The Kevin Sheehan Show - Redskins Schedule: Not Prime Time

Episode Date: May 8, 2020

Kevin recapped the Redskins' schedule which was prime-time free for the first time since 1982. He gave a first-blush "best-case/worst-case" Skins' record for 2020. Scott Van Pelt jumped on for a few minutes to talk NFL Schedule, "The Last Dance", and more. <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. I'm here. Aaron is back home. He's producing this podcast today. And from the top, Scott Van Pelt's going to join us here on a Friday because I know that the thing that he enjoys more than anything is draft grades and then going the day after schedule day through each schedule and predicting records. Because that's always. for those of us that have bet on sports over the years, that's the thing that we love to do. Is there anything sillier this time of year than going through a schedule on May 8th and trying to predict a record which every your network and NFL network did for three hours last night? Of course not, but given the current state of affairs, the only thing that would have been dumber than doing it would have been not doing it. So in the absence of Stanley Cup playoffs and NBA playoffs and major league baseball and anything else, you know, three hours of week three, what do you think of this one?

I mean, sure, I get it. But as you and I have said, Kevin, as long as we've known one another, the idea that you'd have any sense in May of what September will bring, particularly this year when there will be no sort of assimilation for the new. guys and the rookies like none. How the hell can anyone have any idea what things will look like? And then, and then, of course, we have all the wild cards that come with once you start playing and somebody gets dinged or nicked, you know, Coach Joe, shout out to Coach Joe. You get dinged or nicked with a knee.

Get a groin. You know, then you know, then it's always a tough one or a hammie. You don't want to get dinged with a hammie because that's a several week kind of a deal. But, of course, it's all nonsense. But I do think what is interesting for every fan is to see when does his or her team play in a big spot. And it was interesting, not surprising, but interesting to see that for the first time and forever, it feels like the Redskins don't have a Monday night game. And, I mean, you know what, based on performance through the past however many years,

you know, they shouldn't be on big time stages. They just haven't been worthy of it. Am I sensing I did not stay up to watch your show last? last night. I do record it, and I've mentioned this to you before. Often I get to it in some days I don't. Did you go through and do record predictions last night of teams on the show? No, I'm not doing the show at the moment. Oh, that's right. You're down in Florida. That's right. Yep, I'll be on Sunday post last day. But I didn't do it, though.

Yeah. Well, you know, to the Redskins comment, it is the first time, first time since It's 1982. So we are now 38 years, right? 38, 18 and 20, 38 years since the last time the Redskins weren't scheduled for a primetime game. Now, 1982, for those listening, was a strike short in season. I was able to go back and find the original schedule. They played nine games that year.

And the Redskins were not scheduled for a primetime game in 1982. That is the last time the Redskins weren't scheduled in a 16-game schedule for a primetime game, which is really amazing. One of the things you typically get with schedule makers is even if you have a bad team, but that bad team is in a big market, they will get at least one prime time game. The Redskins and the Lions didn't have one primetime game scheduled. And to me, it is absolutely a sign of just how irrelevant the Redskins have become to the networks in the league. And it's ironic, Scott, because every year you get the Forbes valuations of sports franchises around the world. And the Redskins have always been sort of in the top three or four in the NFL, top 10, you know, worldwide in terms of overall value.

and I think they're still in the top 10, top 12. But the league and the networks don't care because regardless of their value, if they were to sell the entity, which it's not for sale, they realize that nobody comes to the games and few people are watching the games in this big city, and they didn't reward them with a primetime game. It was actually a surprise because even when I do my stupid mock draft, not mock draft, mock schedule, which I did earlier this week, I had them with what I thought to be the minimum of like two primetime games they didn't get one.

