The Kevin Sheehan Show - RFK Deal Done + Draft Recap

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

Kevin opened with official news that the city and the Commanders reached a deal to bring the team back to RFK. Kevin also recapped the Commanders' four picks from rounds 2-7 and talked Caps' Game 4 win in Montreal last night. Fred Smoot jumped on with his Commanders' draft analysis. Eric Flack/WUSA-TV 9 joined Kevin to talk stadium deal.  Go to zbiotics.com/SHEEHAN and use SHEEHAN at checkout for 15% off any first time orders of ZBiotics probiotics.Goldbelly.com, code sheehan, for free shipping and 20% off your first order of food from around the US.  Go To WindowNation.com. Buy 4 windows, get 4 free!Betting on sports? Go to www.mybookie.ag. Use code KEVINDC for a bonus!  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. I grew up in this district, as was mentioned before, attending games at old RFC Stadium. It was a special place. Many of my early memories as a football fan were formed. They're watching the great teams and sharing the experiences with my family and the tremendous fans of this team.

A generation of fans. Growing up, rooting for the team did not have that experience, but the next one's will, and I could not be more excited for them. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell earlier today with what I thought was one of the quotes of the day from the press conference announcing that the team officially has a deal with the city to return to RFK. The show's presenting sponsor is always, Windonation 86690 Nation, windonation.com if you need new windows.

I've got two guests on the show today. Fred Smoot next segment on Washington's complete draft, and then Eric Flack from Channel 9 will be my guest to talk details of the deal between the team and the city. I'll give you my thoughts on the five-player Washington draft class in this opening segment and a thought or two also on the Capp's big win last night in Montreal. all. But I will start with the big news. Mayor Bowser, Josh Harris, Roger Goodell on the podium at the National Press Club earlier today announcing that the team and the city have reached a deal, a deal that

will return the team to the city in the year 2030 to play football. Now, there is still the hurdle of a city council voting yes to the deal. Currently just 12 city council members, Ward 8 is currently vacant. They will need seven votes to approve this. That vote will likely come sometime over the summer, but we will ask Eric about the timeline after today's announcement. So Roger Goodell, for those of you who don't know, he spent much of his upbringing and youth here in Washington.

His father was first a representative of the House and then became a senator. Roger has spoken about this many times. He was a Redskins fan. He has a lot of memories of being in RFK Stadium during the 70s and the 80s. And that line that I played for you coming in about a generation, you know, missing out. You know, a generation during the Dan Snyder years, missing out on what many of us, including him, had the chance to experience. and then saying that the next generation will not miss out on that experience.

I thought that that was really something that spoke to the way that I feel about this personally. I'm excited about the team coming back to D.C., no doubt. But I'm more excited for the generation that just missed out on what so many of us got to experience. The last 20-plus years has been a total clown show, and, you know, my boys didn't get to experience what I got to experience. Now, interestingly, they're still going to play in Landover for another five years, and I think it looks like for the first time in 30-plus years, there is a winning run in store. It started last year, obviously, with a 12-and-5 regular season to playoff wins, 60 minutes away from the Super Bowl with a superstar at quarterback. So the last five years in Landover at Northwest Field may feel a little bit different than the last 20 have felt, 20 plus, actually.

But I'm really excited about what this will mean for a younger generation. You know, I spent so many, you know, days and nights answering questions from my sons or even just, you know, initiating a conversation about what it was like to be a Redskins fan growing up, how important the team was to the city, the connection that so many people from so many backgrounds had with one another because we all rooted for the same team. so many stories I would share with them about the teams themselves and the different players. And of course, you know, I shared so many stories about what, you know, going to RFK was like. So they're going to get to have some of those same stories, hopefully, about the new place. But again, weirdly, oddly, the last five years in Landover may be the best of all of the, you know, 30 plus years at that point. When they move into the new stadium, it will be 33 seasons in Landover. Look, the new downtown stadium when it does open is not going to be anything like the

RFK experience. You know, it'll be so much different. 65,000, a domed stadium or a roofed stadium, as they have referred to it. Beautiful, with views through a translucent roof. You know, I'm glad that they're going to have that experience, and it'll be very much, you know, a 21st century. And at that point, you know, closer to mid-21st century than early 21st century. But yeah, it should be a great experience for them. And for me, too. I'm not going to be anywhere, hopefully, knock on wood, but here. And I can't wait to see what a brand-new stadium looks like.

There's still a hurdle left to clear that DC Council still has to approve it, but it seems like that will happen. Maybe there will be a few changes here and there in terms of the deal that the mayor has negotiated with the team. But the odds are high that this is going to happen now. Ducks seem to be in order today. I thought the mayor did a very good job communicating everything. I actually think, and I've said this before, I think I've said it after the the plane crash in January. She's a very good, big moment communicator.

She was the one really up there that did the best job of really breaking down this $3.6 billion deal, with the team picking up $2.7 billion of the cost. Josh Harris at one point said, you know, this is a really strong deal for everybody. It's going to create jobs. It's going to create revenue. And the ROI, the return on investment for both parties will be very strong. Eric Flack's going to break down everything associated with the deal. But the fall of 2030 is the projected date for the stadium to host its first NFL game, unless I guess they have a preseason game at home that year. They'll break ground as of now early next year. 10 years or less we are away from a Super Bowl. And Roger Goodell was asked about whether or not the Super Bowl will be played in Washington, D.C. And the new stadium after it opens in 2030.

And he did say that the chances have improved dramatically. It's a lock, people, that we are going to be a host city for a Super Bowl within 10 years. If that stadium opens in 2030, figure a year or two or maybe three years after it opens, a Super Bowl will be played here. All right. I want to talk about the draft, Washington's five players, because Friday's show, if you missed it, Cooley was on. He did a film breakdown of Josh Connerly, Jr.

If you missed it, I highly recommend it. He really got into it. I'm going to try to get him to do film breakdowns of some of the other players that were picked. But that was the last show we did. So four players were picked over the weekend. So some thoughts on those four players. First of all, they didn't make one trade. The picks they had going into the draft in the first, second, fourth, sixth, and seventh rounds.

In the spots that they were projected to pick in, that's where they picked. They picked five players. Not one trade was made. And I think the biggest sort of surprise before I get to these five players and talk about each one individually, the biggest surprise really is that they didn't draft a defensive end or an edge. They only drafted two defensive players, a corner and a linebacker, three offensive players in the class. And I think, you know, we spent so much time over the last month and certainly in the last few, weeks obsessing over all of the edge players, the defensive ends in the draft, and they didn't

take one. We thought they would because it was a draft heavy in defensive tackles and in defensive ends, and they had a need for one, but they didn't take one. I don't know what that says. I think it says that they drafted the best player available on their board, number one, and number two. I think it speaks a little bit to the idea that they actually, don't dislike their defensive personnel as much as others do. You know, last year, keep in mind that it was all about the offensive line. And Dan Quinn made a comment during training camp where he said outside this building, there's a perception about certain things that may not be the way we feel inside the building. And I'm pretty sure he was referring to the offensive line. And the truth is,

the offensive line changed significantly last year. Biotish was new. Alla Gretti was new. Brandon Coleman was new. And it played okay. It was not the issue that it was the year before, which kind of tells you the year before was about the coordinator and the quarterback as much as it was about anything else. But defensively, now they're saying, you know, essentially we kind of like what we did in the offseason.

