, and Allegretti. but at the same time they're going to have to extend Laramie Tunsell this will be a big call on him and I think Frankie Louvo

is going to be a conversation as well and then you're going to want to see what they do with a guy like Marcus Marriota should be a one-year deal but it might be two yeah

you're right but I yeah I mean I doubt I know we've brought this up so many times, I can't imagine that they're sitting back there, that Adam Peters

took a job when he had any choice of, you know, he had a choice of multiple jobs, and he ended up coming to work for an ownership group that was not going to give him the ability to spend what he wanted to spend.

Well, again, I don't know. I've never met the general manager who said, no, that's okay, you keep that money. I don't need it. Yeah All right Anything else on this? Nobody

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Shelly sells the top, you know, the top cigars that cigar aficionado recommends. And these gift cards are always a fallback position when you don't know what to get anyone. So I know gift cards are kind of like, have become a predictable present, but there's nothing unpredictable about getting gift cards for a cigar bar like shelley's back room that's a very unpredictable present and will be the talk of christmas day sounds like a good idea you can go find you can get them on shelley's backroom dot com i mean it sounds like a really good idea for you know a co-hosts to another co-host of a podcast i mean just just saying never given, we've never given us,

either of us have never given each other a present. I don't think that, is that, that is true, isn't it? Never. Did we ever establish that we're not going to give each other a gift on Christmas? No. It just happened. It's just, it's just, the wall of indifference. No, they're not a brick and the wall of indifference.

I mean, I've always gotten gifts for my producers, but I've never gotten you a gift. I don't think I got I never got Chris Cooley a gift I never got yeah no gifts for co-hosts you know what my gift is to you

I'll get you a gift but it's not for a special occasion like I got you the a Dundee from the office Yes you did remember

I do remember it's sitting right here in my office yes so I have I think there's one other time I brought you back a present if I see something that I think you would like, I would go ahead and buy it. But no, there's never been Kevin Sheen on my

Christmas list. No, Tom's never been on my Christmas list either. By the way, I'd feel good about getting you a gift. You actually, I think I could find you something that you would like. I really do. Well, you might want to share it with my family who always complain I don't want it. Well, that's what my family says about me too, but I know you in a different way. I spent so many years with you walking into your office, which was decorated with you. And there was just you everywhere. And I think that I could find one of those kinds of things somewhere to, you know, frame up and give you. Um, you know, I'm looking right now at my wall as we speak. And it's full of me. Of course it is. What was... It's me every,

Your office was full of you. What was my office filled with? Your office was literally filled like a guy. I'll tell you what, like a room at the bus depot. Looked like I was packed up and ready to leave. Yes. Yeah. Because you know why?

I never, I always felt like the moment I got comfortable and I started to kind of make it a home, that's when they tell me, yeah, we're. We're moving in a different direction. Moving in a different direction. What does that say about me? I don't know what it says about me. I do have a few things that I want to talk about, and I know you do too. Real quickly on last night's Monday night game, because I think it's interesting for two reasons.

The first reason is Miami. Mike McDaniel was kept during the regular season. They moved on from the general manager. Tua is essentially tied to Mike. McDaniel. I mean, he's got like 57 million guaranteed already for next year. And I got to tell you what, man, I know these quarterbacks you can never ever say never ever, but Tua can't throw the football. Like everything is designed by Mike McDaniel to fit around his quarterback's inadequacies. Arm strength, inability to read certain kinds of defenses. It's why.

their offense has always been tricked up so much. And I give Mike McDaniel a lot of credit. Look, I don't think he's a head coach. I mean, when you see him walk, you know, into a press conference and he's got, you know, sweatpants on that are hiked up, you know, above his knees. And, you know, he just looks like a 10th grader who's coaching a team. But make no mistake, he is an offensive, you know, wizard. He really is.

I mean, Miami a couple of years. How long has he been coached there? About four years now? Is it five or four? It's four or five? One of the other. You've never heard stories coming out of Miami that says the players think he, know, his impression in the locker room is not the impression that we have watching him.

You know, I think players, ultimately, my history is, if players think you can help them win and put them in a position to win as a coach you don't particularly care that you look like a high school kid I understand that he doesn't strike me as like the master leader he's you know

he's the guy that's locked himself in you know a closet for three days and he comes out with like this genius game plan with, you know, basically limitations. I mean, I'm watching this game last night, and I'm like, man, how did they ever make this work with Tuatunga Vailoa? He just, he's got way too many limitations, just throwing the football. You're talking about throwing the football?

I noticed this when the commander's playing them. Yeah. Because of his history with concussions, he can't run the football even. and one, two. Right, you can see it. And in fact, he had opportunity. Yeah. And he stopped.

