The Kevin Sheehan Show - Redskins: JP on AP & More

Episode Date: September 11, 2019

JP Finlay/NBC Sports Washington joined Kevin on the podcast today to discuss the Adrian Peterson situation, the Skins' offense in week one, Greg Manusky's future, and the latest on Trent Williams. Kevin talked some NFL and Nats too. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right, I'm here. Aaron is here. And J.P. Finley from NBC Sports Washington is going to join us right from the jump. Follow him on Twitter at J.P. Finley, NBCS. And listen to his Redskins Talk podcast, which is doing very well and is a great listen as well. In fact, he had Jay Gruden on his podcast yesterday. I don't know if that was from Monday or yesterday. but I listened to it. Very good interview with Jay Gruden. So JP's going to join us here from the jump and spend some time with us. So one of the things that I wanted to get to before we get to the game on Sunday and other things is I just wanted to start with this Adrian Peterson thing and tell you what I sort of described on the radio show this morning, which was that I think I'm surprised at how wrapped up in this thing we have gotten. Like it's not even for the fan base, I don't think JP, a matter of, you know, Adrian Peterson's feelings.

It's more of like this opening to totally bash Jay Gruden, as if, you know, somehow deactivating Adrian Peterson was revealing of Jay Gruden not being a great coach, because it just seems that's been the reaction. And my reaction after the game was that that was just a smaller story, like down the line of things that interested me, that intrigued me that I was, you know, that I was thinking about, and the things that I were thinking about was, wow, that offense was pretty good. Wow, that defense sucked, and is Greg Minusky in trouble? You know, it was more about those things, and I thought and felt like on Monday and Tuesday, this whole Adrian Peterson deactivation story was the number one thing that people were talking about. Am I off in not recognizing this as like the story after the first game? Well, it's a little Thank you for having me, Kevin.

I don't think I've been on the podcast since you're back on the radio. I know. It's fun to have you on the podcast. That's why I had you on the podcast today. Glad to be here. But so with Peterson, I'm going to try an analogy here. I think in our country, what is absolutely more important is probably tax policy and, you know, pollution control or whatever issues you choose. Well, what people pay more attention to are the Kardashians.

in reality television. So if you look at Sunday's game against the Eagles, the utter collapse of that team, and I'll say both offensively and defensively in the second half, is what's most important for this football team to win games and to get to one-in-one and beat the Cowboys. But the salaciousness of AP being benched,

and then Morgan Moses calling it a slap in the face and the reports of veteran players being upset, and then Geis gets hurt, and oh, my God, why do you have AP on the bench? in the first place. It's way more sensational. So I'm not surprised that it's the bigger story, you know. But I agree with you completely in principle that why were you completely unable to run

the football? Why couldn't you get stops in the second half? You did not have a tired defense because the first drive after half time, they went 75 yards down the middle of the defense. So I think those are your bigger. The fact that we're hearing about communication breakdowns in the secondary in week one when you overhauled your coaching staff and your safety to fix those things, that's where the focus should be.

You know, I don't, I know the analogy you're making, and I think in most cases it would be a really good one. In this particular case, the reason that I, look, I spent an hour talking about Adrian Peterson and taking calls on the show yesterday, which is really why I started to think about this, because I was like, God, I don't even care that much. that he was deactivated on Sunday as a fan of the team. Because part of it is that I'm not invested in Adrian Peterson. Like Adrian Peterson's not my player.

You know, he wasn't Arizona's player. He wasn't New Orleans's player. He's Minnesota's player. If this was a guy that had his Hall of Fame career, you know, in Washington, I think I would have felt much differently about it. By the way, I'm not advocating for Jay Gruden. I think the move was silly. I think it was unnecessary.

I think they should have considered the larger part of this, which is it's going to get some attention. Some of the players in the locker room aren't going to be very happy. You know, the point that Doc Walker made to me on Monday, he's like, how about just the fact that you put Geis into a position before his very first game as a starter where there was this awkwardness about, you know, Adrian Peterson being deactivated? I think it just became for the fans this path to really go. after Jay Gruden because they thought it was such a silly and ridiculous, you know, decision, which by the way, I think it was. But I just didn't understand, I guess, for me, it wasn't

an emotional issue, I guess, as it was for others. I agree with you. I definitely think it serves as a vehicle to go after Jay. But I will say this. I think there are a number of fans, and I think maybe because this team is probably void of potential Hall of Fame. Amers, unless maybe Trent's going to go in, but I don't know what the Trent situation is anymore, if you would rep the Redskins going into Canton, maybe a guy like Carrigan, if the sack numbers get high enough. But this team doesn't have a star, and I think a lot of fans have latched on to Peterson and maybe, but it's also, I think it's like what Morgan Moses said.