No, and I mean, you're right. Typically you put them with, you know, the Eagles or the Giants in a spot like that where it's at least a divisional type of game. I mean, look, the Giants who haven't been, you know, great, the Jets who haven't been great, they're always in the Monday night spot because the New York market is, the New York market. But, I mean, look, win some games and have fans. fans come to the stadium and, you know, and also just not just one games, Kevin, but I mean, we know how often in those big spots they've been not just the wrong side, but they haven't

been close. I mean, they've gotten blown out a lot in those games. So, I mean, whatever. I mean, I think they and Jacksonville's got 14 1 o'clock games and Washington has 13 1 o'clock games. Like that just, that lets you know how you're viewed by the league. Yeah, the league actually, since they went to, um, an earlier flex opportunity, which starts in week five, and I know you know I sort of follow all this stuff. Everybody on the East Coast has every game listed as a one o'clock game. There's no more, you know, scheduled 425 games between East Coast teams after week five

or starting in week five because they can flex that one o'clock into the four o'clock window. But it doesn't matter. More likely than not, the Redskins and the Redskins and, and the Jags are going to end up with all of those games being 1 o'clock games. Right. You just know that you're not in any of the national windows for anybody. Right. Now, you have to get flexed into it.

Exactly. But the fact that you get that Thursday Thanksgiving game with the Cowboys, I mean, I like it. You know, God knows how many times we've told the story of the Cowboys trying to kill my grandpa on the 74 or whatever. And, you know, I don't mind that spot. I mean, you're going to be sitting around your family watching football. I mean, we certainly hope. By then, things will be somewhat more back to something that we recognize and, you know, playing the Cowboys on that day is fine with me.

All right. So I'm not going to keep you for long because I know you're busy. But what's been your favorite thing so far over the last two months during doing shows? Like, have you had a favorite moment or a favorite interview? you've had to be creative. We all have in this business, especially in long form, although thankfully we've had free agency in the draft here in the NFL.

But have you had a couple of favorite moments? Because I think most people believe you've done a spectacular job with your spot, given that there are no live highlights to show. Well, I mean, I think more than anything, Kenan people just appreciate the feeling like there's some sense. even if it's just the graphics and the music and the mindlessness of sitting there with my dumbass being there. Like, I'm just sort of there to keep you company.

I think there's something that's, I mean, people have used the word soothing, and I'm thinking that's really never replied to me, but if that's what they feel like our hour is, then great. The segment we did with recognizing the students around the country was really, really cool, the senior night bit where we were acknowledging these athletes. and schools around the country that were on the verge of maybe winning a state title for the first time ever. I mean, that was a truly, I mean, a really, really cool thing to be part of to find out about these stories that in a million years, Kevin, I never would have known about.

And so the idea that we got to give them their moment was an incredible, incredible sort of, I don't even know what the word is, like responsibility or honest. I mean, I really mean that. What an honor it is to feel like we gave them something. So, like, from the TV, from the content side, that's by far in a way the most memorable thing. But just for the purposes of you and me, and your listeners, like, what so much of these interviews have become are you just FaceTime people, which, by the way, totally changes the whole paradigm for our business.

because, you know, can we get a crew to so-and-so's house? We don't need to get a crew to anyone's out. Just FaceTime them. Like, the technology is jacked up. Everybody knows it. It might pause. It might freeze. It might look like, no, it might not.

It will look like less than we're used to having. But we all just sort of struggling to go, this is where we are. Like, I can see that sticking beyond this point. What I'm getting to here is the two to five minutes prior to the interview, actually being taped, where Jack Nicholas and his wife Barbara are in the kitchen trying to figure out how to get the phone horizontal. Where Marshaun Lynch is in his car trying to figure out, like, we can't see you, but we can hear you, and he, and like, I can't, like, I swear to God, Jim Nance was concerned about what,

what his background looked like, and he was worried about a certain picture, and I was like, Jim, no one cares, but, like, it's Jim, and I, I mean, he couldn't have been kinder with his time, and if he wants his backdrop to look, you know, how he's, you know, how he's, he once it's a I get it. Like, we had an interview with the Beastie Boys,

and he had a piece of art that actually had a nude woman. It was a drawing, but he was like, I don't know if you want to see this woman's boob. And I mean, I swear to you,

if we did the best 30 minutes of trying to get people ready to do the interview, you could make a case that it's better than the interviews because it's just this, Katie Ledeckie, bless her heart.

