The Kevin Sheehan Show - Rivera's Frustration

Episode Date: July 28, 2021

Kevin had Al Galdi on the show to talk Washington Football, Rivera's disappointment/frustration with the teams' vaccination rate, the Nats, and more. 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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Podcast today brought to you by MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.orgie. Go to MyBooky.orgie.

Use my promo code Kevin, D.C., and they'll match your deposit halfway up to $1,000. All of the UFC 265 next week, MyBooky's got all of that action. They've got all the Olympic action, plenty of NFL prop stuff. you can get to it by going to my bookie.ag and using my promo code Kevin D.C. Al Galdi is going to be on the podcast today, at least for the first segment, maybe a second if he wants to stick around. Of course, Galdi's got a great podcast, which you can get on any podcast platform. And, you know, there's so much going on in the world of sports since even yesterday's podcast with Simone Biles and Aaron Rogers. and all of the Ron Rivera stuff, which we will get to.

But I'm going to just start with this simple question because Training Camp opened up yesterday. What would be the one thing about the upcoming season, Galdi, that you would be most disappointed with as it relates to this team? I would be most disappointed if the quarterback play isn't appreciably better. And I don't know if that's surprising or not, but the quarterback play was so bad last year overall that to have to go through that again, especially off having brought in a guy in Ryan Fitzpatrick, who I believe over the last few seasons

has been a lot better than people give credit for. I really am anticipating a substantial upgrade in the play at that position. Not that it's going to be elite or anything like that, but, you know, that Washington, if Washington was 32nd in the NFL, an overall quarterback play last year, I really would like to think the team can be, at least like middle of the pack this year, you know, make a big leap in that regard. I think that's the kind of thing that could lead to so many other good things happening. I think it will happen, and if it doesn't happen, I am going to be disappointed.

If the offense, especially the passing game, isn't remarkably better this year, I think that's going to be a real bummer. Last year, and maybe we had this same conversation last year, but last year I remember saying I'm going to be most disappointed. if the defense isn't significantly improved. Now, it didn't have to improve that much to be significantly improved from 2019. But I expected a lot out of the defense last year. I thought it was going to be much better coached.

They had added Chase Young. The other talent was a year older. And I'm going to stick with the same thing heading into this year. I think there was, you know, and I've said this many times, it was a significantly improved defense last year. so I didn't end up being disappointed, didn't get disappointed on that particular front. Now I'm upping the ante on the defense. I want it to significantly improve again. It was a good defense last year. It was in a very inconsistent run defense.

They've got to be much better against the run. That will be disappointing if they're not. It means they didn't get better in the interior and at linebacker. I think the pieces they've added defensively with William Jackson, We don't know much about Jamie Davis, but you get the return of Matt Ionitis and even Landon Collins. But really what you get is you get a full off season of Rivera del Rio, year two of Chase Young, year three of Montez sweat, all of these young defensive linemen, you know, getting a year older and being more comfortable in the system in year two. I'm going to be really disappointed if the defense doesn't take another major leap. And there are some people out there, Galdi, that would say, well, it doesn't have to take that much of a big leap because it was really great last year. No, it's got to take a bigger leap.

We're expecting the expectation of this defense, don't you think, is for it to be dominant. And I think this next season, we should see a jump towards dominant. I don't know if it will be the best defense or the most dominant defense, but it's got to be more dominant than it was last year. Well, I think there's certainly another level the defense can get to, and we had that crystallized in the playoff loss to the buck. My concern, though, is this, and I really wonder about this overall in the NFL right now. I don't know that dominant defense is possible anymore. I feel like the way the league is now, so offense-oriented, so passing game-oriented. Like, if you look, especially in recent seasons, even those defenses that we close,

qualify as the best defenses. Those defenses get got. Those defenses give stuff up. And so, you know, the days of like the 2000 Ravens, the O2Bucks, even like the 2013 C-Hawks, I don't know that that's likely, I don't want to say it's impossible because anything can happen. But I almost feel like we have to recalibrate our measure of great defense. It's kind of like to me in college football. Like Alabama used to stuff everybody. And now Alabama will give up 30 points. Alabama will give up, you know, 300-yard passing games. Not necessarily because Alabama's defense is terrible, but just that's the way offense is now in college football.

And I feel like it's becoming more and more like that in the NFL. So with this year, no doubt, like there is another level of defense for Washington can get to. But I'm kind of preparing myself for there are going to be days where the defense gives stuff up and you just have to kind of accept that, I think, in the NFL in 2021. Yeah, I don't put it, you know, on the same level of college football. College football, it's almost, and what's actually interesting is there have been some really good defensive college football teams over the last couple of years, and they can slow down some of these high-profile offenses. But if they don't have a really good offense to go with it, it doesn't matter.

I would say that that is true in the NFL now. You can have a dominant defense, but your dominant defense can't lead you solely to a title with mediocre subpar offense. you've got to have really good offense to go with it. I think there have been some really good defenses in recent years, but there's one that you remind me of. The Jacksonville defense of a few years ago was truly dominant, and yet it got to a playoff game that it won over Pittsburgh, but it gave up 42 points.

Now, some of that was turnover fueled, and I think maybe even special teams of fueled, but I remember that Jacksonville team from, you know, a few years ago, the 2017 season. That was a dominant defense. And they got to the postseason. And if you recall, in a really boring playoff game, they beat Buffalo. I think it was like 13 to 3. And then they played Pittsburgh on the road.

And they won that game. But they didn't win it the way I think people thought they would win it. It was like 45-42 shootout. And then, you know, they actually had New England on the ropes in the AFC. title game in Foxborough the next week playing, you know, excellent defense as well. But, yeah, I think that the days of a Ravens defense with Trent Dilfer winning a Super Bowl are over, you know, or they're pretty close to over. You've got to have offense to go with it. That Jacksonville team that year, if it had had more than just Blake Bortles, I mean,

I think Fournette was pretty good that year, but they didn't have any receivers and they had Blake Bortle's a quarterback. They didn't need much more, but they needed more to get by New England and potentially win a Super Bowl. I think that that part's true. But with that said, there is an extra level or two that the Washington defense can climb. Yeah, there's no doubt about that. And we saw last year, especially like early in the year, like the defense was far from great early in the year. As the year went on, the defense got better. Obviously, Washington faced a cascade of opposing quarterback that wasn't exactly a murder's row. No.