Like, man, this is a Hall of Famer. He shouldn't be a healthy scratch. And I think fans just rallied around that. But here's what I think. They were up 17-0. If they end up winning that game 27-24, I don't think the Peterson thing is a big story. No, it's not at all. And obviously, any other player that was deactivated for the reasons that Gruden explained,

you would have said, that makes sense. I mean, you needed Wendell Smallwood, who was on the field for 19 snaps. But again, the larger context, of this, I don't think he made the right decision. I think it was, there were a lot of reasons, and in hindsight, he may even understand, you know what, I probably should have given more consideration to the fact that this was going to become a story, that, hell, for all I know, it may have bothered Geis before his very first game, and, you know, the fact that Geis has been injury prone, it may have been better to have Peterson up, but whatever. I just personally,

coming out of that game Sunday, there were things that I was not expecting. JP. I don't, I wouldn't put, you know, one-tenth of the loss, maybe one-tenth I would put on the offense. I'd put 90% of it on a defense that couldn't get off the field in the second half, which was supposed to be the strength of the team going in. And the offense, and the pass offense in particular was the biggest unknown going in. And it's week one, and I'm a big, you know, proponent of don't overreact to things you see in week one in the NFL. they rarely hold up. But what we saw on Sunday was a wow pass offense in the first half. And by the way, a wow pass offense in the second half if they could have connected on a bomb and if Richardson and

Vernon Davis had held on to balls that were right in their hands. And it may have continued to keep going. It didn't. And they didn't make those plays. I get that. But that was a wow for me coming out of that. I was encouraged with McLaurin and the speed and the separation and the scheme and Keenum. And then obviously on the flip side of that, a defense that was supposed to be all time, according to Josh Norman, and who Rob Ryan said was a top five talented defense in the NFL, you know, completely fell apart as bad as any defense can fall apart and a half. Yeah, I think my ratio is probably 70-30. I think you've got to be able to get a first down to just slow down the Eagles momentum. They ran.

had six plays in the third quarter. They didn't have a first down in the third quarter. You're often got to give you a little bit more. And you're totally right. Keenham just overthrew McLaurin for a bomb that would have completely changed the tempo of that game. Who knows what would have happened. And if Paul Richardson just catches that ball, I think that changes a lot. But there's, McClorin, I think, is a huge reason to be excited. I think Keenham played well. I think as much as we, you know, as much consternation as there was about Donald Penn and Eric Flowers. I think those guys played pretty well.

Defensively, I mean, I'm just so, I got into an argument with the guys on my podcast before the season about, like, all the hype around this defense. And they were only 15th or 16th, depending on the metric you want to look at last year. 20th. The DVOA metric, they were 20th. But there were good games. I mean, you can look at that stretch where they shut down Christian McCaffrey and Zee Calliott and Seek-O-Bark.

but I would fire back, and it's not just about the Saints game where you're in the Superdome, and Drew Brees is breaking records, and I don't know that the 85 Bears would have slowed the Saints down that night. But when they came back here and played Atlanta at home, and I think the Falcons put up 30 in the first half, they were down 40 to nothing to the Giants in what, week 14? I think we got to, I think the expectations for this defense have gotten out of control. And I think the second half performance is not who they are. But I think the expectation should be top 10, top 12. I think they need a lot of things to break right.

I think losing Ruben Foster really kind of hurt their athleticism. And that kind of got forgotten as we got closer to week one. And frankly, Kev, the front five is supposed to be the strength of this defense. And they were non-existent on Sunday in Philadelphia. You and I are on the total same page. And I've been cautioning and warning everybody that's gone overboard with this elite defense, great defense, top five defense. I'm like, well, no, look around the league.

There are some really talented defenses who, by the way, have already performed as really talented defense. I'm encouraged by the talent they have. I love John Allen. I think Duran Payne's got a chance to be a really good player. there's young talent. I'm optimistic about landing Collins in the addition, but you're 100% right. This jump to, you know, this is going to be a dominant defense. Where would that come from? I mean, the Atlanta, the best offensive teams they faced during that five and two stretch or six and three stretch torched them. And the only one that didn't was Green Bay and Aaron Rogers was on one leg in that game.

So, yeah, I'm with you on that. Totally with you on that. But again, to me even, and by the way, let's stay there for a second. So they tried to replace Greg Minusky in the offseason. We know that. Nobody wanted the job. Greg Williams didn't want the job. Todd Bowles probably didn't want the job. And they ended up keeping Minusky. There was real frustration. I don't know if you read it the same way as I did from Jay Gruden after the game on Sunday and during the press conference on Monday about the defense and specifically how it's been coached. Do you think that Minusky's on a short leash here? Sure. I think, frankly, everybody over there is on a short leash.

And if this goes terrible, I don't think O and four is possible, right? I think, I don't know how good. Mitch Trubisky looks bad. And I don't want to overreact to week one, but I'm not ruling out that Bears game as a potential win. I think they'll win one of the next two and be going to New York at one and two or even possibly two and one, who knows. But I think people are going to drastically overestimate the win they can get in New York.

But all of that's irrelevant. I would not be surprised at all if Minnusky, if New England comes in here and hangs a 50 spot, that's a tricky, tricky game. Something's going to give. The pressure in Ashburn right now is such that pipes could burst. and I think something could happen. And the second half in Philadelphia, if Sunday at FedEx Field against the Cowboys

looks like a lot of us are expecting where it's 70% Cowboys fans, and if they get out to a big lead, I think things could go sideways. Maybe, you know, Bruce is able to kind of steady the ship and keep the staff in place. I just, I don't know. Hold on.