Like, the phone dropped 10 times. We could barely see her. And like, these are some of the most accomplished athletes in the world. This sounds like a whole this sounds like a show one night.

Have you kept all of it? Yes and no. I mean, like, there's a certain, and we often use, we often use, like, those moments before we start, like, going to break, where there's a fun moment, and you're kind of laughing with people. But there's a, there's a,

we typically only do that with people who we know with whom we have a relationship, because there's an understanding here, like, I'm not trying to. Certainly, we wouldn't try to get yet you know what I'm saying like no one's trying to um you know to air content that the guest would have had no sort of idea of his content right um but like barclay who's the best uh and we have a great relationship he he loves my guy stanford steve and so before charles starts he's just he's just fbomb and me and steve and i'm calling him a bald ugly bastard

and it's just like we were howling with laughter before because he couldn't figure out how to get the thing going and it's just like i mean you And then we're going to talk about the Jordan Doc, which is, like, you know, interesting and more serious. But, like, if we had aired this to five minutes before, I guarantee people would have enjoyed it more. So, honestly, like, that's been the thing. Just these, you know, Ron Rivera's daughter came in to try to figure out the Wi-Fi situation because, you know, if you're on too many devices, it kind of compromises the quality of the video. And so she got us sorted out before we started with Ron. And, you know, I can keep going.

It's just one example of another about trying to, for all of us to figure out the technology. But I really do mean, Kevin, that going forward, I mean, I think nobody's sitting at home like going up, another FaceTime interview. This doesn't look good enough to watch. I mean, what else you do? You just sort of watch it. So I think it kind of changes how we approach the idea of the interview moving forward. Well, yeah, because it's a huge cost cut, you know, versus, you know, flying some. in or paying for somebody's time to be there and all of that. It's a hell of a lot less expensive

for all of these entities. And you're right. Most people don't get hung up on the same things that we do, you know, like a brief, you know, delay or it doesn't sound the same. You know, the bottom line is the world's not ending on that stuff and people just want the content. Ron Rivera's a nice guy. Have you, have you, before he became the Redskins coach, this is for our purposes, I'm just curious, did you, when he was at Carolina, get a chance to know him at all? I did, and we, I've crossed this path on a number of occasions just at different functions, in and around, like, Super Bowls and what have you, and I was just struck by the sincerity of sort of how he, how, how, you, how, how, how, you, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how. he presents himself, just like, I think you and I, I mean, probably everybody thinks that they're pretty good, decent judges. But, I mean, let's be honest.

In the business we're in, you know, you come across people and you can immediately sense, oh, here's somebody who's really sure he's important. And that just sucks. I mean, I just, the outside ego is immediately off-putting to me. And Rivera just seems like a guy's guy, and I think that's a compliment. It's just somebody who doesn't take himself particularly seriously, but I think he clearly commands the respect to the room. That's what everybody heard from, you know, down in Carolina,

if they said about him. And that's why I think you and I both on your show and on the phone were both just giddy that he took the job, just because we're like, that's what you want. You want a guy like that in this place to have a shot. So, you know, and that's exactly who he was when he came all with us, talking about how, you know, his, you know, his, Life's trying to help get him to help them out unboxing the house because they moved right around

the time all this stuff back. I mean, these are the things people in life don't think about. These are human beings, right? You've got to pack up a house. You've got to move, and you're moving in the middle of a pandemic. You're trying to get things sorted out. I mean, it's all a little odd, and he seems like just sort of a regular guy that's probably looking around his house for the box full of, you know, where are my shoes?