So that helped out. But I think the big key for this season really is the passing game being better, more so than the running game. They've got to be able to throw the football more effectively. They've got to have more explosive plays. To the team's credit, this was certainly recognized. I mean, that was clearly a goal in the off season to set things up so that the offense, the passing game can be more explosive.

I really think that's what this season comes down to in a lot of ways, because especially with the Scatzone and all these great quarterbacks, the team is set to face, you're not going to be holding teams to 13 points game in, game out. You're going to give some stuff up. So can you max firepower enough to where you can win some games, you know, 31, 28, 35, 32, that sort of a thing. Yeah, hopefully there aren't too many of those. But I do think you're 100% right.

They clearly address the fact that they weren't very explosive in the passing game. They tried to address it in a much bigger way at quarterback with this swing for Matt Stafford, and maybe a few others. And I'm intrigued by Ryan Fitzpatrick. I think you are too. I think that it can't get any worse than it was last year overall at quarterback. And if it's much better, this is going to, you know, this has a chance to be a pretty good football team. Yeah.

You know, sometimes I'm like, hey, are we just so beaten? down by bad quarterback play that we build others up just because they're not those who have been here previously. But I think with Fitzpatrick, like I said, he certainly statistically has been a lot better than people getting credit for. And just if you get away from the numbers, I could just watch the guy. He brings something to the table that Washington doesn't have, or hasn't had. And that is someone who throws aggressively downfield, someone who is capable of inciting the big play, someone who's had a lot of. of success taking receivers games to different levels. Like if you look at Devonte Parker with the

Dolphin, what Parker did prior to Fitzpatrick's arrival versus what Parker did the last two seasons with Fitzpatrick there, it's almost like two different players. This guy really does impact passing games in effective ways. And I'm excited to see what that could mean for Washington. Yeah, he's a distributor too. You know, and I think they've got, you know, in resigning Logan or extending Logan Thomas, I think they recognize that beyond this year, they might have a guy who's a really good distributor, you know, of the football. And in the games last year with the Dolphins, you look at some of those games. There were nine and ten receivers catching balls when Fitzpatrick was playing, and they were playing, you know, relatively well offensively early on. And the tight end's a big, you know, target for him.

but he does a great job as a distributor. I think a lot of people recognize or think of Fitzpatrick as a gunslinger and a guy that will take chances and because of it will end up having a few bad plays and sometimes costly plays. But he's a phenomenal distributor of the football. You know, everybody's in play as an eligible receiver when he quarterbacks. I think that that's going to be huge too, and they've added some weapons. Next question for Galdi on the football team.

And by the way, I want to talk to Galdi about what the Nats will do. Galdi's also part of the Nats chat podcast with Mark Zuckerman and Tim Schover. So we'll get to that. Give me the player who will prove to be the most valuable off-season acquisition. We've talked about Fitzpatrick, but there are others to consider, you know, the playmakers that you mentioned. and referred to that they've added. They've added a big piece defensively, maybe two big pieces defensively. They've added multiple pieces to their offensive line. I'm not asking who's going to be the most productive, but I'm asking who will be the most valuable ultimately when

this season's over of the off-season acquisitions. So I would have to say Fitzpatrick because of the position he plays. I don't know if that's too boring of an answer because we just talked about them, but I don't, you know, nothing matters like quarterback matters. And so if he can play the position at an appreciably better level than what Washington had last year, I think that makes a ton of difference. And so I'm really looking for that, you know, assuming that Patrick's the guy and starts the bulk of the season. But another name I would throw at you would be William Jackson III.

I think it's easy to kind of lose sight of that signing. You could argue that that was the number one move of the off season from a standpoint of, hey, they spent decent money on the guy. He's someone who plays a really key position on defense, and it's a position. There's a real debate now in football circles of this corner matter the most on defense, more so than edge rushers, because it is such a passing league, and that you have a guy now in William Jackson III

who can play man coverage in a way that others have not been able to. Like, we saw Washington's past defense ultimately be good last year, A, because a lot of the quarterbacks weren't very good, but also B, Washington went with a lot of that zone coverage, which is fine. There's nothing wrong with that. It worked well. Ronald Darby did very well in that regard. But you have someone in William's action, the third, who I think brings more to the table in terms of a skill set.

He's someone who has played at a very high level. You know, I don't know that he, is he like Jalen Ramsey or like a top five corner, no. But is he a top, say, 15 corner in the NFL? Yeah, I think that he is. I think he'll allow Jack Dorio to do something differently, schematically, on the back end. and I think what Jackson could end up meaning for Washington this year, especially like two, you think about a corner who can shadow opposing team receivers. We haven't seen a ton of that.

Remember the whole thing with Josh Norman? He's not traveling with Antonio Brown, that sort of thing. Jackson is someone who potentially can do that, and what that could mean for this defense, I think is pretty intriguing. Yeah, look, they had a highly ranked past defense last year, and you said it. I think a lot of that had to do with the opponents in the back. up quarterbacks and the third string quarterbacks they were playing. I don't think it has anything

to do with zone versus man. There are a lot of zone teams that get torched and end up on the wrong side of that. But, you know, it's not just as I'm sure you've talked about and I've talked about a lot, the quarterbacks that they're going to be facing this year. To your point, there are so many star receivers they are going to be facing, you know, this upcoming season. You know, you start with Keenan Allen. Then you get, you know, you get Diggs in week three. Well, you get Ghaladay in the second game. Diggs in the third game. You get Michael Thomas potentially. You get Tarekill. You get Devonte Adams. You get Mike Evans. You get D.K. Metcalf. You get C.D. Lam, Amari Cooper. They're going to have to be a better, you know, they're going to have to have a guy that can

