The Kevin Sheehan Show - RIP Dwayne Haskins

Episode Date: April 9, 2022

Kevin and Thom today on the tragic passing of Dwayne Haskins. The guys also talked about new NFL exec quotes on Washington's trade for Carson Wentz in a story written by The Athletic. Add to that, thoughts on Deandre Carter leaving for the Chargers and Terry McLaurin's potential contract extension.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 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 Chean Show. Here's Kevin. A different start to the show that we had recorded earlier. You'll hear the rest of the show. But Tommy and I were recording this podcast when we saw the news come across that Dwayne Haskins was killed in a tragic accident this morning in South Florida.

Adam Schaefter putting out the tweets that he was trained. in South Florida with other Steelers, quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers. He was killed when he got hit by a vehicle. Just awful news. He was 24 years old. He would have turned 25 on May 3rd. We just saw this two minutes ago, and we're putting it at the front of the podcast because it's just one of those things that just was an oh my God moment.

Yeah. We're going to both ramble. here, you know, off the cuff about probably, you know, his time here. But, you know, more than anything else from my standpoint, this is just awful. He's such a young person, 24 years old, in a tragic accident. He had the rest of his life ahead of him, you know, whether that included football, you know, at a high level or not. It's just, just so sad. Obviously, his time here in Washington did not go as the owner wanted it to go. The reason he was in Washington, the reason he was drafted where he was drafted, as we all know, it's because the owner, Dan Snyder,

stepped in and basically trumped his football people who did not necessarily see Dwayne Haskins as a first round pick, certainly not a first round pick where they took them in the first round at number 15 overall in the 2019 draft. He was a great quarterback at Ohio State, a record-setting quarterback at Ohio State. And he was, a lot of teams had him as a first round pick in 2019. Kooley certainly didn't. You know, after seeing him play, I remember saying after that first preseason game that he played in against Cincinnati, I remember what my reaction was because I was not a big fan of Washington drafting him. Even before, you know, we knew that. the reasons that they drafted him.

I wasn't a big fan of him being drafted by the team. There were other quarterbacks in that draft that I like. But beyond that, when we saw him play his first preseason game, it was a home game. It was the first game. It might have been the second preseason game. But I remember coming in the next day and saying, I'll tell you one thing, the moment's not too big for him.

Like this guy certainly believes in himself. He carries himself with a level of confidence. He clearly physically has all of the attributes. And during that course of that season, I wanted to see more. I thought his first game when we saw him against Buffalo in his first start in 2019, remember all of the concern that, you know, he wasn't going to be able to call plays. They weren't going to, you know, they were going to have a bunch of delay a game penalties or they were going to have to call a lot of timeouts. You know, none of that happened in that game.

And he made a couple of good throws. They didn't win the game. They weren't really close to winning the game. But we saw him the rest of that rookie season. And he had the moment against Detroit when they got their first win. And instead of being out there to take a knee, he was overtaking selfies. I think you may have written once or twice about that. He had a really good game against Philadelphia in a loss and had a terrific first half

before he sat down in the second half against the Giants in the final game that year. And that led me to really want to see him for, you know, 16 games in 2020. And that was my whole mantra going into that 2020 season is, you know, you picked him at 15 overall. He's shown that he's got some talent. Now let's see it for 16 games. They're not going to win the Super Bowl. They decided not to trade him in the offseason, which means Ron's going to give him a chance. Let's see it.

And we saw it early. and then Ron benched him pretty early in that season in the 2020 season, not only benched him, demoted him to third string after the Baltimore game in which, you know, he was very enthralled with his numbers in that game, his fantasy numbers per reports, even though the team had gotten their ass kicked. And then we know the rest of the story. You know, he was released late in that season, picked up by Mike Tomlin and the Steelers.