So say it. Who do you think's in trouble if this thing goes sideways the next couple of weeks? I don't think they want to make a head coaching change in season. But if multiple teams are able to run their offense the way the Eagles did in the second half, a big part of making a coordinator change is trying to change the mindset on defense. But an even bigger part is having somebody that you can. replace a coordinator with. And I think if you look at the Skins' defensive staff, they have guys they can

promote to D.C. if they were to get rid of Minusky. I don't know that it's going to happen. The other thing, Kevin, I would say, is they had bowls in the building, and we know that they were chasing Greg Williams around. But do we know if that was Jay looking to make a change, or if that was Bruce and Dan and the front office looking at potential changes? I don't know. the answer. Maybe you have a better sense of what the answer is. I just know that I heard from Jay.

I heard from Jay on Sunday and on Monday a guy who was frustrated with the way his defense played. And perhaps, this is me in the way I interpreted tone and words that he's also frustrated with the way it was coached. He specifically pointed out the miscommunications in the secondary. He also talked about, you know, three-man rushes, four-man rushes. You got to get to the quarterback and you got to figure out way to get to the quarterback. If it's not with three men, it's with four man or more. So I, you know, and he also, there was a very stern, almost warning-like, you know, quote where he said, on the Deshawn Jackson touchdown, where they clearly were not prepared for that from a coverage standpoint, we can't have that happen again.

Yeah, but I've talked to Jay on a lot of Mondays. I think he was just frustrated, period. And I don't know that that frustration means he's going to look to make a change to his staff. But, you know, if this thing continues, and it's just so hard because we started the show by you saying, don't overreact to too much in week one. Right. I still think the skins have a pretty good defense. I still think they'll finish top half of the league and chase a top 10 defense. But losing John Allen is a big deal.

And I don't know that he – I had a coach tell me he'd be back for Dallas. I don't know that that's going to happen. Clearly, they looked significantly worse once Allen was off the field. I think the team has to make a commitment, though, to not just leaving pain and ionitis out there the whole time. You've got to let Stettle play. I think with the roster moves they've made, going to 7D linemen,

leads me to believe that they don't think Brantley or Allen's going to be able to go against the Cowboys. And their five active will be pain ionitis, settle, Hester, and forgive me for not remember the dude they signed yesterday's name. I don't know it either. Yeah, that could be big news for Zeke Elliott and the Dallas offense. You know, the funny thing about, you know,

John Allen's loss is, you know, the defense had better results in the first half. It wasn't dominant in the first half. You know, the first drive ended with, you know, essentially, you know, a penalty on Deshawn Jackson for the thing that he got into with Quentin Dunbar, which actually Dunbar started, that ended that drive. Then they drove it down the Redskins throat for 12 plays in seven minutes before they decided to pass on the field goal and went for a fourth and two, which Duran Payne probably made

the play at a half. And then they scored a touchdown two drives later. So I just, by the way, I, I too agree with you. I think that this defense will be and should be no worse than somewhere in that 10 to 12 range. But the big concern going in was would it be coached well enough? One of the things I said multiple times ad nauseum was if they had gotten Todd Bowles or Greg Williams, I'd feel so much better not only about the defense, but about the team in particular. But they didn't. So we'll see.

I mean, I'm with you. Like I watched Denver. I stayed up and watched that game. Denver's defense to me on paper has to be a top three defense talent-wise. and it was horrible on Monday night against the Raiders, a team that turned the ball over and allowed sacks all last year. But I still think Denver's defense is going to end up being a really good defense this year. Sure. And there's going to be a regression might not be the right word, but teams will even now. I don't think Case Keenham's throwing for 380 every week either.

No, but to me, out of everything that we saw on Sunday, the most intriguing is, is, well, what if Case Keenham is that kind of a guy that is the perfect fit for Jay Gruden? He takes chances. He clearly saw the field quickly and was decisive early and ended up with 380. And I love the people that say, well, that last drive really, you know, puffed up his stats. Well, okay, he had 300 going into that last drive and was still really good going into that last drive. And I would point out to those people that he was two feet off of another 7.5. Exactly.

Exactly. The numbers were pretty fair. And had two balls flat out dropped, he could have had a 475-yard day, and by the way, they could have won going away if some of those plays that happened. I don't know if they would have won going away. As you said, they were significant plays. They would have changed the context of the game. It wouldn't have been a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter had they connected on that play.

Or if Paul Richardson catches the next pass on second 10 and goes for 12 to 15 yards and you move the chain. That part of it was really, I don't know what we're going to see on Sunday. I thought the game plan was smart to attack Philadelphia's weakness. I'm not one of these guys that says you have to be balanced. I know that it's better to be balanced, and it's better to have a run game to go with it. And I just had Mike Shanahan on the radio show, and he's like, you've got to be able to run the football. But you do have teams that sometimes recognize, hey, this is what we can do well today. next week against the next opponent, maybe we'll be able to run the ball well.