really cover or they're potentially going to get torched by some really good offenses, but I think it still comes back to against any of these teams. They've got to establish a much better and more consistent run defense. And I think all of that will lead to, you know, what Ron Rivera said the day he got here, which is we're going to stop the run on the way to the quarterback. And, you know, pass rush, you know, helps everything. By the way, Fitzpatrick is the answer that I have. I mean, I hope that he's the most valuable offseason acquisition. If he isn't, then they're probably not going to be a double-digit win team. I guess Taylor Heineke and or Kyle Allen could step in and lead them to something significant if

it's not Fitzpatrick. But I think the answer to that is Ryan Fitzpatrick. This is a roster, Al, that I think people are as confident in the overall strength of the roster as they've been in a long, long time. With that said, who among the projected starters, and I'm talking mostly veterans, because we don't know what Jamon Davis is. Who concerns you the most? Well, I do wonder about someone like Charles Leno. They bring him in. He got released by the Bears. I know just because you get released, that doesn't mean that you're a terrible player, but there's a reason you get released. You know, we've seen Washington get

burned by this kind of thing in the past where the team brings in someone who's name you recognized who you know his had success. You say, geez, how come that guy was available? And he comes here, and he's a shell of what he used to be, you know, whether you're talking about Ryan Clark in a second go-round. I remember when Jim Hazlett was the defensive coordinator, the free safety that he loved was this guy, Ashimagoa Tagway, and Watson to get some. And he wasn't, he wasn't close to being what he was. So I do wonder a bit about Leno. And, you know, not that I think he's going to be a train wreck, but there's a reason he got let go. So, like, you have to say, all right, he's going to be playing left tackle. Is he going to

good at that spot. So that's a sort of thing I do wonder about, you know, along the same line, someone like Bobby McCain. I look at Bobby McCain and I say, man, there's a lot to like about this guy. Why did the dolphins let him go? And then I'm like, hmm, the dolphins are a smart team. The dolphins have an offensive-minded head coach in Brian Flores, who I think is doing a really good job. They obviously have their reasons for this. So if Bobby McCain ends up being the starting free safety or ends up playing a lot at Nickel Corner, which he's done in the past, is he up to the task or did the Dolphins realize something with Bobby McCain that maybe the rest of us did not? You know, it's interesting, the contract that Washington gave McCain is like a nothing contract.

So there wasn't a big market for McCain. So just things like that, right? Like when you gobble up those who've been discarded by others, you always have to wonder about why were those guys discarded by the others? Yeah, I mean, look, you could make the case that Ryan Fitzpatrick has had all of these opportunities and yet every single team he's ever been on, they've always been looking for a better looking blonde, basically, than him. So, you know, that is, I think we're excited because the quarterback play was so bad,

and he's coming off two of his better years of his career, really the two best years of his career. And, you know, he's got some of that leadership and some of that swag and the whole thing. but those that are skeptical have good reason, I think, to be skeptical. I just think we're catching him, and I'm more, I guess I'm more optimistic that we're catching him at maybe, you know, the biggest moment of his career and maybe the best moment of his career. I'm just going to say that I don't know why this team continues to put as much faith into their kicker like they have. This is the second straight coaching staff that is totally bought in to Dustin Hopkins. This year is going to be a year that if they do have a good team and end up with a good record, more likely than not, they're going to win a lot of close games.

They're going to be in a lot of close games. You know, I've never played the schedule game and people are criticizing me for playing it more than I've ever played it before. And that's just because of the slate of offensive quarterbacks and receivers and just offensive. teams that they're facing. I don't know that any teams ever faced this level of top 10 quarterbacks or the volume of top 10 quarterbacks. But, you know, they were in close games last year. And I just, I know why coaches like them. I know why special teams coaches love them. The ball explodes off his foot and it gets elevation right away. They're always looking for that. but I still don't trust them in a big spot.

And I'm surprised that they didn't bring in and they didn't look for an answer. There aren't many of them out there. You know, there are teams like the Vikings last year that had a major problem with special teams and kicking. And, you know, they don't, it's not like they're a bunch of great kickers sitting around there waiting to be signed.

But I was concerned the last few years with Hopkins. Hopefully it works out. Yeah, I talked about Hopkins at length on my podcast recently. It's interesting. Ron Rivera, as you likely remember, after the Detroit game last year, said they were considering replacing Hopkins ended up not doing that. The hope is that the Dustin Hopkins of the second half of last season is a guy that's played this year, Hopkins did not get off to a good start last year, but actually the

season went on was good. He made the bulk of his field goals. He was great in the win at Pittsburgh. So you've got to hope that that guy is there. It is remarkable, though. Dustin Hopkins is going into year seven of being Washington's kicker. Washington got him after week one of the 2015 season. He's been the kicker ever since.

When I was a kid, you know, Chip Lohmiller was Washington's kicker. And I was always like, wow, he's been the kicker forever. We're now in like Chip Lohmiller territory in terms of how long Dustin Hopkins has been Washington's kicker. It is remarkable because I don't think most people view him as like this all-time great kicker in Washington history, but he's had a tenure. that would be reflective of someone who's had this great run. I mean, he's lasted through multiple coaching staff.

He's lasted through struggles. He's been hurt. Remember they had that guy, Nick Rose a few years back. Yeah. When Hopkins was dealing with an injury, Hopkins retained his job then. I mean, there's like a Teflon nature to him that really is remarkable. Every year he's the kicker. And every year, it's almost like he's unchallenged, which is also interesting.