He was the third string quarterback in Pittsburgh. all season long. And with Rathosberger gone, they've added Trubisky, he was going to be battling, I guess, for a backup spot in Pittsburgh this year. But horrific, horrific story. Let me just mention this Tommy and then you can weigh in. All the while, when personally I remember wanting to see more of him, Cooley had told me, and he, Cooley was with the team in 2019

and spent a lot of time with Dwayne and the offense and, you know, Jay Gruden and all those guys. And the one thing that he kept saying over and over again is he's really bright and he's such a nice kid. But there were concerns obviously about his maturity, you know, and about whether or not he was really willing to put in the work to get the most out of his talent. And that was the concern that everybody had in that building back then. But Cooley, I remember over and over again. And Jay Gruden has said this before. He was a nice kid. And he was a nice kid. and he was very bright, you know, innately very bright. Their issue was just that he was immature.

And, you know, unfortunately for him, he came into a situation here in Washington where the owner wanted him and seemingly nobody else did. That wasn't the easiest situation for him. No. No, I mean, what a tragedy because, I mean, he's 24 about to turn 25, and he certainly had enough time to turn around his career ahead of him. In other words, he had the time ahead of him, at least he thought, to basically write the ship and still have a quality NFL career.

It's just one of those shocking tragedies that people wake up to. all over the world every day, you know. I mean, no one's guaranteed tomorrow every time you step out that door. So, I mean, my sympathies are with his family and his friends. And, you know, I mean, there are people who are still probably connected to Dwayne in the Washington organization who are really going to feel this loss personally, probably. Yeah. Of course.

There are a lot of people in this community because he played high, you know, he played high school football, bullies. And there are a lot of people in this community that are going to feel the hurt of this. But, you know, you said something that's just so true. And I, you know, 24, about to turn 25 and in the Pittsburgh organization, in a real, real football organization, one of the best in the NFL, with one of the best. the best coaches. And we've said it over and over over the last, you know, several months. Like if it doesn't work with Mike Tomlin, it's probably not going to work for him. But, you know, Tomlin had positive things to say about him during the course of last year. He played a little bit in the preseason. I don't think he took a regular season snap.

I don't think he did. But he, you know, he made it through the entire year on Pittsburgh's roster. And hopefully, you know, he was beginning to turn the narrative around Tommy, like you said. I mean, at 24 years old, there's still time, lots of time. You know, especially when you have talent. You know, this league doesn't give up on talent easily, and nobody disputes the guy could really sling it. I mean, the guy can really throw it, and he's a big, strong dude,

but it was all the other stuff. So if all of the other stuff, you know, came together as he matured and got older, who knows what was ahead of him? I remember thinking many times, and this is, you know, straight from the, well, you guys just want to be right. Yeah, there's definitely some truth to that. And the business that we're in, sometimes we just want to be right more than anything else. See Kirk Cousins for me. But in pushing that I wanted to see more of Dwayne Haskins, and even though I didn't like the draft choice,

that after seeing him play a little bit, I didn't think that it was worth giving up on. I thought there was some talent there. I thought he had some swag to him. I thought he had some confidence. I thought it was worth seeing play out because maybe this would work. And by the way, I remember saying at the same time, it would be Snyder's all-time biggest win personally as a football person if Dwayne Haskins turned into a franchise quarterback.

But when he went to Pittsburgh, I have been secretly kind of rooting for him to get a chance to play, to show that he could actually do it at the NFL level because I do think he has that talent. He's got NFL talent. That's hard to really debate. But God, he'll never get a chance to see that or realize that.

It's just so tragic, so awful. It really is. Young people. I don't want to... I mean, I know there'll be some people that will accuse me to be hypocritical because I was very critical of Dwayne Haddon's like we're here. Yeah.

But that would that. That was about football and how his behavior affected his job. I mean, God, I mean, no one wishes this kind of tragedy on any family. And it's horrible news. And, you know, like I said, the potential was still there for him to change the narrative of it. And look, I mean, having spent a lot of time in Florida recently, it's a dangerous place on many levels. Okay. Well, you were at Universal Studios. No, no, I was at spring training in West Palm Beach, and I spent two months up in the Panhandle.

What makes it so dangerous? Well, because there's no rules in Florida, pretty much for anything. Okay. Except, you know, except if you, you know, for, you know, social issues. Other than that, it's pretty much, you know, everyone gets to do what they want. and that includes driving. And I don't know the circumstances behind his accent as since he was hit. Yeah.

