The Kevin Sheehan Show - Rob Ryan: Skins' Have "Top 5 Defense"

Episode Date: June 3, 2019

Kevin opens with the Nats, an NBA Finals Game 2 recap, and Redskins' Linebackers Coach Rob Ryan's prediction about the Skins' defense in 2019. Tarik El-Bashir/The Athletic, Michael Phillips/Richmond Times-Dispatch, and John Keim/ESPN joined the show with the early word on Haskins, Sweat, and more. Kevin finished up with a quick discussion about the Heavyweight upset and a movie recommendation. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right, I am here. Aaron is here. This show is presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to Windonation.com and tell them we told you to call. What a hailstorm yesterday. Did you have the hail? Oh, yeah. I've never seen in all of my years living in my hometown. I don't think I've ever seen that. much hail over a duration of maybe 30 minutes it hailed at my house. I didn't get the hail for that long. We got hail for about five to ten minutes. Oh, no, we had two to three waves of it come through. And the first wave was the most significant. That was the one, and I saw pictures of it on Capitol Weather Gang. They were tweeting them out. But there were

a few hail stones near golf ball size. Most of it was in the P size or range, but healthy, you know, pea-sized. You know, probably twice the size of a pea. We got probably marble-sized, I'd say. Marble size is probably a better description, but the initial wave of it, there were a couple of big old chunks that fell out of the sky. And I was, you know, you hear it pounding your roof, and I'm watching it pounding our cars. And, you know, you read about, you know, certainly in the Midwest, when they have these baseball-sized hailstorms that break glass, and really mess up cars.

I don't think we got close to that. But I cannot remember hail for that long of a duration living here. I don't remember it. And I think the Capitol Weather Gang had a lot of discussion about it, that this may have been unprecedented in terms of how much hail we had over the period of time that we had it. But it was pretty cool to watch, actually. It was really cool to watch. And by the way, it ushered in an absolutely.

spectacular weather pattern here for the next few days. It's gorgeous out there today. I mean, no humidity on June 3rd. To all of you who heard the discussion about Peloton the other day, thank you for the suggestions. They are much appreciated. I am definitely an Emma fan more than any other, but you guys gave me some great suggestions.

We've got a Redskins Rapid Fire, 10 minutes with three different reporters on the beat coming up. Tark, El Bashir, John Kime, and Michael Phillips will join us. And I'll just go through a few things with them, not keep them either one, any one of the three for a long duration, but 10, 12 minutes with each on, you know, the super early word on a couple of things, like Haskins, like sweat, like Keenham, and a few other things.

I'm going to get to NBA Finals game two coming up here shortly. a good weekend for the nationals and a hell of an outing from Scher yesterday. 15 strikeouts. And in exchange with Dave Martinez in the 8th, that Martinez said included some non-professional words is the way he described it. Here's the situation if you weren't watching. In the 8th, Scher gave up a lead-off double and then retired two straight batters. So there were two outs, and he was facing Joey Vado. He was coming to the plate, and Martinez walked to the mound, getting ready to pull Scherzer at that point.

And Scherzer just shook his head and just said, I don't want to hear it from you. I'm staying in. He'd thrown a lot of pitches at that point, and he felt good. Like, Scherzer said, I knew I was strong. I still had my arm strength. I knew I wanted to stay in. And it's funny over the years when there have been some big game. some postseason games, and Scherzer's been yanked after six, let's just say, and they've gone to the bullpen and it hasn't worked out. I've always said to Tommy, why? Why? And Tommy will say, well, you don't know what Scher said the manager. Sometimes the manager will cover for the player, but sometimes the player knows he's got nothing left. Well, Scher, who was pulled after six in his last outing and they had their bullpen roughed up, said yesterday, I knew I was strong, I

still had my arm strength and I knew I wanted to stay in and he struck out Vado on three straight called strikes. And in that particular moment, that was his 15th strikeout the most for him since a year ago. And the Nats won the game four to one. To take now their third straight series, Aaron, Miami, then they swept Atlanta and they got two of three in Cincinnati. They've won seven of nine and they are eight games out with still, If you're curious, 103 games left in the season. You know, we're still 23, 22 games away from the halfway point. So things are looking better for them right now.

It certainly helps when you've got Max Scherzer in there throwing eight innings of three-hit one-run ball with 15 strikeouts. That'll help. Bullpen can't have the highest support ERA of any pitcher in baseball if you don't go to the bullpen at all. That's right. That's right. Rendon, a big day yesterday. Same for Dozier and Suzuki. So the Nats on a bit of a role with the White Sox coming to town.

They play four against the White Sox, two here, two there over the next week or so. When's the last time they had the White Sox on the schedule? It's been a while. I was looking back, I was just Google it. I couldn't find it. And I know what's obviously happened at some point. But it doesn't pop up immediately when you just Google it. All right.

So good weekend for the Nats. they've got a little bit of momentum going. And then there was this from over the weekend. Right when I read it, I just made a note in my phone, you know, for Sunday night to remind me as I got prepared for the show today because I didn't want to forget this. Rob Ryan, who was a guest on the Redskins Talk, J.P. Finley and Company's podcast, NBC Sports, Washington.

You can find it, and you can find it wherever you see a podcast, or wherever you get a podcast, same way you get mine as well. Rob Ryan was a guest. And like Landon Collins a few weeks ago, Landon Collins also new to the team, Landon, if you missed it, and I mentioned it here once or five times, Landon predicted Super Bowls, plural in Washington a few weeks ago.

Well, Rob Ryan, the Redskins' new linebackers coach, we knew he was going to be, you know, an interesting and entertaining coach. Rob Ryan on this podcast predicted that the Redskins would be a top five defense. The quote exactly is, I knew, quote, I knew this was a top five defense going in, closed quote. Once again, for whatever reason, it just always continues. This is their mode. This is the time of year where you get the big promises, the big boasting, the big predictions about how great they're going to be and how much ass they're going to kick.

It's so typical. It's so part of this organization's fabric. that it doesn't surprise anymore. Like it's not even that big of a deal that Rob Ryan essentially said, we've got a top five defense going in, or Landon Collins predicted two Super Bowls because I'm sure the rest of the league,

first of all, they don't pay attention to the Redskins, but the people inside the league just go, there they go again. There they go again. You know, this is the stuff that falls into the other category in terms of why the Redskin fan base has been whittled down so significantly in recent years, you know, over a long period of time,

but, you know, even more so in recent years. The losing, obviously, is first and foremost. I mean, you know, one postseason win during the Snyder era. I mean, you can count two if you want to go back to his first year, which wasn't really his team. But the losing is the primary reason, obviously. I mean, they could be arrogant and they could be dumb, and they could, you know, they could talk and,

over promise and under deliver over and over again, if occasionally they had a decent season. You know, occasionally they won 11 games and won two playoff games and got to an NFC championship game. But it's not, you know, what's happened here. The losing is the primary reason why the fan base has eroded. But the other category is behavior, the way they behave. This is what, and I know it doesn't bother all of you, but I promise you it, bothers a lot of us. This is the part that has really been in recent years more than perhaps the first 10 of the Snyder era. This is the part that's been really off-putting to me as a lifelong fan. You know, arrogance is not the right disposition for a franchise that doesn't produce any results.

You know, that's the kind, I mean, we just think of people or companies or groups that don't produce but walk around like they have produced something. There's nothing more off-putting than that. Nothing. You know, and I always talk about over-promising and under-delivering. That's what they've been consistently. And when you do that, it will erode a customer base. Sometimes it takes longer when the loyalty of that customer base

to the product is so entrenched, which it has been with this particular product. but eventually it's going to erode. You can't constantly tell your customer base how great you're going to be and come up so short of what you claimed or claimed you would be. You know, you just can't. Like if you've got a landscaper, all right, who tells you that he's coming once a week to cut your grass, to edge, to mulch when needed, to seed when needed.

and instead of showing up once a week, they show up once every 10 to 12 days, and on that 8th, 9th, 11th, 12th day before they get there, the grass is 2 feet high and your home looks really unkept. But he keeps telling you, hey, that next cut is going to be the best ever. And he shows up late again. You're going to get rid of them. You're going to find somebody new. You're going to move on. Dan Snyder, if you want to start becoming a good owner, there's one place you could start right today

after the Rob Ryan quote from last week and the Landon Collins quotes from the last couple of weeks. You pull that red-faced team president of yours and that head coach of yours into a room and you let them know that the next player or coach who runs his mouth about how great your team is is going to be fined $50,000, period. It's not going to be tolerated anymore.