Because he isn't Justin Tucker. He isn't Stephen Gostkowski. But yet, every year it's like, no, yeah, Dustin Hopkins. he's our kicker. Washington, we signed him this off season. We signed them early in the off season, and every indication is that he's going to have the job this year unchallenged. Yeah, you know, he did have a better finish to the season on field goals, but he missed that crucial extra point in the Seattle game, which was huge. When they, you know, were driving late, they were down five instead of down three,

would have had a chance to win. Nick Rose is a great pool because I think, and I'm trying to look this up real quickly. I think he had in a game against the Vikings at FedEx, I think he kicked like a 56-yard in that game. But you can't be in this league, in this, age, a 79.4 percent field goal percentage guy. You just can't. But again, I know the reason that coaches and special teams coaches love them. The ball explodes off his foot. And It gets elevation. He's a great kickoff guy as well. But man, there have been big, big missed kicks over the years

and even some big missed extra points over the years like last year in the Seattle game. Before we get to the Nats, I want to get to Ron Rivera. For those of you that missed it, Ron Rivera, by the way, I had him on the radio show this morning. You can go to the Team 980.com and listen to that interview. I recorded it yesterday right after the radio show, so it was basically 24 hours later, and so all of the vaccine stuff had not come out. The report yesterday that Washington had the lowest player vax rate in the NFL at 60% having received at least one dose, that means 40% of their players, of their 90, not of the final

53. We don't know what it will be of the final 53. but 40% of their 90 haven't even gotten the first shot. So they are clearly hesitant to get the vaccine. It's the lowest rate in the NFL. The average in the league right now is 84%. There are 14 teams, according to reports, that have over 90% of their players vaccinated.

And Ron Rivera was upset about this. And Rivera said that, you know, he is immune deficient. and that he's frustrated, very frustrated with the response, even though they've really attempted to educate and inform. They brought in that world leading immunologist about a month and a half ago. He said, I'm frustrated. I'm beyond frustrated. And I took calls out this morning on this simple question.

You know, will this response from Ron? Ron Rivera about the lowest vaccination rate in the NFL. Is it potentially a team-dividing issue? Do you think it is or isn't? I don't because I think what's going to happen in part is if you're a borderline player, you're not going to be here because of this. Ron has shown himself not to be shy about getting rid of people. And so, look, I mean, if you're an obvious starter, he's not going to cut you over this.

you know, if it's 50-50, if you could go either way, if there's someone who's close enough to you, I think this could end up costing you. I also think, too, as time goes on, hopefully we do get away from this thing, and it ends up not being that big of a deal that guys aren't vaccinated. You know, some of the stuff that's going on right now, there's a lot to take in clearly. But like the NFL puts out that big memo of, hey, if we have to cancel games, you're not going to get paid, et cetera. The NFL never canceled any games last year when we didn't have vaccines.

The NFL's not going to cancel anything. I agree. That's, I totally agree with that. I understand what the NFL is doing when to put that stuff out there. But that's overly dramatic. You never canceled anything last year. You're not going to do that this year. So, you know, I think that this is not something, obviously, that everyone agrees with on the team, right?

Like, obviously there are players who don't want to get vaccinated. We heard Montez-Webitt speak, and he's clearly not alone. But I also think this can be something where people disagree with him, but it doesn't mean that like they hate him. You know, maybe it's a finer line to walk that I'm making it sound to be, but I think that they can navigate this. What I think that we have to get our arms around is they're probably not going to get much beyond where they're at.

Like I always kind of assume we'll eventually go get to 80, 85%. I don't know about that. The fact that they're still, you know, at what, 50, 60%, whatever it is, I'm not sure how much more that increases. And obviously this is reflective of what's going on in society, but, you know, the notion of like one day we're going to wake up and the whole team is vaccinated, I don't know that that's going to go down here. I mean, I think people have their reasons for not getting vaccinated, and I don't know that

those reasons are just going to evaporate. Already today, Chase Young, Matt Ionitis, Doran Payne, among the players wearing masks, which is mandatory for unvaccinated players. Chase Young has done a lot on social media retweeting stuff. It's clear that he is anti-vaccination. He's one of the team leaders. Look, two things. One, when the NFL put out the memo, I totally agree with you.

I think that no games will be cut. I think players could get cut. Certainly players on the bubble. I think that's going to be a big issue for them. But I do not see a game being totally canceled. Could we have postponed games? Why not? I mean, like, what's the big deal?

We are in unique times. They figured it out last year, even though they lost big money on Thanksgiving night by not having a game in primetime, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and having to move that to a Wednesday afternoon, you know, that was some give back to NBC. They don't want to be in that position, but that memo was about putting the pressure on the teams

to get their players vaccinated. I don't think any games will be forfeited. With that said, players won't. playing games. Players will lose practices and games. And if you're on the lower end of the vaccination rate, you're more, the probability is higher that you could potentially lose key players for key games. So it is a competitive disadvantage, potentially, to be on the lower end of the vaccination thing. On the first question I asked you, I don't think this will be a team dividing issue. I think this will be smoothed over. I think what will be very interesting,

is how many of the players, how many of the 60% of the 90 are roster spots 53 through 90? Because it's very possible you could get to opening day and the number is much lower than 60. If a lot of the players that are vaccinated are players that are going to get cut, you know, that we're going to make the team anyway. And some of your team leaders being players who aren't vaccinated, what you have, I think, in other NFL cities that have high vaccination rates is you've got team leaders who are vaccinated and are putting the pressure on their teammates to get vaccinated. Well, if your team leaders, guys like Chase Young and Montez Sweat, certainly on defense,

aren't vaccinated and they're anti-vaccination, that may slow the process. But I don't see this like you don't. I don't see it being a big team dividing issue. I do think it's nuts personally, and this isn't about vaccine shaming. because I think everybody's got the right, you know, your body, your choice. And I think, you know, there are, you know, cases to be made that if you had COVID and you've built up antibodies that, you know, waiting and being a little bit more hesitant right now doesn't, you know, isn't totally illogical. But I think being a part of a team and putting that team's, you know, performance potentially at risk when you, you know, by the time you're three or four years old, already have three or four. shots in you for mumps and measles and rebella and smallpox and everything else. I mean,

your father is a doctor. I'm assuming your father told you when you can get vaccinated, get vaccinated. Yeah, I've talked about it. A lot of the stuff that's out there really is crazy. Like one of my favorite things is people that make a huge deal of, well, if you get vaccinated, you can still get COVID-19. That's true of almost every vaccine out there. That's not unique to the COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccines aren't meant to make it so that you never, ever can get the thing. Like, it'd be wonderful if that was the case, but that's not the case. The efficacy of these vaccines is spectacular, 90 plus percent. Not the J&J, not the Johnson and Johnson. Yeah. Right, but the other ones are really good. The fact that they're this good is huge, and that's a huge win for

science, right? I mean, it was supposed to be, it was going to take years to develop these vaccines. We did it in basically the time of a pregnancy. like nine months. So it's just, you know, there's a lot of stuff with this. You know, I mean, I'm one of these people who thinks a lot of this is, you know, there's politics involved, there's misinformation involved. I think everyone understands that by now. And, you know, there are some people who, like you said, if you had COVID-19, like, for instance, Matt Ionitis, right?