But the highways... They have laws in Florida for driving. Their speed lines. The highways in Florida are pretty scary. Yeah. Well, rest in peace, Dwayne Haskins and sympathies to, you know, anybody listening that knew them. Because I know that there are a lot of people in this area that probably did know them. but obviously an awful, awful, awful tragedy.

We'll pick up the show, the rest of the show, where we had begun it before, right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This from 89 Gresham via Apple Podcasts. Kevin and Tom are like friends trying to explain how new owners have moved in and wrecked the neighborhood, and we are loving every minute. Thank you, 89 Gresham.

Rate us and review us on Apple and Spotify whenever you get a chance. Good morning, Tommy. How are you? Thanks for joining me on this Saturday morning. I couldn't do it yesterday. Just was not feeling great and went home and watched. You know what I watched all day long. Yeah, I do.

You know what I watched. I'm sure you were tuned into Tiger Woods. Oh, my God. I go to my cigar store sometimes to smoke cigars at the afternoon. Right. And, you know, every TV is on Tiger. Every TV in the place. And people are getting excited.

And I just put my headphones on, look at my phone, and glance up every now and then, and just to see where he is on the leaderboard. I mean, I really am. In the circle I move in, I am an outlier on Tiger Woods. I know. But why are you an outlier on Tiger Woods? Is it more about you disliking golf or disliking Tiger? Well, I don't have any interest in golf.

Right. I don't have any particular emotions about Tiger one way or the other. I mean, I think he's been self-destructive. And, I mean, there's lots of people who are self-destructive. I don't necessarily, you know, crucify him for that. but the tiger the tiger cult people like you you know the cult it's just it's just it's just absurd do you really think it's I think you overrate the cultish

aspect of it of course you do you're a member of the cult no I'm not I'm not a member of the cult I'm always always intrigued fascinated I guess really inspired by by greatness. You know, whether that's in athletics or entertainment, whatever. I love the greatest. Now, I'm not always a huge fan of the greatest, and I wasn't always the biggest Tiger fan necessarily.

But I think redemption stories, and when the greats have fallen and then they come back, it makes for an even better story. I mean, hell, you lived through that with Ali. I mean, you know... Yeah, it certainly makes them more human. Right. It absolutely does.

And I'm sure that that's a lot of it. But listen, I don't blame you for your cultism because, and we haven't talked about this in a while, you got to sit down and talk to Tiger about something pretty personal to both of you. That was, that was, we've talked about that a lot. But yes, that was... But let me just tell you, that wasn't like, I've told you before, my all time, they're two live, one of my all time favorite interviews was sitting with George Gervin, the Iceman, because he was just so much a favorite player of mine when I was a kid.

And my favorite interview that I've ever done on radio where I was a little, I was a little bit nervous going into it was with John McEnroe when he was pushing. a book many, many years ago. That was a long time ago. And I was pretty new in the business at the time, too. But I didn't feel that way with Tiger. I'm not a cult Tiger guy. I just root for him because there is something cool about watching a guy that's been through so much physically and otherwise, much of it, you know, a lot of it of his own doing in the same way that, you know, perhaps many people cheered for Mike Tyson to try to, you know, come back and redeem himself, for Michael Vick to do the same thing. I mean, there's been a list of those

athletes over a long period of time that have fallen, you know, out of favor, and then you kind of root for him as they try to work their way back. Yeah, okay, I get it. And I just, it just doesn't hold any interest for me. And so, you know, like I said, you know, everybody, You get enjoyment out of watching this, that's fine. You know, get your pleasure where you can find it, but it doesn't move me at all. I wanted to read something to you because I saw this this morning. Mike Sando, who writes for the athletic, wrote a story that I guess came out yesterday or last night. It was titled NFL Free Agency, Execs, meaning NFL executives,

on the good and bad of all 32 teams moves and strategies. So I read from the last team listed, which is the Washington commanders. They list, you know, by the way, I read this. I mentioned this last week maybe, that now when you see NFL teams listed by the team name in alphabetical order,

now Washington's team, the commanders, is near the top, and Redskins used to have it near the bottom. But if you list it with the same, city, it's still the last one listed. But there was some list of like NFL teams by team name, and it's like, I'm looking for the team. I'm like, where is it? Oh, it's near the top now because it begins with a C, not an R alphabetically. But anyway, here's what Mike Sando wrote with NFL executives speaking on primarily and actually only the Carson Wentz trade. There are some quotes in here that I just thought were interesting and kind of funny, actually.