You know what I mean? Right. Well, I had him on the radio show last week, and he was really generous. He spent 30 minutes with us. You know, these days, we can just go as long as. as we want. And so, and he said, you know, the biggest, one of the craziest moments is, you know, the world's shutting down and the movers are moving all of their stuff into their new house. And he's like, I'm worried about them bringing the virus into the house, which, of course,

you would be in early March or even now. What have been your impressions of the last dance, something that it just seems like the entire sports world and even beyond that, you know, I've been watching. I think to me there's, there are many, many things that are interesting about it. Number one, the way that the generations that are, you know, several behind us are digesting it and how they view their, how they view him. Because you know how this goes. I mean, people that don't get the 90s, will tell you it was expansion error and it was

devalued and it was this and that and the other thing. And it's like, well, I mean, you know how this. I mean, they kind of had to deal with Boston, and they had to deal with, you know, Detroit. And, I mean, there were some pretty good teams along the way and whatever. I mean, I saw Jordan, as you did at Carolina, so that, you know, it created an idea in my mind of who he was. And it's fascinating to see the way somebody who's in, say, their 20s or 30s, or even maybe their earlier 40s. Maybe Kobe was their guy. Maybe LeBron's their guy.

And so how do young people view it interests me? I think there are reasonable criticisms or criticism in the right word critiques. I think it's fair to say, well, this is clearly done through Jordan's producing this. So how much dissenting content are you going to get? Where are people going to tell you what you know? Jordan was not this, you know, this wasn't great, that wasn't great about him. You know what I mean? I think that's a reasonable observation to make.

But I don't care about any of that because I just, I love the access into his mind and how he's wired and how, you know, how furiously he competes. Even now, and how much the anger is so palpable for the people that he dealt with then. And, you know, it's, like, he got pissed at Clyde Drexler just because someone said Clydexor was good at basketball. Like, isn't that amazing? Like, it's like, I always joke around about SEC fans about how, like, they get mad if somebody talks about Ohio Sneep being good at football. And it's like, other people are allowed to be. good. Like, you can be the best league, but other people can be good, and it's not an affront to you.

And Jordan, with Jordan, it feels like an affront that other people were allowed to have been good during his era, and that fascinates me about him. Even now, that he still seems so, like, that layer of rage to compete is not even beneath the surface. It's right there on the surface. So, like, all of these things to me, I find really, really interesting. Yeah, and we're appellate, according to sort of the previews of Sunday night, episode seven and eight at this point, that we're going to start to get to that point where he predicted people wouldn't like him at the end of this show.

I haven't felt that way at all. In fact, in many ways, I kind of like him more. By the way, to your initial point, my boys, like, you know, Corbyn and Ryan, who are huge basketball fans and NBA, fans and the three of us have argued forever, you know, and I've, you know, I've always said magic, Michael, you know, forget LeBron, you know, and the comparisons and they're like, come on, that's a joke. Like if you, you know, LeBron's so much better, Kobe, so much better. It really is incredible their reaction to just how great they think Jordan was and they just didn't understand

how great he was, even though they could watch highlight reels. But, but they, I think, their opinions have changed on Jordan. But anyway, what I was going to say is on the Drexler thing, what is really incredible about that is that Drexler is a first ballot Hall of Famer. Jordan was driven by the comparison of him to Jordan's game, which drove him. And the truth of the matter is, Jordan was a million times better than Drexler. Like he was. like Drexler's a first ballot Hall of Famer.

There's no way in hell that anybody that watched those two during that era would put Drexler in Jordan's class. I agree with that. But you're saying it perfectly, you're saying it perfectly. It's just that it wasn't like they were comparing him to Liddell Eccles. They were comparing him to a first ballot hall of famer, and it still pissed him off to the point that he wanted to stop him in a problem. apparently, and I haven't seen it yet, but apparently we're going to get to the LeBradford-Smith deal, where bullet fans might remember LaBradford-Smith from Louisville had a good game,

and they put his arm around Jordan walking off the court to let him know, hey, good game, to which Jordan was as furious as apparently he ever got in his life, and I want to say he had 36 to half the next night, because it wasn't in a back-to-back like a home-in-home. Yeah, he just absolutely torched Smith. Right, well, listen, you know, don't poke the bear, you know, Unless you're prepared in life for the attention you're asking for, don't ask for the attention. And that was what LeBradford-Smith learned the hard way.