I don't know. The net of it for me, J.P., out of Sunday, is I can't wait to see this offense again this coming Sunday. You know, of all the things New England does incredibly well, and there are a lot of them, is they tailor their game plan each week to attack the opposing defense. And I think more teams would be well-served to do that rather than try to establish what they want to do. Gruden, when he comes out, his scripted plays are always nailed. It's what happens after that. And then I talked to B-Mitch about this.

In the second half, he was telling me that the Eagles switched from zone, the Keenom was really picking apart to a lot more man. And I think you've got to be able to react to that as well. I thought they did, though. People were open. They just didn't execute. The McLaurin play you love to have back with the Paul Richardson. Just catch that ball at the first.

ball. It would have been about the 40-yard line, different scenario. Of course. I mean, that's the thing. It's like, look, good teams, you know, even good teams miss on some of those long bombs. You know, you got good quarterbacks that'll overthrow, you know, a receiver. McLaurin looks like he's going to be a difficult guy to overthrow all year long.

But, but yeah, I mean, like, I understand the, you know, and Brian and Doc, and, you know, I've worked with them for years, and you've worked with Brian for many years, and they're very two guys that are very results driven. Like, they didn't win the game, so that means they sucked. You know, and I just, and I know as fans, and as people who enjoy the game, I just sometimes view it differently. I saw an offense that was capable, and I saw an offense that in the second half didn't really get stopped.

They just, there were penalties in dropped balls and one big misconnection, and it's a shame that they didn't get a fourth, fifth, or sixth, the drive opportunity to make some of those plays happen, but they didn't because the defense couldn't get off the field and give them more opportunities. I don't know. I look at a game and I say, if you're going to score on five out of ten drives, you know, in four out of six in the first half, you better win those football games. I had a Redskins coach tell me Sunday evening, if you told me we were going to score 27 and not turn the ball over, I would have told you we win that game. So I think that's a pretty fair synopsis, honestly.

You got to look at the defense after that one. So is Jordan Reed going to play on Sunday? You know, the J.P. Holtz waiver yesterday would be an indication of that. Is that how you see it? Absolutely. I mean, I thought there was a pretty good chance he would play last week. He was certainly optimistic late for the week. You know, concussions are tricky.

You never know. but when you wave J.P. Holtz, unless, J.P. Holtz is not a future hall of favor. There could be another tight end somewhere. He may be available on Saturday. Right. Or there's somebody on the Chiefs Practice Squad they like and kept an eye on. Of course.

That doesn't, one doesn't guarantee that the other happens, but I think it's a pretty strong indicator, like you said. So back to Geis for a moment. So, you know, not to beat a dead horse, But another thing for me, coming out of Sunday, was less having to do with Adrian Peterson being deactivated, more with, my God, this second round pick that they told us they stole, you know, by by the way, trading back into the second round.

You know, they were so convinced everybody else was going to whiff on this first round talent that they traded back and got him anyway. And let's face it, a year ago, before he got hurt in training camp, the fan base, the team, everybody was a hell of a lot more excited about seeing Geis than Duran Payne, their first round pick. You know, people were really excited. That's the highest, you know, they drafted a running back in years. I think Liddell Betts was the last time they drafted a running back in the top two rounds.

So there was all that excitement. I had no problem personally with them going with Geis because we've seen young legs, young running backs here in recent years make major impacts on teams. Kremont, you know, Kamara, Zeke Elliott. You know, the list goes on and on. We've had this resurgent of young-legged running backs that are making major differences on teams. So if they thought he was going to be that, I didn't have a problem with that. But now, J.P., we have to be left wondering, is this guy going to be a guy that's just injury-prone his whole career? And we never get to see what Darius Geis could potentially do because he was injured at LSU also. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say differently right now. So meniscus is tricky.

They're going to wait and see if it starts to kind of rebuild and reattach right away. If it does, then they can just, maybe this is only a week. Maybe it's just two weeks. If it doesn't, you probably have to do surgery. And then you're probably talking a month, six weeks. But then after that, what are we talking about that? This is still a guy that has problems, it has surgically repaired knees on both sides, or a surgery repaired knee and a knee that he had stem cell treatment on?

it's tricky. He is such a, you know, bubbly, gregarious young guy that fans just love and are attracted to him. And I get it. I mean, he has just, like, natural charisma. But he's got 27, I think, carries in the NFL, and more than half of those are in the preseason and two seasons. It's not a big body of work.

No. And, you know, again, while everybody's, you know, rip up. Jay and and empathizing with or sympathizing with Adrian Peterson, it's like, wait a minute, guys, we're missing the picture here. Geis was the second round pick. He was supposed to be the star running back last year. And if he hadn't gotten hurt, they would have never signed Adrian Peterson. And now he's healthy and he gets to go and he gets hurt in the first game.