And he should look at Bruce and Jay and and Doug and Eric and say, you guys have cost me millions with the losing. And now you're going to continue to let your guys run their traps, turning even more of what's left of our customer base away. Just shut the fuck up. Stop! And oh, by the way, Bruce, we're not close to anything. And when you said we were, we were four games out of the playoffs two years ago,

when you said we were one game out. I went and checked the standings. Enough. Show me, don't tell me anymore. And then he should storm out of the room, and on the way out, he should say, by the way, make my quarterback great, no excuses. Apparently that's one of his lines, no excuses. On the flip side of all of that, which, you know, again,

it doesn't even rise to the level of headline-worthy anymore because it's so typical. Like the league, reporters that cover the league, local national, there go the Redskins again. I mean, you expect it from Rob Ryan. I didn't know that I expected Landon Collins to be so transfixed on his former team and the mistakes they made and his current team and how great they're going to be. I thought he was definitely more low-key, John Allen, Alabama John Allen, Alabama John Allen guy,

like a legit winner. Like John Allen over the weekend, and this was great because I read this, and I was like, this is the dude that should be the voice of the locker room. John Allen in an interview also on NBC Sports Washington was asked about the new additions to the defense and the promise of the defense and how much he believes in this defense this could have been off of the top five prediction from Rob Ryan

that he's got a top five defense and John Allen said quote well I've felt that way the last three years but we haven't done it you can have all the pieces you want but if you're not consistent and everybody doesn't do their job it doesn't matter we have a bunch of pieces but pieces don't win games close quote this dude from day one day one oh here's one other quote every year you have to start all over right now we're just trying to stack the blocks get ready for training camp close quote god they need more john

as players, of course, but in terms of the way he handles himself. Well, he comes from a winner. He's playing for a loser, but he comes from a big-time winner. So he's got a little bit of experience. Listen to him, follow him. He should be the example. He's got the right approach. Shut up and play.

And produce the results. And when you produce the results, act like you haven't even produced. anything yet, that you haven't gotten anywhere near where you want to be. Unbelievable to me, this franchise. It's the owner's fault. He's got a bunch of dummies, and he has not rained it in over the years. He has thought, I am sure of this, he has thought that all of the big talking over the years was helping him sell tickets in the offseason. It's not. It's running people further away from his team, because it's laughable. They have not produced anything, but they keep running their mouths. Stop. Enough.

On game two last night in the NBA finals, there was a lot to this game, a lot to it. I'm not about to, by the way, on this game, call it one of the guttiest championship performances of all time. I didn't feel that way watching it. You know, I was watching it. I was watching. all of the post game with Scott and with Legler and with Doris and with Jalen and with Paul Pierce and all of the guests last night. I was staying up watching all the postgame. And I thought it was a really good performance by them given that they lost Looney and then they lost Clay Thompson. And you know, it was a next man up situation and guys like Quinn Cook really performed. He was outstanding last night. And I mentioned to, I think it was Legler last week when Legler

was on with us, that there's just, you know, a championship culture. which, by the way, the conversation before this is the opposite of that, where no one talks about how great they are, and then guys that you don't even expect to be good end up being much better than they've even promised that they would be. There's something about that championship culture that just, it just washes over everybody in it. Like, Quinn Cook has now had some really good games in these playoffs.

Last night he stepped up and knocked down three threes, huge threes during the run in which they took the lead and Clay Thompson then went out. Cook ended up with 21 minutes. I believe Quinn Cook, who by the way, is a local, you know, went to Dematha originally and then went, where did he go from DeMatha? Oak Hill. Is that where he went? I forget where he went from DeMatha when he transferred from DeMatha.

It was Dematha, right? I'll never forget being at a Maryland Duke game in College Park and being back behind the scenes with Scott and with a couple of other people and Quinn Cook sitting there and all the Maryland people are hoping he's waiting for Turgeon to come out of the locker room, but he's waiting, he was waiting for Shoshchewski to come out of the locker. It was to Matha to O'Kill. Yeah, it was to O'Kill. Okay, good.

The 21 minutes for him, the most he's had in the postseason, the nine points also a playoff high. But it's so interesting to watch, you know, a Jerebko, a McKin. a Bogot. You know, so with Looney hurt, Bogot comes in and gets more minutes than he's gotten in a while. All right. First action didn't play at all in game one of the series.

He gets seven minutes and he gets three, basically there are three Ollie Ups and maybe one tip in, but six points in seven minutes for Bogut. You know, he's ready to go. There's an aggressiveness, a confidence that guys on a championship team with championship culture have that's really interesting, you know, how the Patriot guys that you would never heard of would step up, you know, out of nowhere. Like, you know, who had heard of Chris Hogan before he started just lighting people up? It's like there's something about that culture. And so it was,

it was an impressive performance. I just didn't view it in the moment as like the all-time championship culture win. It's cool to see everybody ready to play and everybody produce because they're around all that greatness. I thought a big part of this game was that Toronto just missed so many open looks. Golden State's defense was much better in game two than it was in game one. There's no doubt about that. But Toronto helped out by shooting poorly. They shot 37% from the floor. And from behind the They were 11 of 38, which is 29%. And a lot of those were some open looks off of good passing. Some of them were contested, but Van Vleet last night had some open looks, had some others that were

contested, but he was two for eight from behind the ark. You know, Gassal missed both of his looks, which were wide open looks. Leonard did not have, his numbers were great, 34 and 14. he had a couple of brutal turnovers on really bad possessions. I actually think that while Kauai Leonard's been the star of these playoffs, I think he is hurt, A, but B, I think he's gotten a little bit too comfortable with playing some ISO too early, settling for an ISO possession with 15 seconds on the clock

and then whittling it down to where he gets something that's rough, or he turns it over. He had five turnovers in the game last night. Toronto's much better when the ball's moving, or if Leonard attacks, draws the double and gets the ball moving. When he's out near half court, he's trying to get the double to relax. He's got to move that ball. He's got to get rid of it faster. I didn't think he did that well last night. I mean, he had, again, 34 and 14, and I'm calling it an off night. In fact, I would say the first two games of this series have not been great games for Kauai Leonard. He's getting to the free throw line, which he did again last night, and he was 16 for 16. And some of his offensive rebounds were so great. I mean, this is where

he's so underrated, is essentially creating new possessions for his team. But I thought that Toronto helped out a lot. I think they helped out with the turnovers. They had 15. Some of them were, certainly could have been avoided, especially the Leonard. turnovers. I thought Lowry had it going early, but the foul trouble really hurt, and then he fouled out late. Obviously, the run at the end of the first half when Golden State had a 12, I'm sorry, Toronto had a 12 point first half lead, and then they go in up five. Was huge for Golden State because the Warriors came out with a building that was, you know, started the third quarter. Everybody's still getting concessions, and that building was hopping in the first half.

And Golden State seemed to take advantage of that. Toronto seemed a little bit down. and they went on an incredible 18-0 run, where again, Toronto was missing shots, open shots. Like that run could have been much different if they had knocked down some of the shots that they've knocked down in recent games against Milwaukee and against Golden State in game one. Steve Kerr took a lot of, you know, put a lot of the credit,

or gave a lot of the credit to his team's defense, which was absolutely much better than it was in game one. But I didn't think that it was like great defense, because I think Toronto just missed some shots that they can make. Lastly, the thing that happened at the end of the game, two things that happened at the end of the game, actually. One was that Toronto went to a box-in-one defense on Steph Curry. You just don't see that in the NBA very much.

Boxing one is like high school and some college, you know, when you've got one star and you guard him fiercely, and they did with Van Vlead. And then the other four guys essentially play like a two-two zone, all right? A box. And it worked. And it worked. And I don't know if anybody, I didn't hear anybody say this last night.

This is my view and the view of a couple of coaches that I was texting with last night. Steve Kerr didn't know what to do against the box in one. Had no idea, which by the way, you know, a lot of the college stuff and high school stuff defensively, the pro coaches aren't used to it. I'm not saying that Steve Kerr doesn't know how to beat a box in one. but he didn't last night, or they didn't execute beating a box in one. Multiple things they could have done that they didn't. First of all, the middle of the lane out to the free throw lines wide open.