And apparently that's coming up in, it might be this week's episode, it might be, I don't know when, but it's, that's apparently coming. And that, again, that's a thing I get. Like, well, like, hey, don't come over here and sun me, like, try to tell me I had a nice night. Like, what are you kidding? I mean, you're you. I get George's raise there, but getting that mad about Drexler, first ballot Hall of Famer, I mean, it tells you the way Jordan viewed himself, and you and I agree, rightfully so.

Like, Drexler as great as he was, wasn't on the level of Jordan. I mean, Drexler got the one in Houston, and that's great. I mean, that was a hell of a run he had. Jordan's in a different level. By the way, because you will love this and you remember this, I had Falk on the show, I don't know what day, Monday or Tuesday of this week on radio. And I asked him, I said, when was it that you realized that Jordan was going to become like an all-time great, you know, one of the greatest ever?

Because remember, when he got drafted, and, you know, we watched every game because we were ACC fans and the whole thing. And we knew how great he was, but nobody thought that he was going to become what he became. And Fox's answer was, I was in Cole Fieldhouse one night, you know, in 1984, and he's pleased up against Len Byas. And at the very end of the game, he, you know, gets a steal and a breakaway and does the cuff dunk for the first time. And he goes, that's when I first realized it. You know, I forget, were you there that night? Because I was.

I was, too. and, and it was, you know, as we recall, it was close late to one point game late, and then all of a sudden everything went wrong, and a very close game became a big Carolina win, and Jeff Adkins pretended to fall down at half court because he didn't want to go down there and try to jump with Jordan in it. And if you, anyone that was there, remember the exact same thing, that there was this, there was this pause right before it happened, because you're like, okay, what's you going to do? And then when he did it, there was this noise that people made. They weren't searing because obviously you weren't going to cheever,

but there was like a palpable noise of like, who, what was that? What was that thing he just did? And again, for your kids, you know, for guys that are in their 20s or something, you're going to see that duck and go, how big a deal was it? Well, trust me, in early 80, whatever it was, it was not something you were prepared to see a dude just kind of casually do. And it was the exclamation point of a great ballad between he and Leonard. I think ESPN's re-airing that game.

They're going to show the Maryland-Carolina game from Cole that Fox talking about that you and I are talking about this weekend. Oh, wow, I didn't know that. Now, I've seen that game's actually on YouTube, so I've seen it. You know, I'll never forget it because I had already walked up to the concourse level and was walking out and heard the noise, the groan, the, you know, the way you described it, and then saw it, you know, later that night on Sports Center. But I actually missed it live even though he's there for the game. All right.

I was standing up in my aisle, like we were leaving, and I was standing there, and we stopped to look back. Like, it was, I mean, it's funny how you remember something so vividly. That is, that's one that I can see the snapshot in my mind as it happened. Last one, and I'll let you run. What else are you watching? Have you, I mean, you've got young kids, and I've already said this to you before, where it's like such a challenge

if you've got young kids the last couple of months. But have you been watching anything on TV because I have a recommendation? Nothing. You and I both love Ricky Jervase. You've got to watch afterlife and afterlife too. And it's an easy watch because it is six episodes of each season, 30-minute episodes.

Like it flew by. You know, I did it on Sunday, but he's brilliant in this thing. So good. Have you heard about it? Have you heard about it? Yeah, but there's a million things. I know. Me too. And Ozarks and this and that. I know, but you loved your vase like I do. I do. I think he's, I mean, he's not everyone's cup of tea. I happen to like him. So, yeah, I'll take it. All right. I got to run. Go see you. Thanks.