So some people are making a big deal with ioditis be matched up and not potentially have him vaccinated it. Well, ionitis is one of the guys who would put on a COVID-19 list last year. So perhaps he had it and he has the antibodies and he's like, well, I don't either of that. So, you know, everyone's kind of going to be different in that regard. It was a powerful moment, too, with Ron, you know, saying, hey, I'm a few-node deficient. Like, I guess we all kind of suspected that with him having had cancer, but we weren't sure of that. For him to reveal that, for him to really sound off on his frustration on Tuesday, it's not something clearly that you're seeing everywhere, and he put a voice to that,

and he's clearly trying to pressure these guys to get vaccinated. I don't know how well it's going to work. you know, again, like you, I'm not big into shaming people into doing this, but, you know, this team, which is such a good job with this last year, it really does stand out that it's been among the worst, if not the worst teams, in terms of getting guys back. And yet, you know, a year ago, they, without a vaccination, they sailed through the season without any issues whatsoever. One of the few teams not to have any, so, you know, that could be coincidence,

that could be luck, or that could have been something that they did. did, I tend to think it's probably a combination of both. But, yeah, it's, there's a lot of, look, I'm not going to sit here and try to say that there's a lot of complexity to the decision, but there's a lot of complexity to the information. And, you know, where you get the information and what you believe. By the way, Lamar Jackson not practicing today in Baltimore because of issues related to COVID-19. Remember, Baltimore had lots of issues last year with COVID. Yeah, try to start canceling some of these games with the new TV deal and see how the networks feel about it.

Postpone them, reschedule them. It was fine last year. They got through every single game, and nobody really sweated the fact that on a Tuesday afternoon, you know, you had to watch a game at 5 o'clock. Anyway, last one on the football team. get to the Nats with you and what's upcoming. I do sense, and I do feel like, and you're already seeing it with some of the pictures

that are coming out of Richmond with the crowds that are there. Now, we'll find out what the crowds actually are, but they were lined up early this morning, and that's typically the case with the first day where fans are allowed to be into training camp, even when they've been terrible. There have been some lines on that very first day. But I think the expectations, Al, are as high as they've been in a while. National pundits are weighing in on Washington as a team that, you know, many think will win the division. Many think have a chance to win playoff games.

They all point to the defense, you know, in some of the additions offensively. A, speak, in your own words, to the expectations relative to where we've been in the past. And then B, whether or not you think they can reach them. Yeah, so I love seeing the big crowds, at least initially at camp. We'll see if that continues. I do think, though, there's an energy with this team. There is sort of like an oomph with the fan base with this team that we haven't had in a while. I think that's a function of a lot of different things, you know, coming out of the pandemic,

not being able to do something like go to training camp last year is a reason. You know, you have in Ron Rivera now a head coach who is like universally beloved, you know, And there aren't many people in the NFL with higher approval ratings than the approval rating for Ron Rivera. It's so funny that juxtaposition. Washington may have the single most despised person in the NFL and Dan Snyder, and maybe the single most beloved person in Ron Rivera. And you also have some star power now. Like Chase Young is, I don't want to say super star.

He's only played for one year, but he's tracking for that. Like he has a name value and a cachet that not many Washington players have had in recent years. years. So I think it's pretty cool to have all of that going on here. In terms of Washington delivering on the hype, look, I think this is going to be a solid to pretty good team this year. I don't think it's going to be a great team. I'd love for that to be the case. I think it's, you know, being a little fanboy to just, you know, assume it's going to be the case. But I think they're going to be good. I think it's going to be the kind of year where because the schedule, at least for now, looks like it's going to be a lot harder. The team could be better, but the record could be worse.

But I think we as fans will be able to tell, did this team take another step forward? And that's really what I'm hoping for for this year. I know progression in the NFL isn't always linear, but if last year was sort of a surprising season and with a lot of things sort of bounced away, what I want this year is for this year to be not, you know, last year you could argue was an empty calorie playoff season. We're like, yeah, they made the playoffs, but that was a flawed team in a lot of ways, especially on offense.

What you want to see this year is a team that is, is good in multiple facets and that you look at and you say, all right, maybe the record was only 8 and 9, but boy, was that a good 8 and 9 team. Boy was that a team. You lost them close games, but they were so much better on offense. The defense did take that next step. And the team, even in games that lost, was a really tough out.

Like, you want to see that next step taken this year. I think if we see that, we'll be pleased with the season, and I do expect to see that. Yeah. I expect that we will see an improved football team that could potentially produce lesser results than last year. Now, not less than seven wins. If it's an improved football team, they're going to win at least eight, but eight could be eight and nine. Nine could be nine and eight, and it may not mean playoffs.

But I think to your point, I think those of us that watch closely and watch every single game, I'd be upset if we didn't see a team that we'd be. improved on both sides of the ball. And that could mean that they're in really good games against some really good teams. If the teams on their schedule end up being as good as, you know, a lot of people potentially think they are, at least on offense. But I don't know that that delivers from a playoff perspective. I hope it does.