So he writes, Washington wanted Carson Wentz badly enough to swap second round picks with Indianapolis while parting with a 2022 third round pick and a 2023 third that can become a second and getting a 22-7th rounder in return. So he just spells out the terms of the deal. The price won't matter if Wentz significantly upgrades the quarterback situation in Washington, becoming a viable multi-year starter. meantime, the commanders will not be entering the poker Hall of Fame. Quote, this from an NFL exec. I don't know who they were competing against. If it works, you don't care what you paid,

but nobody was bidding against them for whence, closed quote. So I want to start with that particular quote, and then I'll continue to read from the story here soon. I did have somebody from Indianapolis, and I'm forgetting who it was, but I think it was Zach Keywood. who covers the Colts for Indy. But that week, we had multiple people on the podcast and the radio shows. So I'm kind of forgetting who it was who told me this. But somebody did say and somebody did report that there was another team that was interested. Because my initial reaction was, holy God, they were going to cut this dude.

They were bidding against themselves. They had to pay that and then assume the $28 million. plus contract? Because my initial thought was, if you were going to do this, at least make the Colts eat at least half of next year's contracts. So you've got a $14 million cap hit instead of a $28 million cap hit. But no, the guy that was on with me, and I don't know how reliable he was. And I can't remember who it was actually, did say, I don't think they were competing

against themselves. I kind of thought the same thing initially, but I've learned that at least one other team was interested in Wentz. But this NFL exec says nobody was bidding against them for Wentz. So hence the line, the commanders will not be entering the Poker Hall of Fame anytime soon.

Oh, that's interesting. When are we going to get to the money line? There are a couple of money lines. That was one. There's one big one. Then the story continues. Execs noted that while younger decision makers are driving the trend

toward aggressive moves. Washington is more traditionally oriented with a 60-year-old head coach in Ron Rivera, a 56-year-old GM in Martin Mayhew, and a 66-year-old executive VP in Marty Herney. This from an NFL evaluator, quote, they play to win 17 to 14, and that is how they do the personnel game and free agency also. It's not exciting or flashy, closed, quote. quote. That's not the money quote that you were waiting for, but that's a pretty good one. They play to win 17 to 14, and that's how they do the personnel game in free agency, also not exciting or flashy. And, you know, Ben was on with me on radio yesterday, and a lot of people have been kind of frustrated with the fact that they haven't been very active. Well, Carson Wentz, trading for Carson Wentz, is big time activity. Let's not, you know, bury

the lead here. That is their off-season. There isn't anything else they can do in this off-season in terms of player acquisition that's going to top the trade for Carson Wentz, people. Yes, the only two players that they have signed are former tied

players to Carolina, Andrew Norwell, and then the FE, whatever the guy's last name is, the defensive end, the backup defensive end that they signed. And then they re-signed, you know, a couple of their own, McKissick, McCain, Sims, etc. No, it has not been an exciting or flashy offseason with respect to free agency,

but they made one of the bigger and more important trades of the offseason. Okay, this is what you're waiting for. The Colts harsh public criticism of Wence, led by the team's ownership, let everyone know Indy would be seeking a new starter. Washington not only traded for Wence, but it also agreed to pay his $28 million guaranteed compensation. quote from an NFL exec. If you pulled the entire league and said, you can have Taylor Heineke for and you have 26 million to spend plus two third round picks or you can have Carson Wentz, I'm pretty sure the majority would prefer Heineke. Another exec said, I'd rather have Baker Mayfield

and $8 million to spend. I'm assuming that is. the money quote that you were waiting for me to read. That's the money quote. That's the first time somebody said, somebody of notes, who's anonymous, said, I'd rather have Taylor Heineke and the money. Yeah, I mean... I think that is extremely telling. Well, I had callers say that.

I've heard people say people who are against the West Trade. There's a group of the fan base that loves Taylor Hinekees, so I would expect that. Right. Yeah. Okay. But this is an NFL executive. Yeah, well, I mean, look.