They never had anybody in that spot. Secondly, you could use a screener on Curry, and the screener drops to that middle spot. You overload one side, and then it's essentially three on two. There are a lot of things you could have done. They could have used Curry as a screener. Didn't do any of those things. They were confused by the box in one.

In fact, Curry called it, I think afterwards, a junk defense. Didn't even really know, maybe he knew what it was, and that was just his description of it, but they did not handle the box in one. And they went scoreless over a period of time in the fourth quarter because of that switch to the box and one, which was really the reason. The reason, by the way, that Nick Nurse did it is because they were getting killed backdoor. They were getting killed to the rim on using. many times, Curry as the screener, which was really interesting to watch.

But they scored on a Bogot bucket with 539 left to take a 106-94 lead. Their next shot was the Igadala shot with seven seconds to go that went in. They went over five minutes without scoring. And Toronto had multiple chances, multiple chances. They had a couple of threes go in and out, and they had it down to two on the Danny Green, you know, I think Leonard missed a shot. Seacum got a rebound, kicked it to Green. Green knocked it down with 26.9 seconds left, and that's the last thing, or two more things.

Number one, I had no problem with Igadala shooting the shot when he shot it with the amount of time that was left in the shot clock. That was a wide open shot by a big game player, and he knocked it down. I heard Van Gundy screaming, you can't take that shot there. Well, then you potentially are either going to let the clock run out or get something much worse and Toronto still had a timeout left. That shot was fine by me. If I were Toronto in that situation, when Danny Green made that three, I would have fouled. And Nickner said they were trying to foul, but when Curry had the ball, they didn't want a foul, they wanted to trap, try to force the

turnover, which they nearly did. They should have fouled Draymond when he had it early in the shot clock. I thought, you know, a two second, two and a half second differential on the shot clock was just too much or too close. You know, they could take that shot super late. And you could rebound it and yeah you get to advance it you know but you're going to have a second and a half or two seconds left and you're going to get a shot to either tie or potentially win the game which is all you ask for I would have extended the game there if there's a five second six second shot clock differential fine play it out um and I know that the issue nickner said tough to foul curry in that spot you're right should have fouled green immediately green had the ball near

half court and there were like 18 seconds left should have fouled green put him at the line and extended the game. It goes back to Golden State Wednesday night. Last night, by the way, was another, I didn't give it out. I gave it out in game one, but I did play it. I had Toronto last night. It went to two and a half and the public was on Golden State and the public won last night. I have not seen, but I'm going to look it up right now what the number is on Wednesday night. I was saying five or five and a half. Very good guess. It's exactly what it is. It's minus five and a half. opened at five, it's at five and a half right now. I would imagine the public's going to be all over Golden State.

The issues, obviously, injury-wise, are Thompson and Looney. Boy, did Boogie Cousins step up and have a hell of a game last night. He really did, and who knows about Durant, but we've got a couple of days to figure it out. I'm assuming he's not going to play in this series. But then again, and right now, they probably, after winning last night, feel less pressure to rush him back. All right, quick word about window. All right, when Donations, ready to kick off summer sale is continuing this week. Buy one, get one free.

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backed by Window Nation's A-plus Better Business Bureau rating. You're guaranteed the best value, or they'll pay you $250. But you've got to act fast. Window Nation's sizzling savings ends on Sunday. Call today by one window, get one free. There is no limit. Plus, get zero. percent interest for five years and bonus tickets to Hershey Park. Call today 86690 Nation or go to windownation.com. All right, we're going to bring in three guys in succession who cover the Redskins. They're on the beat, Tark El-Bashir for the athletic we're going to start with. And really what I want to do is from all three of them is get a super early word on what they're

hearing, what they're seeing. You know, we've talked about, you know, how training camp doesn't even reveal much. Preseason games, you know, rarely reveal much. But they're out there. They're getting the word. They're talking to coaches and they're starting to learn things with veteran mini-camp scheduled to begin tomorrow. So they get the veteran mini-camp tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday,

and then the last set of OTAs after that. And we'll start with TARC. Tark, of course, now writing for the athletic, covering the caps and the Redskins for the Athletic. Follow him on Twitter at Tark underscore L. Bashir. I want to start, Tark, with just at this point, you've been out there a lot recently. What is the early word on what the coaches think of Dwayne Haskins? Well, what they are saying publicly is pretty consistent with what they are saying off to the side as well. And they are impressed.

They are impressed with his arm strength. They are impressed with his personality and his energy and kind of how he has taken to him. his teammates. The early returns are really good. The one thing they are, I don't want to use the word concern, but the one thing where they have to see improvement here in the next little while is just going to be his grasp of the verbiage and the offense itself. I mean, he has shown on the field that he can make NFL throws. He can make top-notch NFL throws. Where he has struggled a little bit, and that's coming from a no huddle system at Ohio State, has been communicating the play from the sidelines to the huddle. And we saw this a couple times in OTAs last week on at least

two occasions, by my memory, he broke the huddle, they came to the line, and then there were a lot of guys looking around like, wait a minute, it didn't make any sense. And the formation wasn't right, and Gruden had to stop, and they had to reset, and then do it again. That happened a couple of times. Now, that's not abnormal. I mean, that's happened even with Kate Keenum. I mean, this is a new guy who's learning the offense, but I think the sense is that he's a little further behind cases of NFL veteran and that he's going to need to clean that up and catch up in that area real quick. I was going to get to Keenham here in a moment. Do the players that you talk to and you talk to them about Haskins, do they feel the same way that the coaches do, that they're impressed

as well and that he looks the part? Yes. I have talked to a number of offensive players who have praised his arm strength, have praised his ability to make mature type throws. And what I mean is he's throwing the ball with the, not just the velocity, but kind of the anticipation of a guy who's been in the league for a little while. There was one throw during one of the OTAs that was open to the media last week, where on a go route, the Jeff Hu Chesson, who's a special team standout, not the best wide receiver on the team, obviously. He made a great throw down the sidelines, went right through his fingertips. I talked to Chris Thompson about that throw right after, and I said, you know, what were you thinking when you saw that? He said, oh, my God. And in a good way,

he said, that's the kind of throw. And he talked about not just, you know, recognizing that Chesson had some space there, and that was a smart throw to make. He said it was the way the ball comes. And he said, it was the way the ball comes down. He comes down like with a little bit of spiral. It doesn't float. And he said, those are the kind of throws that you typically see from a guy who's been in the league for a little bit, not from a guy who's, you know, kind of wide-eyed a little bit and taking everything in.

He likes them. Vernon Davis told me he likes them. I mean, there are a lot of guys. What I want to ask, Kevin, I want to talk to some defensive guys. And I haven't had a chance yet because they kind of all come off the field at the same time. but we're going to have some more access this week. I want to ask some defensive guys what they see when they line across from Haskins. Is he looking guys off?

Does he look confident and in control? Because what I see from the sideline is totally different than what landing collins sees from the bird I see. You alluded to Keenham already, but what's the early word on what the coaches think of Keenham? They think that he's where he should be. you know, in terms of understanding the offense, you know, he arrived a lot sooner, a lot earlier than Haskins did. So he had a really big leg up in terms of the playbook and, you know, getting comfortable with his surroundings, his teammates, you know, the coaching, I mean, just everything. He had, you know, a couple months head start. And he's been good.

He's been good. And my sense, Kevin, is that they want to see Haskins push ahead. But right now, it's way too early for them to really make a call. And I think everyone in that building really wants one of those two guys. And I'm totally throwing Colt McCoy out right now because we haven't seen him on the field. We don't know where he is at health-wise. We saw him working off the side. But they really want this quarterback decision between Askin and Keenham to be a no-brainer.

They really don't want it to come down to, oh, man. You know, they were, it was really tight in training camp. It was tight in the preseason. What are we going to do? Are we going to go for it now with Case? Or are we going to hand it over to Haskins knowing there's going to be some growing things? They wanted to be obvious to the players, to the coaches, to the fans. They wanted to be a slam dunk.