That second round pick, that future star running back that the franchise is counting on, may never ever get to that point. That's a big takeaway from week one. Well, don't pull on the second round pick thread because you're talking no picking. Yeah, not a good run. Ryan Anderson, Sue Kravins, I think you've got to go back to Preston to have a second round pick that delivered. It has not been a good run of second round picks. I mean, Ryan Anderson, as you mentioned, Sue Kravins, Preston Smith,

Trent Murphy ended up being suspended for games, being hurt. he's actually playing pretty well. Now, David Amerson in 2013, Jarvis Jenkins in 2011. I'm going through these. Preston Smith is way better than all these. No doubt. And by the way, it had a hell of a first game in Green Bay. Yeah. Hell of a first game. I mean, he's always shown the ability to have big games. It's kind of delivering that week after week, but compared to the rest of the names, we just read out. Well, we didn't get to the three-second round. Yeah, we didn't even mention the three-second rounders in 2008, which maybe the worst draft in NFL history, courtesy of one Vincent Serato and company.

By the way, I had him on the podcast, Aaron, what was it? Maybe three, four months ago. I actually really personally like Vinny. I don't think he likes me much, whatever, but he's invited me on his radio show before. But we used to have, when Snyder owned the station and Vinny was there, Vinny would sit down if we were doing a remote and hang out with us. He's actually a great guy. He just shouldn't have been a general manager. And I brought up that 2008 draft, and he basically, you know, tried to push some of these picks off on other people, like maybe the owner. But anyway, I digress. A common theme with people that formerly worked for him. Yes.

There's a lot of revisionist history usually. Yeah, there usually is. But what's the latest with Trent Williams? No news here over the last week. The last piece of news we really had, right, was the D. Hall podcast where he continues to make news on that podcast saying sooner rather than later a week after he said zero chance. Yeah, you know, I don't know if you listen to that full podcast, but the full, the context of it. Agreed. Did not give me the impression that Trent was coming back to.

Totally agree with you. Honestly, the context of it told me that Trent was really hoping Bruce would trade him and Bruce didn't trade him. and now he doesn't know what to do. That was kind of the vibe I got from what DeAngelo said. That's a great. That's a perfect summary of that, of DeAngelo Hall's podcast. And I didn't put it that way. I played some of that and talked about how if you listen to the whole thing,

you're really not sure if DeAngelo's really convinced that Trent's on the way back. But what you just said is the perfect summary, that Trent Williams was praying you'd get traded to Houston. And when it didn't happen, he's like, damn, Now what? Am I really going to sit out and eat all that money? I don't want to play for these guys, but I don't want to eat all that money either. Yeah, that's a perfect summary of what I think DeAngelo Hall was trying to explain what Trent Williams felt on the podcast last week. That's how I thought.

And I think the situation with Trent now is he's going to come back at some point. He's not going to sit out the whole year because then this year never counts towards his deal. I think he wants to only have one year left after this year. and I just don't know when that will be. I wrote a story on NBC Sports Washington earlier this week that just because AP is going to be the running back now with Geis being injured, I don't know that that changes things for Trent

because sure the two of them are friends, but they were friends a month ago when Trent didn't show up and they were friends two months ago when Trent didn't show up. Like, Trent's got to make his decision on his own time, on his own course, and I could be wrong on that. I just don't think it will change. I bet AP called him and was like, please come back, but I don't know that that would make a difference at this point.

Yeah, and one of those things, you know, I was looking for, you know, week one, and NFL network or NFL.com does a good job of this of breaking down, you know, all the serious injuries to every team. And there's really not a tackle, you know, a meaningful offensive lineman or tackle that went down in week one. The Browns, the Browns had their starter Kendall Lamb ruled out before the Titans game, but there's a possibility he'll be back this week. But other than that, really no serious injuries to offensive linemen, that could accelerate it, but that only could accelerate a conclusion

if Bruce is actually going to listen to anybody. Well, and that's the biggest thing, Ken. We both know and reported that New England had interest. You know, I did hear a little bit that when other teams realized that maybe Trent wanted a deal right away, that kind of limited what the interest level was. But you've got to wonder if Bruce just was committed to never trading him, that it wouldn't have mattered if Houston gave the Laramie Tunsel offer,

which I think the Red Pins absolutely should have taken if that was ever offered. But I don't know that that ever existed. Yeah, and I don't know that they would have gotten that offer for that kind of offer for Houston. Yeah, but you would have gotten something less than that, which still would have been something very significant, like a first and a third or a first and a second, as you just described, you know, or maybe even a little bit more than that, which would have been, to me, the right thing to do. But he wants to win this. You know, he wants Trent to come back crawling and play and live up to his deal. And, you know, like I've said this before, I've been

critical of the organization for a lot of things. And I do think that it's Pennywise Pound foolish, foolish, but that's my perspective. But I also trying to put myself into his in the organization's shoes. I understand the frustration. I understand that, you know, it wasn't just that he's holding out. He's implicating, you know, through surrogates, our medical staff, our training staff, or a combination of both. And he's got two years left on his deal, not one.

And so I do, I can certainly understand their position. I just think ultimately it's not a precedent that they would be setting. Like, this is a unique situation. Trent Williams, Ryan Kerrigan's not going to be in a similar situation a year from now. He's not the same kind of player. But anyway, that's my view. What else? I guess that's it.