All right. Have a great done. All right. Thanks to Scott for jumping on real quickly. He didn't have a lot of time, but it was good to get his thoughts on a few things. Whether you're down on your luck or just down because you're stuck, find relief with my bookie where there's never a quarantine on fun. Life without sports is finally nearing an end this week with the UFC putting on its first show in nearly two months and you can bet the house that everybody will be watching. Over under on submissions, COD decisions, and every other type of bet that you can possibly ask for. Start off small or swing for the fences by taking advantage of this stacked card to win some quick cash

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lightly. There are plenty of sites that aren't reliable. MyBooky.ag is. All right, we're not going to go long today. There's not a lot to talk about really today other than sort of the NFL schedule and a couple of other things real briefly. the schedule, look, I can't sit here and I haven't done this in years and go through game by game. I am going to give you, though, after free agency, after the draft, not because of the schedule. I'm going to give you sort of a best case, worst case on the Redskins for 2020. It's a first blush. We'll come back.

You know we will before the season starts and we'll do it again. But I'll give that to you in a moment here. on the schedule itself. You know, I'll start with this. It was a shocker to see the Redskins without a primetime game. They're a top six market, you know, in the country. But we know what the local ratings have been for Redskin games. They've been abysmal in recent years.

They've been, you know, as low as any NFL markets' teams' ratings have been. Now, still, when you compare them to other teams in the market, they do much better. than the Wizards and the Nats and the caps. You know, we understand that. It's the NFL. With that said, the Redskins were shown little respect. And basically, it's true. This is a sign that to the NFL's partners, television partners,

you know, NBC, ESPN and Fox, they're the prime time producers. Fox handles the Thursday nights, ESPN, ABC, Monday nights, and NBC on Sunday nights. The Redskins are irrelevant. They're totally irrelevant. They don't move the needle at all. The Thursday night that every team is required to play a Thursday game, and most of those end up being primetime games,

because the only opportunity to play a non-prime Thursday game is on Thanksgiving Day, you know, in Detroit or in Dallas. They gave the Redskins the Thursday afternoon Thanksgiving Day, game in Dallas. But it's the first time since 1982 that the Redskins haven't been scheduled to play a primetime game, which is really incredible. Obviously, in recent years, you have had many primetime opportunities, Sunday nights, Monday nights, Thursday nights. So it's a lot easier to pencil in someone, even if they're not supposed to be a good team for at least one of these. In the NFC East, the Giants aren't supposed to be a good team. They've got essentially a lot of the same

issues the Redskins have. They are New York. They are the biggest market in the country. Three prime time games the Giants have. The Cowboys have five. The Eagles have four. The Redskins have none. That was the first thing about the Redskins schedule that struck me. Other than that, You know, by the way, my mock, I think I got one right. I think the one that I got right was Baltimore in week four. I think I nailed that. And I was close on a couple of others. Like, I think I was one week off on Cleveland. I didn't really go through it game by game. But I know I got Baltimore in week four right, which by the way, to me, makes it a success. It's hard to get even one rent on one of these things. What we didn't get that,

we were told was going to happen by John Clayton, a Hall of Fame NFL reporter, is we didn't get the first four weeks of matchups of just AFC-NFC teams. So we don't get the AFC versus NFC for the first four weeks. We did get some contingencies, however, by the league that Mark Maskey actually spelled out really well in the post today. For example, week two, all of the matchups head-to-head are matchups among teams that have the same buy week. Also, the first four weeks of the season, every single team in the league has two home games and two road games. So in the event that you end up with, you know, a delay of four weeks or two weeks, then you can have a balanced schedule for the rest of the year based on home and road.

That by week, everybody sharing a by week, gives you an opportunity to move a week into the scheduled by week without screwing up the whole schedule. So there were some contingencies made in anticipation of potential delays or cancellations. But as of now, the league came out with a schedule that sort of anticipates a full season because what are we known right now in May? I mean, we're talking about four months from now. I actually found it interesting in particular that week one of the NFL schedule has primetime games, primetime games in Los Angeles and New York. Okay, L.A. is the Sunday night opener in their new stadium against the Cowboys, and then a Monday night game in New York.