Here's a guy. He won the job Barron Square. Here's the keys. Go get them. All right. Your June 3rd guess, when does Haskins start his first game? My feeling is, without giving a specific game, I think it's going to be a few games into the season.

I think history dictates that first rounders start at some point in their first season. And I think that that's going to be the case with Haskins. I do think that that really tough schedule at the start is going to maybe lend itself to starting a veteran. And I think that at some point in the first half of the season, the keys are going to be handed over to Haskins. I don't – based on what I see now – and, again, you said June 3rd, it's really – early, maybe things really start to click at some point down in Richmond. But I would say right now, Keenham has a slight advantage due to the experience. And I think he gets the nod week one.

And I think Haskins takes over grabs the keys at some point before we get to the buy week. What were the first impressions, Tark, of Montez Sweat? He looks like Robocop. I mean, let me tell you, there are a handful of guys. in pro sports. And I've done this for a couple of decades now. When they walk next to you, you go, that's not normal. That size, that definition.

And then when you see them on the field, you know, Cam Newton's one of those guys. The first time Cam Newton walked by me in his pool pad, I was like, what is that? His ankles are as wide as most guys, you know, like, thigh. Right. You just didn't look.

You're just in awe of their size. sweat is like that. The first time he walked by me, and this was just in a jersey and a helmet, he walked by me, I was like, oh, my God. When they think 6-6-2-60, like, that's spot on. And then you see him out there. He hasn't gone out there against Trent Williams yet. I haven't seen him much against Morgan Moses. But when he's been going out there against the guys who are going to be battling for backup job, it almost looks like it's not fair. You can tell that he's, I wouldn't say frustrated, but you can tell he really wants to show what he can do. but they're kind of after the Ruben foster injury,

they want things to be three-quarter, not quite, you know, as three-quarter speed. They don't want to be quite as physical as it was on that first day. But once a pad go on, I think you're going to see a dude who has a natural edge to him. He looks like one of those guys who's not going to be just content to drag the quarterback down. He wants to spike the quarterback off the turf.

I mean, like, he is, you know, he wants to have. He's a beast athletically. Yeah, you just don't want to blow anyone up before you see him in Padden, but I think he's going to be a lot of fun for Redskins fans. They're going to enjoy this guy.

I hope. I mean, I have as much, I'm as excited about seeing him as anybody else next year in this roster. You know, the other thing I think that stands out too is his length, like his arm length for an outside linebacker and pass rusher is impressive.

What we don't know yet, and we're not going to find out until they start to play regular season games, is does he have the technique? Does he have the moves, you know, to beat consistently, you know, left and right tackles in the NFL? We're not going to know that until the game's count and he's game planned for potentially. But it would be nice if the Redskins had a pass rusher that the opponent legitimately had the game plan for. And, you know, it does other things too. I mean, if you're game playing for Montess Sweat, that means, you know, maybe, yeah, maybe you're leaving some opportunities on the field for Ryan Kerrigan, who, you know, he's getting up there. He's on the wrong side of 30, but he can still play. Yeah.

And he's got some ability. He's looked good in these OTAs to me. So I think having the two of them on opposite side is going to make it a pick-your-poison type situation. But you're exactly right. I mean, being a good pass-rrrrratcher in the NFL is about a sophistication of moves and hand-placement and strength and leverage. There's things that have to be learned, and it's going to be interesting to see where exactly Montez is in terms of the intricacies of playing that position. But from a physical standpoint, he's a freak. And if he's a good learner, man, I think he could be a really, really good player, double-digit sack guy, no doubt.

All right, two more. The first is this. Who's the other safety opposite landing Collins when we get to opening day in Philly? You know, I think it's going to have to be Monta Nicholson. I think that's who they want it to be. It seems like his legal jeopardy. I mean, you know, the charges from his fight have been thrown out. So I think in legal terms he's in the clear what we haven't really gotten a straight answer on.

And I have inquired with both the Redskins and the NFL is, does he face anything from the league? it doesn't seem that way, it doesn't feel that way. I feel like it's been a couple of weeks since those charges were dropped. If there were something coming, we would have heard already, I think. Monti's ability to run, I think makes him a very good compliment to Landon, who is a cerebral player but also a tough player. And, you know, he's physical, but you're going to need a guy who can get out there in coverage with some faster players.

and I'll tell you, Monta, he's one of the fastest guys on the field at all times. The question is, is he over whatever happened to him last year? And we have never really gotten a clear indication as to what happened to him last year. He started out as a starter. He was trying to build on a strong rookie season. And then Haha Clinton Dick showed up. And that wasn't by accident. That's because the coaches didn't believe in what he was doing.

Yeah, exactly. It's like the off-the-field stuff, you know, threw a wrinkle into something that already had a wrinkle in it, which is they made a trade mid-season because for whatever reason they didn't love what they were seeing or at least someone didn't love what they were seeing. And I'm with you. I mean, I've been a fan of his, you know, his closing speed, his range, he is a free safety that can run and close. And I think he can make a great compliment for Collins.

But something in the back of my mind, Tark, just tells me the coaches maybe don't feel the same way. or they're lukewarm on him for some reason. You know, I think they want to see him succeed, but I think he's one of those guys where they need to see it. They physically need to see it here in these next few months. You know, he had some concussion issues. And I can tell you, he's still one of the few guys on the field that even in practice, he wears sunglasses, and he wears a visor with some tent on it.

And, you know, one of the symptoms of concussions. Yes, light sensitivity. And, you know, is light sensitivity. And I wonder if, you know, he's still, I think, I mean, clearly he's been cleared. This is why he can be on the field, but is he still a little reticent about getting banged in the head again? Is there something that's not quite 100%? I wonder.

And we tried to talk to him at the last open session, and he escaped. We're going to try again this. All right. Three opportunities. Last one, and I'll let you run, and I appreciate the time. Do you have an early guess on a player that will surprise, have a bigger impact than maybe most fans? are even thinking about at this point? It's early.

I know. But it's a super early guess. Yeah, yeah. I'm kind of... What about Bostick? Is he going to start? No, I don't think so. I don't think he has risen to the level of starter here.

I think they want Mason Foster and Sean Dionne Hamilton to be your two inside guys. I was going to go with Terry McLaren. I feel like the connection, especially once Haskin gets on the field, and I think he's going to be on the field in a big way as a starter at some point early on in the season. They had a great connection at OSU. I feel like from what I have seen from him, he's going to have the ability to make plays with the wide receiver. He's going to be a really good special teamer. I'm going to go with him. I think people have some expectations, but I think he's going to exceed them this year as a rookie. This was great. I love

catching up with you as always follow TARC on Twitter at TARC underscore L. Bashir. He writes for the Athletic, subscribe to that so you can read him and everybody else every day. Thanks Tark so much for your time. Appreciate it. Anytime, Kevin. All right, from Tark L. Bashir, we go to Michael Phillips with the Richmond Times Dispatch. He covers the Redskins for the Richmond Times Dispatch. You can follow Michael on Twitter at Michael P-R-T-D. And Michael is a good follow on Twitter and does a great job covering the team. And I enjoy Michael, and I'm telling you this, because I think that you are, I love guys that really are really good reporters.

You're that. But I also don't mind in this day and age, and I know that it moves maybe away from the way it was in 195, but I like how you get emotional in your writing and in the media. work outside of print that you do because you will call it like it is and not be afraid to you're not afraid to be critical so I've always enjoyed that about you so with that aside and you don't have to answer to that I want to just go I think that as a great compliment it is tarc Scott hockey is a backup plan I probably need to something out somewhere along no you won't um all right uh let's rip through a couple of things uh and I ask tarc some of these questions as well but we'll start with this

what is the word you're hearing, the super early word at this point, on what everybody out Nashburn thinks of Haskins, coaches, players, etc.? I think the word has been cautiously optimistic. I think people are very impressed by the raw skills, let's say, the speed he puts on the ball, the velocity, the arc. You know, decision-making is not 100% there, yet everybody expected that. He's got a lot to learn. He's a rookie quarterback who played one year college football. But I think the skeptics in the building are saying, okay, there's something we can work with here. This is not a hopeless cause. What do you think the feeling on Keenham is right now?