You've got something you wanted to talk about. Go ahead, please. No, just we're, I'm actually sitting down with Adrian Peterson today for an interview. And we'll get to talk for a good little while. And honestly, tell me your questions about how big of a deal this became. I want to ask him that and just think if he's surprised by the reaction to it all or if he thinks it's appropriate or what. So check that out on the Redskins talk podcast.

Awesome. That's a great get. And we'll be listening to it. And, you know, on that situation, too, ultimately, I think the juice wasn't worth the squeezing for Jay Gruden to do it. But the thing that frustrated me as a fan is I don't want to hear Morgan Moses telling me that it's a slap in the face and he's going to go talk to the coach. Not when he was the most penalized guy in the league last year and had a bunch more on Sunday.

Well, how about the comment that the league's out to get him? Yeah, and that the league's targeting him. Really? Do me a favor. Just block better. That's all we want. And if you do feel like the league's targeting you, there's got to be a different way to go about it rather than complain about it publicly when you just lost the game. Your team just lost a game in which you were penalized multiple times in.

Did you see, I don't know if you're having to see this. Tom Boswell, I think, had probably the most ruthless tweet I've seen in a long time. We were all in the Redkins media room in Aspern when everybody saw it at the same time. and everybody's just like, whoa. I didn't see it. Tell me what it was. Something to the effect of the only thing Morgan Moses doesn't hold is his tongue. Yeah, I mean, look, there's certain people at a certain age having certain adult life experiences that when a team loses a game and you got a guy threatening to go in and tell the coach it was a slap in the,

face to sit Adrian Peterson and then he's complaining that the reps that are targeting him and he didn't perform. The natural reaction is, shut the hell up and just play better yourself. Focus on what you do and do it much better than how you've been doing it. I certainly think that was Jay Gruden's reaction. You do? I mean, I don't know that, but I would certainly guess that. Yeah.

Thanks. talk to you soon. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you, Kevin. All right. Great to catch up with J.P. Finley, as always. I did, Aaron, pull up this Tom Boswell tweet. The only thing Morgan Moses doesn't hold is his tongue is what Boz tweeted out on Monday. Yeah, I mean, my position on this is real simple. I think Jay Gruden screwed up.

Like, I think he should have activated Adrian Peterson. I think he probably thinks now he should have activated Adrian Peterson. Mike Shanahan told me on the radio show today, and if you missed that, it'll be on the Team 980s website, and you should listen to that interview. I think I tweeted it out as well. He said that sometimes those are the things you realize after the fact, hey, I made a mistake there. Like I didn't consider the whole context. I didn't consider that some of my players would have been upset, that it would have been a media thing. And he also suggested it's one of those things you've got to address with your team. But the bottom line is, to use Tommy's favorite expression, the juice wasn't worth the squeezing. Like you put geese into this position of being uncomfortable, you made your locker room upset, you made the media focus on the wrong thing, and for what?

19 special team snaps in its own vacuum. I understand the football reasons, but there were more than just football reasons in that particular game. But with that said, what really upset me is what clearly upset Boz. It's like, shut the hell up. If you're part of that team and you've been a part of nothing but losing teams over the last few years or very mediocre teams, you do your job. It's not your decision to make as to who's activated and who isn't activated, especially when you're an offensive lineman who led the league last year in penalties and had another couple of crucial penalties on Sunday.

And don't complain that you're being targeted because I don't, by the way, Cooley called me. Remember Cooley was on and said something about the Redskins being targeted. He then called me back later on that afternoon after he had looked at some of the film, Aaron. And he did say, you know what? Some of those penalties were penalties. They weren't getting targeted. And he said that he had a conversation with Morgan Moses to say, no, this is a penalty. You got to get your hands in closer, not on the outside.

So, you know, typical of this organization, let's be fair, They got a bunch of guys that run their mouths all the time and don't perform. That's what we've seen more than anything over the years. And it is a cultural, it's a culture thing. That is something where these players feel totally empowered to talk about how great they are before they've performed and to complain about everybody else when they don't perform. Anyway, I had a couple of other things that I wanted to get to real quickly. A couple of NFL related things.

First of all, the Redskins point spread is back up to five, Aaron, so you have that. So the Sharps bet it down to four, and now they're coming in and jumping on a pretty good number for Dallas minus. And I would expect that it might go to five and a half somewhere in there. I still think I'm going to end up liking the Redskins plus the points on Friday when we get to the smell test. A couple of other things, though. real quickly, NFL-related. Because there's some really interesting week-two games that will be coming up. And it's always that way in the NFL,

because what you get is you get some major disappointments in week one, even though you shouldn't overreact to week one. And then you get teams that are sort of in a corner in week two. It's like we can't go on too with the expectations that we had. And they end up playing teams in some cases that are in the same position. you know, so you get a bunch of those. So like the Bears Broncos game on Sunday. For me, I think Denver's got a great defense.