But, you know, it's the NFL, man. It's impossible to predict. I do think it's fascinating, though. what you said about Ron Rivera that, you know, he may have the highest approval rating of any coach in the league. I think a lot of that has to do with the cancer, A, but B, side by side with the worst owner in the league. And a team that appears to be making progress in the face of all that the owners produced from, you know, negatively. Anyway, can we talk about the Nats? Absolutely.

We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Al Golding is joining us on the podcast. Of course, Al's got his own podcast. You can listen to that wherever you get your podcasts. He also does a Natch Chat podcast with Mark Zuckerman from Masson and Tim Schovers. And that Nats chat podcast is really one of the best recap, you know, post-game shows of Nats games you can find anywhere. Well, they won last night over the Phillies snapping a five-game losing skid. Trey Turner pulled from the game after testing positive for COVID-19.

And now all attention, even before last night, is directed towards the trade deadline. Al, what do you expect is coming in the next few days? Well, I think they're going to sell and sell hard. And I think it's 100% the right call. I think it is kind of comical because, a few weeks ago, certainly a few months ago, people got all been out of shape if you even brought up the notion of trading away Max Scher. And now here we are, and it's the most obvious thing to do. And what I think is funny is the team is totally on board with doing this. Every

inkling of reporting that's out there is that the Nats are moving aggressively to trade max, and it looks like you're going to trade them sooner rather than later. You know, the nationals are in a really typical spot. Their farm system is a top. trocious. And I don't use that word lightly. How did that happen? How did that happen? So a lot of it, to be honest with you, is bad drafts and bad player development. There's an excuse that people make, which is, well, they've been contenders. They've had to trade away a bunch of guys. Yeah, but a lot of those trades happened years ago now. That's kind of a convenient thing to keep saying. Look, Mike Rizzo's been a great general manager, but his recent draft track record isn't

very good. And the nationals' for whatever reason that the minor league systems just aren't developing guys like a good organization should. You know, they're in kind of a slump when it comes to that. And so their farm system is regarded, it's not just like one of the poor ones, it's regarded as the worst one in baseball. And not just by like one ranking system by like multiple people out there. So they really have to fix it because nothing doomed the club in the long term, more than a bad farm system. You've got to be able to replenish talent at the major league level. and the Nats have not been able to do that.

One of the really glaring things about this national season has been when the Nats calls someone up from the minors, it's always someone in his 30s. It's someone like Herardo Pora or Yadio Hernandez or this guy, Palo Espino. The Nats don't have young blood ready to come to the major league level. The Nats when they've needed extra bodies, haven't gone to the minors even. The Nats have done things like trade for Alcidi's Escobar, or sign this guy Renee Rivera to be a catcher.

Guys in their 30s, guys who people thought were shot. That's the terrible state of the farm system. So they really have to address that. And so to me, at the very least, all of the free agents to be need to be traded. All of the guys who can leave the team for nothing at the end of the season need to be traded. So Max Scherzer, Brad Hand, Daniel Hudson, Kyle Schwerver, Jan Gohm, Josh Harrison, those six guys to me should be gone come 4 p.m. Eastern on Friday. Friday. I hope that's the case. We'll see if that's the case. What about Trey Turner?

So with him, you can wait. He's not a free agent until after next season, so you've got a year plus left of control on him. The recent trend with guys like that has been for them to actually be traded in the offseason, thinking about Francisco Lidore, thinking about Moogie Bet. But look, if you can get a good deal for him now, I would do it. I think with Tray, you know, the issue becomes, okay, well, don't you want to keep him long term? You do, but two things. Number one, after next season, so in other words, after his contract is up, he's going into his age 30 seasons. So, you know, you'd be in that dicey spot of paying a guy in his 30s for what he's done in his 20s, and that's one of the things that gets clubs in trouble. The Natch could actually end up playing this

in like the ultimate analytical way, which is you have a guy in his 20s, his peak physical years, you underpay him because he's in his arbitration years, and then you let someone else overpay him in his 30 years and his decline years. And so if Turner is asking for Lindor money, Lindor from the Metz got a 10-year $341 million deal. I like Trey Turner. I'm not paying him that. I'm not giving him a $300-plus million-dollar contract,

especially off the debacle that now is the Steven Strzbrough contract. So if you can do Turner, say, for $150 million, maybe $200 million, I'd be open to that. But if this is going to be one of these mega deals, I don't blame the NASF for not signing into that. So I would look to trade them, but you don't have to do it this week. You can't wait until the off-season. I want to follow up on the Strasbourg deal being a disastrous deal.

Where does Max Scher go, and what do they get back for Max Scherzer? I know people aren't going to understand or know the names, but what would you be looking for coming back? So kind of a general way to evaluate prospects is that there are the top 100 lists that come out for baseball America and something called MLB pipeline, which is the prospect arm of MLB.com. What you're looking for here are hopefully multiple top 100 prospects. Now, I don't know how likely that is. The market for these in-season trades has come down in recent years. So, like, getting a blue-chip prospect back for a two-month rental, that used to be something. something you could do. It's something that the Yankees famously did when they traded away

a roll with Chatt and then got back Labor Torres. You're not seeing that happen as much now. So I think you really, unfortunately, just have to take the best that you can get, the best offer. So there's a lot of talk about the National League West teams. You know, that is an arms race right now. That division is something else with the Giants and the Dodgers and the Padres. So perhaps you can incite a bidding war between those three teams. Maybe a team like the Boston Red Sox is, you know, with the season Boston. having might be open assures or maybe the Yankees who, you know, you would think are desperate might be open assures.

There are definite teams that are in on him. It's important to keep in mind, too, Max is what's called a 10 and 5 guy, 10 years in the majors, five years with the same team each of the last five years. So he's got trade veto rights. So he can dictate where he goes. He can not approve a trade to one spot but approve a trade to another spot. The reporting has been that he'll approve a trade, but it just has to be to a team of his liking. So, you know, you're going to have to work through that.