You know, so you have hot spots, certainly New York being a big hot spot. New Orleans being another hot spot where the Brady's Buccaneers will open up in New Orleans in the Superdome. So they didn't, you know, early on look at those, you know, Detroit is a hot spot. They're opening up at home as well. You know, potential states, California being one of them, that could have more restrictions, New York as well. And the NFL is saying, hey, you know what, we're looking at week one and we're developing a schedule based on, you know, glass half full. We're going to have testing. We're going to have meds. We're going to have this thing figured out by then. The Buccaneers certainly with, you know, the most different of

schedules versus recent years. They get five primetime games as many as anyone else. Plus, some very big high-profile double-header games scheduled as well. You have primetime games for the Patriots in Brady at Chicago on a Thursday night in October, an NBC Sunday night game in Vegas against the Raiders, two Monday night games at New York and at home against the Rams, and also a scheduled Sunday nighter against the Saints in November as well. They open up in the primary double-header game on Fox in week one at the Saints. They have another double-hether game. They have another double header primary game at Denver in week three,

and they've got one against the Packers as well. That should be an interesting game. And one against the Chiefs later on in the season as well. I guess what I said to Scott actually earlier is inaccurate. I thought I had read that basically they're all one o'clock games for East Coast cities after the flex period starts, which is not true, because the Buccaneers in East Coast City have a CBS doubleheader game on November 29th against the Chiefs. They have a 425 game against the Packers in week six.

That's after the flex period begins. So what I said to him was inaccurate. But how about this for the Buccaneers? A stretch of week five, Thursday night, national television against Chicago. Week 6, second half double-header Fox National TV against the Packers. Week 7, at Vegas against the Raiders, Sunday night football. Week 8, Monday night football in the Meadowlands against the Giants. Week 9 at home against the Saints on NBC.

They have a five-week period of every single game being on national television, four of them in prime time. That's what Brady will do. especially Brady on a good team, really good team. So that's an interesting thing. There's a Christmas night game. You know, the NFL for years did not want to play on Christmas Eve in particular. And they've had games on Christmas Eve, and they've tried to avoid Christmas night.

Although we saw a double header a few years ago on Christmas day and night. I know the Ravens and Steelers played a game on Christmas Day and Christmas night a few years ago. This year it's a Friday night. Usually that's been when Christmas has been on a Saturday or a Sunday or even a Monday night. This year on a Friday night, a rematch of that playoff game in the Superdome, it's the Vikings at the Saints on Friday night December 25th. And the NFL is once again doing the triple-header Saturdays at the end. end of the season in week 15 and week 16. And what they do on that is they earmark

five games in which they will pick three of those games within three or four weeks, I believe, of that particular Saturday. So the first Saturday is Saturday, December 19th, and they've got five games in which they'll pick three of them, turn it into a triple header. They did it last year, and the year before, I believe they did it as well. And, uh, And they're going to do the same thing the following Saturday on Saturday, December 26th. So when you get to week 16 this year, you're going to have a game on Friday night, December 25th, Christmas night, three games on Saturday, December 26th, and then a full slate of December 27th Sunday games with a Monday night game as well, because that's not the final week of the season.

The final week of the season is January 3rd this year. The Redskins open up at home with Philadelphia. They got another Thanksgiving Day game, as mentioned. That's four years in the last five of having Thanksgiving Day games. I don't care that they play on Thanksgiving. I used to care a little bit when I used to host the pregame show, but that's selfish. I like a little bit like the tradition maybe that could be started. I mean, they played the Giants in one of those Thanksgiving Day games back in 2017.

But they've played Dallas in three of the last five years now, counting the upcoming season on Thanksgiving Day in Dallas. Dallas, the last three Thanksgiving Day games that they've hosted against division teams have been against the Redskins. So they haven't played the Eagles or the Giants on Thanksgiving Day in a while. They've played three straight against the Redskins in terms of the division matchups. They also played the Chargers. and somebody else recently that was not a division game on Thanksgiving day. But overall, you know, again, I've said this so many times about NFL schedules that you probably are sick of hearing me say it.