They didn't show that on Monday night. They showed a defense that was porous. They got lit up by Oakland, 10 of 14 on third down. They couldn't get them off the field. And now they're playing a Bears team coming off that Thursday night opener where Trubisky was terrible. And they were good defensively, but this was supposed to be a Super Bowl contending year. The Bears can't start 0-2.

and while the expectations for the Broncos aren't high, they are high for that defense. Defense has to have a bounce back performance in that game. Then you get the Cleveland Browns with all the expectations they had, and they get blown out in week one by 30, and they go on the road on Monday night to face the Jets, Aaron. A Jets team that I actually think is better than most people think they blew a 16-0 lead lost to Buffalo on Sunday. What a big pressure spot for the Browns, right, on Monday night?

Oh, yeah. Because you know who they have the next two weeks after the Jets on Monday night? The Rams at home on a Sunday night and then at the Ravens. So Cleveland immediately, if they don't win on Monday night, could be staring 0 and 4. And by the way, at that point, they're just the same old Browns. Yep. Pretty much. So you have that.

The Falcons were expected to contend for a playoff spot this year. I think the Steelers had the most woeful and disappointing performance in week one. The Falcons may have been two. Brown's Falcons somewhere in there. Falcons are at home on Sunday night playing the Eagles. If the Falcons start 0-2, it's a big disappointment. They then have to go to an indie team that played pretty well without Andrew Luck. Jacoby Percette was pretty good.

They've got the Rams, the Seahawks, the Texans coming up in the next few. weeks, the Titans who played well in the opener. So some week two tends to be, it's still early in the season, but it's funny how if you lose week one, there's some pressure on you. Like there's some pressure on Pittsburgh at home on Sunday against Seattle. You know, they got to play better and they really have to win that game, especially if Baltimore goes out and wins big again. The Ravens in week two have the Cardinals at home, right? They're a 14-point favorite. So if they blow out the Cardinals. I know it's the Dolphins and Cardinals to start, and the Steelers start 0 and 2. They're in a hole. I think a very interesting game is the old

AFC West rivalry, Chiefs Raiders Sunday. Late game. Chiefs, obviously are the Chiefs. They're an eight-point favorite at Oakland, who was impressive on Monday night football, short week. Maybe that's why the line's a little bit big. But all of a sudden, the Raiders, who by the way showed that Josh Jacobs, that first round pick out of Alabama, you know, it's funny about these Bama players, like you don't necessarily know how great they are at Bama, but then they get in the NFL and it's like, oh, we just didn't see them play enough because they killed everybody. Jacobs looked really good. Tyrol Williams looked really good as a wide receiver. Some big games. The biggest game of Week 2 is Saints Rams, the rematch of the NFC championship game.

But I'm looking forward to the week two games because the teams that you thought might be good that could potentially start 0-2. You know, you tend to write to the week. them off. And that's a mistake too to write them off after week two. There's still 14 weeks left in the season. But it doesn't mean that there isn't pressure on them to win the game. The other big NFL story since we checked out yesterday is the Antonio Brown story. Antonio Brown accused of sexually assaulting his former trainer. It was a civil lawsuit filed in a Southern District in Florida yesterday. Shefter had all of the details of the accusations. Brown's attorney responded, that this is, you know, was a consensual personal relationship between Brown

and this woman who also went to Central Michigan with him. You know, these things are so complicated because you, no one knows. No one knows. And in this day and age, it's so, you've got to tread so lightly when you talk about this stuff. But to me, it's like, I read through the whole thing and it's like, I don't know if it was consensual. I can tell you this. It's, it's, it's, it, If it comes out ultimately that this was consensual and this was a chance to grab money, this was a money grab, it's not going to shock me. And it won't shock me if it turns out to be rape. And there may be something in between.

I don't even know what's in between, you know, consensual and rape. I don't know if this stuff is truly a black and white issue or if there's some gray here, if there's in between. What we do know is that Antonio Brown's a troubled person. He is a troubled human being. being. Doesn't mean he's a rapist, though. Doesn't mean that. But then again, Aaron, he might be. You know, the league, by the way, is going to investigate this with all of its brilliant investigators who couldn't even access various hotel tapes in the past or so they told us.

Stay tuned on this one, because Brown was supposed to practice in New England today. As we're recording this podcast, there's no update to the story, but I would imagine that over the next several hours, there are going to be updates to this story. I can't unless something changed. I can't imagine him playing on Sunday. I can't either. Not with this accusation. Right.

This accusation is a league goes into protect the shield mode, much more now than it did a few years ago. And if they're going to be investigating this thing and it's going to take time, he's going to end up on that commissioner's exemplarist. By the way, separate conversation, gambling related. The Patriots are 19-point favorites over Miami and Sunday. it's the biggest NFL favorite since Denver with Peyton Manning was a 26.5 point favorite over Jacksonville in 2013. I don't remember that, by the way. I don't know why I didn't remember that

when I read it. 26 and a half, like if you had said to me, what's the biggest NFL favorite over the last 10 years after the Patriots in 2007? I would have probably said, I don't know, 17, 18, 19 somewhere. I don't remember 26. But Denver was killing people in 2013. Oh, no, I remember it was good. 26 and a half. Anyway, they didn't cover in that game. They won 35 to 19. The Patriots are the biggest road favorite since 2007 when they were 19-point favorites in Baltimore. You remember that game?