I think Keenum is exactly who they thought he would be. I think the big concern there is what's he going to do when there's injuries on the offensive line. What's he going to do when he does not have a roster as good as he had in Minnesota? That, That's a very big issue here. His success, his lone NFL success, was with a stacked roster. And this is not a stacked roster. You got Adrian Peterson and some other guys. You know, a wide receiver, there's nobody who'd say this guy is a great threat.

So I think Jay still thinks he's a good option to start. I think they're moving forward as though he's going to start. I don't know that anybody's sold that he is the answer in and of himself. But, you know, when it comes to Jay Gruden, you know, and you follow this stuff closely too, do you think Jay was comfortable with Keenham all along? And do you think that that's been backed up in his mind through just the first month of getting to know him and having Keenham, you know, get to know Jay and Jay's offense? I think it's the personality type Jay really likes the guy who will, you know, get in there

and talk about the plays and the X's and O's and what he likes and bring it out to the practice fee. I'll say this. I've really noticed, and we can't go into specifics, of course, or else they'd have to ban me for practices. But it feels like the very tiny bit we've seen, and we have to emphasize how little we've seen. There have been some drills and some plays that they've run where I'd say they haven't run that before. They haven't run those concepts before. I think Jay's been somewhat innovative with the offense here this offseason. the way he's drawing it up.

I don't know if that's a comfort level with Case, maybe the desperation that he's got to do something with this group to try to push him over the playoff hump here. Whatever it is, I get the sense we're going to see more and more varied concepts than we have in past years from this offense. I think QM's at least a part of that. All right, now you've piqued my interest. Because I, it's funny, because I told this story,

I don't know, a week ago, maybe two weeks ago, but Griffin's first mini-camp, rookie minicamp, I remember that day very well, and I remember one of the things that I observed, and not everybody, as you know, that writes about professional football or covers the Redskins, not everybody is a big college football fan, and they don't spend as much time. College football to me, I love Saturdays as much as I love Sundays, but Mike and Kyle had Griffin lined up in the pistol formation in that first mini camp, and they were running, you know, some read option stuff and even some triple-off. option stuff. And I made that observation and I said, wow, I mean, that's not, that's not shotgun, you know, sort of read option style offense. That's the pistol. He's got a running back, you know, directly behind him. That's what Nevada and Kaepernick runs. And the only reason I knew that is because Nevada had played Maryland in a bowl game with Kaepernick as the quarterback. So I'd become, you know,

somewhat familiar with Chris Salt's offense at Nevada. You know, I mentioned it on the air. And I did hear from somebody. But I'm not going to mention who or how it came about, but they heard that I was describing that they were in the pistol formation and they were running, you know, they were running Griffin in some read option style stuff and triple option stuff. And I made the comment at the time, Michael, I said, you know, I'm sure they're just going to do it for red zone stuff like Cam Newton had done the year before. I, you know, I had no idea that this was going to be, you know, a significant part of their offense from, you know, from the 20 to the 20 also. But I did hear from somebody, and they weren't overly critical, but they just said,

did you mention the following? And I said, I did. And they said, oh, okay. Yeah, I mean, we should have probably, you know, we should have probably spoken to everybody out there about some of the stuff they were seeing at minicamp. But anyway, what can you tell us about what you saw with new concepts and varied concepts from Jay Gruden? That Nevada... I didn't get in trouble, by the way, just so you know. No, I'm taking notes on this Nevada thing. This is great.

Next time I'm watching the Bifo Brady's Ball on a Tuesday night. I'm getting hassled by my wife. This is important research. Who knows when this stuff's going to come up in the video. Yeah, it was the Boise Bowl, wasn't it? It was the one on Blue Turf when they played Nevada in Boise, right, Aaron? Sounds right. It's either Bois or San Francisco.

Same as Idaho Potato Bowl. Yeah, I think that's what it was. I would say what's interesting to me is to the extent that there's maybe more quarterback movement than there has been in the past would be that I think that would tilt the scales towards half. I think the comments right now, if you watch Jay running him through the drills and the things they're focusing on, and just all the way on down O'Connell, Kavana, all those guys, the way they're coaching him and the way they're drilling him, they really want him to focus on making good decisions from the pocket. They kind of want to instill that from day one. I don't know if that means they exclusively view him as a pocket passer.

I don't think they're narrow-minded or anything like that. But I do get the sense that with Haskins, they really want to emphasize during training camp during these preseason games. You don't run at the first sign of trouble. Stay in the pocket, see what you can make, see if you can step into a good throw. So I think that's the fundamental emphasis with Haskins and then anything else would be, you know, trying to get a little bit more juice out of Kienham. trying to see if you can use his smarts and his skill set to buy you a little bit more than

you'd get otherwise because he doesn't have Stefan Diggs running down the field. He doesn't have those weapons he had in Minnesota. So I think you're going to have to be a little bit more creative to get his best out of him. Is, will they, is it your guess that when Haskins begins to play that he will be in the shotgun much more than under center? You know, I would say too early to speculate on that. I think that's, you know, I don't think that's an unfair assumption to make. I don't know that I've seen anything that will back that up or, you know, that I have seen anything so far to back that up other than that's probably the logical way to do it,

but I would say that's not an educated opinion at this point. I would say at this point you didn't really share with me any of the new concepts that you've seen out there for the most part. And that's fine. Here's a, this is obviously just an early guess. No one's holding you to it on June 3rd. When do you think Haskins starts his first game? I think he starts his first game this season, but not week one. You know, if I were setting it over under, it'd probably be in the six, six and a half range somewhere in there.

I think that there's so much outside noise about need to be patient with this. kid. I think that's being heated, and I think that will be thrown out the window after a three-game losing streak of the overreactions to come with it. But I do think they're going to start with Keenham, or they're going to make every effort to start with Keenum, I should say. But I think it's inevitable that we see the kid at some point this year. Montez-Swett, early impressions from the coaches, from players, from everybody out there during OTAs and, you know, with the veteran minicamp coming up, have been what? Yeah, so you start with the positive. He's insane.

He's going to be an instant impact guy from day one. The negative is he was handling Eric Flowers the other day when we were out there. And, you know, small sample size, these guys go at it every day. We only get to watch once a week. But, boy, Sweat was handling his business. Flowers had no chance against him. It was a big-time mismatch. So if we celebrate sweat and we should, and he's looked great so far, I think you've got to look on the flip side of that as well,

which is, oh, boy, that's a guy they were counting on to be. starter this year and yikes he did not look good against montez sweat um let's go back to offense here for a moment um who are the receivers and who are the running backs like i'm talking about this significant bulk of snaps week one go to whom at each position yeah and you know until we see darius guys on a football field right you know i've always been one of those guys i i don't believe anybody's timetables when they give them to you. So I don't believe all this talk of, oh, he's going to show up at training camp,

and he's going to be just like he was. I need to see that first. So until I see that, this is an Adrian Peterson production here. He's the guy you've got to go with. He's the guy you've got to give the carries to. Obviously, love same boat. He's not going to start the season,

maybe PubList, you know, whatever it is they do with him. But right now, Peterson's your guy running back. You know, Josh Doxon looked good the other day. I've seen him look good in off-season practices before, so I'm not starting any kind of bandwagon movement here, but he'll get the opportunity to be out there to make some plays early in the year. I think how he adapts with Keenham and with Haskins and what he can do for those guys,

you know, if he's able to give them a good target in training camp, if he's able to give them some big catches in the preseason, I think he'll earn some looks in the regular season. You know, it's good for him starting with two fresh quarterbacks. He's still got Jay in the building, obviously. Jay knows what he's doing. done. But, you know, those two quarterbacks don't have a past history with him. So to the extent that Doxon can get right, I think the opportunities will be there for him. But yeah, I'd like to see

McLaren at some point, too. I think he's got the chance to be an impact guy. And I think what he does on special teams will keep him on the game day roster from week one. I get the sense that Jay Gruden believes there's no drop-off between James and Crowder and Trey Quinn. Do you agree with that? Yeah, that's a little bit scary because I I think Jameson Crowder is a little bit underrated. I think Quinn's a great player. I think he's an NFL caliber guy, but I think they're going to really start to appreciate what Jameson Crotter brought to the table in about week two here. So you disagree with the way Jay.