We like, you know, Will Harris, Jonathan Jones. Dietrich Wise, Javon Kinlaw, Eddie Goldman. We like those players. And by the way, we really like some of the players that are coming back. We think Duran's going to have a big year. Doran's Armstrong finished strongly. Frankie Louvo was a star last year. Bobby Wagner, the same. Mike Sanristil was an absolute incredible player as a rookie. Kwan Martin, we learned over the weekend, played injured down this stretch. Two injured shoulders during the stretch. Marshawn Lattimore was acquired, didn't have time to really get acclimated and was injured. I could go through a lot of other players, including players that

didn't play last year, like Jordan McGee or didn't play enough. I think that they probably believe year two with some of the players that are coming back that were inexperienced and young, and maybe even a player or two that we're not even thinking about. You know, a Giovante John Baptiste. I know they liked them last year. You know, we'll see. It's the biggest question mark right now for all of us defensively. Will they be improved enough to compete with Philadelphia and the schedule that they have, at least on paper right now?

Time will tell. But they did not pick an edge. That was the biggest surprise, I think, by far for Washington in this draft. So let's talk about what they got in the other four players that they picked. picked after Friday's show. Let's start with their second round pick, Trey Amos. Look, this was a projected first round player. Trey Amos was a corner that I think a lot of people thought could be potentially the third corner taken after Travis Hunter and Will Johnson from Michigan.

Now, I'm mentioning Travis Hunter because he's a wide receiver in a corner. But Will Johnson's injuries dropped him to early second round. Jade Barron from Texas was actually the second or the first corner taken after Travis Hunter. And then Maxwell Harrison was taken. Benjamin Morrison, I mentioned him from Notre Dame. He had two surgeries, but he went mid-second round. And then Trey Amos went to Washington at 61. overall. He was a guy that was thought to be a mid to late first round guy. You know, super early

second round, worst case. He went at the end of the second round. So, really athletic. This is, you know, part of, once again, a class that tested very high in relative athletic score. Washington finished number one for the second straight year. In the average, relative athletic score, RAS, for its draft class. Last year, it finished number one. This year, it finished number one. Trey Amos is 6-1, 200 pounds. He can play press man.

He can play zone coverage. This was a corner that I talked about. He was not my favorite of the corners. My favorite of the corners, or the people that I thought they'd be most interested in, were Benjamin Morrison, Darien Porter, and to a lesser extent, either Revelle Jr. or Jodd A. Barron. Now, I did predict Jodd A. Barron, but that's because I thought he might actually last until 29 overall. I liked Amos, mentioned Amos. I like him a lot. I think that this is, you know, a guy with the frame and the length to play outside primarily.

and if he ends up being the guy is a second round pick. And look, their corner last year in the second round pretty good, Mikey Santer still. But, you know, I can envision a Amos, Latimore, and certainly on the inside, Mikey Sanry still corner combination. You know, you play so much in three corners on almost, you know, the majority of downs. You're rarely in a base defense. You're rarely not in nickel. So you have to have not only three guys that can be on the field for a significant percentage of snaps,

but you have to have depth at that position. We'll get much more on Trey Amos from Smoot, who played cornerback in the NFL. But I like the pick. I think it's a good pick. But let me just interject real quickly, and I should have said this even before talking about Trey It's something I say every year about the draft, and that is it's really hard to have a strong opinion about a draft. If you want to base it, you know, on where the players got picked relative to where they were projected to get picked, that's fine, but even that's a little bit

off, especially in a year like this year where there were so many players that were, you know, basically first to third round, could go anywhere from mid-first to. to mid third round. But, you know, the teams themselves, when they have a good draft, miss 60% of the time. So Washington's five-player draft, three years from now, if it was a really good draft, if Adam Peters really did cook as many of you,

you know, hashtag all the time, two out of the five will be contributing members of the football team three years from now. The other three, gone. You want to take a guess on which two? It comes down to fit in scheme and opportunity. Look, Josh Connerly Jr. as a first rounder probably is the odds on favorite three years from now to be a significant contributor. But the odds are they won't pick up his fifth year option three years from now because the majority of first round picks don't have their fifth round option years picked up.

It's just the crapshoot nature of the draft. You're not going to hear me have a strong opinion overall on this draft. I'm just going to give you what I think of the players after going back and watching them. And I didn't spend a lot of time on any of the players that they picked, even though I did a lot of draft prep. It just turns out they didn't pick any of the players that I spent a lot of time looking at. With that said, I did go back and look at a lot of what these players did in college. over the weekend. So, Trey Amos, I liked. I did look at

a lot of Trey Amos before their draft. I liked him. There were other corners I liked a little bit more, but I like them. Next pick for them was Jalen Lane, wide receiver, Virginia Tech. So what I saw, for whatever it's worth,

is I saw a guy with tremendous speed. You know, this is another part of their strong relative athletic score class. This guy, ran 434 at the Combine. He had a vertical jump of 40 inches. He is an athlete.

Played two years in Blacksburg at Virginia Tech, played in a lot of different ways offensively. He was a guy that they gave the ball to on jet sweeps, fly sweeps. He could stretch the field vertically. He has real separation ability with that speed more than just route running. He's also a dynamic punt returner. And one of the observations I made and wrote down about Jalen Lane is that on his punt returns, I think his vision and his cutbacks are more decisive and just better than what it looks like he is as a runner on reverses or jet sweeps or after the catch.

Now, he's got great speed, phenomenal speed. I like him. I mean, I think that, you know, Larry Izzo is going to love him because, look, this roster does not have right now an obvious punt return specialist. I mean, you know, if you go to their, our lads depth chart, Luke McCaffrey right now is listed as the number one punt returner. You know, there's no Zakias, there's no Jameson Crowder. So, you know, I would imagine that this guy is, you know, a guy that they targeted not just as a potential deep threat as a receiver and as a, you know, playmaker at it, you know, on jet sweeps. Same way that they'll use Debo Samuel. Debo Samuel more in the backfield itself. But I bet you they looked at this guy and said punt returner and a dangerous one. Now, he did muff a couple of punts last year. for Virginia Tech. You don't want that at the NFL level. But Jalen Lane, impressive to me. Now,

by far and away, out of the four players that I spent time looking at over the weekend, Amos Lane, the next player I'm going to mention, and then their seventh round pick, Kane Madrano, linebacker UCLA, was my favorite to watch on tape. I did not watch a lot of him at all. I know he was a top 30 visit, but I didn't spend much time looking at him. So first things first on Madrano. This guy's an athlete, man. He ran sub-4-5 at the combine, ran 4-4-6, fastest time for any linebacker at the combine. He jumped vertically 38 inches. He's 6-3-22. He actually looks like he is as much a safety as he is a linebacker. I wonder if Washington's thinking of him in that way.

Just a tremendous athlete. And it shows up when you're watching his highlight reel. Number 20 is all over the place. He's quick, too, not just fast, but quick in tight spaces. Now, the most impressive thing for me in watching Madrano is he's got great feel for the game. He's got great anticipation for what is happening on the football field. He seems to be a half a step ahead of everybody. There are a couple of players that I have loved watching in recent years.