That's why, by the way, the NACs need to settle on a deal or a potential deal soon because it may take some time to work through the no-trade stuff with Max. So you can't just do the deal at 359 on Friday. You're going to have to figure this out probably by Thursday and then get back to Max say, okay, we have a deal on the table with the Dodgers, are you good to go with them and play it from there? I've read the same thing where they have to get this done quickly because of the list of teams that he might not accept to trade to.

don't they just find out right now the teams that he doesn't want to get traded to and work off of that, there might be a benefit to letting this go until the last minute and having, you know, a true bidding war heat up? Oh, you could. And maybe they have done that. So that's possible. I don't know, like, how much they're involving him and all this right now, but that's certainly possible. The other thing is that he's due to start Thursday, which is crazy. I would be shocked if he makes that start, but we'll see. It's been a, it's been a, it's been a, It's been a commultuous last few weeks with the net, so who knows what ends up that? I just, in listening to you and thinking about especially that National League West,

where the third place team, you know, are the Padres, and they're like 17 games for whatever over 500, you know, usually the best deal comes in at the last minute, you know, and you want that bidding war to develop. So hopefully they don't they don't do it too far in advance. With respect to Strasbourg and his season-ending surgery, this is obviously the theme of his career is never being quite healthy enough, and he's got all these years left on the seven-year, $265 million or whatever it was deal that he did a few years ago. How bad is this deal right now for the franchise? Well, it's a calamity from a sport standpoint.

This is the worst contract in pro sports. and I think with everything going on with the National, so you have all the trade stuff, you have, you know, trade turner testing positive for COVID-19. It wasn't that long ago you had a game suspended due to gunfire outside National Park. The number one development over the last few weeks is what came out yesterday with Strasbourg. This is a huge deal.

What he got diagnosed with, I don't think this is getting enough attention. This thing that he got diagnosed with, serratics, outlet syndrome. That is a doomsday scenario for pitchers now. That is what Tommy John surgery was like 30 years ago. Like we know now with Tommy John, guys undergo it, come back from it just fine, sometimes come back from it even better. Some guys have undergone it multiple times. TOS is something very different. TOS is a career wrecker, a career ruiner. When people talk about someone like Matt Harvey, what happened to Matt Harvey, TOS is what happened to Matt Harvey. TOS

ruined Matt Harvey. TOS has a lot of. has ravished careers. And with Trotsberg, I have to say I genuinely feel sorry for him. Like, his career is never going to be the same now. His career, and I'm not trying to be dramatic, his career, in essence, could be over because of this procedure that he's supposed to undergo on Wednesday. We don't know when he's going to pitch again. Well, Matt Harvey has come back in pitch.

He actually pitched pretty well against the Nats on Saturday night because I was there. but how many careers has it ended? Well, ended like, okay, Harvey's career isn't over, but he's never the same again. Like Matt Harvey underwent this. Josh Beckett underwent this. It's not a lengthy list because it's not something that everyone undergoes. Is there anybody that's been a success after it? No, not really.

I mean, Alex Cobb underwent it, so he's been okay. But no one comes back from it and is like as good as he was before, okay? and especially with someone like Strasbourg, who's already, in it with 30s and has a lengthy injury history, this does not look good at all. Like, I really can't overstate this. This is, this was horrendous news. And it's horrendous for him personally. And it's horrendous for the nationals.

This contract is a complete debacle, seven years, $245 million. He's made seven total starts over these last two regular seasons. And the Strasbourg, who we came to know, right in 2019, there's a very good chance. We never see that guy again. I don't even know if he's going to make it through this contract. In fact, I think it's almost 50-50, whether he ends up having to retire at some point over the next few years.

And again, I don't say this stuff flippantly. I'm not trying to be like overly, oh, my God, you know, the world is ending. Like, TOS is a big deal in baseball. It's not good at all. It's basically the last thing you want is a pitcher. Maybe he can buck the trend. I mean, obviously, everyone's going to be rooting for him. But this is a very bad predicament that the Natcha is now with him in this contract.

You know, in thinking about the team next year, if you start unloading all those people, obviously the untouchable is Soto. But what do you really, I mean, it's amazing that two years after winning the World Series, worst farm system, and a team that no one will recognize when it takes the field in 2022. Yeah, I mean, look, they could in theory. trade some of these guys and re-sign them. Well, Scherzor did say he wants to find a place to get traded to where he can stick around and sign an extension, you know, if it's in L.A. or San Diego or San

Francisco. Right. So I don't know how likely doing that is that it is possible. But look, all these guys can leave you at the end of the year. So if you don't want to trade them, they're going to go bye-bye at the end of the season because these guys aren't stupid. They read the writing of the law. To the people who don't want to trade back Scherzer, what would be?

be better, and then he walked away at the end of the year to go to a real contender and get nothing back for him. And that was it with Al Galdi. We had some phone issues that we could not overcome there. But it's great to catch up with Al, get his thoughts on the football team, and certainly get his expertise as it relates to the NAT situation as they will be sellers here over the next 24 to 48 hours as we approach. the trade deadline. A few more things to finish up on right after these words from a few of our

sponsors. I always find it interesting when training camp begins and all of the beat reporters, and we've got a really good group of beat reporters that cover the team. Obviously, you know, I like a lot of them, John Kine, Ben Standing, J.P. Finley, Nikki Gibvala, Michael Phillips. The list goes on and on of people covering the team that I really think they do a phenomenal job, you know, on the beat. You know, there's a difference between the guys on the beat and people who are columnists or people like me who do long-form talk shows. The people on the beat are reporters. They're there to report what's going on. Now, some of them also have opinion formats. You know, JP Fenley's doing a radio show right now.

Ben Standing has a podcast. But, you know, Ben's primary job is being the beat reporter for the athletic. And so I always think in these early days of training camp, as, you know, the first day. And all of them are reporting on, as Ben did just recently, he writes, we just had a Taylor Heineke deep completion to Sammy Ray's. Go nuts, WFT, Twitter. And you get that coming out. and there is an audience for that.