You know, I would expect a little bit more, a little bit more credibility from somebody like that. I'm not saying what he's saying is incredible. I just said that if I'm a commander's fan, that's the most disheartening part of that, is that, you know, he felt that most executives around the league would have taken Taylor Heineke, use the money someplace else and kept the draft pick. Yeah, draft picks, plural. And by the way, it's not two third round picks as of now. And if he didn't play, they would have just kept their two third round picks.

But it's more likely a third and a second next year. You know, I've said this before. I don't think it's an unreasonable take to say, no, that trade was too expensive. And even if Carson Wentz is better, and by the way, I think if you asked the league, execs who you'd rather have play quarterback Carson Wentz or Taylor Heineke, they would say overwhelmingly Carson Wentz. But you had to acquire Carson Wentz and you've got to pay Carson Wentz. All right, here's the rest of the story. If the Colts could not maximize Wentz under Frank Reich, who had coached Wentz in Philadelphia and advocated for him in Indianapolis, what are the odds

and other staff will break through? On the other hand, Wence wasn't statistically terrible. in Indy. If Colts owner Jim Ursay turned on Wentz, partly because the quarterback refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19, what bearing will that have in Washington? This is an NFL evaluator. Quote, Wence has talent. If they coach him up, win some games and make the playoffs, people will say, damn, they can coach. But the problem is, Wence teases you. He makes plays, and then he puts his head down and plows into a defensive. of lineman, closed quotes. And that's the end of the section on free agency or offseason in the story written by Mike Sando at the athletic. This is their whole offseason. It's

Carson Wentz. Next year is all now about, I know Ron wants to make it about third year, all important, raising the expectations. You missed some of that, by the way, while you were away. You know, there was more of kind of, you know, the all-important third year. He had an interview with Kime and talked about how, you know, we should be ascending right now. We expect to be ascending. I'm paraphrasing here. But, you know, the same kind of conversation that has taken place since the season ended, he's really putting a lot of stock into the third year being the all-important year and a five-year plan with the new head coach. Even though the third year in Carolina, he had Cam Newton, Luke Keekeley, and a pretty damn good team that was.

ascending, you know, that was improving, and they went on a five-year run of winning lots of games and winning three-division titles and going to the playoffs four times and going to the Super Bowl once. You know, this isn't what they have here. But I guess he now kind of looks at it now that they've acquired Carson Wentz, and I think he felt all along they were going to have, they were going to have to acquire somebody that this, you know, this is the year. And if this is the year, then it's all about Carson Wentz. It's all about their decision to trade for Carson Wentz and put, you know, this all-important year three in Carson Wentz's hands? Yes, it is.

This is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, he's put, he's put his future in the hands of Carson Wentz. Yeah, in many ways he has. And that's not something to, if I were Ron Rivera, no matter what he says, I'd feel real good about. There would be a significant error of uncertainty in that decision, even if I felt compelled to make it. From that same Mike Sando article, he wrote about the Indianapolis Colts offseason. And, you know, they write Colts, Jim, Colts owner Jim Ursay broadcast to the world is his displeasure with Carson Wentz. To the point most figured Indy would part with the quarterback after just one season. The fact that the Colts still got two third round picks for Wentz before acquiring Matt Ryan for just a third round selection creates an improbable net differential for these two transactions.

And then they write this was an NFL exec. If you look at Indy Atlanta and Washington, I think Indy played it best. Washington was afraid there wasn't going to be this type of movement and they just made a move. I mean, you can't look me in the eye and tell me that they would choose Carson Wentz over. Matt Ryan, closed quote. Yeah. So for those that really pushed back when I said Matt Ryan's a better quarterback, and I would much rather have Matt Ryan even at an older age than Carson Wentz, there is, you know, a quote from an NFL exec. You can't look me in the eye and tell me

they'd choose Carson Wentz over Matt Ryan. But anyway, that wasn't really the choice for Washington. Matt Ryan wasn't available for Washington because he, He wasn't available to anybody at the time that they made the Carson Wentz trade. Tommy wants to talk about D'Andre Carter. I want to talk about Terry McClure, and maybe we'll finish up with some Nats met as well. We'll do so right after these words from a few of our sponsors. So are you upset that the commanders didn't resign D'Andre Carter? Well, you know, me, I mean, I have no skin in this game,

but he seems like he was probably the most productive return guy we've seen in a in a Washington uniform in quite a few years. He seemed like he was an asset that you would want to hang on to. I mean, you know, it's not like he's making a ton of money. I think they'll make like $1.1 million plus incentives according to reports. What was the money? I didn't see the money. What was the money again?