Micah Hyde is one of them. Micah Hyde is in Green Bay now, I think was in Buffalo. He's not the athlete, nowhere near the athlete that Kane Madrano is. But Micah Hyde has 24 career interceptions without being a tremendous athlete because he anticipates so well. He just knows where the quarterback. going where the receiver's going. And he just seems to jump stuff all the time. Plays at depths, which are really good feel depths in coverage for where the ball's going to be. Andrew Van Ginkle,

you know, the guy that played in Minnesota this year, played in Miami the last few years. I mean, how many bubble screen passes is he going to jump before they stop throwing them in his direction? Incredible anticipation athlete. That's Kane Madrano. for me. Just great feel for what's going on on the field. Now, there were a couple of things that I read about him in talking about his great instincts where sometimes he jumped a route and was wrong and got beat, or he, you know, jumped or ran by a tackle, overran a tackle, even though he was there, he got there a little bit too early. So there's some of that. But I like the athleticism. I love the athleticism. I love the athletic feel he has. He's going to be a special teamer, I would think. I think it's going to be interesting to see if he is a linebacker as much as he is maybe a safety.

I don't know. And then lastly, the running back that they took in the seventh round, Jacori Kroski Merritt, who played at Arizona last year, but just in one game. There were issues with his eligibility. He played at Alabama State to start his college career in 2019. then played at New Mexico in 2023 and played one game for Arizona last year and actually played that game against New Mexico. And he had a great game, rushed for 109 yards on 13 carries,

and then was ruled ineligible. Well, this was not a running back that I paid a lot of attention to because he was a down-the-board running back, even though he was a top 30 visit for Washington as well. I probably should have looked at him a little. bit more. So what do I see with Jacori Kroski Merritt? His nickname, by the way, is Bill. He's 510-205-ish. He is, you know, he actually looks a little bit taller than 5-10 because he runs a little bit upright. You got to watch the New Mexico season in which he had 17 rushing

touchdowns and over 1,100 yards rushing. That was his breakout year in 2023. I think he has really good speed. He ran 4-4-5 at the Combine. I think he's got good decent vision, good cut-back ability. In some ways, he looks to me like he'd be perfect for like a zone run scheme because he does, you know, put that foot in the ground and cut and can cut back, you know, as a defense is sort of moving laterally by him. He's got that kind of quick cut. ability. I liked him. I mean, there were so many backs in this draft. It was such a deep running back draft. He's clearly talented. He's clearly athletic. He does have game breaking speed. I was just hoping that they would get a running back in this draft that I would view as much or more so

as a first and second downback than maybe a change of pace back, which I think Croski-merit is. I'm not saying he can't play on first and second down. I don't know that he's a 20-plus carry-a-game guy. He did it at New Mexico in college and did it against some decent competition. They went against a good Fresno defense, and he rushed for 209 yards when he was at New Mexico late in the season. His last two games at New Mexico, Fresno and Utah State, he carried 52 times for 442 yards and three touchdowns in two games.

Now, earlier that year, he struggled a little bit against Texas A&M, struggled a little bit against Boise. But I like him. You know, he's a seventh round pick. I don't know that he is the replacement for Brian Robinson, Jr. Maybe there were backs that they liked earlier that they just didn't have a chance to take. But this was a guy that, you know, played one game last year. It was all about the New Mexico season in 2023 that I'm sure.

Washington's front office looked at and liked a lot. And it was impressive. He had a very good East-West Shrine bowl game as well. So that probably got them super interested. He's 24 years old. He played six years in college, like Ford, Alabama State, one at New Mexico, and then the one game at Arizona. So look, overall, they didn't get an edge. They didn't get a back that, that, you know, I think is a potential take over for Brian Robinson Jr. back, although I'm not discounting Kroski Merritt's, you know, potential in their offense. Yeah, you know, again, tough to really know now, but I went back and looked at the players,

and I'll try to get coolly to do some film breakdown of some of these guys as well over the next week to two weeks. You'll hear everything Fred has to say about it coming up. Real quickly, before we get to Fred, big win for the caps last night. What a hit by Tom Wilson. Are you kidding me? I was surprised that that wasn't a penalty. But you hockey people know it more than I do.

I guess it was more shoulder maybe than it was head. I'll say you this. The player that he hit was certainly in La La Land trying to get off the ice. That was the play that turned the game around because they scored right after that to even it up at two apiece. and then they got the game winner with three minutes and 37 seconds left in the game. Two empty netters, five to two, a series that is three-one caps, but really feels like a very even series. Caps have to get better on the power play,

O for five, including blowing an opportunity with a two-man advantage for about a minute and a half, roughly. Meantime, Montreal's been outstanding on the power play. Look, home ice advantage means something, I'm sure. It'd be nice if the caps finish them off on Wednesday night. and then got ready for, I think, Carolina, who has a 3-1 series lead over New Jersey. But it's not going to shock me if Montreal wins the game. Montreal, with their backup goaltender, the Caps did have Logan Thompson back last night,

and he was pretty good except for one of those power play goals, the one that Coughfield scored on. I thought it was a shot that he could have stopped. I'm not going to talk about the NBA. I watched a lot of NBA playoffs over the weekend. Some of these games were insane. The game Saturday between the Nuggets and the Clippers had maybe the closest buzzer-beating shot of all time

in terms of replay review. It was so damn close. Yesterday's Nick's Pistons game was great. The Timberwolves, Lakers game. Awesome. Anthony Edwards great. I can't believe that J.J. Reddick played five people in an entire half of basketball. did not sub once.

You know, they don't move that much offensively. It's a lot of stagnant, you know, one-on-one iso ball. But anyway, more on that tomorrow. More on the Shadur-Sanders stuff tomorrow with Tommy as well. All right, let's get to Smoot right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, guys, I'm about to tell you about the most incredible, unforgettable gift you can get mom this Mother's Day. Have you heard of Goldbelly? It's this amazing site that I order from now all the time

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24 years ago, today, actually, Fred Smoot was selected in the second round of the 2001 NFL draft by Marty Schottenheimer and the Washington Redskins. Fred's told us stories about being drafted before, but he joins us right now. This segment's brought to you by Window Nation. If you need new windows, call them 86690 Nation or Windonation.com. Mention my name. They'll come out and give you a free estimate.

Right now, you get four windows free with every four purchased, with no money down, no payments, and no interest charged for. two full years. 86690 Nation, windownation.com. I know I've probably asked you this before, but your memories of that draft, and I think you were a projected potential first round pick that year, but just what do you remember specifically about 24 years ago, Fred, to the date?

It was a mixture of pain. it was a mixture of excitement. It was a, I can really, I guess, attest to what should do it, not to the point that he did, but like you said, I was predicted to be basically a top 15 pick and they ended up going in the second round. And I had, it was awakening. I woke up that day, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me

because I ended up coming here. And that's why I try to tell guys on draft day, no matter who picks you, once you get in the building, Be a roach. They can't get you out of there. Don't let them get you out of there. So it ain't how you get into the building. It's how you stay into the building. Yeah, you were selected with the 45th overall pick in the draft.

Washington, you remember who they selected in the first round, right? Yes, Rod Gardner, who I had just played against the bowl game in the Peach Bowl, and Professor, he had many catches as a dead man against me. So they did with that. He did. Well, you know, his all-time nickname was 50-50 because he caught about 50 of the balls that came his way. But did you think there was a chance that they would take you at 15 overall? Was Washington always a possibility? Well, I had talked to Marty before, but the thing about the draft here, the people you talk to ain't usually who drafts you.