You agree with me that Jay feels that way, but you don't feel that way. I agree on both counts, yes. I think Jay is ready to just keep running his offense with Quinn. I'll say this for Jay. He's weathered a lot of personnel changes here, and one consistent you'd say would be his. his ability to get that short passing game production, no matter who the quarterback has been, no matter who the receivers have been, he has traditionally drawn up concepts and plays that work there.

I'm also not saying they should have re-signed Crowder. Obviously, they didn't have the money for that. That wasn't going to happen. I think Crowder was a really good football player, but if there's anybody who can overcome it, anybody who is deserved to have the benefit of the doubt here as far as that confidence, it probably is, Jay. Do you believe, like Tarek does, that they'd like Monta Nicholson to be the other safety opposite Collins? I think that's probably the team's preference right now, yeah, based on what I've seen.

I've always gotten the sense that there's not a whole lot of trust on DeShazer-Everett. I don't know why that is necessarily. I haven't really dug deep into that or talk to those people. One of the things is this is the week we get to talk to assistant coaches, which is always one of the treats of the season, them because, you know, those guys have in-depth knowledge that, you know, I'm excited to hear what they have to say. But I've always gotten the sense that they don't fully trust to Shazer Everett. I don't know why that is necessarily other than to say that, yeah, I think they're trying

to get Nicholson into that starting spot. All right. Just so you know, Maryland won that bowl game. It was the humanitarian bowl. In Boise, they beat Nevada 42 to 35. Dorell Scott had 174 yards and just 14 carries in. Kaepernick threw for 370 in the game, 24 or 47, three touchdowns, but had two picks in the game. They were in the pistol pretty much the entire game, which was my introduction to the pistol, which was, it's funny, that was in 2008.

So it took four years for it to get to the NFL after Chris Salt had been running it at Nevada for at that point, I think, a few years. It's always great to catch up with you. Thank you so much, Michael. Follow Michael on Twitter at Michael P. RTD. I'll talk to you soon. Yes, sir. All right. We go from Tark-El Bashir to Michael Phillips to John Kime, who of course covers the team for ESPN. Follow John on Twitter at John underscore Kime.

John also has a podcast, the John Kime Report. You can get that any way you get a podcast, the same way you get mine as well. John's had some really good shows here recently. I wanted to just, and I'll finish up with you because you've also written here in the last few days about some of this stuff. But I want to start with Haskins and just get a sense from you. You know, we've had so many of these conversations over the years on the air and off the air. And we both, you know, you definitely have a sense of what they're saying out there. You know, publicly we know, but also, you know, behind the scenes. What's the early word right now on what the organization, the coach,

in particular what they think of Haskins so far? Boy, there's a few things there, Kevin. And I think the things that I have always heard consistently is about the upside that he has. And I think one of the things that you hear, because one of the fears is always will the organization push him onto the field before he's ready. And as of right now,

I don't think that that's going to happen, and that may be a naive opinion, because as we know, what your plan is now may change in September, given, you know, the season's actually starting, and your thoughts might change. It's easier to preach patience now. But I think – so what you hear is that there are people who, you know, know, know the ownership well are in there that feel like they're going to let the coaches develop at his pace. I think the key with that, though, is depending on how well Haskins plays in the summer and what the early record is if a Case Keenham or Colt McCoy is starting.

But what you do here is, you know, the arm talent. I think the arm talent jumps out to a lot of people, and he made a couple of throws last week that I think that you can look and say, haven't seen that kind of throw here in a while. And so I think that jumps out. I think there have been a couple times where you heard, grouped on the field, praise him for a decision he's made where, you know, I think it was more in sync with what the coach would have wanted in that situation. So, you know, I do, I also think

that there's still a lot for him to learn and they know that, which is why I go back to the patience. And I apologize for a long-winded answer. But I think this is a very nuanced situation. And, you know, again, I think right now in June, whatever we're at, it's easy to preach patience and I think that's what they're trying to do right now. And the other thing, Kevin, that you hear is, you know, they've learned from the Robert Griffin, the third situation. And not so much that he played too fast, but that what was given to him so soon. And I think they want to slow play this one if they can. And I don't think they're necessarily the same. They're not, you can't, it's hard to compare the two, but that's, you know, it's a high profile

first round pick and he's the first one since then. You know, it's an interesting dilemma. I mean, you know, you said, you know, you don't want to be nice. I think, you know, at this point, there's no naivete to any of this stuff because there's so many potential factors, but we don't know if people have grown like the owner and learned from previous mistakes. So it's hard to project all that. But it's an interesting dilemma no matter how you view it for Jay Gruden this year. You know, only one coach, and I talked about this on Friday, only one coach over the last decade's gotten a fifth season after four straight non-playoff seasons. And that was Jeff Fisher, and perhaps he got that fifth season, because they were in the midst of a move to L.A., and they had a lot of stuff going on moving from St. Louis to L.A. And he got fired in that fifth season. So Jay Gruden's dilemma is interesting because is it best, first of all, and I've said this, and I don't know how you feel about it.

I don't know if Jay would lose it. You know, I'm sure Jay would love to continue to make the money he's making and be a head coach, and I'm not suggesting that he just wants to bail if things don't go well, But I always think about Jay go along to get along, and if it doesn't work out, he'll go be an OC somewhere and be fine with it. But I'm wondering what you think is his best path for long-term employment in Washington. Is it going nine and seven and potentially eking out a six-seed or a five-seed wild card with Case Keenum, or is it developing Dwayne Haskins and showing some progress towards the end of the season with some momentum going into next year.

Which of those two scenarios is better for Gruden? Honestly, Kevin, I don't know because here's the thing. If you're 9 and 7 and Dwayne Haskins doesn't develop, where are you at as an organization? I don't think that that's necessarily, you know, if that's the ceiling here, is that really that good? And I think even in that scenario it's going to be, okay, that's fine, but what does the future look like and where is Haskins at in his development?

Because that really ultimately is what's going to matter. I think a 9-and-7 record with Case Keenum, is that really going to excite people? You know, I'd rather, you know, I think you'd probably better off going 8-8 if Haskins is playing really well, you know, just because that's the guy that you need going forward if you want to elevate this franchise. And, you know, I also think, like, if you get – I just – I don't see a scenario where Case Keen is playing every game, especially with a 9-and-7 record.

It would be hard for me to see that because I just assume that at some point Haskins will play this year. But you need to make the playoffs, but I still think, like, if you're hearing things behind the scenes about, like, you know, why aren't they playing Haskins? And, again, where is he at in his development? Because they also have a guy on staff and Kevin O'Connell. where you could say, listen, you know, Jay took this thing as far as you go,

and, you know, there are other guys here who are factors in Haskins' development, meaning O'Connell, Tim Rete, that you could retain and make a change there. So I don't know that – I think both scenarios are kind of playing with fire for Jay. Yeah, it's interesting. And, you know, there's so much context to all of it. But, you know, the eight and eight – the eight and eight with Haskins, if the context is he's really getting – better and he and Jay get along, you know, it would be, you know, even though it would be

totally, you know, pretty unique for Jay to get a fifth consecutive season with missing the playoffs for four in a row. But we just don't know how the owner will react to that. No, we don't. And so much of it is, you know, we can always look to that, you know, people are going to look to that Kansas City model with Alex Smith and Pat Mahomes, but they were coming off a 12 win season when they added Mahomes. There was no, reason to go in with the rookie that year because you're going into that year thinking you got a shot at the Super Bowl. You know, here it's different.

So I think that's why, like I said, it's like you can use that model as saying, hey, that's a great way for success, but it's not exactly an apples to apples here because I think if you are, Jay, you've got to worry about winning first and foremost. And, again, Haskins development has to be a major part of any. discussion of Jay Gruden going forward here. All right, so you've sort of alluded to what your answer might be here. You've given an indication with some of your discussion about the patience with him. But give me a guess right now.