But to predict the strength of schedule in an upcoming year is fools gold. there is nothing about the NFL that is predictable year to year. It's barely predictable week to week. And when you make that mistake of looking at a schedule in advance or paying attention to the strength of schedule rankings, you know, that's based on the previous year, you're foolish to do so. You just can't do that because, you know,

you guys can all go back and do this exercise looking at schedules and remembering what you thought of them beforehand, half the games, at least half the games, where you were convinced that one game that was scheduled was going to be an easy win and one game that was scheduled was going to be an easy loss, you were totally flipped on. You were wrong, completely wrong. The game that you thought was easy ended up being the game that was really hard, and the game that you thought was going to be really hard ended up being the game that was really easy. It's just too difficult to predict the state of a team year to year and then the condition of a team when you get there.

I mean, injuries, et cetera. But I will essentially tell you first blush what my gut is on the Redskins' best case record and worst case record for next year is. And this has nothing to do with the schedule and everything to do with their roster, but, more importantly, the new coaching staff. I am definitely glass half full on the new coaching staff. I think that Ron Rivera was a great hire. I think Ron Rivera is a guy that gets more out of less, is highly respected. He has a culture to change.

I think we all understand that. You know, that there is a real challenge to change a culture. But he took the job in part because he liked what they had done a little bit here with the roster in recent years. The talent exists, we think, on the defensive side of the ball. That's his area of strength. He's hired a very good defensive coordinator in Jack Del Rio. You know, Ron Rivera's never had a terrible season as a head coach.

You go back to that first year in Carolina, 2011, off of a 2 and 14 team that he inherited. They went 6 and 10 with a rookie quarterback. The next year was 7 and 9. You know, then they won three straight NFC South Division titles. Then he went six in ten, all right, and then 11 and 5, and then 7 and 9 and 5 and 7 last year when he got fired. He's never had a truly horrible season. I don't think he's going to have a horrible season this year.

I think the floor is, you know, I think basically you've got a high floor to this team. I think the ceiling's low, but I think, the worst that they'll do this year is five and eleven. He's never had a five and eleven season. The worst he's ever done as a head coach is six and ten. I think five and eleven is the floor, and I think eight and eight is the ceiling in 2020. That's what I would, you know, that's my gut now subject to change. I can change my mind when we get to August. But I do believe that, you know, they're going to be improved on defense. They're going to be a more disciplined team, even though that team last year, you know, towards the end of the year with Callahan,

was pretty damn disciplined. You know, he gets credit for, you know, we went through this last year. We mocked him, I mocked him, the length of the press conferences, but ultimately, that team was a better team with him than it was with Jay Gruden at the beginning of the season last year. I, too, am one of the people that believe that Haskins has a chance to be good. but I am definitely you know definitely optimistic that he can come in and make an immediate impact

on the defensive side of the ball with a much better coached unit and with some exciting young talent and I think that'll keep them in a lot of games and I think, you know, worst case, you're looking 5 and 11. I almost went 6 in 10 worst case. I think they can double their wins.

I really do. I really feel he's worth at least. least he and his staff are worth at least an additional three wins. But major culture change as well, I'll say worst case five and 11, best case eight and eight. And you know, if that eight and eight comes with a six and six going into the final four games gives us hope, you know, going into those final four games, that's what you want here. You want to just see it, you know, trending in the right direction. You know, how about a meaningful, you know, December game or two? That would be nice. Anyway, I guess that's it for the day.

I really, you know, I'm looking forward to the last dance. I read and mentioned to Scott that, you know, the director of the last dance said that episodes seven and eight, which will air Sunday night were episodes that he can't believe Michael didn't have, you know, changes or edits to that he let him go because he said, we're going to get a boatload of MJ and an MJ that's not likable necessarily. We're going to get a lot on the Steve Kerr fight at practice, which we've heard for so many years now, almost legendary. And it sounds like we're going to get something on this Labradford Smith thing, which was great too.

All right, that's it for the day. Stay safe. Stay well. Back on Monday.