You know, that's the funny thing about it. The people who fly you in is always the other team. If I thought one team was zero and in on me, it was the Tampa Bay Bucks. I just repeatedly got calls, repeatedly got trips. It was just a lot. They ended up taking Kenya out of Walker that year, Taka out of Florida. But, yeah, I thought it was going to be Tampa. Actually, I had just minimal conversation with Washington.

So when I seen my name call, I was kind of blown away, especially me already studied all 32 rosters, and I knew they had Dion Sanders Champlain and Dale Green. So this was the last place that I thought I was going in, similar to what I draft pick Connolly going into this year, a packed room. That's what great teams do.

They overstuff rooms. Yeah, well, you can't overstuff every room because you only have so many picks. But yeah, I mean, it's interesting that Philadelphia went five defensive players after the defense they had this year. They did lose some players. Do you, and I've been, never asked you this, I'm pretty sure.

And it's timely just because of, and again, that you weren't comparing it to the Shadur-Sanders situation. That's maybe an all-timer in terms of draft falls and the storylines around it, around it. But do you remember why teams didn't take you in the first round? Was there a specific reason? Do you remember? Oh, because I threw a party on campus that got out of hand. That's what happened like three days,

about three weeks before the draft wild party on campus, all kinds of stuff, and that's what kind of brought up the ruckers. Is he loose, he's loosey-goosey all this? So one thing that we learned about the draft process is one of those things, if they're going to take you in the first round, it's not all about who's the most talented.

It's about the safest picks. They start to take chances in the second, third, and the fourth on great athletes. In the first round, there's almost 100% drafting on what's the safest pick that we can take. And if they have any off the field, Inklin, if they have anything about your player,

if they have any question about your measurables, any questions about their film, it'll push you to the second, third, and fourth round. We've seen so many players. Kobe Bryant went undrafted. I've been trying to do a little investigation on why the Kansas Corner went undrafts. because he had all the measurements.

He had all the numbers. So we see these falls all the time. Will Johnson, I have Will Johnson ranked above Travis Hunter as the number one in his draft. And I know he has more stems to the medical part of it. But see, so many guys drop in the draft. This is the epitome. This year was the epitome of what the draft is.

Yeah, there's so much we don't know. But back to 2001 in a few weeks before. the draft in Starkville. How good was the party? It wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth it, Professor. It wasn't worth it. But, you know, it was all in being young and having fun and know you about to exit

of campus and, you know, just all kind of stuff. A lot of anticipation building up to that day. It was just, you know, it was just typical kids being kids. But you've got to realize in that time you're not a kid anymore. And why did the word get out about this party? Did something happen at the party? Well, nothing happened crazy, but what you got to realize? I mean, this wasn't the boat situation in Minnesota.

No, no. We didn't have that. I don't remember that in Starkville in 2001. No, no, not in Stark Vegas. But the thing is when I think we take for granted, as players, when we take for granted, the fact that they have all these investigators going to talk to your old teacher, everybody you've crawled pad with.

So everything that you do in that last month is monitored. Like, you might not think you're being monitored, but you are being watched, and you're being watched by professionals at a high level. So whatever you do, we'll be recorded and reported. So it don't matter how bad it's or how wild it gets. All they need to know that it exists. Yeah.

Well, I remember that draft. I remember going Rod Gardner. Why Rod Gardner overall? Because I don't remember being impressed by Gardner. And, you know, Santana Moss was actually on the board. He went right after. But you, I remember being excited about you because you were a projected first rounder. So, you know, back then you just kind of judged based on did they get value and they did get value with you for sure.

All right. Let's talk about this team's draft. So overall, before we get to a couple of these players, what did you think? I loved it. Like, listen, because I have been very intrigued in studying Adam Peters in the way he do things. And I didn't look at this draft and worry about what players we got because he did such a masterful job in free agency. So let's supplement what we really got in this draft. We really got Larry McTonso, an all-pro left tackle with a third-round pick.

We got Debo Samuels with a fourth-round pick. We got a left tackle, a right tackle that can play left. That's the one of the best, if not the most athletic, kind of the tackle in this draft. I used to play running back in junior high school, in high school. This dude is, look up his athletic numbers. they blow you through the room. Then you steal Trey Amos, who had a first-round grade. You're talking about me, having a first-round grade in a one?

The same thing you're getting from Trey Amos, and you stuff in another room. Like, you're stuff in another room to the max of competition. Let me take you down this offensive line, Professor, and I'm going to tell you what the future holds. Last time we won a Super Bowl, we had the hogs. Right now, we're getting the wild boys together. And this is what we got as of today. We have a pro bowl left tackle. We have a pro bowl center.

Tim Cosmy, when he's healthy, is a pro bowl guard. What I seen from our guy last year that we drafted, he now moving to guard becomes a asset that can, now his ceiling and his floor goes through the roof. So that means four out of the five offensive linemen have pro bowl capabilities. debt will that itself sets you up for success i've been screaming because i've been playing football here if you don't have a fat boy that smell like baking to dominate we will never dominate consistently right now we are we are suiting up for trench warfare and that's not sexy to people

and i don't need it to be sexy to people because when you do sexy picks that means you're probably a losing organization i you know what was a sexy pick cam war was a sexy pick to a losing organization. Winning teams always go office alignment. Kansas City. You see the Ravens how they draft. They don't draft for need because if you draft it for need, you're already

behind. You draft and best player available because you have that option to that gives you power. By the way, when you were talking about Tunsel for the picks, you left out Marshawn Latimore for, you know. Yes. So you've got a

pro bono. Kona also. What he's been doing to people. I would hate to throw the word fleece in out there, but, you know, we got fleece for Trent Williams years ago, and this guy was in their room also. So fleeting is something he knows about. Yeah, they got three players with our third, fourth, and sixth round picks.

All right. So before we get to some more specifics about the players that you just, you know, went through, who did you want them to take when they were on the clock at 29? I know you trust, I know you trust Adam Peters, but you still, you were screaming for somebody who was it? Well, I was screaming for, uh, uh, uh, is Riquet from, uh, Donovan, Azurikin, as a Rake from, uh, from Boston College. Yeah, Aziraku from Boston College. Okay. Yeah. I liked him, but I was really more fascinated with Jane Pierce Jr.

because if you get an edge, he reminds me of the freak. He reminded me, you've got a guy that big running a 4-4-40, I can find a piece for you on my roster, all right? Like, I can figure something out, and now that we got the right locker room, now we could take these chances. So I was high on him, but what I love about Peters, he went the opposite direction,

and he went offensive tackle because he realized, Think about the guys we got the block. He's over there paired up with Michael Parsons now. Then we got realized we still got Philadelphia in the defensive line. They got with Jalen Doomsday Carter. We also got the New York Giants and everything they just did with a dual Carter. They got Tribodeau. They got Dexter Lawrence.

So he said, all right? Yeah. Yeah, Burns. Like, you're talking about past rushing good Lord. So we had it. When we went and we did it on the offensive side of the barons, So I was all with it. When I seen the draft pick, then I went, really looked at that kid and realized this kid just doesn't get beat.

And when he gets beat, his lateral movement is ridiculous. Like, he can get anywhere on the spot on the field he wants to get. All right. Tell me about Trey Amos. Trey Amos, long, great ball skills, willing to stick his head and then tackle. He was actually chartered as one of the most real-rounded cornerback. in this draft, meaning not great at one thing, but good at everything. And that's what he brings to the table.