Nobody's going to hold you to it. But I'm just curious right now, if you had to wager on when he gets his first start, when would it be? I'd look after that probably around that weeks. I kind of felt like the week six to eight range. range only because, you know, and it's not so much to avoid all those teams early because you never know how schedules break. Of course, yes. But I do think, like, they would generally feel like it would be best for him to wait and to sit. And I think if you, you know, depending on how they

come through that first five game stretch, if they're one in four and Haskins is doing well enough, then, you know, you could, you know, then I think you could see them in that time frame. And it's not, it's not inconceivable to think that they could have a right now on paper a record that would be conducive to making a change. You know, so I think then I think that's why I would look around that range. But, you know, I mean, I think the hard part with Askins, Kevin, is to know exactly where he's at with everything. And I think, you know, this week, next week and then, but mostly training camp will get a, really, really good feel for that to know, okay, you know what, maybe that's not realistic at this point because you still got to do X, Y, or Z. But I think just looking at it from a, you know,

we know that first round picks are typically going to play and where's the chance where the earliest chance to me would be around that time frame. You know, I think the NFL did the Redskins as solid with their early home schedule, the Cowboys and the Bears in particular, and then the Patriots in that, you know, they're not going to have a ticket selling issue. for those first three home games because of the three teams that are coming in and their fan bases that will travel in a big way. So some of the pressure that could have been there, let's just say in mid to late August with, you know, ticket sales for the first couple of home games being way down and Dan all of a sudden saying, we need, we need Haskins. We need him

by that home opener. It may not exist there because you'll have a pretty close to a filled park for the Cowboys, the Bears, and the Patriots being your first three home games. Not with Redskin fans necessarily, but a 50-50 split. And that's a good point because that is a factor. And after last year with the home, the way the home attendance was, and there are a variety of reasons, but the bottom line is they need to regenerate some excitement in that stadium and just within the fan base. And if you get to a point where, you know, just, I think it's just,

even an overall excitement level, if you're stumbling around and it's one and four, and you have been selling tickets because those are premium teams to come watch, but it's also going to be TV ratings too for them. Those have been going down. So like, where can you generate some level of excitement to get people to maintain interest in this team? And again, this is all what I'm saying is, you know, assuming a bad start, which I am not necessarily doing, but looking at early. reasons why he might play earlier than they maybe would want, given his experience level,

because that is the number one thing you kept hearing before the draft, whether it was people here or elsewhere, was when will he be ready to play? Could he be ready to help you in year one? But those are reasons why he may play sooner than some people would want. Listen, we always hear this about most first-round picks that will be better from the city year. And then they go out there and they play pretty well or something, or at least they get their feet wet, whatever. Yeah. How impressed is everybody out there with Montez Sweat? Oh, goodness. You know, it's funny.

I asked Ryan Kerrigan about this a couple weeks ago about, like, who he, you know, just when he met him physically, you know, what did he think? It's like he reminded him of Julius Peppers. Now, that's obviously not on the field. That's just his build and his physique. And when you see him, yes, that's who he reminds you of. And I think they kind of get excited about what he can do. And you can see it already.

The one thing, some of the positions, some positions are very, very, very hard to gauge at this time of the year. And I think anybody who's, you know, if you're a front seven guy, it can be very difficult because it's so dependent on the pads and going at a certain speed when you're in pads and all that. But what you see from sweat already is the length and then the ability to, as Jay Gruden said, eat up a lot of ground fast. Because he does, you know, I think watching him run sometimes with the ball. and I saw this on film scouting or scouting, I didn't scout, but watching it before the draft, you see the effort to get to the ball and it's always there. And you see that on the practice field.

And then there are times, Kevin, where you're watching them, get around the edge against a guy like Eric Flowers, and, you know, people, you know, whatever, people are going to laugh about that, but it's still an NFL tackle. And then the other thing that I saw, you have right, right. The other thing I saw, too, was when he rushes inside. on some of the games that they'll run with the linemen

and his ability to get into the guards and drive them back and then have that length when you are driving them back to maybe bat down some passes. But I've seen that as well. So I think there's going to be some, I don't know about versatility, but he can help them in a few different ways. But to me, he's the rookie right now that stands out the most just because of the physique.

And I think because he'll be in a position to make more of an immediate impact than a guy, then Haskins, clearly. I mean, unless Haskins plays great this summer. I mean, listening to, you know, and reading everything that's going on, and you and I both have been around the block here and all this stuff and know that, you know, OTAs are, you know, much less significant than even training camp is, and training camp results are pretty insignificant. But my God, the hype over Jimmy Morland, the seventh round corner,

I mean, are the coaches, believers so far that this guy can play in the league? Mostly what I hear is, like, you know, obviously they like what they've seen. And a lot of what they're seeing is stuff that confirms what they saw before the draft. Ball Hawk, always around the ball. And so that part doesn't surprise him. But what I always hear from them is, yeah, he's got a chance. And when they'll talk like that, it's, you know, about his, really his chance. chance to make the roster, you know. So I don't think that they're sitting there going, oh, my God.

You know, I think they knew what they had in him before the draft. They loved his attitude. We've seen that out there. You know, there are times where he's got some, you know, he'll have some issues. And that's one of the things that you always have to be careful about is you can write, like you can tweet out or something about an interception and people extrapolate that to mean he's a great player. He had an interception in practice. You know what I'm saying? Like there are, I mean, we've seen guys who have had a sack or two in a game who maybe had a terrible game on the other 60 plays he played. And I'm not saying that he's been terrible any other times, but you have to put it in context. These are a couple plays out of many. But it confirms what they've seen,

what they saw in film, with the player they believe they had. But I don't think they're jumping up and down saying this guy's going to start this year and do this, this and this. I think they just looked at it like, hey, I think we got a good pick here in the seventh round. This kid has a chance to come in and, you know, and win a start. And I just win a roster spot and then you go from there. Yeah, I mean, because, you know, listen, he's not going to be. He's not better than Josh Norman, Xavier Moreau or Quentin Dunbar right now. Okay.

And I think, you know, somebody else brought this up the other day that Danny Johnson was the hot name throughout training camp. And, you know, but I think Moreland's a little bit different here. because he is always around that ball. I think that comes from preparation and brains and all that. But, yeah, I think we all have to slow – we think we all have to slow the role a little bit. And for fans, put it in the proper context. We're talking about a couple plays that, you know, out of many,

and you're not seeing all the other ones, but he is a guy that I think that they legitimately like and feel can win a roster spot, and then again, we go from there. I'm assuming – tell me if I'm wrong, that there aren't going to be any, you know, post-June 1, surprise releases, you know, whether it's Vernon Davis or Josh Norman or anything like that. No. Yeah.

Not expecting that. And I haven't expected that for a while. Yeah, exactly. Are they going to get hard knocks or not? I don't think so. You know, first of all, I think Oakland is just better, you know, as far as entertainment value. And there's part of me that says, well, if you want the Redskins, this would be the year because Gruden on the hot seat, Dwayne Haskins.

And it is, you know, a franchise that there's always a lot going on behind the scenes or whatever. So it's a good chance to get them. But I still – and then, you know, maybe you can get the Raiders next year because they probably aren't going to do anything, but you don't know. And the Raiders right now are of primary entertainment value with all the guys that Jay Gruden named last week, Antonio Brown and perfect. You know, you have John Gruden, for God's sake. And, you know, they are kind of vagabonds.

Yeah, I totally agree with you. The Raiders are a more interesting national story much more than the Redskins are. Much more, much more, much more. So, like, if you're looking at it like that, like, you know what, there's going to be another year where the Redskins are interesting, but also, like, the other factors, too, you know, HBO hasn't contacted the Redskins to set, like, you're going to have to do all sorts of setting things up for Richmond and just, like, with, you know, all sorts of, you know,

all the technical stuff that you have to start preparing for, that's really not going on. So I don't think, like, last I was told, I think it was a week or so ago, I was told that it's like, it didn't sound like there would be a decision for at least a few weeks. So, you know, I think it may be hard to do them anyways, but I am, I am not expecting that, but, you know, who knows? Last one, I'll let you run. Give me a player that, you know, maybe under the radar for most fans right now, that you are, you know, a coach,

you know, discussion that you've had where they're excited about somebody that we wouldn't necessarily think about. Is there anybody? I don't know that there's anybody that jumps to that level. The two guys that, I mean,

one, listen, Darius Geist doesn't count on that because he's on the radar. Yeah. But I think he's a guy that, like, when I've talked some people there, that's like maybe, you know,

because my first thought was he's going to have to ease into things and blah, blah, blah. That may not be the case. Okay, good. And then, yeah, so, you know, but, you know, again, we'll know more in August because he's not out, we're not seeing him do things on the field right now, but they are, they're seeing him, they know what he's been doing. And so there's a level of excitement that maybe he doesn't have to wait to, like, you know,

ease into a role throughout the season that he could have that right away. And then, you know, you hear things about other guys, but I don't know that anybody necessarily jumps out more than somebody else. John, thanks, as always. Good luck with the podcast. John underscore Kime on Twitter and listen to his podcast, which what usually do? Are you doing one a week?