I do. Baltimore really hung in there. Yeah, I mean, if it wasn't for that time out, they might have won. Exactly. And so the other piece of this is that when the Patriots have been favored by 19 or more, this will be the sixth time. So it's happened five times previously. They are 0 and 5 against the number.

Well, pretty much whatever you have big spreads like that, if you're going to bet it, you take the number. I do want to look to see what the Broncos were that whole year because I can go back and find that on covers. Because that's interesting to me. I did not really think that the Broncos, I knew the Broncos were big favorites in that season, multiple times, but I had no idea that they were 26 and a half point favorites during that season.

It was the 20, that would have been a 2013, 2014 season. So here it is. So they opened up, they were a 10 point favorite, 10 point favorite, 10 point favorite, 10 point favorite, 13 point favorite. Then they were a 5 point favorite at KC, a one point dog against Patriots. You're going backwards from the season. I am going backwards, my fault. Yeah. So it started 7.5, 3 and a half.

Then they were 16 point favorite over the Raiders, 10.5 point favorite over Philly, 7.5 point favorite, then a 26.5 point favorite over Jacksonville in week six of the 2013 season. And they finished 13, 10, 10, 10. And that was the year that they lost to Seattle in the Super Bowl. They were an 8 point favorite over the Chargers in the playoff game, a 5 point favorite over New England in the NFC championship game that year, which they won, 26, 16. But the Patriots in 2007, as we go back even further. I remember their numbers being much bigger than that. The Patriots in 2007, here it is.

They opened up as a six-point favorite, three-and-a-half-point favorite, and then it was 16 and a half, seven and a half, 15 and a half, 15 over Washington. Remember that game 52 to 7 in Foxborough? Joe Gibbs' worst beating ever. five point favorite of the Colts and then they were 16, 24 over Philly, they only won by three, and then 19 over Baltimore

and they only won that game by three. And then they were 10 and a half point favorite, a 20 and a half point favorite over the Jets, a 22 point favorite over Miami. By the way, in these games where they were a 20 point favorite or more in 2019, they were 0 and 1, I'll take the 19 as well,

0 and 2, 0 and 3, 0, 0 and 4, 0 and 4 against the number with that big number, which, by the way, I think I just mentioned when we talked about 19 or more five times in the Belichick era. So there you go. It all happened really during 2007. All right.

Sorry to have bored some of you. And with others, I bet you were interested in that because I was. Anyway, I guess that's it for today. The U.S. basketball team lost to France. I think we all saw the possibility that they could lose this World Cup and they're eliminated in the quarterfinals by France

by 10 in that game. I think a lot of people saw this coming potentially when they had that loss in one of those exhibition games to Australia. And anything else? I'll tell you what I'm looking forward to, really. I'm looking forward to Maryland. Maybe we'll try to get somebody on Friday

to talk about the Terps game at Temple. I will have Loxley on the radio show Friday. So there's that. I'm done. Did I miss anything today? Christian Yelich is out for the year, which it's definitely, you know, big for the playoffs. You have an MVP candidate going down. Well, what's really interesting is that in the wild card race, Milwaukee's actually very much in it. They've won five games in a row. They're only a game behind the Cubs for the second wildcard. It's about only three and a half behind the Nats. And by the way, they've got a very easy schedule the rest of the way. I was looking at the Brewer's schedule earlier this morning. They play a bunch of

bottom feeders the rest of the way. They've got Miami, they have San Diego, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Colorado. They do have one series at St. Louis. So they actually, with Yelich, I think they would have had a chance to really get hot here, which they've gotten hot here recently, winning five in a row, and perhaps made a run towards a playoff spot. I don't know if it'll happen without them. But don't be surprised ultimately if the Brewers are the Nats wild card opponent. That could be it. By the way, Bryce Harper hit another home run last night. He's got 102 RBIs and 31 home runs on the year. The bottom line is, I think we talked about this together on the show last week. His year isn't what people thought it was. The perception of Bryce Harper's season so far is that

the first season in Philadelphia has been a big disaster. Not true. Not true. Now, has he struck out a lot? He has struck out a lot. Has he, is his batting average? What it's been? I think he's hitting 254 right now, something like that. It's not the lowest it's been, but he's hitting 254. He's got 31 homers, 102 RBIs on the season. Right now, if you compare Harper's season to others, he's having a better year than he had last year. He's got more RBIs already, and he will probably end up with more home runs and probably with a better batting average.

2017 he didn't have he played oh 2017 he played in far fewer games um 2016 this is a much better year than he had in 2016 all right much better year than 2016 and 2015 was the year the MVP year and you know that was 42 homers and only 99 RBIs but remember how many times he got walked in his on base percentage was through the roof that year right now his on base percentage is 371 which is You know, sort of on the low end for him, definitely. But he's not having a terrible year, which a lot of people assumed he was having. 31 home runs in 102 RBIs is not a bad year for anybody. All right, that's it for the day.