He's also a competitor. He's very smart. He knows how to read-wrought combination. He's good at the press. He can play off-man, and he's pretty good at zone. He's going to push, because I realize now in the league, he don't start two corners, you start three corners. Like, he's going to push to be a starter on it.

Like, I'm very intrigued to see how this goes with him, especially with all the stuff that he brings to the table. And it didn't start just at Ole Miss. He was showing these things at Alabama when he was there, too. But he knows how to get to the ball, and he's sticky in coverage. Don't get a lot of penalties. He's a clean prospect in that way. I thought he was the steal of the draft.

Like, even though I feel like we got to steal later on in the draft. All right, we'll get to later on. but of the corners that you looked at and spent time looking at before the draft, take Will Johnson and Travis Hunter out of the equation. Tell me who you really liked. I'm just curious because we didn't have this conversation before the weekend, but I want to know the corners that you were talking about last week and the week before. I had a man crush on Chabon Reveille.

I, like, hey, listen, the Cowboys had a draft. Nobody wants to talk about it. But I thought the Cowboys knocked the draft out. I thought they had an 8-plus draft and Reveil what you get with him. I hate to paint this picture and put this pressure on this kid. I saw a faster Richard Sherman. I saw a Richard Sherman with a 4-3, and that's a lethal weapon to me. At 6-3, you cannot throw phase on him.

Nobody could throw phase on Richard Sherman. With their wingspan, it just will not happen. But guess what? At 6-3, he has the ability to stop, start, and get out of cuts. I can always tell a great defensive back if they can pick off overrout. Like, the defensive back is three levels of the overrout. If he got to step on me, I'm trying to get the tackle. If I'm right there with him, I can break the ball up.

Rarely do you go under it and pick him off. I've watched this kid do it numerous times because of his wingspan and because of his speed. I thought he was a steel. I thought he was special. I know it was red flags about him being injured, but I thought he was, yeah, I thought he was one of the best in this draft, and I thought he was the steel. Now, Darian Porter, another guy.

Hello, hello. That was my guy. Listen, he's so raw, it scares you. You know what I'm saying? Because he hasn't played but a year of quarterback. But at six, not a six-three cornerback, and I'm talking about measurables jump off of the sheet of paper that you put them on. Now, the question is age and how long does it take him to really get comfortable at the position?

I like Kobe Bryant. He didn't even get drafted. I thought he was one of the fierce competitors. Like, the one prospect that me and Logan went back and forth with, we could never really figure out what you're getting is Jihad Barron. John A. Baron from Texas. Yeah. Texas, yes.

he makes plays. He's all over the field. He's very good in zone, but looks kind of still sometimes. Also, don't look like the most twitchiest athlete I've seen. I don't know if he's an outside corner. I think he might be a lifetime miracle. Like, I don't know when I'm getting there. So it was a couple of guys that jumped out the page to me, but it was deeper draft than people said it was at cornerback. You know, you talk about loading up at a position. I mean, Denver, took Barron and they have a few corners. You know, they've got a guy named Pat Sartan, who isn't that bad. I thought that was interesting because they really wanted a running back.

But you mentioned Porter. That was the guy that I talked about because I know that he didn't get around to playing corner until this year, and I don't know why. Part of it is he was an offensive player. But I don't think there was a guy in the draft that was that tall, had those arms, the length of his arms, and ran four three. Like he was, he's a freak. Now, maybe he's super raw, but the physical part of it, and I thought just looking at him on tape this year,

and I'm not an expert, you are, but he really anticipates well. Like he just had a knack as an offensive player before. I'm going to say, he thinks like a receiver. Yeah. So he takes it and he plays it on defense. and same similist of Travis Hunter. He goes about playing the position offensively. Champ played it offensively.

Dionne Sander played it offensively. And that's what you get. Like, we always had this conversation in the DV room, what position did you play on the offense? Now, you get a guy like Sean Spring. Sean Spring played running back. So you got two type of corners. You got your quarterback that played running back,

and you got your cornerback that play Y receiver. It tends to be the X, Y, receivers, tend to play the ball, a tad better because they're still thinking like a wide receiver. So Porter did that on our own defense this year. But I'm sure there were some corners along the way that played quarterback too at some point, right? So what were those guys like? I'm going to say mostly the guys that played quarterback end up playing safety for some odd reason.

So they're still back barking calls. They still playing the middle of the field and they still playing the middle of the field like a quarterback would. All right. Jalen Lane, Virginia Tech, fourth round. Yeah. He can go get it. When I watch him, very twitch, he can get down the field. Bilt well, bit well. Of course, Virginia Tech didn't throw the ball as much,

so his numbers just ain't going to blow, blow you away. But I don't see a weakness to his game. Like, when you look at his game, do you see a weakness to his game? No, but you know what I noticed? because I didn't really know him before they picked him. I think his vision as a runner is better as a returner than it is as a receiver. I don't know if that makes any sense because it shouldn't be any different, but his vision and cutback ability as a returner is outstanding.

So you feel like he sees the field totally as a returner. He sees half the field as a yes runner. Maybe, maybe, maybe, but he's got such great. speed that there's a lot of separation to, especially in college. Yeah, most definitely. I think that's what I think that's the thing that they wanted. Like, he's the ultimate clear-out,

take the top off the defense guy. Right. Like, he's the alert guy. Like, you're going to have a couple alerts when he comes in the game. He's going to be the, he's going to speed guy. The other alert is Debo-Samios. Like, taking nothing for Terry, they're only going to alert Debo-Samiel because

Debo-Samios come with trickery. Debo Sammons come with a question mark, like how are they going to try to get him the ball? Right. So he will, like Jamie, he will be a alert guy because of his speed from the day that he touches on the field. So that's the advantage that he's going to have, especially on this roster. Well, they ran him on a bunch of fly sweeps and jet sweeps at Virginia Tech too, so he may be a part of that as well. All right, so I'm going to guess when you said there's a player later in the draft that you really,

really, really like, because I think you said something or something to that effect, that it's the next guy, Kane Madrano, the linebacker from UCLA. Oh, yes, sir. His measurals are ridiculous. The fastest linebacker in the draft. And he's going to think about it. They're going to play him at lineback. I think they're going to play him as safe.

They have to have too often. Right. So they go to think of that. Like, you want to talk about a flex position guy. You want to talk about a tweener. You want to talk about an alert guy when you can. coming in on defense, where do you play him at? Because he can do whatever you need him to do. You know how most defense if they had this player that this special position called Star?