He literally would stop in his tracks. You know, I'm just thinking, I'm just thinking here about, like, the quarterbacks in the last three or four years that kind of were resurrected from the dead, you know, Sam Darnold, Gino Smith briefly, you know, a guy like Baker Mayfield, Daniel Jones. Like, every, there's one thing. that all of those quarterbacks have that Tua does not have.

They've got guns for arms. They can all spin the ball. They can really throw it. No one's ever said about Baker, Mayfield, or Sam Darnold, they can't throw. Gino Smith, he can't throw. Tua can't throw. It's like the ultimate touch quarterback.

Like everything's got to be with touch. Anyway, I thought that was an interesting part in watching the game, because if you didn't know this, the dolphins had been on a run. They had won four straight, five out of their last six. One of those was in overtime against Washington. Now, they hadn't beaten anybody great with the exception of before Washington in Madrid. They beat Buffalo. Last night, they were taken to the woodshed by the Steelers who were playing without T.J. Watt. By the way, here was a stat last night. The Steelers without T.J. Watt going into the game last night, we're one in ten. I mean, he is great. Miles

Garrett right now might be the best player pound for pound in football. Actually, he is. But T.J. Watts is pretty special. But the other part of this game last night was Aaron Rogers. I got this from Bluesy 58, and I saved it, and I never had a chance to read it last week, but it's even better to read this week. He wrote this to me before his favorite team, the Ravens, faced the Steelers last week. Your blind belief for Aaron Rogers is mysterious. He's terrible. Go Ravens. What I said all last year, and what I said going into this year, what I said going into this year, is if you watched Aaron Rogers last year, he can still be Aaron Rogers throwing the football. And he was when Devante Adams showed up last year in New York. I mean, he went down the stretch last

year. He had some lights out games with Devante, but that team last year was terrible on defense. Remember, people say two years in New York, he sucked. The first year, he played four plays and tore his Achilles. And then he came back last year, and it took him a little while, you know, with the off the torn Achilles. But you could still see, no, that's Aaron Rogers throwing the football still. He may not be as mobile as he once was, but it's, just like with Philip Rivers, and we're going to get to some of the other NFL from over the weekend. The neck up, no one's ever questioned his football IQ. And Tommy watching him last night, he was 23 of 27 last night.

At one point, I think he was 18 of 19 in the game. Finished 23 of 27, 224, two touchdowns last week against the Ravens Bluesy 58, 23, 34, 284 in a touchdown. No picks. He hasn't thrown a pick in four games. games. And they're playing pretty well. You know, it could be another Mike Tomlin team that wins nine or ten, goes to the playoffs and loses. The big difference is what they hoped it would be they've got a quarterback. Now, they're not as good of a team as they've been in the past on defense. Offensive line is a problem. But he's got to be top three or four of all-time pure

passers. Marino, Sonny, Rogers, and I know you'd throw Namath into the mix, right? For just,

the ability to just throw it beautifully, accurately, gun, everything that goes into being a pure passer.

He's on that list. He's up there. You're right. He is on the short list, man. Marino, still, it's going to be hard

for me to ever say that I saw a better thrower of the football in my lifetime of watching NFL football than Dan Marino. I considered Elway for many years to be the greatest quarterback, Marino to be the best passer. But man, he had some throws last night. He threw a touchdown past the D.K. Metcalf that literally maybe three people in the world can make. And they're an interesting team. They're far from the best team in the AFC, though. They just have too many limitations elsewhere. But I'll tell you what, the NFL Sundays now, I mean, Sunday was awesome.

The bills come back against New England down 35, 31, down 21, nothing to win 3531, excuse me. I don't know if anybody's playing better than Josh Allen right now. The 4 o'clock window, all those games started at 425 because it was a combined doubleheader. Broncos over Packers with the Packers losing Micah Parsons. the Rams continue to show that they I think are the best team in football the Cowboys losing and basically on the verge now

of being eliminated and then the Phillip Rivers game he's going to start again on Monday night against San Francisco so the whole country will be able to see I watch this I watched this start to finish I had it on in here as I was putting the podcast together and I'm telling you

The dude can't throw it anymore beyond like 25 or 30 yards. But it's like Shane Steichen said afterwards, he got us into every single play. He read every coverage. The ball went to where it was supposed to go. And we almost pulled off a stunning upset. It took a field goal from 55 yards out to beat him. Loved watching him on Sunday afternoon. Meantime, Caleb Williams keeps getting better.

the Bears are 10 and 4, and now without Micah Parsons, maybe they can win that division. I mean, at this point, they've got a legit shot to be the one seed. Can you imagine the NFC playoffs going through Chicago this year? Probably not. I think it will still be the Rams, but they play the Seahawks on Thursday night, Tommy, and literally torrential rain in the forecast all week right through like next week. So this is going to be an interesting game Thursday night to watch. I mean, the Rams outdoors against that Seattle team and that Seattle defense, which is nasty. The injuries,

Mahomes, ACL, LCL, and we're not going to have a postseason with Patrick Mahomes in it. It's been a while. That's for sure. I think I read something, 24 years, first time in 24 years without Peyton, Brady, or Mahomes in the playoffs. Wow. So the rest of the leagues having fun this year. Not our team.