There is definitely a market for that. And that always fascinates me because, honestly, the regular season ends up being so much different than anything we see even in the preseason games, let alone in a training camp practice. And, you know, as we all know, sometimes by the time we get to the middle of the NFL season, it doesn't even closely reflect what we saw in the early season. as far as a football team goes. But there is clearly an audience for blow-by-blow training camp play-by-play that always

interests me. To me, the big stories that come out of training camp are obviously the ones you don't want, which are injuries to key players. And then, you know, learning from what the coaches tell you and what the reporters are seeing in terms of who's taking the most first-team reps. And that's going to start to give you clues as to who's going to. make the team, and we'll get a lot of that, too, in the preseason games. You don't necessarily need that from the training camp practices. But, you know, those are the things that come out of

training camp. To get wrapped up into how Jimmy Morlin, you know, plays Diami Brown in a seven-on-seven drill, I think is a bit much, but I'm not blaming those out there that give you that kind of detail, because clearly there are people that are into it. Now, there was something tweeted out by one of the beat reporters earlier this morning or within the last hour or so that I actually am interested in. Nikki Javala from the Washington Post wrote that Stephen Sims, Dax, Milne, Isaiah Wright, and D'Andre Carter are taking reps at punt returner. I have wondered, you know, who is the punt returner?

They haven't had a big-time punt returner. And remember last year, Stephen Sims Jr. was a disaster. Like at one point, it was like, how do you even risk putting him back there again? I don't know that Stephen Sims Jr. or Isaiah Wright or Dianne Carter or Dax Milne are even going to make the team. They're all receivers with guys like McLaren, Samuel, Diommy Brown, Cam Sims, Adam Humphreys, and maybe even Antonio Gandy Golden in front of them. That's six guys. I didn't even mention Kelvin Harmon. Now, if one of those guys is good enough to be a receiver and is their best punt returner,

that may be the difference in keeping them on that final, you know, post that final cutdown. But, you know, there are guys like Danny Johnson who are on the team. He's been back there before. You know, it's possible that a guy like Antonio Gibson could be used potentially or Stroman. I think that's one of those things that we're going to learn in the preseason games. They're going to give guys that are on the border of making the team anyway a chance to really shine as a punt returner, as special teamers. But they don't have anybody right now that's obvious as a punt returner. I don't know that Jarrett Patterson, who may or may not make the team as an undrafted free agent out of Buffalo, does it.

You know, Lamar Miller's done it before. But I don't know how many backs they're going to keep. You know, it's Gibson, McKissick, and Barber right now, I would think are the best bets to make the final roster. But who knows, maybe Lamar Miller or Jared Patterson would be a fourth and then would be in there as a returner. You know, I'm not so sure that Kendall Fuller couldn't be a part of that either. Anyway, that will be one of those things that maybe we won't even know, to be honest with you, until final cutdowns and we get to the opener. But punt returner is something that it would be nice to have somebody that could really flip the field on occasion without the threat of fumbling.

Because we've had more threats of fumbling in recent years than field flippers. That's a big part of the game. You know, kick returner, not as much anymore. But punt returner still important. Back to the vaccination rates with Washington. and Ron Rivera's response, which we talked about with Galdi earlier. I'm assuming at this point that many of you have already seen this, but if you haven't, T.J. Ward, a past safety in the NFL,

a pretty good one in Denver and in various spots, saw the Ron Rivera reaction to the vaccination rates on his football team, and T.J. Ward decided to respond on Twitter. one of the tweets that he put out there was don't blame the players for your lifelong health decisions. I've never seen, that's not true, I have probably, but I don't know that I've ever seen a more overwhelming negative response to a tweet. Many times you'll get, I'm with you, brother. Well said, you know, at least one out of ten. It was ten out of ten, and there were hundreds, if not thousands, of responses.

pulled the tweets eventually, and they all said essentially the same thing. You ignorant, mean-spirited person. What a dummy. Like Ron Rivera chose cancer. One of the, you know, I'm sure it doesn't go down as a top five or a top tenor, but it's up there in terms of athletes, in terms of some of the dumbest and meanest tweets of all time. Aaron Rogers reported, yesterday. after they got whatever deal they got worked out. And they traded for Randall Cobb. Who knew that Randall Cobb was the reason that Aaron Rogers wasn't coming back? But I did get a kick out of what Aaron Rogers was wearing. He showed up in an office t-shirt, a Kevin Malone t-shirt. He's a huge office fan. I'm a big fan of Brian Baumgartner's Deep Dive Office podcast. I listen to it all

the time. And Aaron Rogers was actually a guest on it. Aaron Rogers is a massive, massive office fan. But the best tweet about what Rogers looked like walking back into Green Bay's facilities yesterday with slick back long hair and big ass sunglasses and this office t-shirt and a backpack and shorts and sandals. Somebody tweeted out, and I don't know who this person was, Michael Salfino, tweeted out, Rogers looks like he just changed into these clothes after being hosed down by the wolf. The wolf, of course, from Pulp Fiction, Harvey Keitel, and the famous scene with Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta, when the wolf says, you're 30 minutes away, I'll be there in 10. And they called the wolf in to clean up the mess.

And then Travolta and Samuel L ended up with T-shirts that looked very much like the T-shirt. Aaron Rogers was wearing when he reported to work yesterday. That was the best tweet on the Aaron Rogers look by Miles. Rogers looks like he just changed into these clothes after being hosed down by the wolf. That's it for today. Back tomorrow with Tommy. You're Jimmy, right? This is your house? Sure is.

How much is the wolf? I solve problems. Good. We got one. So I heard. May I come in? Yeah, please do. You must be Jules. Would you make you, Vincent? Let's get down a brass tax, gentlemen. If I was informed correctly, the clock is ticking.

Is that right, Jimmy? Uh, 100%. Your wife, Bonnie, comes home at 9.30 in the a.m., is that correct? Uh-huh. I was led to believe if she comes home and finds us here, she wouldn't appreciate none too much. You wouldn't that. All right, that gives us 40 minutes to get the fuck out of Dodge,

which if you do what I say, when I say, it should be plenty. Now, you've got a corpse in a car, minus the head in the garage. Take me to it.