Like, he will be one of those. And we drafted a couple of guys last year that also can play star. And so at the end of the day, I think this guy is one of those pieces, them chest pieces on the board that they're going to make offenses find where this guy is. And I can see this guy getting on the field. I can see him getting on the field faster than people that think he can get on the field because I watched the interception that he, I picked six that he ran back and just the athletic ability. He literally

picks it off running six yards, jumps over a guy before he gets to the end zone. He can do whatever needs to be done. He's a great blitzer. He's good in coverage. He's a good tackler and he brains energy. He's a commander. He's a commander. Like, if I can say this, watching

his film, I just smiled. the whole time, Professor. I just smiled while I was watching his film. I said the same thing in the open to the show. That's so funny. I had a feeling you were going to like him. You know, the athleticism is one thing. But what I noticed, and you had this, and I actually compared him not athletically. It's the wrong comparison athletically. But he has that athletic anticipation. He is, like, Micah Hyde has been one of my favorite players to watch for many, many years, not because he's a tremendous athlete. He makes up for the lack of athleticism because he has such great anticipation on where the

quarterback's going, the spatial, you know, awareness to play the ball. And that's what this guy has, which is, it's interesting because I wondered the same thing, is he going to play linebacker? Is he going to drop in coverage? Or is he going to line up at safety or Star or Buffalo Nickel or whatever? Because it looks like he's got a lot of. possibilities. But do you know what I'm saying? Because you had it too. Like that anticipation, which is, you know, part of athleticism, but it's not a measurable thing. No, it's a thing where

you take what you study to the field. Like the thing about it is anticipation is believing what you studied and taking it to the field and always being a step above. Athletics can only take you so far. Mentally, you're going to have to be able to beat some guys and you mentally beat them by anticipating routes, knowing route combinations, knowing habits, knowing, like, such thing like a pet of the football, if you know this quarterback, like to pat the ball before he throw it. Like, just the smallest minutia, the smallest detail, whatever I could take. And he does play what I call ahead of the chain.

When I say ahead of the chain, he's already making a move before the ball is snapped on where he wants to go because he's seen where you already lined up to be. So that's what, coaches love that because they know I can coach him with the smallest detail and he will figure out the rest. And that's what I say, he's a coach's delight. Yeah. You know, I look this up because I've always, for whatever reason, just loved Micah Hyde. And he's never the fastest or the biggest guy by a long shot.

He's got 24 career interceptions. That, it's all, like, over the course of the year, he's just always been a guy. It's like, oh, there's another. interception from a guy that doesn't run well necessarily, not big, but also had the hands. And you can see the hands with Madrano as well. All right. What about the running back? Go ahead.

Did you want to say something else about Medrano? No, no. I was just go get Michael Hyde his flowers. I have seen cerebral. Michael Hyde is a step-faster Ryan Clark. I knows where to be. Johnny on the spot. Stunned enough.

Never going for no wasted motion. Like the best defensive backs in the league Don't have to be the fastest Do they have wasted motions of not Do they like Deon and what's the name was arguing about a T-step It ain't about how you get there It's about getting there

And that's what Michael Hyde does a lot It's never It's never Aaron when he's around He's always tight to wherever he needs to be Tight to the player he needs to be And always Johnny on the spot So yeah back to the running back Well hold on one other thing

Because I wanted to mention this guy too Because you know As I'm sitting here we're talking about Micah Hyde. Micah Hyde is a safety. He's never played linebacker. But the other guy that I brought up, not that, you know,

they're exactly the same in a lot of ways, but the dude Van Ginkle over the last few years in Miami and then last year in Minnesota, I kind of see Madrano being that kind. Now, Van Ginkle is a freak too. And a relentless

pass rusher, but the way he seems to time quick throws, how many of those has he picked off in the last few years. He picked one off here from Sam Howl, you know, and returned it for a touchdown. And I think... I want up you. I won up you want.

How about Milano? Milano, same thing. Milano's same thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But Van Ginkle is also really, like, he's tall and long. Like, is Madrano that tall?

He might be. No, no, he's more of a build of a Miles Jack. Think about Miles Jack. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's more of a bill of a Miles Jack. All right. The last pick, Jacori Kroski Merritt, his nickname's Bill, the running back from, who only played one game at Arizona, but played at New Mexico and Alabama State before that. What did you see in him? We're around. Real round. We're around. I see what the coaches and the GMs like and players. they don't like, if they get a one-dimensional player,

they want you to be great at it. They'll rather have guys that's good at everything. This guy can pass-blot. This guy can run between attacks. This guy can break a deep one. This guy can catch out the back. So they want guys, they want football players, and this guy is a pitiful.

He's a football player. Like, he's one of these dudes. You're going to ask me, what sticks out, Smook? Nothing. He just does everything the right way. And that's what you want from a player. Now, he's going into a room that most people don't see is a deep room. I look at that room as a hard room to get reps in.

So can he get some reps? We'll see when the pads come on. But I like him because he does everything, especially in this deep running back draft. Like, if I was never going to reach for a running back in a draft, this was the draft that I was not going to reach for a running back. And by the way, the show that this team, this organization are doing things, just effortless the right way.

They did bring in Gabe Taylor, Sean Taylor's young brother. He is coming in for care of. That's just, that's classy if I haven't seen him. Yeah, that's awesome. On the running backs, because you kind of already mentioned the edges that you liked Azaraku, you liked Pierce. I don't think they were ever going to pick Pierce because of some of the red flags on him.

But of the running backs before the draft started, because I think we all felt that they were going to take a running back at some point. I agree with you. I did not want them to go unless it was gentie. I didn't think there was a running back worth taking, including Hampton, by the way, in the first round. But who were the backs that you liked the most? You know what? I was in love with Rahim Sanders from South Carolina.

I just thought he was a total package of downhill running back. I like two-term from Virginia Tech. From Virginia Tech, I thought he was a home run hitter. Santana just had the man crush on Trayvon Henderson. I thought he could be so special. I really did like that Virginia kid also, you know, homegrown guy right there. The question with him was, could he tote the load?

Because he couldn't stay healthy before Quinn-Jukin's got there. And I like Jukens. Like, I thought Jukens was the most, how should I say, every day, every downback. I feel like he was. just was, it was so many, uh, DJ Giddens. Like, it was just so many Johnson from Iowa. It was truly what, like last year I said was the best quarterback draft all time. I think this year was the deepest running back draft all time. Like it just happened back to back. This year's draft was

walking into Baskin-Robbins and asking yourself, what flavor do you actually like? Yeah. You know, it's, tell me if you think I'm right about this. is everything. Scheme is everything at that position, you know, and who, and the opportunities, because so many of these guys, like, so many of these guys could get into Kyle's, you know, system in San Francisco and kill it for the next five years. But if they had gotten drafted by somebody else, they may be unemployed in two years. Like, it really is, there's not a lot of difference. But do you agree with that? Yes, I totally agree with that. It's an opportunity based position. You don't get the opportunity

and you don't get to shine. Well, what opportunity do you get? Are you a back that like to hit the A and the B gap, but you have to be in a zone scheme? It just will not work. It's one of the things where you are dependent on that GM and that head coach to safely and hopefully safely draft

you to a opportunity where you get to run. What if you're a running back that needs a fullback and all you do is run out the shotgun? Yeah, you'll be in the UFL in two years. It's just, it's so dependent. What if you go to a team that has the right scheme, but ain't got the office of mine. He's just so codependent on things, being right.

Yeah, it's almost the analogy in basketball would be there's so many people all over the planet that can just shoot and shoot from distance and be spot up, knocked down three-point shooters. And yet so many of those don't get into the league on a team with a superstar that attracts the defense that, you know, you. you can just spot up in a corner. You know, like a good friend of mine has become Tim Legler, who, you know, calls games and his ESPN's NBA guy,

and he played here in D.C. And won the three-point shooting contest. And I say to him all the time, you were one of the best pure shooters in the game. Imagine if you had gotten picked by the Bulls. You would have been Steve Kerr. You would have been John Paxson. You know, and it was just a matter of, you know, wrong place, wrong time.