Bad year for our team. What else you got? Very forgettable. Like I said, well, just one item, the Nationals signed a free agent. You know, people have been waiting for them to sign a free agent. They signed a pitcher.

a guy named Foster Griffin. He had been drafted by the Royals in 2014, had a brief stint within the Major League, then wound up with Toronto. He had Tommy John surgery. Then he went to Japan to pitch. And he pitched well there for a couple of years. So now he's coming back to the Major League.

This is the exact kind of free agent, cheap owners buy. This is the of a cheap owner purchase. Okay. I was just going to ask you if maybe Adam Peters doesn't get a good response from Josh Harris, maybe he can give

the learners a call. But no, they're not spending. No, no, this is this is bargain basement stuff right here. He may be great, you know? But But, I mean, again, you know, the logic, and I could be wrong, but the logic that the learners are going to give this guy, Paul Tobani, open up their purse strings for him, when they didn't do it for Rizzo, who they liked, I don't know where the logic is in that.

So this is, this is, you know, he's building an interesting organization, Paul Tibonty. A lot of new hires, a real total revamp from top to bottom of Rizzo's nationals. And he's bringing in a lot of young coaches, a lot of coaches who think differently than what they're used to in Washington. And it'll definitely have his blueprint, Paul Tobani's blueprint, on the organization. It just may not have enough money to spend to really see it through. All right Go get them Learners

Help the guy out Help the kid out It's first It's kind of his first job Out of high school Um Hey real quickly For Jay who writes

Are you going to give out bowl games As smell test picks I've done it before And I know the bowls Really get underway tonight Um By the way If you want to watch

A bowl game tonight Which I'm sure many of you you have no interest in watching. The leading rusher in the country plays tonight. He plays for Jacksonville State. His name is Cam Cook, and he led the nation in rushing this year. But no pick tonight. If I have bowl picks, I will give them out on the show, and then I'll tweet them out.

I will definitely do that, but no pick tonight. Smell test four and one over last weekend. And it just, it just continues. And again, like with most of them, almost, I think every underdog that I had won outright. Atlanta on Thursday night, New Orleans, Minnesota, and then my other winner was Baltimore. Lost on Kansas City. And they were a favorite. All right, Tommy, we'll talk on Thursday, and you'll have a prediction for Washington and Philadelphia on Saturday.

remember, these were the first, these were the games that people are like, wow, we're going to get to December 20th, and we're going to have a home game national TV first to two over the final three weeks for the division. If the Eagles win, they clinch the division. That is true on Saturday. They eliminate the Cowboys and they clinch the division. And there'll be a lot of Eagles fans there to celebrate. I would imagine there are going to be a lot of Eagles fans. Yes. Philadelphia right now at my bookie, six and a half point favorites. I'm actually surprised it's less than seven. This might be a Washington smell test pick on Saturday. I haven't looked at this yet. This is the first time I've looked at this. My bookie has Philly as a... You've got to wait to see if they're going to start Sam Hartman or not. They're not starting Sam Hartman. It certainly sounds like Marcus Mariotta is going out there.

There. My bookie's got it at six and a half and 44 as the total. You know, it's the first of a Saturday double header, which includes Bears and Packers Saturday Night Soldier Field. By the way, Tommy, same day as triple header college football playoff games, and Maryland plays Virginia in basketball on Saturday afternoon. What a weekend of football and sports coming up. And it starts with this Thursday night game between Rams and Seattle for really the NFC West title and for all intents and purpose is more likely the one seed in the NFC. This game will probably determine where the NFC playoffs go through. Chicago still has an outside shot, but Rams, Seattle to kick it off.

But yeah, Philly, Washington, I would have guessed, if you had said guess what the number is, I would have said seven and a half or eight. it's at six and a half I will be able to tell you more tomorrow but certainly by Friday but I'm going to guess there's going to be a lot of public action on Philly in this game. MyBooky

promo code DC reload DC reload MyBooky.ag or mybooky.com for a 50% cash bonus when you sign up. Take the free money. There's no reason not to.

All right. I'll talk to you Thursday. Okay, boss. See you. All right. Done for the day. Back tomorrow. It does look like Jaden Daniels might actually hold some sort of press conference this afternoon.

So we'll have that on tomorrow's show along with Steve Souter. All right. That's it for the day. Back tomorrow.