$1.1 million. plus incentives. I mean, that's nothing. No, it's not a lot. I mean, you would think for a team that's trying to... Did you like him? Well, you'd think for a team that's trying to win 17, 14 games that a big special team's return would be big and important.

Yeah, I liked him. I know George Allen would think he's least important. Yeah, I liked him a lot. I thought he was their best returner since Brandon Banks. It's the first time in many years. I might be missing somebody, but it's the first player that's been back there on kickoff returns or punt returns in several years where I felt like they had a chance to really score or make a big play in the return game. Not to mention the fact that he was a real threat offensively with Curtis Samuel being out for the year. He kind of took that spot.

So I'm a little bit surprised because I remember asking Ron Rivera at one point during this season. I said, who have been the most, the biggest surprises for you? And the first name he mentioned, he said, well, it hasn't been because of what he's done during the season, but one of the biggest surprises very early on in camp was DeAndre Carter. And he said, we were all kind of surprised that he had that kind of ability, and we couldn't wait for the regular season to start. We thought we had a real threat as a returner. We didn't know we'd be using him as much on offense,

because obviously there was hope that Curtis Samuel would be healthy and they'd be able to use him offensively. But I think he was the first name that was mentioned. And then the other name he mentioned, there was another name that he mentioned. I don't think he felt like Bobby McCain was a surprise, but I know that they really liked Bobby McCain when they got to like the middle portion of the year

and then towards the end of the year, which is why McCain and McKissick were kind of at the top of the list of free agents that they wanted to retain. But I kind of felt, based on what he had said about D'Andre Carter, that that was going to be a big priority as well. And for the money, it seems like it could have easily gotten done. But I don't know why. Maybe, you know what? Maybe while he was getting his shit together, they gave up on him. And he decided to sign with somebody else.

That seems to be a problem with this team. So I don't know. Yeah, I think, you know, on the roster right now, I was talking to Ben about this on radio yesterday. On the roster right now, you've got Dax Milne, you know, the rookie from last year. He was, you know, he can return punts and has returned punts. And if he makes the roster, because there's no guarantee he'll make the roster, wouldn't surprise me if he's a leading candidate to be the punt returner. and then kickoff returns might go to a guy like Jared Patterson.

You know, if he makes the team again, or Jonathan Williams, who I think they used late in the year. But I don't know, you know, I think Patterson will make the team. They haven't added running backs. They haven't drafted any new running backs yet. We haven't had the draft. You know, Gibson, McKissick Patterson would likely be the three backs on the team. I know they really like Jonathan Williams when they signed them

and he played a little bit at the end of last year. You know, they've used Danny Johnson on returns. before, but yeah, I don't think they have anybody like DeAndre Carter at this point. So, yeah, it's a, it's going to be, it'll be interesting. Yeah, I mean, look, I mean, this is another example. They have signed, like you said, two of their guys who, you know, gotten them to stay, Bobby McCain and, and JD McKissick. Yeah, after he, yeah, after he, well, he was going to Buffalo. Yeah.

But I still think this could be another example of, for the most part, the only players that they can keep for ones who can't leave. And Terry McLaurin will be the ultimate test with that. You know, I mean, you said, I know you excluded J.D. McKissick, but J.D. McKissick kind of proved that here in the offseason wrong. I mean, he had a chance to go be a part of a Super Bowl contending team. I know what you said. I know what you said. I said that. But then you said, but for the most part. they haven't had a lot of money to work with after taking on Carson-Wence's contract. They do move kind of slowly.