Look, he played the NBA for many years. But running backs are kind of the same thing. I really wanted them to pick a back that I could envision taking over as a first and second downback, all down back, but a guy that potentially could replace Brian Robinson, Jr. Not that I don't like Brian Robinson, Jr., because I do. But I think they could do better. And his availability has been an issue. And to me, you know, like I loved E.TN.

I loved Martinez. I've been talking about him since. He was at Oregon State. He didn't get picked until the seventh round. The round. He didn't get what kind of draft he was. Yeah. And I really thought that Caleb Johnson would be in the right system

a really good first and second down back, you know, the kid from Iowa. Because nobody faced more loaded boxes than he did because they couldn't throw the football at all. They couldn't throw football at all. What about a guy like Donovan Edwards from Michigan? They didn't even get drafted. Didn't get picked. Definitely thing. Didn't get picked.

If you would have told me that a year ago, I'd be like, no, you're lying. Yeah, Taj Brooks, he ends up in Cincinnati. I love that. That kid's going to be good. But, you know, like, it comes down to, did they get picked by the right team, right scheme, right opportunity? We'll see. What else did I have for you?

Oh, lastly, because you did mention the edges, but aren't you surprised that we basically have now gone through free agency and it? draft, and who are their pass rushers next year? I'm not, I am not worried. Like, we did this last year with the Office of Line. True. That's a good point. And I think the Office of Line outplayed anybody's expectations.

I agree. They only start to fall to, they only start to fault at the end when they took on injuries like any other team would. Your second team players are never going to be good as your first team players. I'm not, when you bring in WISE, when you bring in the guys, they're going to manufacture that. People need to stop looking at Frankie Louvre as a linebacker. He is a edge.

People need to stop forgetting that we did draft guys last year, Jean-Baptiste, like, we're not giving the roster a time to mature. Like, everybody wants the new thing. Everybody, nobody's looking back and saying, you know what, Tyler Owens might be a player at the safety position, Because I think he can. I think he can mature to that. Nobody's looking at Hampton, Dominic Hampton, and saying,

what is he going to be like? At one point, we had to say, let the roster mature. And don't forget, we got some more cuts coming. Like, the real cuts are about to happen in the next two months. Like, we come to prime time veterans being let go for different reasons. So the shopping is not over with, but sometimes look at what you already got in your back. and don't doubt it. Ladies and gentlemen,

Fred the hound, Smoot, giving us his best stuff on this Monday following the draft. Love it. Thank you so much. As always, I'll talk to you soon.

Anytime, Professor. Fred Smoot, everybody. We'll finish up the show talking Stadium Deal with WUSA Channel 9's Eric Flack, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. So guys, I've talked about a product recently. It's called pre-alcohol.

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MyBooky is the recommendation. Go to MyBooky.orgie. and use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. All right, as promised, joining me right now, Eric Flack from WUSA, Channel 9, at Eric Flack TV on X on Twitter. Eric's been the chief investigative reporter at Channel 9, a Merrill and Emmy Award-winning chief investigative reporter, and he was at the National Press Club this morning, where he still is after the mayor, Josh Harris, and Roger Goodell held a press. conference announcing the deal reached between the football team and the city to return the team to D.C. And the RFK site in particular. So where I would like to start with is just, you know, and I said in the opening of the show, just the details of this deal.

I thought the mayor actually did a pretty good job of walking through, you know, 3.6 billion team at 2.7. And then the rest of it just sort of walk through. and where the areas of pushback, if there are going to be areas of pushback, would be? I think you're going to start with the overall price tag for taxpayers, which the city is trying to downplay, understandably. Let's be super clear, the price tag for taxpayers of the public investment into the new stadium is over $1.1 billion. dollars. Now that is broken down into a bunch of different buckets. And some of those buckets, the city emphasizes more than other buckets. The biggest bucket is $500 million for what they call horizontal construction, which is just kind of prepping the site for the building itself. They're investing over $300 million in parking lots that the city will ultimately own. Now,

about half of that is due up front out of the capital budget. The other half of that money comes a couple years down the road out of future tax revenues for the stadium. There's about $90 million that's going into a sportsplex, a state-of-art sportsplex for kids at the fields at RFK. That was kind of like a non-negotiable as part of this deal going into it, that the mayor knew that she couldn't get rid of those sports fields. And then finally, there's a $200 million bucket that goes into just kind of infrastructure preparation. Now, that $200 million bucket is one. The city

says it would have to spend whatever they were going to put there, whether it be a football stadium or something completely different. So they don't like to throw in that $200 million into the overall taxpayer price tag because they say that money was basically already spent no matter what went there. But the bottom line is the taxpayer investment over time into the RFK stadium and the city, the team likes to say it's a stadium and the development of the entire campus is over $1.1 billion. That is going to be the pushback. Real quickly, before I get to how it will be pushed back on, I don't know what made me think of this. And you might not even have an answer to this, but how much money's already been spent

on this? Because I know that they had, you know, consultants, stadium experts, feasibility studies for the lack of a better description. Wasn't it several million dollars already that's been spent on this project or not? They've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. So they've been, they've done, Okay. Hundreds of thousands. They've spent, they've done two kind of big economic impact studies and financial projections on how to how to ultimately pay for this deal. And we can talk about that if you want, where they're going to come up with the money. But they did those in two different studies that really total, you know, just under a million dollars. So that's kind of what's been invested. And then, of course, they've already invested tens of millions of dollars in just kind of the early process of tearing down

RSK, but that again is something that has to happen regardless. Okay, so let's go chronologically. What's next? And then, again, if you can tell me, because I think what's next is the city council and their vote, what will be their biggest issue? What's going to be the biggest challenge? What's next is the mayor has to present and her official budget to the D.C. Council, which is going to include a lot of these allocations, including that $500 million for the horizontal construction, the $89 million for the sports flex, that sort of thing. That's going to be a part of her larger upcoming budget for the city's entire operating in capital budget that she presents to D.C. Council. After that, the D.C. Council will then

debate her budget, just like they debate any budget, but obviously this stadium issue will be its own conversation. They will need seven votes from that DC council to get this stadium plan through. There were four council members who showed up at today's press conference. Council members Bond, McDuffie, Pinto, and Felder, Feldor being the council member who is over that RFK district. Now, read into that what you will, that they don't have, you know, that those are obviously four yes votes. They have to get to seven. Whether or not those other council members will ultimately come around is yet to be seen. You talk to people on the team, they say we're going to get more than seven votes.

You talk to other people, they say, well, we're not so sure. People like Councilmember Nadeau, Councilmember Allen, pretty much never stadium people, especially when you're spending a billion dollars, obviously are probably going to stay no votes. You've got Chairman Mendelsohn, who has already put out statements saying, I'm not sure spending all this public money is the right way to do it. It's the time of a budget crisis on a stadium. Other people may wonder whether or not he is just posturing and ultimately will come around. But they're going to have to find three more votes over the debate, which will happen this summer before this deal, becomes a reality. Real quickly, because Ward 8 is currently vacant, do we have any idea whether or not

Ward 8 will be filled by then and what the vote likelihood of a Ward 8 council member would be? I believe, I know the number is 7, so I, you know, I'm probably not as up to date on the Ward 8 timeline, and whether or not it will match what's going on before this vote is required. But I know seven is the number they have to get to. Is this process like a lot of, you know, processes when it comes to getting votes? Are there, is there any horse trading going on with these council members? Do you believe or not? A thousand percent.