Is that it? Right now it's one a week sometimes, you know, the occasional too, and then training camp will be doing more. All right. Bram's helping him out with it. The John Kime report, anywhere you get a podcast. So go listen to that. He's had some really good guests recently.

I will talk to you soon. Appreciate it, as always. Thanks, Kevin. All right, thanks to John Kime for coming on. and to Taurik and Michael Phillips as well. We'll do J.P. Finley later on in the week. He'll jump on with me maybe live in studio on Friday. By the way, Brad Johnson, Redskins quarterback, Super Bowl winning quarterback in Tampa.

He's going to be on the podcast on Wednesday. So we'll talk to Brad Johnson on Wednesday. Tommy will be in tomorrow. Quick word about stamps.com. If you're a small business, listen closely. I've done all the research. Stamps.com is easy, and it saves you. money. It eliminates trips to the post office, saves you money with discounts that you can't even

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It's a no-brainer. It saves you time and money. 700,000 small businesses are using Stamps.com today. Now, right now, my listeners get a special offer that includes a four-week trial plus free postage and a digital scale without any long-term commitment. Just go to Stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage, and use my code word Kevin D.C. Just type in K-E-V-I-N-D-C. That's Stamps.com, Kevin D.C. All right, what else from over the weekend?

I didn't see the fight Saturday night. I didn't see the stunner in the boxing world. You know what? I was telling you this, Aaron, before the show. There was a period of time, basically from when I was young into my early 30s to mid-30s, I loved boxing. And I just, over the last five, ten years, something like that, I've just dropped off the boxing grid.

unless there's like a really compelling fight that you have to purchase. But I'll be honest with you, I had no idea that Anthony Joshua was fighting Andy Ruiz Jr. And then it became one of the biggest boxing upsets based on odds in the history of the sport. So I'm there on Saturday night on Twitter reading about Andy Ruiz. He's a Mexican. And he knocked out Anthony Joshua in the seventh round. and by the way, the guy, somebody tweeted out that he looks like butter bean, which he does, which he does.

But this was like a shocking upset. He was an 11 or 12 to 1 underdog. I mean, this is not in the Douglas over Tyson category of 42 to 1, but an 11 to 1 underdog in a mono-a-mono sport is a big-time underdog. And this dude knocked out Joshua. I don't have a lot to say about it. You're following boxing probably more than I right now. We can talk to Tommy about it, but I guess the heavyweight division now has been thrown upside down. The heavyweight division is actually, I'm not a huge boxing guy.

I'll see the big fights or whatever, but the heavyweight division is as exciting as I can remember it being in a long time. I've watched Wilder fight a few times. Wilder, Fury, Joshua. and now this guy who, you know, probably can't, you know, can be with these other guys. But again, it makes it exciting because now you want to see wilder try to go up against this guy and see how quickly he can knock out this guy versus, you know, anybody else. So, which is more you can say than you can say about the heavyweight division in a really, really long time. Ruiz, by the way, is the first ever heavyweight champion of Mexican descent.

He took the fight basically two months ago as a replacement, I believe, or on short notice, and was a massive underdog, as I mentioned, anywhere from 11 to 12 to 1. I've seen a lot of 14s up to 20s even, depending on the book. But here's the other thing, too. He fought on April 20th. So it was a 42-day turnaround between his last fight in this heavyweight challenge, And apparently it's like one of the top five shortest turnarounds between a fight and a championship challenge in boxing history. Anyway, I know that the Joshua Wilder fight was pretty much the next one, I think, on the calendar.

That's what they were all hoping for. So this is a big blow to Wilder in particular, but maybe he'll fight Ruiz. Ruiz, you know. Wilder has a couple of fights already lined up. I think he has somewhat, I don't know who he has. then I think he might have the fury, another Fury fight coming up in 2020. Yeah. Yeah.

Anyway, some of you, I'm sure, were following that, and I was not. Didn't even know it was going on on Saturday night. John Allen, by the way, was one of the players ranked as the best players under 25 years old, 25 or under in the NFL, which wasn't a surprise to me. I've got big hopes that John Allen can turn into, you know, perhaps not Aaron Donald, perhaps not Fletcher Cox, but a player just below that level for a long period of time. You know, Grunkowski, there were some rumors flying over the weekend that he was unretiring and he was going to come back to the Patriots. He says that's totally untrue. I know most of you don't care about the French Open, nor do I. anymore. Again, I used to be a big tennis guy too, loved tennis, but Serena got beat and so did the number

one female player in the world, Osaka. She got beat as well. So there you go on the women's side, if you were wondering about that, or you're barely paying attention. I think we're headed towards Djokovic and Nadal again, although I think Nadal and Federer would play a semifinal match. And the last thing I was going to mention to you. I did not watch the hockey game Saturday. It's first of the Stanley Cup finals games that I didn't watch Boston one five to two. I did see a movie over the weekend and I'm going to make a recommendation. What movie did I tell you on Friday that I was going to try to see this week? Rocket Man. Rocket Man, the Elton John movie. I did go see it. I was very surprised about one aspect of it. It is part musical. Did you know that? I think I told you that

when you were walking out the door that it was. I didn't hear you say that. Yeah. I didn't hear you say that. So that was a surprise to me. I have not, not that I'm resistant to it, because people I know tell me it's a phenomenal movie. I never saw La La Land, did you? I have not seen it. Okay. I've heard it's really good. It doesn't, you know, jump off the page is a movie that I would love, but I've heard people say it's a phenomenal movie, and that's very much sort of a musical as well. I was very surprised. It's obviously a biography of Elton John. They get a lot of this stuff for the purposes of creative license out of order in his career, which is fine. But it threw me off when all of a sudden some of these scenes broke out in musical format.

But I thought it was really well done and incredibly well directed and well acted too. It was good. I think that Bohemian Rhapsody was better, the movie about Freddie Mercury and Queen. I thought was better, but this was really good. Like if you're into that stuff, I would recommend this. I thought it was well done. You know, I didn't, I know a little bit about Elton John, not a lot, but enough.

I had no idea that his childhood was so effed up. He had, you know, a disinterested father, basically, you know, uninvolved, a mother that was difficult. The grandmother was really the encouraging person, because he didn't have many people encouraging him. But he was a child prodigy as a piano player. He was a prodigy at a very young age, discovered, you know,

pushed through these music, you know, royal music groups in London. And he, you know, was a star when he came over here in 1970 for his first performance at the Trubador in L.A. But I like the movie, so I would recommend that movie. I did watch a lot of the golf from over the weekend, just said, you know, if you're wondering, I mean, I, Tiger, I thought played very well this weekend, didn't score well until yesterday when he started off seven under through 12 holes. And Jack Nicholas actually said, as Tiger was seven under and had it to 11 under and was tied for third, Jack Nicholas said, Tiger could win this thing.

And I'm thinking, the leaders haven't even teed off. And the leaders, somebody's going to be at 16, 17, 18. under to win this thing. But he ended up having two bogeys coming in, shot 67. But he hit it great. And he looks ready for the U.S. Open, which isn't this coming weekend, but is the weekend following. And I know I've mentioned this before, but you get a West Coast U.S. Open at Pebble Beach,

where on the East Coast, you are watching this thing until, you know, 930, 10, 10.30 at night. If Tiger is in the running on Saturday and Sunday, you will see the biggest ratings, I think, in golf, you know, maybe in golf history. If he's at the top of that leaderboard on Saturday and Sunday night at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach with an East Coast primetime audience, it will be massive. I'm hoping for that. That's it. Did you have anything?

I got nothing. Nothing. I was told Liverpool won something this weekend. Yes, I saw some of the drunken revelry from that. It looked a lot of fun. They have an incredible fan. base. All right, that's it. Enjoy the day, everybody. Tommy's in with me tomorrow. And again, Brad Johnson, former Skins quarterback, former Super Bowl winning quarterback with the Buccaneers. He will

be with us on Wednesday.