I mean, some of the late Sinis last year, Leno Jr. is a perfect example. This is kind of what they think is the right thing to do for them. And this is why those that have gotten worked up over Terry McLaurin not being signed yet, I've said, as Ron has said, and I agree with it. Be patient. Now, has it hurt the team waiting and not being super aggressive? Well, nobody, I think, really envisioned the wide receiver market exploding the way it's exploded in terms of contract value, courtesy of Devante Adams and Tariq Hill and Stefan Diggs and Christian Kirk, etc. And sure, if Washington could have gotten a long-term deal done with Terry McLaren two months ago, it would have looked great today and they would have looked really smart.

but Terry McClorn's agent wasn't going to let him sign a deal right after the season, more likely than not. I mean, I think, you know, his agent knows and should have known where the market was going and where it could be, by the way, this time next year, if he's an unrestricted free agent. But these deals typically on these extensions, I mean, the John Allen extension, if my memory serves me correctly, didn't get done until right before training camp, like it was the day before training camp started. So I'm not, you know, so that's the one that's been done with this group. You know, the big contract extension done by this particular group is the John Allen deal, and that was done right before training camp. So I would expect them to, you know, approach Terry McLoran and his agent, you know, after the draft and they'll try to start working on a deal.

To your, to the point you made, yeah, it'll be a little bit telling, but it'll also be important for us to know what the offer is before we can really know for sure if it's telling. If they offer him, what SpotRack is projecting that Terry McCorn's contract now will be in an extension, which is $24.5 million per year, like a $98 million four-year deal, you know, after all of these recent deals, if they offer him that top five kind of a deal. And he turns it down, that will be telling. But we're going to need to know what they offer.

Because if he turns it down, he may be turning down a bad offer. If he turns down a great offer, then that's more telling. If he turns down a bad offer, that's no less, that's not comforting. From the other side, yes. Yes, that wouldn't be comforting from the other side. No. In other words, like, okay, you know, maybe he's not a hostage, but that's only because, you know, the team wasn't smartened up to tie him up and keep him here.

Yeah, well, again, there wasn't, for a third round pick, for a guy coming off a 77 catch season, five touchdowns, I understand the quarterback was a problem, and, you know, maybe this quarterback will be much different. They love, they like him a lot, clearly. number one receiver for sure. He's a top half of the league number one. I don't think there's any debate to that. We can debate on how high you go with Terry McClure at this point. I've said before, he's somewhere between like 12 and 15, somewhere in that range in terms of the best receivers in the league. But the way these things work is you're going to have to give him a contract that probably

puts him in the top five to top six in annual average to get him to sign it. Now let's not forget, Washington has some leverage too. It's called the franchise tag. Now, they haven't been very successful in using the franchise tag previously. But if Terry McCorn, it's not like Terry McCorn's going to walk a year from now if they aren't able to agree to a long-term contract extension. The team could franchise him next year at close to like $20, $21 million for one season. So he doesn't want to be in that position either.

So I would guess, and I've guessed all along, that the team and Terry McCorn will actually come to an agreement on a contract extension long term. I think he likes the people that he's playing for. Obviously, quarterback's a big thing, and he needs better quarterback play. And needs, by the way, a healthy offense in general, you know, Logan Thomas to be back and Curtis Samuel to be on the field, et cetera. but that would be my guess is that they end up getting a deal done with Terry McClain. He does reflect the culture change kind of player that Ron wants. I would agree. Anything else on McClure.

Don't sweat at people that they haven't signed him yet. That's going to happen after the draft and probably before training camp. If something doesn't get done right before training camp or early in training camp, then you can be legitimately concerned at that point. And again, concerned, really concerned if the reports are that Washington offered him a top five deal or 22, 23, 24 million a year, and he turned it down flat. All right, that's it for the show today. With one exception, I'm just going to read the statement from Mike Tomlin, the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, on the tragic passing of Dwayne Haskins early this morning. He said, quote, I am devastated and at a loss for words.

with the unfortunate passing of Dwayne Haskins. He quickly became part of our Steelers family upon his arrival in Pittsburgh and was one of our hardest workers both on the field and in our community. Dwayne was a great teammate, but even more so a tremendous friend to so many. I am truly heartbroken. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Calabria, and his entire family during this difficult time closed quote. Sad day.

Very sad. back on Monday.