And in fact, I spoke with somebody from the team who said, you know, we'll go to council member. We'll find out what Councilmember X wants. You know, we'll figure it out. I mean, I think the team, and we've talked about this before, Kevin, was never going to go down the road that Ted Leonis just went down in Northern Virginia with his new arena and not lining up the votes in the state legislature. Now, it's a different animal. D.C. Council is a lot smaller than state legislature. Right. Virginia, and that big deal unraveling. But I think they're already whipping votes, called whipping

votes, which means you're going down, you're convincing people to come over to your side. That process has started. They negotiated this deal, the team did, with the mayor one-on-one, but they made it clear, the people I'm talking to made it clear that they have been keeping the council members abreast of the negotiations as this process has gone on. That process has started. It continues. It will continue. You know, they almost envision them having a whiteboard somewhere where you got Bond, you know, McDuffie Pinto and, and Felder over on one side and you got Allen and the dough on the other side for nose. And then you got all those other faces in the middle just trying to figure out when you can move them over to your side of the ledger

as you tick off votes trying to get to that seven. So that process has already been begun. And I think figuring out what people need to come over to the team side to support this stadium deal is kind of what's next. Think about Annette Benning in the movie, the American President, which was a great movie. As she was trying to get all of those votes, her name was Sydney something. I forget what her name was, her last name was in the movie. Firearms legislation, right? It was firearms legislation, exactly. It was, you know, AR 50 whatever's. All right, we are talking with Eric Flack.

So once the city council approves this, and by the way, I would put it as a pretty hefty favorite that they approve this. Do you agree? A thousand percent. Okay, so after that, you had talked about last time we had a conversation. Some of the challenges was zoning, et cetera, and some of the pushback opportunities from the public from NIMBY's. Is it over at that point? Yes. Those things happened before the final vote. Once the final vote is taken, we're putting shovels in the ground. Got it. I mean,

that's that, that, so when you're talking even to the council members today, like we were who supported, they all say, well, there's going to be a public process. I want to hear from my constituents when you're talking about Felder. You know, I told them, I was like, there are people there who don't want tailgators in their front yard who live like left. in a mile from the stadium, you know, and we're going to have a process. You know, the plans for the sportsplex are not clear yet, just that there's going to be one, but what exactly it's going to entail whether or not the skate park down there that's currently there is going to go away.

These are all parts of public discussions that will be held, held community discussions. But those discussions happen before the final vote. So really, this thing is now going to ramp up into full, full swing, full gear right now. timeline. When will the vote take place? This summer, I think it's July, June or July, something like that. When will RFK be raised? When will it be torn down? I think we can't get a, it should have been raised like a year and a half ago. I was keep on being told different dates. I believe the latest is later on this year.

I've been told that it's just a shell now. There's nothing inside. It is literally just a shell right now, just what you see from the outside. And then when will... And then when will... And then when will the first shovel hit the ground for the new place? I believe, I'm surely... I mean, early 2020... What, what, 26?

Right. I think we're looking at the spring of 2026. They have to get it, you know, torn down. But there's so much that needs to be done. So, you know, as far as, as far as prepping the site. So, you know, shovel can mean a lot. You know, once you can, you can argue that as they tear it down, that is kind of the shovels going into the ground because, you know, that's part of the process of building the new stadiums, getting rid of the old one. So we seem set, correct me if I'm wrong, on something around 65,000 minimum, the minimum for a Super Bowl.

And they've referred to it as roofed. Same thing is domed. I guess roofed is the new way of describing it. it's not actually an inflatable dome that covers the stadium. But this is going to be a year-round indoor stadium, not one with a retractable roof, correct? We asked in the pen and pad session about the retractable roof. They say all options are on the table. I've been told that retractable roofs are like a decade ago.

And that translucent roofs, they referenced, they said, if we have a, you know, a non-retractable roof. You know, the goal is to make it seem as close, they use the word as close to nature as possible, which means a translucent roof, which is what all the new stadiums have. And in the rendering, they did put out, it is a translucent roof.

So I would expect a translucent, non-retractable roof, 65,000 seats is in the term sheet. There will be permanent seat licenses for all the season ticket holders. there will be 8,200 parking spots, which is smaller than past stadiums, but current is kind of in line with these new urban stadiums. The team says there will be tailgating. I believe it's going to be limited tailgating, but they will preserve some amount of tailgating, and then they will create a kind of a game day bar restaurant district, which, again, is very much in the new mold of, of NFL stadiums is that game day, bar, restaurant, pre-game, post-game experience.

PSLs would range from what to what cost-wise. I'm just curious to you. We were asked a lot to a lot. I mean, they have not. They said they are still formulating those numbers. All right. I would assume that this would be a huge revenue source for the team, right, more than the city. Oh, the PSLs are going to the T. It's a way for them to finance. They're not going to pay $3.7 billion, $2.7 billion, the largest investment in private investment in D.C. history, they're not paying all of that out of pocket. They're financing it. PSLs are part of the way they're going to see that. And then they'll have the residential and retail development rights and the future revenue associated with that, correct? Correct. They made it clear that all of the areas within the campus that are going to be developed

will be, it will be Josh Harrison's team, whatever, you know, conglomerate that is, they have the right to either develop it themselves or sell the rights. That is something the city will not be doing. City, though, will be, you know, presumably in it, and it's banking on collecting the tax revenue for projected $4 billion. from the stadium and retail over the next 30 years. That's what they're projecting for the city. All right. Last two.

Number one, the commissioner was asked about the likelihood of a Super Bowl. I would imagine, and I've already said this for the last, you know, week, week and a half, we're going to have a Super Bowl in D.C. within the next 10 years. You agree with that? A thousand percent. A thousand percent. A thousand percent. Like, there's no question if this thing gets built like they're talking about.

about the way they're talking about it. There's no question. All right. Lastly, we had to cut out of it on radio, and I'm talking to you literally right after the radio show ended. Was there anything about where the team's headquarters and practice facilities will be? Okay? The team's headquarters, the team has no plans to move from Ashburn as of now.

They have no plan, the practice facilities, no plans to move the practice facilities. As you know, there's a lot of, investment going on in the practice facilities right where they are in Aspern, the team's headquarters remain in college park for now. The team is going to continue to be open to investigating whether or not it makes sense to move those. But for now, the team's front office headquarters remain in college park. Right. Right. The team is in Ashburn. The business side of the organization. is in college park for those of you that didn't know that. All right.

Did I miss any big items from today or not? I don't think so. I think that's it. I do think as a guy, and I think you can relate to this, so this will be a personal aside for both of us, I think as a guy who has lived through this stadium leaving, the idea, you know, taking off my reporter hat and putting on my, you know, lifelong Washingtonian hat, that this was an exciting, exciting day for a lot of people.

Bowser and Goodell and Harris were met with cheers and applause as they walked into the room to open this press conference up. Peters, Joe Gibbs, Doug Williams, John Riggins, Darygans, Daryl Green, We're all in the front row for the announcement. I think this is really a return to glory, both literally and figuratively, for the team. Obviously, it's a lot of money. It's a lot of political wrangling still ahead with the D.C. Council. But I think, you know, the feeling here at the National Press Club here,

just, you know, in the aftermath of this official official announcement is one that feels like it's a huge win for the District of Columbia. Thank you for doing this, as always. I appreciate it. I know you're busy, so take care. We'll talk soon. You got it. Eric Flack, everybody.

That's it for the show today. Back tomorrow with Tom.